The Love Just Never Stops....

I for one am just about all out of love and hearts for this month of February, and it's still a week before Valentine's day, which February is all about; love, hearts, cards, flowers, candies and a whole lot more.  But at least today is the last day of the scavenger hunter theme of "love" at Ecrater Stores Network.  And one of my esteemed fellow store owners is all about love, I mean it really.  She is Embroidery Fashions Boutique.  She embroiders love all over her tee shirts, aprons, caps, cotton canvas bags, you name it.  Her items love fishing, love pasta, love my big sister, love daddy, love bingo, love hunting.  I bet she can embroider love on just about anything!  Here are a few of my very favorite items that she carries.  And if you still need a Valentine's day gift for someone visit the rest of the merchants at ESN, many of them have great gifts for this special day.

Duck Hunters Love Redheads and a Good Blow     Cotton Canvas Love the Beach Bag 

                           

Thanksgiving Is Over For This Year

Well, Thanksgiving is over for another year and now the mad rush towards Christmas begins.  I had a nice Thanksgiving, although pretty much all I did was cook, clean up and cook again, and there was only 4 of us!  But I had to go to the grocery because the meal I ordered forgot our mashed potatoes!  The look of horror on my guests faces that there might not be mashed potatoes was too much to bear, so I had to venture out.  How I wished it was 1621 then since the pilgrims didn't know about potatoes (mentioned in last blog posting).  But I trudged on and going to the grocery on T-day wasn't so bad, although I did wonder about the few people I saw who seemed to be doing their weekly shopping.  No where to go?  No friends or family to be with?  And the man I was behind in the checkout line, he had a large frozen turkey at 11:30 in the morning.  Ugh, that will never work, but maybe he was going to celebrate T-day over the week-end, who knows!  So, I was thankful for the lovely day, the lovely people I'd be spending it with, the good food and of course.... American football.  What can I say? It's tradition!!  So to end last week's theme of Thanksgiving for the scavenger hunter's at ESN I have found a few perfect aprons for your next feast at Embroidery Fashions Boutique.

Give Thanks Turkey Apron

Autumn Blessings Happy Thanksgiving

She has many other T-Day items and items for other occasions as well, so stop on by to see if she has what you need, and don't forget to visit all of us at Ecrater Stores Network!  Ciao!

Feathers, Lines and Traveling....

Whew!  I missed the last installment of  the "feathers" theme at ESN, and I've also missed the "lines" theme for this week, well, so far anyway, but getting it done now!  I went on a little trip to see my mother in Pennsylvania last week.  A town called "Quakertown", population a little under 9,000 and some of the citizens are actual Quakers.  I forgot how beautiful PA was, the trees are so different than what we have here in Colorado.  It is autumn there as well and the colors were brilliant.  It was a pretty quiet time as mom doesn't get around all that well anymore.  But she did have a party in the hall in the park she lives in for my 2 brothers, my nephew and myself because all of our birthdays are in October!  It was quite fun and we had cakes with our names on them and a wonderful meal with good wine and many of my mother's friends.  It was a great visit, but I am glad to be home, a lot of stuff to get done (like renew my expired drivers license...) before I go back to university on Oct. 29th (can't wait to get back to work!) So I looked around at some of my fellow scavenger hunters stores to see what I could find in the vein of feathers and lines and here's what I found.  This shirt from Eccentric Thrifter is a feather design, so it doesn't have any feathers fluffing off of it, but it's pretty cool design all the same.

Ladies Top Briggs New York - Feather Design

For lines, I have found in my own store Le Petit Marché a few items that are more like "striped", but lines are stripes and stripes are lines, right?  Or they probably can be.  

Espresso 3 Cup and Saucer Set                                             

  Amanda Smith Multi Color Stripe Purse

And to finish up the "lines" theme I found this fishing cap at Embroidery Fashions Boutique.  She custom embroiders all her items herself and has lots of different fishing caps to choose from.  I chose the fly fishing one because there is a fishing line embroidered on it as well!

Mens Custom Embroidered Black Fly Fishing Cap

Those Who Labor Over Their Handcrafted Wares

I've never been very good at crafting anything when it came to textiles and such.  I can barely put a photo album or scrapbook together.  I can, however, craft stellar meals of French and Moroccan cuisine (including the famous Moroccan mint tea, with the requisite elaborate pouring from the pot included!)  Spending fair amounts of time in both countries I have learned how to cook with labors of love.  The ESN theme of this week is Labor Day.  Well, I've already had my say about Labor Day and what it means to me on Monday.  So I'm just going to go ahead and feature two lovely ladies who are members of ESN who labor probably almost every day making their items for their stores.  There is Embroidery Fashions Boutique who specializes in embroidery on tee shirts, hats and other items.  Her stuff is pretty cool and I bet it takes a lot of labor to make all the things she does, not to mention to find the items to do this stuff on.  Here's a sample of her work.  Pretty cool for Halloween, eh?

I'm here for the boos

Then there is Nancy's Doll Closet who designs beautiful American Girl Dolls dresses and accessories.   Both of these handcrafters deserve a Labor Day off!  Hope you did enjoy it girls.

 American Girl Doll Short Set