Happy Birthday to ME!

It IS my birthday today! I won't say how young I am but I do share a birthday with a good friend and a friend's daughter. I was also at Browder's Back to School Bash last night and another guy we know shares the same birthday. I AM working a little bit sewing some pumpkins on some tees. Here are some other cute shirts I did this week and wanted to share. This is the AC helicopter on a square patch. I love anything on a patch! This was a navy Garanimals t-shirt.

 AC balloons and I thought it was cute with a name... This shirt was to match some cute red & white polka dot pantaloons. I like red and turquoise!

 AND... This is Applique Momma's Anna Kate font. Applique names are A LOT of work, but they are so cute! I love the zig zag trim too!

Tonight Jeff & I are going out to eat sans kids! Tomorrow night I'm helping with the overstock sale and my mom & nephews are coming to visit this weekend to help me with the kids during the yard sale. Throw in a few soccer games as well. Busy rest of the week and weekend!

I sold 3 of the sample tees ~ the santa 24M navy tee is left and the 3T giraffe tee. I also have a couple of girl shirts in Mallory's closet - basically the Christmas stockings sample and the first dragonfly we did not too long ago. They are both on Rabbit Skins tees and I'm not sure what size - 4T I THINK? I may post a picture of them or I may just let Mallory wear them!

Even though I'm not taking orders right now, they seem to keep finding their way in to my house! I did move my shelf and crates and t-shirts to-do in to my closet. When we list the house more of this stuff will have to go somewhere, if not my closet. If anyone is in a hurry, then I suggest trying one of the other embroidery blogs on my blog list. There are some very talented people WANTING more work! As for the stuff I have, I'm doing  (and will do) the best I can! E-mail me with any questions!

Think Spring!

Here are several new AC designs I hope to test tomorrow and list Wednesday! 

A few of these are special requests for Spring 2011 and 2 match fabrics.

I'm getting good reviews on Facebook about the ballerina!

Change-o-plans and we are not going out of town this week as I stated before. The bad news is that my sweet husband had planned a birthday getaway for me and had it all worked out with carpooling, school etc. The worse news is that I panicked at all we have going on this week (he didn't realize a couple of events when planning), then a friend of the family's mom passed away on Saturday and I/we made the decision to postpone our little trip until things slowed down a bit and I could enjoy it more. I guess the good news is that I'm not so freaked out about all we have going on and can get more work done! I do not do well when our calendar is full, much less then thinking about going out of town and leaving the calendar to my sister in law who has 4 kids of her own!! Hopefully we'll go on our trip, or some trip, sometime in October! November at the latest! 

Also good news, the weather is changing and it finally feels like FALL! Bad news, all these long sleeve tees I wasn't stressing about b/c it was 100 degrees outside are now beginning to be needed by my customers! I normally don't work at night but just did 2 shirts before hitting the sack! Will do the samples and at least finish 1 order tomorrow (3 shirts left for EW)!

Operation Yard Sale is Saturday! There are 5 of us girls doing it so hopefully it'll be fun and profitable!

Sample Tees Available

I have some sample tees available ~ $12 each and sold AS IS! Rabbit Skins run small, so 3T may be equivalent to a 2T. 

Turkey ~ Rabbit Skins 3T SOLD!!

Manger ~ Rabbit Skins sz 3T SOLD!!

Rudolph ~ Rabbit Skins sz 5/6 SOLD!!!

STILL AVAILABLE....

Santa Claus ~ Garanimals sz 24M

Giraffe ~ Rabbit Skins sz 3T

Please e-mail me if interested ~ rosemarygulledge@knology.net! Thanks! I may have a couple of girl designs and will post those tomorrow!

Friday and FALL!

Here are a couple of shirts I did yesterday and today. This is the (old) Pegasus-Embroidery dump truck - you may find it on Etsy. I left off the middle of the wheels because I was mimicking another simple dump truck design. Love these fabrics together! The plaid is flannel! The red/brown dots evidently came from Joann - I must go get some!!

