Trip to Two Rivers, Wisconsin- Art Galleries and Studios Galorie

A few week-ends ago I took a trip to visit my sister Susan up in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. I was looking forward to seeing her and her family, Phil and Alex.

The drive up there was very nice as the weather was wonderful. Of course because I washed my car the day before I left, what usually happens when you do that – RAIN!!!! The whole week-end it was cold and rainy, but it didn’t dampen my visit. I enjoyed myself, the company and of course the two dogs, Archie and Sausage! I think I spoiled Archie….. I’m a true animal lover.

Susan and Phil had a new house built and I must say it is very nice, roomy and comfy! They live right on Lake Michigan. Could not wade in the lake as the water would have been cold. No matter what, I got some real nice pictures of the lake and their property. I really enjoyed the quietness from the hustle and bustle from my home town in Downers Grove, Illinois.

I especially liked what Susan had in store for us on Saturday. We went to several galleries and studios in Door County. Susan is an artist and has been doing artwork on her iPod Touch lately. She was featured on ABC News, click on the link for the webcast.

We first started off by visiting the “Flying Pig“. Susan Connor and Robyn Mulhaney are co-owners of this unique and different gallery. Their gallery consists of all forms of art work. My purchase consisted of a piece of jewelry and raku pottery. My sister bought another piece of raku for my up-coming birthday. I am very fond of raku pottery and have actually taken part of this technique when my daughter attended high school. I was allowed to do a few pieces in the past, will post my work later on. It is amazing to attend and watch the firings of pottery. The raku  pieces that I picked were from Nancy Briggs work. The purchased ring was created by Michael Thee. His pendants are out of this world. Will have to think about one of his pieces. Walking throughout my sister’s house I could see a lot of pieces of artwork that she has purchased from the Flying Pig.

One of the next places we visited was the Edgewood Orchard Galleries. If I am correct, this gallery had the most awesome glass work. Susan showed me a bowl that was out of this world. Unfortunately I do not see it on their web-site unless I did not go far enough. Then there were some other glass items that I was in awe.

We then continued our travels, had lunch at a real good pizza place.

Susan stopped at a gallery that she had never visited before. It was the Potters Wheel. It is owned by a couple who is celebrating their 54th year in Door County. Ginka Cohn is a spunky over 80 gal. Sweet and funny as heck with the biggest smile on her face. She runs the shop and her husband Abe does pottery work. Read about him on the link and they were featured in the Door Peninsula Arts Guide for 2009.

Our last stop that Susan wanted me to see was a fiber artisan that is showing her work at Fine Line Designs. Martha Fieber does hand embroidery pictures. No not pictures but landscapes. Unbelievable work and the time put into each piece. From viewing her work personally, you can see the layers of stitches in each piece. How she creates the shading and depth is breath taking. Last week-end she did a demonstration of her work. Wish I was there, as I have done hand embroidery and know the time it takes to do a simple design, but hers is out of the ordinary. Hey Susan, thanks for taking me to see her work!! Truly inspirational.

Sunday brought more cold weather and rain. But it didn’t stop me from picture taking. When it tried to clear up I went out an snapped all over. Early in the morning I stood on the third floor balcony and took pictures as it rained lightly. Looking at the birds overhead, swooping down and up in the wind. I tried to stay my distance from the edge, as I am afraid of heights, but that is why we have zoom on our cameras. There was suppose to be a possible wedding to have pictures taken on the beach front, but unfortunately the weather damped and did not take place. Susan and I went to lunch and drove around some more, as the stores are closed on Sundays up there.

Thanks Sue, Phil and Alex for the hospitality. I am looking forward to coming up again, when unknown, but it was a great week-end!

A Tree is Planted in Honor – ME!!!

My second week of vacation of all days, but a beautiful one at that, I decided to clean up the weeds behind our sheds.

With all the rain that we have been receiving, they have been growing like wild flowers and most of them where wild flowers.

This was the perfect day to dig them up from the roots and get rid of them, BUT it was my birthday. Should I have been pulling weeds, spraying weeds, weed whacking them and trimming bushes on this day? Why not! It got me out of the house and in the sun.

