Wow, it's been much longer than I thought since I last posted! Everyone in the house has been sick, some of us multiple times now. I think I'm finally OK, but John has headed over to the ER today because his newest fever just won't come down from 104 degrees.

No stitching because I've been so sick, so I tried organizing some of the freebies I keep and have done pretty well at that. I also have been looking through old stash (and some OOPs I ordered online for Christmas for me that just came) trying to decide what goals I want to set for the year. If I could hunt up my UFOs I would make those a priority (and then not stitch all year, LOL) but they seem to turn up rarely these days. The 3 I can think of that I have are an old country-style alphabet (still very cute in my opinion), an orange Dodge Charger that I'm almost finished with, and Stitching Bee's Angus that a friend of mine very kindly gave me. I changed the dog to white and black to match my Beanie boy, but I *hate* stitching with white so that poor thing may never get done.

I have been promising for years to stitch a hot wheels race car for my son Bryce, and last year I even custom matched the colors of his room to match the car AND bought the floss but didn't ever start it :/ So I suppose that should be a priority this year. I have to admit, I really want to be selfish and stitch for me all year this year ;o) I have so MANY projects I want to do!!

And now that Christmas is over I have to make good on my promise of getting the back yard in order, the garage tamed, and the rest of the house working like a well-oiled (and clean!) machine.

My "vacation" from designing has come to an end! I have to admit I was getting worried and feeling very down the last month or so hearing all the negative things about the industry and "cookie cutter" designers that has been going around. I started to wonder if maybe I was a cookie cutter as well? I got my latest distributor check though, and it made me realize that *someone* must like my charts because they keep selling in nice quantities. So I *do* need to keep my ear to the ground and keep up with industry advice and keep trying to make my own niche, but I can't let all the negativity force me out completely unless I stop coming up with (what I hope are) new and unique ideas. I've finally figured out what to release for Nashville and am pretty excited about it. I got my registration to go walk the show in just under the deadline (I was so depressed I had talked myself out of going). So this weekend I'll be working on new charts, etc. Hope to have lots to share!