 This is the Embroidery-Boutique rounded square patch in zig zag trim. I rotated it and layered the 3" on top of the 4". Love these fabrics too! I'm a big fan of orange and brown (and red and brown).

I'm down to FIFTY-TWO shirts. Operation yard sale starts tonight, so this weekend will be spent cleaning out and trying to get more shirts done! Next week I am out of town a few days and getting ready for the yard sale Saturday. Not sure how much I'll get done next week til AFTER the yard sale. It's this weekend, Monday or bust as far as embroidery. Hopefully in a month or so I can finish everything, our house will be on the market and I can resume work a little bit each week! Have a great weekend! Also check out this website ~ www.virginiajacks.forevermissed.com ~ this is the precious girl who passed away last weekend leaving the Auburn game. Her family goes to my church and she was a junior at Browder's school. Still so sad, but what is coming out of this tragedy is pretty incredible! The memorial service is also on the website. 

It's officially FALL, but still close to 100 where I live! :( No rain that I can recall either. The ditch behind our house is dry and my sinuses are a nightmare! I'm pretty sure you aren't supposed to stay on allergy medicine and nose spray for an entire month!?

Reminders!

Don't forget the SewingMachine.com event being held on Saturday, October 9th. If you're in the vicinity of West Point, GA I'd love to meet you! (http://www.sewingmachine.com/dp/B003Z3I3WQ) I've already gotten a couple of suggestions as to what people may want to see/hear/know. Steve is also going to demo the latest and greatest multi-needle machine! I posted the full invitation on my August 30, 2010 post!

New Christmas Deer coming soon to Applique Cafe:

New Puppy Stocking coming soon to AC:

New Add-A-Bow design coming soon:

The add a bow is sized to be added to designs in the 4x4, 5x7 and 6x10 hoop. For example you could add it to the simple spider or the simple bunny!

***Also, I am working to finish the 60 some-odd items I have right now and am taking a hopefully short SABBATICAL while we prepare to put our house on the market. Our first step is our neighborhood  yard sale which happens next Saturday, October 2nd. Next week I hope to clean out some JUNK and move it straight to the garage to stage for the sale. We have a couple of minor repairs to do around the house and after the yard sale and repairs, then it will be CLEAN time, get the house actually listed and hopefully show it a lot and sell it! I'm not sure how all that is going to play out with my dining room/sewing room situation, so it's best I finish up my big load now and then hopefully when all the above is done, I can do a little bit of work each week until the house sells. I know this is HORRIBLE timing, but it's what we've decided to do so embroidery has to be put on the backburner for a bit! There are other willing and able folks on my blog list who would love to have some work to do! Check out KKs Kreations and Get Personalized!

Shirts I've done today!

OK ~ the order: pumpkin on a black tee and tie in purple (which is the girls' fave color!). This is EB rounded square patch, then EB happy pumpkin (minus the face), add a Party Time or Curlz E in the requested purple! I think this all came together and is precious on the black tee!

Matching pants and a skirt here: left is AC butterfly in coordinating color fabrics and right is a monkey from Pegasus-Embroidery. I don't know what became of Pegasus but this is a popular design for me!

Again, matching pants and I had a tie to coordinate with the left pants. I had to take it apart to use the fabric, but it turned out cute! Left: AC rectangle purse and right: sort of a mod type flower from SWAK. 

I do A LOT of Applique Cafe designs so I try to take pics when I use other designs! I have probably a thousand designs from all websites! There is really no telling what is on my computer...

As I was getting ready for church yesterday morning I got a text that an 11th grader that goes to my church and Browder's school was killed in a car accident Saturday night leaving the Auburn football game. I didn't really know the girl but am on a Board at my church with her mom and also listened to her mom speak at our womens' luncheon only a week before. The news was devastating nonetheless! The church body met together during the Sunday school hour and it was so terribly sad. This beautiful young girl loved the Lord and had so many friends who will miss her terribly. Church services yesterday morning and last night were both geared towards this tragedy and both were so sad! Live for the Lord each day! We are not promised tomorrow, or next week, or next year! 

