A Blogging Break

Hey hey! So sorry for the absence here my friends. Life got the better of me and I have been trying to play catch up. But this post isn't about me announcing that my break is over, this is to let you all know that my break is really just beginning. You may have noticed I have sort of been M.I.A. all over the map including here and it is for good reason. Though I really cannot share with you the storm that has hit my household, I can let you know that once the storm has calmed, I will be back with a better and brighter outlook and will be producing posts again in no time. 

Really, most of why I feel I need this break [just so you all aren't totally hangin'] is I have lost inspiration in creation. My house is out of control and there really isn't any creative space here for me anymore so I feel totally overwhelmed with projects. Until I can find that inspiration and get back in to a creative space, I can't offer you all the posts this blog was intended for. And for quite a few months now, what I have offered has been subpar and that's just not fair to you and it certainly isn't fair to my Sponsors.

Which leads me to my next announcement: I will be putting Sponsorship with Chevron Stitches on hold until I return and get back in to the groove of it all. I not only want to be able to provide you guys with quality posts, but I also want to make sure the people who pay me to hang out on my sidebar are getting the most out of my blog as well and since I have seriously dropped the ball here, I cannot continue to string them along any more. It's just not fair all around. 

I will be heading to San Diego for a little while on the 17th to be with my parents and my family as well as friends. My daughter leaves for her dads on the 25th to Kansas for the summer so I will be able to take some time to put everything back in to place and get back to where I want to be, where I need to be. There are some plans to meet up with a fellow blogger and fellow IG friend while down there so I hope that will get my creative juices flowin' and I can come back with a whole new inspiration of sorts. 

I don't really have a time frame of how long my break will be, I just know that my kids need me and all of me right now and not mommy who sits behind her laptop and cell phone all day long blogging her little heart out. This break also extends to my other blog B.You, and partly in to my personal blog A Fox & A Wolf. I will be pulling back my position at B.You for a while and I hope that it can continue, as it has been quite successful. I'm only pulling back slightly at A Fox & A Wolf, blogging when I feel I want to share something rather than blogging with obligation. If you want to stay updated on my personal life outside of Chevron Stitches, please follow me at A Fox & A Wolf. 

Thank you all for being amazing readers and supporters! I promise I will be back as soon as I can! Love you all! XOXOXO

A Fox & A Wolf New Blog Design + Ad Swaps

If you follow me on my personal blog A Fox & A Wolf, you may have noticed some changes recently. A few weeks ago I redesigned the blog and made a new button. I also added a new weekly series called Insta-Weekly where I share with you my favorite Instagram photos from the week. I've been praying a lot lately about finding a good balance between my family life and obligations and my blogging obligations and have felt the press of writing more on my personal blog. I don't offer much of anything other than my life's ramblings, some outfit posts, things about baby, my opinions on parenting, and my life with my 'wolf' and our 'pups', but I would love to get my blog more out there. I am still in the works of laying out a solid schedule for this blog, B.You, and A Fox & A Wolf, but in the meantime I still plan to bring you posts on all three blogs and hope that you will also follow me along in my personal life apart from Chevron Stitches. 

As I have discovered in the past year of blogging, swapping ads when you're first starting out blogging is one of the biggest ways to get yourself out there and gain more followers. I talked a lot about this on B.You. For about a month I have just added my fave blogs buttons to the sidebar of A Fox & A Wolf, but decided to make things a lot easier for me and for the person I would be 'swapping' ads with, I thought I would introduce a sponsor page where you can swap ads with me through Passionfruit Ads. Since I am introducing this new feature on the blog, I thought I would give you some snapshots of A Fox & A Wolf in hopes that you'll head over and check me out... maybe give a follow? 

The header was created by using an overlay purchased through Ink Nest and adding text with PicMonkey. The pages underneath the header were created with images and text from Ink Nest as well as combining other elements in PicMonkey. 

In my sidebar you can click on my Thread the Pages Book Club button which will take you to information on my online book club and how to join. I also have a section where I display all of my favorite blogs. I am hoping you will be in there soon! <wink wink> This is where all of the ad swaps will be displayed and rotated through out the month. 

I have an adorable new 'about me' image that gives you a brief description of who I am and what I blog about. You can always click on the 'About Me' button under the header to find out more about who we are!

