Quick Beach Post

Posted by on July 24, 2011

We got back today from a week in Perdido Key, FL. We had an awesome week, partially spent with Jeff’s family and a couple of days with just the 5 of us! I’m posting a hand full of pictures and will work on posting more soon. I know I’ve been slack on blog posting (as related to embroidery especially) lately and I blame it on SUMMER. Anyway… we went to what is called “Thong Island”, aka Robinson Island I think near Caribe. The kids has a BALL catching hermit crabs. I think they caught like 300+ of them and then had hermit crab races back to the water (sand “lanes”). This net was FULL! And yes, they all had live hermit crabs living inside them ~ YIKES!

One thing you CAN do at the beach that you CAN’T do at home (for lack of wind) is fly kites! These $1.52 on clearance Target specials were party favors for the kids from their Aunt Jacquelyn.

The most interesting part about our condo (which we loved) was that Jeff & I had BIDET in our bathroom! We did not try it, but our 11 year old nephew did (not really). He got water all over the floor but I don’t think he actually tried it for real. I had to take a picture of it today before we left.

Why? (scratching my head)……

Lastly, I ordered this 16×20 (which turned in to 17×20) canvas from Cafe Press. I had purchased a Groupon for it a while back and finally ordered my canvas. I LOVE IT! This is a bad indoor picture of it and I’ll try to get a better one tomorrow. This was our “unplanned” photo session while in Seagrove last month and it’s perfect! The funny part is that I did not even notice the sea oats in between Mallory’s legs until I got the canvas! I’m just so pleased with it ~ gotta figure out where to hang it! I’d love to order more too now that I know they are good quality! Maybe they’ll do a Groupon again!

We worked on several new designs this week and I posted 2 on Facebook earlier – Trick or Treat Stitch (Halloween Dog) and Zig Zag Jackolantern (which I’m looking forward to sampling in some fun fabrics!). We have 2 more football designs we’re still working on and will hopefully finalize tomorrow. We’re getting close to our 2nd Birthday (or is it anniversary?) and I’m hoping we’ll reach 6,000 fans by then too. We’re only a little over 100 shy! Every time I check Facebook the number grows so it’s possible!

Have a great rest of the weekend!

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Martha Stewart to the Rescue!

Posted by on July 4, 2011

We survived a week at the beach (pictures down below) and MOVING! We got back from the beach last Saturday and moved this past Wednesday in to our permanent new home! It was an exhausting week full of cleaning, 457 trips with my car looking like this (below) and more cleaning, and then actually moving on Wednesday. We’re still unpacking but for the most part we are “IN” and loving it! We did have movers move us, but also took many many trips with our cars full of whatever we could fit in to them! Don’t you love how the ironing board is just thrown on top? Did I mention we moved the last week of June in close-to-100 degree heat?

Here is my NON-dining room NEW SEWING ROOM (and the offices of Applique Cafe, i.e. Jeff, too). This was before:

This was after a little organization:

Better? I say BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have dreams of a fantastic colorful sewing room as seen on my Pinterest Sewing Room Board. I’m trying to gather ideas so that eventually the above can be something that you’d see on Pinterest and “re-pin”!!

One of my “wants” is a big bulletin board, so Sissy & I went to Hobby Lobby the other day and I found a couple that I liked (white and black frame). My room is white (all white), so I’m not sure if one of these would work, or if I should paint one, or make one?

THEN… the other day someone posted a link on Facebook to Home Decorators Connection and more importantly, Martha Stewart’s Craft Space Collection. It comes in all sorts of neat pieces suitable for a sewing room and also comes in 3 colors (white-ish, gray and this green). PLUS, this weekend they have $50 off your order of $150 or more. SO…. Jeff liked it so we ordered 3 pieces (separately so as to get $50 off each order). I am SO excited! All of the reviews I read were great so I will be sure to report when we get them (and put them together). Here are some of the pieces and how they’ve been put together for this craft room.

On one wall of our SEWING ROOM, we will have 1 of these in the middle:

And 2 of these ~ one for Jeff and one for me. There are other pieces I’d like, but we’re starting with these to make sure they will work in our room. I’m so excited! I can then work off of these and start making this room a place I want to come work in! p.s. I love green! I’ll keep you posted!

