The hurricane hit us hard.  Amazing wind & rain but we lost our power for 36 hours.  

This is funny, Danielle next door and her whole family (5 of them plus Danny..no one really knows what Danny is, he sleeps on the couch) went to a hotel this morning.  2 hours later the power came back on.

We survived very well.  K fought the mob scene at the local grocery Saturday morning and got us lots of sandwich stuff  that did not need a fridge and lots of water.

My iPad is back lit so I was happy until the battery got low.  We had power at the new house so we went there to charge phones & iPads.

The renovation has hit high gear. The granite went in today, kitchen & baths.  If I don’t say so myself, it is gorgeous (and I do).  Let’s hear it for upgrades.

The tile guy starts tomorrow, he is installing on the diagonal.  He says it will be finished Saturday and can be walked on Sunday but we will stay off it (as much as possible) until Tuesday.

My excellent contractor can’t work there this week so he is doing stuff at his own house, always good.  He is a real find.  As they find problems they just fix them.  I never know about it until afterwards and they do not add to the bill.  His amount pre-supposed this kind of thing and it is included.

It is good.  The cabinet guy got agitated over everything, lots and lots of calls.  One day I spoke to him 6 times.  I don’t even speak to K that often.

We move in September 23.  So now I begin packing……again.     Good thing I am The Tape Gun Queen.

I hope everyone who was in the storm’s path is OK.  I wonder what’s next. First the earthquake, then the hurricane.  K says locusts next.  I hope it is that rather then a visit by his family.  Much worse then locusts.

We just felt the earthquake here.  In southeastern PA it was not severe but it was a sustained shaking that “moved” the house.  Nothing broken.

I knew what it was immediately, I was living in SanDiego in 1971 when the LA earthquake happened, we sure felt it in San Diego.

The news says it was centered in Richmond, VA and they were evacuating Washington, DC.  As far as I am concerned, they should have evacuated DC in 2008.

I am swamped, which is my explanation/apology for not doing a blog in so long.  The renovation is moving fast now.  The painting is 3/4 done, the custom base kitchen cabinets are in, the top cabinets go in tomorrow.  The granite counter templates were done Monday, the granite (kitchen & 2 baths) is supposed to be installed 8/29.

One of the showers has been removed and the solid Swanstone base is in, the cement board backing is in and the new control (faucet) has been soldered in.  K begins tiling this weekend.

The mirror is finally down from the 3 sides surrounding the jacuzzi tub (shudder).  My contractor did not want to do it (scared?  superstitious?)  so K did it.  It took him barely an hour.  He coated the mirror plates with this plastic wrap made to protect carpets during moving or construction.  It kept the mirrors from shattering while he removed them.  They came apart in larger pieces.

The big hold up right now is the 1 bathroom vanity we ordered from Home Depot.  It was supposed to be in last Friday.  Now it is due Thursday.   Everything is waiting on it.  The granite final template & install, the tile floors etc.

The rest of the painting,the light fixtures, switches and outlets, appliances go in next, last is the carpets.

We only need 1 shower done to move in.   My excellent contractor is going to do the outside work after we move.

I have to tell you, I know renovations, and ones this large specially, are supposed to be the horrors (K watched The Money Pit this past weekend) but ours is going well.  Our Contractor, John Rice, is doing a fabulous job and is a very nice man, as are his helpers.  The custom cabinets designer and maker, Tim Horst of Old Road Furniture in Intercourse, PA is very talented and a pleasure to work with.

Same with the granite guy, Joe Lapp.  All in all, this has been a cordial, pleasant renovation.  Not bad for a total strip out, down to the walls and subfloor.

Of course, it costs a fortune but that is a subject for a later rant.

Plus I have to begin packing to move.  Danielle and I are going to work on the basement storage room tomorrow.  K can do his own side of the basement, which is a total disaster, himself.  I am not touching it.

And NewNeedlepoint.com you might ask (LOOK< my links work again, thank you Zac!).

I have been selling tons of books, replacing the new books is easy(ier).  Just buy them and click a virtual button.

Replacing the rare books is much harder.  I have to find them, get them, clean them up, photograph them, edit the pics, and describe the condition of these new editions.

Not as much work as a totally new listing but not just clicking a (virtual) button either.

Plus, it is always a gamble.  As some of these books become harder to get, the price I pay for them goes up and the condition I get them in gets worse (and worse).

That said, I have listed a bunch of replacements for the rare books.

Here’s an odd situation.  Occasionally, a new book will capture the interest of my (3, maybe 4) customers and sell well.  It is then almost guaranteed to be discontinued by the publisher.  This has happened to me several times like with My Point Exactly by Orna Willis

Which I now buy directly from the author.

Or The Complete Illustrated Stitch Encyclopedia.  When this happened I bought all the copies I could find. I now have 5 copies.

Well, it has happened again.   I have been doing very well with A Perfect World in Ribbon Embroidery & Stumpwork by Di van Niekerk

It had been selling well, I had been ordering it 2 and 3 at a time.   It was selling so well I was about to order 6 when it was discontinued by the publisher Search Press.

