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Happy November! October just blew by with all sorts of busy-ness ending with a very fun week spent with my dearest friends and family in Atlanta attending The Country Living Fair for the second year in a row.
Unbelievable as it may seem, that mantra I began saying 11 months ago - "No Custom Orders in December!" has actually been changed to:
Last Day to Order Custom Items for Holiday Delivery: November 10,2012!
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I've been on a four-week turnaround treadmill for over a month, and there is no getting off the train at this point. So, to be sure to get items out in time for holiday delivery and to ensure the post office has time to deliver the items in that crazy time of year, my plan is to be finished with custom orders on 12/10/2012. My son graduates from college just a week later, so I want to fully participate in that celebration and the upcoming holidays with no studio worries in mind.
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Last year, I had the merry pillow cover as a calicodaisy 2011 holiday design. This year, a little more subdued design based on your color choices is "Silent Night" embroidered in a beautiful font and sewn up in a lumbar or square form style. Up until 11/10/2012, you can choose custom colors for holiday delivery. I plan to have a few in each size available for ready-to-ship status as well. Please Pin and FB share with anyone you know who might like this style. If there is time, I hope to get out "joy to the world" as well, but that might be a 2013 design!
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Don't forget about the custom embroidered, reversible, 52" Christmas Tree skirt either! Please order in time, so I don't have to say, "No!" It will hurt me more than you think, but I have to cut off custom orders at 11/10/2012. That is only SEVEN FULL DAYS left.
With that, I will leave you to a pretty Sunday. We are praying for our nation as we go to the polls this Tuesday and praying even more fervently for those touched by Super Storm Sandy.
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Though the calicodaisy online shop is on a month's hiatus, the work still goes on. (Orders taken through e-mail.) Only sometimes I bemoan the fact that the workroom is in the "basement" with no windows, but as it is 107 degrees right now in South Carolina, no problem. Nice, cool, cinder block walls. What was a lush, green, velvety lawn that my husband keeps for us just a couple of weeks ago is half parched right now. Even the dogwood tree has drawn up its leaves against the heat!
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Out of the workroom, though, some lovelies have shipped out to new homes. Requests for larger and larger fonts sizes come in, and I think I'll be running out of hoop space soon! Goodness, I don't need to be tempted to look at a machine with bigger hoop size, but my mind wanders down that path more and more.
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Meanwhile, I have been honing my design skills and have learned more and more about creating lovely fonts at nearly any size. It is very tedious. There is still so much I don't know, but several colleagues have been willing to share skills in the last few months that have moved me forward leaps and bounds. I'm so grateful!
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On the subject of lovelies, we happen to be watching the US Olympic Men's Gymnastic Team trials. Okay, the guys aren't lovelies, but they are beautiful and magnificent. The digital photography is so sharp and focused, it just brings out the mightiness of a body that has that much strength. Most of the routines makes me nervous to watch, but the rings event is just mesmerizing.
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As the late afternoon sun begins to warm up the sitting room, I feel ready to head to my cool studio and plump out a few more pillow covers. Hoping for a good chick flick or HP movie to keep me company! Stay cool. Drink lots of Diet Coke -- uh, water!, and give this Talenti gelato ice cream a try (lots of great flavors). Fantastic! My faves are the mint chocolate chip and the coffee chip. The screw top containers are excellent for reuse, so more than one reason to give in!
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I may not get out of South Carolina much lately, but calicodaisy items are getting all sorts of invites to destination weddings lately! Last week, monogrammed pillow covers and bridal accessories made it to the Bahamas for a wedding week of fun! Incidentally, that's where I met my husband, but that's another story.
The event coordinator for this island destination wedding came up with the "wiggle" design for the oversized lumbar pillow covers at the top of the post. Natural linen and shades of blue, very soothing. The lumbar pillows were created for a seating area on a boat.
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The monogrammed pillow covers were designed in shades of navy and tan, and then a number of accessories were ordered to show up as treats in the new couples' suite each day. Towels, tote, bridal shoe / lingerie bag.
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This is the third wedding pack of items created for spring wedding decor this season. One more set of lovelies in navy and coral were sent out last week for another destination setting - can't reveal until June! Navy must be the current wedding color trend. My stash of navy twill and navy embroidery thread has dwindled fast this month.