My faithful companion, Maggie helped. She stomped through the mud, laid in it and was sniffing out for mice! Sorry Maggie, no mice for you to play with today!

As I was cleaning up I found a young sapling, a maple tree. The tree was to close to the shed and needed more room to grow, as it was already a pretty good size. I decided since we had to remove most of our trees a few years ago, this one would replace and give us shade, especially for our faithful companion, Maggie. It would also help in sucking up all the water in the back yard during the rainy season (I hope).

I careful dug it up and placed it deep into the ground, hoping and praying that it would take.

The tree found a new home and family members noticed (and yes hubby I didn’t pay a cent for it).

It has been a week since it was planted. It is doing well, as it stands in our flooded backyard!

Happy Birthday to me, Wednesday, June 10, 2009. (Yeah I am catching up on my blog!)

CPSIA – Let our voices be heard

Congress passed a bill last summer that was designed to protect children from toys containing lead and phthalates. Know as  the Consumer Product Safety Imporovement Act (CPSIA), it was suppose to go into effect this year, but has been extended until February 10, 2010. With this bill, it affects may people who handcrafts and sells toys, clothing and other items for children under the age of 12. The bill that congress passed, requires expensive testing that we, small businesses and crafters cannot afford.

Read and learn more about this act here. If you purchase items from a crafter or you are a crafter and will be affected by this legislation, there are a couple of online petitions that you can check out. Please consider signing and forwarding on to other friends who would like to get involved.

Let your legislation know how you feel about this bill.

LET OUR VOICES BE HEARD.

SewforLess.com Giveaway – Fantastic Flora from OESD

Sewforless.com has stuff overflowing in their “free stuff box”. So they are starting to share the love. The embroidery love.

Check out the rules here, then head over and post your entries. That’s right, entries, there is no limit on how many entries or comments you post. You have until May 20, 2009, around 10 AM, to get your entries in.

Check out OESD Crafter’s Collection #853 – Fantastic Flora. This package of designs can be sewn out on any item you deem and then sold. Look at the elegant swirls, leaves, flowers and paisley designs.

Check out sewforless.com and enter to win this package that regularly sells for $129.99. 

I will be posting more SewforLess.com Giveaways in the future as well as possible sales they are having.

Get chatting….

MIA

Sorry I’ve been “Missing in Action”. Gonna try and get back on target, but I have a lot of things going on lately. Have to get my head back on….

I am retiring from my job of 31 years on June 26th. Nice b-day present, even though my b-day is on the 10th!

Even though my last day is the 26th, my actual last day of working in the office is around May 28th, give or take a day in the event that I want to take a vacation day between now and the 28th.

The whole month of June, I will be relaxing using up all my vacation time. Hmmm what can I be doing? I would like to be traveling and visit a few friends in the surrounding states, but I would also love to go to some states I’ve never been to before. And I would like to be traveling ALONE! with the exception of taking my pup, Maggie, with me.

So I have to plan ahead, see who I can visit and in between, get some additional items cared for. Need to address some health issues <nothing life threatening>, retirement planning <finalize>, re-finance the homestead, maybe paint the homestead <LOL> and finally look for a part or full time job. As I am still a young lady, I would like to still be in the work force.

So you say why are you retiring if you plan to go back to work. Lets just say the company has changed in such a way, that lots of employees aren’t happy and our contract expires on the 26th. There are going to be many changes that will effect us, so I’m grabbing what I can and start a new chapter in life. Its going to be strange filling out applications and sending in resumes, I mean 31 years what do you put down, lol. I have some places to go to, so at least I have and idea.

My husband dropped the bomb on me Monday. He indicated to me he wanted out of his job. As his place gets more stressful on a daily basis. Sure the last few times he asked if he could do it I was fine with it, but now <shaking head – thanks dear for killing me>. He is aware of me retiring, but this was my glory and now you’ve damped my spirits cause I was expecting you to be bringing home the bacon. I basically said do what you have to do, but I would prefer you get your important surgery done prior to leaving. So has he done anything since Monday? Nada! So how important was it for him to drop this bomb. Who knows.