AWWK.  I scooped up all the copies I could find (5) and that’s all there is.

Moving on, I have 16 books to list from my purchase of Ruth Dilts own Needlework Book collection.  I have 27 new books to list.  I have 36 canvases I brought back from the Baltimore show to list.

I have 5 more replacement books to list and 37 *new* used/rare books to list.

Plus I have to change all my address stuff, pack, move……

and visit my parents in Boston before they go back to Florida for the winter in October.

Plus, I am still doing all this out of my 9X9 foot office.   When I go over to the new house, I stand in my new, bright lovely office and sigh.

Yes, I am still alternating reading Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels with Regency Romances.  A very nice balance, really.

The Shapes of Needlepoint: Series 2  by Sandra Arthur.  Diamonds, Hearts, Octagons & Stars is here.  I have them in stock (at this moment, as I write this).

Sandy speeded them along and I got them noonish on August 12, just as I was leaving for the Baltimore TNNA show.

(The links STILL do not work)

On the other hand, it was good they came then and I got them inside.   It had been raining off & on.  Danielle might not be along till late, if she was busy (I was pretty sure she did not have shows those nights).

Baltimore?  Well, it was my first ever trade show, TNNA or anyone else.  I had no idea what to expect.  I had been told to wear comfy shoes, bring along something to cart or carry your purchases with & the sellers love cash.

Well I covered the cart with bringing K.  He is so nice sometimes.  I always wear comfy shoes (no more heels and huge platforms for me) and I brought cash.

It was at the Embassy Suite hotel.  It had open courtyards all around a central atrium.  It was perfect for a show like this.  You could see all the floors and “stores” and many of them put banners over the solid railing.

Each room is a suite, with a front room, small corridor with a bathroom off it and a bedroom with a king size bed. Some of the rooms had small picture windows so you could see in, like a shop.

This Embassy Suites was pretty shabby but if it hosts many of these shows (and the huge family reunion that was there at the same time) it gets some hard wear.

We heard that the food in the one restaurant was not great so we had room service Uno’s Pizza. It was good.

In each seller’s suite the new stuff was on the walls, the sale or discounted stuff was in the second room, on the bed.

I met some of the people I email or talk to often.  That was nice.  I am lucky that way, all my vendors are friendly & helpful.  It helps.  I visited Danji, I love their designs, I bought a few more (did I mention this is a cash & carry show?).  They brought me a order I had placed, saved me shipping.

I bought 1 Sharon G, also met her and asked about her next book.  She says September.

I met Elaine Oliveros, co-author ofStitch Landscape

I met Jean Smith, bought 2.  I was excited to meet her, her designs are iconic.

I bought a few Amanda Lawford, including a terrific flying pig.   She was there and I was glad to meet her.

Her son also has designed a line of handpainted needlepoint canvases.  His line is called DC Designs.   He said his prices are kept low to meet the new economic realities.  I bought 4.  They really are interesting and well done.

I bought 4 Maggie canvases, I met Maggie.  Back before I hadNewNeedlepoint.com I had stitched several of Maggies excellent Geometrics. I wanted to tell her how much I enjoyed them.

I bought a Susan Hill, 2 from Winnetka Stitchery. I bought 2 Jane Nichols and 3 Beth Ganz Alphabet canvases.

I bought one spectacular canvas from The Point Of It All Designs. It was design by Evelyn Bernstein. I had never heard of her before but I am going to look for her work now.

Finally, right next door to us on the 4th floor and badly placed in terms of show traffic was Sophia.

She was a tiny older Chinese lady. Her work is exquisite oriental influenced, gorgeous stuff. aI think all the back cover book blurb writers should see her work before they misuse the words “exquisite” or “stunning” again.

K had to help her take them down off the wall. I bought a huge fierce Samurai Warrior canvas, in full battle approach. I just might keep him for myself, He would look incredible on my wall (if I ever finish the Red Sox canvas I am stitching for K).

Or I might sell him. I also bought a gorgeous fan from her. I want to get K to drive us up to Sophia’s place in NJ, so I can buy more.

So…..here I am home, faced with piles of work, at the midpoint in the renovation and I should start packing for the September move.

The Renovation is coming along. I guess my contractor is superstitious or something. When we first discussed the job, I told him that I wanted the huge plate mirrors removed from the 3 walls surrounding the Jacuzzi tub. (who would put them there and why? It was not the builder)

He didn’t do it and didn’t do it. He finally told me he doesn’t want to do it. So K (my new hero, however temporary) went over there this morning and removed all 3 walls of mirrors.

He said it was easy.

The kitchen & bathroom cabinets should arrive this week. Then the granite, the tile floors.

Then the bathrooms. Actually we only need 1 bathroom (maybe 1 and a half) working for now, we can finish those as we live there. Finish the paint and the carpet, last of all.

