Someone's birthday . . . . . .

Every year this day rolls around!  It's Nikki's birthday today.  Her dad and I started a tradition years ago of taking her out on her birthday. We had fun at the mall then lunch afterwards.  

Ron and Nikki had the most delicious burgers on toasted bread.  

The fries were tasty too (I stole one of Nikki's).

What you see next is an ENORMOUS baked potato filled with chicken and broccoli. 

Nikki is a wonderful daughter and an awesome business person I love to bounce ideas around with.  Wishing you many more happy birthdays sweetie!!!

Diane (mom)

First Day of Fall

Even though it is as hot as summer, a wee bit of fall decorating is going on at the Williams house.  Like many of you we are more than ready for cooler temps.  I have two candles burning. . . . . . Frosted Pumpkin and Autumn Pumpkin.  Neither smells like pumpkin.  I'm out of my favorite, Autumn Harvest.  And why did Yankee Candle quit making Cinnamon?  They replaced it with Cinnamon Sticks but it just wasn't the same.

I also changed out a few cross stitch pieces on my walls. Right now I'm really wishing I had some smaller autumnal designs stitched for my cubby.  Maybe next year.  The colors of fall are my favorite for decorating and designing.  Now if the temperatures would just dip below 90 I'd be a lot happier!

Happy stitching,
Diane

September Releases

The newsletter is going up on our website today.  The new patterns we'll ship to our distributors at the end of the week are Little Miss Sunflower, Autumn Band Sampler, and the ornament, Joy and Peace.  I love fall so the two autumnal pieces are making me yearn for cooler temps, shorter days, and blue jeans!!!

This Week in September

Like so many of you, our days leading up to September 11th each year are spent remembering the horrible events of that awful day in history.  This year has been no different as we  pause to remember where we were when we heard the news, how we reacted with stunned silence and then tears when we saw the images and heard the terrible stories as they unfolded in front of our eyes.

We all know this is the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attack but our thoughts here are also with the family of a little girl born on 9/11 in Tucson who did not live to see her tenth birthday.  Christina-Taylor Green lost her life in the shooting back in January that seriously injured our Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and killed five others.  Christina was the hope for the future, the pride of her family, the reminder that out of something bad, good could come.

Let us never forget any of those who not only lost, but gave their lives that day.

We have a sampler that contains this verse:

Red for brave hearts that burn
With liberty,
White for the peace they earn
Making men free,
Stars for the Heaven above,—
Blue for the deep,
Where, in their country’s love,
Heroes shall sleep.

The first time I read it I was tearful and I thought of the lives from wars long forgotten to those more recent.  It was written by Wallace Rice and is titled "Under the Stars".  It seems fitting to post it this weekend.

Diane