Well time to run and start typing up some more training material. I  am suppose to be replaced and train someone, but haven’t gotten any confirmation. I will indicate, I am going to send in a resume to a hiring agent for my company to hire me back as a contracted employee. But I’m gonna check out other avenues as well.

Have a great day and be keeping you informed on what I’m up to.

EmbLibrary Customer Appreciation Sale, New Freebies and 17 Cent Designs

This week at EmbLibrary they are having a FAB Customer Appreication Sale.

There are 4 coupons that you can use on separate purchases to get maximum savings on embroidery designs. Please be advised that only one coupon can be used per order. You have to make sure that you put the appropriate code in the box and click on “Apply Code” in order to activate.

This sale ends Tuesday, May 12th at 11:59 pm, Central Time.

Buy 10 designs for 10 bucks – you can’t go wrong there! Take your pick of any design, find all the ones that are costly. Put in your shopping basked enter the code GiveMe10 and see the prices drop!

Single designs save 60%. Put single designs in your shopping cart. When you are ready to check out, enter code SINGLE60 and each regular priced designs will be discounted! 

 

Buy one design pack, get the second one free – we know how we like our design packs. No matter how many design packs you want, enter into your shopping basket, enter BOGO4U and if you buy 4, the two will be free, buy 6, 3 free and so on.

$5 off a $10 order – cannot be used with first coupon. Add designs or packs to your shopping basket until the total is $10 or more. Enter code TAKE5 and your order is discounted $5 bucks.

Don’t forget to check out their new items for this week and the “TWEET” for the week. You can apply “TWEET” to one of these coupons, prefer single design coupon for a savings of 60% off the dollar price.

 

 

 

Don’t forget to get May’s 17 cent designs. There is a total of 4 different designs, but all designs stem around the one I posted here. If you already collected their hummingbirds, this is another one you must have.

 

Finally we have the monthly May free designs.

Pop on over and collect them before the end of the month!

ALLBRANDS Savings online purchases – expires May 15 2009

Hi All -

Just a quick post to inform you sewing enthusants that AllBrands is having a savings on online purchases until May 15, 2009. There are restrictions on selected items and you can view which items they may be here.

I noticed when I clicked to their site I entered in for a Weekly AllBrands Gift Giveaway, featuring a 25 Dollar Gift Card. You can only enter once a week. So click on the site above to get your entry in.

Getting back to the online purchases. You can save up to $500 on your next purchase using the coupon codes during checkout.

$5 off on purchase of $25 or more                              shop5

$10 off on purchase of $199 or more                        shop10

$25 off on purchase of $499 or more                       shop25

$50 off on purchase of $999 or more                       shop50

$100 off on purchase of $1999 or more                  shop100

$150 off on purchase of $2999 or more                  shop150

$250 off on purchase of $4999 or more                 shop250

$500 off on purchase of $9999 or more                shop500

So check out their site to see if anything interests you. I know I am looking at a Fast Frame 12 x 14 Jumbo Single Hoop for my Brother PR600. It has been reduced to $99 and with the $5 off, that could easily pay for part of the shipping.

Sew get shopping and check out AllBrands to see what they might have in store for you.

Metro Color Match Software – Free Download Available

I received my package of Metro Thread last week.

I am very pleased with the colors and their customer service is great. I had called and requested additional spools of thread. Max was able to add it to my original order. He even popped in a color chart for free. That’s what I call service.

Recently they had a 10% off on their thread orders of $50 or more, this promotion ended on April 28th, however I believe they have a promotion still running on orders of $300 and up with a savings of 12%. There is no cut-off date on the site, but follow this link.

They have expanded their website recently.

One of the new items is a free download of Metro Color Match Software. It works like My Thread Box (which they sell for 79.95), but it matchs Metro Threads to other popular embroidery threads. You can download the software from their home page or from here.

