Welcome to Autumn ....

Oh wow .. where has the time gone? I can't believe it's nearly officially Autumn again. When it's happening the time just seems to slowly go by ... but when you look back -- it flew out the window!!! To quote Mary Engelbreit -- "Time flies whether you're having fun or not." Yes, it certainly does. In any case, I hope you had a wonderful, wonderful summer and that you made a lot of awesome memories! Here, we're been trying to come up with a lot of ideas for designs for you to love. While I'm not sure we totally succeeded, I think we may have a few you'll like. I've heard the Christmas ornament issue is out, and we do have a design in there for you called "Plaid Greetings" ... and yes, it's a wee little Scotty dog (being bad and unraveling his ribbon) -- but that's ok, it ends up spelling out Merry Christmas! I can't wait to get my copy to show you a picture! Of course you've hopefully seen our little owl (below, previous post) -- "Ollie" -- that was in the recent Just Cross Stitch Halloween issue. He might just show up later to say hello again. He was a lot of fun to design and stitch, and we hope you liked him! As I said last time -- we have a new design just out called "Happy Halloween," and I've included a picture here. Her name is "Misty Boo" (she was actually named by the lovely ladies at The Strawberry Sampler) by one lady giving me the name "Misty" and another "Boo-ty" ... so I put them together and voilà! Misty Boo was born! And instead of a "tease" ... here she is:

Isn't the frame DARLING!!?? We just love the color and the Polka Dots, and the crescent moon that Molly painted on there to reflect the moon button. We so appreciate her doing that for us! And just in case she reads this .... kisses and ear fluffs to Sammy & Miley Coyote!!! I DID tell you I love those doggies, right? You can see their pictures at her blog "The Patch" in my list of blogs that I read.

Well ... back to stitching my Christmas Angel. OH ... and don't forget to go to Just Cross Stitch for your free Halloween design to download.

Until next time ....

Sigh...

Oy vey .... I cannot believe it's been -- oh dear -- nearly two months since I've posted on here! My husband says 30 lashes with a wet noodle .... and he'll do it too!


I promised sometime ago that we'd show the pictures of the baby birds in our birdhouse gourd -- and here they are. Although they grew up and flew away some time ago, I thought you'd still like to see them!

It was fun watching them get fed and grow up, kind of like our own children do. They were so tiny and cute ... just a joy to watch!

Moving right along -- I don't know if you've received your copy yet or not, but I got my September/October issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine in the mail yesterday -- YAY! I was sooooooooooo excited, and so after Mass we ran to my Mother-in-Law Barbara's home just to show off! LOL ... yes, we have a Halloween design in there, and we hope you'll either go buy it or that you subscribe. There are some REALLY cute designs this time, and I love them all! I will show you "Ollie", but do be sure you check all of them out in the magazine!

And by the way ... if you go to their home page, there's a free Halloween design for you to download - http://www.just-crossstitch.com/




We just finished a new design -- also for Halloween -- that we hope to release by the 1st or 2nd week of September. The frame should be really, really cute as it's being made this time by "Molly Made Frames" from the Strawberry Sampler. I'm going to add their blog for you in my list of blogs (where else!??) so you can enjoy their posts. Be sure to check out "The Patch" in the blog list as there are pictures of Molly's adorable doggies on there -- Miley Coyote and Sammy. I LOVE those doggies!
Just as a bit of a tease, here's a little sneaky peeky of "Happy Halloween!" featuring our ghost girl "Misty Boo" ...





Well, enough of my teasing here. What are we working on now? Hopefully -- before Christmas -- we'll have an Angel out for you to stitch before or during the holidays. I'm afraid we can't give you a preview of that, but just know that she's being done in all silk threads and will be beautiful. How could she not ... she's an Angel!

By the way ... if you haven't read it yet, do read "The Shack" by by Wm. Paul Young. It's one of the most inspiring novels -- to my way of thinking -- that I've ever read, and I'm hoping/planning to read it again. Well, when I finish all the other gazillion things I have to do!

Have a wonderful, wonderful rest of the summer and early Autumn. Until next time ...

Happy Independence Day!!!

