So What Happened To May Day???

So what happened to May Day??? No sooner had I planned my day and the clouds came in and it began to rain. I could surely handle the rain but hey... its 47 degrees outside and its the first of May. What is up with that? Despite the bad weather I finished my paper baskets and love the way they turned out. I wasn't able to get the flowers for them as they were all wet but they do make lovely nests. I even added a paper feather to one as an accent.

Happey Easter!!!

What Happens When The Pipes Break In The Kitchen

Sad to say Beth and Bill awoke to a lovely waterfall in the kithen in early April. This is what it looks like when the pipes break in the walls of a VERY VERY old home. More pictures to follow as they tear out the kitchen and do a complete make-over.

I saw this in an artists studio and just love it!!!!

New Showroom Video of Primitiques, Ltd.- Please join us for a 9 minute tour of our showroom dressed for the Holiday Season!

Primtiques, Ltd. New Years' Special

Primitiques, Ltd. New Years' Special
Please call or email for our SPECIAL!!!

Greetings!

As the New Year approaches, we wanted to offer you some of our latest smalls at a special "Thank-You-for-a-great-year prices"!!! Pictured in this email are brand new items that will be introduced at the 2011 Market Square Show in Philadelphia on February 6th & 7th.







Please call Primitiques at 610-459-1776 or email us at primitique@comcast.net for pricing.

As we say goodbye to 2010, we greatly look forward to working with each and every one of you in the new year! Have a happy, healthy and prosperous 2011!!!

The Pledge Of Allegiance- The Meaning Of The Flag

On December 28, 1945, Congess made the Pledge of Allegiance the official national pledge to the U.S. Flag.

CUTE Factoid

On December 27, 1947 The Howdy Doody Show debuted on NBC television with the voice of Buffalo Bob Smith. I wasn't born YET... but I do remember the reruns in the late 60's. Howdy Doody himself is a freckle-faced boy marionette with 48 freckles, one for each state of the union (up until January 3, 1959). The original Howdy Doody marionette now resides at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOWDY DOODY!!!!

We Have Been REALLY Busy!!!

We have been really busy here at Samplers Country, Primitiques, Monahan Papers, M & M Dry Goodes and Primi Chic. The days don't seem to have enough hours in them. We are filling orders, prepping for our online trade show and designing new every day, fall and Christmas goodes for the upcoming markets. I thought I would give a shout out and let everyone know that we will have the new Primi Chic site up in about 30 days and we are VERY excited. We never seem to have enough time to work on it as we are always filling orders but we are alas... getting it done. Elizabeth (NOT Beth but my daughter)and I have been busy and we are orange ALL OVER. I do mean ALL OVER!!! We finished dying our samples and some of our fall inventory. Its been so cold that it has been perfect for us to run the dryers. The heat they give off has been wonderful. I thought I would share a picture of the new fall dyed pumpkins, pears and assorted gourds. I just love the Primitiques extra large bowl!!!!

ONE SHOE CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE... CONTINUED!!!

One shoe can Really change your life. This is the continuing SAGA of the tale of one shoe. First, I wish to THANK all of you for your kind emails and understanding as I continue on this "ONE SHOE" journey. For those of you who are unaware of the "ONE SHOE" journey... To make a long story short I suffered a broken ankle at Easter that failed to heal properly. Whether it was due to my lack of attention to follow Dr's orders or my bodies inability to heal properly, I don't know. I had the surgery after much delaying and hesitation on December 1st and find myself a "ONE SHOE" girl yet again.


This however is more frustrating than ever since I am also lacking the ability to bear weight on this ankle for six weeks else I risk yet another surgery. This does not bode well for a high energy woman with the inability to "NOT WORK" for even short periods of time. My life is now limited to the confines of the first floor of our three story home and relying on the good graces of others. Neither of which comes easily to me to say the least. I can only enjoy bossing my husband around for so long and that time has long since passed. Christmas shopping is limited to surfing for sales. Christmas decorating has become a mere thing of the past and did I mention my daughter is getting married on the 19th of December in our home with friends and family. Praise Jesus for wedding planners but that is another story. I just want to say again "Thank You" to all my wonderful customers who have been so patient with me over the last few weeks and the upcoming month. We are moving as fast as we can to satisfy each and every one of you. Well... as fast as my new scooter and FIRE ENGINE RED walker will let me. LOL. To all of you... have a Wonderful Season and ENJOY your ability to GET OUT AND SHOP since "ONE SHOE" REALLY can change your life!!!

