HAS IT BEEN THAT LONG???

 I can't believe I haven't posted since the middle of January!

Well here I am finally - but not much has happened, maybe that's why I haven't gotten on here.

Have you ever gotten on the bandwagon? I did it this past month. One lady on FB posted that she purchased a metal Windsor bench from Tractor Supply Co. and the craze started!!!

I don't know the exact number that purchased them but at one count there were 110 that I could find...I wonder what TSC will think when they look at the inventory the end of this month 😂😂

We bought two of them - the funny thing is that most of the stores got in just one, possibly two if they were lucky so anyone wanting 2, like us, had to go to another town to purchase the second one.  But it was so worth it - they are a very very heavy metal.

I've been busy the last couple weeks getting into the designing mode and will be just as busy for the next several months till the show in October.  Our dining room table has been full - although I had to clear it off for Easter dinner - but it went right back on.

A friend here in town raised bees and I asked her if she had any filtered beeswax I could purchase - she said she did - I got 20 lbs. of it from her for my poured beeswax shapes.
I should have enough for what I need once I start pouring.

Oh and I forgot that I purchase some new molds and now I'm anxious to get pouring!!!

And....because we don't have fabric stores near us I buy what I can

 when I can so here's my latest stash!

Some I used already to cover a set of Mache boxes for a customer

 and some I have used as backings for my penny rugs.

I hope you all had a great Easter - we did - we finally had some of our family for dinner.

Being Doug and I had both vaccine's we felt good about having the kids here for dinner.

But for breakfast Doug and I had 'fried bread dough'.
I grew up having this as a special treat when mom and or grandma made bread - they would save some and fry it. I love butter and sugar on mine.

It's way better than pancakes or French toast.

I finished punching this sweet pattern this week.

I love the mellow colors

I'm sure there's more I've missed but that's it for now!!

Karen

C-C-CHANGES!!!!

 The country is having many many changes and so are we here at the Martinsen's

All good - first off we are delighted that we are to become great-grandparents again in June.

Granddaughter Alexandra/Jade are having a girl.

Doug and I have been busy here making changes to our basement stairway.
A much needed re-do.  The only thing we ever did was put stair carpet many many years ago.
So it will be complete this time.
The walls and backside of upper stairs is going to be bead board painted an off white.
I wanted a color but really needed it to be bright.
I have been painting the boards (3 coats) and Doug puts them up.

We bought a new light and will put new carpet on the stairs in a brown/cream tweed.

Removing the trim and the hand rail, next the carpet

Next the sidewalls and finishing up the upper part

On New Years day we made a fantastic
standing rib roast - and it was delicious!!
I had only made this once before so I was so happy it turned out.

If you follow my business blog you would know

I have one of my Valentine Punch Needle

patterns available
It is a huge seller this time of year

And...I will be making beeswax hanging hearts
that you can put on your mini tree

The mold is coming in the mail this week
and I can't wait to make them and put them on my website.

I have made and sold many of these woven fabric hearts

I have some fabric left if you are wanting any.

Email me if interested

Thanks for visiting today!
Karen

BEEN A BUSY MONTH!

This month has kept me quite busy with getting orders out
and getting the house set for Christmas.

Earlier this month I started making wool garlands

and I had such a response for them.
I made them in shades of greens and shades of Ivory.

I will be making them throughout the year to get a supply for our next years show.

I'm showing a few of my customer's pictures of how they displayed theirs.

I also made up a tree in a painted box and added some mini ornaments/garland

and one of my newest punch needle designs.

I sold this one about 5 minutes after posting it on my business page

and orders for 5 more for next year.
If you ware wanting one let me know so I have enough supplies.

I do however require upfront payment to secure it

as the supplies are expensive for this one.
$70 plus shipping (shipping to be billed when it ships).

If you are like we are here, we won't be having our family gathering.

It's sad but it's for the best and we are making the best of it.

Being we don't want to gather in a 'large' group we have taken each family alone which we have found isn't all that bad. It's a lot of one on one instead of 16 people

trying to keep up with conversations and active children.

Last night our youngest son/family were here so
we could give our two grandchildren their gifts and then we ordered pizza.
Us with Emily and Joe

Tonight we went to our oldest sons/family for the two little ones to open their gifts from us and we took Italian Beef from a fantastic Italian restaurant.

(Miranda and Aidan)

(Aidan being silly with his new soccer ball - it came semi-inflated 😂)

We have two more to go, one on Christmas Eve and another early Christmas morning.
So it started out to be quite a busy week so far!

Doug and I will be going to church Christmas Eve and then we will spend
Christmas day alone, and we are okay with which surprises us
that we feel that way - maybe we are just getting old!
We'll celebrate with a standing rib roast!!!

We didn't put out all our décor this year and didn't even put up the main tree.  We are using the one we normally have in the screen room.

Thank you for visiting 

Have a wonderful 

MERRY CHRISTMAS