I suppose you're wondering about the graphic to the right?

Holly and I visited Busch Gardens in Tampa at the end of January. They had one of those booth's where the artist will make a caricature of you for a few dollars so we had him make one of each of us.  It's pretty funny seeing yourself or your loved one through the (somewhat distorted) eyes of a cartoonist!  And we thought they were worth sharing with you all too.

The one of Holly shows her working on her graphics tablet digitizing a design. Mine shows me working on the computer and holding a video camera in the other hand. More often than not, I've got one of our boxer-girls on my lap but the artist didn't have the inclination to draw one of them without seeing them first.

What surprised me more than anything about Busch Gardens was that I enjoyed it. Yep. It was really fun.  I had been thinking "... another zoo..." but this was really different. Yes there are animals but a whole lot more. Combine DisneyWorld, Animal Kingdom and a botanic gardens into one place and toss in a few more surprises and you have Busch Gardens.  If you get a chance, don't pass up visiting.

New Designs Released This Week At ArtisticThreadWorks... Click here to see them... PLUS: And here to see the Weekly Sampler Set... PLUS+PLUS: And this months Member Bonus Set... Here's a picture of ONE of this weeks new sets... See ALL the new sets here!
Digitizers Looking For The ULTIMATE Mouse? Whether you have been digitizing for days or for years you've figured out that using a mouse to digitize is NOT the natural feeling way to do the job! You have to coordinate your hand on the mouse with your eyes on the screen. You also have to move your entire arm to move the cursor around the screen. It doesn't take long to get a sore shoulder does it? Holly tried various mouses (or is it mice?), trackballs, pen mice, tablets, and everything else to make digitizing easier and less tiring. About two years ago we found the Wacom "Cintique" and it really is THE ULTIMATE SOLUTION for digitizing. What's different about the Cintique is that it's basically a flat-panel monitor with a built-in touchscreen. You use a special "pen" that draws directly on the screen and senses how much pressure you are using while drawing. Since you draw directly on the monitor, there is no eye-hand coordination involved. It makes the work of digitizing similar to coloring in a coloring book or tracing. In other words - you are looking at where the tip of the pen is touching instead of moving your hand around while watching somewhere else. A couple of our friends now use this same tool for their digitizing and everyone that does reports that they can digitize better and faster using this tool than they could with a mouse or trackball. That's the good news! I'll tell you the "Bad News" part in just a second but first I have to warn you about one thing... This isn't a handful of "magic beans". You still have to know how to use your digitizing software! The bad news is 1) the price and 2) the availability of the tool. When we bought our first Cintique we had to search for a dealer in the CAD/CAM market that would sell us one, wait for delivery and pay over $2,500 for the thing. Ouch! The GOOD news is that they have now come out with a similar line that does everything our Cintique does and sells for a lot less money. The new series called "DTF" does a great job for digitizing and the price is $1624. Unfortunately, ordering from their direct sales line has been an exercise in frustration for everyone we've sent there. The REALLY good news is that I talked with our friend Marv at MarvelousCreations about this problem and he has agreed to STOCK the DTF series tablets. Wacom only allows dealers to advertise their full retail price... so call Marv and talk with him if you're interested in moving up to the ultimate in digitizing hardware and tell him "Larry sent me"! Marv now has the Wacom DTF tablet in stock! His number is 877-593-3535. -- Larry
UnRavelers Meet With Us In Florida Holly and I spent Saturday afternoon with some of the "Blooming UnRavelers" from Jacksonville, FL. We are staying at Disney's "Fort Wilderness" right now in our camper and Betty & Fredna came from Jacksonville to Orlando to visit with us yesterday. We had a bar-b-que and spend several hours hanging out and talking in the beautiful weather here. It was great fun and you will see pictures in the gallery and in Holly's blog in the next day or so. Speaking of pictures... Here's one of the "So Cal UnRavelers" meeting yesterday... Holly and I are planning to visit California later this year and can't wait to meet with this group too!
Update on More Friends Besides our UnRavelers friends, we also keep up to date with our friends that are in the embroidery business. Here's what's going on with some of them now... Our friend Nita Okeefe is having an anniversary sale the entire month of February. New members have a buy-one-get-one offer and they're taking 1 month of membership and getting an extra 1 month as a bonus at signup, PLUS a bonus set of designs that are normally only sold in her shopping area. Also she has put about 100 of her sets on an incredible sale for her members. Read all the details at... http://www.nitasplace.com/public/527.cfm Our friends Ron and Mary Bynum are busy with their embroidery business and also selling tons of their design sets. One that's really been popular has been their "Texas Hold-Em" set. It seems like this poker game has swept across America replacing Trivial Pursuit as the new American party game. Take a look at their "game room" at... http://www.cigarcityarts.com/embgames.html Our friends Becky J McNeil and her husband Doug (The Elf) visited with us last Friday. We had a great time and enjoy a Bar-B-Q and hanging out together. I think this is the first time since I've known them that Doug has taken a week off work to relax. Becky's latest project is 5 new sets of Cross-Stitch designs. We will be featuring these sets as a special offer for our ATW members in March. Our friend Marv is now carrying the Wacom DTF tablets as I mentioned above and is also working on another interesting new service that will take a few months to put in place but I'll tell you more about it as soon as it's ready to roll out. Getting to know others in the embroidery industry has really made it even more enjoyable from my viewpoint. With UnRavelers groups and friends to visit around the country, Holly and I wonder why we bother owning a house in the Chicago area. It's just so much fun traveling around and meeting with everyone! We'll be in Crystal River, FL the 2nd half of Febrary, then Navarre Beach (in the panhandle area) for the month of March. Then Galeveston area in April and then back home in April or May. This summer we plan to visit central Canada and in the late fall head for New Mexico, Arizona and California. All these plans are of course subject to God smiling upon them rather than laughing at them as we've seem so many times. One of my favorite sayings is "Men plan, God laughs!" Or as it says in James 4:15 "Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.'" ...so I'm always mindful of things I don't know about the future. We hope to meet YOU in person soon if we haven't already. If we're in your area and you'd like to get together with us, please contact Holly@ArtisticThreadWorks.com and we try to arrange our schedules to visit for a while. -- Larry
Today's Prize Drawing! awilson@lantic.net has just won a 3 month membership at www.ArtisticThreadWorks.com! She can claim the prize by calling Larry at 847-608-8875 before noon Wednesday 2/14/07. There are over 10,000 designs included in the members Design Library. Others interested in membership will find the details about it at... http://www.artisticthreadworks.com/join
Membership: It's Not Just For Breakfast Anymore! We have many members tell us that our forums are the first place they go when they get on line in the morning and the last place they check before they sign off for the evening. Why? It's the fun they're having talking about embroidery with the friends they've made from around the world on ArtisticThreadWorks. There are nearly 180,000 posts in the ATW forums after less than 3 years online. This is THE place to look when you have questions about embroidery or just want to read what others are doing. But don't just check into the forum when you get up in the morning... read it at night too, because... Membership: It's Not Just For Breakfast Anymore!
Bobbin-Buzz Designs Help yourself to this weeks free design set "Valentine Bears". These are for everyone that is subscriber to Bobbin-Buzz, our free weekly newsletter! Download Valentine Bears Here! Have fun!
I Almost Forgot... I think we gave away about 50 prizes in January to folks on our Daily News list! If you're not getting the Embroidery Daily News, you should take a look... http://www.digitizersworld.com/public/department39.cfm