Sigh .... As usual, I'm a day late! But I guess it's better late than never. I do hope everyone had an awesome Independence Day, and that you got to be with family and friends, had some great food and watched beautiful fireworks! We went to the bluff on the Gulf (HAH! that rhymes) and listened to a wonderful patriotic concert, and got to hear my sister-in-law Dallas sing with her husband playing trumpet (Land Of Make Believe). Awesome day ..... pictures to come!

More soon --
Jennifer

HOT!

Hot! It is just too darn hot here! Whew! Hasn't really rained in about a month (seems longer), and the temperature is staying around 100° or more. OUCH! It's been 105° to 108° -- give or take a few thousand degrees -- on my back porch for the last week or more. The tomatoes are wilting ... the geraniums are yellowing ... and the Plumeria is just not happy at all! If that sounds like I'm "whining" .... sigh ... I am! Kind of makes us all feel like ... well ... like this:



Grin ... My mom-in-law sent me this (thanks Barbara!), and since it kind of looks like my cat Cheeto, I just had to share.

Something else that's HOT .... a give-away from Colleen Leader of Loose Thread Stitchers (at least I think it's hot!). Anyhow, check out her blog here and enter for a chance to win one of our new charts -- "Let Freedom Sing!". The picture is below, and we hope you like it.

Sorry this is sooooooooo short, but we're going to go turn down the air conditioning (again!) and try to cool off. You do the same, and stay inside and STITCH!!

Until next time ...
Jennifer

Let Freedom Sing!

Here it is ... and sorry 'bout that. Guess I don't have any smartz this month!!!

Jennifer

Plumeria a/k/a Frangipani ... and Stitching too!

Our Plumeria is blooming! Our Plumeria is blooming! I'm sooooooooo thrilled! My father-in-law gave us this as a baby last year (about a foot tall), and I've pretty much babied it all last year and all winter -- in and out the door when it turned cold. I thought I had killed it last winter when the leaves turned yellow and dried out and fell off. But I kept watering and talking to it and repotted it, and now here it's blooming. Only problem -- well, not a problem exactly -- is it just doesn't remember it's supposed to have 5 petals and not 4! Hmmm ... oh well, we love it anyhow! There are several more buds on it (6-7), and so we'll see how many petals they have! When my daughter got married 6 years ago, she took us all to Hawaii (awesome!), and we loved it. Didn't get to spend a lot of time there, but it was Heaven on Earth! Most all the hotels in Hawaii that I saw were open on the bottom, and when we first walked into the hotel where we were staying a Plumeria petal fell on my head ... kind of a gentle "Welcome to Hawaii" ... I'll never forget that! And the smell of the flowers in Hawaii is incredible. Sigh ... someday maybe I'll get to go back! Anyhow, here's a picture Chris took last evening of the flower opened up.

We have a new design -- Let Freedom Sing! You can see it on our website (www.ladybuglane.com), but I'm also posting the picture here. I had the BEST time designing this. I love our American Flag, and I wanted to do something that showed it a little differently. So ... the design has 10 areas which are explained and diagrammed, and I do hope it all makes sense. I used regular cross-stitch, back stitch, algerian eyelets, square rhodes stitch, double herringbone, rice stitch, broad diagonal cross stitch with beads, and satin stitch. We used some pretty little star buttons from Just Another Button Company, and small Crimson Crayon beads from Wichelt/Mill Hill. The fabric is a pretty blue hand-dyed Jobelan (28 ct.) from Wichelt in "Bluebell", and the fibers used were Crescent Colours, Weeks Dye Works and a little Kreinik blending filament to add sparkle to the stars in the blue field. The little birds and our baby ladybug (included) are just singing ... singing ... singing -- all for the joy of Freedom! We hope you like it cuz we sure do.

Well ... time to go stitch on yet another new design. Have a wonderful day and keep on stitching!!!

Jennifer

P.S. For some dumb reason I can't figure out how to post two separate pictures. sigh .... I'll upload it in a 2nd post. Sorry 'bout that!

Happy Birthday ...

Good morning everyone, and Happy Last Day of May.

Today would have been my first husband's 64th birthday. I wanted to post this for myself and my children -- Andy, Doug & Cara -- just as a small Memoriam to someone we loved and cared about very much -- Dwight Andrew Cooke. He was a loving father and husband, and just a special person. To us he was a big, loving Teddy Bear. So many, many people have told us all how much he touched their lives and how much he meant to them too. He loved to pull pranks and tease (ask my daughter about the kitchen cabinets!) and read and laugh and watch movies on TV with Clint Eastwood or John Wayne. Though complications of Diabetes took him from us nearly 16 years ago, we still miss him a lot. You never "get over" losing someone you love -- you only learn to live with the loss and try to move on. I've posted a couple of new songs (ok, 3!) on here, and if you know "The Dance" by Garth Brooks, you'll understand when I say that I'm extremely lucky that I got to dance twice ...

