A few things have been keeping me from the internet lately.

1) I’ve been working on a really exciting, HUGE custom order for a very major US retailer. It has been stressful, but awesome! I am making 4 custom kits for them, and I can’t WAIT to tell you who it is and show you what they are. So I’ve been taking some time off from the Etsy shop and summer shows to get that going.

and…

2) and 3) – ben and I are expecting, not just one, but TWO babies! Our twin girls are due in September. It is pretty crazy. We thought we were prepared for one, and then got the shock of a lifetime when we found there were two growing in there. I am not going to turn this into a baby blog, so we are going to write our personal things over on our other space, infinity forever. there are no posts there yet. but hopefully there will be. neither of us are very good at keeping up with posting. We are trying to build up a good inventory of kits this summer so that the tako fibers etsy shop will be open during the holidays. woo hoo!

Jump for joy! I am trying to make an effort to write more things here. I know I have been gone for a long time. You know when you think about something every day yet somehow cannot force yourself to do it? That is how writing has been for me. I have dutifully been posting photos of my dog, my knitting, and my food on instagram, but haven’t had much to say about life or embroidery.  I’m hoping to change that.  I realize it is not very interesting to read this because every time I write a new entry, it is to say “Whoops! Sorry I haven’t been around for a long time!” But, I have some exciting things coming up that I would love to share, so this seems like the proper thing to say.

It is pickle time!

Claire and I picked up 40 POUNDS of pickling cukes from Kruger’s farm market stand, along with a bunch of dill.

We made both sweet pickles and dill pickles. For sweet pickles, to keep them crisp, you cut thinly into coins, salt them, and put them on ice for several hours. We made the dill pickles first, and holy geez did we ever make a ton. I think we have over 25 jars! We both love pickles so hopefully these will last until next summer.

We didn’t make quite as many jars of sweet pickles, but we did manage about 10. They will start to be super tasty in about 4 weeks. We already tried a jar of the dill pickles, which will also be much tastier in a few weeks – but they are already amazing now! They were a little limp, so I might try liming them next time to keep them crisp.

Yay pickles!

As you can see… still working on the website. It’s hard when you work full time and have a million other things going on. blarg. at least i have been painting and knitting and embroidering. i just can’t stand to be in front of the computer for more than a few minutes…

I was happily featured in an etsy finds email the other day, so that was good!

yep, thats right. if you want an awesome crewel embroidery kit, please visit my etsy shop. still working behind the scenes to make this site more than a default wordpress thing. it will be awesome one day, i hope.

I am taking this opportunity to completely redesign and re-think my website. I’m sorry for the delay! Its amazing how easy it is to get lost in the world of css. I have my own virtual server on my computer and have been building and working on it every day… it takes awhile though!  Please feel free to email me, facebook me, tweet at me, whatever, if you have any embroidery questions at all.

ok! my site is back online! but not working very well right now. note to self and note to all of you: KEEP WORDPRESS UPDATED! getting hacked is no fun! The posts are up but I need to make it pretty again. I’ll be back soon!