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!

New kits on the block

Q. What's new at L*K?
A. KITS!!! 4 of them!

We've been so busy kitting and shipping, these "new" kits may be "old news" to many of you. We're shipping these out every day, so if you haven't seen them in your needlework shop yet, have a look!

At Our House kit - this saying really has it all...swseet, silly, sentimental, bursting with family and love. Kit includes beautiful Crescent Colours threads. You supply your favorite fabric for this really fun project. This kit is NOT Limited Edition...it's here to stay, and hopefully find a place at your house!

We went to market a couple weeks ago and made 3 little Limited Edition kits to take with us. These 3 kits won't be here for long, so grab them while you can. In the spirit of "grab bag" we used assorted fabrics on these kits.  There are lots of neutral fabrics, but also some fun color and overdyes. You might even recognize some bits of fabric from retired L*K kits!

Chicks Limited Edition Kit - includes fabric and tiny chartreuse beads. This project is so quick, you'll have plenty of time to dye eggs and dig into that Easter candy.

Flowers Limited Edition Kit - Sweet little square design with vintage flower motifs. Kit includes muted red flower button, golden beads, and assorted fabric.

A Bee C Limited Edition Kit - Lots of "b's" in this design...3 buzzy bees and one letter "b"! Kitted with assorted fabrics and rusty beads.

These little kits have been SO fun for us, and the fabric scrap pile is definitely looking smaller. (I just can't bear to throw away the small stuff). Check back next week and we'll SNEAK PEEK some projects currently on my desk!

Whatever happened to Lizzie & Kate?

Most of you needlework fans know I named my biz after my daughters. That was 18 years ago, and they were younger...and so was I! They used to travel with me to shows, so when I go to market every year, lots of customers ask "what are Lizzie and Kate doing now?". They still remember the blond-haired youngsters helping write orders and pull inventory.

This year, I decided to be ready for those inevitable questions and made a little banner to hang in our showroom with a short summary of their lives and some pics. Thanks, Walgreens (love their one hour photo processing, even on a 16" x 20" poster!). What? You can't read this? I'll explain and ENLARGE the text and photos for you!

Sarah "Lizzie" is happily living in Chicago with her husband, Jeff. He is a techie working downtown. Really, we don't understand what he does, but he loves it and is happy to be employed after returning to school for his Masters the past few years.

Sarah teaches AP art history and Art Appreciation at a huge public high school. For those familiar with Chicago, it's Lane Tech College Prep school, with over 4200 students...and 11 art teachers. It's a beautiful, historic building...perfect for an art teacher because it's full of great artwork from the Chicago World's Fair and WPA projects. And she can go to the Chicago Art Institute on field trips (this makes my local art teacher friends very jealous!).

They live with their elusive cat, Penny, in a quintessential old Chicago brownstone duplex. Penny (above) is keeping an eye on the neighborhood.

They both love to travel, visiting Japan last summer. Jeff spent a semester there during his undergrad days, so he dusted off his Japanese minor and took Sarah for a visit.

When she's not busy preparing lessons, teaching, or grading, Sarah loves to paint! You can see more of her work at www.sarahewain.com.

Ali lives in downtown KC in a cool loft with her faithful (photogenic) companion, Henry. After many years as a musician and hobbyist food blogger, she recently changed roles. Now she blogs "full time" and teaches music one day a week. Some of her enthusiastic vocal students pose below. 

You can catch Ali's blog at gimmesomeoven.com. She cooks, photographs and posts all kinds of yummy foods. We wish we lived closer so we could enjoy those tasty samples! 

She recently got a little recipe included in Southern Living's March issue - check it out!

When she's not playing with her food, she free-lances at Hallmark (yes, the big card company) in their photo studio as a stylist's assistant. It's a completely random job (sometimes working with food, sometimes not), and she even managed to get doggie Henry hired for a shoot this year. Someday you'll be cruising down the card aisle and you'll see Henry's smiling face!

Ali also loves to travel, and had some interesting adventures this year. She snagged a free Mediterranean cruise (thanks to her blog)...

and also took her first trip to Africa, where she got to share music with some very enthusiastic singers and dancers.

