Custom Monograms

As the owner of an Etsy shop and an online baby gift store, I am constantly monogramming/personalizing gift items. I love monograms and love creating custom monograms for my customers.

This is a set of towels I monogrammed for a friend of mine. She brought me a photo of her daughter-in-laws handwriting and I digitized the letter "J" for the embroidery. You can't get more personal than that and what a great idea! The towels turned out beautifully and my customer and her daughter-in-law loved them.

I also stitched a handkerchief for a customer to be used in memory of a family member at a wedding.

My customer brought me an image of the wings and I digitized it and added the name and date. Here is a close-up of the design.

Here is another custom handkerchief design stitched on one of my double hemstitch handkerchiefs.

In my Etsy shop, I offer organic cotton pillowcases. Three letter monograms or names is offered on the pillowcases but last Christmas a customer requested a custom pillowcase. She wanted a phrase stitched on the front and the back. She is a graphic designer so she drew out the font phrase took a picture and sent it to be. I digitized the lettering and stitched it on the pillowcase. If turned out really cute and the recipient loved it.

Here is a link to my pillowcase listing in my Etsy store.

I don't have a lot of experience digitizing but love the opportunity to create simple custom designs.

Monogram Gifts

It has been a long time since my last blog ….. too long. Along with personalizing gifts from my baby store, The Polka Dot Store, and my Etsy Store, Monogram Elegance, I monogram for friends and family. Holidays and weddings keep me busy!. Here are a few images of some of my work. The first picture is a set of pajamas given as a bridesmaid gift. The Sydney font and red thread was used for the initial.

This is a picture of a set of blankets a friend gave her nieces as gifts. They turned out so cute and her nieces love them!

Pink dresses and blankets were fun to create for micro preemie twins born in October. Preemie’s in the NICU have monitors and wires so the neck is made adjustable with gathers and ribbon. The back is left open and the ribbon woven through the smocking ties the dress closed in the back. The sleeves are angle sleeves style allowing for tubes to be placed through them. If you are interested in making "Wee Care" gowns for hospitals, here is a link Smocking Guild Wee Care Program . The dress is made from 100% cotton sateen fabric and is personalized above the hem with the letter "E" in Vine Font. The blanket was made using 100% soft cotton flannel fabric and lined in Imperial Batiste fabric.

A visit to see a friend prompted making this cute pillow with her zip code appliqued on the front. The pillow is made from ivory cotton canvas fabric and I used gray burlap fabric for the piping and applique. It looks great on her sofa!

I hope you get some great ideas from the pictures. More gift ideas will be posted in a later blog. Visit The Polka Dot Store for all your baby gifts and Monogram Elegance on Etsy for you wedding, graduation, birthday, and Christening gifts.

Shopping Online

Hi, everyone! It is a beautiful day here in south Georgia. The temperature is a little cool but the sun is out in all its glory. I took a picture of my view as I sit here writing this post.

I think a lot about my customers experience on my website. Ease in navigation (founding your way around), page load time, and checkout experience are all very important. Here is another discussion I have in my head; How can my customers easily put together outfits with items selected from different pages? O.k., so I haven't figured out how to have multiple or coordinating items grouped together. I do my own layout and coding so it takes me a little while to out how to do something new and different. :)

Here are some pictures of outfits I put together and took pictures of for you.

This red gown, polka dot cap, and velvet bow socks would make a great Valentine Outfit. You could add a monogram, name, applique or saying on the gown.

                                          Boy "Take Me Home" outfit.

Blue dot onesie with pale blue cap, pants, and socks.

Dinosaur Set and Socks

Dinosaur knit top, pant, and socks by Mud Pie.

   Cute "Take Me Hone" Outfit.                        Pink Lamb Outfit by 3 Marthas

Little Pink Lamb appliqued Onesie, burp cloth,
and panty. The panty has the same appliqued
lamb on the back seat as the onesie and burp.

Pink gown, paci clip, cap, and booties.



 Adventure on the wild side

Pink polka dot onesie, pink knit
pant, elephant paci clip, adorable
socks.

