Ms Pins is on FIRE…Amazon Store and MORE!!

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Um…I think we created a monster….a good one but a force, that’s for sure.  Remember me saying last week that Kayla was starting a business called Ms. Pins Media?

Ms. Pins Media

Well she went immediately into action.


Not only has she helped Mary at Country Threads blog, she’s helped several of you…or will be soon.  I know she’s been booking clients.

She initially thought she’d mostly work on starting new blogs for people but she’s finding she’s doing a lot of “refreshing” blogs, she’s helping people add advertising to existing blogs, she’s setting up emails, she’s making logos….she’s doing pretty much anything people ask for or request for their social media.

Well she is using me as her guinea pig.  I don’t mind a bit.  She’s given my blog a new look which I love and many of you seem to like too.  But…she has me scrambling behind the scenes.  She wants to get more experience doing all of the things that she thinks potential clients might want her to be able to do.  For example she thinks a client might want her to help with setting up an Amazon store….so she asked me to set up an Amazon store.  Ummm, sure.  So she set the store all up for me then taught me how to load things into the store and now, (this guinea pig) me, has an Amazon store.

I’m THRILLED.   I now have an Amazon store.  I would have never taken the time to do that for myself.  I just get so frustrated with doing stuff like that and I hate wasting time trying to figure it out.  I’m also so unsure of myself when it comes to learning new things on the technology front.  Kayla was perfect for me….and now I have an Amazon store.  I’ve been wanting one for over a year now but never took the time to figure it out…in the end, it really wasn’t hard either (with Kayla’s help).

You can find the Amazon link if you hit the “Jo Recommends” tab at the top or at the right side bar near the top…I’m so excited.

So many of you have asked for an easier place for you to find all the books I’ve been reading….well now you have it.  They are there.  At first Kayla said how about you just put your top ten books there…um, WHAT??  Who has top ten?  I have a top 200 or so!!  So now the book section is loaded with my current top 100 ish that I could think of.  I’ll be adding more books to it as I go.  I decided if I rate the book 4.4 or higher, I’ll add it to the Amazon store.  If it has a lower rating, I won’t add it.  How does that sound?

Did I tell you how excited I am??  I really am.

For those of you who don’t know, if you purchase anything through the Amazon link, I get a small commission off of whatever you order.  You don’t pay any more money for the product….Amazon just rewards me for bringing you to their site.  It’s much the same as any link I’ve had on the blog all along.

I’m thanking you in advance for your purchases…I really appreciate it.  The money helps keep the blog up and running.  I’ve said before that there are fees to blogging…your purchases help pay them.  THANKS!!

Now she can add setting up Amazon affiliates and store to her list of things she can proficiently do!!  Being a guinea pig isn’t all that bad!!

The other thing Kayla has me doing is this…. Continue reading →

Monday with the Boys…

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I had Kalissa’s boy, Carver and Gannon, on Monday. I had told you all that we were distancing again…but happily, we’re seeing each other again.  We aren’t seeing many more than though.  One of them had a scare at their work and decided to stay away from me until is was resolved.  The person tested negative so we’re together again..and I’m happy.

For the most part, Mondays are Grandma days.  Oh my, I love Grandma care over childcare.  I can still do the laundry, make phone calls and even write a blog post if it works in with the boys.

Today we did errands in town.  Remember me saying that I bought the double wide stroller at a garage sale a bit ago.  I love it and have used it some already.

I had Gannon in the stroller and Rosie on the leash so I couldn’t go in to do the errands but being we live in small town Iowa, and I Carver who is getting close to 4 year olds, he can handle the errands.

At the post office, I sent him inside with a check and told him to tell Sue our postmaster that he was bringing in packages from Grandma Jo. She came and helped…it was so sweet.

The at the bank I stood outside the window and called into the bank and ask them to take cash out of my savings, put it in an envelope, and send it to me via Carver playing courrier. They did and Carver loved it!! He felt like such a big boy.

I love small town life where so many people in town know Carver is my grandson and the are patient and let Carver help me.  Carver knows so many of the people in our town already.  I love that.