And that completes the brief roundup of "where in the world are Lizzie and Kate?". It looks like they're in the kitchen!

time for a sneak peek!

What's premiering at market this weekend? You'll know soon enough when all the shops start snapping pics and sending them your way via email, twitter, Facebook and all that!

But, inquiring minds want to know, so here's a bit of info about our 4 NEW KITS...and some sneak peek photos to whet your appetite!

Below is a portion of our new At Our House kit. We found this darling saying and couldn't wait to get it designed and stitched. It's sweet, funny, sentimental, full of family and love...we love it and hope you will, too! Kit includes design (you provide fabric), Crescent Colours overdyed threads and some DMC bits. It's a big design, but not so huge you'll be laboring over it for months! I whipped out my model in a week.

Our other 3 kits are Limited Edition kits...they'll be here today and (perhaps) gone tomorrow!  We accumulate a lot of fabric in our office (bulging cabinets, drawers, under tables, floor piles, you get the idea), and it's hard for me to throw out the leftovers and small cuts. I decided it was time for some mini-kits to use our abundance of small fabric pieces!

I designed 3 small projects (couldn't make up my mind on one!) and I've been busy rounding up fabrics for the past couple months. So, these 3 kits have assorted fabrics...lots of neutrals, but also pastels, hand-dyes, and more intense colors. Use your sleuthing skills and you may recognize some of this fabric from previous or current kits! We also included tiny packs of beads/buttons with each kit.

*Flowers Limited Edition Kit - a sweet, square design with beautiful muted colors and (you guessed it) floral motifs. Kit includes a hand-dyed flower button, some golden beads and assorted fabric.

*Chicks Limited Edition Kit - this Easter-y design has 3 darling chicks, chirping their way around a basket full of pastel eggs. This quickie kit stitches up fast, so you'll have plenty of time to dye your eggs and eat Easter candy. Includes green beads and assorted fabric

*A Bee C Limited Edition Kit - there are 3 bees and one letter "B" in this little vertical design, hence the name! We finished ours into a darling little needlebook/scissor holder, but you can do you own little thing. Includes rusty buttons and assorted fabric.

The Lizzie*Kate office has officially been declared a disaster area, as we assemble and pack all the goodies for market. YIKES!  It is scary and nearly impassable in here. 

Speaking of impassable...here's a pic of our 2nd snowstorm in a week! It just blew in a couple hours ago, and it's rapidly adding to our leftover snow from the record-setting 16" we got last week. Guess I'll have to shove my flip-flops to the back of the closet again...darn!

Belle of the (snow) ball!

Yep, that would be ME!!! We are buried in snow here in the Land of Oz today, and we're lovin' it!!!! Pic below is our little waterfall (still flowing) in the backyard, just outside our kitchen door.

After 2 years of terrible, demoralizing drought, and a zillion un-fulfilled weather forecasts for precipitation, we're happy to get moisture of any kind!  Yes, the weather persons have been forecasting this winter storm for several days (with great glee and anticipation)...but who knew it would actually happen?!!

The fun began yesterday morning and it's still coming down. We've had snow, sleet, thunder sleet, and every other meteorological term for wet stuff, but we're grateful! Thankfully we work at home, and we're able to clear a path to the office. Actually that's the "royal we". which actually means my husband, Alan. Here he is, creating a path from the garage to the L*K door. Check out the snow on my planter!

And I don't think I'm going anywhere in my Mini Cooper for a while! It's temporarily buried in the driveway.

Why, you ask, don't we have a snow blower? The answer is simple, really. REAL Kansans don't own snowblowers!!! We rarely get enough snow to count, and we send our hearty souls outside to clear the fluffy stuff...when we have it!  I think Alan is gazing at our giant driveway in the photo below, remembering that he already cleared 8-10" off yesterday and now...it's BACK!!!!

Sorry, friends. I won't be having anyone over today for tea on the patio. We could have sat out there in comfort only a couple days ago.

Meanwhile, life goes on at Lizzie*Kate, and we're just a short week away from driving to Nashville Market. We have too many lists to count, and a serious buildup of new kits. Today we'll pack these into boxes for the trek across country. I spent a beautiful day and evening working on these yesterday, fonding gazing at the beautiful falling snow.