Another new section is the classifieds. You can place an Ad for FREE, however you need to sign up as a member. Some of the following categories are: Embroidery Machines; new and used, Embroidery Accessories, and Blanks. So if you have a website, you can post here and if you have a machine that you are wishing to sell, why not here. There is  Custom Embroidery and Digitizing Services. Do you digitlize? Just think of the possible sales you can get by advertising here. There aren’t many items in the classifieds as it is new, but won’t hurt to check it out. Heck, I’m gonna post my etsy site there for possible custom embroidery items. Exposure!

Then they have a Digitizing Software that they sell, they have a download DEMO, check it out here.

So check out Metro’s updated site. And don’t forget, their threads, big king cones are 2.25 each!

Beautiful Day – Two Visitors

Since it was a nice day, I went out and cleared some of the overgrown forest next to us. Don’t want to deal with family members cars getting scratched due to branches when parking off the road. Removed some small dead or fallen trees. Proceeded to clean leaves and such on our property.

A sheriff’s police cruiser came down the street. Of course you wonder who is in trouble, was there a break-in or did someone call on me cause I was clearing someone’s property!

The officer yelled to me but I didn’t hear him. Then out of the blue, 2 dogs came running towards me. Where did they come from and they were pit bull variety, not friendly at times. The officer asked if they were my dogs because I started petting them and searching for information on their collars. Nope, never saw them before. He walked over and explained that they must be the dogs that everybody was calling about. They seemed okay and allowed both of us to grab their collars. We got numbers of the collars and he called dispatch. Off to our fenced yard. My Maggie almost got out of the house as she jumped and hit the latch on the front door. But she listened and stayed put.

The officer indicated the owner was in the area and he was going to find him. I then let the dogs run in our big yard. Let Maggie out so they could play and she has played with other dogs, even bull dogs. They were all doing fine until I walked back in the house for a second to get treats. Heard my neighbors yelling. Apparently ODIN was being a tad to frisky with Maggie and showing teeth. Every time I tried to get Maggie, Odin was trying to grab her. I almost got my hand in the mouth but pulled away quickly. Maggie safe and sound. We watch the two play while Maggie had to be inside. The larger dog (which had a great name – but forgot it) kept going to the back of the property and rolling in the wet, slightly muddy area. Neighbors and I were laughing cause the owner wasn’t gonna like a muddy dog in their car.

Apparently the officer wasn’t far because he heard all the yelling and he quickly drove back. We all explained that we had to separate them. He was concerned cause of the issues they have had with these types of dogs this year. Many children have been killed. The dogs have mauled the small children, even though they were not aggrevated by the child.

It took awhile for the officer to come back with the owner, as they kept crossing each others location. It was a young kid. Got the leash and took each dog separately into the car. When he saw the bigger one, which is tan, but not so tan, black, I said he sorta liked rolling in the muddy water. When he leashed him, the dog knew he was in trouble.

They thanked me for holding them in the yard and I said no problem. Shook hands and off they went. Maggie was allowed to go back in her yard. She was sniffing everything, even where the bigger dog was rolling around. Wonder if she noticed that they played with her stuffed elephant. It was sorta funny, but when you think about it, could not be so funny. Each dog had part of it in their mouth and they were pulling each other throughout the yard. Made me think of the people who have these types of dogs for dog fights. I definitely would be very cautious with pit bull varieties.

Went back to business, clearing away leaves and such. My daffodils are coming up, day lilies and iris’ and it looks like the winter wasn’t to tough on the peonies. Tomorrow its suppose to SNOW! GEEZ!!!!

I’ve been tagged… 7 things I love

Hmmmm <tapping foot on carpet>. 

What things do I love?

- My family, each and everyone of them. No matter how demanding they might get <giggle>

- My great and faithful Maggie – my husky/german shepard

- My hobbies of machine embroidery and sewing.

- My creativity.

- All the “friends” I have met through the years.

- Life in general, I’ve been blessed to overcome and beat breast cancer.

- My mother, who I miss dearly. She taught me everything I need to know. . . . Love ya Mom <sniffles>