New Applique Cafe Designs...

I finally tested the new Applique Cafe designs! We hope to have them on the website (http://www.appliquecafe.com/) as soon as we can get them converted to ART! This is all I did today ~ yesterday I think I did 12 or more things trying to get everything done. I am down to my last 15 items! I've had several people call and e-mail me about monogramming and as hard as it is, I've had to tell them I was on vacation! If I let things slide in here & there (which I'm prone to do), then I'll never get any time off!

Today was our first full day with nothing to do! I took the kids to McDonalds to eat lunch, but it was so packed we sat in the regular dining area and didn't even stay to play on the playground! I can't wait until the pools open during the week! I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend!!

Getting closer...

I'm down to my LAST 19 items, and 8 of those I don't have instructions for or I'm waiting for something, so really 11!! I'm so close!! I could really be done by the weekend! YEAH!!!

Browder graduated Monday from Kindergarten and had his end of the year party yesterday (also his 7th birthday)! Today is the official start of SUMMER! Woo hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (i think?)

Sunday News!

Here is another stack of stuff I finished up Friday (14 shirts)! I did a few things yesterday and have done 14 things today since we got home from church and lunch! I'm down to 37 items (6 of which I don't have instructions yet). YEAH!!!!

I just did this http://www.embroidery-boutique.com/ treasure map and thought it turned out cute! My customer provided the fabric, as it matches some cargo shorts she had made!

I also did the AC Happy Fish on a swim coverup in girly colors! This is an easy design and looks cute for the SUMMER! Speaking of summer, when we got out of the car this morning at 9:30 to go in to church, it was already steaming hot!!!!!!!!!! It's only MAY! yikes!

I also have 4 new AC samples to sew, but need to knock out 18 more shirts before I work on those, or will squeeze in 1 every few shirts or something! Tomorrow morning is B's kindergarten graduation, followed by lunch and G's 4 yr checkup at 2:30! Not sure how much I will get done tomorrow? Tuesday morning we only have B's end of the year party and the rest of the day is free (except it's also B's 7th b-day). I'm thinking I can finish what I need to get done by the end of the week! Have a great Monday!

2 New Applique Cafe Designs

I've just added 2 new designs to http://www.appliquecafe.com/! We have 2 more to sample hopefully this weekend and a couple more we're working on for next week!

The font used for "Jack" is Garton from http://www.jolsonsdesigns.com/! This is a cute design for Summer and for a playground party!

I managed to get 9 items done yesterday and my machine is going now before we head to the pool! I'm down to 45 items (+6 awaiting instructions)!! Vacation here I come!!

School's (almost) out for Summer!!

Today was G & M's last day of school (sob sob sob)!! Their preschool (ages 3-5) did the cutest program about bugs & animals! G was a little BEE! Not sure what he was doing in this picture? He really did a great job of singing and doing the hand motions! It beats their Christmas program where he sat there like a log with his hands in his mouth the whole time!!

Anyone know where I can find some of this fabric? I THINK it's Michael Miller? My customer tried the quilt store in town but no luck! I only need a scrap to do a tee to match! It's a really cute fabric! (UPDATE: I FOUND THIS FABRIC - IT'S GARDEN PARTY BY ANNA MARIA HORNER - ONE PLACE IT CAN BE FOUND IS WWW.ITSFORQUILTING.COM. Thanks to everyone who e-mailed me!)

This is the http://www.embroidery-boutique.com/ popsicle! This is one of my favorite designs, and this is LOVE font, which is also one of my alltime favorite fonts! It's from http://www.embroideryfontshop.com/!

I ended up doing 14 shirts yesterday! So far today I've done 4. Slowly chipping away at my load!

I recently came across a page on Facebook and found these tees on Etsy. The link is http://www.wtingle.etsy.com/ and I think these are the cutest things in the world!! Best of all, they are $12!!!! She even does a special each month where certain designs are $10! I just think they are precious and I'm about to order a few! I never have enough t-shirts for my kids you know!!!

Strawberries

We had church last night (pot luck) so I went to Costco and got 4 lbs of strawberries for $6.99! You cannot beat their fruit prices (if you need enough fruit to feed a church)! Browder asked me why I was taking a picture of a bowl of strawberries. I just thought it looked so beautiful!! Jeff's mom gave us a tomato today too - I had visions of our first tomato sandwich of the summer!!! YUMMY! There is nothing better than a good ole tomato sandwich - ham, bacon, etc. optional!

