A welcome visitor

Look who visited our dead tree stump last Friday!
Sharon and I watched this pileated woodpeccker for about 5 minutes. He rat tatted on the tree so hard it sounded like a knock on the door and the wood chips were flying!

I have all of the pictures of my Nashville purchases up on the Knowledge and Needles website.

The Open House is March 1 and 2...but if you can't come by in person you may find something you like on the website. An order is only an e-mail away.

Tagged by Chrisanne

Chrisanne tagged me and I am supposed to do a bunch of things, the most important of which is to list 7 weird or random facts about myself...here goes...

1. I don't always do as I am told..so here are the facts but there are no more tagged people


2. I rarely, if ever, pass on forwarded messages, even the ones that say...do not delete. Yep they get deleted. Frequently I don't even open forwarded jokes and messages...striaght to the bin.

3. Chrisanne and my niece were acquaintances in high school and now she lives only a few blocks away from my oldest brother...small world.

4. I have developed a liking for stitching over 1 on 25 count fabric.

5. I have no sisters, only three brothers.


6. I don't drink coffee. Only started drinking tea at the tender age of 27.


7.I hate vacuuming. Actually I hate it so much I am not even sure it is spelled correctly.





Here are a few more pictures from the Thursday stitchers
Olive's chickadee...Adriana's fairy, or maybe she is a caroler, from a magazine...
Judie's Cows framed and below them are her pigs. The pigs stitched up considerably faster than the cows did!

Finally some stitching

These photos are not of my stitching...I haven't been doing any! Holidays interfered.

These first three are pictures that Barb has stitched.

Barb is the stitcher who is a few feet short of Antique Brass waterlilies...and I must take this chance to thank Dani for coming to our aid and posting Barb's problem on her blog. Dani has a wide readership and sure enough Darla has some Antique Brass and is willing to share with Barb.

Aren't stitchers the most generous and kind people? Thanks Dani and Darla.

This fairy is for Barb's niece. I think since she is a Santa collector that this Santa will stay at home.

And Michael Powell's Pithead is a birthday gift for her husband who was born in a Welsh mining town much like this one. Since she doesn't want him to see it, I get to hang it here for the next couple of months!!!
This cute little bird WIP belongs to Bernie...great job don't you thinkI took a few more stitching pics on Thursday and will post them tomorrow.

I also had a delightful visitor on Friday afternoon and took some pics of him as well...but those will also wait till another day.

Important and frivolous

Part I - Important

Barb (Thursday stitcher) is one strand of thread away from finishing Cirque des Cercles.
She ran out of Waterlilies Antique Brass only mere stitches from the end.
Does anybody out there have about one yard of one strand of that thread?
Barb, all the Thursday stitchers and the Snowbirds blog stitchers will all be thankful!!!

Part II - Frivolous - Celebrity Sighting

Who is this striking couple who were recently lunching at this famous Nashville restaurant...the Rainforest Cafe in the Opry Mills Mall? Could it be? Yes I do believe it is those famous celebrities Dolly Stitchin and Wrongway Twitty who starred last year on stage at the Ryman Auditorium!!!!

Oh My!

I have just spent the most amazing day at the Nashville Needlework Market.
First of all before I get into raving about the market, let me tell everyone that the tornadoes of last week just narrowly missed this part of Nashville. The pictures of the devastation less than 30 minutes away are unbelievable. Those poor people! It makes blizzards look like a good alternative. At least in a snowstorm you are generally safe in your own home. Not so in a tornado. Apparently one of the tornados crossed right over the Opryland Mall and the Opryland Hotel but fortunately did not touch down. We were still in Daytona at that time enjoying 85 degree weather.

Anyway, we got to Nashville yesterday and it was no longer 85 degrees but still very pleasant nevertheless...we did not have to take the bags of grapefruit in since there was no danger of freezing, which is a good thing. I have a feeling that we wil be hauling fruit into where ever we stay en route home tomorrow night.

But back to the market...it is amazing but I have never seen cash melt away at such an incredible rate, nor has my credit card got so much use in such a short period of time! So the money is gone but oh my, do I ever have some fabulous patterns and charts. I don't think there is anything I bought that I don't want to stitch myself. I love them all!

Glendon Place has some great new charts using DMC variations.
Kit and Bixby has a couple of adorable polar bears to add to the sheep series.
The Shores of HRW is amazing.
Wedding samplers... some fabulous ones from various designers...Bent Creek, Sisters and Best Friends (who are actually 2 new companies now but I can't remember the new names), my brain is mush and I can't even remember who else had some but I bought them!!!
JBW's new designs in the French Country series are great.
Kappie Originals is an interesting company. Their other job is Private investigating! How cool is that?
I have been wanting Chatelaine's Alpine Meadow for years and finally have the chart along with some Sampler Cove designs from ECC.
There were numerous designers who I had never heard of before Rosewood Manor (great samplers ) for one and Stitch'spiration (blackwork) for another. Courtney Collection is new to me also and they have some really cool all one colour designs...an amazing peacock comes to mind.
Cat's Whiskers has a new Garden Chair to add to their chair series and it is adorable. The Dinky Dyes suite had lamingtons for customers and I must say I indulged in one lamingtom and 2 chairs.
It was great to chat briefly with Jeanette Douglas and she also has a cool new series of charts coming out on a bimonthly basis. When finished they will from a stitching book! I will be on her automatic subscription list for that. Alas we have to wait till probably August for the first installment!
I am so tired (and a bit distracted by the Bud shootout, which Junior is leading at this mintue) that I can't even remember what all I have bought. It will be a blast unpacking on Monday or Tuesday and seeing it all again!
Oh yeah, I found a great thing to have for door prizes at the Open House as well!!!

Ponce de Leon Inlet

Here we are at Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse. As you can see the views from the top are pretty remarkable. Somewhere back there in the distance near the bridge is the condo in which we are staying.
This is a view from the stairs looking down. Apparently there are 203 steps, which I did not count or verify but my legs were telling me that there were at least that many.
At the top ...
At the bottom.
We see on the news that there is snow in the Toronto area today...I may just mention here that I am wearing shorts...enough said.