A Tadd More

Lucky Winner....!

Last weekend (while I was having my gallbladder out), my girls here at TTD were having a big shop hop. Each "hopper" had their names entered into drawings for any number of possible gifts. They could win a new Bernina sewing machine, a basket of twelve $50.00 gift certificates from participating shops, a basket of 100 fat quarters or a gift basket worth $100.00 which each shop contributed. Well this was our gift basket winner, Sue. It was a basket purse with all kinds of goodies in it. Mostly pink and green. Chocolates, relaxing spa music, bath products, candle, quilt magazine, and fabric! Sounds like a great combination right?  Congratulations Sue! By the looks of her purse, I'd say she is familiar with bright fabrics!

                               ****Thought for the day****
"Did you know it is against the law to let a monkey smoke a cigarette in Indiana?"
"It is also against the law in Pennsylvania for a man to put an ice cream cone in his hip pocket."

But, apparently your monkey could smoke a cigarette in Pennsylvania, while a man puts an ice cream cone in his hip pocket in Indiana, and you'd be ok!

Am I the only one who wants to know.... why did they see the need to make these into laws? Is this what our tax dollars are paying for? And, I have to wonder..., are some of our current laws about as ridiculous? Just had to put my 2 cents worth in! 

See you all when we get back from Quilt Market!
God Bless,
Tammy

It was a happy "mom's day"....

Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day. Mine was very nice. Although my two oldest daughter's were both out of town! One was in Vegas, and the other one, New York. HOW RUDE! Where do they get off thinking they can have a life! Anyway, I had 3 out of the 5, so I'm not complaining.

The two most important men in my life were dressed so pink and green I just had to take their picture! I didn't even ask them to wear my favorite colors. They just know what I like! The only thing that would have been better would have been my youngest son in the picture too. Not sure where he was at this moment. Or the next moment for that matter.... we forgot him at church Sunday morning! Can you believe it! There goes my "mother-of-the-year" award. And I was a "shoe-in" for it this year! Seriously, my husband and I always drive separately because he has to be there earlier than the rest of us. And after church, he usually takes the kids with him. Well, he took Haley with him and left Garrison to ride with me, but didn't tell me (imagine that!). Well, I looked around and didn't see either one of the kids so I just assumed they were with daddy. As soon as I pulled into the driveway at home and my husband and daughter got out of the car, I KNEW!!! So, I had to call some friends who were still there and they brought him home! They told me "he didn't seem to be too worried about it". It really does take a village (or at least a whole church) to raise our kids. I know I will take all the help I can get!

Aren't these the prettiest little hydrangeas. My oldest daughter Olivia sent them to me. She knew she would be gone for the weekend so she sent them through the mail. I was impressed that they were in such good condition for being mailed!

My favorite gift was this picture of Nick and Renae. I LOVE it! He was a little tired of seeing pictures of him and old girlfriends from school dances sitting around. He told me I could put those away now. I guess I can see his point! I was informed that he is "the good child" since he was HERE for Mother's Day  and the girls weren't.

Well, we are off to Portland in a couple of days for Quilt Market. So I will try to take some good pictures to show you all. Have a great week everyone!

                           ****Thought for the day****
A little humor from Healing Through Humor by Charles and Frances Hunter
                          Only In America....
* Can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.
* Are there handicap parking places in front of a skating rink.
* Do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a Diet Coke.
* Do banks leave both doors to the vault open and then chain the pens to the counters.
* Do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.
* Do we use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so we won't miss a call
  from someone we didn't want to talk to in the first place.

God Bless!
Tammy

Happy Mother's Day.....!

                                 "Happy Mother's Day Mommy"!

You are the best mom any girl could ask for. Thanks for being my mom and for always believing in me and supporting me in everything that I wanted to do. I hope you'll always know what a blessing you are to me.

          **** Thought for the day ****
"What do girls do who haven't any mothers
     to help them through their troubles?"
                 Louisa May Alcott

    "A mother is not a person to lean on
but a person to make leaning unnecessary."
             Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day, and you get to spend it exactly the way you want.
God Bless,
Tammy

And yet another sneak peek....

So here is another sneak peek! This was truly a long day! For our photographer too. We had him worn out by the time we were done. You know how women are.... we had to have everything placed just right. I think he thought he was going to come in and shoot everything in a couple of hours!

We have 10 projects in the new book, so everything had to be photographed in group settings as well as individual shots. So we were literally at it all day! It was at least 8 hours, probably closer to 9.

