Black & Brown Totes Back in Stock

One of our best selling items has been our quilted nylon tote...but our supplier kept selling out of the standard black and brown before we could restock our stash. This week we stocked up and have a good supply of black and brown totes again. (We also have red and pink too!) 

These totes are a great size for an everyday bag to carry to the office, or for your magazines and books when you travel, or I use mine every Sunday to take along my Bible, notebook, Zoe Grace's sippy cup and her Bottoms on the Go Bag for church. 

Each bag measures 16" wide x 12.5" tall x 4.5"deep, has a zipper closure and 4 metal feet on the bottom. Inside it has a cell phone pocket and zippered pocket. $25 price includes embroidery.
 

Special Gift Coupon ends Friday!

Shop, save & enjoy!

Changing Lives and Offering HOPE!

Millions of women abandoned, betrayed, exploited, trafficked. Sold by their families or decieved by friends with promises of a good job, women are brought to the city already indebted to their boss. They discover they were tricked into a life of prostitution. After leaving the sex work industry, these women come to live in the Starfish shelter. There they enjoy friendship and a family atmosphere. Through regular counseling sessions they begin to heal from their past wounds and purse their future dreams. While in the shelter these women make this beautiful hand-made jewelry that they sell to pay for the cost of running the shelter. 100% of their profit provides for the women in the shelter their housing, medical care, education, vocational training and salaries. The Starfish Project is committed to restoring women with hope, dignity and strength! I have seen their jewelry in person and it is beautiful, quality, very well made jewelry. I hope you'll join me in supporting this cause to help rescue these women from a life of abuse. Visit www.Starfish-Project.com to learn more about this great cause and to see and purchase their jewelry!

Ideas for those on "the LIST"

Are you a list person? I am! I make lists of all kinds...to do lists, priority lists, grocery lists, packing lists...just to name a few. But just because I make lists, doesn't necessarily mean that I stick to my lists, but the purpose of most of my lists are to help me remember what's important. As you begin to think about the holidays, do you make a list of who you need to buy for and maybe an idea of what to get them? I make one of those lists too! This year many of us will be on a tight budget for the holidays, so let me help you with some practical & personal gift ideas for those on your LIST!

Monogrammed Bag Tags are nice personal little gifts. They come in a variety of colors and are monogrammed/embroidered to your specifications.  They can be added to luggage or to any tote bag, diaper bag, purse or backpack. They make a great gift for anyone on YOUR LIST that flies often. And for only $13 each, they are also a great stocking stuffer! These would also make a very cute gift tag on a larger gift that your loved one could reuse.

More ideas to come....

Monogrammed Stainless Steel Water Bottles

We have been waiting for these water bottles to arrive for months now and they are finally here. We have a 12 oz version and a 17 oz version. There is a stainless steel liner and an acrylic outside so a nice monogrammed insert can be seen. BPA Free! They come with a stainless steel screw-on lid but a plastic hot beverage lid is also available. (Two cups in one! ) Fill with your favorite beverage and go! Take them to the gym, the office, on the road or anywhere...and they also fit in most vehicle cup holders. They make great Teacher Gifts!

Labor Day Sale

Shop with us at www.StitchesByApril.com and save 10% off your entire order now through September 9th, when you enter LABORDAY as your voucher code at checkout. This sale includes already reduced sale and clearance items.

Milestones in Monogramming

We are about to reach a milestone...our 1000th order! That may not seem like much to you, but 1000 orders represents 900+ wonderful customers, 38 States and at least 1000 things that have been monogrammed. That's a lot of stitching!  Approaching this milestone in monogramming has caused me to be reflective, pull up some statistics and to be thankful.

To give you a little history, this business officially started not too long after our second son was born (he's  now 5 1/2 and starting kindergarten in a week or so---sniffle, sniffle). I bought my first embroidery machine...a Brother Pacesetter 8500 off of Ebay! I had always wanted an embroidery machine, but never imagined that having one would cause me to start a little business. A simple website was launched, doing the HTML coding myself, and paying way too much for web hosting. But in February 2006, I launched what is known as www.stitchesbyapril.com today, where my customers could do all their shopping online and place an order with the ease of a key stroke. February 1, 2006 I got my first online order--Order # 001! Now we are at Order #992! Over the years, I've met some wonderful customers, stitches lots of names and initials, made many custom handbags and diaper bags, and learned a plethora of  lessons along the way. For those of you who have been a customer for years, THANK YOU SO MUCH! For new friends that just found us, THANK you too! What a blessing from the Lord!