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Planning custom designed, home dec and accessory items themed for the wedding and reception is so smart really as the items serve a dual purpose: They augment the wedding theme and then go home with the couple or serve as gifts to friends and family who helped with the wedding as a long lasting and useful memory of the special day!
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Fresh, client-driven designs are showing up in the calicodaisy studio and shop. Recently, I read the color green is in this season, and, sure enough, two client requests came in for fresh greens this month. One set of monogrammed lumbar pillow covers bound and embroidered in a lovely shade of grass green shipped out for two little boys' shared room. Their stylish mom wanted this Garden font "as big as you can fit." Looks just great. You can find a listing here: Large Font Monogrammed Lumbar Pillow Cover.
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While pinning earlier today, I noted fabulous leather foldover clutches, $158.00. I thought, of course, "I can make those (in cotton and home-dec fabrics) and monogram them for far less than $158." Here is my prototype mockup edited out on PicMonkey. So sad Picnik is gone now. I understand it went over to Google+, but I don't know enough about G+ to follow yet. PicMonkey is very similar to Picnik, so I'm can edit, thank goodness, and I like the fonts offered.
Anyway, monogrammed, design-your-own foldover clutches at calicodaisy etsy. I haven't made one yet, and I'm hoping the mockup graphic will spark a clever girl's imagination to make the first sale so I don't have to make a sample bag. Time is so precious right now that everything sewn must have a purpose! Wouldn't these be great for a bridesmaid gift pack?
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This ball keeps turning faster and faster. I barely catch my breath, and it's back to work or onto whatever it is that needs doing next.
However, it looks like everything changes again in a month. Seasons of life and the changing of the daily pattern.
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My girl graduates from high school in early June and prepares for her next adventures in life. Happily, that will still be close to home right now and she will stay with us for at least the next year. As she is our second and last and her brother is in Europe, I need her here for just awhile longer.
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My work life is busy, pretty much 24/7 right now. When I'm not working at home on the computer or in the studio, I'm getting ready to hit the road for the office at the hospital. In a few weeks, though, if all goes according to plan, a new software platform goes into effect, and I'll be working at home 100% once again, which I'm really looking forward to. Just in time, because my girl will be driving my car to college and work – if we don't get another car, and I just don't see us having another payment! So, for a little while anyway, I plan to just relish puttering away at home with no worries about being work-presentable and getting there on time and using all those freed up driving hours for much missed activities around here.
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Have you been following Pink Chalk Studios and Kathy's One Yard Wonders Sew Along? Well, this week, they are up to my project in the book, the Beach Time Towel Tote. I'm anxious to hear the reviews on my pattern writing skills. I sent Kathy a link to my towel tote set, so she and the person who sew it up know that it's much more than just a terry towel transformed into a tote bag.
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Well, that really sums me up right now. Lots of finished items have been mailed out the last couple of months. I love the big appliqué monogram (see above) for a little one's nursery, and my favorite project has been the "mr. and mrs." pillow cover set created just in time for the wedding season.
Speaking of weddings .... Loved it! I would also love to have a backside view as nice as these girls do. That's another (not so) little project I can work on when I'm spending more time at home! Oh, to be young and lithe again!
While visiting friends and family in Atlanta a few weeks ago, I came across a West Elm shop and popped in for a look around. I love all the textiles available for ordering furniture. That wasn't going to happen, so I strolled over to the kitchen area and found napkin sets on sale.
This "Hourglass Novelty" pattern caught my attention, and in my studio yesterday, it was matched up with some cozy wool suiting for pillow covers and added them to my shop.
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Have you been by Spoonflower today for your free 8" swatch? It took a while to find a small pattern to make the swatch useful, and I decided upon these elephants in red. I can see it as a pocket on something or the front side of a zip pouch. Stop over there and get yours. Spoonflower is also participating in a fundraiser for Heifer International, so you can put your swatch money there if you like.
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My dear friend, Leslie, has a daughter getting married next month. An outdoor, daisy-strewn event has been planned, and I offered to create the ring bearer pillow and garter. Simple white linen, a bright pink gerbera daisy, and silky ribbons create a sweet pillow for a little man to walk down the aisle. There is a wide satin ribbon across the back that he can slip his little hand through and hang on to the diamonds!