Today I did 12 shirts!! I took a Mama Goldberg's lunch break (story to come) and Nancy's Italian Ice, then passed the kids off to the MIL so I could come home and work! :( It was such a pretty day but I got my Starbucks and came home to sit in front of the machine! I took the kids to Mama G's for lunch. It was pretty crowded and the line was long enough. I had 2 unruly kids whom I threatened 3 times (G at least). The threats obviously didn't work so I had no choice but to wrestle my 3 kids (G screaming NO!!!) and leave the restaurant! Lovely!!! We got back in the car and had a 10 minute convo about how not to act at a restaurant, and then I did the unthinkable... I unloaded the kids and we went back for a 2nd try!! It actually worked and they were little angels!! Hopefully in that 10 minutes in the car the people in there when we left had already left!!

I'm still chipping away at my work! My current tally is:

59 items (of those, 6 I don't have instructions yet and 7 are for the summer so no huge rush)

Other than one 6 piece order I received on 4/28 that I needed to do last week, the rest came in on May 4 and 5 and 11 items came in after that! I have 6 items that need to be done by 4:15 tomorrow! Garrison has his program tomorrow and it's the last day of school for the little ones! Browder graduates Monday and his party is Tuesday so no more school for him either! HOPEFULLY I can bust it and get all this stuff done ASAP! When I do, I plan to take a much need break from orders! I may take the month of June off, or I may take June and July! I may be bored after 2 weeks!? Regardless I just need a breather and won't be taking any more orders! Thanks for understanding!! Will update soon...

My vacation message...

Hopefully you've seen my obnoxious VACATION sign up top! I'm going to really try hard to stick with this! I have already had 2 people ask/mention today that they wanted me to do stuff and while I'd love to, I'm REALLY going to try to abstain and honor my plan! As of today I have about 62-65 items to do and am working every day to try to get it all done ASAP. I think most of it was brought to me on May 5 and 6!! Yesterday I was able to do about 10 shirts; however today I've only done 3 so far and we have church at 5:30.

Which brings me to the following pictures!!! Yesterday I let Mallory have a little free reign while I tried to work, and this is where it got me:

Today it is not much better, and the kids were even in school this morning:

As I wrote on Facebook, I think I pick up couch cushions, legos and crayons/paper 38 times a day! My friends will tell you that years ago I was a clean fanatic!! My inlaws would joke with me when we'd have them over for dinner that I would have the windows cleaned by the time they got out of my driveway!! Not so much these days with 3 kids!! As I type this Garrison is laid up in my bed watching cartoons with a ziploc of jellybeans and crackers!? Jeff took B to the doctor - he went to school today but has been puny since Sunday complaining of his stomach hurting!? He hasn't thrown up or anything so hopefully it's nothing! Mallory is asleep!

We've done 1 new AC sample and I have one more that needs to be tweaked! We're closing out the school year this week through Tuesday so we've had little time to work on anything. But... our list is long and we have a lot of cute pictures just waiting to be digitized! Here is the 1 new design not listed yet:

Blankets, CHECK!!

It has been a crazy week! We made it through everyone's birthday and anniversary, and had our last regular season soccer game yesterday. Tournament starts tomorrow at 5:15! Sunday school only today (Mallory is sick) followed by 2 birthday parties and I FINALLY finished monogramming these SEVENTEEN blankets for a customer for graduation gifts! The Applique Cafe sale ends tonight! I have 2 new designs I will hopefully sample in the next day or two and I'm sure we'll have a couple more for the week. Jeff & I were just going over my schedule for the week and hopefully I can get everything done! This is our last week of school so tomorrow G has his end of the year party, Mallory's is Wednesday with G's program on Friday! B graduates from Kind. next Monday with his end of the year party next Tuesday, which is also his 7th b-day!! I am exhausted!!

These blankets were relatively easy to do and I was able to "set it and forget it" for the most part! I did have some thread breakage several times and of course it's just finding the time to get it going. Most of them had a 15,000+ thread count so it took them a good 15+  minutes each even on the fast 6 needle machine! It's a relief to have them done! I got this "job" a couple of weeks ago, or specifically a couple of days before I got hit with like 80 things to monogram/applique! Most everything on my calendar came in May 5 or 6 and I'm trying as hard as I can to get everything done!

