My New Favorite Blog!

Y’all… it’s back to school time. All school supplies have been purchased (and some returned), but not a single one has been labeled or sorted by kid….. I DO have them stacked neatly in my laundry room….

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All uniforms have been tried on from last year and new sizes bought. Bright new “highlighter” colored tennis shoes are ready for Monday. We found out who is in what class today which is always exciting! My kids have even read a few books this summer. The countdown is on!! ARE YOU READY?? My to-do list is long for when-they-go-back-to-school. I can finally read that summer book I ordered off Amazon and clean out closets. YAY!!

Now on to the topic of this blog post. This has nothing to do with APPLIQUE, but everything to do with friendships and how God puts people in your path for a reason. When we were at the beach back in July, my sister in law casually mentioned her-friend’s-sister-in-law who was a blogger. I had known ‘the friend’ for years from the beach, but didn’t realize her SIL was a fellow blogger. Of course as soon as I heard her name, it clicked and I knew I had read some of her posts. You know, those posts that continually pop up on your Facebook news feed that are must reads!! Anyway, the week went by and “the blogger” arrived at the beach I think the day before we left. I never met her but did meet her husband (and dog) in the elevator the night before we left. Ironically, we were staying in the condo directly above hers, but I never got a chance to stalk her and say “Hey”. 🙂

Fast forward back to Montgomery, and I was able to go to her website and read and re-read several of her blog posts or articles, some of which I had indeed read via Facebook! I decided to send her an email and she was so kind as to reply, so we exchanged a few emails. While I was reading one of her posts, I immediately thought of another friend that God had recently put in my path and I just knew these 2 had to meet. Fast forward again to last Friday, and the 3 of us got together in Birmingham for a fun couple of hours at Starbucks (my favorite place)!

Below is L-Amy Smith, who has a heart for middle school girls and has a ministry in Montgomery, Enterprise and soon to be Auburn (Alabama) called Girl Talk Ministries. My Mallory is only 6, but I’m starting early and am so thrilled to see what Amy is doing and to see how her ministry is growing! In the middle is Kari Kampakis, who is the blogger/writer of www.karikampakis.com. Kari wrote a blog post about a year ago called 10 Truths Young Girls Should Know. This post went viral (like 70,000++ shares on Facebook alone) and on November 4th Kari will release her first book, 10 Ultimate Truths Girls Should Know. Her audience for this book is teen girls and their moms, but I believe her Truths can also be applied to boys and even us as adults.

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 Kari also wrote a post this past June on Why Women Need Their Girlfriends. It’s a great read if you didn’t catch it on Facebook already! Check out her website, follow her, and catch up on some of her posts! You can also pre-order her book on Amazon and a few other places! AND GUESS WHAT? Kari has offered to give away a signed copy of her book to my Applique Cafe readers so be on the lookout for that GIVEAWAY! I can’t wait to get my hands on it after reading her work! Amy and Kari both have a heart for young girls and I am so thankful our paths have crossed and that I got to spend time with them both last week. I look forward to doing it again soon! Friends are so important and I crave quality time with them, which can be hard to come by with 3 busy kids! 🙂

I’ve been feeling inspired by Kari and her blog in regards to my own blog. I know I have been a slacker this summer (and here and there this past year). After a while it’s hard to know what to write about but I’m feeling inspired to get back to it (when school starts…….)

HAPPY BACK-TO-SCHOOL!!!

Merry Christmas!

It’s been a while since my last post ~ Christmas season busy-ness is to blame! Yesterday afternoon I got a Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Frappaccino (yum) and inadvertently took 2 Excedrin (grabbed those instead of Ibuprofen). I was wired!! I don’t recommend that combo. This is a result….

Much better than a pile of Christmas cards sitting on the counter and the kids LOVE it! It’s just red ribbon I happened to have a spool of and a pack of clothes pins (wooden) from Publix. I’ve also used that raffia twine in the past but couldn’t find any around the house.

I have some progress to report on our sewing room slash office. We’re still trying to work with the white walls (emphasis on trying). Yesterday I went to Hobby Lobby and got Jeff a matching bulletin board. The open frame was 50% off and I used a 40% off coupon on the actual cork board (regularly like $16.99). AND… you may or may not notice that these are not our regular chairs, although they look identical. Ours, with armrests, are down in Spanish Fort, AL being refinished/painted black. Long story short I have a college sorority sister who refinishes furniture. I got a dresser from her for Mallory’s room this week and traded the dresser for the chairs when her husband came through town. I LOVE LOVE LOVE restored/refurbished/re-purposed furniture. I think I posted a while back that I had purchased liquid sander and 2 cans of spray paint to attempt to paint the chairs myself. Those items went back to Walmart and Home Depot today! I’ll be sure to post when I get them back, maybe as early as next week. My friend’s business is called Chic Restoration – her Facebook page is: Chic Restoration. I will post her pic of Mallory’s dresser below and will try to post a pic of it in her room later! LOVE IT! When I get the chairs back I’ll recover the cushions in something other than RED.

The dresser looks great in Mallory’s room! I’ll work on a picture for my next post!  