Tomorrow is June 1 (can you believe THAT!), and we'll be posting some new design information and there'll be pictures (not teasers ha ha) on www.ladybuglane.com.

Until June ...
Jennifer

Remember our fallen heroes ....

"Land of the Free because of the Brave"

Good morning, and Happy Memorial Day! Just wanted to tell everyone to have a wonderful day today, and to please keep in mind and heart our fallen soldiers, and thank the ones that we are privileged enough to have remaining with us. I "swiped" the picture above just to put on here, and I do hope the person I stole it from will forgive me.

Got quite a bit of printing done this weekend, and hope to finish it up in a day or so. But golly -- printing on one little lone printer sure takes some time! Sigh ... then you gotta fold 'em, paste the picture on and bug 'em and bag 'em. LOL! Oh well, I'm proud that I'm able to do this and that (sometimes) people actually like my designs!

Well, enough of this yakking from me. Off to make the baked beans for the Memorial Day picnic with friends. Until next time ...

Jennifer

Happy Sunday!

Good morning and happy happy Sunday to all!

Hubby is back from Canada -- YAY! He had to go there for a class and I sure missed him! Kinda lonesome around here with just CocoPuff (chocolate poodle) and Cheeto (orange cat) to talk to -- but they are pretty good conversationalists. Although ... I gotta say sometimes Miss Cheeto just can't be bothered! Then again .....

Remember I told you guys that someone stole mail out of my mailbox? Sigh ... methinks we need a fence. A BIG fence. Last night some things walked off my back porch ... I hate it, but evidently someone needed it more than us. Well -- enough of that. On to more positive things.

The stitched piece for "Let Freedom Sing!" is with the framer and will hopefully be back next week so we can get it photographed and pictures printed. Charts are done and ready to be printed -- just need to get more ink for the printer. Sounds impossible almost to get it done and to the distributors by June 1 ... but if I work 24 hours a day ... Hey, I'll try because I WANT you guys to have it ... it's really pretty and a little different for me.

I added some songs on here for you to enjoy -- the one by Lifehouse ("Everything") can be seen by clicking on You Tube ... it's awesome and can be life changing. I'd love for you to see it. (If you'd prefer not to hear the songs, then just hit the stop button.)

Well ... that's it for today. I just want you guys to know how much we care about you, and would love to hear from you in a comment or by email.

Peace be with you --
Jennifer

What a day ...

Sigh ... what a day this has been. Even though it's not a Friday, I can sure tell it's the 13th .... boy is it the 13th!

Worked on the new chart all day -- first time I've ever done a chart where I had to explain "Areas". There are ten (count 'em, 10!) and some of it's so hard for me to explain and sound like it makes sense. Oh well -- we'll keep working on it. That took most of the day and I'm still not sure it makes sense!

Stupidly put some charts in my mailbox last night knowing I should take them to the post office, but was too lazy to do that. Well guess what -- you got it, someone took it out of the mailbox. They left the flag up, but took the mail. Oy vey ... what's with people?

After deciding to change my blog (why do we do blogs?) address, I realized no one could probably find it unless they went to Ladybug Lane first. How crazy was that of me!!?? So I had to repost the URL for that on some of my Yahoo groups .. and of course, I got it wrong! Well ... I got it right and added the "com" at the end -- but didn't add the dot com. ARGH!!!

Maybe all this is because hubby is in Canada training. He'll be home Saturday, but it's no fun when you feel like the other half of you is missing. So ... just for him ... I posted a link to a song I love. Go look/listen if you have a chance (under songs for a flower child).

Before I go today ... I'd like some help if you have time or feel "creative". I'm working on a teeny tiny set of designs to be released next year, and I want to call the group something fun and interesting. I don't want to infringe on other designers, but can't quite come up with a title for the grouping. Not tinys ... not littles ... minis maybe? If you come up with something -- no matter how trivial you think it sounds -- leave me a comment here, or email me at jennifer@ladybuglane.com (that's DOT COM!).