Then I can move in. I am ready. I have forgotten some of the things I have in storage. I will be surprised.

I am still alternating reading Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels with Regency Romances. My system keeps the Jack Reachers from being to raw and the Regencies from being too silly.

Ok, since I raised the price of Stitch Landscape I have had no (zero, zilch, nada) sales of Stitch Landscape

I raised the price to $35.00. Then I lowered it to $34, nada…..then back to $33. Sales were still a dead duck.

So then I thought, I don’t think it matters. It will sell at $35, with free shipping. Still well below the other sellers so…. I priced it back to $35.

I really am silly…..then again, if you read this blog you already know that. I hope someone out there finds this amusing.

I have been listing new books all week. I am good for 5, maybe 7 a day and then I just want to type “yadda yadda” so I stop and do other things (and there are always other things to do).

I have listed a bunch of new books like:

Lucinda Ganderton (the author of the very popular book, Stitch Sampler) Needlecraft: Skills & Techniques. A complete overview of the basic terms and tools and techniques needed for a variety of Needle Works.

Cicely Mary Barker’s Flower Fairies in Embroidery & Stumpwork by Di van Nierkerk (author of A Perfect World in Ribbon Embroidery & Stumpwork). From reading the introduction, I learned that Cicely Mary Barker’s Flower Fairies are quite popular.

Being the mother of just 1 boy, I had never heard of them.
Now, Star Wars I know. They really are lovely. This is not a beginners book.

I now have both of Nicky Epstein’s edging detail knitting books:

Knitting on The Edge

and Knitting Over the Edge

They are both amazing collections of edging and borders for everything knit. The 2nd book has more crochet edgings.

This one is not listed yet, it is on my list for today. The entire title is:
Vogue Knitting
Knitting for Pets On The Go

There is a wonderful dog on the cover wearing a very chic sweater, a Faire Isle, no less.

This book and it’s great cover sent me off on a book buying tangent. I have all kinds of books on order about knitting for pets. One is breed specific, so you can knit the right size and shape for your dog and one is both dogs & cats.

When Jack The Cat was a kitten someone (not me, I would never presume) put a kitty sweater on Jack, He hated it, hated it beyond words and squirmed non-stop trying to get out of it.

And speaking of Faire Isle designs (now, wasn’t that a nice segway?) I also listed Alice Starmore’s Book of Faire Isle Knitting.

She is also the author of Celtic Needlepoint. I have a Gift Quality used copy of it on NewNeedlepoint but since my LINKS do not work (did you see that Zac?) I can’t send you there easily. It is is the rare NP Design Books category.

The Baltimore show is next weekend, my first ever since I whimped out on Columbus (it was the week I bought the condo). I will meet Ruth Diltz there and get the books I bought from her private needlework book collection to sell on NewNeedlepoint (in 6 or 8 months when I will manage to get them listed).’

Also, (and I think this is a biggie), I am in the process of trying to get new copies of Jane Zimmerman’s books to sell. Ms Zimmerman said she would “be delighted” to have me sell them on my store site, so all I have to do now is place an order with her distributors. I hope to get them all, all her titles. These are terrific books. They are new but they also qualify as hard-to-find.

The renovation (you knew I was going to get there) is actually going well. We have all settled down and are working well together. I think maybe I did hire the right contractor. He is really making it move along.

I have changed my design. I am now tiling the family room, I had been planning to carpet it but with the wall down, the areas are very open to each other. I think the all tile will flow (sorry, I went briefly hippie there).

I have many nice area rugs from living in Florida, where almost all the floors are tile.

So, The kitchen will be installed late next week or the beginning of the next. The wall work is almost done and the painting is coming along well.

The appliances are bought and the carpet ordered. The come in last.

I went to the stone yard yesterday and picked my granite. It was a hard decision, granite is very forever. Even cabinets, if you hate them, can be painted or tile floors can be carpeted over but granite….it is there.

This is costing many times what my (also) silly estimate was. K & I are doing more of it ourselves.

I am designing the closets and we will use the stuff they sell pre-cut for closets to build them.

He is tiling both bathrooms and will make us new tiled showers. We have pulled out the icky molded plastic showers, wonder boarded the walls and placed Swanstone solid bases on both shower floors.

K is doing a ivory travertine marble with lots of beige in it in his Bath. 4 X 4s on the floor and 2 X 6s on the showers walls in a brick patterns.

We were going to do mine the same but then we saw some closeout marble at Hope Depot. It is gorgeous pink with lots of beige and movement, just amazing.

When I first saw it, I did not think I could use it for the shower with the existing (blah) beige tile there already.

Eventually, my marble lust won. K is pulling up all the tile in my bath and doing it all this marble. I am trading him a tile saw for this. He does not have to rent one, now.

He says he will sell it on Craig’s List then we are all done.

As you can see, I have been all over the place but it isn’t often you get one of your long term dreams and re-doing a home exactly the way I want it is a big one of mine.

And I am doing it.