We're Gonna Let Love Rule...and Other News

Since I'm going to be blogging at least once a week, you're going to learn random facts about me. Here's one now: I'm a major Lenny Kravitz fan. I fell hard for Lenny Kravitz's music in 1999 not long after "Fly Away" came out. At that time in my life my husband and I were figuring out how to make a major life change by leaving urban/suburban NJ to start a new life for ourselves and our four young sons in rural Maine. "Fly Away" was on the radio all the time back then. I'd hear it at home, at the gym, in the supermarket, and it kind of became my anthem for leaving a life that wasn't right for me or for my young family. It's still near the top of my list of favorite songs in that genre. After "Fly Away," I think the song that comes back to me most from Kravitz's catalog is "Let Love Rule." It seems particularly appropriate as we go in to the Valentine's Day holiday in a few weeks to take apart that title: "Let Love Rule." What does that mean? Is that some kind of hippy dippy nonsense completely impossible in the modern world, and in a nation that's more stressed than I ever recall in my lifetime? (I'm 51, for the record.) I'm not going to expound too much here. Were this my personal blog, I might, but at the same time, I don't think I need to. I did write on this topic a little more extensively almost a year ago and you can read that here. We all know what it means, though. "Let Love Rule" means that every decision we make, every word we say, every action we take, every position we support, has to be run through that filter, that criteria. Is what I'm about to decide, say, do, letting love rule? Or is something else at work here? I fail at this on a regular basis, but maybe just this month, as a celebration of Valentine's Day, I'll give it an especially conscious try. That's my intention for the month, anyway. Feel free to share your thoughts on the subject in the comment thread. All right. On to the other news... Have you hooked anything for Valentine's Day? It's not too late, and our shop is filled with hearts of one kind of another. Some are patterns, all can be kitted, some are pillows, some are sachets. Some are even finished - no hooking necessary - just have me ship it to you in time for Valentine's Day. Take a peek at the shop, navigating using the section clicks on the left sidebar, HERE. Not specifically related to Valentine's Day, but new to the shop this past week is a new digital download section for patterns. I've been asked to provide this for a long time and you can see the first seven of them HERE. They are designed for you to download, print in sections, put together, and transfer on to your own foundation. They come with a full instruction sheet on how to properly draw a pattern on the grain with helpful hints for making the process as easy as possible. An example is below. In this case, "Tesla's First Snow" will download in four sheets so that the pattern is actual size upon assembly. Finally, this week I'm going to be introducing all of the particulars and sign up instructions for our new pattern/kit subscription service. Last year I did an online survey and those of you who responded told me that a quarterly service would most interest you, with a mix of genres (seasonal, primitive, contemporary, etc). You were pretty evenly split on patterns vs. kits, so I'm going to offer an option for each. These will ship in March, June, September, and December of this year. We'll evaluate the program at the end of the year for popularity, participation, and any tweaking it needs in response to your feedback. Patterns available through the subscription service will *only* be available to subscribers - not to any other customers - in the year they are shipped. For those of you who have read the blog all the way to this point, here's a special coupon code good through Valentine's Day in the Etsy shop: LETLOVERULE2017. Use this coupon code for 10% off on any purchase of $25 or more in the Etsy shop. I've just noticed that I've listed my 200th item in the shop, so hopefully you'll find something just right for you. Happy hooking and let love rule.

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