A Weekend Buying Trip

This past weekend, Joe and I took a run to Atlanta to pick up some shirts for screen printing. Going to the warehouse to pull our shirts was great fun and we walked away with 23 dozen in all sizes. I will be doing adult sizes as well. I will be posting up some of those by next week for sure. The shirt on the left was a cute shirt that I ran across while in a fabric store. I thought the saying was cute and sure rings true for many of us who love to sew.

While in Atlanta we did some scouting around looking for discount fabric warehouses and we learned, Atlanta isn't necessarily the best place to shop for apparel fabrics. If we had been looking for home décor fabric, we would have been in the right place.

We did a quick run down to Covington, GA to check out a fabric warehouse called SOCO. They had rolls and rolls of fabrics by the yard in their warehouse but again, most of it was home décor fabrics. They also sold oriental rugs and close out fabric by the pound.

We did buy 14 lbs. of assorted knits and cottons in the closeout section of the warehouse. I wished there had been more of a variety. If a person was making drapes or recovering furniture, this would be a great place to go. We had a great time and jammed all we needed to do into a day. We had a relaxing dinner and enjoyed the evening.


When we woke Saturday morning, we decided to just head back home.We stopped for breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Joe sure deserved his Smokehouse breakfast after being my helper on Friday. The biscuts and gravy were really good. Atlanta I am sure is a much more interesting place if you know where to look for things to do. I love unique little shops and out of the way places to check out. You never know what you will find in places like those. I didn't know where to go to find those. They do have some wonderful museums in Atlanta too. If anyone has any interesting places that they think is worth checking out, please write to me and let me know. I know there has to be things tucked into Atlanta besides just malls and namebrand outlet stores.


On our way back Saturday morning, I did stop in this a very adorable fabric store called the Red Hen.








The store is geared toward quilters but is a great shop for all who sew.

The prices were reasonable. Most everything was priced from 5.99 to 7.99 per yard. I did pick up a few yards of some very pretty prints that I will be making into skirts very soon. The store had every possible sewing gadget you can imagine.I had to look at everything. Joe was a very good egg for going along and helping me. One little lady in the store even said as we were walking by, Joe with fabric in his hands helping out, she said, “you’re a good egg there Charlie Brown.” We stopped and chatted with her for a few minutes and discussed other fabric stores around that she thought we might want to check out the next time we are down that way.I really did enjoy the Red Hen. If you get a chance to get to Marietta Georgia, you should stop in and see the shop. It is located on the corner of Cherokee St and North Marietta Parkway.The address is 305 Cherokee St, Marietta, Georgia. Be sure to pop over to Red Hen's website to learn more about all the classes and things they offer.

The store was so wonderfully laid out. I must share the rest of the photos with you.

Their quilting room is much larger than this one photo shows. They have several quilting machines as well as a class room area. It is a dream shop for quilters. If I lived near there, I know I would be spending lots of time there.





They have so many wonderful patterns to choose from. I did pick up a couple that I had been looking for.





The store is 6,000 sq. foot and has over 6,500 bolts of fabric to choose from.





It was a great trip and I can’t wait until next week when I nothing on my adgenda but prewash shirts and screen print some of my new designs. I promised to help out this week with the school fall festival and also will be in the class room at least one day this week. It should be a fun carnival. I have even managed to get my son and his girlfriend to help out. Our class will be doing the hay rides. I am glad of that since, I do have tractor experience.

Hope you all are enjoying this beautiful fall we are having.

Blessings to you all!

Finding Balance

Happy Fall Y’all

Fall is my favorite time of year and I am looking forward to day drives up into the mountains to see the colors as they start to hit their peaks. Oh how I love living in this area this time of the year even if I am highly allergic to rag weed which loves this time of the year as well.

I know it has been a bit since I have shared what I have been up to. I think sharing my day to day fall household cleaning projects may not be anything you may have wanted to hear about. My organizational skills are not such that I could offer any good pointers and insights; however, my inspiration for fall cleaning came from Melissa over at The Little Gray House blog. That gal got busy and just kept going and I was so inspired that, I cleaned out 5 closets, reorganized my therapy room/sewing studio and general cleaning. My dining room is still crying out for a good dusting of the pie safe cabinet and such but I will be getting to that very soon. For my birthday my hubby gave me a Ladybug steam cleaner so needless to say, walls have been steamed, windows too, furniture, carpets and bathrooms. Now that the house is pretty much so in shape, I can’t wait until we clean out the garage and get rid of the things we no longer need and pass on. That is coming!!! Cleaning is not something that a creative person really enjoys but still is a total must for me to keep my creative energy flowing. Now that so much of it is done, I can relax and get back to sewing. Yeah!!!

In the last week or so, I have been able to steal away a few hours here and there to sew a bit. I made a dress for Doodlebug for picture day at school and just this morning I finished up this ruffle skirt for her to wear with her Ramona t-shirt that I found her a few weeks back.


This skirt was inspired by Makeit-Loveit Their version was made with knit fabric as the base and frilly fabric for the ruffles. I was curious to see what making an all knit version of it would be like so this is what I came up with. The color combo was selected to go with the Ramona shirt. It was a very fun skirt to make; however; a bit more time consuming that I had wanted with having to finish off and gather each ruffle but my Doodlebug loves her new skirt so, I am really glad that I made it. It is a fun an easy project and the Makeit-Loveit blog gives full details on the project and is very easy to follow along.