I made some fun buttons with grab boxes in my sidebar if you would like to grab one! 

New Sponsor section. I use Passionfruit Ads for Chevron Stitches so it only made sense to use it for this blog as well. Swapping ads is easy and I give you the code in the description of the ad.

I am also on Bloglovin' so be sure to head on over and give a follow there as well since Google Reader and GFC are gone in July!

I also created a new blog signature. 

It's pretty apparent I am passionate about blogging. I may not be the best blogger and I may not have a great blogging schedule down, but it is something I love to do and there is nothing more gratifying than to make amazing bloggy friend connections while doing it. If you would like to swap ads with me for A Fox & A Wolf blog, head on over and let me know! 

Calling All Local Bloggers/Shop Owners!!

Blogging is my life. Well, more like my job; my kids are my life. I love to blog and I love to make connections with bloggers/shop owners near and far. Having a great community of bloggers at my fingertips is such an amazing thing because it helps build encouragement for what we do. But I love nothing more than an organic relationship and that has inspired me to want to form a bloggers/shop owner meet up. 

I think having a local bloggers/shop owner meet up would be a great way to form a close-knit community where we can encourage and inspire one another and make some amazing new organic friends at the same time. 

If you're local to my area and blog [or thinking about blogging] and/or own a shop [ie: Sorenvy, Etsy, Big Cartel, etc.] and are interested in being a part of a meet up, please contact me via email at willow.little [at] gmail [dot] com. If you're interested in sponsoring a meet up, please contact me via email as well.

Let's get together and inspire!

New Blogging Schedule

As of the late, my time with my family has suffered. I took a week off from blogging to support Bry through a hard time and found myself still worrying about blogging. I just wrote up a post on B.You about scheduling posts [and more] and I think I need to seriously take my own advice. It's not that I can't do it, it's that I need to get in to a routine of doing it. Much like the rest of my life, blogging has been sort of sporadic and hectic for me, especially lately. And it really worries me that it is affecting my relationship with my readers. I had some blog series [Hello Monday, W.I.P. Wednesday, & Pinspiration Friday] that I decided were just a little too much for me; it was all about the feeling of obligation. Because I'm not a week ahead of myself scheduling posts and whatnot, I am not able to 'keep up' with the demand of posting Monday, Wednesday, & Friday at the least. And because I don't want to turn my blog into a three day blog series, I would of course need to post more content on the other two week days. But what? Even though I am still slowly transferring old DIY posts from The Little Willow Tree, I want there to be more content than DIY & crafts... I started [seriously] blogging because of my sewing. But then again, I haven't had the space or inspiration to sew lately so that leaves me with a sporadic and hectic blogging schedule. But I don't want to scare you away and have you unfollow me! 

Starting next week I will be posting four days a week. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday will be my posting days. My posts will publish those days at 9:00 am PST. I will continue with Pinspiration Friday as it is my most popular posts and fill in content through out the other three days, one of them being a DIY post. Tomorrow I have set aside a huge chunk of time to get three of those four posts written up and scheduled for next week, which will be a huge burden off my back. I am also going to go by my post on B.You and utilize the options to schedule Twitter and Facebook updates as well, as needed. 

The main reason for needing to get back on track is that I want to be able to keep my readers engaged. It is important to get and keep followers and having a steady schedule in posting helps and great deal. Another reason I need to [set this schedule] is because the Spring Stitch Market is coming up and I need to prepare for that. I will be sewing my little heart out every day until all of my inventory is stocked and will most likely be too exhausted to hop on and write up a blog post last minute for the following day. [I'll also be making a schedule for sewing time to help keep me on track!]. Also, I run two other blogs; B.You and A Fox & A Wolf. B.You is a full time blog, posting five days a week. Even though I am one of six contributors, I am the main contributor on top of coordinating, editing, and scheduling. A Fox & A Wolf is my personal blog where I post weekly about my life other than DIY/Crafts/Sewing & offering tips on how to blog better and be you. Running one blog is hard enough, running three is crazy! But I love it and I'll love it even more once I find that balance. And lastly, my family misses me. I mean, yes, I am here. Physically. But I am not engaged with them as much as I should be. I have a hard time 'being in the present' and my family is suffering. 

