Mail out and touch
Topic: Bits and Pieces

August is my birthday month and I wanted to do something special to all the stitchers and blogreaders out there. And since I have a profound love of cards and stationery it was quite easy to decide what I will be doing. For the next year (yes, that is 12 months) I will be sending out 5 cards/notes to 5 different people.

Though I LOVE email, I still get a thrill when I receive a card or envelop in the mail. It doesn't happen too often, but when it does, it makes my day. Since I assume that this goes for more people, I want to share a little joy every month.

Here is how it works: 

1) Every first day of the month I will post a call to send in your address. You can sign up every single month, until you have received a card/note from me. You can sign up till the 7th of each month. This is open to both Dutch and international stitchers and blogreaders.

2) Send an email to me (ankoning at pi dot net) with the subject line: Card of the month (don't forget this as I may not catch your email otherwise)

3) Be sure to include your snail mail addy in the email (I promise I will only use it one time to send you a card/note).

4) I will draw the 5 names on the 8th of the month and the lucky winners will get their card/note by the end of the month. 

5) This is optional: if you enjoyed received a card/note, why don't you send out a little note to 3 more people. Kinda like spreading the fun.

Since August is already on it's way, I will keep the draw open till my birthday August 14th. I will make sure the August cards are sent before the end of the month.  My box with cards is waiting to be used, I got myself a nice pack of stamps and Priority stickers, so let me know if you are game.

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Het begint er aardig op te lijken dat dit een tweetalig weblog begint te worden. Hieronder de vertaling (min of meer) van het bovenstaande.

Ik ben jarig in augustus en wil graag iets speciaals doen voor alle borduursters en bloglezers. En aangezien ik dol ben op kaarten en briefpapier, was het makkelijk om te beslissen wat ik wilde doen. Het komende jaar (ja, dat is 12m aanden) zal ik 5 kaarten/briefjes versturen naar 5 verschillende mensen.

Hoewel ik gek ben op email, vind ik het nog steeds heerlijk om een kaart of envelop bij de post te krijgen. Het gebeurt niet zo vaak meer, maar als het gebeurt, is mijn hele dag goed. Ik ga er vanuit dat dit voor meer mensen geldt, dus ik wil mijn plezier daarin delen. 

Zo werkt het:

1) Elke eerste dag van de maand doe ik een oproep om je adres in te sturen. Je kunt elke maand meedoen totdat je iets van mij hebt ontvangen. Je kunt je inschrijven tot de 7e van de maand. Zowel Nederlandse als internationale borduursters en bloglezers kunnen meedoen. 

2) stuur mij een email (ankoning apestaartje pi punt net) met als onderwerp: Kaart van de maand (vergeet dit niet, anders kan het zijn dat ik je email over het hoofd zie of dat hij in de spam belandt).

3) Denk eraan om je volledige adres in de mail te zetten (ik beloof je dat ik het adres alleen gebruik om je eenmalig iets te sturen). (

4) Op de 8ste van de maand trek ik de namen van 5 winnaars en zij krijgen hun kaart/briefje oid tegen het einde van de maand.

5) Dit is vrijwillig: als je ervan genoten hebt om een kaartje/briefje te ontvangen, waarom stuur je niet iets naar 3 mensen die je kent? Om het plezier nog meer te delen.

Aangezien augustus al aardig onderweg is, kun je deze maand tot mijn verjaardag (14 augustus) meedoen. Mijn doos met kaarten staat klaar om gebruikt te worden, ik heb een stapel postzegels en Priority stickers in huis, dus laat me weten of je mee wilt doen.

 

Totally different subject
Topic: Bits and Pieces

The last few weeks I have done quite of reading on marketing, internet marketing and various ways to make money on line. If you believe all the stories, there are lots of euro's to make on line. But it is interesting reading. One of my finds is this free report (and yes, it is free, you just provide your name and email) and it caught my eye. After all, wouldn't it be wonderful to make money from our weblogs?

And for those of you who are more interested in my stitching adventures, don't worry, later today I'll post an update on my current projects

Spring
Topic: Bits and Pieces

This week I had to go to a meeting and when I biked back to work, I passed this pond where I knew momma Duck usually has her ducklings swimming. And I was right. She was there with 9 ducklings. They were swimming behind her and looked so sweet. Of course I didn't have my camera with me, so I just biked on.

However, yesterday I was a bit smarter and put my camera in my bag, just in case I might see her again on the way back. And there she was. Not with 9 ducklings but with 10. Good golly, she's got her work cut out for her. One of the yellow ducklings was wandering off by itself, going way to far to my taste and then of course got anxious and raced back. It's amazing how fast they can swim. Here's a pic of momma Duck with all 10 youngsters.

It's almost a puzzle to see if you can find all 10 of them LOL. Then there is a close up of the family.

