As they say in Minnesota...

If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes. I think Fall/Winter is finally arriving. Rain and wind are supposedly bringing cooler weather (I haven't been outside yet). This, after setting a record high of 86F this week. I feel I must apologize to my Canadian reader for teasing her about the cold weather in her blog the other day; it appears ours is finally arriving. Ok, I'll qualify that as "cooler weather" since we won't have snow or ice and I might not even turn the heater on. I have spent some time in the northern climes (Minneapolis/St. Paul area) and I did get used to the cold, but what really got to me as a Southerner was Spring not showing up until late May! Here in Texas, my tulips will probably bloom in mid-February (and yes, they really are in the refrigerator right now), the leaves will start to turn green in March and the wildflowers will transform everything by early April. That is one of the neat things about traing for the big bike ride we do in the spring - really getting out and seeing Spring.

Ok, enough about the weather, people really read this blog to hear about the stitching, right? Or should I go on more about some hexadecimal to binary conversions I'm doing? That's what I thought. As I've said before, the focus right now is on the releases for Nashville. Additionally, I'm trying to do some planning for next so that there are more releases spread throughout the year. The trick is communicating effectively with shops and generating demand. Not all shop owners are tech-savvy to click links in email, and direct mail can get expensive. Of course, if stitchers demanded the latest Cross Eyed Kat design, that would help, too. :) Back to Nashville and some juicy hints. I'm currently planning on at least six new releases, maybe seven (the seventh is sitting in draft stage on my desk right now). One, is of course the Fantasy Faire 2006 design. Two is a companion to the Fantasy Faire design - these two are so neat I can't wait for them to be released! Three is another "Ancient World Sampler" - who can guess what ancient alphabet it will have? I'll probably do just one more of these, I think a set of four will look nice. The last two are two companion designs that use the fortune cookies previously posted. For anyone who voted on whether the cookie should be open or closed, I'll just have to tell you that the red design came first. And the design in draft stage - well, I'll let that one be a bit of a surprise until it gets farther along, but I'm planning to do the model mostly in silk.

Oh, and I'll gladly take any design requests under advisement.