Designer's Desk Revisited

Hey Blog Buddies,

First of all, thanks so much for all the love for my Uptown Stitcher!  I really appreciate all of your kind comments.  She and I had a love-hate relationship for a long time, but now it seems to be turning into love-love.

On Tuesday, I met my GF Joyce at Designer's Desk, and I remembered my camera this time!  She lives not too far away from "the Desk" and had never been there.  (Yes, she is a stitcher, too.)  We meet periodically for lunch and it seemed like a good reason for me to go back there and introduce her to the place.  Plus, I needed to get Ms. Uptown Stitcher finish-finished and they, of course, will do that for you, too.

As you can see, the store occupies 

an entire 2-story house, with a basement--

three levels jam packed with stitchy goodness.

And, everything in the basement was still 75% off!

I was fascinated by the thread wall,

so most of my photos are of that.

You should be able to see that the wall

is actually five walls deep!

And there are more threads on the other side!

(also several levels deep!)

Here is only a part of the basement:

I didn't even take any photos on the second floor!

You get so busy just looking at stuff and drooling

that you forget you have a camera in your purse.

Joyce's reaction to the shop was:

"My head is spinning!"

(in a good way)

Here are my purchases from the second floor

where they have many ready-made frames

and custom-made frames, too, in one of the rooms.

(There are a lot of rooms upstairs.)

These are for my smaller pieces, 3x5, 4x4, 5x5...

The rest of my haul was all from the basement.

I didn't even feel guilty because at 75% off

it's a lot like shopping at Dollar Tree.

One Spring, four Christmas/Winter and

a couple of assorted non-seasonal designs.

Joyce brought along her girls, who are such cuties!

Sadly, they had to stay in the car:

Molly's buddy Lexi, the calm, older lab/GWP.

And Abbey, the lab/wire-haired ??

She is newly adopted and I'm told she is a "handful"

but she seemed very sweet.

Molly hasn't had the pleasure of meeting her yet.

It was a wonderful trip--hope you enjoyed the tour.

And thanks, as always, for visiting.

It's not the Destination, It's the Journey

Hey Blog Buddies,

I kept repeating the above phrase as I frogged quite a bit of blood red silk in my CT13 this afternoon.  I contemplated leaving the mistake in--it was on the left side of the bottom branch--but then I would have had to make a similar "mistake" on the right side, and the whole branch would have looked too thick and out of whack.  So I frogged.

You can still see a little red fuzz

on the bottom where I ripped.

This won't be nearly as far along as I had hoped,

but again, journey not destination!

(And it's been one heckuva journey today!)

Yesterday, I went on a field trip (for research purposes only, of course) to Designer's Desk in Geneva, Illinois, with six other gals from the guild.  I had heard much about this needlework store from various people, and was interested to see if it would live up to the hype.  All I have to say is, it's a stitcher's nivana.  It's in a cute Victorian house.  The main floor and upstairs are packed with stuff.  The basement is packed with stuff, too, and everything there was 75% off!   They carry a full line of cross stitch supplies, as well as all the needlepoint you could want, including a bunch of painted canvases.  Their thread walls have to be seen to be appreciated.  Did I remember my camera?  No.  That's why I must go back--so that you can see photos of this wonderful place.

I had been doing so well with working from stash and not buying anything new--until yesterday.

Hey, it's almost the end of January!

Clockwise, from left:

Summer by Indigo Rose (75% off!),

Hare's Summer by Plum Street Samplers,

Mix it Up from Mill Hill Kitchen Collection,

and two Mill Hill beaded Halloween ornies for my tree, of course.

I also found the Rosewood Manor bin,

and had six charts pulled.

I eliminated the charts, one by one,

until only this beauty was left.

And who says I have no impluse control?!!

We had a 1 o'clock lunch reservation

which was a good thing because

it gave us an excuse to get our purchases rung up and leave

(after 2-1/2 hours in the store).

Good friends, tasty food and fabulous shopping.

Hope your weekend was just as marvy.

Thanks for visiting!