On a happier note, I checked Facebook this morning to see 2,000 Applique Cafe fans! To celebrate I immediately marked all designs 50% off for 48 hours. That was at 8:00 this morning so you have until 8:00 (central time) Wednesday morning to stock up on any designs you have on your wish list! We've now exceeded 2,000 fans which is really exciting!! I have 3 new designs to list hopefully sometime tomorrow!

Work and News!

I have been busy this week! I've pretty much sewn most of the day Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and 1/2 day today! Only 1/2 day today b/c I woke up at 4:00 with sinuses and never went back to sleep, therefore I crashed after afternoon carpool!! Trying to crank out the tees and make a dent in my big ole' list! Here is the puppy patch done with red - I love brown and red together! Look for this puppy again soon!

This is a new AC design that we're working on listing tonight (Santa Claus)! I used white chenille on the hat and of course white minky on the beard. Someone asked me if I use Heat N Bond Lite on minky and yes I do. I then iron the shirt inside out so my iron isn't directly on my minky. p.s. this is a navy tee - I bought a red one to sample him on but decided I liked navy better! I have a ton of sample shirts ~ I plan to take pictures and show them on Facebook or something to see if anyone is interested in any of them. My kids don't need THAT many tees!

I love this design! It will also be listed tonight! Jesus is the reason for the season!!

Here are some tees I mailed today (to Texas) to my very funny and patient friend Jenny! Love them all!

Hank's little bro is going to be decked out in bibs! LOVE all of these ~ they are all Rabbit Skins trimmed in light blue, NAVY (the turkey), green and BLACK (Frankenstein). 

Another design being listed tonight and this one matches some fabric out there! 

And now for NEWS!! Jeff & I have decided to prepare our house to SELL! We're very nervous and excited and also have A LOT to do! I'm not exactly sure what this means for my "busy season" which is Fall. Right now I have approximately 60-65 shirts in my possession that I'm going to do. I'm thinking that may be all I accept until we get the house ready, then once it's on the market (which may be late October), I will assess the situation with showing the house and then figure out how much I can do or not do! Our neighborhood yard sale is October 2nd, so we have a short amount of time to CLEAN OUT and GET rid of some stuff. We also have a couple of minor maintenance items to get done. After that and the yard sale, we will then really prepare the house (cleaning carpet, touch up painting, etc.). 

SOOOO..... I really hate to inconvenience anyone by not taking orders right now, but if this is what we're going to do then I just can't keep up this pace of sewing 7 hours a day on top of 3 kids, 2 schools, 2 in soccer, and selling a house. I will go CRAZY! I will know more in a couple of weeks once we get the yard sale behind us so stay tuned! 

We WILL still carry on with Applique Cafe and blogging throughout all this! I just have to limit my customer orders for a bit. Thanks! E-mail me with any questions ~ rosemarygulledge@knology.net!

Work Work Work, and Work!

Here is my pile of "DONE" stuff from late last week and today. I've managed to do 8 shirts today and hope to squeeze in 1 more before "quitin' time" at 4:30! We have soccer tonight ~ I'm hoping this week is less crazy than last week!? We have soccer Wed & Fri afternoon too (practice) and another game on Saturday (at  8 a.m. YIKES).

Here are a couple of AC designs that I'll be sampling this week. Santa and Manger ~ I like them both. I'm out of white minky so I have to make a run for some before I can do Santa! 

I was able to mark some folks off my list today, but have not added the new stuff from last week. I HOPE I can be productive this week! We'll see...

TGIF!!!!

