Open House, Windows and a Door – Plus More!

I mentioned a couple weeks back that we’re having our first-ever, in-person Christmas Open House at Needle ‘n Thread this year. We’re pretty excited about it! Anna and I have been working and planning for this for many weeks!

The Open House will take place over two weekends: Friday and Saturday, November 29 & 30, and Friday and Saturday, December 6 & 7. All four days, we’ll be open for visitors from 1:00 – 6:00 PM.

We’re located in a small town in Northeast Kansas – St. Marys – about halfway between Topeka and Manhattan, KS, along state highway 24. In fact, we’re located right on Highway 24 at 501 Bertrand Ave. If you can make it through either weekend, we’d love to meet you!

We even had a banner made for the front of the studio! Isn’t that fun? It looks like the image above. You see, we don’t have signage on our building, because we’ve been waiting for new windows and a working front door.

Well…. glory be! Guess what we got last week?

I know it doesn’t look like much right now, but it’s getting there! The building front will not be entirely finished by next week, but it will be functional!

Historic Downtowns

One of the great difficulties of historic downtown areas is maintaining the buildings. In the US, we’ve gotten used to the strip malls and similar fluctuating phenomenon of late 20th century urban sprawl. These types of spaces are practically “disposable” property – they are not built to last, and their life expectancy is apparently less than 20 years.

I tend to think that there’s so much more to value (on so many levels) in the old historic downtown areas of cities and towns throughout our country, and that these areas are worth preserving. It comes at a price, no doubt. But as far as character, history, longevity, charm, interest, and even identity – these old downtowns have the modern strip mall and disposable buildings beat by a long shot.

The big drawback, of course, is that they’re not expandable. So space is at a premium, and if you want to be there, you take what you can get and make it work. We have a good building – it just needs some work.

Anyway, I’m pretty happy to see that the front of our building is getting its much-needed face lift, which contributes not only to the aesthetic appeal of the building, but also to its future longevity – and to the overall charm and appeal of our community’s downtown area.

Visiting?

If you’re planning to visit either weekend of our Open House, you can expect a few exciting things at Needle ‘n Thread, plus other community activities in the area that are going on both weekends as well.

At Needle ‘n Thread…

At Needle ‘n Thread, even though we aren’t a full-fledged retail needlework shop, we’ll have a delectable array of goods available for you.

You’ll find a lot of what we stock on the website, plus we’ll have some extra kits on hand that make great gifts. We’ll be launching two products that aren’t on the website yet (but they will be soon, never fear!), plus lots of other needlework goodies: needle minders, needle threaders, tulip needles, hoops, our thread sets (floche, metallics), most of our kits… we have all that ready for you!

All day, each day, we’ll have Door Prize Drawings!

From shopping discounts to a gorgeous array of needlework books and goodies, our door prize drawings will be available for all our adult visitors – and yes, everyone’s a winner!

Search Press North America has supplied us with some fabulous needlework and crafting books for door prizes.

We even have a special ribbon embroidery kit that came all the way from South Africa, from Di van Niekerk!

We’ll have some Needle ‘n Thread kits, tools, and other supplies in the mix, too – and of course, it’s a party! So we’ll have refreshments, chatter, and good cheer.

Other Events in the Surrounding Areas

If you’re coming from a little distance, I know that we arne’t going to be able to capture your interest for a long, long time, because we are small! But there are other things going on in the area, that might entice you to pop in!

For example, if you’re in Northeast Kansas and you love a fresh Christmas tree, there’s Town Square Trees right across the street from Needle ‘n Thread.

They feature a variety of fresh trees – different types of spruce and firs. These are cut in Wisconsin just a few days before they go up on the lot, where they are kept watered and allowed to “fall out” so that you can see them from all angles. They really have the most beautiful trees available in this area! Ours always lasts well into January!

At the tree lot, they also have fresh wreaths, music, cocoa, a bonfire pit… it’s fun!

They’ll be open the same days we are open.

Another unique event here is the Christkindl Market at Flint Hills Shakespeare Festival.

This Christmas market, conceived in the style of the old European Christmas markets, is set up in Sir William’s Hollow, the festival grounds for the Flint Hills Shakespeare Festival. The market features local arts, crafts, and goodies from around northeast Kansas, as well as yummy food & drinks from vendors, traditional spiced Glühwein, music, lights, and more.

The Christkindl Market takes place the same days as our Open House – Friday and Saturday, November 29 & 30, and the following weekend, December 6 & 7, from 5:00 – 9:00 pm. It’s an evening thing, so feel free to stop by Needle ‘n Thread first!

Finally, on December 7th, there’s a downtown event here that’s been taking place for years, called The Bells of St. Marys. It varies from year to year. This year, it involves a bazaar in the local armory, a Christmas parade in the evening, Santa for photos, and more. The shops downtown usually stay open late and they have a lot of sales and fun things going on.

And Saturday, December 7th is the same day that Sugar Creek Country Store (an Amish-style bulk foods, candy, and deli) has their Christmas Open house, too! That’s always a favorite stopping place for folks driving along Highway 24 – they have a wide selection of all kinds of treats, old time toys, gifts, and pretty darned good deli sandwiches and soups.

Welcome to Our Small Town!

So those are the little things happening in our small town the same weekends as our open house, in case you’re looking for something to do in Northeast Kansas and Surrounds. I hope you can stop by! Needle ‘n Thread is located at 501 W. Bertrand Avenue in St. Marys, KS

But if you’re not in Northeast Kansas and you can’t stop by, don’t worry!

Between December 9th and Christmas, we’ll be having our own little festive celebration here on the website. I’ll be hosting a few pre-Christmas give-aways on Needle ‘n Thread for everyone!

That, and The Christmas Mitten stitch-along, of course! Installment #2 is coming on Friday. Look for it!