My youngest daughter tells me that if I relate my grandmother’s catch phrase again she’ll get mad, or at least roll her eyes (something she’s good at doing lately). I’m pretty sure she doesn’t read this blog, so I’ll tell you and then I’ll tell you what I think of it.

“When I found the dishrag in the refrigerator, I wondered where I had hung the butter.”

Makes me smile every time…
Busy moms know that sometimes you’re hard pressed to even take the step back and *notice* the dishcloth in the fridge. Our lives are so hectic and keeping up with the kid’s schedules is darn near impossible. I haven’t decided whether I’m going to embroider “Breathe” or “Where’s the butter?” on my next dishtowel, but either of those embroidery options conveys to me, personally, the same idea - step back and relax, remember to laugh and enjoy your life.That’s a personal message I need to remember!

I like the kitchen towel for this sort of reminder because it’s an item which is just so ordinary, so common, that you see it all the time, and everyone always needs one. Which just made me think - I wonder if my sister remembers grandma’s saying. I wonder if she’d laugh if I gave her a kitchen towel embroidered with “where’s the butter?”

What would you want to remind yourself of every day on a kitchen towel?

Holiday traditions - the special days we look forward to each year.

There are creative ways to support them and it is never too late to start a new one.

The Robinson family has a yearly Bake-a-thon this time of year. Nine members of this family will have special personalized flour sack towels for this year’s festivities.

If you have a special holiday tradition, we would love to hear the details - even if it has nothing to do with embroidery!

My husband forgot the flowers (again!), so I thought I would do a public service. And, no, he is not in a whole lot of trouble — because of other redeeming qualities!

Here are the suggested gifts for anniversary years. 

1st Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts: Paper
Modern Gifts: Clocks

2nd Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts: Cotton
Modern Gifts: China

3rd Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts: Leather
Modern Gifts: Crystal

4th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts: Fruit or Flowers
Modern Gifts: Appliances

5th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts: Wood
Modern Gifts: Silverware

6th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts: Candy or Iron
Modern Gifts: Wood

7th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts: Wool or Copper
Modern Gifts: Desk Sets

8th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts: Bronze or Pottery
Modern Gifts: Linens or Lace

9th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts: Pottery and Willow
Modern Gifts: Leather

10th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts: Tin or Aluminum
Modern Gifts: Diamond Jewelry

11th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts: Steel
Modern Gifts: Fashion Jewelry

12th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts: Silk or Linen
Modern Gifts: Pearls

13th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts: Lace
Modern Gifts: Textiles or Furs

14th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts: Ivory
Modern Gifts: Gold Jewelry

15th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts: Crystal
Modern Gifts: Watches

16th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Silver Holloware

17th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Furniture

18th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Porcelain

19th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Bronze

20th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts: China
Modern Gifts: Platinum

21st Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Brass or Nickel

22nd Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Copper

23rd Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Silver Plate

24th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Musical Instruments

25th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts: Silver
Modern Gifts: Silver

26th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Original Pictures

27th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Sculpture

28th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Orchids

29th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Furniture

30th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts: Pearl
Modern Gifts: Diamond

31st Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Time Pieces

32nd Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Conveyances

33rd Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Amethyst

34th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Opal

35th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts: Coral
Modern Gifts: Jade

36th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Bone China

37th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Alabaster

38th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Beryl or Tourmaline

39th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Lace

40th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts: Ruby

41st Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Land

42nd Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Improved Real Estate

43rd Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Travel

44th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Jewelry

45th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts: Sapphire
Modern Gifts: Sapphire

46th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Original Poetry

47th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Books

48th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Optical Goods

49th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Luxuries

50th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts: Gold
Modern Gifts: Gold

51st Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Ruby

52nd Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Ruby

55th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts: Emerald
Modern Gifts: Emerald

60th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts: Yellow Diamond
Modern Gifts: Diamond

65th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Star Sapphire, Gray

67th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Star Sapphire, Purple

75th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts: Diamonds, Diamond Like Stones, Gold
Modern Gifts: Diamond, Gold

80th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Diamond, Pearl

90th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Diamond, Emerald

95th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: Diamond, Ruby

100th Wedding Anniversary

Traditional Gifts:
Modern Gifts: 10K Diamond
 
Source: About.com marriage
 

I’m going to say that a custom embroidered towel set is among the very best gift one can give, be it for Christmas, Hannukah, a wedding, or a housewarming. Taking something so useful and ordinary as a simple towel, and making it a personal, will always be welcomed on both levels. Add the luxury of a complete towel set, and the fact that custom personalized towels are an indulgence people rarely splurge on for themselves, and you have a perennially winning gift.

We’ve seen lots of “His and Hers” towels recently, and they’re cute. We can certainly do that, but why stop there? You could have custom personalized towels which say “Pookie” and “Studmuffin” if you want (not recommended for use in the guest bathroom!). But really, with custom embroidered towels the sky’s the limit in terms of how personal you want to make it.
Some people think that personalized towels are formal and old-fashioned. They certainly can be, and we have made towels with mongrams and crests fit for Buckinham Palace. For people who think that personalization is nice, but haven’t seen anything they like, we’d like to direct your attention to this lighthearted example of a bar towel.

