Get your Jingle on!

What a weekend! We did a lot of work packing the new designs...and we managed to squeeze it a bit of play, too! Here's the crowded Lizzie*Kate office first thing this Monday morning. There's also a car-full of more US Mail boxes, being ably delivered to the airport postal facility by Alan.

And below are the 3 newest members of the Jingle family that are headed your way, via our friends at the US Mail and the friendly UPS man.

I love this batch of Jingle ornaments!  I'm hoping the pile of them will keep me cool this week when our temps finally reach the 90s and "normal" summertime temps. We have been spoiled until this week with an unusually cool spring and early summer.

There will be 12 Jingle ornaments in all. With this release, there are 9 available. Look for the remaining 3 Jingles in early August. Don't forget the FREE graph on our website to combine all 12 Jingles into one big holiday stitchery.

But enough of WORK! We also found time this weekend to see a charming movie at the cheapie second-run theater...love the Palace Theater! If you're looking for a fast-paced action/adventure flick, this isn't the show for you. But if you like delightful English actors and retiree humor, this is really sweet fun.

Our other treat this weekend was putting around a nearby lake with 8 of our best pals on Friday night. After a yummy Italian dinner together, we piled onto the Green's pontoon boat and leisurely rode around the lake, sipping wine, exploring all the nooks and crannies of the lake, and enjoying a spectacular sunset.

Thanks, Captain Eddie and first mate, Connie!

 

Crop of new designs!

There's a "crop of new designs" coming your way next week, so here's a preview!

Are you a list maker? I live by lists, and if they're lost...well, that's a problem for me!  Here's a new twist on the typical To Do List. This list is special, though...it never gets old!

Here's the next design in our Inspiration Boxer series. This is a well-know verse from Hebrews 11. This is the WHOLE photo we shot for the front, including our old family Bible on top left. We had to crop the photo substantially for the cover, so the stitchery will look much bigger!

Speaking of "new crops", we're working on a crop of veggies and flowers in our backyard. Just outside the L*K office, Alan has planted our annual garden. Below are different varieties of tomatoes and peppers. Our garden is off to a really slow start this year because spring was weird, cool and....SNOWY!

Next to the veggies are my favorite crop every summer...SUNFLOWERS!!! I grow the big kind like you see in the floral arrangement...pollenless, of course. We've planted several varieties this year, with different sizes and colors, and I can't wait to see their sunny faces later this summer. They are great to cut and bring inside, and share with friends...but as you can see...they've got a long way to grow!

Happy Weekend!

June is bustin' out all over!

As I click my cell phone calendar from May to June, and flip the page on my old-fashioned wall calendar in my L*K office, I'm reminded of this classic song from the musical "Carousel". I remember the first time I saw the musical Carousel and was surprised to find it was, well, more than a little depressing. But this song has an irrepressible spirit that makes me want to BLOG!

You, faithful readers, may have noticed that I'm not posting as often as my usual routine the past few years. Yes, sometimes life gets in the way of biz and blogging, and that has certainly been the case for me this spring. I've been really involved in moving my mom into a senior living apartment, and it's been quite an experience for us all. Thank goodness for my thoughtful and hard-working brother, John, who's been my companion on this whole adventure (as well as my husband, Alan, and sister-in-law, Donna, who is a gem!!!).  Having never moved a parent before...we didn't know how to do this...but we muddled through and learned!

Above is Mom on her new patio, checking out her Mom's day gift...some new patio furniture. The furniture is being ably assembled by my nephew Michael (just graduated from Wichita High School East!) and my husband, Alan. Hmmm...why are both guys wearing pink?

Thankfully, John anticipated a lot of the steps and necessary activities, and we've progressed through most of the steps. Mom is moved and happily resettled, her house is sold, and we're still working on moving the remaining STUFF from the house that we've been sorting...and resorting...and resorting the past few months.

Here's some of the boxes I moved to my basement, where they will sit, until I find a suitable space for them amongst my STUFF.  (It's a bad pic, but there are some cool things hiding under those newspapers and packing materials.) I've found that's the real problem with this parental belongings. I am already in the process of down-siziing and attempting to simplify my own stash, and I don't really want to accumulate more STUFF.  So, I carefully chose the most sentimental, meaningful things and left the remainders to other eager secondhand shoppers.

Meanwhile, things are clicking along here at Lizzie*Kate and we're getting ready to send more STUFF your way next week.

If June is bustin' out all over, then it must be time for holiday designs....right? We're busy getting the next batch of Jingles Flip-its ready to ship. Our helper, Carmen, has been busy attaching all the charm packs the past couple weeks. Behind the bins of Flip-its are towers of new Boxer kits.

We'll also be shipping a new Halloween design, called Spooky String. It's a companion to other string-y designs...Spring String and Buzzy String...and it's quick, creepy, and fun!

I hereby promise to post AGAIN this week, and give you sneak peeks on the other new goodies coming your way.

HAPPY JUNE!!

Greenville, SC shout out!

We took a quick road trip last weekend to scenic Greenville, SC.  Why Greenville? We were on a (slightly frivolous) mission to visit the new All-American Cottage house tour before it closed!

Maybe you've seen pics of this charming house in the recent Southern Living magazine? It's a joint project between Southern Living mag and This Old House. The house will be featured in both July magazine issues, but the open house is almost over. One thing that makes this house unique, is that it uses 97% building materials made in the good ole USA! That's not typical on most new homes.

This house is considered a "cottage" as in "small size", but we think it's just the perfect size for most folks...even empty nesters like us. The house was charmingly decorated, and appealingly simple. We loved it!!! Check out a few pics below.