Hoping for a better day tomorrow -
Jennifer

As Promised

(From my teeny tiny calendar by Becky Kelly)

Good morning and Happy Mothers' Day to all Moms out there. I hope you have an awesome day, and that your children treat you well. MINE DID!!! Woo hoo .... my daughter Cara sent me the most wonderful gift -- a digital picture frame. Oh ... and the best part is she filled it up with pictures she had ... past and present. Now I just have to figure out how to put more on there ... where DID I put that instruction manual???

Anyhow -- as promised -- below is a tiny tiny teaser of our new design -- "Let Freedom Sing". It's going to the framer on Monday and hopefully will be to our Automatic shops near the end of the month, and to our distributors by June 1. We love it! It turned out very very pretty, and hopefully this tiny picture will have you curious enough to want to stitch it too. There are quite a few specialty stitches in it (I said that already didn't I??), and each area has clear concise instructions for you to follow.In any case -- tell your wonderful Local Needlework Shop you want it!

Again ... Happy Mothers' Day to all and Happy Stitching!
Jennifer

Happy May!

Wow ... Can you believe it's MAY already? Well, neither can I ... and as usual, I'm getting further and further behind. With that said though, I'd like to wish my beautiful granddaughter Kaylee a Happy Happy Birthday!!! She's eight years old today ... uh .... yesterday May 1 (see, told ya I was behind!) Anyhow, her card and gift got mailed ON her birthday, so hopefully she'll get it by Monday and have a whole new week of celebrating!

Today we're going to Biloxi, MS to celebrate our 12th anniversay .... which was in March ... see how it goes? Anyhow -- it'll be fun, and getting to spend some quality time with my "sweetheart" is always wonderful!

So ... obviously I'll be getting a little bit more behind on stitching. I hope to put my new design -- "Let Freedom Sing!" out by June 1, so methinks I better stitch a little faster (gosh I miss my wonderful ladies who stitch for me .... where are you Tia Mary and Lisa??) Anyhow, the new design is going to be really, really cute! The birds are singing their little hearts out -- with the help of our ladybug -- and the "Just Another Button Company" stars are looking exceptionally patriotic. The design is stitched on a gorgeous hand-dyed Jobelan from Wichelt ("Bluebell"), and we used threads from Crescent Colours and Weeks Dye Works, with some DMC included. The whole design revolves around a country-inspired flag, and we used several different stitches in this -- cross stitch, back stitch, double herringbone, algerian eyelet, rhodes and satin stitch. Not to worry -- every specialty stitch is illustrated and instructions are clear (at least to me!) I'll try to put up a teaser later this week to give you a preview!

Have a wonderful week and an absolutely gorgeous and blessed May.

With Love,
Jennifer

Flower Power

Just a quick note here ... wanted to say hello and that we've added some "Flower Power" songs to the site. No, I was never a "Hippie Chick" (but I DO have hips -- LOL!), but I was a "Flower Child" sorta/kinda. Anyhow, there are some videos on you tube you might enjoy, and I've added links to them for you (top right). One is very long, and is from the original movie "Hair" .... sigh ... and gosh I miss the 60's! Actually, I wish I'd have had the opportunity to be at Woodstock, but that was not to be. In any case, enjoy the songs I've added above and later on I hope to add more.

Have a GREAT week, and email us if you need any help with any of our charts, or anything else we can help you with!

Peace....

So here we are ... actually blogging! This will be short and sweet as I'm not quite sure what to say, and it will be changed frequently in the coming months. However, I do want to thank everyone that's taking the time to read this -- and I apologize for the brevity.

Please do -- if you have time -- check out all our new cross stitch designs, especially the newest "Love Never Fails". We love it, and so far it's had a good response! Pretty, pretty color of lavenders -- "Whimsey" from Picture This Plus. IF there is something you'd like to see ... whimsical or serious or in between, drop me a line and we'll see what we can come up with! This week I've been trying to get this house cleaned up -- and failing miserably -- and also working on and racking my brain to get a cute design exactly like *I* want it and like I think *YOU* would want ready for the Nashville show next February. Not to worry though ... I'll give you more info on that later. (HINT: It's going to be a kit. And major thanks to my wonderful Mom in Law Barbara for all her help on this!)

Much love and keep on keepin' on!