It doesn't look as if daddy Duck is playing a big role in taking care of the little ones. I hope I get to see them a few more times. 

Miss Murphy
Topic: Bits and Pieces

Miss Murphy told me it was about time that she would be featured in my weblog. During the heat she had a habbit of crawling under my shelves in the study. I have no idea how she manages to do this, or how she is even comfortable, but as I frequently find her there, I suppose she likes it . To give you an idea there is about 8cm between the floor and the shelf.

And if that isn't bad enough, she discovered that laying on top of my paperwork is the next best thing to kitty milk. Wednesday evening she stretched out completely and was quite possessive of MY paperwork if I tried to pull something from underneath her.

There is nothing so nice as some kitty company during hot summer days.

 

Nashville, Leeuwarden and Zwolle
Topic: Bits and Pieces
Time passes quickly when you are having fun. Or when you are attending craft shows. Which, by the way, also was a lot of fun. Nashville was wonderful, we saw so many beautiful models, met wonderful people, enjoyed our hotelroom where you can have pizza delivered, even put in an occassional stitch and savored our freshly baked waffle in the morning. Too bad the coffee wasn't really up to our standards. But after one week of Starbucks coffee I doubt anything would have been up to that standard. Below are some pictures we took in Nashville. As some of you already know, it's not allowed to take pictures in the rooms of the designers, unless they give you permission (which we got from Weeks Dye Works). And to be honest, we forgot to make more pics. I am sure more designers would let us take pics if we'd only asked.

After Nashville we got everything together for our Nashville night. We had a lot of fun going over all the new leaflets, new accessoiries, threads and gadgets. One of our treasure finds in Nashville were the Hob Nob designs. These are little designs (50 x 50 or smaller) that are packaged in a 2,5 x 2,5cm see through box and the design comes with the cutest little button. This line of designs is called doodles and it means that you can use whatever thread you have left over. They don't give DMC numbers, just colors and the designs work up wonderfully. I don't have any pics at the moment, but we'll try to get some up. Since the little boxes are only ? 4,50, they make great gifts as well.

On Saturday we had almost everything in the car for the Sampler Day at the Frisian Museum in Leeuwarden. We were situated right by the entrance and boy was it busy that day! I don't think we have seen that many customers in one day before. And here people are telling that cross stitching is a diminishing hobby/art. Well, not according to all the ladies and gentlemen in Leeuwarden.

Sunday I spent most of the day trying to re-order everything we sold out of the day before so that we would have enough for the Handwerkbeurs in Zwolle. And thanks to some wonderful suppliers we managed to do that.

Then last week we were in Zwolle at the Handwerkbeurs. Thursday was spent setting up the stand. My parents do such an amazing job with that. As I had to work in the morning, they set up the stand all by themselves. Pics of how the stand looked are below. Once the stand is set up, we can start decorating, i.e. putting out all the boxes with the leaflets, arrange all the fabrics on the side table, put up the models etc.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday we met an incredible stream of customers, both well-known and new ones. I think that that is what I so much enjoy about these shows, the chance to meet customers. Saturday evening we were invited for diner by a special customer and we had a great evening. Sunday was still very well attended and at 5pm we could break down the stand and pack everything up. Fortunately the weather wasn't too bad driving back.

This coming weekend, the shop is open on Friday and Saturday and next week we will be in Rijswijk at the Patchwork & Quiltdays. It is always exciting to go to a new show. This time we will have a ready made stand so right now we are working on how to put up the models (you are not allowed to put nails in the walls LOL). We think we have the solution, now we just need to buy it. I will make some pics of the stand in Rijswijk as well.

Edited to add two pics of the Rijswijk stand.

Stitching wise I haven't done a lot these days. I am working on a Show Special that we started in Zwolle. It is a design by Hands to Work and we are offering it with either antique white or ecru 13 dr/cm Belfast linen and a skein of Gloriana silks of your choice for 10 euros. I need to stitch the hand, bunny and peacock on the top part and the alphabet below the saying. It is a very nice project, not overly difficult, but the handdyed thread make it so beautiful.

I put in a few stitches in my Pat Thode Santa. I don’t think I shared this before, it is a new canvas that I started in the US. While in the US my friend showed me drawings of the new ornaments and the new 2006 canvas and oh my gosh, they are beautiful. I think that they will be released around April and I can’t wait. I picked up another Pat Thode santa and plan to keep stitch at least 2 or 3 each year. Of course I need to go back to my larger canvas as well.

Well, this is a rather long update, but it was kinda overdue. With all the activities that are around the corner, my updates no doubt will be less frequent than before. I do hope to get at least one update per week done.

And to close off with a stitching picture, this is one of the newer models in the shop thanks to one of our customers. It is Birdhouse Row from Imaginating done on 36 ct. Edinburgh with Gloriana Bluegrass.