Back in business

It's going to be tough but JT Stitches is {finally} back in business. I will be listing some new things real soon.
If you would like a custom order let me know & I will let you know if I will be able to do it. Check out my Flickr photos for some examples if the things I make. Now that I have a 3 month old baby I'm hoping to add some mommy & baby things, yay!!

Custom orders

At the moment I can't say that I'm taking custom orders but I'm not saying I'm not :( Being over 7 months pregnant I'm not always feeling good & I'm always tired so getting my butt off my couch & into the sewing room is a very hard task! I do have some items already made so check out my Etsy Shop. I also have some NY Yankees & Mets scrub tops made so if that's what you're looking for let me know. You can also email me about making an item...it can't hurt to ask!

I'm moving

Since we are expecting our 1st baby in July we needed to get a bigger apartment & we move into our new place April 1st. I have started packing & the 1st room that was packed up was my sewing room. Since I've been too lazy & tired to sew I figured that would be the best place to start.

The items in my Etsy shop are able already made so they can be shipped, I'm just not taking any new orders at the moment.
Yay! New apartment!!

iWatchr App

A couple months ago I wrote a blog post about the iWatcher App my husband developed that was available in Cydia. I need to now update that post.....
Since then my husband added some cool new features to the app & it is no longer available in Cydia it is now available in the App Store. The name had to be changed because someone else took the name (very upsetting) so it is now called iWatchr (without the e). The app still does all the same things as in my old post but with a slightly different look to it & MORE!

It still:

• Calculates the points for foods for the United States using Calories, Fat & Fiber.
• Calculates the points for foods for European countries using Calories or Kilojoules & Saturated Fat.
• And Calculates your activity bonus points

NOW it has a daily log!
Enter you foods & the points and it will add up your points for the day at the top.

It will also put the little red badge on your home screen with how many points you used so far

An update was sent into Apple so the daily log is saved each day that way if you had a good week or a bad week you can go back into your log & see what you did for the week.
Currently being worked on is a favorites log so you can enter the foods you eat most that way logging will be much faster.
Check out DavoliApps for more info.

This awesome app for only $0.99!!

Click on icon above to bring you to iTunes!

Tote bags

Earth tones Tote
Originally uploaded by JT Stitches

I want to buy some more new fabrics but with my small apartment I just can't until I get rid of the fabric I have. I was going to go through it all & sell a lot on Etsy or eBay so I can make room & money for some more fabric BUT.....while I was going through my fabrics trying to make a pile of the stuff to sell I just couldn't! Every fabric I would have in my hand I would say "This would make a good lining" or "This would be a nice bag".... I couldn't part with any of it! So my plan is to make some simple INEXPENSIVE totes with them. The tote pictured can be found in my etsy shop for only $10!
Check back often as I plan to make a bunch more totes just like this one.

Custom Orders

Lately I've been getting a lot of emails asking for custom scrub top orders. I am sorry to say that I will not be able to take any custom orders until after October 18, 2008. I do have a couple New York Yankees & NY Mets scrub tops already made so if that is what you are looking for please send me an email at Jen@jtstitches.com & I can see if I have your size. I also have a few things in my www.jtstitches.etsy.com shop so check that out. I WILL be able to ship any items bought, I'm just unable to make any new items. I will be getting married in less than a month and need to get some things made for my own wedding.

JT Stitches Sale

JT Stitches is having a 20% off sale everything in my Etsy shop except items in the "Custom" category. I will be adding a few things during the week so keep checking back if you don't see something now. To receive the discount I can either refund you the difference or convo me & I will edit the price in the listing.

iWatcher App

POST UPDATED check it out HERE

My boyfriend has been teaching himself Objective-C & how to develop iPhone/iPod Touch applications. He has now developed his first app called iWatcher, it's a Weight Watchers Points calculator. When I was looking in the App Store on iTunes I saw a lot of the reviews from people for the Points calculator complaining that those calculators only works for the United States, the needed Nutritional Information is different for Europe. I told Frank about this & he added the European calculator.

Version 1.0

When you first open the app it will open to this screen which is for the US calculations. Enter the Calories, Fat & Fiber from the nutritional information & click "Go" on the keyboard. (there has been an added feature since these screenshots (Activity Points) & can be seen below in Version 1.1)

If you use the European calculator tap on the European Points along the bottom which will bring you to this screen. Enter the "Calories" or "Kilojoules" and "Saturated Fat" & click go on the keyboard.

European calculation uses either Calories or Kilojoules, not both, if you enter the NI in both fields you will get an error screen. Just click ok & delete one of the fields by tapping in the box.

