Happy, Happy!

Happy Birthday to my sweet girl! Today is her actual birthday and she had a great time at her school party. We will have our family & friends party this weekend (will blog photos/details afterwards).It was COOOOLD and windy this morning - can you tell?!
She's sooooo sweet. When I asked if we could take her picture she replied "sure!"
And here she is showing me she's THREE years old.

Happy, Happy Birthday to my sweet girl!!

P.S. A quick pic of our V-Day outfit ...

Bag Tags!

I packaged up my sewing machine and shipped it to Ken's Sewing Center yesterday for a tune up. Why does it seem that while I'm machineless I have so much time for sewing?!?! Withdrawals have set in, so I've been doing some applique shopping in my SPARE time. Once my machine is back home (hoping this coming week) these are on the top of my To Do list.

I love these bag tags (or anything tags). Check out Applique Momma for more tag designs. Great for apparel, room decor, organization, anything. The crafty part of brain gets excited when I think of the endless possibilities with fabric/font options. And since it's pretty much a rule to put our name/initials on everything we own, these are PeRfEcT!!

Outside of sewing (or my recent lack of) we've been battling the crud that has taken over every family I know. Since Christmas Mary Katherine has had strep, sinus infection, and stomach bug. Bam. Bam. Bam. We are on our second bottle of Mucinex Cough!! For you other mommies out there feeling terrible for wiping your child's poor red nose for the zillionth time in the last hour, here's my secret ingredient.
I received this tiny trial sized tube of lanolin from the hospital nurse when MK was born. It's actually used by nursing mothers, but it's also great for sore noses, chapped cheeks and lips, and dry/cracked skin. This brand of lanolin can be purchased at Target (among other places I'm sure).

Lastly, a couple of silly pictures. I'd laid out MK's school clothes the night before and the next thing I knew she came in wearing this. Her undies over her pj's. She'd done it "all by myselp" and actually had them on correctly.
Then we needed to put every single barrette and hair accessory in our possession in her hair.

Silly girl!!

20-Eleven!

I graduated high school in 2000 - the turn of the century was such a big to-do. Where did the time go?! Since 2000 I've graduated college, gotten married, bought our home, changed jobs, had our beautiful daughter, and most recently added Turkey Tales to my resume. I guess you can say I like to stay busy!

The post Christmas lull is wearing off and customer orders are trickling in. I have a couple of leftovers from 2010 and I'm already looking ahead to Valentine's Day and Easter. While heirlooms and jon jons are a must for church attire on Easter don't forget Easter egg hunts and pictures with the Easter bunny too! Our design department *LOL* is already brainstorming for some super-de-duper cute outfits. Be sure to STAY TUNED!

Sorry for the short sans-photo post. Just wanted to give everyone a quick update. Happy Julianuary!!!

Christmas Concluded

Wow, we made it! Christmas was SO MUCH FUN! Mary Katherine will be 3 ... T-H-R-E-E ... in 28 days which I absolutely cannot believe. Needless to say she was fired up about Christmas. Christmas Eve consisted of roasting marshmallows and weenies in the fireplace, then baking cookies for Santa. I love doing fun 'kid' things! Once she was fast asleep - and I woke up from my cat nap in the rocking chair at 10:00 - I proceeded to BEGIN wrapping presents. That's right, not one present wrapped before 10pm on Christmas Eve!! Christmas morning was of course fun. Santa left MK a note telling her what a good girl she'd been (via updates from Sadie Elf) and she was mesmerized that 'Santa ate all the cookies'. Here she is with Old Saint Nick.
One of the literal ZILLION gifts she received was this tractor that drives, talks, and sings. She's a farm girly girl - meaning she owns more shoes than I do, big hair bows are a must, and sitting at the vanity to dry, brush, and curl her hair is a daily regimen; but she's a farm girl at heart. Wearing water boots, checking on cows and driving the tractor are probably some of her favorite things to do! Check out the driver of the tractor!
Back to the birthday thing. I have a summer birthday so never experienced celebrating barely a month after Christmas. Not fair to the Christmas people! Everyone is still 'hung over' from all the Christmas shopping or just 'saves' a would-be Christmas gift for a birthday present. So, I always make an extra effort to keep her birthday separate and speacial. One last shot - LOVE Applique Cafe's Zig Zag Tiara - only three quick steps!! Notice MK is holding three fingers, she's practicing!!!
Excited about 2011, but enjoying my mini sewing vacation. I guess I'll officially be back on duty over the weekend or beginning of next week. Happy New Year everyone!!

Christmas on a Budget

Quick post! I love giving 'homemade' gifts ... add cost efficient and you can't go wrong! I purchased a 2-pack of white waffle weave guest towels at Target for $4.50-ish. Applique Momma's single ornament design - cute and quick. I used SWP to merge in an initial and topped the ornament off with a cute red bow.
With my investment totaling less than $3 per teacher - even though I thought they turned out SUPER CUTE - I picked up another gift as well.

We spent Sunday afternoon in the cooooold/wind attempting to get a Christmas card picture. Not sure this will be the one, but cute non the less. Also, love the Applique Cafe zig zag Christmas tree design in pink and lime green. A break from the traditional Christmas colors.
I've made a pretty good dent in my Christmas shopping. A few more things to get (not sure when!) + pictures with Santa. HOPING to finish all Christmas related items by the end of this weekend. Fingers Crossed! Merry Christmas!!!!!

Last Call!

18-ish days until Christmas! WOW! I have been so blessed with lots of great customers over the past several months. Looking forward to working with everyone in 2011! After reviewing the outstanding number of orders to be completed before Christmas, and the fact that I still have LOTS of Christmas shopping to do, I have decided to place a hold on new orders for now. Orders to be completed by/for Christmas that is. Non-Christmas orders, Valentine, Easter, etc. orders can be placed at any time ... but realistically will probably not be completed until the beginning of January. Any questions, please email me as always :)

Another Christmas outfit. This was my first attempt on an ITH (In The Hoop) project. The entire shirt was done on my embroidery machine!Basic Christmas tree appliqueRibbons pinned in place and covered with Glad Press-n-Seal to prevent the presser foot from snagging on the ribbonsThe finished product!

Mary Katherine was having a snack the other day (Teddy Graham's & Capri Sun) and I looked over after she'd been at the table for a few minutes...
She'd organized the bears I poured out in a pile into this neat line! Can we say OCD? Like her mother!!!!

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.