Local Artists!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!! What did we do before Hobby Lobby? Here is a picture of our modestly small (our house is for sale) Christmas tree with our wrapped gifts underneath. I got the paper, tulle and gift tags all from Hobby Lobby (at 50% off no doubt). Every year I say "I'm going to use up all the random paper, and NEXT year I'll do matching wrapping paper". I didn't use up all the random paper but I did wrap my presents to all match! It's almost like fabric!! I love the red polka dot and swirly paper!

Here are a couple of Christmas gifts I got this year! The first is an Ex Voto necklace made by a friend of a couple of friends here in Montgomery. She travels all over to find pieces to make her jewelry and I was SURPRISED when I opened a piece from Jeff (thanks to KV for the suggestion and to my SIL for her help too)! Here is her blog ~ http://exvotojewels.blogspot.com/ and she is also on Facebook. The other side of the charm has initials engraved on it which aren't mine, but that's what makes it so interesting!

 I also got this beautiful painting by Donnie Sasser. He is also a local artist and I couldn't find any blog or website but there is info out there if you google him. His paintings are very popular here in Montgomery! I have another one that hangs by my door.

 Lastly, the boys did an art camp last week with Abrakadoodle. In the summer they do art camps with the lady who runs the program here in town. They each painted these cute Christmas trees (with a little help I'm sure) and also some candy cane ornaments that were precious! I LOVE the artwork they do! In our next house there will be a wall of it somewhere! I have tons of paintings from the past 3 or 4 summers of art camps!

Lastly, I gave Jeff a painting of our house. A) because this will always be "our first house". Meaning this is the house all 3 of our kids came home to and were partially raised in. B) because hopefully in the near future this house will sell and we'll have the painting as a sweet memory! I meant to take a photo of it but haven't yet, but you can see it at AMR Art. It's the middle house with the wrought iron benches on the front porch. Amanda is also local and I have another painting she did in Mallory's room I may have posted a couple of years ago, and I also have another plaque which hangs in my kitchen I got at a Holiday Open House. I also have one of her Cathedral Angel paintings which is also in Mallory's room. I love her work and would love to have more of it (next house!!). (p.s.AMR Art is on my blog list below and she is also on Facebook ~ Amanda Roberson Art)

I took a picture of the painting (below) but Amanda's picture is better than mine! Check out her blog!

I'm busy re-sampling some of our Applique Cafe designs and we also listed 4 new ones this morning. Sometimes a design looks one way and with a change of fabric looks totally different. Since I'm "off" this week, I'm taking some time to re-do some of our older ones that I think might be cuter with different fabric. We have several Valentine designs listed as well as Mardi Gras, which are both coming up soon. We'll be working on new Easter designs as well! The NEW designs are featured on the home page!

Merry Christmas Eve Eve!

Here are a couple of shirts I did yesterday. The AC OWL which is one of my favorite designs. The font is Grins & Giggles which is also another favorite of mine (from Applique Frenzy).

 I also did the Celtic Cross (Embroidery Boutique) with the vintage stitching. This picture doesn't show how cute this fabric is! I take my pictures in my dining room sometimes and this is one of them ~ no matter how I edit it doesn't do it justice! Again, the Grins & Giggles font from AF.

I cut off orders a couple of weeks ago and these were the last of what I had agreed to do before Christmas! I am now technically done, although I have 2 Applique Cafe samples to do today. I have not wrapped the first present, and yet I find myself cleaning out drawers, throwing stuff away, doing laundry. Can you say procrastination???

Projects for after Christmas: organizing my fabric (it is a MESS) and organizing and getting rid of some blanks! I have a couple of quilted bags (lime green and brown w/ blue trim) that have been in my drawer for who knows how long, as well as some short sleeve tees I bought last year. I have a baggie of crochet appliques from www.quiltware.com ~ not sure if I will use them? Tons of shirts in general that I've "collected" and never used! I buy stuff thinking I'll use it and never do!

It's seriously time to eat lunch and then WRAP WRAP WRAP!! I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas if I don't post again until after Saturday! Turn off the embroidery machine and enjoy time with your family!!

Merry week of Christmas!!

Here is my very small stack of "to-do" for this week. I'm down to 5 shirts! These were some I had agreed to do a week or two ago and am just now getting around to them. Hopefully I can finish these tomorrow and enjoy some time off to wrap presents (I haven't wrapped a single one yet) and do some other stuff around the house and with the kids! Jeff is off for a while over Christmas too so I'm sure we'll find something to do ~ probably do some new AC designs!?