Today we're expecting a giant shipment of beautiful Crescent Colour threads, so I hope the US Mail really does go through...rain, sleet, wintry mix, and all of that!

We'll be putting these in an exciting new kit that we think you're gonna love!!  It's a big design in the style of our popular ABC Kits. It's a very cool saying...sweet, sentimental, funny..full of family and love. Stay tuned...and stay warm!

Market prep = craziness at L*K

I've been designing needlework for 18 YEARS now, and going to market every year! Logic tells me that this should get easier every year. Hmmm....really?

Thankfully, I have learned to keep really GOOD records about market. Not just what we sold and how many, but how much inventory I toted to (and fro) Nashville. The tricky part is to haul enough inventory to sell to the enthusiastic shopowners, and not put up those pesky SOLD OUT signs early in the day...but not bring too much stuff that makes the return trip home.

So here I am this week...poring over inventory and sales lists from the past few years, looking for that missing crystal ball, trying to "predict" what is going to sell, and making the 2013 inventory list.

We just released new titles a few weeks ago, so we won't have new chartpaks, Snippets or Flip-its. What we will have are 4 NEW KITS...and they're FUN!!!!! I'll tell you about the 3 Flora McSample Limited Editions kits today.

I'm fondly calling these "grab bag" kits because I am kitting them with bits of this and that...fabric, that is!  Since we do lots of kitting, and lots of model stitching, we have lots of fabric hanging around. When the drawers and cabinets and sneaky hiding places are bursting at the seams, it's time for some grab bag kits. I designed 3 small kits with my sampler friend, Flora McSample. Flora likes to design in a vintage-style, so these little gems look sampler-ish.

Here are some of my beautiful assorted fabrics...before folding, ironing and kitting. I've been gradually cutting small pieces of fabric for the last month or so, and I'm still working on it.  If you looks closely, there are all sorts of lovely colors, some overdyes, pastels, neutrals...it's a real grab bag!  This is kinda like the "ghosts of kits past"...you can spot leftovers from lots of discontinued kits, and just pieces that were too small for most kits, but I  couldn't throw them out!. 

Above is my main fabric storage cabinet. WOW...it's still a mess, but it's much less full than before Flora got to work on her 3 little market kits. I can shut the door with ease!

Since these are here today/gone tomorrow Limited Edition kits, I am doing the photography and graphic design myself. I enlisted my good friend, Bob Bishop, to help me with photography since 1) he has a much nicer camera than I, and 2) he has tons more equipment and 3) he has actually studied photography and 4) he was willing and available on a Ssturday afternoon!

We were quite a pair, doing our official L*K photo shoot in their big living room. If you look closely, you can see the little kit on the table, nestled among the Easter-y props. Did I tell you these kits are LITTLE??? That's me, holding the reflective white paper in all sorts of crazy positions, aiming for the perfect lighting.

I brought all sorts of goodies to Bob's house for our shoot. Each kit had it's own little box of props, as I had pre-planned each shot in advance at my house. I rounded up lots of old stuff from my house and threw in a couple houseplants.

Another perk to doing a photo shoot at Bob's house...while we're working, Connie is in the kitchen whipping up some yummy oatmeal cookies.  Thanks, Connie!

After I got the edited photos from Bob, I got to work on the graphic design for the projects. Making pretty covers is one of my favorite things, and I had so much fun doing the finishing touches on these kits.

I'm still working on folding and ironing the kit fabric. While we were watching a basketball game last night, I pulled the ironing board into the family room and got to work. Our friends who came to watch got a chuckle as I ironed through the game, pausing to yell and cheer on our favorite team, Kansas State Wildcats!

No, we're not previewing photos yet...gotta keep some mystery or else why shlep all this stuff half way across the country to market?  However, as soon as our showroom door opens at market on Saturday. March 2, I'm sure photos of the new kits will be emailing, blogging and Facebooking their way to you!  The intrepid shopowners who come to market will get the word out!

Stay tuned for more market previews!!!