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!

Cinderella...

This week we had someone (actually 2 people) inquire about Applique Cafe gift certificates. We figured out how to make it work and I got my friend at AMR ART to design one for me to print for our customers. It turned out way cuter than I expected! I already sold and mailed one today! My printer is not that great so I may have to outsource some printing next week. Anyway, great idea for CHRISTMAS (stocking stuffers)!

Here are a few shirts I did this week. AC Three Fish - I was matching the striped material (pants).

 AC Tree Trio ~ I like the pinks & greens

 AC Owl and Present - LOVE this owl!

We are VERY close to listing our house. Instead of paying a bunch of people to clean and get it ready for us, we have been cleaning fools this week. I have scrubbed grout (with excellent results), baseboards, door frames and everything else that's cleanable! Today I cleaned all of the windows (inside) and rearranged furniture in our den. Yesterday I did touch up painting ALL DAY and Jeff cleaned carpet. We lack cleaning the windows from the outside, cleaning our bathroom grout, and a few other things. It has not been glamorous but I keep reminding myself how much moolah we are saving. Anyway, it is supposed to be videoed Monday or Tuesday and might possibly have a sign in the yard by the end of the month, maybe sooner! Very SCARY, but also very exciting!

I'm holding at 46 items. I do 6, then 5 more slide in. Out of the 46, 11 are Thanksgiving and Christmas, so technically 35 are for me to do last week! I'm doing OK on some orders and am way behind on a few too (meaning I've had them for a while). Luckily the weather has been warm so hopefully no one is ready to fire me yet! Once we actually list our house I think I can get a lot more done (I hope?). This week I've been cleaning like crazy and trying to sew too on top of kids and everything else. I had a mini breakdown Thursday night and am trying to not freak out with TO-DO overload!

War Eagle!! 

My Infomercial!!

Most of you know we are getting our house ready to SELL! We spent most of the weekend organizing, putting stuff in the attic, cleaning, organizing some more, etc. I mentioned to Jeff that our kitchen tile MIGHT need cleaning. He didn't seem to agree ($$$$) until I got to work last night after someone told me about this AWESOME spray that I happened to have in my cleaning supplies. So while I cooked bacon (we had breakfast for dinner), I also CLEANED some tile. This is our kitchen tile BEFORE! This is years worth of DIRT in the grout! We did have it cleaned once professionally, but other than that it's the good ole mop every 2 weeks and sometime in between. Can you say FILTH!!!!!!!

Que the HALLELUJAH music because this stuff is miraculous! 

It comes from THE DOLLAR TREE folks! 

I'm on my way in a minute to get some more! 

Yes, instead of paying someone to clean our tile, I'm playing Cinderella and saving us some $$$$!

 AFTER....

 I did 1/3 of our kitchen last night and will work on it some more probably today. Luckily the boys bathroom is small, so I'll hit it too as well as our bathroom. All I can say is WOW!!!!

Here is a mod flower I do from time to time and it's from SWAK! This is a cord skirt that came from Target! Every now & then people bring me pants or skirts to match and they just scream for this flower!

 I also did these kitchen towels from Embroider This. They are donations I did for a Missions art show that's tonight and all proceeds go to Mission to the World missionaries in Latvia (the Smiths). The towels come with the fabric band on the end!

Off to the Dollar Tree....

Yippee for FRIDAY!!

Here are some big/little sis shirts I did for a friend ~ the "lil sister" will be here Monday! I love this font from Embroidery-Boutique because it goes with my KIM font from my monogram wiz plus program (extra Alpha Pak 012). Of course -little- would not fit on this tiny little onesie, so we went with "lil"!!

 This is the Clementine frame from Planet Applique. I took this picture sort of at an angle, so it looks a little off but really it's not! Lots of cute frames or patches at PA!

My pictures are all whacky and I can't seem to get them like I want them... my boys are HUGE-MONGOUS Auburn fans! Garrison would wear his Auburn jersey every single day if I would let him! As I type this the boy is in football pants (Auburn) and an AC football helmet War Eagle t-shirt! Browder will watch the Auburn games on Tivo 5 times the week following the game. He knows every play and of course knows who wins! It's CRAZY!! Anyway, they just colored these great photos and asked me to take a pic! B is up top and G is below. He is a great little artist for a 4 yr old! The letters below are his version of spelling "AUBURN". Browder also jotted down some notes to Jeff on his. WAR EAGLE!!  