 We all went to Target last night and I bought this cute little travel iron. I had a craft iron on my list but could never find one, so I saw this one in/on the luggage aisle and decided it would do - probably gets a little hotter too? My plan is to use it on my applique fabric AFTER the tackdown stitch and AFTER I've trimmed, but BEFORE the satin stitches. With my Heat N Bond Lite, I think it'll fuse the fabric better to my garment before the final satin stitch. Note: add a new ironing board to my list ~ this one looks horrible! Lots of HNBL residue built up on it.

This weekend we went to a (HILARIOUS) Christmas Vacation party. Jeff & I are not the dress up type (I think we've dressed up once since we've been together over the past 12 or so years). He went as Cousin Eddie (black dickie and all) and I went as Audrey. There were lots of Eddie's at the party, a couple of Clarks, an Ellen, several Catherines and even Aunt Bethany and Uncle Louis. Lots of fun!!

Here is a pic of Audrey from the movie. My hair wasn't as kinky but I had the pink headband!

Here is Cousin Eddie. I think his pants are green and of course, the black dickie. 

Jeff actually wore one of MY shirts!

Here is a family photo from the movie. I think everyone was just about covered! 

If you're friends with me on Facebook then you can look on there to see the rest!

I had a visit from my friend the other day, AGAIN! I don't know if he's coming in with the mail or what? He seems to like it amongst my sewing stuff!!

It's almost CHRISTMAS! While we've been done with shopping for a week, not a present has been wrapped yet! I guess we'll get it done! Applique Cafe ~ all "Christmas & Holiday Stuff" designs are 50% off, everything else is 25% off and you get $5 off your purchase of $20 or more through the end of this month! We've already put up 4 new Valentine designs for the upcoming year and also several Mardi Gras designs! We'll work on more over the next week or two including EASTER!

Have a great week!

Countdown to CHRISTMAS!!

This Sock Monkey design is featured on the right hand of my blog. Like the Elizabeth's Embroideries Lamb #3 from my post a week or two ago, I get a lot of e-mails from people looking for it. It is from Applique For Kids and this is her photo as well. It also comes as just the Sock Monkey face which is cute! I believe MODA sells the sock monkey fabric too (seen on ETSY). I usually use brown gingham or the Fabric Finder's brown houndstooth fabric (small houndstooth) ~ need to order some of this fabric because it is pretty cute. Anyway, I thought I'd post where it came from since I get asked at least once a week! This is one of those designs too that may look off center with the tail - I did it on a tee yesterday and got it centered w/ the name! I did a post on centering off center designs a month or so ago as well and will try to post that link ~ HERE it is!!

 Here's a new AC design sampled by http://sewinitially.blogspot.com/ today. I love this design! This and the Topiary are my favorites for Spring! We're also working on several Valentine designs and Mardi Gras (a couple are not listed yet but preview pics are on Facebook).

Here is my train of work for this week. This was taken a couple of days ago so luckily I am down to 4 big towels and 7 hand towels (ALL MONOGRAMMING) and 1 bag of shirts. The towels are for Christmas so they will be done in the next day or two. This is IT for me! Jeff was so proud of me last night ~ someone called with some items to monogram and I referred them to a place in town that might do them. My usual answer is "oh sure (twist my arm, I hate to say NO to anyone) I can do them" and I have vowed that this is it for this week so I can enjoy a couple of weeks of Christmas (no school) and the New Year!

 JOANN!!!!!!! This weekend they had 50% off NOTIONS, so all of this was 1/2 off including the Gingher 4" curved scissors (mine were getting dull). BUT..... I also had a 20% off your total purchase coupon that started SUNDAY as this sale ended on SUNDAY! So I got all this at 50% off, then they took another 20% off. Needless to say that is why I bought so much. My drawers are overflowing with Heat N Bond Lite but I use it so much that I couldn't pass up this deal. Hopefully no one else in Montgomery wanted any b/c I cleared out the HNBL shelf!

 Here are a couple of shirts I did this past week - the AC Owl...

 The AC Tinsel Tree...

Lastly, the AC Zig Zag Christmas Tree done in the Michael Miller Play Dot fabric.

We are done with our shopping, I think! Jeff & I ran our last errands this morning and hopefully that's it! Our kids are getting way more than they need! What's new, huh? I have bags of toys crammed on my closet shelves (half hidden) and more up in the attic. I can't even remember what all I've bought! The little ones have their parties tomorrow, B on Friday and G has his program at school Friday. Then they are OUT OF SCHOOL for over 2 weeks! Pros and cons to that - hopefully they won't get bored and I can SLEEP IN! Back to monogramming...

