A New Kind of Busy Season

Several years ago the term “busy season” caused an increased level of anxiety for me.  It meant extremely long work hours and lots of tight deadlines.    Can you guess my old profession? 

Tax Accountant.  I worked at one of the Big 4 firms in Atlanta for several years after graduating college and worked on many a tax return.  January 1 to April 15 every year was crazy busy and stressful and I think I ate more dinners at the office than at home.  And as typical accountants, we had a very efficient spreadsheet that was circulated every afternoon to place an order if you were working late.  Ha!  But somehow we always survived and met all of our deadlines.  Phew! 

Now, I have a different busy season.  It involves apples, footballs, and pumpkins.  It gets me excited and makes me want to sketch and think of different fabric and stitch combinations.   I feel like the “to do” list is longer than there are hours in a day, reminiscent of past busy seasons.  Still, every morning I am ready to tackle one or more items on that list!  With Back to School, Football, and Fall right around the corner it is busy season for sure…but in a good way. 

Over the past few weeks, I have released a mini set of Football Designs…

 Back to School Designs…

 And Pumpkin Designs.

 

And now I am about to do it all over again!  Today I am working on one more set of back-to-school designs including some more “sketch” designs as well as some preschool patches, a fun back-to-school dino and some raggy shape designs.   

Have an idea for my next set of Football or Fall designs?  Please leave a comment below!  If I use your idea you will receive that design for FREE!

A Little Lull...

I am (not so) patiently waiting for new digitizing software to arrive (never been so excited for a Monday to get here) and while I wait I thought I would share some of my digitizing history with you…so here are a few things I have learned along this journey…

There is a ton of information “out there”.  From yahoo groups, to FB pages, to YouTube tutorials, etc.  there is more information than is possible to sort through.  So many embroiderers are generous with their time and expertise and offer invaluable tidbits of information about how to embroider/appliqué. 

At the same time…there is very little relevant information “out there”.  I have lost countless hours searching for the answer to an issue or topic without being able to find exactly what I am looking for.  I have especially found this to be true when it comes to exploring software options for digitizing.  Makes sense…who wants to share their secret? Their magic formula for making their business work?  Well, that is what I am going to do today…or at least I am going to tell you all of the “magic formulas” I have tried: 

I started with Embird; I recently tried Bernina Designer Plus;  and I am now waiting for my Wilcom software to arrive.  Hence the time to blog.

Embird served me well for several years.  I started with Editor when I was selling physical items.  I upgraded to Studio a few months before I launched All Things Applique.  I added Font Engine at some point along the way too.  In my opinion it is a great digitizing platform for beginners and has great value for the price.  I won’t lie…I was ready to throw my computer out the window a couple of times when I was learning to use it…but can now digitize with almost every keyboard shortcut in the book. 

As All Things Applique has grown, I have felt constrained by Embird.  I also wanted to be able to offer .art format, so I visited a Bernina dealer, had a demo of the software, asked lots of questions, thought about it for weeks, asked more questions, and then decided to give it a shot.   After experimenting with this software during my “return” window I came to the tough conclusion that this was not the right “next step” software for me.  I loved some of the features…but then other areas slowed me down.  Lessons learned…1) make a list of every question you can think of and don’t be afraid to ask them 2) ask about a return policy (there is only so much you can see during a demo…sometimes you just need to drive the software yourself to be able to see if it can do what you want it to do).  3) ask the dealer to digitize a design you would do 4) weigh the pros and cons and make a decision.

I have now decided to purchase Wilcom.  It is quite an investment for me.  I am hoping you guys decide to stick around and enjoy All Things Applique as much as I do because after this purchase I plan to be digitizing for a long while.  J 

Is it Monday yet?  I can’t wait to start creating new designs again…until then…I will be sketching, blogging, and plan to spend a lot of the weekend at the soccer fields and in the garden with my boys!

Chalkboard Wall, Painting, Gifting, and Designing

We have been busy, busy, busy designing and listing just as many Thanksgiving and Christmas designs as we possibly can for you guys! Have you seen them all? Take a look...



Do you have a favorite? I think I like the Dinosaur with the Santa Hat...because that one was a special request from my 4-year old. :)

You can find ALL of these designs and MORE at either www.allthingsapplique.com or www.allthingsapplique.etsy.com

Here are a few baby gifts that I FINALLY mailed this week. I stitched all of these bibs when we were in our temporary apartment this summer. Talk about belated gift giving! Thankfully babies need bibs for a long time and I hope they can still use these.



Now...it is time to work on the 10+ other new baby gifts I am still behind on. So many new precious gifts to be thankful for this year!

I recently tackled a couple of Pinterest ideas...and I must admit...they were both very fun and easy!

First up...a BIG, GIANT, chalkboard wall!

For those of you that remember our housing saga as we relocated to North Carolina, there was a room in the house we first had a contract on that was going to be PERFECT for it to be painted 1/3 chalkboard, 1/3 stainless steel (magnet) and 1/3 cork board. I had my heart set on it and it was going to be one of the first projects we tackled.

You can see the idea here...



While I do LOVE the house we are now in, there just wasn't a good wall for that type of project. But, as we have gotten settled, I have been inspired by a maps/solar system theme for the boys' playroom. I will share more as it changes (very slow progress around here)but for now we have one giant solar system wall that is chalkboard paint! The idea is for the bottom half to be all kids...and I am going to sketch the solar system at the top...



The boys have LOVED it and it is fun to see the creations they come up with.

The other Pinterest inspired project was for Halloween...a little late in sharing...sorry!

The boys painted canvases...



We added footprint ghosts and handprint spiders...



