Thinkin' Christmas in April

Actually, we're thinking Christmas year-round, here at Lizzie*Kate. We sell Christmas to our needlework shops all year long, and sometimes we're designing and releasing Christmas designs during very non-holiday months...like April!

Here are the next 3 designs in our 12-part Jingles series! Just like their already released companions, each design has it's unique shape and size, and comes with button/bead embellishments.

All of the Jingles are great for stitching alone, and finishing into ornaments, pin pillows, merry fobs, needle rolls, package toppers...whatever your holiday heart desires.

We've also provided FREE finishing instructions on a separate finishing blog from our finishing guru, Mona. If you want your Jingles to look just like ours, visit her site at magicbymona.blogspot.com and follow along with the finishing fun.

Or...turn your Jingles into one, big holiday extravaganza and stitch all 12 designs together!!

There's plenty of time left before Christmas rolls around. I haven't even put all my Easter decor away, if that's an encouragement to you!  

Join us on our Jingles stitching journey, and keep us posted on your progress.  Don't forget to download the FREE instructions for combining all 12 designs www.http://lizziekate.com/BorderInstructions-for-JinglesFlip-Its2.pdf 

Meanwhile, here in L*K headquarters, you'll never guess the project at the top of my desk (after this post!). Yes, I'm sending the next set of Jingles to the printer, trying to get them ready for our next release in June. I photographed them last week, and am finishing the text, graph and all the info today. 

Have a great, stitch-y week!

Think Deeply about those pretty/pesky yellow flowers!

We're spent the last couple days packing orders for needlework shops around the world, and today they're shipping out - WHEW!  I've been previewing the new stuff on the last few posts, so here is another SNEAK PEEK!

I'm loving this sweet, height-challenged design! The saying is  really lovely, and I added in some antique letters and classic L*K doo-dahs. The design is #157 Think Deeply and it's packaged as a chartpak.

On another topic, we can't decide what season it is here in Kansas. For a few days we'll have lovely spring-y weather with sunny skies and balmy temps and I pull out my flipflops. Then we'll have a few days of weirdly winter-y weather with some strange meteorological stuff like thunder sleet and (gasp!) SNOW. All of this is 

confusing me...and my yard!

After a beautiful 75 degree day yesterday (that's SEVENTY-FIVE!), here's what we woke up to this morning! Yes, that's ICE coating the trees and (sniff) my tulips and almost- ready-to-bloom fruit trees. The weathermen have gone from their annual scary spring warnings about tornadoes, into full-blown winter weather coverage!

In between these weather contrasts, we need to mow the yard (desperately), but we're too busy doing L*K on those nice days, and then random blizzards return. Whatever...we're engaged in the battle of the GOOD yellow and the BAD yellow right now. 

BAD yellows are dotting my entire yard and flower beds. BAD yellows are otherwise known as dandelions. They are flourishing!

GOOD yellows are my daffodils (perfect for my Easter table centerpiece, but gone now) and my beautiful forsythia bushes right outside the L*K office (above). Clearly I shot this photo yesterday, because my office windows are coated in ice this morning and I can't even see these bushes.  

Happy Spring, wherever you are, and whatever spring looks like (today) in your town!

Buzzy String

Another post...another SNEAK PEEK preview of a new design....BUZZY String!

"What's the buzz? Tell me what's a happenin'!" I couldn't resist using this line - does anyone recognize this lyric? It's from Jesus Christ Superstar musical, the unofficial soundtrack of my youth. But I digress...

Buzzy String is our new Snippet, shipping to needlework shops this Wednesday. We're busy packing orders today, and I'm taking a break to rest my aching knee. It's tough getting old!  We named this one Buzzy String because there are lots of buzzy things in it...bees, dragonflies and ladybugs, all intertwined with alpha letters and summer-y motifs.

Buzzy String is a companion piece to Spring String, which came out a few months ago. We'll continue the series (since you asked for it!) with Spooky String in a couple more months. All the String Snippets are really quick, fun little projects. I stitched them myself, and completed each model in a couple evenings (translation: 3-4  of my favorite TV shows or a couple movies). 

Speaking of which...I'm looking for ideas for new stuff to watch on TV...CAN YOU HELP???

We record almost EVERYTHING we watch, because we just can't deal with the commercials. Then when we're winding down in the evenings, (if we're home!), we scroll through the list and decide what to watch. I work on stitching models and Alan is busy sacking buttons. 

Some of our  favorite shows to find waiting for us to watch are The Good Wife (drama!!!), Modern Family (therapeutic comedy), Elementary (Alan likes this Sherlock Holmes revival), Smash (my music theater fix), Downtown Abbey (heartbroken about the final episode)...and more which I can't remember without checking the queue.

What are your favorite things on TV right now? Send me your favorite shows and why you like them! I just finished designing a really special TOP SECRET project, and I need some stitching time in front of the TV!

Robin's egg blue and spring things

I'm a little obsessed with robin's egg blue color!  I'm not normally a "blue" person. I enjoy it in other people's homes, but narry a blue thing in my own house.

Maybe because it's springtime, maybe because it's a happy color, whatever. Robin'e egg even has it's own Pinterest board on my Pinterest page! So I've decided to de-yellow the Lizzie*Kate office and paint the walls a gorgeous robin's egg hue.  But which one??

Inspired by the beautiful blue ocean on my vintage globe, some pretty needlework frames and bunches of magazine clippings,  I grabbed a few dozen color swatches at the home store. I guess the next step is choosing a favorite and trying some patches on the walls? It's a real robin's egg dilemma!!

While I ponder my updated office walls, I've been busy getting the next batch of L*K goodies ready to ship. I'll do some sneak peek preview pics for the next few posts!

This is the new Perfectly Kept House Boxer kit and I LOVE this saying! My brother and I come from an obsessively spotless home (thanks, Mom), but I looked at him the other day and said "John, whatever happened to us?". Neither of us inherited the super-clean gene! 

I probably won't show my mom this design, because it wouldn't apply to her, but I hope lots of you can relate! Ironcally, this is part of my "inspiration" Boxer series, so I hope it inspires you...to clean, create, whatever makes you happy!

Inspiration Boxer kits always come with a bonus design. Here's the bonus for this new Boxer.  It's a real cutie and has a definite spring-y appeal!

On another spring-y topic, I made some fun Easter cookies with my cookie guru, Glenna. She is teaching me how to use those confounding pastry bags and do pretty cookies. We both baked sugar cookies ahead of time, then got together last week to frost dozens of little tasty treats. I admit I lost interest after about 2 hours of outlining and flooding the cookies with sweet icing, but the results were satisfying. I had fun taking little plates of cookies to several events and sharing with friends. 

I even discovered one new toy to add to my cookie decorating stash. An edible black marker!  Check out the eys on the chicks and bunnies...so easy...and I didn't have to mix any black frosting.

Another Easter treat was having our sweet daughter, Ali, home to celebrate. I did most of the cooking, since she cooks ALL the time as a pro food blogger over at gimmesomeoven.com. But we collaborated on this key lime tart and it was DELICIOUS!  I'm going to make another for my ladies' group at church next week...and pray for leftovers!