And last, here is a screenshot of the about page. It just basically tells you about this app & his email address where you can send suggestions & questions.

Version 1.1

Added feature to iWatcher, Activity Points. Calculate your activity points depending on your workout.


The about page was edited too...it will help you figure out if your workout was light, moderate or high depending on your heart rate during your workout.

This app is now available in Cydia under Health Care & Fitness. You would need a jailbroken/hacked iPhone or iPod Touch in order to use this app, it is not available in the App Store at this time. If you have any questions or suggestions you can email davolifr@yahoo.com

POST UPDATED check it out HERE

Speck See-Thru Case

I bought the Speck See-thru case for my iPhone 3G from SpeckProducts.com.



I wanted a thin clear case that would only cover the back & sides and I would use a screen protector for the front. The Speck cover is exactly what I was looking for. I did think it was a bit steap in price being $29 with $7.95 shipping but I bought it anyway. About I week later I received it & as soon as I took it out of the box I saw small superficial scratches. When I put it on my iPhone the scratches were right in the spot the mirror Apple Logo is so they really stuck out. I emailed Speck customer service right away & when I didn't hear back from them after a week I emailed them again. It has been 2 weeks since my 1st email & no word from Speck. I am a very unhappy customer! I would have been happy with an exchange, $38 is a lot of money for a piece of plastic to begin with & then for it to come scratched! I will NEVER buy from them again & would recommended you don't either!

Handmade Cavalcade

cavalcade-graphic
Originally uploaded by The {NewNew} NY

The {NewNew} York Etsy Street team is leaving the city for the day and heading up to Beacon, NY to hold our very own craft fair 9/13/08 from 1pm-8pm.
Visit HandmadeCavalcade.com for details on this awesome event!

Personalized iPhone 3G iCozy

iPhone 3G iCozy
Originally uploaded by JT Stitches

New item in my Etsy shop, Personalized iPhone 3G iCozy. I like a "naked" iPhone, and I like to throw it in my bag or in my pocket, but I don't want it to get scratched up. This holder is nice & thin, has a heavy interface for some stiffness & shape with a soft flannel lining against your iPhone. iCozy is machine embroidered with you "iName" & music notes. Visit my etsy shop www.jtstitches.etsy.com

iPhone 3G Theme

My first real theme on my new iPhone 3G--called iPhone 3G Theme (duh).
(this is also a test post for the new App Store app called ShoZu)

Shirt by KimmChi from Etsy

Shirt by KimmChi from Etsy
Originally uploaded by JT Stitches

I got this really cool silk screened t-shirt from www.KimmChi.etsy.com
I love this shirt & I really love the placement of this cool swirl design. The next top I will be getting from her is this one, I'm so in love with it.
Check out her shop, she has great stuff & is the sweetest person!

iPhone 3G

I left off in my last post on Monday at 9:42 am that I was going to keep calling the Apple Store until I could find one. Well that is exactly what I did...I called all the Apple Stores that were approx 1 hour from me in the Bronx. None of them had any until at about 3:45pm the 5th Ave store got them back in (the one I was at at 7am that morning). I jumped back in my car to the subway & went back down. There was a long line & I figured it would maybe take about 2 or so hours...

...WRONG! I was there for 5 hours. If I knew I was going to be there that long I would have never stayed. But whatever, I have my beautiful iPhone 3G white 16gb

Of course Frank was dying to jailbreak it so he did

Yeah, I'm iPhone crazy too....

Like a gazillion other people I love my iPhone. When the iPhone first came out last year I didn't really think anything of it, I had my pocket pc & I was happy with that--I thought the iPhone was just like the pocket pc but with an iPod. A few months later I bought finally one mainly because the monthly plan was cheaper than my pocket PC (I was paying $90+ for my Cingular/At&t 8525 and the iPhone would have been $60+). After having it for a while, especially when we jailbroke it I fell in love. I LOVED all the 3rd party apps thru installer & loved to "customize" the look of my phone...


Now the new 3G iPhone is out, what to do what to do?! A lot of the reason I love my iPhone is because of the jailbreak & all the awesome apps but unless I'm home my iPhone is so slloooowwww on Edge. So I told myself I would wait to get 3G until a jailbreak is available for the 2.0 firmware. Saturday night the dev team put out the "Pwnage Tool" which will jailbreak the new 2.0 software-- so to check out the tool we upgraded my 1st generation iPhone 1.1.3 firmware to the 2.0 firmware and if I didn't like it we would just hack it again to run on the 1.1.4 firmware so I can get back installer. My iPhone 2.0 is jailboken but installer hasn't been ported yet so it makes it kind of pointless to have a jailbroken 2.0 iPhone.