Celebrating FRIDAY!

I am so glad it's Friday! I haven't posted in a while. I pull up my blog several times a day and usually check my blog list for updates. I haven't had anything exciting to post (and still don't) but thought I would do a quick Friday post and include a few RANDOM pictures! I've collected/found a few more thread ornaments. The wreath in the middle (also seen at The Pleated Poppy's blog ~ today's post) I bought last year so I found it when we got our Christmas out. We ended up putting up a skinny Christmas tree this year and we put it in the corner of our dining room, so I have not done my "Sewing Tree" b/c I thought it might be overkill for my dining room/sewing room (since our house is for sale). I got a few more ornaments (Santa x 2 and another snowman) this week from Joann. For now they are partying in a bowl in my china cabinet (which is full of fabric)!

Someone sampled the AC Topiary for me in Christmas colors ~ I love this design!

 And... earlier this week I got a box of shirts I ordered from Hollywood Baby, and this little guy either came in on the box, or came in IN the box all the way from Birmingham!! It took me 20 minutes to chase him all over my dining room/sewing room and I finally caught him in a big cup and set him free outside! He reminds me of the Geico Gecko? 

I did my last 4 shirts like Monday, and somehow I now have like 25 more things to do? Most of it is monogramming which is less time consuming than applique. Hope to get it all done by mid-week next week and that will be IT! No more! Finished til 2011! My answer will be N-O!!

Sale note: At my Joann, Heat N Bond Lite is 50% off this weekend and I have a 20% off coupon for Sunday only (total purchase). I have tons but may try to stock up!? That's quite a deal!!

Applique Cafe ~ Christmas designs are on sale, PLUS get $5 off your purchase of $20 or more. Have a great weekend!

Where did December come from?

First and foremost - isn't this the cutest tree you've ever seen? I borrowed this picture from http://preppypapergirl.blogspot.com/ which I have added to my blog list. I ordered some little gift tags from her earlier this year and had not thought twice about them (just when I use them) and someone sent me a link to her blog this week so I immediately added her to my list b/c everything is so cute! Take a look! She sells on ETSY of course, where everything is so stinkin' cute! My goal is to do a SEWING TREE!! Love the ribbon and ornaments and THE TREE!! I believe she sells these ornaments too, so pop on over to her blog and see. Cute Cute Cute!

I saw the above blog TODAY ~ YESTERDAY I bought THIS ORNAMENT from Joann...

Coincidence?? I already had a SEWING TREE on my mind?? I hung this cute thread guy on my kitchen cabinet and this, my friends, is the extent of Christmas decor in the Gulledge household other than an Auburn Christmas tree in G's room. My "FALL" market basket is still on my front door. No. Christmas. Anywhere. But, I have a thread guy ornament for my sewing tree! You may be wondering what a sewing tree has to do with the Preppy Paper Girl cute ribbon and ornament tree? Not much other than my sewing tree will have ribbon on it, and my thread guy.

I did this Swirly Tree today to match the below striped pants. The shadows are bad. I can't seem to take a picture these days. My broken LENS is finally back from being fixed and I pick it up tomorrow.

I also did this Rudolph with Lights this week. I like him!

And a new AC design is this cute TOPIARY which was listed today. I also have a pic in Christmas fabrics I need to edit and post. I did this on a tee for Mallory and I could totally see this design in her future bathroom ~ on a towel or something? You could also put an initial in the box!

I've been sewing like a crazy woman all week and am down to MY LAST 4, YES FOUR, QUATRO shirts!! I have agreed to do a few shirts next week for 2 people and that may be IT until 2011! We showed our house yesterday, which meant everything had to be taken down. The taking down and putting it all back out thing is getting really really really old. That, and the fact that Christmas is around the corner and I haven't decorated anything and have only bought about 3 presents, are reasons enough to call it quits for a few weeks. Email me with any questions!

All Christmas and Holiday designs are now 25% off at www.appliquecafe.com! Also, take $5 off your $20 or more purchase ~ sale prices/deals good through December 31, 2010! WAR EAGLE ~ we are going to the SEC Championship game this weekend! I hope the "All I do is win win win" song is still applicable Saturday night!

Rain Rain Rain

I've been working like an ELF yesterday and today trying to finish all of the shirts I have. I'm down to my last 12, yes TWELVE!!!!!!!!!! Woo Hoo!!!! I WILL finish these by the end of this week! Here is one of my favorite designs for Christmas, especially for older kids (with an older looking font). I did a red turtleneck last year for Browder which G will probably wear this year!

