ha!

need a last minute halloween costume? be a pilgrim!

How To Make a Pilgrim Costume on Howcast

noticed notices

i've noticed some more blog mentions over the past week, which is great, because it's been helping a whole bunch to drive more viewers to my sites.
i saw this post on design is mine:


this one on darling dexter:


this one on lah mode:


and this one on india knight's posterous:


and just this morning, i received an email to let me know that one of my pieces was included in this beautiful etsy treasury by pretty in posies:


thank you so much for the approval, support, kind words, and exposure, bloggers!

carving the bird(s)

update soon.

my baby does the hanky panky

b used to tease me about my affinity for vintage hankies over modern fluffy disposable tissues, until a few weeks ago, when he found himself at my house with a snotty nose and no tissue box in sight. he ended up going home with two said hankies (one was one of the feather embroidered linen ones i had done a while back.) and i think i've got him hooked (on hankies, that is). well i was in my most awesome and always surprising and inspiring local fabric and notions shop the other week and i there i spied a pile of plain new cotton hankies, and they had manly colors, too! so i picked up two of them and then yesterday, to celebrate the wee victory of being caught up on orders (kinda), i gave myself some non-work project time to sit in the sunshine, listening to belle and sebastian, and stitch these up for him. i spent a little time the night before searching for fonts to use and it took my a while before it hit me to do it in the tattoo lettering style.(i used this, here.) i'm pretty psyched on that one. working on the thin cotton is a little difficult - the fabric is not so forgiving, once you've poked the needle through, the hole tends to want to stay there, which is why the other hankie is so boring in comparison; i had done that B first and once it was in and i saw how boring it was, it was too late. oh well. i like them, i think he'll like them, they're just gonna be used for snot.


ps - here's a joke for you: Q: how do you make a tissue (hankie) dance? A: blow a little boogie in it. (HAHA!!)

keep me in stitches

the november issue of country living magazine has hit the stands and chez-sucre-chez has made it once again!



hooray! my monogrammed tea towels are included in the fresh picks section featuring ticking stripes, and i've offered a discount code on them of 10% off for country living readers. well, chez-sucre-chez blog readers, you get the discount, too, if you want it.
shop my online store (here) and just enter the coupon code 'CL' at checkout. these make lovely holiday gifts. (just sayin'....) the coupon is good until november 30th, so get to it and keep me (even more) busy.

news news

with all i've been trying to do, i missed some press mentions over the last week or two. here were some that i managed to catch:
jen, over at made by girl, gave a little shout-out for the new smiths pieces and home-sweet-homes:


see the post here.

the "please please please..." piece also got the attention of uncle beefy (the bedlam of beefy):


see that post here.

my hot air balloons were posted about over at oh-dee-doh:


here.

lushlee posted about my silver-lined-cloud zippy pouches:


(and now they're all sold out!) that post is here.

and i actually caught myself on the etsy front page the other day:


(after noticing a significant jump in traffic!!)
hooray hooray!

hoop-la

these look way better now that they're framed in vintage hoops.


the letters were totally lacking umph in the regular hoops that i had them in while i was stitching them, but now i feel a lot better about them. bueno.

the latest

just finished this up last night:


it's for an upcoming project. i'm really pleased with how this one, so different from my other works, turned out. i love the soft chocolate-y brown aida cloth with the cream stitches. if all goes well, there'll be a better photo of this piece to show off at some later date.

letters on the wall

i'm stock-piling letters again.


i've found, thanks to many of my sweet sweet blog readers, a whole bunch of new sources for old patterns and i've had some fun giving them a try.
let me introduce you to some of my current new favourites:

here's w:

i like the way he's a little cute and creepy.
and m:


teeny, but sweet.
i don't really know why, but i really like this u:


maybe it's the pink.
i so like this h:


it reminds me of edward gory.
and like the u, i'm not quite sure why, but i do like this e.


i've got a few projects in the works that use lots and lots of letters so this collection is going to be growing!
also, though, i've added the option to my shops for ordering groups of letters, rather than just individual initials. that way, buyers can customize and order letters to spell out names or words or whatever and it's easier and cheaper for them. i need to take better photos for the listings, though...

ooh you've got blue skies...ooh you've got graaaay skies

by request - i've added some of the silver-lined clouds to my shops.

this one is all gift-boxed up and ready to go:


it's listed on my bigcartel shop. see it/get it here.

this wee little one is gift-boxed, too:


it's on etsy. here.

this set of three is up on the big cartel shop. here.



and then there's this one - which i just did with a much thicker silver-lining:


i particularly like this detail shot:


it's up on etsy. here.

reeling

i can't say i'm reeling around the fountain, but i sure have been feeling like i've been reeling lately. sorry for the lack of posts; it's been a bit of a nutty week or two. here's one project that i've been able to complete though, outside of the nuttiness of orders and obligations and life:


something new! i've framed a piece, in a regular frame rather than an embroidery hoop. mostly i did this because i cut the fabric too small and it wouldnt fit in the embroidery hoop that i had intended for it, but also because i feel like i was going for something a little different with this piece and the frame seems, to me, to suit it a little better than a hoop would. this was actually my original vision for the smiths series -- traditional style samplers but with quirky pop/alt-culture lyrics/references rather than the traditional ABC's and 123's. but then i fell in love with that fabulous script-style lettering and decided to do the other pieces like that instead. and then i found myself still itching to satisfy that original vision. and now i have. so i think i can move on now.


that's it! c'est tout!
(oh yeah, the piece is up on etsy, in case you're interested... here.)

golden lights

some really very lovely press is going around about my cross-stitched smiths lyrics.
apartment therapy:


pretty cool, right?! see the post here.
i enjoyed reading the comments:


i particularly enjoyed the one from the girl who said she started running around her living room screaming "oh my god" when she saw the post, and the one that complimented my choice of lyrics to stitch (yay! i love when people get it!). i checked this morning and there was, of course, one naysayer, who made some comment about "the kids of this generation." i'm not quite snarky enough to comment back to inform him/her that i am of the original smiths generation.

poppytalk did a post, too:


see it here. i also enjoyed reading those comments:


the haystack needle also posted about the series:


read the post here.
so cool! it's great to see how passionately people respond to the smiths and things inspired by or related to them. i think they were just such an influential band to so many of us as we were going through our wacky teen years. i know i am certainly not the only one who analysed and hung on every word that morrissey sang; i supposed that's why i was so drawn to stitch that series...
anyways - - thanks so much for the press, jessica, and jan and jen! (wow! three j names!)