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What a great weekend for our family! For once, we were all in one place, of one mind, and having fun. It's a good thing! As promised, the weather was gorgeous. No humidity and in the low to mid 80s. Fantastic for South Carolina!
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This is how our weekend began: A lakeside wedding at sunset. Isn't this a pretty wedding scape? This young bride planned the wedding herself, and nothing could have been more perfect. Her grandparents have a lovely place on the lake designed to handle crowds, and everything went so smoothly.
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Here is the pirate-themed garter on the bride, and my girl caught the bouquet -- but we are saving her wedding date for hopefully at least a good five years away, not that there are any beaus on the horizon at the moment.
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The sweet couple. At the top of the post is the sun setting low after the ceremony, and then the fireworks kicked off at dark.
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And then we had a marvelous Fourth of July afternoon and evening at another family friends' spread. Along with a big BBQ, the couple brought in a local chamber orchestra to play for us (like we were at the Boston Pops!) and then choreographed a private fantastic fireworks show! It was just lovely!
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Camille and I fit in blueberry picking on Friday. The blueberries taste wonderful and have been washed, dried, frozen, and baked in two different desserts: The crazy blueberry breakfast cake we love and a blueberry-studded lemon meringue pie. Going back for more later this week!
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On a cherry-berry note, a cherry-embroidered tea towel was ordered this week by a favoite blog friend. This was my sampler towel to test out the colors in the design and is now in the shop. Looks Scrumptious!
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Gosh, I'm head over heels for linen! I've been picking up linen-mix pieces over time and using it for monogrammed pillow covers and aprons. However, this week I bought 100% natural linen. The heft and the silky feel at the same time is so lovely. As with all my fabric, I ran it right through the laundry, dried, and ironed it to get the shrinking done with. It took a while to get the hang of mitered corners, and I don't quite have an exact 90-degree angle, but who cares?? I now have lovely linen towels hanging in the kitchen. A little twill across the top corner makes the hanging handy.
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The Mouse at a Tea Party embroidery design is so darling. The design worked out on the grayish-creamy fabric just called for aqua and red.
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I have a few unembellished linen towels as well. These are just right for someone who wants to hand-embroider a design herself or the towels can be embellished or personalized by me as desired. I'm thinking monograms for that vintage, used linen look (without the antique linen to worry about) or a cool sleek font for the modern kitchen. Napkins next, I think, and maybe some pillowcases.
Hey! I just noted Blogger added back the spell check! Thank you, Blogger!
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A couple of new embroidery designs for the newly engaged and upcoming bride and groom are available for sewing out. These will look great on t-shirts, bags, acessories, home dec, etc.
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Please contact me at my calicodaisy handmade shop if you would like to design something special.
(The actual digital embroidery designs are not for sale.)
On a related subject of weddings, my 22nd wedding anniversary is today! Too bad we don't plan ahead ... this could have been a beautiful 3-day weekend away.
Today I have a spot on the Etsy Weddings Showcase. If you pop over, use the drop down menu on the showcase page to choose "weddings."
Of course, I purchased the spot earlier in the month to showcase my wedding garters and hoped I chose a day when upcoming brides and their moms were cruising Etsy.
Have you used this option before when listing your items? Twice last year I purchased spots, once in the Ultimate Bridal Shower and once in the Baby category, and it worked out well for me. Even though I only sold one or two items on each of those days, the exposure and return customers were worth it. Plus, both times new customers had great ideas for me which added to my inventory list.
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To participate, just go to the "Your Etsy" page. At the far right of your listed items, you'll see the "promote" option. Just click that and follow the path to choosing the proper category and date to be showcased.
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Too bad I forgot about my showcase day this week! I had plans for some ring bearer pillows and more casual garters with embroidered monograms. I'll just have to do it again when I'm ready. This pretty flower is destined to top a ring bearer pillow. Love the 3-D look for this little presentation of loveliness.