I was just reading one of my favorite blogs (www.amrart.com) and she started her post today by saying she has had one of those weeks. I completely and sympathetically concur! It was one of those weeks at the Gulledge household too! My babies started preschool Wednesday (YEAH!!), and on the other hand all of the "scheduling" came down on me (hard) and I had a little anxiety going on this week! PLUS it was a short week with Monday being a holiday and us getting back from the beach late Monday night. Anyway between Browder's carpool (basically every other day) and getting the little ones to school at 9, then afternoons (Browder carpool again one week on, one week off - which I'm VERY excited about) and picking up the little ones at 1:00. Doesn't seem too bad eh? Throw in an appointment Wednesday at 11, then Jeff & I met to look at a friend's house, soccer practice for B & G Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and today. I also hosted bunko at my house last night so I spent all day buying the groceries, cooking, cleaning up my den, kitchen & bathrooms, about 5 loads of laundry, etc. I took B to school at 7:30 and then took the little ones to Target to get a birthday present and then to Publix to get my groceries. I was "that mom" who had her kids at the store in their pajamas and as I was leaving Target holding Mallory b/c she didn't even have shoes on, I could feel her diaper leaking all over the side of my shirt! NICE! I took her to Publix anyway! Today has been much better! I managed to get 3 shirts done this morning, met a friend for coffee, ate lunch w/ Jeff, picked up the little ones and am back to work on more shirts. I am SO BEHIND and am hoping next week will be a little less hectic!

Here are a few AC designs we added this week. All designs are 30% off until Monday! I'm loving the peace guitar which was a special request ~ great for a little bit older boy. I'm also loving the fabric - it's Riley Blake WHEELS My Mind's Eye and comes in this color, orange background and brown background. I'm venturing out from standard ginghams and polka dots (a little bit).

Ghost patch ~ ghosts and snowman are tough b/c they are typically white. What if you want to put them on a white shirt? Here is your solution!

And this is a SIMPLE Christmas tree. I added the bow and Impervious "S". My machine said this design was like 6 minutes (at 1000 stitches per minute). I figure it's a good 10 minute design when you factor in trimming and prep work! Great for mass producing kitchen towels or craft show tees?? I also sampled it in a pretty green minky dot with a bow and it was cute. Fabric choices are ENDLESS!

Have a great weekend! Here's to hoping next week is nice and calm!

End of SUMMER!

No more white pants (or shoes for that matter). Labor Day is OVER! We got back late last night from a wonderful family weekend at the beach (Caribe). Back to work today and back to school for the little kiddos this week (TOMORROW)! Back to schedules, back to reality, and did I say back to work? A couple of weeks ago I was on a roll getting shirts done. THEN I took a day off to prepare for CCE, THEN I went on a fun girls weekend with my bunko group (11 girls), and THEN we left Thursday for the beach and got back late last night.  Needless to say I got behind again. On our way home last night Jeff & I wrote down a "schedule" for me, meaning what times I will and will not work. Basically between carpools and school drop offs and pick ups and 2 kids at home with me on Tuesdays & Thursdays, etc. I will work some mornings, some afternoons (1:30-4:30 only) and I get about 30 minutes to an hour at night after the kids go to bed JUST to check e-mail. From 4:30 - about 8:30 I will not work (nor will I be planted at my computer checking e-mail, facebook, blogging, etc.) I'm not sure yet what my numbers will be (how much I can get done in a day), but will hopefully figure that out this week so I can predict how long it will take me to get YOUR stuff done when you bring it!

So here is where I stand and the dates these things were brought to me (luckily it is mostly long sleeve stuff b/c I am WAY BEHIND):

7/29 - 10

8/2 - 14

8/9 - 4 left

8/19 - 7

8/31 - 2

8/21 - 1

9/1 - 1

9/2 - 23

Grand total = 62

I would say that's at least a few weeks worth of work!? 

Don't forget to check out my last blog post. If you are in the vicinity of West Point, GA, I'd love to meet you at SewingMachine.com on October 9th! I've been asked what the agenda will be for the 4 hours we're together. Other than lunch I'm not 100% sure yet. I will get with Lori and Steve and figure out what I'm going to do, say, demonstrate, etc. This is my first ever "thing" so I'm not sure yet what is going on! I'm very excited though and hope to see some of you there! Time to get some work done....