Laura Smith is one of the girls who works with me and she is just as much a perfectionist as I am, so when we look through the camera lense and the flowers aren't quite right, or we don't like the position of the bag, those things are important to us, and we have to shoot, and re-shoot sometimes. I know there were times when Don, our photographer wanted to strangle us!  When he was thinking "it looks exactly the same to me ladies, just let me shoot this picture and get out of here!" He will probably never agree to do a job like that again!

      **** Thought for the day ****
"Creativeness often consists of merely
turning up what is already there."
        Bernice Fitz-Gibbon

See you soon everyone. God Bless!
Tammy

Another sneak peek....!

So today was my first full day back to work!!! Yeah!!! I actually worked Tuesday for half a day and didn't take everyone's advice to take it easy for a few more days. I wasn't supposed to start back until Wednesday, but since I thought I was feeling pretty good, I came in a day earlier. WELL, let me tell you, by Tuesday night I was paying for it! Had to take pain medication to sleep. I think the thing that has been the most surprising to me has been how tired I am! Could be a combination of traveling, doing shows, and surgery right on top of that. Who knows. But today, I'm feeling much better! WOO HOO!

Thought I would give you a few sneak peeks at more of the new book..... this picture was taken the day of the photo shoot, (that's not my best side!). Pictured here is one of our new designs; Green Tomato Pie in the background, along with a table runner in front called Raspberry Rumble. This is just a practice staging but you get the idea. Are you sort of sensing a "theme" here? Do you get the idea that we're really "into" our food too?

My grandma use to make this delicious "green tomato pie" from her "end of the summer" unrippened tomatoes. It tastes just like apple pie except I think it has a little "richer" flavor, kind of "butterier". I am including her recipe in the new book, so try it this summer and let me know what you think. Can't wait to get this book finished and get it out to everyone. I think you'll really like it. It's got a little of everything in it. Something for everyone!

I'm starting to get really excited to go to market. It's kind of a relief to not be vending, but we are going for such a short time that I hope we get to see everything we want to. Miss Sherry and I are going to be there for just a couple of days and then we come home early. I will try to take pictures to show you, along with more sneak peaks of the new book.

                         ****Thought for the day****
    "The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes,
                        but in liking what one does."
                                   J.M. Barrie

So true! Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
God Bless,
Tammy

Paducah....!

Hey Everyone! Sorry I haven't gotten back to posting since our two big shows "back to back". It's been a hectic week here at TTD. We've had all of the unpacking to get done plus we have a big shop hop weekend in the store and lots to do to get ready for it. This is probably THE busiest time of the year for us. We did the Spring International Quilt Festival in Rosemont a few weeks ago, then we had a week in between to get ready to go to the American Quilter's Society show in Paducah. We were there for a week where it was "hotter than Hades" I think the expression was. It wasn't that Paducah itself was all that hot, but in the pool atrium where our booth was.... we were ROASTING! Our customers can verify that. When we got to Paducah on Monday we decided to do a little sight seeing.... here is Miss Sherry and Laura 2 walking hand in hand with "flat marylynn". Some of you may remember her from last years show. This is two years now that she was not able to go so we had to take her "flat" representive. Let me tell you, "flat marylynn" did a lot of SOCIALIZING on this trip!

You may recognize this lady.... Flat Marylynn's new friend Eleanor Burns. That Marylynn, she's such a "name-dropper"!  We went to visit Eleanor's store; Quilt In A Day and visit our cutie little friend Jeannie Sullivan.

They had a pajama party on Thursday and Friday night and they were so sweet to invite us, but I'm tellin' ya, we were so stinkin' tired after the show all day and the heat, we just ate and went to our hotel room to shower and go to bed! We are definitely not the party animals that we once were.

I told you she was quite the "little socialite" didn't I! Here she is with our waiter; Joey, at Olive Garden. He didn't even care that she had garlic breath. Hope Marylynn's husband doesn't see this picture!!

We were finally able to get her to go to bed! She was all tuckered out. She was so tired that she snored all night and hogged the bed! That's the last time we are letting her stay up that late! I have lots of pictures of "flat Marylynn" that I will share later.

So along with the shop hop that's going on here at TTD, tomorrow is a BIG DAY for me.... I'm having my gallbladder out! Woo Hoo!! Yes that's right after 5 years of a non-functioning gallbladder, I have finally started having attacks and decided to get it taken out. The biggest deciding factor was when I discovered that I can't eat ice-cream. Too much fat. Or Alfredo sauce. I say life is just too sad without a little Alfredo sauce once in awhile and a lot of ice cream!  So I decided to get it out now and have 2 weeks recovery time before I go to Portland for International Quilt Market. By that time, I should be able to lug my suitcase through the airport. And all of my lipgloss!

