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As previously mentioned, like all craft industries, cross stitch can be cyclical in its popularity. It is currently undergoing a tremendous upswing.

There are lots of reasons for this, but one contributing factor is the popularity of YouTube channels called FlossTube. (Floss is another name for the thread used to create cross stitch.)

I was not really aware of FlossTube until Cecilia asked me to do a drawing for her of two local women who host a FlossTube show.

Cecilia’s company, Heart in Hand Needleart, is also part of another company called The Trilogy. This company occasionally releases charts designed jointly by Heart in Hand and two other cross stitch lines owned by dear friends of ours, Bent Creek and Twisted Threads. The Trilogy and the three individual companies planned to send a representative sampling of designs to the local women to discuss on their FlossTube channel.

Pam and Steph are a mother and daughter in a neighboring town. They host a popular FlossTube channel they call Just Keep Stitching. Cecilia asked me to do a drawing of the two of them which she would use on a card that accompanied the designs she was sending. I watched part of Pam and Steph’s show to get a screen grab to use for the drawing.

I don’t do as much artwork as I should. I always enjoy it when I do. But I have to say that watching Pam and Steph’s reaction to the drawing was priceless!

If interested, this is a short clip about a connection between Pam and my oldest daughter.

Pam and Steph now use my drawing on their business cards and social media. Thanks to Pam and Steph and the many other people hosting their popular FlossTube shows!

By the way, if you want to learn more about Heart in Hand Needleart, visit our website at http://heartinhand.com/ to see all the designs or read profiles of Cecilia under “About.” She was also recently the featured guest on a FlossTube program, Fiber Talk.

The Chero-Cola company began production in 1904. It introduced Nehi’s fruit-flavored sodas in 1924 which immediately outsold Chero-Cola and were so popular that by 1928 the company changed its name to Nehi Corporation. Their orange soda is a classic. 

As a child, when we stayed at the same grandma’s where I walked to get the Kickapoo Joy Juice, if a lot of relatives were staying there we sometimes had this with breakfast! (This is the first pop I’ve shown that is flavored with the now standard high fructose corn syrup.)

 

In the early 20th century, the advertising logo of Nehi was a picture of a woman’s leg with stockings up to the knee, suggesting the phrase “knee-high”. The concept continued to be used for several decades.

In the perennial holiday favorite, A Christmas Story, a leg lamp (also known as a major award) figures prominently in the story.

Author Jean Shepherd was inspired to create the leg lamp after seeing an illuminated Nehi Soda advertisement. In the original story “My Old Man and the Lascivious Special Award That Heralded the Birth of Pop Art,” the leg was the logo of the contest’s sponsor, Nehi. (The details of the contest were not made clear in the film, A Christmas Story.)

 

 

 

Heart in Hand Needleart, the counted cross stitch company founded and run by my wife, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Cecilia is one of the more popular designers working in the field.

I previously described how we attended our first trade show and then launched Heart in Hand. Cecilia designs each piece and most always stitches it herself. The stitched piece is then either stretched onto a piece of foam core using pins and then framed or is finished in other, less traditional and more creative way. We then have the finished piece professionally photographed. Stitching directions—in essence, a grid with symbols, each symbol representing a specific color of thread—is prepared. Occasionally specific directions also have to be included for specialty stitches that are more than the traditional Xs used with cross stitch. A graphic artist and Cecilia work together to turn the photo and stitching directions into a chart.

The finished chart is how many of the designs are then sold to the public. Others are included in kits including not only the design but fabric, threads, embellishments such as buttons, finishing materials, or any combination of the preceding depending on the kit. We do not sell directly to the public. Cross stitch shops buy the designs directly from us or from one of several international distributors we use.

By the way, people often have humorous misconceptions about Cecilia’s company. For example, at one point we had a vanity plate on a vehicle that read HRTNHND. I had several people tell me how much they liked the plate, and then ask, “So you’re a heart surgeon, right?” A more current example is that when I give the full name of the company (Heart in Hand Needleart), I will occasionally have people pause, and then ask, “You run a tattoo parlor?”

Like all craft industries, cross stitch can be cyclical in its popularity. It certainly never goes away but right now it is in an incredible upswing in popularity. A big part of why this is occurring is the subject of my last post on Heart in Hand that I will upload next Saturday, but suffice it to say for now that I learned about this reason as a result of Cecilia asking me to do a caricature.

Dublin Dr Pepper no longer exists. A few years ago, the now-defunct pop was made with the original formula including Imperial Pure Cane Sugar and not high fructose corn syrup used in most Dr Pepper. When I had the pictured bottle, the only cane sugar-version of Dr Pepper was produced in Dublin, Texas at the world’s oldest Dr Pepper bottling plant, built in 1891 just six years after the soda pop’s creation in nearby Waco. (Dr Pepper was invented one year before Coca Cola.)

The artwork on the neck of this type of Dr Pepper has the 10-2-4 numbers in different spots than the traditional logo.

