I am an old truck!

It's me...I am here, alive and kicking! I hope that each of you had a wonderful holiday! We did! Spending the week camping for Thanksgiving was a really great idea. This is the 3rd time that we have planned a camping trip around Thanksgiving and I am sure we will do it again as often as we can. Shawn's parents were able to bring their camper up and spend the week with us as well.

So now that we are back home and the laundry is done, well most of it, or at least what we needed to wear immediately...it is time to get back in the proverbial groove. I can see the groove and feel the groove but I do not yet feel lined up with the groove! Yesterday, I decided that I am like an old reliable diesel engine truck...after I sit for awhile I can be very grumpy and slow on the uptake, but once I get warmed up it is smooth riding! So now I am ready to get back to that warmed up stage! I have a ton of wonderful orders to fill not to mention my own Christmas creating!

I also have several pictures that need to be posted...that will definitely come after I find that groove I mentioned! Until then, keep looking and don't forget to look for me on Facebook at www.dezignsbykarla.com!!!

Busy, Productive Weekend!

Ok so I am taking a breather from my very productive weekend! Albeit a very short breather!

I took Friday off from the corporate world to participate in an event at our local hospital. This is the 3rd year and it has grown each year. The hospital dedicates a day around this time of the year to employee appreciation complete with a cookout, D.J., and a yard full of vendors peddling our wares! Hospital employees are encouraged to come out on their lunch break and do some early Christmas shopping that also supports local venders. I love this event and will participate as often as I can. I have had 3 successful years, but more importantly have met and made some great friends and pretty serious DBK followers!

Saturday and Sunday have been dedicated to all things DBK (Dezigns by Karla, in case you forgot!!). Well, Saturday started out kind of late cause the sweet hubby let me sleep in! Wonderful! Sunday has been fabulously productive and I am very pleased with my progress!

Here is a rundown of what I have accomplished this weekend:

-1 craft show that helped clean out my closet and bring home about 20-25 additional orders
-1 Tastefully Simple party which is always fun! Can not wait to get my stuff this week so I can put Shawn to work cooking!
-7 tote bags/purses
-5 Towel Wraps
-2 Burpcloths
-2 Christmas outfits (see below!!)
-2 Christmas T Shirts
-2 Big/Little sister T shirts
-1 Turkey Onesie
-1 mousepad
-1 lunchbox
-1 Make-up bag/gift for Bailey to take to a birthday party
-1 Blog Update!!!!

Whew..Now that I have sat down for 2 minutes and read all that, I am pooped! So I am going to share some pictures with you and then get back to it for at least another hour or so!


Love this simple design with festive Christmas colors!


Another ruffle pants outfit custom made! Mom wanted Hannah to have something fun to wear to the High School sports events and anywhere else she pleases!


This is one of the 2 matching Christmas outfits for some of my very cutest clients. Taylor and Tatum love DBK stuff! Mommy had a whole day of Photography planned and wanted the girls to look adorable! I LOVE this font and can not wait to use it for lots of other projects!

I can be crafty!

I am always so jealous of all the creative people around that come up with great gift ideas and are able to make something out of close to nothing! While I think of myself as somewhat creative, I do not always get to start or finish most of the ideas that I come up with. With Bailey's birthday coming up I was determined to make her something special. Well, honestly the determination was born from not being able to find what suited my desires. We (Shawn) finally gave in and let Bailey get her ears pierced over the summer. So now there are earrings to keep up with all over her bedroom. I had been on the search for just the right earring holder. In stores and online I never found just what I was looking for but I did see some ideas that I thought I could put together. So ...I did! And I am very happy with the results.

A trip to Hobby Lobby for some supplies....I think the wooden frame was under $5 and the cross stitch cloth was just a few more. Throw in a little for some paint colors and I think for the price it turned out fabulous!


The finished product!


Of course I had to add a couple of new pair of earrings! Bailey was excited about it all!

Double Ruffle Pants!!

Did I mention that our town choose Thursday night to observe Trick or Treat? Oh yea, I think I did talk about that already!

So tonight, while everyone else is posting on Facebook about all their Halloween fun, we have had a nice quiet, even productive evening at home! I have even been able to complete several orders this weekend! After I semi-permanently deleted all my pictures from the memory card in my camera (see previous post) it hit me that some of the cutest things would need to be shipped out before I was gonna get around to retrieving my photos and be able to use the memory card again! So, I confiscated my daughter's camera and did the best I could!