I didn't realize when I scheduled my surgery, that it was the same weekend as shop hop. So, needless to say, my loyal employees are doing all of the work this weekend and I am going to just be layin' around relaxin'.... ! It's a good thing I have such wonderful help. I COULD not do this without all of the help I get from them. 

So, another little "happy".... in the mail I received this wonderful little package.... it was waiting on my desk for me when I got back from Paducah. And what to my surprise was inside? This adorable little owl! In pink and green! Isn't he fabulous! He comes from Old School Acres. I have a very sweet friend who knew how much I loved this little owl when I saw it on her blog and she sent him to me to be by my side while I'm recuperating! Thanks Pam! I LOVE him. This little teddy was made by my grammy, so my owl is in really good company. 

                       ****Thought for the Day****
"No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care."   
                                 Don Swartz

Amen to that! So, my plan is to be back at work on Monday. We'll see how that goes. I'll try to blog again next week!
Have a great weekend everyone! God Bless!
Tammy

                     

"Girl's Night In....."

Once a month, here at TTD we have "employee-sew-in-night" on a Friday night when the store is closed. It's really fun to all be together to share ideas and projects. And, no-one has to run the store, everyone waits on themselves and we all help each other out if needed. I decided to take some pictures from our recent "night-in" to show you.  Here are Nan (front left), Deanna (next to her), Cindy (one of our show and special event helpers, in the pink tie-dye. She actually has a real job, she's a PE teacher.) and Miss Sherry (front in the blue hoodie). That's Jane in the back, diligently sewing away!

Some of us wore our delicious wool slippers from Garnet Hill (Christmas presents). They were irresistable in pink and green! Don't you agree? Let me tell you, these slippers kept my feet warm all winter long at home. Sometimes even too warm!  Although I'm finding that I'm having more and more "personal summers" as my friend Mindy would say (I think that's from Menopause The Musical).

So I managed to complete 4 flannel pillowcases for my kids, Haley and Garrison (aka; Buddy), AND I finished this New Girl purse (thanks to my friend Mary Lynn) that I started for Haley back in August. So it was a productive night inspite of my kids calling me every hour wanting to know when I was coming home!

This fabric line is called Metro Blue by Michele D'Amore for Marcus Brothers. It has been a really good seller in the store. It went like "hot cakes" when we got it in the store. 

Haley's not a real "girly girl" like her mom, but she liked this fabric alot. Probably because it wasn't PINK!  If you know what I mean! I'm not sure you can have too much pink? It's kind of like lipgloss! You know how much I love lipgloss!

So, we are off to another show! We leave on Monday for The AQS Show in Paducah. If you are planning to go to the show, come look us up. We will be right next to the pool! Woo-Hoo!! It will probably be like a sauna!! I am packin' plenty of fans! And not just the one I have to have next to my head to sleep!

Anyway, I'll try to take plenty of pictures in Paducah and put them on the blog in the next couple of weeks.

                       ****Thought for the day****

"Cheerfulness, like spring, opens all the blossoms of the inward man."    Jean Paul Richter
"An optimist is the human personification of spring."    Susan J. Bissonette
                               and finally.....
"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort."       Herm Albright

I couldn't resist. The last one was too funny!
Have a pink day! God Bless,
Tammy

P.s. "Happy Birthday Nickie! I love you!"
                                                                            

What's cookin'.....?

Ok, while I'm at the show this weekend in Rosemont, working very hard! That's the truth too, we don't usually get a break the first two days of the show. The attendance is usually somewhere around 20,000 over the 3 days. Ok, sorry, as I was saying.... while I'm at the show in Rosemont, I thought I would put up this picture from Easter Sunday dinner. I LOVE this one! These are three of my beautiful children. The three oldest ones. Olivia is on the left, Nick in the center and Stephanie is on the right. I bought them these adorable aprons at a shop here in town; Moxie's. Well actually, the one Nick is wearing is mine, but he felt a little left out, so I gave him the girliest one with all of the ruffles. Let me tell you, he didn't mind a bit! He's a real HAM! Like the plate of ham that he's holding!

They didn't actually do any of the cooking or much of the clean up either, for that matter. But I'm not complaining, I was just happy to have them home and in my kitchen. And, hey they look cute, and that's what it's all about isn't it? Who cares if you can cook or not if you're that cute!

             ****Thought for the day****
"Dinner, a time when.... one should eat wisely
but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely."   
                W. Somerset Maugham

Have a great weekend everyone!
God Bless You,
Tammy

A sneak peek....

