The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!

For so many reasons!! #1: The celebration of the birth of our Lord & Savior, Jesus Christ; #2: Spending time with family; A tie for #'s 3 & 4: Decorations and cute clothes!! Working on several Christmas outfits for MK in addition to outfits to give as Christmas gifts.

Outfit #1: Cord A-line dress with ruffle. Love this furry PINK snowman :)

Outfit #2: Applique Cafe JOY shirt & polka dot ruffle pants. Can't wait to wear this one! The picture really doesn't do this outfit justice.

We ran across these cute knit pants at Wal-Mart for $5 each!! I was so excited the pants were being sold separatley and not as an outfit. We already had the turtlenecks, so just need to add applique/monogram. So cute for play and less than $10 per OUTFIT!

Our Christmas trees are up, stockings hung, and wreaths ... well, they've been hung, twice, but my hooks keep falling! Grr! Heading back to the store to find super duper sticky hooks for my front windows. Christmas orders (actual Christmas appliques OR gifts for Christmas) will be very limited. I have allotted myself a set number of sewing days for holiday stuff. All Christmas related items will be completed by mid-December. I will continue to accept non-holiday orders after the Christmas cut off date, but plan to take a sew-cation and enjoy Christmas with my family.

Organization Makes Me Happy!

I usually have a pretty good idea of my "To Do's", but, during this busy time of year I really have to keep an accurate count. I mentioned a couple of posts back about implementing a sewing schedule for myself. A good idea, but when I have more orders than can be completed in the allotted sewing time, I improvised with Plan B.
A shelf with tubs labeled with days of the week! With my new plan in place the items to be completed on any given day are shouting "you cannot sleep until you finish me!"
As of today, I'm pretty much booked up through November. As always, email me with any questions regarding potential orders.

A couple shirts from this week's orders...

Last, but certainly not least, I MUST share this pastel portrait of my beautiful daughter!!!!

Gobble Gobble!

Can’t wait to get this Gobble Gobble turkey outfit on MK! The brown minky dot ruffle pants are SO soft and cute!!! I opted to do Mary Katherine’s turkey in fall colors, however, a quick change of fabric and this little turkey can be really girly, fit for the boys, you name it!!

Here’s another turquoise/red outfit! So cute! We got lots of compliments on this little outfit while we were out shopping over the weekend. I spent probably an hour trying to decide which applique design/fabrics to use for the shirt and finally settled on this 3 letter monogram which I think turned out cute. Love the ruffle turtleneck from Old Navy! And the red polka dot shoes which Mary Katherine specifically requested :) She loves her shoes!The current total of items on my “To Do” list hasn’t budged much (which is a good thing!). Every time I finish an order, another one – or two or three – comes in! As I’ve mentioned before, please be sure to let me know if you need something by a specific date. If you do not provide a specified date, your item will be completed in the order it was received.

I have several completed orders that are awaiting pickup and payment. Please contact me ASAP!!

That's all for now. Heading home to sew like crazy!!

Playing Catch Up!

Whew! I can tell it's here - that time of year when we have some sort of event every day it seems like! We've had the fair, MK's school fall festival, the pumpkin patch, another fall festival, a Halloween party, and trick-or-treating!! Whew, again! So, in that order...
The fair. SO MUCH FUN! Mary Katherine, Aiden & I rode this kiddie roller coaster. I'll admit I was glad when the ride was over :)The Pumpkin Patch. My camera battery died before the end of the trip. Again, lots of fun. So thankful for Oxy Clean - I never thought her clothes would come clean!Trick or Treat! Look at this cutie! I was so proud of our homemade costume. What started as big rolls of tulle, some fabric, ribbon, and buttons ended up as this itsy bitsy spider. I even SEWED her candy bag! Yay me :)

In the midst of our busy schedules I've been sewing and coordinating a portrait session for myself and several other moms throughout the state. I cannot wait to see the pastel painting of Mary Katherine! Oh, and thanks to Mrs. Barbara Mitchell (Treasured Memories) for a GORGEOUS dress!!

I went on an organizing/cleaning frenzy in my little sewing room yesterday. Here's my sewing 'space'. Is this what every one's sewing table looks like?! I think maybe I need a bigger table for my embroidery machine, sewing machine, laptop, ironing board, etc. As I mentioned in my last post, we will have a cut off date for Thanksgiving/Christmas orders. Thanksgiving outfits will be featured on the blog/Facebook ASAP and Christmas outfits will follow shortly thereafter. I'm excited - we have some cute stuff!!!

