Healthy Living

The items pictured are an attempt on the part of my whole family to get healthier in the new year. The little Healthy Living journals took longer to make than I anticipated. Also, I punched the covers incorrectly, so that they didn't line up with the pages, which necessitated remaking the covers. Moral of the story...start out by punching ONE booklet and see how that goes!!! Then do the other seven! I made one for myself, one for each of my five daughters, one for my sister, and one for my sister-in-law. The embroidered towel is part of the package, too. The design is offered on the Bernina website, and is given to those who make a donation to the American Heart Association. I thought it tied in nicely with the theme of getting healthy. I will give these out as a sort of Valentines gift, since I really didn't get in gear quickly enough, and have been cited as the REASON why no one can stick to their exercise and eating routine!!! We all NEED the journals, ha....we'll see how it goes!

 

Heather took pictures of the individual journal pages here.

The journals have several pages with pockets for inserts. One is for exercise. I printed out 12 narrow pages, one for each month, with spaces to enter any exercise done for that day. Another pocket has inserts for recording your vital statistics, and hopefully seeing a change. We will record these things quarterly. Another pocket, and one which might be the most important, is for tips, tricks, strategies, motivational writings...anything that will help encourage each other in the quest to be healthy. I have offered to compile and print these off and give or mail to all of us to include in the journal. Oh, and lete's not forget recipes. Another page has a pretty band with a huge paperclip for compiling great tasting healthy recipes. Again, I will take care of the printing (and will maybe fancy them up, because I love an excuse to use my stamps, ink and paper for any reason).

Valentine's Day dishtowels

Last year I designed a cupcake applique embroidery design, and used luscious light pink Minkee fabric for the frosting portion of the design. It looked great on dishtowels. It was a fun design to use on baby bibs as well.

Another design that is great for Valentine gifts is this "Sweetie Pie" design by Sonia Showalter.

I haven't designed or purchased my 2009 Valentine towel design, but will have to do so fairly quickly! This year I did purchase some Kohl's dishtowels, and embroidered names on them. Actually, the Kohl's towels were quite pretty, and this was a quick option for a pretty gift. Normally I only embroider on my microfiber dishtowels, but couldn't pass up the Kohl's towels because of their sale price and how cute they were. Here is one style I used.

Winter Survival Kit

WINTER SURVIVAL KIT......that is the title I have given to this gift!!! It is mostly items that are useful for the frigid temperatures that Illinois has had this winter. It is actually a Christmas gift for a friend. We had planned this gift exchange for January 13th, but cancelled due to extremely cold temperatures and the fact that we would each be driving home late in the evening. Soooo......the get-together has now been rescheduled for this Wednesday, and of course, more cold temps and more snow are forecast.

You might notice that my friend's name is embroidered on the grocery bag. I decided to package the gift in something that would actually be a useful part of the gift....a reusable grocery tote. I have embroidered quite a few bags for family and friends. It is kind of useful to have your name on your bag in case you are like one daughter whose bags fell off the cart and she knew they were hers when she went back thru the store to find them, and came across the ones with her name on them.....


OK, what else is in this bag? Well, handcream is an essential this time of year. This particular hand cream potion was from a recipe on Splitcoast Stampers. Everyone seems to love it. The snowman tag is actually on top of the lid, but you can't see it in the picture, so I put one next to the jar.




I also included a plastic batter bowl....for baking up some warm muffins which as we all know....comfort food is a necessity in frigid winter weather. There is a big, white plastic "happy spoon" by ZAK Designs, as well as an embroidered snowman towel. Oh, and a Jamani Java thermal mug for the hot tea, cocoa or coffee.











And a couple pair of Polarfleece (tm) socks that I made.









And a light blue bath sheet that was too great of a sale price to pass up!










This post doesn't really fit in to the Dishtowel Dame focus of this blog, except to point out that an embroidered dishtowel can fit into almost any theme you can dream up.

Cute & Useful Gift!

Gift-giving can be a real chore. But what if a gift existed that would fit every occasion? My answer would be that such a gift already exists...the lowly dishtowel!!! The dishtowel can be personalized to fit the occasion, they are pretty and are an inexpensive decorative item for the home, and most importantly, it is something that is definitely usable. We all would like to think that our gifts get used by the recipient. With a dishtowel gift, you can be guaranteed that the recipient will use it and will love it!

The Dishtowel Dame hopes to offer the Confetti line of zak!designs (colorful kitchen items) real soon. The Confetti line is made from recycled melamine. A small bowl with a dishtowel inside makes an affordable and fun gift. I have gifted some of my friends with these sets and they have been very well received. I first learned of the confetti bowl when my sister gave me an orange one at Halloween...I was so impressed with the fact that it was cute, and also by the fact that it was made from recycled materials. Check my Etsy shop in a couple of weeks, when the gift sets will be offered.

Welcome to My Blog!

I want to take a moment to welcome you to my blog and give a bit of the Dishtowel Dame's history. The whole idea began several years ago....I have always enjoyed embroidering dishtowels, from the time I was a kid embroidering the backstitch by hand, up to today, embroidering on my 15-needle commercial embroidery machine. I love color and design....it really is quite fun to choose or create designs for specific occasions, or just for no reason at all. Actually, for awhile, I would give a dishtowel to someone rather than a birthday card. (that has changed now that I also am into card-making...now the recipients get a card and a dishtowel) One day it struck me that a business could be created, with the sole product being a dishtowel. Of course I had to find THE towel, a FABULOUS towel that would meet my standards for quality. It had to be absorbent, colorfast, non-shrinking, lint-free and PRETTY!! The microfiber waffleweave towel that I offer meets all of these requirements. You will love it!

These towels make fabulous gifts. They can be customized for any occasion. They are decorative and very useful. I think people appreciate it so much when a gift is actually functional, and when it is pretty as well, then that is a bonus.

I love to embroider dishtowels (have I already said that?)....first of all, it is a flat item which makes it "embroidery-friendly". A dishtowel can be "presented" in various ways. I like to roll them up and tie with a ribbon. Or fold in thirds and tie with a ribbon. If you choose to give a gift basket the dishtowel can become the "star" item in the basket. The design on the towel can set the theme for the basket. I have some other ideas regarding basket gifts. Stay tuned and tomorrow I will talk about that.

If you have a moment, check out the towels currently available in The Dishtowel Dame's Etsy store. Remember, the towels can also be personalized. Generally I charge $5 for a name. If more text is needed, such as a date, or Congratulations , etc., we can always discuss the additional charge, before you purchase.

Thank you for visiting my blog. Here is a link to my Etsy store.