Living room above, including a colorful fireplace painting that I adored. 

Adjacent dining room...no formal and informal seating...all in one!

Master bedroom was lovely in beige and gray. Check out the old sewing machines repurposed into flanking bedside tables.

Just a cute hall nook. Loved the bedspring/birdie sculpture thing and the chalkboard above. This photo would make a great Pinterest pin!

Cute kids room upstairs, using my favorite springy green color.

All finished off with a charming back porch and beautiful (real) plants. 

The house tour was worth the trip, since we're considering moving and downsizing. If you want to see more, check out the links below.

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20130430/LIFE/130430007/Video-Tour-All-American-Cottage-Hollingsworth-Park-Verdae

https://www.facebook.com/pages/All-American-Cottage-Greenville-SC/164613763689927

While we were in Greenville, we did the tourist thing and checked out as much of the town as possible.

OH MY!  What a fabulous downtown area they have. We dined outdoors repeatedly. It's a treat for us, and rarely just the right temp, wind speed, etc. to do that in our changeable Kansas weather. We tried to eat "local" food, including the ever-popular Southern favorite, pimiento cheese spread....YUM!!! This restaurant kicked it up a bit with some hot peppers.

We also visited the local Confederate Museum, surprisingly tucked into a small house. The exterior didn't hint at the treasure trove of interesting Civil War momentos and memoribilia crammed inside. 

Our eager tour guide, (who swore  he was a relative of Daniel Boone) couldn't let the tour end without letting Alan hold a real Confederate saber....that was a first, for sure.

This was a spur of the minute trip, so we looked up needlework shops when we got there. Thankfully, we found a great shop, Panda's Crossing, in nearby Mauldin. We dropped in to say hi and accidentally found a weekend Stitch Retreat.

The enthusiastic owner, Donna (above left) invited us to stay for dinner, and who doesn't love a good potluck?! YUM!!!

After dinner, we left the gals to stitch the night away, while we returned downtown for more fun on our last night in Greenville.

We had a great time (loved the house and loved Greenville), but it's always good to be home. Just like our famous Kansas gal-pal Dorothy said....there's no place like home!

Ali (Kate) is 30!!!

Do you remember when you turned 30? I can't remember a thing! But I did have a fabulous time helping our daughter, Ali, celebrate her 30th this past weekend.

It was such a FUN weekend...too bad I almost forgot to take pics. I'm always the girl with the camera, talking friends into posing for a quick shot, coaxing smiles from a group, etc. So why did I forget to photograph this weekend? Only menopause knows for sure! Anyway....

We traveled the well-worn 3 hour route to KC early last Saturday morning. We had planned to meet Ali for lunch, and had to get there early to pick up her sis and brother-in-law (SURPRISE!) at the airport. Sarah and Jeff had flown in early from Chicago to surprise Ali for lunch and the big 30th party.

The gang was all smiles after we surprised Ali at a Kansas City hangout restaurant, Houlihan's. Birthday girl Ali (left), Jeff (middle) and little sis, Sarah (right).

Ali put us to work after lunch working on decorations for her Cinco de Mayo themed birthday party. Wasn't it convenient for her birthday to fall so close to this fun holiday, especially considering our family's addiction to Mexi-food?!  We made these giant crepe paper flowers to hang. My first one was a flop and required major floral repair, but I got the hang of it eventually.

Then we baked 90+ cupcakes...spiced Mexican chocolate, vanilla and vegan vanilla (believe it!). Being a pro food blogger, Ali was resistant to using cake mixes, but relented and added some flavorings. She insisted on making all homemade frostings and piping it on in true blogger fashion. I was in charge of sprinkles during this operation. (just haven't mastered the pastry bag thing yet). We didn't have room in her loft kitchen for dozens of cupcakes, so we put them to rest on her bed.

We had a great day spending time together talking, eating, relaxing, and just catching up. You'll have to believe me, though,  because I didn't take pics!

The next day we gathered at Quay Coffee, a charming coffeehouse conveniently located a floor below Ali's loft in the River Market area of KC. Ali loves to hang out at Quay, so it was the perfect location for an after-hours private party for 60+ of her best friends. You can see our cheerful paper flower balls in the window.

We schlepped aforementioned cupcakes to the party, where they were joined by 90 burritos (thanks, Cilantro restaurant), chips, salsa (we made a couple gallons of this, too), fresh fruit and a beautiful frozen margarita machine. Sadly, no PICS!

As the guests flowed in, we were happy to welcome one of our fam's best friends, Dr. Erin McGonigle (right). We've known Erin since our kids were youngsters hanging out at Twin Rivers pool in the summer, and Erin and Sarah have been best buds for years!  Erin is presently in KC doing her medical residency and, amazingly, had the weekend off and could share in the fun and food!

Erin also confessed to me that she has always secretly wanted to be pictured on the famous L*K blog (who knows why?), so this is our shout-out to the famous, talented, beautiful Dr. McG! She's going to take care of me when I'm old, which (some days) isn't far off.

Even though I don't have a bunch of party pics to show it, we had a WONDERFUL time celebrating Ali's birthday with crowds of her best friends in KC. Above pic is the whole fam (minus Ali's pup Henry), with smiling birthday girl Ali in the middle. 

How do I describe the beautiful, thoughtful, creative woman my daughter Ali has become at age 30? I don't have the words (or the room to express them here!), but you can check out her reflections on turning 30 on her blog at http://www.gimmesomelife.com/30-things-i-have-learned-at-30/

Love you, sweet birthday girl!

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!