To celebrate our milestone, we'll be giving away a $25 gift certificate to our 1000th order!

New Fonts and Fabrics

I really do like fonts...I always have! Back when I used to design brochures, I would memorize fonts and would see a font on a billboard or signage and be able to name it. (I know...weird, right!?) So it only makes sense that enjoying fonts has transferred over to this embroidery business. Here are some fun new ones that I have recently added:

I also have a love of fabrics! I love all kinds...modern, contemporary, preppy, classy & traditional. The first four I ordered with our monogrammed travel mugs & coffee sleeves in mind and the last 2 for our monogrammed sippy cups:

[gallery]

New Monogrammed Badge Reels

Thanks to Kristy, we have a new product to tell you about! Kristy is a nurse anesthetist at a big local hospital here in the Raleigh area. She contact me months back about a cute badge reel that a friend had given her and thought it would be a nice addition to our product line. Most hospital employees have to wear a badge, so why not wear a cute badge holder/reel, right? These also make great gifts for teachers too!

Do you have a product idea for us? Please let us know...we LOVE to hear from our customers!

And we have a winner...

Congratulations to Erin! She won a $15 gift certificate in the random drawing for entering her comment for the "What's Your Favorite?" post. Do you want to win something too? Stay tuned for the next chance to win some our our products.

New Interchangable Stamps!!!

As of July 1, 2009, all of our PSA Essentials Stamps come with the new Peel & Stick technology!



Watch this video to see how it works! The possibilities are now endless with one stamp body! This is a brand new technology from PSA, so all stamps purchased before July 1, 2009 will not work with the new interchangeable stamp bodies.



We are so excited about these new stamps...you'll find them all on sale now at stithesbyapril.com.

Look What Just Arrived...

[caption id="attachment_32" align="aligncenter" width="440" caption="Brown Polka Dot Handbag"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_33" align="aligncenter" width="440" caption="Black Polka Dot Handbag"][/caption]

These polka dot bags were a great deal and I love to pass along deals to my customers! I'm visualizing them monogrammed with a classy yellow monogram. (Isn't yellow the "in" color for this Summer?) What do you think? They measure 14" x 11" x 5", so they are a great purse size. Rear zippered pocket, zippered closure, open and zippered pockets on the inside. $20 w/ monogram. I will only have 2 of each color, so e-mail me if you are interested.

[caption id="attachment_35" align="aligncenter" width="440" caption="Aqua/Brown Houndstooth Diaper Bag"][/caption]

We needed some boyish diaper bags to add to our collection and don't you think this is handsome diaper bag? (I think it could be used for a girl too!) This canvas houndstooth diaper bag comes with a bow tie closure, a changing pad, metal feet on the bottom, open and zippered inside pockets and measures 17"wide x 10.5" tall and 7.5" deep. $30.00 with monogram.

What's your favorite?

I love to hear from my customers! I love to hear your thoughts, opinions and what you are interested in seeing us carry/make. I'm thinking about getting in some new patterns of backpacks for back to school and I'd love to hear which pattern or patterns you like best.

[caption id="attachment_27" align="aligncenter" width="187" caption="Preppy Argyle"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_26" align="aligncenter" width="187" caption="Line Flower"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_24" align="aligncenter" width="187" caption="Fun Flower"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_25" align="aligncenter" width="187" caption="Hippie Chic"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_23" align="aligncenter" width="187" caption="Dots"][/caption]

Yes, they are all monogammable and have a padded back panel & shoulder straps, interior pockets and measure: 13" x 18". These big backpacks will run around $27 plus monogramming cost. Some styles also come in a mini backpack version for pre-schoolers. Please vote on your favorite by leaving a comment! I'll be giving away a $15 gift certificate to a random commenter. Make sure to enter your vote by July 6th.

New Embroidered Market Totes

We have some new products that I'm excited to introduce to you! One of my new favorites is the market tote. These are one of the most versitile products because they can be used in so many different ways! Here are just a few uses that I've thought of...

• as an bin in the van for all the "stuff" that one must cart around


• as a beach or pool tote


• as a picnic basket


• as a sweet gift basket to fill with goodies


• as a teacher tote for all the books, notebooks, etc.


• as a fashionable toy/book/magazine holder


• as a scrapbooking tote...carry all the pages you are working on and tools to your next crop with ease


• as laundry basket for each child to put up their own clothes


• as a reusable shopping tote/bag...go green!

I'm sure you can help me thing of other uses.

There are 2 little mesh pockets on the inside for extra storage.

And did I mention the are fully collapsable? Yep... they fold down completely flat so it makes them very easy to store.