In the early 20th Century, researchers believed that sugar could provide a needed energy boost during the times that an average person experienced a letdown during the day at 10:30 AM and 2:30 and 4:30 PM. A contest was held to create a new slogan with the winner being, “Drink a bite to eat at 10, 2, and 4.”

As an additional bit of trivia, note the absence of a period after “Dr”. It was discarded as part of the name in the 1950s.

The bottling plant in Dublin lost their exclusive license in 2012 for selling their Dr Pepper to broader markets than they were supposed to. (I bought this bottle in Ohio.) A different plant is now authorized by the main company, the Dr Pepper Snapple Group, to produce sugar-sweetened Dr Pepper but it no longer bears the name of any particular town.

My original plan had been to post another entry on my wife’s cross stitch company this week leading up to a final one that I think will give you a chuckle. I am adding an additional post. Think of it as a guest post by my wife, Cecilia.

In my first post about Heart in Hand Needleart, I wrote, “During the latter half of the 1980s, Cecilia was doing counted cross stitch as a hobby, including stitching still-treasured Christmas ornaments for a few years.”

Cecilia recently wrote a short entry for her Instagram and Facebook accounts on just why she was stitching so often in the latter half of the 80s. Her eloquence in describing what was incredibly difficult but has led to grace is too beautifully written not to share. Peace, my friends.

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< Storytime > For 33 springs this tree has opened its delicate cross-shaped blossoms in our yard, a continuing gift to us from dear friends since our son Matthew died at birth. 

When we moved from our first home to our current home, we brought the tree with us and it has thrived near our front walk. This winter we had an ice storm and the branches were frozen, weighted nearly to the hard ground. My worries dissolved when the ice melted in a few days, but I would have grieved the loss of the dogwood had it died. It is a reminder of some of the gifts Matthew gave me — a greater appreciation of family, of time, and the preciousness of my children and now grandchildren. 

Matthew even led me to Heart in Hand Needleart. After he died, stitching was my refuge, my therapy. The long hours I spent stitching were my haven. Perhaps you, too, know the refuge needlework offers in a dark season? As my grief waned in the following years and our daughters were born, I experimented with designing and was encouraged to publish my work. Heart in Hand Needleart was born. 

This past weekend, Randy and I stood underneath Matthew’s dogwood in full bloom. We held two of our grandchildren, reminders of the blessings the years have brought. I was reminded, too, of the gifts Heart in Hand has given me. Friendships here. Your kind words of encouragement. The stories you have shared of needlework gifts to treasured friends and family members. Our mutual haven. All grace. A continuing gift. Thank you, dear friends. #heartinhandneedleart

Another favorite pop of mine is the now-seldom seen Kickapoo Joy Juice. Until a few years ago, I had not seen this in literally decades. When I was a kid this was my favorite drink at a little store within walking distance of my Grandma Turner’s. It’s a citrus pop similar to Mountain Dew but is more lightly carbonated.

The name was originally introduced in the classic Li’l Abner comic strip. It was brewed by Lonesome Polecat and Hairless Joe. They are pictured on the label in a drawing by Al Capp. Oddly enough, it’s currently distributed primarily in Asian markets.

Sadly, more recent bottles no longer have the Al Capp drawing. Yet oddly enough, when you can find it in a four-pack, the carton does still have drawings from Li’l Abner.

The bottles are marked as the “Original Dogpatch Recipe.” That includes it being made with cane sugar just like when it was introduced in 1965 instead of the high fructose corn syrup most manufacturers began using in the early ‘80s.

Kickapoo Joy Juice was originally first sold in the 1960s. It was resurrected and is now bottled by Orca Beverages, the Seattle-area premier bottler of so many retro-pops.

 

My wife is the designer behind the popular counted cross stitch company Heart in Hand Needleart. If you are not familiar with cross stitch, I always tell people if you have seen pieces stitched with thread that says “Home, Sweet Home,” you have seen cross stitch.

I am a big fan of handmade items such as cross-stitched designs. A finished piece becomes an heirloom that your descendants will likely treasure. My wife has done various types of designs, but many of her pieces are “quick-to-stitch” that will not take the stitcher months to complete. She has developed her own style that is based on folk art but is truly distinctive.

Cecilia was taught to cross stitch as a child by her maternal grandmother though that was over stamped-fabric that required no counting. During the latter half of the 1980s, Cecilia was doing counted cross stitch as a hobby, including stitching still-treasured Christmas ornaments for a few years.

In 1991, Cecilia entered and won a design-a-heart contest sponsored by the national magazine Classic Cross Stitch. In those days of no internet (in our lives, at least), I remember thinking how cool it was that friends as far away as Oregon could go into a bookstore and see her design.

Inspired by her success, Cecilia began submitting original designs to various cross stitch magazines. While I was always supportive, I did not want her to get her hopes up only to be disappointed. Boy howdy, was I wrong! She soon had designs accepted by various publications.

In 1993, we made an exploratory trip to a national trade show held at the time in Charlotte, North Carolina. The following year Heart in Hand Needleart was born and we attended our first trade show as a company in Nashville.