From there we went on a walk…Carver biked, I pushed the stroller. We didn’t go super far but far enough to give Rosie a little exercise and far enough for me to feel like I got out of the house. That $5 bike was a great garage sale find too!! He rides it so much.

From there is was lunch time. Carver loves when we make these… Continue reading →

Ask Jo: Need Some Help from YOU!

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Every so often questions and comments come from readers that I think others would like to hear my response to.  That’s when I feature them on the blog.  This is one of those days.

Today I have some question first and then I have some requests that I need your help with that I can do on my own…

First up from Patricia:
“Jo, beautiful job on your cross stitch and framing. Thank you for sharing your technique with us. Since you are using 40 ct linen, do you use a lighted magnifying lamp? Which one would you recommend?
Also could you explain your method of deconstructing shirts. Thank you for sharing.”

Patricia wrote that after I wrote about finishing my Seeking Refuge cross stitch piece.  Read about that HERE is you missed it.

I do stitch on 40 count linen.  It’s seriously become my favorite.  I stitch one thread over two and that is my preferred favorite too.

I do use a light.  I have this Ott light…


Although spendy, it was well worth it.  I got mine from Joanns but it seems they don’t have them to order anymore.  I checked Amazon (HERE) and they seem out of stock there as well.

Ott does have this light and I’d assume it would work like mine…HERE


It appears it doesn’t have the clip and honestly, I don’t use the clip on mine anyway.

I also use these glasses if I’m not stitching at the couch in the living room…


HERE is a link for them.  I like these and they work great but…the nose piece takes a little getting used to.  There is a light in them so they really are fabulous and inexpensive.

Many people also just wear reading glasses over their regular glasses.  I’ve done that too.  Some get a higher strength magnification that what they would normally use.  You have to just work and experiment with what works best for you.

If you travel and stitch, you might want the white lighted magnifiers.  If you only stitch in the living room, you might want to invest in a great floor lamp.  It so hard to recommend things to people as I don’t what everyone’s life style is.  Maybe you already have a good lamp for light but just need magnification…for you then trying reading glasses in a higher strength might be all you need.

As far as deboning shirts…
I do have a blog post about that.  You can find it HERE.


I love using shirts in quilt projects.  It reminds me that I have another stack of shirts that still need to be deboned.  Hmmm.  Maybe I’ll pull that out the next time Kayla is home.  She’s great at deboning shirts.

The next question from Nicki:
“Hi Jo-Is there a pattern for the Civil War Tribute quilt? I would like to add that to my “make someday list”.”

Jo's BOM Challenge 2018 | Jo's Country Junction
Kelli and I both made one of these.  I have Kelli’s quilted and mine sits here waiting for quilting.


From all I know, there is not anywhere to buy the pattern from.  I’m guessing a blog reader might have one that they are willing to part with.  When I finished mine I got rid of the pattern…can’t remember if I gifted it or put it in the Goodwill box.

If you have a pattern and are willing to part with it, please contact Nicki at
Nikithe@hotmail.com

The next question comes from Julia via Messenger… Continue reading →

What I’m Working On…

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Kayla has me doing a lot of behind the scenes work for the blog.  Besides that, I’ve also been working to get a few quilts submitted for future publication….so, I’ve not been getting as much sewing done as I’d like.  It happens…

You might remember I was working on this…

It’s my #5 UFO for the Dirty Dozen Challenge.  Last week I had 11 rows together.  This week I have more….last count was 28 with a couple more to attach yet.  I need to keep going if this is going to be a finish yet this month.

I’ve only been working on that very casually.  So I’m happy with that progress.

Rosie…well she’s bored with the project…see??

I was also working on a quilt with the new fabric line from Moda called Cider.  I have 32 blocks done and 24 more to go.  It’s all cut out so that’s awesome.  Little by little it’s getting done.


With any luck, it will be a top next week.

I do have lots of behind the scenes work that I’m doing…I swear time at the computer just flies by and I don’t seem like I accomplish much.

On the cross stitch front.  I changed gears.  I was so frustrated with this…. Continue reading →