I'd have to say I do like the App Store & a couple of the new features on 2.0.
My favorite is the Push email thru "Microsoft Exchange". I really like that when I get an email I get it right away (like a blackberry)...before it would kill the battery faster when my iPhone checks with servers every 15 or 30 minutes (depending on the setting) all day to see if you have an email so Push email is awesome.
Another fav is saving an image from a website to my photos. I'm a flickr.com freak & if I want to copy a picture from my Flickr to email it to someone I can.
I also like being able to delete multiple emails at once instead of 1 by 1.
The App Store has a bunch of cool apps & I've installed a bunch of the free apps to check them out (not all are App Store apps, about 6 are web clips).



Last night I decided I'm going to get the 3G. I woke up at 5am & went downtown to the 5th Ave Apple Store so when they started selling them at 7am I would be there. The website said they had the white 16gig last night so I figured there would be a chance they would have an 8gig in the morning....not!

This lovely sign sign said "Sorry, no 3G available today". But these iPhone fans did not care, a line was forming anyway.

I do want the phone & would have waited if I knew I would get one within an hour or so, but I'm not gonna wait hours not knowing if they will even get them today. I called a few At&t stores & they are only taking orders that can take up to 21 days.

As of now I will just keep calling the Apple Stores & hope they will get stock soon.

Gildea's Bar & Restaurant

Gildea's Bar & Restaurant
Originally uploaded by JT Stitches

Polo shirts embroidered for a Bar & Restaurant in Pearl River New York. The idea for the design is taken from their business card

with the shamrocks added as requested. With this order he had asked for 5 black shirts for his staff that has "Bar & Restaurant" and 17 navy blue with "Pearl River, NY" curved at the bottom (all shirts not in the picture). Here is another picture of shirts done in the past that was for his staff.

WW- Made 10%

144/365 June 18, 2008- Made 10%
Originally uploaded by JT Stitches

After 7 weeks on weight watchers I made my 10% losing 17lbs! I have been taking pictures of myself every 2 weeks to "see" my progress but I am too embarrassed to post it here because of the "week 1" picture.....maybe one day I will but it wasn't that long ago so I just can't. I really love weight watchers & I highly recommended to anyone that wants to lose weight. I'm sure they way I'm doing the program isn't really the recommended way but so far it has been working for me...
I've had a total of between 24-20 points a day (your points change as you lose weight) and you get an extra 35 points per week & you can only use them that week so if you don't use them you lose them & get a new 35 points. Every week (10am on Wednesday) I go to WW to get weighted (on an empty stomach with a light t-shirt, the same jeans & shoes- so I know it isn't my clothes)....after the meeting is my "free day"-- I use all my daily points PLUS my 35 points, if I can't have a Twix bar, Burger King whopper or any other fattening food I won't stay on a diet. If I know that on Wednesday I can have those things & keep it to only 1 day a week I can do it. All the other days I really try & do things the weight watchers way-- I try & drink lots of water, fruits, salads, which is completely different than what I was doing before. So far so good, I just hope I can continue doing well until I reach my goal!

Save the Date

151/365 June 25, 2008
Originally uploaded by JT Stitches

Finished the save the date cards & I am very happy with the way they came out. My mom & little sis came over & we all had "stations"-- cutting the sage 8.5" X 11" card-stock in fours, cutting the actual invitations, gluing & applying the rhinestones. It was a fun day & it was nice to have a family crafting day which we have never done before.



My mom printed the envelopes at home herself & they came out so cute. She typed each address (she surely has patients) and added a cute little teddy bear bride & groom picture to the bottom corner.



I was trying to talk her into making the invitations too but she was just not having it! That's ok, there are plenty of other things to make.

Save the date card....maybe?

Save the date card....maybe?
Originally uploaded by JT Stitches

I'm planning on making my own Save the Date cards for our wedding. I've never done any paper crafting so this is going to be tough. While searching for templates online I found this one & I love it..... plus it's my color, sage! I have printed one out & it prints pretty good although the picture I took of it made the coloring off, the flash washed it out. I added a few rhinestones & glued (the wrong color) green poster board to the back to make a boarder.

I'm just not sure if it looks that great, I need to get some suggestions from others about the format, fonts, font color & size....and stuff like that.
But hay, it's a start!

