The ATL!!

My birthday was in September and Jeff & I were supposed to go on a mini trip to Reynold's Plantation in Georgia. Busy-ness thwarted our plans (I opted out due to our heavy schedule) so we rescheduled and went to ATLANTA this week to shop and spend the night! It was a great little 36 hour trip! Monday I shopped ~ we had no plans other than finding a Forever 21 store which we found at Perimeter Mall. I had visited this store once before on another Georgia trip and wanted to go back. I am FAR from 21, but they have a HUGE store  (like 4 stores) in Perimeter Mall and Jeff so kindly sat outside on a bench while I shopped! I got several cute sweaters and racked up on costume jewelry!! Sometimes you just need a fun necklace to throw on with that plain black top. Most of the below were BELOW $8!! The cross necklaces were like $4.80. Most everything in the store is very reasonable and unique!

We also hit Anthropologie, Restoration Hardware, a Container Store and I hit Marshalls too and found some great bargains! If we saw a store we liked, we'd just stop and go look. Haven't done that in FOREVER!! I can't even remember the last time we strolled through a Mall! Oh, and we ate Cheesecake Factory for lunch! Monday night we walked a block from our hotel and ate at BONES, which was Y-U-M-M-O!! Monday was tons of fun and a successful shopping trip for ME (always fun to find fall clothes when it's 88 degrees outside in late October).

Tuesday, we visited SEWINGMACHINE.COM (the Atlanta store of course). We got a great tour of the place from Steve and there was so much to see that we had to leave for lunch and then go back! Here are some of the pics I took. My wide angle lens is in the shop, so I had to use my other lens for these pics and it wasn't easy to get the good shots!

These are GIGANTIC rolls of Stabilizer! Now that I think about it I didn't even look at the price on these. I'm guessing people who mass produce or mass applique/embroider things buy these - factories maybe?

 When we got there Steve immediately took us outside to a SewingMachine.com truck that was backed up to the loading dock. In the back were these SIXTEEN PR650's that a customer had purchased and he was getting ready to have delivered! WOW!! 

 There was embroidery thread for days! 

 Here is the ISACORD wall!

 This was a very LONG room FULL of industrial type demo sewing machines, sergers, etc. Amazing sight!

 These are a couple of the mega rolls of STABILIZER! I would have taken one home but I don't think I have room in my dining room for these...

 They also sell lots of cute acrylic blanks for the CAD cutting machines - they sell embroidery paper and all of your vinyl and ink sheets for vinyl cutting, ink sheets for t-shirts, etc. Vinyl cutting as in the car window monograms, decals, etc. that you see everywhere right now. As you can see below, sippy cups, mugs, snack containers, etc for the embroidery paper inserts.

And here is a magnificent 4 head embroidery machine! I could really crank out some stuff with this!

While we were there Steve's sister was printing shirts, people were in and out buying supplies, machines were being serviced, etc. It is a busy place! They sell anything and everything related to sewing and embroidery (among other things). Jeff & I were amazed! I also learned how to use the cap hoop so I'm anxious to do a couple of visors I've had since this Summer to do. Great trip and I'm so glad I finally got to see the infamous ATLANTA store! I asked Steve how they handle internet orders since everything comes out of that store. He said the UPS man comes at a certain time every day so when it gets close to that time, they pass out orders and everyone helps get them together to ship. 

We also visited InTown Quilters in Decatur, GA (my 2nd trip to this fabulous fabric/quilting store). I will post those pics later since this post is already long!

I sampled a zig zag tiara yesterday and have 2 more AC designs to sample today. As you can see, I've changed my blog to match our website and there is now a BLOG link ON the website (www.appliquecafe.com). I also went through and deleted a bunch of right column pictures yesterday and am going to try to update them more. I know you all get tired of seeing the same ole pictures!

Back to work! p.s., our house was videoed while we were gone, so we're just waiting for it and the photos to be edited and handed over to the listing agent. Hopefully we'll have a sign in the yard soon!