Wow is all that I can say...I have been picking and packing charms and beads for dayzzzzzzzz...that is the good news and I want to thank everyone for all of your support and so many kind and encouraging words!! Practicing being in the moment and practicing gratitude!

We wanted everyone to know that we are working on a deal to keep the wool product and our zany charms out in the world. It is the goal to #1 come up with an agreement and #2 make the transition as quickly and cleanly as possible. We will keep Artgirlz Nation informed as we get details!! This is a particularly important opportunity to practice the above mentioned items!!

In the mean time, we will decide just what to do with the shrinking pile of goodies left in the Artgirlz Mother Stash!!!

Allison is teaching a class in Florida this morning...I am sorry that I don't know the name of the Bernina Dealer, but she can fill you in on all of the details! I am sure that it will be a wonderful experience for all!

I am taking a break from shipping today and I am going to clean the house...it is 8 degrees outside and the house is screaming for a dust rag and vacuum!!! Who knew it had 2 "u's"!!???

So stay tuned...thanks so much!! We love you!!!

I think that I have been avoiding writing this little paragraph relating to the ending chapters of Artgirlz as we have grown to know and love it! MANY people have worked LONG hours to help us get things in and out of the doors. We have traveled far and wide...met amazing talented, funny, smart, irreverent, hardworking folks always willing to share, support, advise...and to all of you I am very grateful.

It seems like I was always exhausted quickly moving from one event onto the preparations for the next...designing and producing products, catalogs, dealing with import issues, pricing, shipping, websites, email, customer service issues, photographs, blogs, class proposals, class prep, class teaching, clean up and shlepping of materials...setting up booths, cc machines, cash registers, products, give always, business cards, membership cards, bags, props, price tags, samples, snacks, pens, accounting, money in money out...packing up booths and organizing the shipping of the goods back to world headquarters...filling out the paper for each box leaving on the pallet...airplanes, taxis, hotels, convention centers, bad food, too many snacks, no exercise, no oxygen...

Trying to stay emotionally stable...hoping, wishing, expecting, not getting, getting, trying another way...

So now that the decision has been made to close the business, I have been organizing and counting product that is left...Al has been working on a proposal to keep Artgirlz Charms out in the world...time will tell on that one...so it seem like the next step is to put what we have on sale. What a perfect opportunity for the creatives of the world to add to their ever shifting pile of supplies!

Although we don't know exactly what we will be doing next, we will still be around doing our thing and keeping you posted right here! We will actually have "time" to do creative things...something that has been hard to come by!

Stay warm. Thanks for all of the support and love that we have received over the last 6 years!!!!
Stay Tuned!

Check out our 30% Off Sale!!!

 January has been flying by. Baby sister Beth has been visiting again. We spent lots of time crafting so that she would have lots of ideas to take to Alaska.

Beth's biggest project was a sweater she wanted to make for her grandbaby, Ivy. She had purchased a 100% wool sweater at a thrift shop and washed it well in hot water. We used one of Ivy's coats for a simple pattern. We marked it with large basting stitches and used our wonderful Bernina aurora 440 to lay a decorative stitch along the basting and then cut a quarter inch from the stitch. It was fun and simple and the hardest part was getting the courage to cut it.

Beth spent the evenings chatting and adding a blanket stitch around the edges.

She added a piece of felt for a pocket and embellished the front with felt flowers and leaves.

I took the scraps and made a simple bunny rabbit. I needle felted her eyes and nose and embroidered a big smile. The bunny insisted on having a sparkly skirt for dancing but if her new mom Ivy is anything like her grandmother and her sisters the skirt will end up as a curtain in one of her forts.

Wow, It is hard to beleive that we are entering the next decade already. It seems like it was just yesterday that we were all sitting tight, waiting for the start of this new century hoping the tech world didn't implode because of the huge date change.

And sadly as we head into this next decade, Tracy and I will be closing Artgirlz Inc.

It has been a great ride. We have met so many wonderful people and had many life changing experiences so that it has made this a very difficult decision. But times are hard and we are a bit weary of struggling and waiting for things to pick up.

Be on the look out for our news letter so that you will be in the know about all of the upcoming sales.

We don't have any big plans for our future but you can bet it will be full of art and scary babies.

It is also hard to write about the loss this weekend of Sue's father,
C. Shepard Desillier.

Those of us that loved him called him Shep. A wonderful family patriarch who lovingly embraced our nutty Stilwell family. He was an institution in his small community of Watch Hill RI.

He was wise, kind and inquisitive.

  We will miss you Shep.