Busy weekend -- still getting ready for market

I got quite a bit done this last weekend (thank goodness.) You can see I had help -- Kitty loves it when I'm stitching or working on kits and charts. You can see in front of her an ornament I designed, stitched and (almost) finished on Sunday. It'll be a limited edition kit at market (an ornament by fictitious "Emma," who stitched an ornament with her grandfather's sleigh on it. I designed two other limited edition kits (there will only be 125 of each of these). One is "Abby Rhodes'" scissor fob. It'll come with the red scissors, and is sampler and Beatles-inspired. (Get it? Abby Rhodes?) I'm going to be doing a series of these. I already have a bunch planned out. And I designed and am part-way through stitching "Oh the Holly," with a verse from this great old Irish song and some classic sampler motifs.

Last week when I was packing up Sarah Woodham sampler graphs, I had 11 piles of copies on my table and was one-by-one working my way through packing them into their bags. At one point, the cat leapt up on the table and laid across four of the piles and closed her eyes. Bossy!

Graham had his 13th birthday yesterday, and we had a great time. We gave him money (he's a teenager now), and a few little things. But he had been wearing my grandfather's high school ring around, so I stopped quick at TJ Max and found him a little silver ring with three tiny chip diamonds in it. He was thrilled. He spent the rest of the day gesturing wildly with that hand and making hand poses in front of the mirror. I love this picture of him, because it shows his big hands and his new teenage face. The hands grow first, so you can see him on the edge of manhood with that new silver pinkie ring.

I had to run to the clinic this morning for a double earache (they're not infected, but I am on some medicine to make them feel better.) I went to Target to fill my prescription and found a bunch of great ideas for decorating my booth at market. I'll start taking care of that stuff next week. One thing at a time, and I'll soon be ready.

(P.S. Changed my graphic this morning at the top of the page. I wanted it to be a little less tall, so you could see more of the new post when you log on. Plus, I think it shows what my blog is about. You get to see the needlework, but you get to see what's behind it, too (like the pins holding that sampler in place. This is where I show you my mental pins!)