First things first. These lovely threads arrived from Robin in Virginia! How's that for a way to brighten up a cold, gray day? Thank you, Robin!
More mail! A ginormous piece of 32 ct. Vintage Country Mocha for the Joyful World series, a couple skeins of Wildflowers (trying to decide on a purple for the Twelve Days of Christmas project), and an adorable polymer clay needle minder from Down Sunshine Lane.
By the way, please forgive the super bright lighting. I had to use my Ott Lite, as it appears we will never see the sun again, and if I ever wanted to take photographs for my blog again, I had to resort to artificial light. Anyway, yes, I'm starting Joyful World. I wanted to stitch it last year as it was being released, but I had too much other stuff going on. I still have too much other stuff going on, but, well, you know.
And here's something really special. I've decided to have my blog printed into a book. The first year arrived today and I couldn't be more thrilled with the result! With all the time, effort, photographs, information, etc. I have poured into my blog, I couldn't help but be paranoid that one day I would wake up and it would be gone, due to some crazy glitch or hacking or something. I know you can back them up online, but for this old-fashioned girl, there's nothing like holding a hard copy. Besides, it's pretty special to be able to flip through a beautiful book of your own needlework.
The service I used was blog2print. I only created a book for the first year, partly because of the expense (there weren't any current coupons), but mostly because I wanted to see how a book turned out before I took the plunge and did my whole blog. I am extremely pleased with the result, and I've already created books for 2014, 2015, and 2016. It's expensive, but they do have good discount offers on their Facebook page fairly often, which I used this time. I can't stop looking at it, and to me, that's well worth the expense.
So besides looking at my new book 40 times, I'll be putting a few stitches in on LHN's Season's Greetings...
...and Sleeping Fox. Remember him? He went into hibernation while I worked on Christmas stuff, but he's awake now. Wait... never mind.
That's what I'm doing on this blustery, cold, wet, nasty day. Really good stitching weather!
Oh, have fun with Joyful World! I sure did! Your book is beautiful.♥ So is your growing fox.
ReplyDeleteI love your blog book. What a neat idea. Your sleeping fox is so pretty. I am sure you will enjoy stitching Joyful World.
ReplyDeleteWe've already had rain and snow here today. Now it's turned to sleet, then it's suppose to turn to snow again... DH is in Ashburn, who knows what time he'll make it home. I love your blog book! I would also like to start Joyful World, but I have so many other things I want to stitch :-( Ya'll stay safe and cozy!
ReplyDeleteSleeping Fox makes me smile on this gray and dreary day, Honeybee. What a great idea with the blog book! Does it include the comments that are posted or just the blog post with pictures? Enjoy your threads; look forward to seeing what you come up with to stitch using them.
ReplyDeleteRobin, I think there is an option to include comments, but I didn't. That would've made my books way too long and waaaay too expensive! :O)
DeleteThat does it ... I am not visiting here anymore. I've had enough of you and your bad influence!
ReplyDelete;)
LOL!
DeleteWe haven't seen the sun since last Wednesday! The weather has been nutso. The book is really neat! In the early years of my blog, I went from using a regular desk top computer and that crashed and burned, to an iPad using an app. There are pages and pages of missing pictures and white blank spots on my blog. So no book for me:( For the Joyful World stitching, are you putting all of them on one piece of fabric? On FB, I just saw one stitcher who did with a very pretty border around all of them. Your progress looks great on the LHN design.
ReplyDeleteShelly, I'm stitching them individually, and without their borders. I want to find the perfect frame for them and swap them out each month.
DeleteYour blog book is absolutely fabulous and a great idea. I just found your blog recently but have truly enjoyed it. Your stitching is beautiful and your finishes are perfect. I've shopped in your Mom's store when we were vacationing in San Antonio and enjoyed it very much. And I purchased two Redbird Designs too plus a few others. We lived in San Antonio for a three year assignment and loved every minute of it. After that we did three years in Ft. Worth so I was really excited to find such great Texas cross stitches.
ReplyDeleteLove your new fox stitch and know you will do a great job with it. RJ
Welcome, RJ! Thanks for visiting!
DeleteThanks Honeybee. I've just been reading up on making a blog book. You have given me such a good idea for a gift for a dear friend. RJ
DeleteThe blog book is a great idea.
ReplyDeleteLove the pic of Tiger Lily on the back. :)
Joyful World will be so pretty on that fabric.
Marilyn
What a great book of memories. I especially love the photo of Tiger Lily!
ReplyDeleteWe are down in Florida for the winter and enjoying blue skies and warm temperatures. I might be crazy but I do miss the snow while we're here. I love sitting in front of the fire with my coffee and watching it fall.
ReplyDeleteThe blog book is a great idea! I might have to look into it myself.
What a marvelous keepsake; you have such wonderful pieces to chronicle. I must look into it,too. We have not had a full day of sun since Jan.8th so it is rather gloomy here too. But the days are getting a wee bit longer sooo....
ReplyDeleteThe blog book is so neat! I was playing around on their site over the weekend...I was wondering, what size images did you choose? I'm a little concerned about resolution and total book length, so I set mine to medium, but then the pictures aren't centered on the page like yours are. :/
ReplyDeleteThe images are medium. I can't remember the exact wording, but there's an option to configure the pages so they are compressed, or to leave them as they appear on your blog. I left mine as they appear on my blog. It makes the book longer, but the presentation is better, in my opinion. That's the only thing I can think of. If that doesn't work, it looks like they have a live chat feature where you could get some help. Good luck!
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