I don’t run…

Posted by on September 20, 2012

Happy Wednesday (almost Thursday but the time I get this posted…)! Most of you know that I do a little (itty bitty teeny weeny) bit of customer work. A few years ago I was up to my eyeballs in customer work. I lived off of Starbucks (well, that hasn’t changed) and would sometimes stay up to all hours of the night doing embroidery (on the dining room table). Jeff used to have to grab my shoulders and shake me, hide bags of work from me, etc. in order to avert a potential nervous breakdown. When we sold our house and moved I had a great excuse to slow down, and have tried to keep a slow pace ever since. I just don’t have time to do a whole lot. BUT… every now & then I get an order and LOVE the outcome, so it keeps me inspired to continue to do a little customer work. I also think it’s good for me to stay in touch with our Applique Cafe customers, since most of them are also doing customer work! I can relate!!

Typically my customers bring “stuff” to me to do (dresses, shirts, etc.). This customer made a trip to Belk b/c this was all J. Khaki brand and all super cute! She wanted Owl 4 or 5 on this dress, and while the colors scared me (how was I going to find anything to match these colors??) it ALL came together! First I found the lime & turquoise dot fabric which looks like it was made to match this dress. The wings fabric also matched great and I tied in the orange with the feet, beak and flower. I was pleased with how this turned out! Dress – click HERE! This is our Owl 5.

Don’t all rush out to Belk at once!

 Belk also has some super cute ruffle bottom blank shirts. Here I did the Flower Peace Sign. My customer also left pants for me to match. I’ve always loved orange, hot pink and turquoise together!

 Basically I picked the colors out that would work (from the pants) and then went with polka dots since they “go” with most anything, including these stripes and florals. Patterns go with stripes, but if you try to mix different patterns together it sometimes can be too busy. Polka dots are safe with patterns and stripes! Groovy little outfit! Isn’t the shirt cute? It does come to a slight “V” in the front (bottom).

 I also did this shirt for Christmas on the same white ruffle J. Khaki tee. This is our JOY design. Kind of makes me ready for Christmas DESIGNS!! I said DESIGNS, not Christmas-Christmas.

Lastly I did our Pumpkin 6 to match a Kelly’s Kids lime tulle skirt. This is Monogram Wizard Plus “Master Circle” font. If you have MWP and do not have this font, get it.

 Now to the “I don’t run” part. Saturday was the 2nd annual Virginia’s Run 5K and 1 mile fun run event. This event is put on by our school, and is a race to honor the memory of Virginia Jacks. She was a 17 year old student (and also a member of our church) who was killed in a car accident leaving an Auburn game 2 years ago. I did not know Virginia at the time, but have learned so much about her in the past 2 years and also spent some time this summer doing a bible study with her parents. She was such a unique and special young lady who loved the Lord! I think it’s wonderful to honor her in this way and I think it’s so important for my children to participate in this race.

Most of you know that Applique Cafe has an applique design from some of Virginia’s original artwork ~ Virginia’s Cross. All proceeds from the sale of this design go to Virginia’s Run, as Applique Cafe has been a sponsor both years of the race. Here’s the Gulledge fam before the 1 mile fun run. Jeff ran the 5K and then we all did the fun run together, or should I say they ran and Mallory & I ran/walked. I hate to exercise! I’m approaching 40 and really really really NEED to exercise more, but basically I’m not a huge fan. Someone told me Saturday that I “looked” like I was a runner. I guess it was the new tennis shoes and outfit I had on? I fooled them! I. don’t. run. Jeff, on the other hand, usually runs at least 3 miles a day.

This year we sponsored the race day registration as well as pre-race nourishment.

 This was a shot at the post-race awards ceremony. Hundreds of people were there! What a fabulous way to remember Virginia! One of the many reasons why I love our school!!

 Mal got her face painted and she’s sporting a t-shirt her mama made her the night before. It’s Virginia’s Cross on our Circle Patch (5×7 patch and 4×4 cross). This was a Target Circo t-shirt that had the cute little pocket on the front. I’ve always been told HOW EASY it is to remove a pocket, so I thought I’d give it a try. Short sleeve tees are hard to come by this time of year. I did manage 1 hole in the shirt and tried to cover it with the patch, but no such luck. I glued it with fabric glue and it’s hardly noticeable with the stabilizer and comfort cover on the back! It’s at about 2:00 on the shirt right on the edge of the patch.

 It was a great day and I got a little exercise. For realz, I am turning 40 next weekend and something is going to have to give! Everyone is now WAY younger than me and I’ve got to make a move. Maybe with the cooler weather I can at least get out and walk?

I hope everyone has a great week/weekend! I listed 5 new designs at AC yesterday and we have more new ones coming out soon ~ lots on our Christmas list!

Filed Under: Applique Cafe, Design, Fabric, Family, Products, Shopping | Tagged: Tagged With: , ,

Life…

Posted by on September 7, 2012

This is what my life has been like since school started (see the mess below). I think in my last post (or in my head…) I said that “when school starts I’ll have so much more time!” Wrong. My day begins at 6:30 when I throw on some shorts, get the boys up and ready, pack snacks, brush teeth and hair, throw some breakfast their way and we are out the door by 7:05 (NOT 7:10). Drop them off then head back home (with Mallory). Feed her, dress her, make her lunch, shower and get myself ready. She goes to school at 9:00 and then from 9-12:15 I look like the below. Running from place to place piling stuff in my car, eating Chick Fil A from here to there. Living off Frapaccinos. I pick the boys up at 12:30, then Mal at 1:00 and we head home to feed the boys lunch, do homework, etc. Then it’s time to check email, Facebook (ALL Applique Cafe of course) and TRY to get some work done with 53 interruptions and an hour of checking homework and listening to B whine about having to do homework. Next thing I know it’s dinner time, soccer practice or something. THEN it’s bath time, bedtime and by 10:00 I’m exhausted and go to bed knowing I get to do it all over again the next day! When does this end? Please don’t say ‘never’…. did I mention laundry?

