Good Gravy.. The Neighbors are Talking About Me..

I’ve never really had a guest blogger, with the exception of one of my children.  Today my neighbors have something to say.

longhorn cows, bulls, living in the country

Hay.. (get it.. H-A-Y)..  I was wondering if you could tell me a little

bit about your neighbor… you know that eBay chick that lives up the road?

Um.. excuse me.. I wanted to know if you knew anything about

your neighbor?

Hey you there.. in the back butting heads.. can I talk to you?

Oh.. I thought you two were fighting.  I had no idea you were um..

well..  we don’t allow this kind of thing here.. This is a family blog…

Can you tell me anything about your neighbor.. you know the one

that wears the rhinestone crown to Wal-mart?

“She has issues, and drives down the road in huge vehicle with

what looks like a bunch of cow tipping hooligans in it.”

Any other scandalous news?

“She’s a beef eater.”

Surfing for Needlepoint and Cross Stitch

When I was in 4th grade my mother taught me how to do cross stitch.   It was only cross stitch on a printed design, but she started my love of needlework on that day.   Between 4th grade and 1995 I exclusively did counted cross stitch.  After 1995 I learned I COULD NOT keep track of what I needed to cross and where I was on the pattern.  You see #2 was born in 1995.

Now days I do a lot of needlepoint.  If you don’t know the difference between Cross Stitch and Needlepoint.. it’s pretty simple.

  • Cross stitch is done on a soft cloth, and you count  with little squares and holes. With Cross stich the stitches are formed by making X’s across the squares to make a pattern.   The pattern is not on the fabric, you follow the paper pattern and count to figure out where your stitches go.
  • Needlepoint uses different stitches, (but almost never and X). The other major difference between cross stitch and needlepoint is that a needlepoint design fills up the entire fabric, while cross stitch can be large or small but almost always has blank canvas around the stitched image.  With Needlepoint the pattern is painted on the canvas while cross stitch is a blank canvas.

At lunchtime around my house I like to dream about needlepoint.  I surf the internet for the perfect canvas.  Here are some I found today.

I love all things Poppy.

I found this one on Etsy.  This is hand painted by the seller WeezieWorld.  They are selling it for $75.00 Check it out HERE.

Looks like something  The Pioneer Woman would love!

I love the colors.. makes me wish I had a  floppy ear dog.  Hand painted by Etsy seller 4EVAU  Asking price on this needlepoint $29.00  Check it out HERE

Geometric Design..

I like circles.. but these are more like ovals.  ANY WAY.. I like the colors and the shapes of this one.  The artist is izzyandluca  Price $35.00  Check it out HERE.

Fart Queen…

This is NOT needlepoint.. it is a cross stitch.  I saw it and about spit iced tea ALL over my laptop.  I hope it brings you the same joy it brought me 🙂  Etsy Seller Xandy  Price $35.00 Check it out HERE.

The Pioneer Woman comes to Kansas City..

The Pioneer Woman (Ree Drummond) was in Kansas City on Monday night. I took #1 and #3 for a little mother daughter time. Before showing up at the the book signing, I asked the girls where they wanted to eat.. they chose the Westport Flea Market. (see my review here:)

We arrived at Unity Temple at 5:30… expecting to wait until 6:00 to get our seats, but we walked right in and picked 3 seats in the 2nd row from the stage. (don’t dislike us because we are cool)

This is a photo from the back of Unity Temple (before she arrived).

the pioneer woman, marlboro man, blog

Here’s a close up of where she was going to sit..

THEN.. a hush fell over the room …

Holy Smokes.. could it be.. yes.. It was MARLBORO MAN!

What could be cuter than Marlboro Man? His two boys!

Aren’t they cute? They were carrying in the t-shirts ( see here)

Can you believe it? She brought us all T-Shirts.. they are so cute!

Then.. She came out.. she answered questions for about 45 minutes or so.

#3 put a question in.. “Would you like to buy some girl scout cookies?”

She told #3 to find Marlboro Man and hit him up. (she did see below)

She looked great and is so funny!

(Please forgive me for the red eye.. I tried to remove it really I did)

While she answered questions from the audience.. MM and the punks played with

the camera.

Don’t you love the purple jacket.. check out her boots.. just wait until I show you those!

Rainy Day Books had a cool drawing for door prizes… and the

entire Pioneer family helped give the stuff away.

The boys liked the microphone. They said all kind of funny things in it

randomly throughout the night. 🙂

Right after this moment she did her Ethel Merman impression..

it was hilarious!

What do you think MM is thinking right now?

I know! I know!

He’s thinking: “I can’t wait to give the beautiful #1 her T-shirt”.

We interrupt this blog to tell you about the “set up” of the Rainy Day Book signing. When you purchased the book for this book signing, you received two tickets for the signing. I believe the tickets started at one.. our three tickets were 558, 559 and 560. We had some time to kill..

#3 had the boys sign our cookbook.

Here’s a weird back story.. see the woman in the argyle sweater? I

told #1 that I thought I knew her.. and she had to be from Ottawa. I made eye contact with her a couple of times through-out the night but she didn’t really look at me like she knew me… and well I didn’t go up to her and say anything… So fast forward to Wednesday. I had parked my car (in Ottawa) and was walking toward the courthouse.. and there she was! I said something to her, and she didn’t even LIVE in Ottawa.. she was just there for some conference at OMA! How crazy is that! (she did remember me from the book signing though).

They really were concentrating on their handwriting. Must be the

homeschooling!

Marlboro Man signed our book..

This is where #3 asks the Marlboro Man if he wants

to buy some Girl Scout Cookies.. He said yes!

Doesn’t that look like a guy who is happy about his purchase?

After our fun with MM we sat down in our seat.. and people watched

and waited..

Check out these boots.. they are wicked awesome.

Yes, that’s PW wearing them.

How about these snake skin peep toes? I don’t think they

were very comfortable.. she was dancing back and forth on them

like they were killin’ her.

I think the boys were a little bored.. they started a wrestling match on the stage. I think PW might have been a bit horrified. It made me feel right at home…because of THIS and THIS oh and THIS

When it was our turn.. I completely forgot everything

I was going to say to her.. I felt like Ralphie in A Christmas Story

when he’s trying to get the words out to tell Santa what

he wanted for Christmas.. Oh well.. at least I have February of 2011

when Black Heels to Tractor Wheels comes out in BOOK FORM!



You got a T-Shirt from WHO?

I had plans to talk about my little trip to Kansas City to see The Pioneer Woman at her cookbook signing. You know her right? Well.. life seemed to get in the way today, and I didn’t get my blog written like I wanted… So I think I’ll give you instead a little peek.. into the SWAG.. we received!

Nothing less than Pioneer Woman T-Shirts..

The back reads: “Book Trip ’09 www.thepioneerwoman.com

OOOOh.. and look who gave them to us..

Um.. yes you guessed it That’s Marlboro Man.. handing #1 her t-shirt!