Uniquely Mine

New Bags from AlyCat Designs

I’m really excited about our newest products from AlyCat Designs.  We added three items just before Christmas and I’m sure we’ll be adding some more as soon as we have some time.  I thought I would use this post to tell you a little bit about each of them. 

First, we have a new Men’s Toiletry Kit to replace the previous hanging toiletry kit that we had on our site.  Our previous brand was more of a unisex design.  I like that this one has more of a masculine look to it.  It’s also extremely well laid out with loads of interior elastic straps and pockets to keep things well organized.  It’s really hard to do this bag justice with the picture and description that we currently have on our web site.  When I have some more time and a lot more patience, I may try to get a few good interior pictures to post on the site.  The inside is actually lined with PVC to make it waterproof.  Unfortunately, this reflects the light and makes it difficult to get good pictures, but I love a challenge!

Next up, we’ve added a new Jewelry and Cosmetic Case.  I really love this new bag.  The first thing I did when they came in was stitch one for myself.  It’s a really great design that separates your jewelry in a top zippered lid compartment that includes straps for organizing your rings, bracelets and earrings.  Another zipper, just beneath the lid opens the main compartment where you can hold all your cosmetics.  Elastic edge pockets in the interior are another nice touch to help keep you organized.

Last but not least, we have a new Ladies’ Laptop Case.  We’ve been looking for one like this for quite a while.  It’s hard to believe, but it’s actually still pretty difficult to find a stylish and affordable ladies laptop bag that still has enough padding to protect your computer, compartments for essentials, and isn’t so big that you’d be embarrassed to lug it around.  I think this bag strikes a good balance between form and function and it really looks great with a monogram.

New Monogram Fonts

I thought I would change things up a little with this post and mention two of the newer Monogram Letter Styles that we offer on our Web site.  The first is Kid Cooper.  We’ve actually had this one out there for a little while now and it has proven to be very popular. As its name suggest, our customers often select Kid Cooper for children’s gifts.  But, it sometimes makes a good choice for a man when you’re looking for a font that’s a little less formal than Cooper.  Likewise, our new Confection font fills that same niche for women.  I think this is a great compromise between a fancy script font and a fun font like Curly.  It’s also not a standard font in the monogramming software that most embroidery shops use, so you probably won’t see too many other places.  For now at least, Confection is my new favorite and I’ve been using it on most of the things that I stitch for myself.

I’m always interested in your feedback concerning our monogram fonts.  I think we have a pretty good selection without overwhelming you with too many options.  But, we’d love to hear from you if there is a font that you would really like to see on our web site.  If there is enough interest we’ll certainly consider adding it as an option.  We can stitch just about any font, but not all of them will come out nice or scale well to the different sizes we need.  You might notice that there are a few Letter Styles that we don’t offer on some items on our web site.  This is usually because we have a limited amount of space to work with and the font doesn’t scale well to the smaller area.  We’d always prefer to not offer the font than have you be dissatisfied with the quality of the monogram. 

Flying Circle mint™ Collection

One of our more recent additions to our site has been a selection of items from the Flying Circle mint™ Collection.  I really love this new line.  The bright colors and bold contrasts that are a signature of the mint™ products make a perfect backdrop for our monograms.  Most items come with a strap or handle that we can use to match thread colors to create a beautiful balance and truly wonderful personalized gift.  As always, you can specify which thread color that you would like us to use for your monogram.  But, for these bags, we’ve included a “Match Handles” option to make your selection process easier.  Since some of the bag handles feature designs such as flowers or polka dots, we’ll use or best judgment when selecting colors.  Of course, you can always tell us the specific color that you would like us to match by using the Special Instructions field.  For now we’ve added three items from this collection to our web site:  A medium Duffel Bag, a Lunch Box, and a really cool Tri-fold Organizer that can serve as a make-up bag, toiletry kit, or just a general purpose organizer.

I think you’ll like this new line as much as we do.  Please let us know if you’d like to see more items like these or any different color combinations.  Also, I expect that we will have some new items from the 2008 mint™ collection online fairly soon, so keep checking our web site or this Blog for more details.

Stephen Joseph Backpacks

Although we’ve had them on our site for quite a few months now, I thought our Stephen Joseph Backpacks were worth a mention here since even some of our local customers are just finding out that we sell them.  I really can’t think of a better personalized gift for a preschooler or a new baby.  These backpacks are so cute and it’s truly amazing how affordable they are given the amount of appliqué work on each one of them.  It’s also pretty impressive how many different designs are available from Stephen Joseph.  Whether you’re shopping for a little boy or a girl, you can probably find one that fits their personality or interest:  For little girls we have backpacks with Pink and Yellow Flowers, a Daisy design, a Butterfly, a Cat, and 2 different ballet designs (Ballet Slippers or a Ballet TuTu).  For little boys, we have a Sports Design, Construction, a Train, a Fire truck, a Dinosaur and 2 different Airplane Designs (one with an open cockpit and one with a canopy).  The Dino, Ballet TuTu, and the Airplane with the Canopy are the most recent additions to our site.

Something else we’ve done recently with the Stephen Joseph Backpacks was to add an option on the web site for you to choose the location of the monogram.  We used to just put the monogram on the flap, but for some designs the appliqué on the flap doesn’t leave a lot of room for a name.  Also, sometimes you can get a better color combination if you put the monogram on the body of the backpack.  So, now, you can select where you want us to put the monogram when you place your order.  Or, you can leave it up to us by selecting “Embroiderer’s Choice” and we’ll do what we think looks best with the other options you’ve selected. 

Just another reminder, we do offer most of the items we sell without a monogram.  All of the prices on our web site include a monogram on your item.  But, you can still select “No Monogram” for the Monogram style and we’ll subtract $5.00 from the price.

New Stuff

So often, we get asked by our customers if we’ve made any recent additions to our web site.  It’s sometimes a tough question to answer since we have to backtrack and try to think of the things we’ve added since the last time they may have been on our site.  So, I thought it might be a good idea to add a “What’s New” section to our Blog.  If nothing else, it might help me to keep track of the items we add and when we add them.  It’s not too hard to remember when we add a whole new line, but sometimes we may just add a new color for an existing product or maybe a new monogram font.  Those things are a little easier to forget.  I’m going to try to recall our most notable additions in my next few posts here and hopefully start giving you regular updates when we make changes or add new products. 

Our Blog is also a great way for you to give us feedback about the additions we’ve made or to requests new products.  Feel free to post your comments or requests here.  Or, just send us an email.  We love getting your feedback and would love to here your ideas for new items that you would like to have monogrammed.