Beachy Keen!

Paradise!

Straw Market booth

It is hard to properly describe the vivid blue of the water but it truly is beautiful.

Goodbye Christmas - thanks for a great year!

Since we can only get good vacation time when school ends before Christmas we took the kids to the Caribbean for some vacation rest and relaxation - had a lot of fun and my newly acquired Fitbit informed me daily that I was literally walking 15,000+ steps each day when the goal should be 10,000 steps! Gee, no wonder I got so tired at the end of every day!  😳. I'll post some more photos over the next week or so in case anyone wants to live vicariously through armchair travel instead of actually leaving your nice comfy house - Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas - if you are traveling anywhere please be safe - it is officially time for our Elf on the Shelf to disappear until next year - I'll post some assorted pictures over Christmas! ☺️

The school bus driver was in full spirit wearing a Santa suit!

Sneak Peek! "OLD MAN WINTER"

As promised here is a sneak peek at an upcoming release...it is called "Old Man Winter" and you will just have to use your imagination as to what the rest of the design will look like!

That rascal Elf!

The kids got up to discover their Elf, Snowflake Jones, made 27 pieces of toast last night - the giggles were plentiful!  Check back over the weekend for a sneak peek at a winter design I am currently working on....happy stitching!

The Elves are a little toasted!

An Elf picnic the other night!

Elf of a Shelf....

Well we have our very own "Elf on a Shelf" at our house this Christmas season and the kids cannot wait to jump out of bed each morning to see what sort of mischief he has gotten into overnight! Let me start off by saying we tried starting the Elf tradition last year but our 5 year old was totally freaked out at the concept of this cheeky little Elf coming alive and doing things while he slept so we had to "retire" Elf until this year. Now he is on board with the whole idea of it - the kids got to pick a name for the Elf and register it in Mrs. Claus's adoption book at the North Pole and he is now known as Snowflake Jones! I thought you would get a good chuckle out of a couple of things Snowflake has been doing around here recently!  So if you have your own Elf on a Shelf please feel free to leave your favorite Elf story in the comments section below!

Look very carefully in the bowl of oranges!

What I am thankful for....

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I am thankful to all of you for your support of my designs throughout the last year...I have consistently designed and released more charts in 2014 than any other year, and you have all helped to make the process a lot of fun for me - and for that I say thank you!

I was featured in a European cross stitch magazine called "Kreustitch Motive" this Fall which was really cool - and I have some designs up my sleeve for the fine folks at Just CrossStitch magazine too.

I am one of those crazy people who love shopping on Black Friday so you'll know what I will be doing starting tomorrow night! I'm still on the fence on whether I think the stores shouldn't open until Friday and leave the actual day of Thanksgiving free, but I also noticed this year that a lot of retailers have been offering some of their Black Friday specials online - gotta say I love that, especially when combined with free shipping!

Happy Thanksgiving!

New Release Sneak Peek! "NAUGHTY OR NICE"

Before this design even goes to my distributor for ordering, I am giving you a quick view of it!  I literally put the last stitch in it today mid-afternoon so it couldn't be fresher if I tried! Let me know how you like it - happy stitching 😊

Disneyland!

I thought you might like to see some pictures of Disneyland all decked out for Halloween this year - the amazing thing is that 48 hours after we came home, the little Disney Elves changed out all of the Fall flowers and planted Christmas seasonal flowers - all this happened literally overnight! Personally I think we could all stand to have a magical team of elves in our everyday life...don't you agree?!!!

It's good to be back home!

Since our kids had a couple of in service days off school last week, we took them to Disneyland then Huntington Beach, California where we walked a WHOLE lot,  rode some crazy rides (can we say Tower of Terror - which isn't named that just for fun let me tell you!!!), and splashed in the ocean - nothing like a nice 5 foot wave washing over your head to deposit some sand in places where it doesn't belong!!!! Happy stitching - here are some vacation pics I want to share....

Sneak Peek & Contest!