Tissue Cozies

Tissue Cozy
Originally uploaded by JT Stitches

New item in my etsy shop, Tissue Cozy. I carry around a package of Kleenex tissues in my bag & they always seem to get messed up with particles of stuff or smell like the body spray I carry in my bag. I started making these cute cozies to keep them nice & clean & they are available in my etsy shop for $5 each. Custom orders are welcome & they can be personalized with a name or a monogram for an extra fee.

Week 3 of Diet

115/365 May 21, 2008
Originally uploaded by JT Stitches

Last week I didn't do that well I only lost 1 lb. I would of been happy if it was my 4th week because the Weight Watchers book said that the first 3 weeks you normally lose the most. This week I did awesome & I'm very happy about that! I lost 4.6 lbs to make it a grand total of 9 pounds lost since May 3rd!! I got my 5lb bookmark this week because last week I was only .4 lbs away from 5lbs which was really annoying.
I hope to continue doing good so I can be nice & thin for my wedding!!

Week 1 of Diet

I joined the gym about 2 weeks ago but didn't really change my eating habits right away. Last Thursday when I went to the orientation Lucille Roberts has they weighed me & I was NOT happy with the results. That Friday I had to work all day but I tried to eat right. Saturday morning I got up early & started back on Weight Watchers. This past week I have been doing really good between WW & working out & since last Thursday I lost a total of 5 lbs but in WW eyes since Saturday I lost 3.4 lbs. They say the 1st week you always loose the most weight so now if I loose 1 to 2 lbs a week I can loose about 20lbs by my wedding!! Yay!!

Reception Hall

We found a reception hall. It was really difficult to find somewhere since we only have 6 months to plan. Everywhere we called was booked for October 11, 2008 as most people plan their wedding for at least year. The other day my Mom & I went to a couple places that were available 10/11/08 & I fell in love with this one place "Antun's of Westchester"

www.flickr.com

Anyone I spoke to that went there said it was a beautiful place (maybe they were just saying that because my wedding will be there). Hope we have a nice day so we can take nice pictures in the gazebo & bridge. They gave me & Frank a coupon for a free buffet which they have every Sunday, this will be the only way to check out their food since they're not a restaurant. Hope the food is good or we are screwed. This place basically does everything for you which is included in price like the flowers & centerpieces, place cards (but we gotta fill them out), directions (all already printed), beer (including bottled), "top shelf" liquor, the cake and other little details I can't think of right now. I really lucked out with this place being available that day.
Well I'm off to meet my Mom & Sister (also my maid of honor) to look at dresses.

Diet Time

97/365 May 3, 2008
Originally uploaded by JT Stitches

Since I'll be getting married in about 5 months I NEED to loose weight! I've really gained a lot of weight in the past 2 or so years & I need it off. I joined Lucille Roberts last week but that isn't gonna work unless I stop eating the crap I eat (ie. KFC & McDonalds) so yesterday I went back to Weight watchers. About 8 years ago I became a "Lifetime Member" which means I met my goal weight. Being a Lifetime Member has some perks like I only have to pay $10 a week & didn't have to pay the registration fee. When I meet my goal weight again I can go to the meetings for free. For me it isn't so much the meetings I like it's the weekly weigh in that keeps me on track. I know that Saturday I will be weighed so I need to loose 2 lbs. I take it little by little & week by week, if I keep thinking I need to loose 15lbs I will never be able to do it, instead I think small. This is the only diet program I have ever done & I since I has great success with it in the past I will do it again. I also really like this program because you can eat what ever you want as long as you stay within your points. I'm already trying to figure out how many points my regular dinner at TGI-Fridays will be, it looks like I will be able to do it!!! Yay!!

We set a date!!

Frank & I finally set a date for our wedding. We were gonna go with October 18, 2008 but the 3pm slot was already taken so we went with October 11th at 3pm. There seems like there is so much to do I just don't know were to get started. I'm so glad my mom is really into this kind of stuff so I will have a lot of help. We are already penciled in the book at the church for Oct 11th & when we go see the priest for an interview it will be changed to pen :). I'm not really sure where the reception will be but I'm *thinking* we're gonna have anywhere between 100-150 people & price is going to be a major factor. We have a few places in mind because my parents have been going for dinner in these places to get prices & see how their food was. Once we have an idea of how many people we are going to have I can really get the ball rolling. A good thing is May seems to be the wedding month so everyone will be advertising their stuff. I would really love to get a lot of handmade things for the wedding especially the invitations & wedding favors. The color of the wedding party will most likely be a sage green or a light forest green.
If you are an Etsy seller please reply with a link to either an item from your shop or a picture (from flickr or any other photo sharing site) that's for a wedding. I need some ideas!