Thank you all for being amazing supporters and for following my reads daily. I appreciate each and every one of you! I hope the new schedule will work out not just for me, but for you as well, and brings even better content than before. Keep me updated, too, on how I am doing. I don't just blog for me; I blog for you too! 

MEGA 2013 Giveaway

Welcome to the biggest giveaway of 2013! 

All of the incredibly generous ladies below have contributed

over $1200 in prizes that 3 unbelievably lucky ducks will win!

The fine print:

*Must be a follower of Peacoats & Plaid via GFC or RSS to win

*Winners of each prize pack will be verified

*You can enter all prize packs

*Sponsors, you are able to enter whatever prize pack you are not contributing to

Prize Pack Un:

$15 Chelsea Cecelia Etsy shop credit from The Big, Beautiful, and Broke Blog
$10 value 2 months "Just Browsing" ad space from Tales of a 20 Something
$10 Amazon gift card AND $10 value large ad space from Wannabe Green
$20 value 2 months "Venti" ad space from Swell & Stylish
$10 value featured ad space from Discover.Create.Live.
$10 value VIP ad space from Girl Booklet
$15 value Ooh Baby Designs infinity scarf from Oh That Emily
$10 Nordstrom gift card AND $5 Starbucks gift card AND $5 value ad space from The Pretty Pinhead
$20 value Stella and Dot swallow stud earrings from The Casual Stay at Home

$12 value ad space from By the Porchlight
$10 value set of 8 customized wine bottle tags from Making Life Whimsical
$5 value top position large ad space from The Burghal Girl
$30 value 3 months medium ad space AND $10 Target gift card from Lulu & Sweet Pea
$10 Etsy gift card AND $10 value ad space from Champagne & Cardigans

$10 value ad space, guest post, and g+ or skype chat from Bold Butter Baby
$65 value Estee Lauder advanced night repair eye cream and 2 spa products from My Fashion Forward Blog
$15 value "Sweetly Sassy" ad space from Glossy Blonde
$10 value 200 x 200 ad space from Fantastical Sharing of Recipes
$12 value Buying Erica pair of hair bows and MUA nail polish from Being Erica
$20 value 2 months medium ad space from A.k.a. Chymecindy
$70 value prize pack including: $10 Target gift card AND $10 Starbucks gift card AND Caress prize pack AND 2 months of ad space from The Mustache Diaries
$20 value 2 months medium ad space from Satisfaction Through Christ
$13 value Starbucks gift card AND ad space from Newborn Mama

Full terms and conditions

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Prize Pack Deux:

$8 value chevron mug hug from Chevron Stitches
$16 value medium ad space from Whispering Sweet Nothings
$10 Paypal cash from The Dreamy Meadow
$20 value 2 months large ad space from Antlers & Roses
$12 value digital portrait from What Peggy Said
$5 value set of 5 hair ties from Lovely Life of Leah
$10 value large ad space from Come What May
$90 value 3 months extra large ad space from Rolled Up Pretty
$10 value custom blog signature from Yours Truly

$8 value medium ad space from Wifessionals
$10 Starbucks gift card from This Vintage Grove
$10 value 2 months ad space from A Humble Bumble
$5 value ad space AND $10 Lush gift card from Spunky Real Deals
$6 value ad space from The Eclectic Grab Bag
$10 value ad space AND $10 Starbucks gift card from Ashley Brooke
$10 value ad space from The Domestic Geek
$10 Starbucks gift card from Letters to Sophia
$25 The Sepia Puppy Etsy shop credit from The Sepia Puppy

$15 value large ad space from Diary of a Brown Eyed Girl
$15 Bath & Body Works gift card from Provocative Manners
$6 value large ad space from Happy Pretty Blog
$15 Paypal cash AND $8 value ad space from Lara's Vintage
$30 value clutch purse AND $15 Etsy shop credit from Kitty & Buck
$10 value medium ad space from We Took the Road Less Traveled
$12 value J Crew hot pink planner from Sunny with a Chance of Sprinkles
$20 Amazon gift card from Oh So Amelia
$10 Target gift card AND $10 Target photo gift card from Whatcha Makin' Now?