I have been astonished at how popular our wedding labels have turned out to be! We started out with the large wedding label, but we quickly learned that they are more suitable for the lining of a flower girl basket, the cover of wedding albums or the edge of the table cloth for the gift table. The consensus is that brides prefer the smaller wedding label for the bodice of the dress. Love is in the air — they are popular! These labels are whip stitched by your seamstress or anyone familiar with a needle and thread into the inside bodice of your gown. Make sure your photographer gets a photo of the inside of the gown as he or she is photographing your bridal party getting ready for the wedding.

These make a terrific shower gift - affordable and memorable!

Santa’s List: Stocking Stuffers

From start to finish I plan, embroider and package for shipment your Initial Impressions embroidery project in this room.

I start my day receiving orders through the website. I am always so excited at this point, I love to see the creative ideas my customers come up with. After carefully reviewing your order I begin fulfillment. Here is a simplified overview, the process goes like this:

First I pull up the embroidery design you selected in the embroidery software program. I add the personalization information in the lettering style you prefer. Usually this is a name and sometimes a date, but as you can see, it could be anything! The item to be embroidered is placed in the correctly sized embroidery hoop to keep it taut while it is being sewn. Sometimes the size of your embroidery is limited slightly by the size of the hoops the manufacturers provide. This is rarely the case because I have 5 hoops of all different sizes! The hoop is then inserted into the embroidery machine for the duration of the sewing process.

One thing that many people do not know is that it is the hoop that moves on these professional-grade embroidery machines. When embroidery designs are created the artist must consider how the thread will lie on the surface of the object and plan the stitches accordingly. It is a problem most people never even consider. I’m glad I don’t have to solve that one. Moving along…

… to thread!

We offer a nice selection of thread colors on the website, but as you can see here, the truth is that we have about 800 spools of thread - many more than can possibly be listed on the website.

Part of the fun artistic end of the embroidery project is choosing just the right thread for your particular project. Sometimes I feel like a painter standing in front of my palette. This is a joy I’m happy to share, if you have a particular shade in mind for your custom project don’t hesitate to contact me and we can match your paint chip, dress swatch, sample, or just a fond color memory.
As for the actual embroidery, it can take anywhere from a few minutes to almost an hour to finish the embroidery project depending on how much embroidery there is to do.

My machine is a Melco EP1B and can sew 600 stitches per minute, but many of the more elaborate designs can contain more than 12,000 stitches!

There is also a question of thread changes. The machine knows to wait for me to change the thread to a new color. It will stop stitching and wait until I’m done and hit “start”. A trick I learned to keep the machine threaded correctly: tie the old color to the new color and snip the old thread. Pull it though the thread guides and it will guide the new color through. Some embroidery machines offer “multi-head” configuration. This means that each head has its own needle and thread color. But I prefer the more traditional machine and have found that my method of changing thread color is just as efficient as threading multiple needles.

For quality assurance I then personally inspect each item, trim any stray threads, and attach my own seal of approval: the Initial Impressions card.

Every item is carefully packed in tissue paper to ensure that it gets to you in the same condition I intended.

If you have elected to have your item gift wrapped I get to visit my selection of wraps. You can see I have a good collection and my wrapping paper choices change often.

Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you have a particular event, I will do my best to coordinate the wrapping of your gift to your occasion.

These flower girl dress labels are really cute for ensuring that the flower girl feels super special and a great way to memorialize a very special wedding.

I have tailor made wedding labels for the flower girl dress as a new Initial Impressions offering.  The sample shown here has been made after the fact for the dress I made when my daughter, Erica, was asked to be the flower girl for my sister’s wedding in 1988. 

 I can’t even estimate all the hours that went into the hand smocking, but it was a labor of love and it sure received a lot of oohs and ahhs.  I decided that if I was going to put in the hours, I might as well use the very best materials.  It is made from silk.  I know she enjoyed wearing it because I remember her swishing the  skirt from side to side.  Silk feels so great when it moves!

Now, Erica, who wore that dress, is contemplating her own family.  I am hoping she will have a little girl who will get a chance to wear it.

It was an exciting day a few years ago when I got a phone call asking me to provide a custom embroidered bathrobe for Antonio Bandaras for him to use in his dressing room during the run of his play in New York.  Unfortunately, I do not have a photo of this one, so you will just have to take my word for it. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B02E5D9133BF931A2575AC0A9659C8B63

Number two on this list would have to be the apron that was commissioned by the costuming department of the movie Elektra with Jennifer Garner.  This apron featured my reindeer design and it actually made it into the movie.   I have to admit that I did not watch the whole movie, but I did watch long enough to verify that the apron footage made it past the cutting floor.

“Elektra” Movie Synopsis (in case you too missed it!) : Jennifer Garner returns as Elektra, who, after recovering from the mortal wounds she suffered in “Daredevil,” becomes the world’s most dangerous assassin. When she gets her latest assignment, Elektra makes a decision that can take her life in a new direction – or destroy her.

The third celebrity item that comes to mind is the set of tubbies purchased by a customer for the Dennis Quaid twins.   These tubbies are full size towels with hoods (shown rolled up here) and they come in a variety of animal styles.  They are popular baby gifts.