Ok, so I have some good news and some bad. Which do you want first?  I usually say "give me the bad news first, and get it over with" that way the good news is that much sweeter. Well the good news is this; we are working on a new book!  It's called A Tadd More. What a great name for a book, right! Here is a sneak peek, just a little "teaser"!

We have been working hard on it for months. Now, here's the bad news.... we had planned to have it ready for Spring International Quilt Market in Portland in May, but that's not going to happen. We were running behind schedule and really putting a lot of pressure on ourselves to get it done, when my brother passed away. So, the decision was made for me.

Watch for more sneak peeks in the weeks to come and the new book will be out in June. I will let everyone know when it's available. We are getting ready for the Spring International Quilt Festival in Rosemont, Chicago this weekend. So if you are able to go, stop by and see us in booth #1109. We will be home for a week and then we leave for Paducah! April is a busy month for us!

Some of you know that I am a "magazine junkie". It's a sickness I have. I confess! I LOOOOOOOVE magazines and books. I could start my own bookstore or at least library. Well, a couple of weeks ago, I found this magazine that I want to tell you about. It's called Life: Beautiful Magazine. It is truly that.... a beautiful magazine. Go to the link and check it out. It is not only spiritually inspirational, but also in every other way; decorating, cooking, gardening and more. The photography is beautiful!  There is a section on book and music reviews too. I'm tellin' ya, I was so excited after I got it home and had a chance to really enjoy it, that I went and bought every copy they had. I knew several friends who would love it as much as I did.

So, I just rolled them and tied them with pretty spring ribbon and gave them as little Easter gifts.

Anyway, let me know what you think about the "sneak peek" of the book and the magazine, and I'll be showing you pictures from our show at Rosemont when we get back.

****Thought for the day****
"Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone but in every leaf of springtime."
Martin Luther

Happy Spring everyone, God Bless,
Tammy

 

My Brother, My Friend....

In all of our lives we have people who influence "who" we are, and who we will become. For most of us, those earliest influences come from our families. This is my older brother Roy, ("Scooter" as he is known to family and friends), and me with my grandpa in 1960. My brother and I were only 15 months apart. He has been a big part of my life as you can imagine. I could tell lots of funny stories about how he influenced me for the good and "not-so-good"! But THE most important story about my brother is what happened to him 4 years ago. He went into respiratory failure (as a result of multiple medical problems and a long history of smoking) and was fighting for every breath. The family was called to the hospital, the doctors and nurses didn't give the family much hope. As many people began praying for him, God miraculously spared his life. Now, I know that there were many doctors and nurses who took care of him and they deserve alot of credit, but without God's intervention, he would not have lived. My brother, knew that God had touched him physically and he was a thankful man. He also came to realize that his life was a gift, and he prayed and asked God to forgive him and come into his heart. I saw the transformation of my brother's heart and life right before my eyes. My big tough brother became this teddy bear of a man who wasn't afraid to cry and tell you how much he loved you. He lived 4 more years, saw his son married, and lived to see his first grandchild. My "big brother", Roy "Scooter" left this earth on March 29th. Although I am so sad for the loss that my family is experiencing, we are also rejoicing, because we know that we will see him again! I know many of you have read The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, here is one of my favorite quotes: "Earth is not our final home; we were created for something much better." I believe that! This life is not all there is! I loved my brother, and I look forward to a great family reunion someday!

Here is a poem that my nephew and his wife had printed on cards to give away at the memorial service and I think my brother would have liked it.

When I come to the end of the day
And the sun has set for me
I want no rites in a gloom-filled room
Why cry for a soul set free?
Miss me a little, but not too long
And not with your head bowed low.
Remember the love we once shared
Miss me, but let me go.

For this is a journey we all must take
And each must go alone.
It's all a part of the Maker's plan,
A step on the road to home.
When you are lonely and sick at heart
Go to the friends we know
And bury your sorrows in doing good deeds
Miss me, but let me go.

           Roy W. Grubbs  "Scooter"
           Born: December 20, 1958
           Passed: March 29, 2008

                            

                      ****Thought for the day****
  "Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.
          Remind me that my days are numbered,
               and that my life is fleeting away."    
                             Psalm 39:4

                 "Precious in the sight of the Lord
                     is the death of His saints".   
                           Psalm 116:15

Thanks so much to all of you who have sent cards and e-mails. You have all been so kind to me and my family. It is truly times like these, that you find out who your friends really are. Those that are "there for you" when you really need a shoulder to cry on. For those of you who have asked what we need, just keep my sister-in-law Vickie and my mom in your prayers.

God Bless,
Tammy