Barrett’s third birthday
Barrett’s third birthday was celebrated in style. More than 20 of his buddies came to his party for arts and crafts projects. His mom reported to me that the aprons were a big hit and the party a huge success! We love being a part of these memorable birthday parties and Barrett looks so handsome in his craft apron. I think he looks older than three years old!
Christine came home from college and discovered that family life had gone on without her. Sure, she has grown up at college, but she still wants to be one of the girls. So her mom contacted me for one more apron. Hang on Christine, your apron is on the way!
Anne, Clare and Mary sure seem to be enjoying getting to wear their aprons. Such pretty girls! I wonder what they plan to cook?
TWO GLASSES OF WINE
When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 glasses of wine…
A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was. The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was. The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous “yes.” The professor then produced two glasses of wine from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.
“Now,” said the professor, as the laughter subsided, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things; your family, your children, your health, your friends, and your favorite passions; things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.” The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, and your car. The sand is everything else; the small stuff. If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.” “Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your loved ones out to dinner. Play another 18. Do one more run down the ski slope. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first; the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the wine represented. The professor smiled. “I’m glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of glasses of wine with a friend.”
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.
Living in Colorado is always beautiful, with our 300 days of sunshine a year. I am particularly fortunate to have the lovely view of the Rocky Mountains from my sewing room window.
A special point of interest is the view of NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) - the location deep inside the granite of Cheyenne Mountain where the government tracks any security concerns anywhere.
and http://www.norad.mil/50/nutshell.html
It is also the agency that has the fun tradition of tracking the progress of Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.
http://www.noradsanta.org/en/tracksanta.htm
What a view!
Upscale retailers like Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware make their wares look nice by showing them to you in multiples. The human brain enjoys the repetition of many similar objects. I’m certain that the primative hunter-gatherer in each of us is soothed by this sense of abundance.
One way to get that same feeling in your own home is to display objects in multiples. It could be a prized collection, and often it is towels. This customer’s order will make a nice display of multiples.
It is a good thing that I am accustomed to early mornings. Very early on a snowy Colorado morning on December 14, I got up as usual. Instead of working my way to the sewing room to get started on the many Christmas orders that still needed to be shipped out, I got dressed in a festive way and headed out in the dark to find the TV studio for our local news.
I had been asked to bring some of my work to showcase in a segment about personalized holiday gifts. I arrived and met the news anchors who were bright and cheery and more awake than I was. I was earlier than I needed to be. I was anxious that I would not be able to find the studio, so I had allowed plenty of time. So I had the luxury of watching the behind the scenes workings of a tv station - the control room, the teleprompters. I was surprised to see that the tv set was not at all as fancy as it appears on tv. The background is painted scenery, the plants artificial, etc.
There were two segments that day - my wares and the head baker from the Broadmoor Hotel who was showing some of his holiday creations - gingerbread ornaments, candy houses and more.
My segment was only four minutes long, but four minutes is longer than one would think. I showed some of the items I had been working on for customers for the last day or two and we discussed the advantages of a personalized gift.
It was a fun experience. The news anchors made me feel very comfortable and relaxed.
It has been exactly a year since this blog began and a full year it has been!
Two daughters have been married this year and another daughter gave us our first grandchild!
Today is a special day for another reason too. Today, my “baby” turns 18.
So happy birthday Sarah and welcome to adulthood. Well maybe not adulthood exactly!
This is the time of year we have a fun contest to recognize the last new baby of the year and the first new baby of the new year. Traditionally, I embroider a blanket with a darling embroidery design and your personalization information and send it to the recipient with your gift note attached.
So, please keep Initial Impressions in mind as you await the birth of babies between now and the first of the year.
To enter the contest, please add a comment to this blog entry by providing the birth date and time. The winners will be announced here and then I will contact you to get the details for embroidery and the shipping information.
Good luck!
OK, technically this isn’t a new product. But since it has been so extensively updated we’re going to call it a new product announcement anyway.
We are happy to offer a holiday “family blanket” which is large enough for the whole family to snuggle under (possibly while re-viewing that favorite holiday movie?). This blanket is so large we offer it with not just one name embroidered, but EVERYONE’S name.
However the most exciting part is the update - we now offer designs to customize the blanket to commemorate an extra-special Christmas. Maybe your in-laws will be on a cruise for Christmas, and there isn’t much to get them? Consider a family blanket with the cruise design and they will have both the memories and a lovely gift from you to bring them all back. Our designs are currently:
If you think of a design you don’t see featured, please let us know and we’d love to add it for you. If you’d like to see the blanket, please click here.
As for that favorite holiday movie, our family is so large it is hard to pick just one. I think it is currently a three-way tie between “It’s a Wonderful Life”, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and “A Christmas Carol”.
Sometimes it seems like humans get all the fun. Lately though there have been more and more fun accessories for the animals we love. Initial Impressions now offers gifts for cats and dogs that are fun and practical.
For the fickle feline we offer a customized placemat in your choice of three colors/themes, intended to look absolutely darling. Its extra benefit is that, if your cat is anything like ours, it will help contain the food that kitty spills when the bowl is not “fluffy” enough. Just pick it up and pour the spilled food wherever it goes. Ours goes back into kitty’s bowl, and he seems none the wiser.
For your pampered pooch we now offer a dog-themed towel intended to clean off those muddy paws with flair. Sure, any old towel would work, but this one is special and oh, so cute. It comes in many colors to coordinate with your décor or your pooch’s wardrobe. This makes an excellent gift for the dog lover who already has everything.
We will have a link to these products posted soon, but in the meantime find the cat placemat here and the paw towel here.
