Giveaways Arrived & Mysteries Revealed - Part I : )

The giveaways I gave away recently have arrived at their destinations!  The one I will tell you about in this posting is Betty's.

Betty at Through My Back Door was the runner-up winner.  I really hadn't intended on having a runner-up winner but when it came time for me to do the drawing I thought "I think I'll have a runner-up winner too!"  I decided that the runner-up would receive a treenware trinket box but you know me ... or maybe you don't ... lol!  I usually like to add a little something to my giveaways to make them more personal for whoever receives them.  I looked at some past messages in Betty's blog & found one where she mentioned her "addiction" to Deb Peterson's pinkeeps & she shared a photo of a few she had on display.  "Eureka!" I cried!  Well no, I actually didn't cry "Eureka!" but I knew exactly what would make Betty's win more personal!  The thing is, I had never heard of Deb Peterson & Betty didn't include a link to her in any way, nor did she mention the name of her blog or website!  The search was on!  I did track down Deb's blog which led me to her selling blog.  I saw she not only sold finished pinkeeps but patterns for them as well.  Uh-oh ... was Betty addicted to the finished pinkeeps or was she addicted to buying the patterns & making them herself?  I had no idea & of course I didn't want to ask Betty & thereby possibly ruin the surprise so I shot an email off to Deb & asked her.  I told Deb what I was planning to do & I think she was as excited as I was ... lol!  She said that Betty bought the finished pinkeeps from her & that she would send me photos of a few she had completed that she knew Betty didn't already have.  She did & I picked out the one I thought would fit Betty best.  Not long after this Deb informed me that Betty had contacted her asking if she had any pinkeeps available that were not holiday related.  We were both almost giggling thinking of how surprised Betty would be when she found one in her giveaway package   : )

Now ... dopey me, I was so excited to wrap up the package & mail it to Betty that I totally forgot about taking pictures of anything!  However, Betty did post some photos on her blog which you can link to up above.  Also, if you would like to see Deb's pinkeeps & the patterns she has for them, her blog is Pilgrims & Pioneers Primitives & her selling blog is Pilgrims & Pioneers Stitches.      

And now for a mystery revealed   : )  Remember this photo below & the posting I did almost 2 weeks ago titled I HAD to go out shopping today...?

I said I could not explain the reason for this shopping excursion but would do so at a later time.  Here's that explanation ...

I fell in love with counted cross stitch the first time I did it.  That was way back in the early 80s when we lived in Florida.  I was into various crafts back then.  My husband went shopping one day but for some reason I opted to stay home.  While shopping he stumbled upon a CCS shop that had just opened.  To entice customers they were giving away little kits so you could try your hand at it.  The finished product was only a few inches square.  He picked the little owl design for me & I enjoyed working on it so much & couldn't want to do more!  I bought all kinds of floss & books & magazines & kits & other supplies.  After a while I started designing my own stuff.  I submitted my patterns to a CCS magazine & I was a regular contributor for them for about a year.  Nothing earth-shattering ... no one was doing shading or fancy stitches back then.  I was pretty pleased to be getting paid for my pattern designs though & I was really excited when they chose one of them to feature in their advertising for the magazine that year   : )

We moved to Montana & I continued to stitch.  Then we moved to Tennessee & then a few years later to North Dakota.  In North Dakota I got more involved with quilting, learned how to tat & taught classes on that, learned how to paint & a friend & I painted all sorts of stuff for craft shows.  We were also the painters for a women who sold things in various shops in a few nearby states.  She designed them, her husband cut them out of wood, & my friend & I painted & finished them.  I also got involved in making bobbin lace.  I was doing so many things & thought "I'm really not all that interested in CCS anymore" so I sold just about everything I had on eBay.  

A few years later we moved to Michigan, then back to North Dakota, then back to Michigan.  I got hooked on CCS again ... I don't remember how ... & started a little internet shop selling various patterns, kits & supplies.  I tried to replace all of the items I had sold a few years before & added more to them.  I also had a folder full of design ideas.  I was planning on doing my own line of stuff.  I was still doing the painting & the bobbin lace though & had added knitting & rug braiding to the mix along with heaven only knows what else ... & I got to the point around 2004 where I decided that sadly I couldn't do everything so I decided to totally stop some things.  CCS was one of the things I decided to stop.  I sold all my shop inventory, all my personal supplies (including all my floss collections!) & actually threw away my design ideas!!!  "Make a clean break" is what I was thinking at the time.

Fast forward to last month.  Betty's name is drawn as the winner of my runner-up giveaway.  I see that Betty is "addicted" to Deb Peterson's pinkeeps.  I find Deb Peterson's site.  I start talking to myself.  "Oh look ... she sells patterns.  Hmmm ... look at this pinkeep pattern ... that's interesting.  I really like that.  I wonder if I should order it?  I always liked doing CCS.  Maybe I'll just buy this one pattern & make myself a little pinkeep."  Then I started arguing with myself ...

"You don't want to do CCS again!"

"Why not?  What harm could there be in making one little pinkeep?  It'll be fun!"

"You don't have time for this!  You can't do the things you already want to do!"

"But I always loved doing CCS!  I'll stop doing something else!"

The next thing I knew I was at Hobby Lobby where I bought 160 skeins of floss (the pinkeep pattern only called for 3), 6 different fabrics (the pinkeep pattern only called for 1), & several supplies to start building my CCS inventory again ... & you know what?  I actually had a design pop into my head within a day after buying that pattern from Deb!  Since then I've jotted down a whole page of design ideas!  As you can see, thanks to Betty & Deb I've got the CCS monkey on my back again!  Just like an alcoholic ... I can't even take a look at some patterns without succumbing to my old addiction ... lol!  Here is a picture of the pinkeep design I purchased from Deb which I'm currently working on.  My first stitching project in 7 years.

So thank you Betty & thank you Deb!  I am where I'm at today because of you   : )