And then they wanted to keep painting! It was great and I LOVE their creations. Look forward to hanging these for years to come!



I will start switching design gears to Valentine's soon...if you have any design requests or ideas...please e-mail me at allthingsapplique (at) gmail (dot) com.

Fall???

This past weekend was cool and rainy...it felt like fall was just around the corner.

And today it is muggy and mid 80's.  Fall...you are such a tease! 

We decorated anyway this weekend and despite the warm temps we are enjoying our new fall decor.  The boys were really excited to help and most of the decorations are kid friendly.

Pumpkins to replace the candles on the mantle candlesticks...




Wooden pumpkins on the dining room table...



We have several ghost and bat pillows in the living room...by far the boys' favorite!  My little one walks around the house with a ghost in front of his face saying "ooooooooooooooooooh"  I wonder where he got that idea? :)



A new spider wreath I made for the front door.  I wrapped orange yarn around a straw wreath, added some black ribbon, and a big felt spider I found at Michaels. 



My mother-in-law (Mimi) was in town this past week and she did a fun fall craft with the boys.  They made pumpkins out of circus peanut candy and gum drops.  Then they filled up the truck with their "harvest"! I love it! And the report from Mimi is that the boys had a blast making the pumpkins too!



My husband has been taking the boys on lots of hikes lately and they always come home with pockets full of acorns and pinecones too! I love having them out on the table for decoration.  And the boys love playing with them and counting them and they are a great reminder of a fun day spent with daddy in the woods.



We planted our fall mums a couple of weekends ago...and they are very loved and thoroughly watered.



And finally...I made the boys some new felt toys/cookies to play with!  I love working with my embroidery machine but love it even more when I get to make something for my boys that they enjoy!






So there you have it...a peek at our Halloween decor.  Nothing very extravagant...it all fits in one Tupperware box...but having it up is making our new house feel more like home! 

Have you decorated for fall yet?

Zoo Inspired Animal Patches

We had a special destination for our spring break trip this year: Alabama to meet our new niece!

This is the first girl in our family.  Seriously...no matter which way you look...Boy! Boy! Boy! Boy!  There are 11 all together...and now this sweet girl.

Here she is in an ATA lamb onesie.  It is such a sweet design for newborns!



While we were down south, we got to visit the Birmingham Zoo! I grew up in Birmingham so visiting this zoo is always a trip down memory lane for me.  The train ride hasn't changed a bit! Although monkey island is no more...there are lots of new and improved exhibits. And I think the sea lions can still soak innocent bystanders so all is good.

It was great to see our boys enjoy the zoo. 


And I enjoyed taking pictures of some animal prints...



I am toying around with the idea of doing some big animal print pictures on a wall in one of the boys' rooms or in the playroom. Any favorites?


Once I was back home and in design mode again I started sketching some animal designs.  First up...some adorable animal patches.  I love how all of the animals are outgrowing (or eating!) the patch they are on!  But I also love the splash of color the patch provides. 


Although I was thinking more zoo animals when I created these...I think I might switch my design gear towards SEC  (thanks for the suggestions!)...how about a tiger patch and/or gator patch in the near future?  Any other animal patch requests?

Oh...and I have some more animals coming your way too!  The next round will be a little more rounded and pastel for possible baby items...but with a modernish twist.  That probably makes no sense...but that is my best description for now...stay tuned. :)

PS...the animal designs are now available for sale! Check out ATA Website or ATA Etsy Store!

Where have I been?

I know I sort of disappeared for a couple of months so I thought I would give you a quick recap on all that has been going on...

In January my husband accepted an offer for a new job in North Carolina with a start date of early summer.

In February we frantically did as many house projects as possible to get it ready for the market.  We painted the dining room and living room and half bathroom...mulched the yard...decluttered and loaded up a POD full of junk stuff we could live without for several months...

Our house officially hit the market on a Thursday and we were under contract the following Monday. 

I was thrilled and shocked all at the same time!  But then panic set in and I realized we needed to find a place to live because we agreed to a closing date of April 30...just 6 weeks away!

In March, we traveled to North Carolina, found a house, and made an offer. We countered back and forth and reached an agreement.  However, before the Sellers officially signed the contract, they received a better offer and rescinded the agreement we had made by e-mail.  I was devastated and pretty panicked.  Time was running out.

In late March, we made another trip.  Found another house.  Made an offer.  Countered back and forth.  Had an agreement.  Got a signed contract.  Woo hoo!  Had the inspection.  Got approved for mortgage.  Appraisal looks good.  Everything moving right along...

Fast forward to the week before we move.  We are packing and trying to get everything ready for moving day when I get a call from our Realtor.  I could tell something was wrong the minute I heard her voice.

She told us the Seller did not intend to go forward with closing.  After several days back and forth (including a letter from our attorney) it was clear we were not going to be moving into the house we thought.  So the movers came and loaded all of our belongings onto a truck and we went to North Carolina one more time to find a place to live. 

We signed a 3 month lease on a townhouse/apartment and are getting settled.  But it has truly been a roller coaster...and not the fun kind.  On the bright side...I am still thankful that the selling process went as well as it did.  If I had to choose which side of the process to have problems - the buying or the selling - I would choose the buying.  And through all of this my boys have taught me tons.  While I worried about where we would sleep and what our new home would be like...the boys never once doubted that there would be a safe and cozy place for them to go night-night with their stuffed animals and blankets and they thought the entire moving process was a fantastic adventure.  Oh to have the faith of a child...a good lesson for sure.

So that is where we are and why I have been out of touch.  Hope you will continue to follow All Things Applique...during this absence I have had lots of fun design ideas swirling around in my head. 

Thanks for reading...