God Bless,
Stephanie

The Silver scooter. I can toodle pretty fast on this baby.


The Fire Engine Red walker. I move REALLY slow with this. You'd swear time just doesn't stop with this. It actually goes backwards.

The Power Of Stress...

I am not generally one to share things with all but thought I would share this story as a friend thought it was a good one. Many people under value the power of stress. For some it causes nausea and vomiting while others see it effecting the back door area. Others experience a lack of appetite while still others find that even after eating the entire contents of the kitchen (including a solid stick of butter) they are no better off at staving the stress than they were before the food orgy. Some people fall into a deep pit and choose to sleep the time away as if they will wake up and by some miracle all will be well. Others like myself try and move faster as if getting more done will make it go away. Or, by some stretch make whatever jobs you complete reduce the level of stress because hey your to do list is getting smaller so surely that has to be a good thing. If only it were that simple. Life would be grand. Of late my family has been hit with an unbelievable amount of stress. Its like one hit after another. I feel like I have been in a street fight with some rival gang. Needless to say I am getting my butt kicked. But... here is the story of stress... The other night I was balancing way too many balls in the air and feeling the nervous tension that goes with it. I started moving faster and thought if I did more I would feel better. I came in the house from my studio to cook dinner (for one as the hubby was away dealing with the stress) and I was suppose to be cooking one of those boil in a bag pot roast quick meals. Totally non-nutritious but hey... I wasn't going to cook from scratch for just me. I put the pan on the stove, turned it on high and reached in the pantry. I pulled out a container of vanilla cream cheese frosting, popped the top off and peeled back the foil layer. I ran my finger across the foil and licked it away cause Lord knows you don't waste frosting. I grabbed a wooden spoon and in a daze stood there for what seemed like an eternity. I couldn't remember how to cook this stuff... How do I cook it? I know I have done this before... What do I do? Then it hit me... Its flipp'n frosting!!! What am I doing??? I was so wrapped up in stressful thinking I was literally going through the motions and wasn't even paying attention. At that point I shut off the stove. Grabbed the spoon and frosting and went to watch TV. I ate 1/2 a tub of frosting and called it dinner. Moral of this story... Somethings you can't change and sometimes you just have to go through the motions to get to the other side. Not to mention the simple truth that although its probably not the healthiest dinner in the world frosting CAN make it better!!!
Stephanie

Where Have We Been...Day 5 of the swanky flu, whatever it is...

Working with Beth is a joy. We email all day long. I just got this from her and laughed so much I decided so share her pain.

Stephanie,
Ok, in our quest to find nasal congestion relief, we have tried, tylenol cold/flu, theraflu (yuck!), zycam clear (serious yuck), nasal sprays (various kinds), homeopathic eucalyptis stuff, vicks in the humidifyer & sudacare shower dissolves. Here's the verdict: the nasal spray gives immediate, jolting clear airway for about 5 minutes of painful nasal breathing (so clear it burns) & then after 6 minutes, the nose clogs more than the lincoln tunnel at 5pm on friday. The tylenol cold and flu helps reduce fever, that's it. The shower dissolves did just that. It dissolved in a minute, going down the drain to help our copper pipes breathe easier. The theraflu, who knows because once I got the awful taste down I blacked out from taste bud failure. The vicks in the humidifyer with a towel over my head opened the air flow and makes my pores look somehow bigger than pot holes in March. The hot, hot shower and old fashioned blow-your-nose technique, thus far, is the only remedy that seems to give us any relief.

Just thought you could use a laugh, at our expense!
Beth

Country Sampler Magazine - Exciting News

Heres a tid bit I thought I would share. Country Sampler Magazine is photographing Ruthe Martz's home today. The significance of this is that Beth set it up as she designed most of the furniture in Martz's beautiful home. I have a few pictures of it before the photo shoot.

Ahh... Its good to be home... OR is it???

I guess we had a big storm while we were at The Market Square Show. Time to call for help. This is just some of the damage. That tree WAS a beautiful old black walnut.