It's been a while since I posted last, so where have I been? Pretty much all over the place. I've posted on Dr Phil's site, I've posted on marshallprotocol.com, I've posted on SarcConnection MSN group and I've been getting well.

The brain fog, walking into walls, lost sentences when speaking and many other troubles have past.

I'm still not svelte and young, but hey, I can't have everything right? The important thing is I am alive and feeling like it is good to be alive again.

I've done some new counted cross stitch designs and even had more success with sales on theneedleworkshow.com April show than I did earlier. I switched to selling to wholesale only and that improved sales a lot. Eventually, I should be able to do live trade shows, but as I am finishing up the cave life for wellness, I can only look forward to that.

Have had some other fun projects too. Interesting to see the advertising on mindsay. Wishing you all well!--JRF

Stats for the year are revealing, but nothing is new about people liking online free downloads. Of course, these are served best without cookies or grabbing java coding, no popups or gimmicks. I don't do that, so this makes the freebee even better. I don't even require folks to sign up for a newsletter or give me their email address. It is simply a free item. 

Some may consider this bad marketing. My philosphy is it is good long-term relationship marketing, not a quick ROI event. Just a little business philosophy and I could be wrong. Since there are so many testing out the other types, I thought I would test this one. 

The most popular 2005 free item was the Baby Jesus Christmas Creche ornament. It is small, works well on Aida or Evenweave because there are no significant fractional stitches. It works up quick. This chart showed a steady download all year long but showed a dramatic increase during the Christmas season, especially when the next most popular download was released, the Mary Christmas Creche ornament #2.

The Mary ornament was only available for part of the 4th quarter of 2005, but saw more downloads in that short period of time than any other free download. Wow. Also designed for full cross stitches on Aida or Evenweave. I actually stitched two of them in December. Both have fun clear beads that catch the lights of Christmas Trees.

The third most popular chart was introduced about mid way through the year and is designed for full cross stitches on Aida or Evenweave. Fun with only a few colors that are easy to change to meet one's individual preferances if you are an advanced stitcher, but designed with the younger new cross stitcher in mind. Loads of fun and something any shop owner can use for a beginner's workshop.

Alphabets for the baby carousel birth announcements came in 4th place. Since most of the birth announcements were introduced for a short "free days" period of time, the alphabets were a fun additional download for all. It has a fun and different set of alphabets for any heirloom chart that includes important dates and names.

I'm deciding what to add next to the site for 2006. There are many free cross stitch sites. Many that sell charts too. I guess I'll keep doing what I like to do at http://www.carouselcharts.com. Hope you come and visit.

The holiday season has been wonderful with my daughter and her children. We had several beautiful months together with children's birthdays, holidays and the 2006 new year.

I can honestly say her friendship and love has been the glue that held me together during a most difficult period of healing. I will miss my dear grandchildren and their frequent hugs and kisses.

To them I wish Godspeed and goodwill as they open a new chapter in their life in a distant state. I have much to do before I can see them again, but they will have my heart no matter where they are.

Blogging on Mindsay hasn't occupied my time recently as much as it did earlier this year. I've been working on work, family, healing from a life-threatening disease, trying to start a business, and generally just hanging out in between.

But I do enjoy reading your posts from time to time. So for 2005, thank you all at Mindsay and have a Happy New Year!

 ... 

 ... 

Ho Ho Ho,

Hairy Christmas!... er

Merry Christmas!

Actually, this is just Angel again for friends, family, work buddies, pet lovers and those who like to have a little fun on the holidays. Of course, the picture is unretouched (smile) .