Full terms and conditions

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Prize Pack Trois:

$20 featured ad space & partnership from The Charming Blog
$5 Target gift card from Helene in Between
$8 value "Wedge" ad space from Lipgloss & Crayons
$5 Starbucks gift card from Southern Sunflowers & Coffee Beans
$30 value personal online styling session with 4 outfits from Because of Jackie
$15 value large ad space from Comma with a K
$10 Starbucks gift card from The Chiffon Diary
$15 value small ad space from Sugar & Dots
$25 value silver bracelet from NYC boutique from Sparkles & Shoes

$12 value 200 x 200 ad space from Living in Yellow
$25 value custom reclaimed wood sign from Home with the Urick's
$50 value bottom post ad space from Messy Dirty Hair

$10 Starbucks gift card from La La Lists
$12 value "Hot Mess" ad space from A Beautiful Mess
$6 value 200 x 200 ad space from Nugget on a Budget
$25 value custom state embroidery hoop art from Ten Feet Off Beale

$7 value ad space from For Lauren and Lauren
$20 value infinity scarf from Gypsy Bee Handmade
$10 Starbucks gift card from A Day in a Joyful Life
$10 value ad space from Fortune Favors the Brave
$35 value set of 5 bracelets from Sensational Creations
$12 value ad space from My Crafty Crazy Life
$45 value eiffel tower necklace from The Anna Delores Blog
$25 value Valentine's themed wreath from Finding Michelina
$23 value set of soaps and ad space from You Are the Roots

Full terms and conditions

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blog Design Reveal + A Giveaway!

Hello! Happy New Year! 

What a great way to start out the new year with a new blog design, name, and something really awesome that you will have to read on for! I am really excited about this post! I've been working with Lauren at The Perfect Pear Designs to create a blog design that reflected more of who I am, what Chevron Stitches is about, and that would grow with me in the next years. She nailed it, I'd say. Over the past month Lauren and I have been working to get this blog to where it needs to be and with very little tweaking, it is finally all here!! Thank you Lauren for being AMAZEBALLS! 

If you followed me at The Little Willow Tree you can see that with this new design comes some fancy new features. I have a really awesome 'About Me' section in the right sidebar. I love having a little introduction to me with a picture so you can see just who I am. If you want to know more about me, click on the about me section above.

I have a 'grab my button' section in the right sidebar. You have two buttons to choose from so grab away! I'd love to be shared on your blog! Let me know you're sportin' my button too! I love giving shout outs!

I have a fancy new post signature. It's really pretty adorbs and better than I could have created.

New post series! With the new blog and new design comes three weekly series to check out. All of which may become link ups if people are interested. Come check me out Mondays for a 'Hello Monday' series where I will share my week of inspirations from clothes, to crafts, to sewing projects and more. I hear a lot of people have a 'case of the Mondays' so Im here to get you out of that droll and get inspired! Then you can come back Wednesday for 'Work in Progress Wednesdays' where I will show you at least one project I am currently working on. Hop back on over on Friday for 'Pinspiration Friday' where I share with you a project found on Pinterest. You will see my 'Pinspiration' and my finished project with a link back to the original source. But don't just come on those days - come back in between because I post something new just about every day!

And lastly, something new new. Something I have never offered before - Sponsor ad spots. You can now advertise on Chevron Stitches. Sponsoring Chevron Stitches is totally affordable, too! No reason to break anyones bank here, but I do put a lot of hard work into what I do.

Now I couldn't do a new blog + design reveal without giving away some awesome prizes! So I partnered up with some of my best bloggie friends out there to offer some pretty rad items to one lucky winner! Here's what you get:

Facebook // Shop // Instagram // Pinterest // Twitter

Facebook // Shop // Pinterest // Twitter

Facebook // Shop 

Blog // Facebook // Shop // Twitter 

Blog // Facebook // Shop // Twitter

Shop // Blog

Blog // Shop // Twitter // Instagram // Pinterest

Blog // Shop // Twitter

Blog // Twitter // Instagram // Pinterest

One lucky winner will receive everything! Giveaway starts January 1 2013 and ends January 5 2013. Please read terms & conditions on giveaway below. Please enter using the Rafflecopter form. Good luck & THANK YOU for all of your guys' support!