Have a great weekend (and Jeff says "War Eagle" even though I already put that)!!

P.S. I was introduced to a blog this week that I've had a blast reading ~ www.thepleatedpoppy.com! Check it out!

P.S. #2 I'm so excited!! I purchased a blog template today to match my website (www.appliquecafe.com) and I am also adding a link to my website that will link back to my blog! It'll be right up there with HOME CATALOG GALLERY. Why have I not done this before? I honestly don't know! It just came to me that I'd love to be more organized and that it might be helpful to my AC customers!

P.S. #3 House repair #2 (the major one) is now complete. Getting the carpet stretched was #1 and is done too. Now it's time to clear out some stuff, get the house  "detailed", do some touch up painting, replace the toilet seats (hip hip hooray), clean the carpet and get this puppy listed!

no more P.S.s.....

Centering those off-center appliques

I was just doing this Embroidery-Boutique happy pumpkin for someone and thought I'd post about those off-center designs we sometimes do. I don't know about you, but I can center them in Sew What Pro and save them that way, but my machine usually wants to center them again (which sometimes LOOKS off center on the shirt). As you can see on this one the cute curly vine throws it a tad off to the right. The way I make it center for my shirt is to add a name or word underneath  (that I plan to SKIP and NOT SEW), center the applique like I want it, save it and sew it on the tee. The name/word is the last step so I just stop there and the applique ends up centered on the shirt. This usually applies to those designs with eyes or facial features that you MAY want centered on the shirt.

As you can see here I put the word 'pumpkin' underneath and centered the pumpkin face on my vertical center line. You do lose a little space b/c of the name, but you could also make the name really wide but not too tall and it will give you a little more room on your hoop. For this shirt I used a 5x7 hoop horizontal, so I was able to enlarge it some on my machine and it turned out fine! This is the 4x4 size happy pumpkin.

Here is another example of a design from Applique Cafe ~ the hat on the snowman throws the design way off to the left. On my sample I did just add a monogram to the right of the snowman's face (Click here to see the sample), so it is off center but looks fine! But, if you wanted to do just the snowman and wanted it centered as far as eyes, nose, buttons, etc. then you could do the word/name trick and just leave it off at the end.

Like this....

This is a good example from Nobbie Neez Kids ~ sock monkey! The tail throws it off center to the left.

And here I was able to center the monkey based on his eyes and legs. Just leave the word off (pumpkin) which is the last step in the process.

You may have a better trick OR your machine may base your design on what you've saved before sending it to the machine (if you center it in SWP it may keep it that way). I always had problems with the sock monkey being off center so this is just an easy way to remedy that! 

Someone commented on my last post about the fabric. I don't believe the Singer store in Enterprise has a website with online ordering? Most of the samples I bought too did not have the brand and/or name on the pieces I got. E-mail me at rosemarygulledge@knology.net with any questions and I might be able to figure it out!

SewingMachine.com and Camping (and fabric)

We had a GREAT weekend camping as well as my day trip Saturday to West Point, GA to SewingMachine.com! Here are a few pictures from Saturday. I tell you they had the WP store in tip top shape ~ it looked GREAT! Here are several brands of threads they offer ~ Floriani, Fufu and Isacord. They also sell the Isacord REAL thread chart for $10 ~ it has real thread samples which makes ordering easy! I only had the printed color chart so I was excited to come home with the real chart!

Thanks to everyone who came to the "event" on Saturday! It was fun getting to put faces with names and hopefully everyone learned something, if not from me than from the other people who came and/or the SewingMachine.com staff that was present! I don't have pictures, but we also learned about the CAD cutter which is similar to a Cricut (if you're familiar with that) and cuts vinyl, fabric and ink sheets for other craft projects ~ we've all seen vinyl lettering on acrylic gifts, monograms on cars, etc. I came home with one and can't wait to try it out! I didn't realize SewingMachine.com sold the blank acrylic gifts, embroidery paper and CAD cutting supplies!

Here I am giving my spill ~ I have no idea what all I said and just hope it made a little bit of sense! I was pretty nervous and am used to sharing behind a computer keyboard, not in front of a group!