 If you've followed my blog for a while, then this picture looks familiar! This is where I sometimes pile all of my "DONE" shirts ready for pickup! Most of these were done yesterday and today!

 Here is the weather photo for today ~ RAIN!!! It has rained all. day. long. I resisted a good afternoon nap and have slaved behind this machine most of the day.

How cute is this????

 This is a daughter of a customer and Mallory has one of these precious headbands. I want to take a picture of her with it on and will try to do so and post this week. These are by ZoeLynn & Co. and can be found HERE (Facebook) and HERE (Etsy). They are really cute and she has some great fabrics for Christmas too! Check her out and become a fan on Facebook!

So much for my WIWW (The Pleated Poppy)!! I failed miserably! I will try to take a pic every now & then and post, but as far as every day... I'm just not that stylish! HA! I still LOVE the blog and will keep up with what everyone else is wearing! I added her and another great blog to my blog list ~ both unrelated to applique but fun to read!

We have at least 7 new designs coming to Applique Cafe. There was also some confusion as to the Elizabeth's Embroideries Lamb design from my previous post. The website owner misunderstood my post and thought I was claiming it as my own! Most of you know a lot of the designs featured on my blog are from all different sites. I changed it so that you can see it's clearly from her site, and I may start adding captions underneath all of my right-hand-side pictures so you know where the design came from! She & I e-mailed this morning and it was a simple misunderstanding. I will add that info in my spare time....

As far as taking on more work! Maybe next week? We're heading to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Saturday so I'd like to finish my 12 and enjoy my weekend and then might take on a few orders before Christmas!

December Eve Eve

I hope everyone had a fabulous and 

relaxing Thanksgiving full of good food and family!?

I have been asked 2 or 3 times lately where this design came from. I have designs on my blog from lots of different places ~ they are not all from Applique Cafe! This cute lamb/sheep is from Elizabeth's Embroideries. This website is tricky to maneuver but if you scroll down on the page, you'll see a pink one with a bow. That's the one! 

 Today I did the Double Circle design and while the coloring on my photo is off due to the rainy weather today (I took the pic outside), I loved these fabrics together! I was matching a pair of pink pants and also a green cord skirt. It's the daintiest pink flower fabric and I love using it! I also used it on our new angel in a blue/periwinkle version of the same fabric.

We spent 5 days at the beach for Thanksgiving and it was fabulously relaxing! This was our 5th year I think of the beach tradition and we will hopefully continue for years to come. The weather is usually GREAT along with great shopping (and eating) and lots of doing NOTHING! I even met a blogger/applique/facebook friend at Publix down there. We were in the produce section and gave each other that "are you ?" look and quickly realized we knew each other, cyber-speaking knew each other! Not quite as crazy as running in to another blogger friend down at Disney this past year, but fun nonetheless. It's a small world after all...

Lots of these on the beach....

And lots of smiles....

This is NOT my Christmas card photo but I thought it was cute enough to post. I took about 40 pictures and ordered my Christmas cards today after spending most of the day on 7 different websites playing around with my "it" picture and all the gazillion cards out there. Snapfish had 30% off today so I went with them (and free shipping). Yeah! So glad that is over with (the ordering part).

My family was also extremely happy with the Iron Bowl results and are pumped up about ATLANTA this weekend (SEC Championship)! I went to Troy, but my husband, sister, father, brother in law, sister in law, half brother, a few cousins and 2 uncles graduated from Auburn so that qualifies me as a true Auburn fan! I'm sure I'm leaving some extended family and/or friends out of that list too. WAR EAGLE!!

We are working on some new AC designs for this week. 40% off sale ends tomorrow (or first thing Wednesday morning). Have a great week! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

First up... Thanksgiving "Gobble Gobble" Sale at www.appliquecafe.com! 

40% off all designs through the end of the month 

(aka November 30th)

Don't forget Applique Cafe gift certificates! 

Put them on your Christmas list or hint to hubby that you'd love one/some in your stocking! 

They come in increments of $10!

 

I didn't do too good with WIWW (www.thepleatedpoppy.com, see blog). I made it 2 days, Saturday we showed our house twice and camera was inaccessible, Sunday ~ church, and yesterday I was in shorts and a T-shirt all day with no makeup! It really is a challenge to a) get dressed every day and b) take a photo of  yourself.

