Needlepouch for you! (giveaway)

This Ultrasuede needlepouch is one I made a few months ago and
now I'd like one of you to have it.

The brown and black Ultrasuede make this quite an elegant
dwelling for your stitching tools. The needlepoint design
accents the flap along with the beading on the border.
Open the flap and you find a slew of nifty compartments for needles,
laying tools, and odds and ends. Everything stays in place with velcro.

This measures 7" x 7"

If you'd like to join the drawing, post a comment, say hi and then tune in on Monday for the winner!


Just added a peak inside...

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Kitchen ready for inspection!

Finally the kitchen is ready for you to come over for a cup of extra strong coffee or a cold refreshing fruit smoothie. 

 

We can sit at our new built-in table. 

It's funny, but the items I love the most in this big renovation are the small items. I love our small family dining table.  I love a deep closet I have off the kitchen that is perfect for all my tablecloths. I hang them all in there, keeping them long so that there is no ironing needed when it comes time to use them. (Talk about being a Jewish version of Martha Stewart...).

 

The table in the foreground below is our old table. I had it refinished and had the chairs painted. I love how it came out!

This is my little library. Lots of my art books, my craft books, my "things".

and here's another one of my favorite things. The cabinets you see below are Anchor thread cabinets. We had our guys put four of them together on an Ikea base that happened to fit almost exactly. Then they put a piece of wood between the two rows of cabinets and painted it white to fill in the gap. Lastly they put a wood counter on top and I have the best darn cabinet a girl could ask for!

Tomorrow is Nina's 9th birthday and we opted for a small group of her very best friends, movies and dinner at Friendly's. She's been waking up this week telling me about her fast and excited heartbeats because she has a birthday coming up. Happy birthday to our most delightful, magical little big girl.

Have a wonderful weekend!

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The best Squaredancer around!

Yesterday I opened a package from Kathy. Inside was a piece she had proof-stitched for me, SQUARE DANCE.  This is the second colorway of the design I will be teaching for an ANG  Cyberworkshop in January. 

Kathy told me a beautiful story about her grandparents and their love of square dancing. Memories from her childhood came up as she stitched this piece for me. What a gift it is for a designer, knowing your work brought back warm memories of family and childhood. 

I know I designed the piece, I know I chose the colors and fibers, however the meticulous work of a attentive and talented stitcher can take ones design soaring to places you never imagined. In this piece I wanted to achieve a flow, I wanted the sections of the design to weave in and out, to move to the music, to dance. That's what Kathy did for SQUARE DANCE. 

Registration will begin in September. Check out the class!

My first article on color has come out in the latest Needlepoint Now magazine. It has a little experimental design for you to try out.

Next week there will be new photos of our place. We have unpacked and organized 90% of the boxes and stuff we have. The last 10%, I feel, will never find a place. Those are the items that really should not be sent off to "stuff heaven", but also don't seem to have a place in your life. URGH!!!  Still, I will skillfully hide the last 10% and show you our place as of now.

We are off to NY for the weekend. In addition to the 4th, we have a few b-days to celebrate as well.  

Best wishes to all for a wonderful weekend!

Orna 

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Lines, Lines, everywhere.

I woke up this morning and staggered into my new studio.  On the way, maybe because I was still seeing blurry, or maybe because it was a first look in the morning, it hit me... we have lines everywhere in our new and improved interiors. I mean everywhere. 

Just to name a few -

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Wood and Thread

Why allow left-over wood to just sit there?

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Before and not quite After

I haven't disappeared, I'm still here, just barely.  

We moved in Tuesday night. It was supposed to be morning but the movers came at 6 PM. So it was night.

Since then we have been trying to sort out our boxes, our stuff, and our lives. With a few setbacks, (Sunday we had a storm but it was inside the house, right on top of the piano coming down from the air conditioner - sorry you asked?). There is still lots of work to be done, but everyday we see progress.

I'm desperately looking for my Ultrasuede fabric. Lots of orders to go out, lots of catching up. My threads are finding a home, these are the partials I use for my own stitching.

These are the ones I send out to you. How do you like my thread wall solution? As you see I'm running out of room so we are looking for another piece of wall. They are hard to come by!

and this is my old studio. It's our little TV room. Small and cozy, we love sitting here. 

 

I'll be back with more, promise!

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MOVING DAY!

I'll be back with some photos...

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It's starting to get to me :(

I have tried to be good. I've done my best to continue working in our temporary arrangement. Despite boxes and bags and bikes and clothing everywhere, I've made the beds every morning. I have tried to stay upbeat. 

It's starting to get to me.

The lights went up in our place.

My studio has made progress.

These are some of our belongings in storage.

I wanna go home!

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You be the judge.

I haven't posted photos of our place for quite awhile, in part because the photos I took were out of focus. The other reason? I'm not sure things are moving along or that they look much different and I'm a bit melancholy about that. I know, I was way too optimistic thinking things were moving along very well and WOW maybe they will be done ahead of time. Stupid me. We will be moving back in on June 8th. Period. No matter what. Really.

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