A couple of weeks ago, Shasta of My Blonde Reality stopped by my shop and requested a custom order for monogrammed European pillow shams. I asked her to check my flickr site and available fonts to decide what she would like as well as to check out the blog. A little later, she responded with enthusiasm and said she had blogged about me at her site. I linked over and met a whole new world of bloggers. Good night! At the time, she had around 450 followers. Two weeks later, she's even more popular. Needless to say, my blog stats rocked that day, and I have "met" a number of new blog ladies who aren't necessarily crafters but are definitely busy in the career world, homekeeping, babies, upcoming weddings, fashion, shopping, and shoes! Name brands I've only heard of on the repeats of late night "Sex In The City." These girls have them! Along the way now, I've also discovered that my favorite color combination of pink and anything plus a preppy look are back in a big way. These gals are crazy for pink and green and Lilly Pulitzer and Vera Bradley. Entire wardrobes are planned around new pieces in their favorite designers, and now I long even more for the curvy lean figure I had a mere 20 years ago! (I"m working on that; hopefully you will see the results soon!)
To celebrate pink and green and to participate in the only way I can right now, I came up with some pink and green designs in hopes of attracting a new set to my shop. I have already been crocheting this scarf design over the past month but decided to add a bit of a stripe to give the girls something to coordinate with all things Lilly. When brainstorming for product names, calico*lilly popped up, and there you go. 
I've had this great blue-green paisley in my stash for a couple of months. Lined in pink, these wristlets fit the bill, I think. 
And what about this new font and frame set (seen at the top of the post and above in black)? Actually, I bought it last fall but just loaded it in last week. It's the Martha Stewart classic embroidery designs pack. It sews out beautiful. There are laurel leaf frames, too. I'll have to embroider out some towels next. 
Here is one of the shams I made for Shasta. She picked a great font. So nice and crisp in this large setting. It's very gratifying when someone makes a request, and I am able to say, "Yes, I can do that!"
This upcoming week looks very promising. My husband is on the mend from cervical fusion, my big work-week schedule covering vacationing transcriptionists has passed - just one more shift this afternoon/evening, and a number of orders were finished, packaged, and sent out on Friday. So, a new month and new possibilities beginning tomorrow. 
We celebrated a 17th birthday! My baby girl is so beautiful and sweet. She has a good head on her shoulders, and as she makes choices for herself and handles everyday situations and relationships, I see her becoming a lovely woman. I'm glad I have her around for a couple of more years. My son goes back to college and dorm life in two weeks. Remember last year? I was a wreck. No more. One year down and his seven weeks in Germany make me so happy that he has these opportunities and is able to start living out his dreams now while he is young. You know that post I mention above? On my Google Analytics I found that a link to that posting appears when someone googles a phrase like, "I can't talk to my son," "my son won't...". Isn't that something? Hopefully, when they read my post and the one after and your comments, they had a bit comfort. 
I've been loading up my shops as I sew up and embroider orders. I've got a list of things I'd like to accomplish in August and September in preparation for fall craft fairs and holiday sales. 
1. Have a good sized "ready-to-go" inventory for craft fairs and holiday sales. 2. Publish three PDF patterns I have on my mind. 3. Develop the calicodaisy craft lounge. I plan to host craft parties in my studio apartment or a hostess's home to teach handcrafting skills: crochet, knitting, hand sewing, hand embroidery, etc.... I've got an idea to do the parties like a Tupperware party. Hostess, friends, learning a skill, drawings for calicodaisy items, and, of course, my finished goods all around. 4. Take more lessons myself to know my equipment better, so I make the best use of it all. 5. Plan a marketing push to correspond with my website reveal. 
That list -- and all the learning and thinking required -- is nearly as heavy a load as going back to college, I think. However, going back to college is on my list, too. With transcription on its way out, I'm basically obsolete. I never liked the finance/accounting major I had in college, and I want to have a marketable skill to fall back on if I must have a full-time income in the future. Scary but necessary! Well, I have a 3:00 shift to get to and better go get ready. I love my little p.r.n. job at the hospital. I wasn't sure how I'd handle the weekends alone, but I've had great doctors to transcribe these two weekends I've been scheduled. I'll be on the rotation schedule now that I can swing it all. The time goes by VERY fast, and there was a lot of trauma going on in my town yesterday. Good night! I was wondering who wasn't in the ER! I checked in to see that my family was home and off the roads. Have a happy Sunday.
