Happy Anni to us!

Posted by on August 14, 2018

It’s Back to School time! My kids started last week and so far so good! My oldest is driving (w/ his permit – eeeek!) and I’ve got all of the school covered this year – lower school, middle school and upper school! My sister in law has triplets, and they are all headed to college this fall. The girls left Friday and their son leaves tomorrow – all going to Auburn (War Eagle). It’s made me realize how fast this is happening and I only have 4 more years with my oldest. The cliche “time slow down” drives me crazy, but it really does go by so quickly! 🙁 Trying to enjoy it all and embrace the crazy schedules.

We have been turrible at new designs this summer. I mean turrible! Jeff took a promotion at work and with the aforementioned crazy schedules of 3 kids, we haven’t had a lot of time. Now that school is back in sesh, hopefully we can do better. Here are a few new ones we added this summer!

Don’t forget our order-taking NOTEPADS!! Several shipments went out this week and we appreciate every single order! With our lack of designs lately, it’s fun to have something else available to our customers!

Lastly, we don’t do 50% off often, but when we do, we do it to celebrate our 9 years in business (+ Back to School)!! 9 YEARS!! I saw this picture the other day in my Facebook memories. This was where it all began! I had a desk in the corner of our bedroom in our old house and that’s where it all started. We had no clue what we were doing, but 1,042 designs and 9 years later here we are! And this girl is now 10, has braces and is in the 5th grade!

Shop our SALE through Monday, August 20th! www.appliquecafe.com

Filed Under: Applique Cafe, Embroidery Notepads, Family | Tagged: Tagged With:

Still here…..

Posted by on September 19, 2017
I got an email from my husband today. He noticed recently that I had not posted anything here since May.
Then he typed up a few paragraphs for me to post!! Yay! I also just approved a few recent comments and one was “I don’t even know if you still have this blog….” LOL
I AM STILL HERE…
When school started over a month ago I was thinking ‘we finally get to slow down from being on the go all summer’.  I am now realizing I had completely forgotten about all the activities that come with school and fall!  I never considered football practice, Monday night football games, weekly soccer clinic, Wednesday night church activities, volleyball practice, Saturday morning volleyball games, homework or helping kids study. Sigh. Throw all of this in with the normal work week (still have my side hustle 3 days a week) and it is no wonder I feel like a walking Zombie by Wednesday. While it is a lot of fun watching my kids in each of their activities, it is by no means a “slow down”. Did I mention I was down for the count Saturday with a stomach virus? I’m still recovering from that one.
First day of school 2017: Garrison 5th, Mallory 4th and Browder 8th
My oldest made his debut as a kicker last night at his 2nd middle school football game.  This is a big deal because he is the first Gulledge in multiple generations to strap on the gear and get on the field.  Neither Jeff or his dad ever played football.  Browder has been a soccer player since the age of 4 and has been working very hard on his football kicking, so it was great to see him get the opportunity to play {for 3 seconds}! He has mastered the “hands on hip” stance. p.s. How is he this big? Photo creds to my friend Karen who actually brought a real camera to football. 
 
We lost the game but it was fun seeing him finally play!
In Applique Cafe news…
Halloween will be here before you know it so be sure to check out our fall Halloween and Thanksgiving designs. We have listed a bunch of new Vintage Stitch (aka Bean Stitch aka Redwork Stitch) designs which are super easy and require no fabric. I always use a water soluble stabilizer on top when doing these designs. It helps the shirt not to pucker. Check out a blog post I did a while back on Vintage or Simple Stitch Designs – click HERE. Here are some pics of our recent designs:
The above is a shirt I did for a precious little sister who’s big brother plays with Browder. He’s #13. How cute is that!
Have a great week!
Filed Under: Applique Cafe, Family, How To | Tagged: Tagged With: ,

Survival Mode

Posted by on May 18, 2017

Hi Friends! I don’t know about you but we are in SURVIVAL MODE around my house! School is almost out for summer and I have no idea how that happened. It was like Christmas break then I blinked and it was this week. I’ve had a couple of Mondays where the reality of what all goes on in May hit me like a ton of bricks = anxiety and stress. Just one more day and a couple/few half days and my 3 will be OUT of SCHOOL. I did proclaim last night that “you people are going to have to learn to do some stuff” when school gets out. I’m determined to teach my almost-14 year old how to do laundry. Because.it.never.ends. I was out of town this weekend and on Monday my almost-14 year old claimed he had no clean sports underwear. My husband piped in that he had washed “all the clothes” Saturday. I told him that you must wash every 2 hours to keep up. It’s true, right?? Anyway, I have some lofty goals for the summer so we’ll see how that goes. How do you best handle kids and summer? Lists? Chores? I work 3 days a week until 3:00 so I’m determined not to go cray cray on those days when I walk in the house.

I spent this past weekend with some girlfriends down in Mexico Beach, FL. This is an annual trip for us and I’ve known and loved these girls since college! We have THE best time together and they are my favorite friends on the planet. There are no other friends like your college friends with whom you can be REAL with! We share the good, the bad, the awesome and the ugly and I hate we can only spare a weekend each year! Thank goodness for Group Me!

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In Applique Cafe news, we are having a Memorial Day sale at the moment (through the end of May) and will be adding a few new designs in the next day or two {previews are on Instagram}. May has been insane but we are trying to focus on designs now that school is getting out! We’ve been celebrating birthdays and anniversaries + end of school craziness + a stomach virus so we have neglected the biz.

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I also have a new post coming soon about The Best Sewing Machine for Kids! Stay tuned!!

Filed Under: Applique Cafe, Family | Tagged: Tagged With:
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