5 NEW designs and A LOT of distractions!

We shipped new designs to shops everywhere last week. Scroll back 2 posts to see all the newbie pictures. Thanks for supporting your favorite needlework shop!

Sometimes I think it's a miracle that the designs keep coming, because I have SO many distractions this spring! I want to tell you all about it, but first, important announcement below!

Our 3 Little Words Contest - Part One - is now OVER!  Thanks to hundreds of you for submitting thousands of lovely inspiration sayings...in only 3 Little Words!

We're busy sorting through them and I must admit...we're overwhelmed with all the lovely 3 word possibilities. We'll work up a list of our Top 10 - with a little help from our friends - and post it soon. Then the voting period will commence.

After that, the two winning 3 Little Words inspiration sayings will be graphed and posted for FREE on the L*K website and blog.

About those DISTRACTIONS...you know what I'm talking about. You have some really important stuff to do - like a JOB - but other things keep getting in the way. It's the old "urgent vs. important" discussion, and for me it's hard to sort these out.

Distraction #1 - We're building a new house !!! (and have been for the past 16 months). We were supposed to move in last fall...then Christmas...then March...and now we are hoping (fingers crossed and checkbook handy) to move in early June. Everyone keeps asking us "when will your house be finished?". Our answer is a) 2015 or b) we don't even ask that irrelevant question anymore. The builder will finish when he finishes."

The exterior is pretty well done, minus some cement work and lawn. But last week a quirky storm blew through with 80+ miles an hour winds and rearranged our roof tiles. They're not supposed to be sticking up ODDLY like pic above, but now they're moved back in place. Unfortunately, our next door neighbor had major roof damage and lots of their roof tiles ended up broken in our back yard (and now they have a nice blue tarp on their roof)!

Alas, our almost completed house was missing an essential element - a KITCHEN - until last week. Last Monday morning we met the semi truck driver (who had patiently backed down our contractor/crowded cul-de-sac) and unloaded our kitchen...in a zillion well wrapped boxes. Now the pre-made kitchen is being assembled and it's like a puzzle to watch my pretty kitchen emerge. Not a day too soon...it was downright weird having most of house finished and the kitchen was MIA.

We make multiple trips to the new house every day - answering inquiries from contractors - and making decisions...SO MANY decisions. Not to mention the trips to pick out mind-numbingly boring things (to me) like door knobs and roofing materials! Our record is 4 trips to the house during one work day - thankfully it's not too far from the L*K office.

Distraction #2 - Selling the house we're in!!!  We've lived here almost 20 years, which makes it the longest we've ever lived anywhere. The kids are gone, we moved the office out in January (former L*K office next to house pictured above), but SO much remains!

We're doing some major sorting, donating, garage-selling, etc. of ANY non-essential item. My mantra is to be "ruthless" in my decision making about what goes to the new house and what goes away! PS - car is in driveway because full-out garage sale prep is in progress. We are desperate for rain, so I figure scheduling a garage sale may help that happen. Just my little gift to the community, along with all of my excess stuff!

Distraction #3 - I know many of you can relate to this one...I spend an increasing amount of time caring for my aging mother. Every time I get together with my friends our conversations goes like this..."How's your mom doing?" or "How's your Dad adjusting to assisted living?" or "Is your Mom still in rehab after her fall?" and on and on. This "sandwich generation" thing just couldn't be truer.

Thankfully I have an awesome brother and superb sis-in-law who also live in Wichita and the responsibility is wonderfully shared. But when things get crazy...like my Mom's recent traumatic fall...and you spend days in the ER/hospital and weeks afterwards visiting in rehab, and then the cautious re-entry to her senior apartment...sometimes the days just disappear. And all that L*K work I had on my to-do list? It's still all there waiting for me. But at the end of a long day, I just want to stitch (L*K models, of course!).

Gratefully, Mom is weak but slowly improving. Meanwhile, you can catch me many weekdays lunching with the "oldsters" at her senior living place. I'm there so much, the minute I walk in the door the hello's and greetings begin with all the lovely oldsters who are now my friends, as well as my mom's pals.

And, BONUS, I've rekindled a fondness for some of the foods I disliked as a child. Wednesday is ham and beans and cornbread day (my brother and I HATED this food as kids) and now I plan my week around this classic fare. And don't get me started on the egg salad and the daily fres-baked cookies on the menu!

All in all, SO thankful for a wonderful job that allows me to do creative, fun things for the needlework community...while embracing the really important things in life...family and friends. Thanks for reading along with my random thoughts - if you can relate, send me a comment!