Since school has started back, I have been busy volunteering and sponsoring our Doodlebug’s first grade class. Our group this year is an awesome and lovely bunch of kids. I love being with the little people so much. I can’t tell you the deep, personal joy and satisfaction that I get from spending time with these kids. They have so many challenges in their little lives but they have such pure hearts and I can’t imagine giving up my time with them for anything else right now. It has truly been a bit of a conflict for me personally because in trying to start a new little cottage business and be truly successful, sacrifices are called for and I know that. I still think in the end, I will work out my business to match my commitment to these kids and this class. I don’t think I would truly be happy here working otherwise if I didn’t balance both. With that being said, hopefully you will understand why you don’t see more postings of my work. I am still trying very hard this fall to find a good balance but I know it is coming.

I did manage to hit a little country fabric store that was recommended by my friend Deb at Doggie Duds by Deb. You must check out her site if you have a doggie diva. She makes very adorable clothing for our furry friends. Deb told me about this very small town fabric store in a very old little city here in Tennessee. It was a couple hour drive from where I am at so, I called my mom and she drove there and we met for lunch at this old coffee shop restaurant that has wonderful country cooking. Nothing beats a home cooked veggie plate with cornbread and a drink for 3.75 and truly a country girl's kind of place.

After lunch we strolled down the street to the fabric shop and then hit a few of the antique shops. I could have kicked myself for not taking my camera. I had not been to this town since I was a small child and not much had really changed which it was like truly stepping back into the past for me. After our little stroll around town, we drove up on the mountain to a local apple orchard and picked up some wonderful apples, had a fresh fried apple pie and a cup of coffee. We sat outside in the orchard at a picnic table, talked, ate our pies and enjoyed the afternoon. It was a wonderful day with my mom and I had a great time. She and I have not had this kind of a day together in ages but we have to change that soon. We do have such good outtings together. The fabric store was a wonderful inspiration for the trip and I found some great pieces of fabrics but I loved getting to just spend a day with my mom enjoying what the afternoon offered us.




Not all of the pieces shown here are from there, over the weekend I also hit a sale at JoAnn’s and picked up a few pieces as well. Some of those pieces are in the washer as I write this. I do prewash every piece of fabric before I work with them but the photo is a small sampling of what is to come. I will be posting a few new outfits on the store front very soon using these fabrics. Also too, now that our weather seems to be cooling a bit, I will be screen printing several new designs that I have drawn up in the past few weeks. I am very excited about sharing those too and they will be on dresses as well as t-shirts on the store front.

Speaking of the store front, just an F.Y.I., in the next few days be watching for a Lily Field Designs’ Sale to be announced on Facebook. We will be offering a 10% discount code to use on any product that is featured on the store website. My technical guru will be setting up that coupon in the next couple of days so, if there is something there you would like to have at a discounted price keep an eye out. We are also in the process of setting up our Ebay account and I will be doing a few custom auctions up there as well. I will fill you in on all of that when we get the first ones up.

Well, I will say to you all many blessings and I will be posting new things very soon. I truly am a cottage business and oh how I long for a gardener/landscaper to keep up our front 7 acres and a housekeeper. Now wouldn’t that be something?

Blessings to you all!

Nothing Beats Added Pizzazz

We hit the sales rack looking for good little canvas sneaks for Doodlebug to play in. We found a not so attractive pair of red canvas sneakers that really wouldn’t go with much of Doodlebug’s clothing but were made well and the price was right, $3.00 a pair. Who can pass up a deal like that? We sure couldn’t. Red really isn’t Doodlebug’s color unless it is Christmas time, which then she wants everything red. We found them in her current size as well as her next size up. So, we bought them and picked up a few things to give them a bit of added pizzazz. We always love embellishing, adding personal touches to things so, we tried our hand at painting these sneakers. Doodlebug painted one pair and I helped with the grow into size.

The materials we used were a basic fabric medium, Gesso, Tulip fabric markers and a few bottles of squirt fabric paint and scotch tape.


The very first thing we did was to put tape along the rubber soles to cover them so we wouldn’t get any paint on that part of the shoe.

Next we added a little of the fabric medium to the gesso, stirred well and thinned it down some. Then covered the shoes completely using a brush and left them for a couple of hours to dry.

After the long awaited two hours were up, we really started to have fun. Using the fabric markers, we just added all sorts of squiggle lines, over lapped colors and just went nuts. There are no rules here, our favorite type of craft. I loved Doodlebug’s X’s and O’s idea.


When the fabric markers were dry, which didn’t take very long at all, we used the squirt bottles of fabric paint and added little designs, symbols, words and more squiggles. It was really hard to stop, as you can tell.

This is the grow into pair that I helped with.



The end results were very satisfying. As you can see, Doodlebug couldn’t wait to try on her recreated sneakers and show them off. I think she did an awesome job.



This was a very fun and simple project and kids really love getting involved in creating their own style.



Speaking of style, Doodlebug’s new favorite, all time television shows to watch are all the old Punky Bruster episodes. If you remember Punky, you know she knew a thing or two about added pizzazz and style. Papaw happened to find the Punky Bruster seasons on DVD in a bargain bin at Books A Million and Doodlebug loves them!!!



If you try adding some pizzazz to a pair of sneakers or anything else for that matter, we would love to see your creations. Send us an email or post them over on our Facebook friend’s page.




Blessings To You All!