              Only the outfits by 3 Marthas and Mud Pie are from the same manufacturers. The rest of the pictures show a combination of items from different manufacturers and how easy it is to coordinate them together.

I hope this post helps get you thinking about how to pair up different items to make an adorable baby gift. As always, if I can help in any way, please let me know. You can find all these items here .

January 2015

Hi, ya'll! Nope I have not disappeared. I am still here. Just haven't posted in a while. It is on my list to post more this year. "What have I been up to?", you ask. Bookkeeping, bookkeeping, and more bookkeeping. I have to admit, I put off doing my books until the last minute. Even with all the b.....keeping, there has been time for some fun "stuff". One of my favorite things about having The Polka Dot Store.com is getting to build the designs and run the monogram machine. I am still mesmerized by the monogram machine, a.k.a. "Big Bertha".

Blankets have been the top sellers this past week. As you may know, Little Giraffe blankets are top of the line luxurious blankets for your special baby. Toddlers and grown up alike cherish these soft touchable products. The first picture is the Blue Moroccan Chenille Blanket stitched in medium blue thread with Arial font.

This is the gorgeous Pink Moroccan Chenille Blanket stitched in Sea Green Thread using the Jester font.

Creme Faux Fur Blanket by Pickles Journey (Scene Weaver) looks great monogrammed in Steel Gray thread and the Jester font. This blanket is temporarily out of stock but will be available soon.

There are so many different weights for blankets. One of the most useful is a single layer flannel blanket. This one by Swaddle Designs can be used for swaddling, sun cover, stroller cover, tummy time, or a light weight summer blanket. Moms also use it as a nursing cover. The monogram is Elegant stitched in light pink thread.

All three of the blankets featured above can be found here .

One of our all time best sellers has been the Waggles Lovie by Bearington Baby shown here monogrammed in the Blackboard font in Pecan color thread. Yep, he is adorable! 

                            

I hope you have enjoyed seeing of the recently personalized items available at The Polka Dot Store.com. See you again soon! I promise it won't be as long between posts. wink, wink.

Childhood Cancer Awareness

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month and The Polka Dot Store will donate 10% of our sales to American Cancer Society. As many of you may already know, my oldest child was diagnosed with T-cell ALL (leukemia) when he was 16 years old. I am happy to say he is a healthy happy 30 year old man now. He has a great job and owns is own home. So, as you can probably guess, Childhood Cancer Awareness is very "near and dear" to my heart. When my son was diagnosed and going through treatment, you didn't hear much about childhood cancer and I am so thankful people are finally aware of this very traumatic time for a child and his/her family. The survival rates have increased which is wonderful but the treatment itself is very hard on a child. Seeing what these precious children endure will really touch your heart but, their attitudes and bravery will amaze you. There are many organizations that help the patient and their families during treatment. I thought you might like to know about a few that were/are very special to me and my family.

The American Cancer Society paid for all our stays at the Ronald McDonald House on Houston Mill Road in Atlanta. We were always met with a compassionate smile when we arrived and they did everything possible to make our stay as comfortable as possible. Since my son was treated at Egleston Childrens Hospital, now know as Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta Egleston, this location was very close and convenient. I can't say enough about the loving care my son received from the staff of doctors, nurses, and support staff at Egleston. They were the best. Last year during this time The Polka Dot Store donated to Cure. Cure funds extensive research for childhood cancer. At the time of my son's illness, they also provided supper one night a week to the families and patients of children being treatment on the cancer floor in the hospital. The volunteers were warm and welcoming to families who were going through such a stressful and unsure time.

Another great cause is the Make-A-Wish Foundation. They granted my son's wish to travel to New York City to meet a celebrity chef and see a taping of his show. They sent the whole family and we were treated like royalty. It was an experience and memory we will never forget.

I am so proud that the town I live in acknowledges Childhood Cancer Awareness month. Each year they hold a gold ribbon fundraiser for childhood cancer research by selling gold bows that are attached to the benches and trees on our downtown streets.

This picture was found in a great article that can be found here. I went downtown myself and took several photos. They are below.

So, visit The Polka Dot Store knowing a portion of your purchase goes to a very worthy cause.

The Polka Dot Store - Where Blessings Happen Every Day!