I'm considering taking a little time off when I do get everything done! A) I feel like I have not had a break since September or October of 2009!! B) I'd like to enjoy a little bit of my summer without feeling like I have work to do! C) I have a bin that is crammed full of summer clothes for my kids that I'd like to be able to work on before Fall!! I haven't decided for sure but am leaning towards working in a good break when (and IF) I can get everything I have now done!!

Happy Mother's Day

I just added these 2 new designs to http://www.appliquecafe.com/! A great PEACE SIGN for the 4th of July, and by request a SINGLE SCOOP of ice cream! The sale continues through May 16th, so you have another full week to enjoy the savings! Happy Mother's Day to all the embroidery and embroidery-loving MOMS out there!

My Schedule and Turnaround Time

The new schedule was going great until this week... I "received" 78 ITEMS for applique and/or monogram JUST THIS WEEK! Today is only Thursday, so really SINCE MONDAY!! So... Jeff & I just sorted through it all and I worked out my tentative schedule for the upcoming few weeks! Here's how it goes, and I'm really only supposed to work 3 days a week (HA):

Tomorrow/this weekend - 9 items + 1 AC sample
5/10-14 - 24 items*
5/17-21 - 24 items
5/24-28 - 21 items
I also have 7 other various items that aren't needed until sometime in June, I'm awaiting instructions and also a few things for a friend! I also have 14 blankets to do for graduation and am going to try to do 1 a day and then do the balance sometime at the end of the month!

*This is our crazy nutso week!! Jeff's b-day is the 8th, Mother's Day is the 9th (dinner at our house w/ the family), our triplet neices & nephew's b-day is the 10th, G's is the 11th (b-day party that morning and dinner w/ family that night), our anniversary is the 12th. If I get 24 things done it may be a miracle! Likewise the following week is the last week of preschool with G's program on the 21st and Browder graduates Kind. on the 24th and has his end-of-the-year party on the 25th, which is also his 7th b-day! My head is spinning!! Our VBS is the first of June as well, so I may be pretty much booked until mid-June!?

E-mail me with any questions!

New AC Designs!

We have 4 new designs to be listed on http://www.appliquecafe.com/ later today! It's Cinco De Mayo, and miraculously it doesn't look like I'll be eating any mexican food today! :( If you know my family you know this is highly unusual, but we have church tonight and I'm working this morning, so no chips & dip for me! I will have to make up for it later this week fo sho! (This, coming from a person's who's 2 yr old calls our regular mexican restaurant "Tips", short for Tipico de Mexico of course. Tips has been in her vocabulary since she could talk.) Anyway... Fireworks for the 4th of July!?!? I will admit the 4th is a hard holiday for appliques! I've gotten several e-mails asking for 4th designs, and we did the star flip flops of course, and may do one or two more. For the most part, make anything with red, white & blue fabric and I think you've got yourself a 4th of July t-shirt!

Second... a cute anchor! Mallory has some bloomers out of this polka dot fabric and I had some of the fabric laying around, so matching little summer outfit for Sissy!

Third, by special request, a TRUCK! This is monogram wizard plus EASY font. You could also add buttons on the tires if you'd like!

Lastly, another special request, a grill! I thought this was a cute one for the boys! You go do it strictly red, white & blue also for the 4th! (Bottom fabric is Pom Pom Dot by Michael Miller)

If you'd like to request a design, send us a picture if at all possible and if we like it, we'll do it and send you yours for free! (and if we forget to send it to you, remind us! I'm famous for deleting e-mails)

I may have mentioned recently that I had a pastel done of Sissy. I got it on Friday and while I haven't hung it yet, I took a pic of it last night! I LOVE IT! It is by Arthur Smith and this was done through Charleston House Framing in Montgomery! The frame cost over twice as much as the pastel itself (which is priceless) but nonetheless it looks great and I'm so pleased!!

The other night I was in G's room as Jeff was saying prayers with the boys. Jeff requested a long one and boy did he get it! Garrison likes to open his eyes and thank God for anything and everything he can lay his eyes on, to include "shirts that Mommy makes"!!!!! It was really precious and hilarious!!! He's gotten a ton of shirts this season!! Back to work! Happy Cinco de Mayo and have a chip for me!!!!