I'm still here!

It's been quite a long time since I've blogged! Funny how time just seems to get away from you! Over the past 11 months, another craft show season has come and gone, my Etsy sites have been very busy, and we've grown as a family!

Our daughter was married on August 6th, adding a new son-in-law to our family.  We had so much fun preparing for her Victorian-style wedding, and it was absolutely beautiful.  Things never go quite as planned, though, and her wedding was no exception.  Three days prior to her wedding, my husband was rushed to the hospital and ended up fighting for his life in the ICU for almost two weeks before he was well enough to come home.  He was diagnosed with severe pneumonia, acute respiratory distress, and septic shock.  Before being sedated and put on life support, he asked for us to continue with her wedding, and to make it a beautiful day for her. He also asked our son to walk our daughter down the aisle. She carried his photo in her bouquet.  I left him for a few hours to attend the wedding. His survival was a miracle and against the odds, and we count our blessings every day that he is still with us.  It was a very difficult time, and one we are glad is behind us.  His recovery is ongoing, and most of the fall and winter has been spent caring for him to help restore him back to health.

It was a fun and successful craft show season, and I loved adding my daughter, Emily, to my shows! I am so proud of her and all of her craftiness!  Glad some of that rubbed off on her!  We are having a blast with our Etsy site, Lottie Elizabeth. Check it out here and our website here.

I have recently revamped my website.  All of my patterns are still available, but my website now directs to my Etsy site for ordering.  This has allowed me to have epatterns - how 85% of my patterns are sold, able to be downloaded immediately.  I still can send any of my patterns as paper patterns...just use the order form on my website.  See my website here.

It has been a long, hard winter here in Southwest Washington! We've had multiple damaging ice storms, and have had snow since December 8th! There isn't much left now, but there were snowflakes falling this morning.  I just wanted to crawl back into bed and stay there until it's 70 degrees!  Our lambs will begin arriving in about 4 weeks.  That always means spring is here, right!?!

Wishing you a blessed spring!

~Laurie

Two new patterns!

THIS year I'm not going to be so busy with weddings, and my goal is to make at least 10 new patterns! On my way, with two new patterns this last week. Here they are:

Cinnamon Bunny

Cinnamon Bunny is all ready for spring!  You can check the pattern out on my website, or on Etsy, and also on Pattern Mart, below:

Cinnamon Bunny Pattern

Our new prim bunny is hopping your way for springtime! This 17" rabbit is quick to sew.....Price: US $5.50

Speaking of spring, it kinda looked like spring here today! It was in the 50's and my crocuses are blooming, and the daffodils are coming up! It's still just the middle of winter though, so I haven't packed up my snowmen and winter decorations.  That would just be asking for it!

Sadie Sue

My other new pattern is Sadie Sue.  She was fun little girl to make!  This little ragamuffin with the wild hair is just 9" tall, so she doesn't take much fabric to stitch her up! She's on my website, Pattern Mart, and here on Etsy too.

I've been having a great time with my other Etsy site; Lottie Elizabeth that I started last summer with my daughter Emily.  If you haven't checked it out, take a peek here!  It's fun working on things that aren't primitive.  Here are some cute Valentine's Day/Heart things that I created:

Wishing you Valentine's Day full of love and happiness!

Primitive blessings,

Laurie

New Puppy!

Right before Christmas we brought home a new 6 week old puppy! Abbie Rose is a Great Pyrenees; and half sister to our almost-five-year-old, Heidi.  We've found that Great Pyrs are a perfect addition to our farm, as they are great livestock protectors as well as family members!  They also grow extremely fast!  Here is Abbie at 6 weeks old the day we brought her home.

She grew and grew......

....and grew.....

....and now she looks like this at 13 weeks!

It will be a little while until she is a 140 lb. dog like her big sister, but she'll get there in the blink of an eye!

More on our Great Pyrenees can be found here.

I mentioned in my last blog post that I have an additional Etsy site besides Prindle Mountain Primitives; it is Lottie Elizabeth.  My daughter and I opened it in June and we are having a lot of fun! 

We have been working on some Valentine's Day things. 

The PDF pattern for these cute Faux Valentine's Day Cookies/Fillers are on my website and Etsy.  If you follow our blog and comment with your e-mail address, I will send you the PDF pattern FREE through Valentine's Day! I made the originals several years ago, and they still look like they were freshly baked! :)

My next project is a new Prindle Mountain Primitives Ann and Andy set. Watch for the pattern in the coming couple of weeks!

Primitive Winter Blessings,

Laurie

Another Johnson Wedding!

It's been a while since I have posted!  We had two kids get married within 4 months of each other! Our son recently married his sweetheart in a beautiful outdoor ceremony.  Not quite as much planning on our part - as parents of the groom, but I made all the wedding desserts, and we threw a rehearsal dinner and did all the cooking and DIY decorating.

Here are some photos from our rehearsal dinner.  It was like having our own restaurant for the day! Daughter Kari made the beautiful cake.

Here are some photos of the dessert bar at the wedding:

The bride and groom decided to have pie at the wedding rather than cake (but we had to sneak one in on them at the rehearsal dinner!)  They cut a full-size pie to feed to each other, but I made 195 mini pies and crisps in jars, as well as 72 mini cheesecakes and over 100 shortbread cookies.  The pies in jars were a lot of fun, and really quite easy with a lot of prep ahead of time.

I bought 16 dozen 3 oz. jars and had them washed ahead of time.  A week prior to the wedding I made up the pie dough, and added a little sugar.  I bought a set of graduated circle cookie cutters with regular circles on one side, and the opposite side was fluted.  I used a smaller round cutter to cut out the bottoms of the pies, and poked them with a fork.  I cut out the top of the pies with the fluted circles in a little larger size, and used a tiny heart cutter to cut out the middle.  Then I sprinkled them with coarse sugar and baked the tops and bottoms like cookies.  I froze them all (with plenty extra). Two days before the wedding I thickened and sweetened the berries, and just assembled the mini pies, since the pastries were already baked.  The pie jars never went in the oven at all!  The crisps were just a little different.  I put the thickened berries in the jars and added the crumb topping to the top. Those went in the the microwave for a few minutes.

I had so much fun with wedding prep this year, that I opened another Etsy shop - LottieElizabeth - with our daughter Emily, featuring wedding and baby items.  You can check it out here.  Now it's time to step on it with primitive Christmas things for my fall shows that start in a little over three months.  Yikes!

Hope your summer is wonderful!

Primitive blessings,

~Laurie