Big Excitement

Yesterday, Strawberry Sampler called me to tell me my framing from their May sale was ready. Woo-hoo! I wooed the dude into coming with.

This is Curtis Boehringer's Apple Sampler that appeared in an issue of Cross Stitch Sampler. It lured me in and encouraged me to subscribe, which I've never regretted. I thought this rustic brown frame was perfect. Lots of texture.

This map of Bermuda was stitched for the Dude's birthday in 2010. This was a real doozie to choose a frame for. Too many colors, and black, white, and brown frames just didn't cut it. We put this one on in desperation and were pleasantly surprised. It's not an exact match, but it works.

If you look at it close-up, you can see why. It has just the right shade of blue as an undertone. Wow, that doesn't look blue at all on my monitor. Trust.

This was last year's anniversary present. This frame is a little more red than it is showing in the photo. Not as red as I wanted. There was a slightly better frame, but it was distressed, and since the distressing was random I wasn't sure how it would look in the end. We went around the shop looking at examples that were framed with the molding, but I just didn't love them all enough to go for the redder frame. Anyway, this looks great in person.

And now, the piece de resistance: Willow Trees Sampler.

I liked it with the barn board molding, but I loved it with the additional golden molding. This is the first time I have used two frames and I love it! This is just the right piece for this experiment. I couldn't be happier. I practically jumped for joy when we opened it to look at it in the store!

Not that I needed a treat after these revelations, but we stopped in at Bruster's Ice Cream on the way home, where the Dude had a cone that must have had a pint of chocolate raspberry ice cream in it! (I had a delicately sized cup of toffee bar.) Then we drove home on the back roads, and the Dude really enjoyed that little surprise.

I couldn't wait to show you these pieces! I know I get much more traffic during the week, but this was just too good not to share.

Now we've got to find places to hang them. We're rearranging the sampler wall, and we're going to move the eight framed anniversary pieces to the bedroom.

Um, I should go get to work on the ninth!