Turtle appliqué baby boy gift set

Posting seems to have taken a back seat to running my Etsy shop.  Actually, EVERYTHING has taken a backseat to running my Etsy shop! Never in my wildest dreams would have I ever imagined the amount of interest there is in my personalized baby and toddler clothing. The shop officially opened on October 15th, and now, less than four months later, I'm one sale short of reaching the 100 sales mark!  I'm so pleased, and it's especially rewarding to read the positive feedback comments that customers have left.  Some customers have even been kind enough to send me pictures of their little darlings wearing CPA Designs clothes, which never fails to warm my heart.  When I'm not busy sewing up orders, I'm busy creating new designs.  Here is my latest design on a five piece gift set, which I'm hoping will be a big hit.  As with many of my designs, my grand babies are the first ones to receive them.  My new grandson John is the lucky recipient of this one :)

Etsy Shop Update

It's December 19, 2013, and the Christmas rush of orders has subsided enough to allow time for a blog update.  I'm very pleased to say that my Etsy shop is off to a wonderful start.  It has been so much fun making several personalized Christmas onesies and t-shirts for my customers.  Now that Christmas is almost upon us, I've already started planning for releasing a first New Year's onesie, and several Valentine designs.  Valentine's Day has always been my all-time favorite holiday.  I'm hoping that my customers will love my Valentine designs as much as I do!  I can't wait to stitch them all!  Here's a preview of my baby's first New Year's design:

Let me know what you think!

Etsy shop is finally open!

After more than two years of planning, creating inventory, filing paperwork, learning all the rules regarding labeling and safety for children's toys and clothing, retiring from my job, and moving from New York to Arizona, my Etsy shop is finally up and running! I can't even put into words how excited I was when after being open one hour, I made my first sale! You would have thought I had won the lottery :) if you follow my blog, please take a minute to visit my Etsy shop and let me know what you think. It can be found at www.cpadesigns.etsy.com

Some finishing touches

I've added a few finishing touches to the Arizona sewing room that I just have to share!  Both were ideas or products that I saw on Pinterest (of course), and I just love them both.  Check out the little craft project I did, and the most awesome ironing board that hides in a drawer!

I bought the letters at Hobby Lobby and glued them together using Popsicle sticks (as seen on Pinterest) 

Then painted them white...

Then embellished with more paint.  I'm no artist, but I think it turned out just fine.

Mounted with double sided foam adhesive strips to keep it in place.

I love, love, love this product!  Warning - installation instructions were impossible to follow - but with a few choice swear words, and a drill, hammer and a whole lot of sweat, I got it installed...all by myself!

Arizona Sewing Room is almost complete

The move to Arizona is finally complete!  I have almost completed setting up my sewing / craft room, and I wanted to share some pictures.  The furniture all came from IKEA.  I used three of the EXPEDIT shelving units in high gloss white, two AKURUM base cabinet / drawer units which I put back-to-back for my cutting table, and two above-the-refrigerator AKURUM cabinets that I am going to turn into a window seat (still need to make that happen).  I topped the cutting table with a self-healing cutting mat that I purchased here.  I wasn't satisfied with the shelving unit baskets at IKEA, so I searched the internet and finally decided on the large gingham storage bins from The Container Store, which I just love! Once I had all the IKEA furniture put together, and all my sewing / crafting supplies unpacked, I hung up some of my wall hanging quilts, my 120 spool thread organizer, and a cross stitch picture I did years ago.  I then used some antique canning jars I inherited to store thread, knitting needles, crochet hooks and buttons.  I just love how they look!  Here's some preliminary pictures.  I'll post more when some of the final details are complete.

Antique canning jars to hold thread, knitting needles and crochet hooks, with a basket to hold balls of yarn from past projects.

Antique canning jars to hold thread and buttons, sitting on a miniature quilt I made. 

120 spool thread holder purchased from JoAnn Fabrics

Wall hanging quilt

Brother -770 Embroidery machine and Husqvarna Viking Sapphire 850 sewing machine.

Paula Vaughan Cross Stitch I did years ago.

Log cabin wall hanging

IKEA shelving unit with storage bins from The Container Store.

Cutting table / storage unit - 8 drawers with cutting mat top - a dream come true!

Time flies!

I can't believe my last post was in January! How is that possible? Honestly, I knew it had been a while, but good lord, the time is really flying by! You see, we have lived in the same house for 32 years, and we are getting ready to put it on the market. Well, a whole lot of stuff accumulates in a house over 32 years and we've been working day and night to clean, sort, throw away, give away and organize everything we own, and there just isn't time for anything else...even sewing! I miss it so much, but just keep looking forward a couple more months when I'll be retired, the house will be sold, and we'll be living in Arizona where sewing will become my full time "job" and I'll be able to finally open my Etsy shop. I can't wait, but if time keeps going by at the rate it has been, I'll blink and it will finally be a reality. I promise I will post more often once we have moved, and since tutorials seem to be a big draw to my blog, I'll dream up an extra special one...maybe one on how to organize your whole house...no, just kidding about that one!

Rotary Auction

I just downloaded the google blogger on the go app on my iPad, so I thought I'd try it out by putting together a short post about a little project I did this weekend. I've been asked to donate a handmade item for our annual Rotary auction. Since hooded bath towels are my latest craze, that's where I started. After that, I added a little sun hat to match. Last but not least, what outfit is complete without an appliquéd onesie?! What do you think? Think anyone will bid on it? I sure hope so!