Saturday, July 28, 2012

A Dress Rehearsal Sale of my Needlepoint Patterns

MacSoph and I are finally (FINALLY!) settled into Queendom Website's New Castle and we are happy there. A bit wobbly but basically happy, with the distinct feeling that we will grow more competent with experience.

It is with experience in mind that we are having a small sale on Friday, August 3 and Saturday, August 4. We decided we need to try a small sale before we are centered in the ring of fire that my big autumn sale called 'E-Week' can become.

So on Friday morning, August 3, early as can be, we will post a small selection of patterns for sale in hopes that someone will want one or two and click on the buttons to see indeed if she can navigate through the sale items and if our PayPal buttons and email buttons work well.

This Dress Rehearsal is also our chance to try out Surprise Windows of the sorts we have on Saturday and Sunday mornings at E-Week. There will be four windows for Saturday morning, August 4 at 8:00 a.m. sharp, California time, and MacSoph has already got quivering keys over the idea of how speedy we must be to connect everything in a short time.

We will see how we do, MacSoph and I, and if we do OK, we will head into the E-Week Season with much more confidence.

Right now, on Queendom Website's Home Page are four 'Practice Surprise Windows'. If you travel to Queendom Website's Home Page and practice, you will find they take you to faraway places, each window.

People have been emailing me to ask, what am I selling? Well, it's a secret! It will be here soon enough.

Meanwhile, all next week, if you click on the Practice Surprise Windows you will find tiny hints behind each.

If you do travel to click on the Practice Surprise Windows, will you let me know if you find any irregularities? Write to me: GARRogers@earthlink.net. This time it is all about MacSoph's and my practicing our skills so that we are indeed swift of key come E-Week in mid-October.

Gay Ann

Friday, July 06, 2012

Summer Needlepoint Loafing

Every morning first thing in the morning I think to myself, OK, today diligence will reign and before I fall asleep tonight I will have made significant inroads into my too-long To-Do list.

Such was my resolve yesterday morning. I'd had a nice holiday on Wednesday and my plans were to conquer The To-Do List on Thursday.

In reality what happened doesn't set a good example.

On Queendom Website I have a new mystery. It's 'Jane'. I've asked my followers to guess who Jane might be and a number have written guesses; one suggested to me that the Guesses might in fact be a Wish List. Interesting notion. Has anybody guessed the identity of 'Jane'? Maybe. That's all I'll commit to right now.

My friend Natalie came up with the idea of 'Jane' and it is all I can do to keep from working on Jane. Yesterday I succumbed. I spent the entire day working on my Jane plans. By early evening DH put in his two cents and I went back to the drawing tablets. I sketched my way into the wee hours last night, with all the mess of linen, threads, pencils, sketches, books, xeroxes, cards etc. surrounding me.

That's the trouble with my job: the most engaging captivating part of my job is the invention. The imaginings, the puzzles, the what-might-be's, the dreams, and right now I am in High Dream mode.

Meanwhile the 'To-Do' list grows longer. Queendom Website still needs a lot of attention, Stash Castle (my old website) is in disarray and badly in need of decoration and organization, E-Week is only 3 months away, I have a stack of instructions to write, and then there's my New Year's Resolution of cleaning up my hoarders mess. Not to mention my Elizabeth class at Shining Needle Society and my General Classroom there too. And I can't forget the daily slog of homework from my Apple University lessons. See, it goes on and on and on.

So this morning I am filled with remorse that I loafed away an entire day immersed in Jane Dreams.

Really? Well, most of me feels remorse; a part of me enjoyed myself hugely.

Last night I tucked Jane and all her trappings away in a box and put her out of sight, so that I would tackle Work instead of Temptation today.

Sigh, it was a lovely day.

Gay Ann


Tuesday, July 03, 2012

Queendom Website and Stash Castle

Slowly MacSoph and I are settling. We returned to our old site yesterday and redid much of it. MacSoph and I had the idea of turning it into Stash Castle, thereby moving all our stash (such as eBay auction recommendations and auction results there.

Of course, soon as we had a part of the work completed, we went shopping and found a few goodies worth writing about. Couple of very nice thimbles, and a few thimbles for fledgling thimble collectors too. We still have to do cameos.

After posting the thimbles and a needle case, we went back to work and established a quick way to travel between the two sites. I posted buttons on Queendom Website for a quick trip to Stash Castle, then just close Stash Castle and you are back on Queendom Website.

It will eventually all come together, in fact I don't think it will be long now.

Soon as we are even 80% settled MacSoph and I are planning to have a housewarming party with a couple of surprises.

Soon, very soon.

Gay Ann much relieved that this stressful year of shopping for a new Castle, moving and settling in is almost behind us. Long may Adobe be happy with Muse!

Sunday, July 01, 2012

Wonderful Whitework Embroidery!

I can't help it, I just love beautiful examples of whitework embroidery! I love the fineness of the tiny stitches and the beautiful motifs, and lately one such example fell into my lap.

I have been collecting bits and pieces of lace and whitework for a new mystery, and as a part of these pieces, I bought a large but somewhat tattered handkerchief. The handkerchief is large and plain except for an embroidered motif in each corner and truth to tell, I was somewhat disappointed because the shapes of the motifs weren't what I had hoped for.

Disappointed until I checked the quality of the embroidery when disappointment turned to excitement. For the motifs are among the best quality whitework I've seen in a long time.

This morning I posted two photos (one a closeup) of one of the corners, a sprig of pansies in pulled thread and with padded satin leaves, on my website.

I hope you will travel there and see if you don't think the pansies are worth the trip.

For quick reference: www.GayAnnRogers.com/index.html
When you arrive, click on 'Collections' on the yellow navigation bar.
And be sure to scroll down on the page to see the closeup.

Nice, very nice treat, on an early Sunday morning in July.

Gay Ann