Here is a preview of another new Christmas design coming out in a couple of weeks called "DON'T STOP BELIEVING" because I think we all carry a little piece of Santa in our hearts all year long!  Here's the contest part - just blog about Pickle Barrel Designs and my freebie chart giveaway and 2 lucky winners will each receive this brand new design - just have new stitching pals join my blog and make sure they leave their name and how they like this new design in my "comments" section! I'll announce the winners around Halloween!

New Release! "I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS"

Another day, another new design!  This delightful Christmas design whispers the joy of the season and that no matter where you are in the world at Christmas time, your heart will always remain at home. This chart should be available next week for your LNS to order in for you - the best part is that it's a fast and easy stitch!

New Design!

Proudly presenting the first in several Christmas designs which include lyrics from many beloved Christmas Carols this one is called "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and is just heading off to be printed in the morning. It should be out through Hoffman Distributing in about a week or so for your LNS to order in for you!  Happy stitching and keep checking back for updates on more new releases! 

Happy Fall y'all!!!

Where on earth does my time go? 😳  I swear, in the blink of an eye it went from August to October and September just disappeared! Maybe with the kids going back to school, getting settled into new routines, extracurricular activities, play dates and everything else that goes along with having a busy family - I lost time!  Anyway, did I mention that our little Synagogue in Fargo desperately needed roof and plumbing repairs but couldn't afford to get them done so I started a "Gi Fund Me" campaign online and so far have raised almost $12,000 through the website with another $11,000 being donated directly to the Temple AND we have an anonymous benefactor step forward willing to immediately donate $15,000 followed by matching all of our donations dollar to dollar up to a maximum of $30,000?  Let's pause while I give myself a great big pat on my back because I am VERY proud of how I made a difference.

In other news we took the kids hiking this weekend at a State Park in Minnesota and love the changing colors of the leaves - I'll post some photos to share with you all - happy stitching!

LAKE LIFE - New Release!

Fresh off the presses we have the third design release this month entitled "Lake Life"!  Who doesn't love time at the lake in any season but especially in the Fall.  The crisp leaves under foot, that swirling smoky smell hanging in the air and temperatures changing so you want to wrap yourself in a familiar warm sweater...is is most definitely my favorite season!  Another new release coming next week so stay tuned....happy stitching!

Presenting...."HELLO FALL"

Hot off the press here is my new design called "HELLO FALL" which features threads by Weeks Dye Work and stitched on 28-count Jobelan.  Let me know your comments on how you like it and I will choose someone to win a free copy next week when it ships to the distributor so be sure to recommend your stitching friends to come by for a sneak peek!

New Fall & Halloween designs coming your way!

I am just finishing up one more piece to a great set of Fall designs that are pretty cool so sit tight for those along with another Halloween design and another Fall design - then it's onto Christmas - hohoho!!!!

Brand New Design for Halloween!

For all you shoe lovers out there I present "SPOOKY SHOES"! As soon as I saw this saying I knew it would be made into a new Halloween design for me! Even better is that I stitched it in 2 days with many interruptions so it was fast and painless with almost instant results - woot woot!! I just have to paint the frame I am using for it so it should be ready to release early next week!

Just Cross Stitch featuring a design from Pickle Barrel Designs!

Hurray, I received my digital online edition from Just Cross Stitch of their new Fall themed issue and I have a design featured inside called "Spooky"!  Here are a couple of screen shots so you know what to look for, but it shows up in picture form on the Table of Contents page and then starting on page 48 are the assorted Halloween designs including my "Spooky" Banner - let me know how you like it!  

PS. I have at least two more designs publishing in their magazine between now and the end of the year!  :)

On the road again!

As Summer vacation slowly comes to a close we took the kids to Minneapolis for. 3 days - spent time at the ever fabulous Mall of America and the Waterpark of America indoor Waterpark - our kids even braved doing a VERY TALL zip line that takes you across the top of Nickolodeon Land at MOA which is equivalent to soaring 5 1/2 stories up there - let's just say I was their official photographer and not zipping along with them!!!!