 I'm a huge fan of Heat N Bond Lite, so here I am showing it to the group!

 We also got to see the new PR1000 10-needle by Brother. A girl can dream?? 4 more needles!!

 Beautiful....

Here is a picture of our TENT! Camping was SO MUCH FUN! I am a dirt-o-phobe at home, but there is something about camping that I love! Tromping through the woods to go to the bathroom is not so bad! The kids all had a BLAST! Camping is certainly something they will remember as a great childhood memory! It was quite interesting getting ready on Saturday go to over to West Point. As I stood in the bathroom in my dress blow drying my hair, a young girl stood there (waiting on her sister to finish showering) staring at me. I can only imagine that she thought I was CRAZY. Who wears a dress and makeup, and dries their hair when CAMPING??

 Here is a picture of Jeff monitoring Applique Cafe from our campsite! Yes, in the woods we had a laptop and internet service (via an internet card). 

When we got home Sunday Browder & I drove to Enterprise to pick up the little kids. I dropped by the Enterprise Sewing Center on our way out of town ~ "Singer" and got some new fabric (because I need MORE!!). Not a great idea to take 3 kids in to a fabric store, but they did pretty good!

 LOVE LOVE LOVE these 2. I don't usually buy big prints of anything but couldn't resist. The right one is corduroy too. If I could sew, I would have bought enough of these to actually sew something!

 Left AUBURN stripes, middle is a cute striped DENIM.

 Browns

 I love anything green (left I thought might be cute with some sort of zig zag design).

 The middle & right fabrics are both corduroys!

I need more fabric like I need another job, but I couldn't resist! I love corduroys too and thought these were all cute fabrics! Now off to get some work done....

Yard Sales and Camping!

Operation Yard Sale was a success! I didn't make a ton of money, but I did clean out LOTS of stuff from my house (and haven't missed any of it yet!)! This is what my garage looked like Friday night ~ and please note this is 5 households worth of stuff (not all mine!). 

I got up at 5:15 AM Saturday morning and when I looked out the utility room window at about 5:30 (it was DARK), I saw car lights across the street ALREADY! So.... I opened the garage and I think the first items were purchased at about 5:45. If you've done a yard sale or two, you know there are professionals out there and that is what they do! I was surprised I didn't get the Thursday "can I look now?" knock on the door! Anyway, 3 of my friends came over and did the yard sale with me so we had a good time and all got to clean out while make a little extra cash!

 Now it's time to switch gears and I'm doing a little bit of work this week before our 2nd annual camping trip this weekend (and the EVENT at SewingMachine.com on Saturday). We're only taking Browder again this year, but we've upgraded our tent quite significantly! This is a pic of our tiny little tent we used in 2009. The 3 of us could barely fit inside to sleep ~ our luggage was all in the car!

 Cue the 'Movin' on Up' Jefferson's music and here is our 2010 Mac Daddy tent! Jeff put it up in the back yard last night so he'd know how to put it up Thursday. It doesn't look that big, but the thing is HUGE!

 This is all 3 kids tumbling and doing cartwheels inside this thing! It's BIG! 

From the campsite on Saturday I will get ready in the public campsite bathroom and head on over to West Point for the lunch. I spoke with Lori yesterday and we went over all the basics. This is my first rodeo and theirs too at this type thing, so hopefully it will all go smoothly and as planned! I'm very excited to meet everyone and nervous too at the thought of going from camping to speaking! I hope to get some pictures and will recap the event next week!

I have a couple of samples to sew today and we're going to try out a couple of different things! I can't say what, but will post pics soon! 

Operation 'get our house ready to sell' is now at the point of getting through this weekend and then we can focus on what needs to be done. The carpet guys came yesterday and stretched a few areas of carpet for us and we have at least a few minor repairs to do. Clean the carpet, get the house cleaned and organized, put stuff away (de-clutter) and get it ready to list! Luckily we are in no hurry but still need to get it all done! I'm still LIMITING ORDERS tremendously for this time of year. I've gotten a few calls and have had to turn people away! I hate to do it and know this is a busy time of year for this type business, but we gotta do what we gotta do (SELL THIS HOUSE!). When I have that sewing room I've always dreamed of it will all be worth it! Back to work....