One evening at the beach I literally threw these clothes on my children and said “we’re going to take a few pictures”. I think we also bribed G with something. Had I planned ahead, forewarned them earlier that day, etc. they would have never turned out! I got several great ones and also took some of my nephews! I’m no photographer but I did take a digital class once in 2009 so I think these turned out pretty good for FREE!

This beautiful white sand is Seagrove Beach (FL) sand! Love it!

This was our 6th annual family trip to Seagrove and our 6th annual Shrimp Boil. We go every year with my whole family and we always have a wonderful time!

This pic makes me want to go back to the beach!!

I sampled 4 new designs today (zig zag squirrel, zig zag paw print, lion face & pumpkin trio) and we will get them posted ASAP. Designs are still 30% off through July 10th, and Patriotic are still 50% off. Check them all out at Applique Cafe. BTW, so far we’ve sold 106 Virginia’s Cross designs and 183 total Awareness Ribbon designs (50 since we sent our first check). Thanks for adding those to your collection!

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House Befores

Posted by on June 17, 2011

This is a picture of how it’s been around here the past week or so (this is our rental “summer” home). Do you notice the 5 pairs of shoes on the COUNTER? We’ve been going 90 to nothing all week after closing on our new house on Monday. Painters started today painting several (not all) of the rooms, so it was stressville yesterday trying to pick the colors (I had a noon deadline but got an extension til 2:00 and gave my last color selection closer to 2:30)! Thanks to my friend Amie for taking time out of her morning to walk around the house with me and give me her input, AND, go to the fabric store with me to try to figure out Mallory fabrics so I could pick out wall color. I pretty much went with everything she suggested, so if it doesn’t turn out good it’s all her fault! Hee Hee ~ JUST KIDDING!!!! 🙂

One thing I WILL NOT MISS in this house is the kitchen sink that is literally 5″ deep. Get out your measuring tapes people. 5 inches!! What?? I will also not miss the dishwasher that a) doesn’t dry dishes and b) sounds like a heavy piece of farm equipment when it’s running. Less than 2 weeks!!

Here are a few “before” peeks from our new home. This is the Master, and we’re painting it, our bathroom (ceiling included) a light smokey blueish green color. I will post “after” pics when the painting is done.

Here is my future (long awaited) sewing room. It’s a very basic (boring) room with these 2 windows. No closet or anything, BUT, it has a pocket door. This, my friends, means that I can shut the door and “get away” from work whenever I want to! After much consideration of painting it some fun funky color, we decided to paint it WHITE! I’m going to have fun with my fabric, thread, valances maybe, recover my chairs, etc. I’m pinning tons of ideas on my newest addiction, Pinterest!

Here is one of the kids rooms upstairs, which will most likely house one or both boys. It’ll be painted a very basic “Elephant Tusk” khaki neutral color.

Here is our kitchen. This is definitely a BEFORE, as we’re in the process of planning our renovation of the kitchen. Luckily we know someone who works for a cabinet company! We’re going to “make due” with this for a couple of months while we finalize our plans, pick out what we want and then start the process of the renovation. Luckily the appliances are new and we’re keeping the floor, so it’s a matter of new cabinets, hood, countertops, backsplash and we’re also hopefully going to remove part of a wall! Good times ahead! The cabinets with the XXXXX will GO!

This is our laundry room (before). We’ll also be replacing all of the cabinets in here too (as well as all bathrooms). I am most excited about cubbies that we’ll be adding in here for all the kids stuff!

This sink is nasty, but believe it or not it works! Maybe I should learn to cut hair??

I will be sure to post AFTER pics when the painting is done, and we’ll be moving in 2 weeks from yesterday! Lots of work ahead but we’re very excited!!

Don’t forget, I’ll be at TJ’s Fabric on Saturday from 10-1!

I’ve listed a few new designs this week ~ all on the home page at Applique Cafe. I still have one more to re-sew and list tomorrow. You can see previews of 5 more designs coming soon on our Facebook page!

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