Birthday Parties & My Schedule

Now that MK is getting on in years (2 3/4 years to be exact!) she's realized that birthday parties are TONS of fun. You have cake, and gifts, and lots of other little kids to play with - how can one go wrong?! She sings along with "Happy Birthday", but sometimes insists it is her birthday :) I'd given her advanced notice that we had a party to attend on Sunday afternoon so she was excited. As soon as nap time was over, we jumped up, got all dolled up for the party and headed out. Here she is before Aiden's party...
At the party - since this was a rodeo clown party, we painted our faces. You can't really tell in the b&w picture (but I love black & white pics!)
And the BIRTHDAY BOY!
We had lots of fun. MK was like a little zombie when we got home - she played so hard!!

MY NEW SCHEDULE: My hubby called my hand a few nights ago and asked why I didn't have a sewing schedule (since I have schedules for everything else!). And he's right! Some nights I sew frantically until 1-2am and some nights I never make it out of the rocking chair from getting MK to sleep. I've tentatively decided to sew on Monday & Wednesday nights after Mary Katherine's bed time, Saturday & Sunday during nap time, and weekend nights are optional. I'm sure there's a psychological word for it, but I require a physical schedule I can see in writing in order to achieve optimal productivity :) Of course there will be rush orders that may require working on an "off" day, but I feel more at ease with my new schedule in place.

Oh, and Christmas. Please be prepared for a cut-off date for Christmas orders. I've gone back and forth on my cut-off date, but I will most likely not take any NEW orders for CHRISTMAS items somewhere after December 10th. So, if your order is for a Christmas item, or a gift for Christmas, please keep this in mind. I will continue to take other orders after the cut-off date, but the Christmas orders will of course take precedence. I want to keep my sanity (at least a little of it) and of course have plenty of QT with my fam during the holidays.

As always, please email me with any questions. I have so been the mom with the shirt for the Christmas picture a week before Christmas. So, if you are that mom too, I'll be glad to squeeze you in ;)

Yeeeeeehaw!!

Our family along with a huge group of friends and fellow horse folk loaded up and went on a 20+ mile trail ride this weekend! So much fun! My friend and partner in crime, Saundra & I decided our girls needed matching shirts for the trail ride. We looked at several western themed designs, but finally decided on a "yeehaw" shirt...
We originally planned to have all the kids ride in a wagon, but Mary Katherine insisted "I ride with you Daddy!"
Thankfully Monday was a holiday, so we got to catch up on a few things around home. I always insist on decorating for Fall on October 1st, but never quite seem make it. Here's our scarecrow, and we have a huge pumpkin to carve too! After all the decorating was complete I realized I must be partial to scarecrows...one on the front door, one on the back door, one on the mantle, and the big one by the driveway!
Amongst all the trail riding and decorating I did manage to squeeze in some sewing as well. Do you ever buy something and think that you don't want to add your child's name because you can't re-sale it later? Well, worry no more! A customer bought this outfit at a consignment sale for just a few dollars (here's the BEFORE picture)...
I added a circle patch and initial, and here's the AFTER picture...
The same customer also snagged these cute ruffle pants, but needed a coordinating shirt. I love pairing black/white prints as you'll continue to see. Zebra + pink minky...
Last, but not least. Sorry for the long post, I've had a lot going on! A customer requested a shirt with 3 initials inside a circle patch similar to Applique Momma's ornament trio, but something that will work for any season. Thanks to the ever popular Sew What Pro I was able to merge three circle patches, increased the size of the center patch slightly, then added initials. I also opted to use the zig-zag stitch.
I liked this shirt so much that I did the same design for MK on a pink shirt I'd bought a while back and put up for just such an occasion :) Perfect w/ black leggings!!
Till next time :)

I Heart MK

I've had some sappy moments lately - adoring the beautiful little girl that my baby is growing into, but deeply saddened that my sweet little "Toot Toot" is growing so quickly!! My newly acquired mission: enjoy every moment, spend less time doing other things and more time cuddling on the couch watching a movie, or playing dress up, or dancing when our favorite song comes on. One other thing - keep the camera handy!

Is it just me, or does everyone's kids come home from school this dirty?! I love it!! Well, I love that she's having so much fun, but getting all the stains out can be a little tricky :)While I do welcome the cooler fall weather (COOL, not cold!) I really enjoy the change of scenery. Leaves changing, pumpkins, scarecrows, etc. I snapped a pic of MK after church on Sunday. This is a simple little smocked dress from last year, I let out the hem and we're good to go for another year! Look how grown-up she looks!!!
It's safe to put your tissue away now, I'll save the rest of my poor pitiful Mama whose baby is growing too quickly stories for another day. I finished several shirts yesterday. This little guy is ready for any sports event, fall, and Christmas!
8 weeks til Thanksgiving, 11 weeks til Christmas! Please order early if you can :)