This outfit was very fun to make! I love the look of double ruffles!

Argghhh!!! I deleted all my pictures!

I love technology and gadgets and all the fun stuff we can do these days. But sometimes all that new fangled stuff can sure get a person flabbergasted! Especially because most things that go wrong are simply user error! A fine example is when you delete ALL of your pictures off your memory card! Ugh...Fortunately I had saved most of them awhile back but there were some new ones of some really cute DBK stuff that I have not posted yet. (enter choice words here mumbled under my breath while refraining from throwing camera across the room in frustration).

Turns out there is a way to retrieve these pictures. I have read all about it but have not completed the process. I will let you know how it goes. And hopefully will be posting some precious projects by Sunday night!

Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween weekend!!

I can do anything in 15 minutes!!

Does 15 minutes really make that big of a difference? Well this morning it surely does! Really it was 13-ish minutes but who's counting right?! I got out of bed just a few minutes early and the difference in my morning so far is tremendous. Let me start by saying that God did not give me the early bird gene in any shape or form. Now, don't get me wrong, when necessary I can get moving at any hour of the AM. But on most occasions I am very intimate with the snooze button in the morning. It is sad to say that my children get up and get dressed before I do. (I am just teaching them good habits for later in life, right?) Anyway, my natural alarm clock works best around 9 am. If I go to bed at 10 getting up at 6 is killer. On the other hand I can stay up till midnight and wake naturally somewhere between 8 and 9. Practically the same amount of hours...but the difference is beyond comparison! Many times throughout my adult life thus far I have attempted to turn myself into a morning person. Let's just say I decided that it is not productive to set the bar so high so in my best interest I left that alone!

So this morning I am up early (kind of). Was able to make sure Bailey took her fish oil supplement (that is a whole other blog post!), found Caden's folder, started the embroidery machine to work on an order, filled the mailbox full of outgoing orders from the weekend, lovingly and patiently kissed the kiddos bye while we waited for the bus. I will not even go into how this is opposite from the days that I sleep 15 minutes later. FIFTEEN minutes....that is just crazy. But it is true! They say you can do anything for 15 minutes...I use that theory sometimes when things need cleaning around the house. I have actually set a timer for 10-15 minutes...picked a chore and worked on it till the timer went off. It is amazing how much you can get done that way...and it makes you realize that most chores around the house really do not take that much time as long as you stick to the chosen chore and do not flitter from room to room making a bigger mess than when you started! So this morning, I picked 15 minutes to ramble here on the blog!

I am excited to move on with the rest of my day! Hope everyone is having a good morning and if you are not, stop, take 15 minutes to work on something you need/want to do and when you are done with that I gaurantee you will feel refreshed and accomplished!

Getting Organized

Is that even possible without professional help and guidance every 5 minutes!

So since moving to the brand new blog I need to get some pictures up here, right? This will take time and patience and organization! If you have some of those feel free to bring it right over!


I thought I would start with some new cuteness that you might not have seen! This adorable set is for a local gal! She is one of the cutest ever and I can not wait to see pics of her wearing this! I love the pillowcase/swing top idea. Mom plans to put a longsleeve shirt with it for the cooler weather and it will last through the Spring maybe into Summer as a dress!!!


And who can resist some cuteness in their favorite team's colors (War Eagle!)

About Me

About me? Hmmm, where to begin! I am a wife, mother, friend, daughter, corporate employee...well the list goes on and on just like the rest of you out there! I consider myself to be one of the luckiest women alive to be married to my hubby for 10 years now! We have 3 children, 2 dogs, and a house with no picket fence. About three years ago I bought an embroidery machine and off I went! It did not take long for people to gain interest and for me to be hooked. So naturally I decided it was time to start an embroidery and sewing business-on the side! In the recent past there was another blog that has been a lot of fun. Then I won a fabulous Facebook giveaway from Wacky Jacqui's Blog Designs. I just knew this was my opportunity to start over and do something fresh and fun with my blog! I decided I wanted a place to post pictures of my projects and talk about life and sometimes just rant about, well about whatever I darn well feel like!!! So was born Love, Life, and Stitches....where all my worlds collide! So kick back, pour a tall (or short) glass of your favorite beverage, and enjoy!

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