I did manage to get a baby-on-the-way order done last week, or the week before. I can’t remember. All the weeks are running together. I strung ribbon in between columns on my front porch so I could display them all cute for my post! This is the Applique Cafe Tree Truck, Puppy Stocking and Turkey 2 design, all found at Applique Cafe of course. Font = MWP Tipsy.

Below… App Cafe Golf Ball and Golf Green design on each side. The Airplane ~~~ another site I don’t remember?? It’ll come to me in my sleep tonight! It’s a design I’ve had f-o-r-e-v-e-r!! Font: MWP Tipsy and Library.

And… App Cafe Puppy Patch, Football Goal and then the Circle Applique Alphabet from Applique Market. Michael Archer font: MWP Library.

I’ve done a similar baby gift for this customer and she “strings” all of the items up at the baby shower. Super cute and how fun for the mom!! (Note: the bibs are from a local children’s boutique and the burps are from Embroiderthis.com – 4×6 ply. The onesies and romper are from jiffyshirts.com ~ Apples and Oranges brand.)

I did 9 onesies this week and will post a picture of a few of those next post, which will hopefully be next week! Have a great weekend!

Filed Under: Applique Cafe, Family, Products | Tagged: Tagged With:

Back to School

Posted by on August 15, 2012

My boys started back to school this morning! Browder is now in 3rd grade and Garrison is in Kindergarten! They were both giddy this morning and were still giddy when they got in the car after school. That’ll wear off in about a week when I have to lock Browder in the kids’ “office” to do his homework (in tears because it’s SOOOOOO hard). Overall I think they are excited and I think Browder is a little pumped that Garrison is now “in the trenches” with him! Mallory still has a couple of weeks before she goes back to preschool. Anywho it’s been a super busy week or two getting ready for school. It’ll take another week or two for reality to hit that we are BACK IN SCHOOL! 

Once again, I’m loving the Monogram Wizard Plus Facebook Group. I’ve learned so many tips and tricks! One thing I read was in regards to monogramming towels. Here are a couple of towels I did last week and they turned out great (better than usual)! I adjusted the BOLDNESS to 120, selected FILL and UNDERLAY for the font. This is Embroidery-Boutique’s Dotty font. Applique Cafe doesn’t sell ANY fonts BTW. I use this one a lot because it shows a lot of fabric. It also matches my Monogram Wizard Plus Kim Single font. With towels, I use iron on tearaway stabilizer on the back and solvy on top and I hoop it all together. Fabric for the L ~ Windam Fabrics Shadow Flower.

 Here’s another towel with MWP Kim Single font. It looks thicker and better to me with the increased boldness and underlay! I like to use “fill stitch” on towels versus “satin stitch”. It lays the pile of the towel down and won’t “pick” like satin stitch might. I also use fill stitch on most bags and backpacks. Speaking of backpacks, I have gotten my moneys worth out of my Fast Frames in the past couple of weeks. I’ve monogrammed A TON of bags and backpacks!

 I had a few people ask me (and I see it asked all the time) what MWP fonts are good to buy. Here’s a list of the ones I’ve bought and I’ll put a * by the ones I use A LOT. Some of these I got on the website store and some are from Alpha Pak disks that you used to have to buy before the downloadable fonts were available. This list may or may not be 100% accurate as some of the fonts I’ve had forever and can’t remember if they came w/ the software or if I bought them. Arabesque, Cotillion (dressy boy font), *Kim Multi/Single*, *Library*, *Master Circle* (my go-to girl scripty font), MC Center, Party Time (aka Curlz), Playground, Rascal, Recess, *Specs*, Stretch, Worms, Tipsy, Sunny, Penpal. I used to use Tipsy a lot for boys but now I use Library the most. Check out the store to find all of these “extra” alphabets. Some of these came as a set (disks) and I think you can buy them all individually now. There are a few more I’d love to have and will look out for the next Needleheads sale ~ Camp is cute (cowboy-ish), Empire is a great one similar to Master Circle, Silly is cute, Blackboard, Pendant is pretty, and Techie. These fonts are a little pricier than other fonts you buy and merge, but, they are totally scalable and adjustable in MWP and if it’s a font you’ll use a lot (like I use Library and Master Circle every other day), it’s well worth a few extra bucks!

We went to the lake this past weekend with 4 other couples and their families. We had 10 adults and 12 kids and this was our 7th year. We always have fun! Anyway, I came home Sunday and checked Facebook Sunday night. I was going to remind everyone about our sale ending today. Low and behold, I looked and we had an even 10,000 Facebook fans! I was taken aback a little. I try not to take too much stock in that number because of course not all 10,000 fans have embroidery machines. There are other embroidery sites who have 15,000 or even double what we have. HOWEVER, it’s fun and thrilling that 10,000 people *like* our page! That’s a lot of people! We’re already at 10,059 and the number grows every single day! Thanks to all of you who support our little business!

Our 50% off sale ends today, which means it’ll be taken down first thing in the morning! You still have plenty of time ~ www.appliquecafe.com!

 

Filed Under: Applique Cafe, Family, Products | Tagged: Tagged With:
« Previous Page
Next Page »