Flea Market Chic...

Hello to my loyal followers!

I have so much to post, but so little time :) So I'll start with the most recent fun:

4 of my girlfriends & I took a girl's trip to Atlanta last weekend, and left behind the husbands to fend for themselves.

Our trip was titled "shopping trip on a budget," and we sure got our money's worth! Since my hubby & I are adhering to Dave Ramsey's 7 steps to Financial Peace, I brought just enough money to cover the hotel, gas, meals, & a teeny bit of shopping...

We hit the Dawsonville Outlets, where we spent a LOT of time in the Pottery Barn outlet - YUMM!! We also went to AmericasMart Atlanta, where we drooled over the fabulous products that will be out on the market in the next year. And Sunday morning we spent many hours & many dollars in IKEA, but came out of there with enough accessories to fill a house!

But the highlight of the trip, and the shopping that made the most impact, was to a place called Lakewood 400 Antiques Market ... It was typical when it comes to finding junk & knock-offs, but we fell in love with booth after booth of vintage/faux vintage/garden/cottage/etc. items. I'm so frustrated with myself, because I only took ONE photo at this market, and it's not even a great booth by any stretch of the imagination...

So, when I got home, I decided to pay homage to the Lakewood 400 Antiques Market by making a treasury of items that reminded me of this beautiful place! Since it only lasts a few days, I snagged a screenshot of it so that I can remember how beautiful it is!

Thank goodness we all have husbands who love us enough to forgive our shopping weakness!!

Once I reassemble my home with my fun accessories, I'll surely post photos of the results :)

I'll leave you with these photos. We were so thankful to pack a car topper, because we surely needed it! It was quite a crowded 3 hour ride home :)

Orders keep rolling in!

I haven't written in a few days because I've been so busy cutting vinyl for new orders!!

We had our first mailbox lettering order this past week, and completed it last night. My Etsy customer picked one of my favorite fonts (#10), and the design will look so cute on the mailbox at her NEW home!

Then I logged in this morning to Etsy & was surprised to find another mailbox lettering order for both sides of a mailbox. Yay! She also picked font #10

Here's my mailbox, which my husband & I applied to our mailbox on the coldest day of the year. We were bored & cooped up, so we had fun with vinyl art!

Yes... I love my cat...

Weekend Update

Good Monday morning! My hubby & I had a very productive weekend. We cleaned the entire house top to bottom by 11:30 am on Saturday - what a fantastic feeling! While I attacked the ironing mountain, the hubs did the March budget & made our bi-weekly grocery list & dinner menu (my least favorite thing in the world!).

I really enjoyed doing the ironing because I watched a couple of Turner Classic Movies that I've stored up on my DVR. Can you believe that I'd never seen Splendor in the Grass until this weekend?? Wow, what a fabulous movie. Natalie Wood, Warren Beaty... yum! I also watched the Cary Grant/Irene Dunn 1937 film The Awful Truth, which was a really cute romantic comedy, and I enjoyed watching a young Cary Grant.

After our grocery trip, I spent some time on my vinyl art font options, which was something I've been putting off. I increased my "signature" font options to 38 from 25, and I think the photo on my etsy listing is a bit more legible.

Here it is:

When I design vinyl art pieces, I try to picture what they will look like once my customer applies them to the wall. My imagination is not nearly as beautiful as the finished products turn out. Thank you to my Etsy clients for sending photos of the applied vinyl!!! It is so fun for me to see the big picture!

Mother / Daughter Crafting Duo

My mom & I started a T-Shirt Quilt business in June of 2008 after we made my own t-shirt quilt together.

We work side-by-side 40 hours a week in an insurance agency, but we still enjoyed having a creative outlet outside of the office. As we made my t-shirt quilt, we daydreamed about creating custom quilts for others, and eventually turning it into a business.

"Eventually" came along very quickly as people saw our first quilt, which was a patchwork of t-shirts from the past 15 years or so of my life. The quilt included middle school, high school, & college shirts. Even the smallest pieces of my t-shirt logos made it to the quilt, unlike many t-shirt quilts that we'd seen in the past.

Within a year, word of mouth spread quickly, and we made over 15 T-Shirt Quilts for friends, family, & friends of friends. We hired a graphic designer to design our logo after deciding upon a business name. Our business name, Fishtail Designs, comes from baton twirling lingo, as we wanted to market primarily toward baton twirlers (I am a former high school & collegiate majorette and currently coach baton). Our market has since expanded beyond baton twirling into a general market that continues to surprise us.

We joined Etsy in 2009 after so many friends encouraged us to check it out, and have since found a home where we feel so welcome as a creative duo. We have one Etsy shop together where we market the T-shirt Quilts, along with vinyl art & other crafts that we make.

Although we spend many hours a week together in a professional setting, we thoroughly enjoy a couple of evenings a week and some weekends sewing, creating, & spending quality mother/daughter time together. We have a great balance of skills in the business. We both contribute to the design of the quilts, the preparation of the materials, and the process of sewing the shirts together. My mom sews beautifully and has given me many tips so that I feel confident now to sew a straight line. I spend a lot of time marketing our T-shirt quilts on Facebook, Etsy, our Blog, and anywhere I can spread the word.

This business has also encouraged my husband & my dad to spend more one-on-one time together. They've become golfing buddies and can spend hours watch sports or hanging out with a cold drink by the grill!

It is such a joy to work with my mom, and our creativity together gives us hope for a future of full time T-Shirt quilting...

Surf's Up!

I had a fun order for vinyl art last week, and the buyer was kind enough to send a photo of the finished product.

The vinyl was ordered by a California mom who knew exactly what she wanted (my kind of customer!). She gave me color choices, font choices, sizes, and even a mock-up of how it should look.

Enjoy!