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas! I’m so thankful for family and healthy kids (AND family). I’ve read on Facebook today that a friend of a friend of a friend lost her husband last night after a long battle with cancer. He was younger than me with a young son and a daughter on the way. I think I have also posted about a little girl from Montgomery named Karlie who was put BACK in ICU tonight. She contracted HUS disease weeks ago (a month or longer ago) and is still battling all of the complications. She is around Mallory’s age. So we celebrate Christmas and the birth of Jesus and pray for these families who have lost a loved one and who are on their knees praying for healing for their precious daughter!! 

Mallory & I watched this flash mob video today – you may have seen it circulating Facebook ~  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vnt7euRF5Pg I LOVED IT!!!! A) who doesn’t love a good flash mob and B) the songs and reactions of the people were wonderful!! If you have a few minutes watch it!

p.s. I did a guest blog post not too long ago on the Rock Bottom Tees blog ~ you can read the post HERE, which was published today!

another p.s….. While I was at Hobby Lobby yesterday waiting for them to put my bulletin board together, I saw this fabulous fabric (and bought a yard). The picture is not so great (I-phone), but the colors are GREAT!! It’s a good thick fabric too! $8.99/yard so catch it on sale or take a coupon!

MERRY CHRISTMAS from Applique Cafe!

If Coffee Cups Could Talk!

I’ve been trying to get this post together for a week, but with the house goings-ons I haven’t had a chance! The purpose of this post is to introduce you to my friend Amie (below) and her “new” blog, Linen and Boxwoods. She did a fabulous post on me Friday and how Applique Cafe got started. While we don’t normally stage photo shoots at local coffee houses, we DO meet for coffee quite often (almost weekly over the past few years) and decided what better way to talk about each other’s blogs than with fabulous photos from Grace Photography Studio. (Thanks to Grace for taking them for us!) It was quite hilarious but the pictures turned out great and it really captures what our (sometimes) weekly coffee sessions really mean to us ~ girl time, mom time, and most importantly NO KID time! It’s an hour a week that I look forward to and am just thankful coffee cups can’t talk! Lately we’ve been discussing BLOGS. Her new blog is a collaboration with her cousin Caroline, who lives in Atlanta. While I’ve been blogging for some time, we talk a lot lately about WordPress and what’s coming up with their blog posts (Snootie Foodie, Fashion Forward, etc…).

The basis for their blog is “inspiration to live beautifully… inside and out”. They mostly post about home fashions and what you might see in your favorite decorating magazines and in the Southern Homes & Gardens Interiors Showroom, but they also talk about fashion, food, mom stuff, kids and all the other things we all love to blog (and read) about!

LOVE this picture! We really do spend a lot of time looking at stuff on our phones! What did we do before smart phones?

Someone said it best this past week when I previewed this photo ~ we are enjoying LIFE! The caffeine is great too!

Amie’s drink of choice: usually a Chai Tea Latte. Me: Peppermint Mocha (I’m off the Frappacinos but still get one every once in a blue moon).

Amie has grown up in the family business ~ Caffco International, Southern Homes & Gardens and Capitol’s Rosemont Gardens. She has worked in product development for Caffco for the past 11 years and has grown up going to Market, traveling abroad and being around beautiful home decor. If you’re familiar with Southern Living at Home (now Willow House), Amie worked closely with them (SLAH) on their product line, much of which was developed through Caffco. She also loves to draw and paint, and says blogs and magazines are her joy and eyes to the outside world! This girl knows her stuff! She also loves to garden and cook and makes a mean batch of fried okra (ask Jeff)!

For those of you who aren’t from around here, SH&G is a local home & garden store with a beautiful showroom and garden center down the road from me in Montgomery. They have an “Interiors” showroom in the store (see pics from L&B blog below) which is the basis for a lot of the things you might see on their blog. They had Spring Open House there this weekend so I drooled my way through the store and Interiors room making my (dream) wish list for our future house! Who would not love a dining room table like this?

Here is a little more “about them” from their blog:

This blog is a collaboration of two busy Mama’s (Amie & Caroline) who just happen to share a love for creating home environments… and who also just happen to be family (they are first cousins)! We’ve teamed up to bring a little more fun into our family business! Amie is the editor extraordinaire, pulling fresh ideas and products to feature, and keeping you on top of trends to make having a beautiful home look easy. Caroline is the lean, mean writing machine who will hopefully make decorating your home seem a little less intimidating and a little more entertaining! We certainly don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we are serious about finding new ways to live beautifully!

More about Amie:

I am a wife to the most amazing husband and mother to two precious children. I graduated from Auburn University in graphic design forever ago. Now I am a thirty something product designer by day and obsess about architecture, interior and landscape design, graphics, fashion, photography and FOOD….by night! I am excited about our blog in hopes to inspire others, as so many blogs have inspired me!

More about Caroline:

I am a wife to one hunky hubby, and Mama to a little bulldozer of a baby boy and one furry family member. Life around my house is crazy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way! I keep track of the chaos on our family blog, and I keep my sanity by writing this one! After spending four years in the loveliest village on the plains at Auburn University, I traveled abroad and made some amazing memories, before putting down roots in Atlanta, GA. For now, its big city livin’ for this small town girl. I love to make things pretty and I am always interested in finding new ways to make a house feel like a home!

You’ll see on their blog that they are also on Facebook and Twitter! Check them out, and join us for coffee anytime!