People sometimes misunderstand just what Cecilia does. She creates the design and then stitches it. We then have the model photographed. A graphic artist then lays out the pattern is a folded chart or leaflet. The designs are then sent to cross stitch shops all across the world where they are sold to the stitching public. The interior of the chart contains a grid with symbols that each represent a specific color of thread. The stitcher follows the pattern to create their own stitched artwork.

Fast forward just a few years and I had the fascinating experience of coming home to lights and a photographer taking photos of my wife for a designer profile for a magazine published at the time by Better Homes and Gardens titled Better Homes and Gardens Cross Stitch & Needlework.

From the very beginning of The Andy Griffith Show when Andy told Opie in the pilot episode to tell Aunt Lucy to give him a bottle of pop when he got home, soda pop was a common treat though it was usually found down at Wally’s Filling Station. Like most other Mayberrians, I am a fan of pop though I try to drink the “real stuff” sparingly.

One of my favorites is Cheerwine, the sweet cherry-flavored soda pop produced in North Carolina since 1917 by “the oldest continuing soft drink company still run by the same family.” Sometimes called “The Nectar of the Tarheels,” burgundy-colored Cheerwine is more bubbly than your average soda pop. Cheerwine sold in glass bottles (Obviously the best!) is a “Retro Cheerwine” variant sweetened with cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup used in their plastic bottles and cans.

When I researched Cheerwine, I was pleasantly surprised to learn there was a connection between it and the great Commonwealth of Kentucky where my parents were born. Cheerwine actually started with the Maysville Syrup Company of Maysville, Kentucky. The Kentucky company produced a soda pop called Mint Cola and eventually expanded to Salisbury, North Carolina, allowing L.D. Peeler and other investors to bottle Mint Cola. Peeler later purchased a cherry-flavored soda recipe with a cherry flavoring derived from almond, combined it with 11 other flavors and the Mint Cola base, and created the soda pop known as Cheerwine. One of my absolute favorites. By the way, a few years ago Cheerwine was named one of Zagat’s 12 Best Regional Snack Foods.

For many years, Cheerwine was not widely available in the north. Cracker Barrel and City Bar-B-Q were the only spots it was to be found. However, Cheerwine has greatly increased their distribution and it is now readily available at our local supermarket, albeit in the specialty soda pop section of the shelves.

At the same time I submitted tips to the Roadside America website and phone app which added Snappy Lunch to their service and updated their Floyd’s Barber Shop tip, I also submitted a couple more. The first was a correction to their existing tip on Aunt Bee’s Room at the Mayberry Motor Lodge.

By the way, I was notified about the acceptance of my corrections a few days before I was notified that my new tips had been accepted, likely because the corrections were about attractions the editors did not need to verify actually existed.

The previous tip someone had submitted was from just last year and stated you could sleep in the room with all of Aunt Bee’s belongings. I submitted a correction and a photo that was accepted.

Better yet, the editors changed their old headline section and made it clear you cannot spend the night in the room.

The final tip I submitted was on a relatively new attraction in Mount Airy, the brick sculptures on “the whittling wall.” A North Carolina artist created these beautiful sculptures which show six actual people from Mount Airy along with two who are general representations of the mill industry in town and the reason the whittling wall got its name.

 

 

 

The website used one of the full-size photos and another as a small thumbnail image at the top of the page. The app used all three I submitted.

The Whittling Wall sculptures are a beautiful and interesting addition to what is already a beautiful town to visit.

I am glad to have played some small part in spreading the word about just a few of Mount Airy’s many attractions.

I recently posted about a website and phone app called Roadside America and then posted about specific roadside attractions in Mount Airy listed in them. I mentioned at the time that there was some missing. In addition, a couple had erroneous information, I also said at the time, “Amazingly, Snappy Lunch is not listed individually. It sounds like I have another tip and photos to submit!” Well, friends, the only word I have to offer is—success!

I eventually got around to submitting a tip about Snappy Lunch, which seemed to me as deserving as Floyd’s Barber Shop. I got word last week that my tip was accepted and posted, along with my photos.

The information at the top of the page above the ad is written by the editors. I would agree it’s a hole-in-the-wall, especially since those are usually the places where the best food is found. But had I have written it, I certainly would never have used the words “reputed to have a killer pork chop sandwich.” I can vouch that they most definitely do!

 

As stated before, the website often uses only one photo while the app will often display more. Both my photos are used in the app.

As long as I was at it, I also offered a correction and additional photo of Floyd’s. A previous tip said that the locally beloved barber Russell Hiatt was the inspiration for Floyd. That is not correct. In fact, Russell and Andy were not that far apart in age. My understanding is that Russell did cut Andy’s hair at least once, though certainly not while Andy was a child. When Andy came home from college, Russell was a young barber who old-time customers bypassed to wait for the more experienced barbers. Andy was kind enough to let Russell give him a haircut even though he was a relatively new barber.

They used my tip “correction” as well as one of my photos on both the website and the app.