 Above - me getting ready to go look at a house (plan B) and also attend Southern Homes & Garden's Ladies Night Out last Thursday!! black layer tee: Target, gray top: Walmart!!, cross necklace: Forever 21, jeans: Gap, shoes: Bare Traps.

Above: Friday errands and misc. all day and Auburn Basketball game Fri night.

cream turtleneck sweater: Gap, pea green infinity scarf: TJMaxx (love green),

skinny jeans: Mossimo Target, brown boots: Shoe Station

Well, it's almost THANKSGIVING!

 And IRON BOWL

 And BLACK FRIDAY

I hope everyone has a relaxing week full of good food and family! We'll be working on new designs hopefully this week! I was pleased with all of my samplers this week and hope to put them to use next week! 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

p.s.I did not get everything done prior to Thanksgiving! I still have 22 items to do and will get those done ASAP starting on Monday. My sewing room has been taken down for the rest of the week!

Happy Weekend!

Here are some pics from my week! First of all, I've had a Starbucks addiction for a few years now, ever since my friend brought me a Mocha Frappacino one morning while we let our kids play. This was several years ago and I've probably spent thousands of dollars (OK maybe not that much) at Starbucks. Mostly at our Cornerstone locale, but it was so bad for a while there that we would have to find them on trips just so I could get one. I used to think they slid some crack in them. For a year or so now (ever since they changed the Frap recipe), I also developed a liking for just a Mocha (hot drink) and I get them several times a week ~ usually when it's my carpool morning. I also enjoy a McDonalds Mocha Frappe, but that's another story. The other day I took the lid off and this is what is left. YUCK! All the mocha at the bottom and some other unknown "things" appear to be stuck to the wall of the cup! Totally random, but I had to take a picture to help myself break this habit! We'll see if it works... this is really disgusting looking...

 I got a surprise box in the mail this week from TJ's Fabric in Opp, AL! They so graciously send me these packages every now & then and it's like Christmas (maybe better?)! If you are anywhere in the vicinity of Opp (south AL), Dothan, Montgomery, or on your way to Destin and you drive down 331, turn off in OPP and visit this pharmacy/fabric store in one. I stopped on our way to the beach in July and am trying to get back down there sometime soon! My parents aren't far from there so hopefully I can go visit in the next month or so! FABULOUS selection of every kind of fabric you could imagine at GREAT prices! All under one roof ~ Michael Miller, Amy Butler, ginghams, polka dots, Riley Blake and everything and everyone else! Here are some of what T. sent me! Who doesn't love an OWL??? LOVE all of these!!

 My pics are out of order ~ here are a few Rabbit Skins hoodies I sent to Texas yesterday. You can't tell but the top fabric is that lime, blue & brown tri-check. I know some people dislike Rabbit Skins, but I have to say (I do like their tees and) these are GREAT hoodies! Very thick and soft and I thought they were great! They also have little pockets on the sides.

 Here is a shot of my "bundles". They are on the sidewalk because I try to take my pictures outside my front door. The lighting is so much better than in my dining room (which makes my pics YELLOW).

 Love how they are all neat & tied with ribbon too! Like Christmas I tell you!

 Another grouping of the green and OWL prints! Super Duper cute and I can't wait to use them! As I stated in my last post, GREEN is my absolute favorite color in the whole wide world.

 More...

I'm having a blast with WIWW (see Wed. post). Jeff e-mailed me after Wednesdays post and I think he thought I had fallen off the deep end. Taking a picture of myself in the mirror is SO not my thing, but it has been fun to play along with The Pleated Poppy! It also makes you think twice about those jogging shorts and a t-shirt. I took pics Thurs & Fri, but not today. We got 2 calls last night saying they were showing our house this morning to 2 different people, so I couldn't tell you where my camera was. We got home at 10pm from an Auburn basketball game and cleaned til after 11, then cleaned ourselves out the door this morning at 9:30. 

So we've showed our house 5 times in 3 weeks. Not bad? It is A LOT OF WORK this selling a house business. Getting it all dusted and cleaned and everything in it's place, blinds open, lamps on just perfect, ALL OF MY SEWING STUFF PUT AWAY!!! 

I decided Thursday night to find some girls to help me with sampling my Applique Cafe designs. I conducted "interviews" via e-mail and picked 7. I got a bunch of great photos by lots of people wanting to sample. It was hard to pick but I picked 7 and farmed out our newest designs for them to sample for me yesterday and today. One less thing for me to have to do! We will hopefully get them all listed on www.appliquecafe.com tomorrow! Good night!! Look for WIWW pics this week (may have to post on Tuesday)!