Another busy weekend

All went well this weekend. I got all the items done I set out to accomplish. One was the Irish tutu was mailed out. My Pink tutu sold and was mailed out, and I also finished the custom alchemy order of a tutu dress with headband, wand and matching doll tutu. Thankfully my husband was very appeasing by giving me a hand with the house upkeep and the kids. I told him I will be expecting it more often, especially if my wish comes true of my work being a hit!
The purple tutu dress I was able to add a lining to the inside of it which came out better than expected and now know it will be more comfortable for little ones to wear. This is something I haven't seen being done in other tutu shops so I am happy to be offerring it :)

Between all the work I did this weekend I managed to make it to my daughter's first 2 soccer games and keep my son out of the net during game time. We couldn't figure out why he kept running on the field during the game and finally it ended so we let him run off and he went straight to sit inside the goal net! For every kid his own huh :)

We made a family dinner too, my husband's idea and had both sets of parents over, which turned out good.

I am looking forward to next weekend because I made a date with my husband and kids to go pumpkin picking and the whole nine yards of fall activities, this is completely my favorite time of year!

Hunting for Burberry style ribbon

I woke up this morning with a super stuffy nose, headache, watery eyes, all the natural things to go along with your typical head cold. I didn't find exactly what I was looking for when at the fabric store yesterday so today I am trying to find some good places to shop for supplies and whatnot. I list some once I find some. One is http://www.bbcrafts.com/. They have good tulle there that I found for a great price with a good assortment of colors. They have some good ribbon to pick from too, lots of your standards in all sizes at a good price too. Recently I've been into the polka dots and really want to do another Minnie Mouse inspired Tutu dress. I found some regular cotton fabric designs that I'd love to try.

I also saw this Burberry style ribbon that gave me another inspiration for a tutu dress I just can't remember which online source I saw it and am trying to find it again desperately since I didnt find it yesterday at the fabric store!

So I do a google search on burberry plaid ribbon and nothing comes up for just a roll of ribbon. Only purses, belts, watches, and dog collars pop up. So I will be back tracking my previous online viewing sites to find it again, which seems so ridiculous I didnt save it in the first place.

I finished the Irish tutu last night and came out very cute and I am dying to see my daughter try it on to fix anything final flaws it has. What i really need is a mini dress mannequin, for a daily basis, which may be my next investment if I can find a good price on one.

HMmmmmmm

Weeks half over, little time, lots of motivation

Today I am going to be going to this fabric shop that has tons of different stuff, so I am super excited to get some great finds. My only problem is I hope not to get lost in there so I can get my daughter to dance class on time! :)

Last night I finished working on a custom tutu made for an super Irish fan. It was made as a double layered tutu, orange/green on the bottom, and white on the top with lots of coordinating ribbons (I hope to find a few shamrock items to add to at the store today while I am there) that has made it look wonderfully Irishful and festive. My only problem is I need a way to get pictures on here for all to see soon.

This weekend though I will be busy getting some new creations done because I have a showcase on Etsy next Weds. that hopefully will bring more traffic around. So I need to increase my item listings.

My friend Laura and I are in full swing on planning out craft fair plan aswell. We've been fishing around for a nice one to start with but not one that may be overwhelming for the first time. The Old Deerfield Craft Fair http://www.deerfield-craft.org/sampler.htm and CastleBerry Craft fair http://www.castleberryfairs.com/index.php are our aspirations but we need to look for smaller for the first, maybe we can organized for those in the months to come.

I saw this fabric today too while fishing around online and loved it and I am looking for find something or someone to make me something from it. I saw the Vespa's and fell in love with it instantly! See pic above.

Have a great afternoon :)

A Boost of Confidence

So my ideas were flowing this past weekend and after having a rough week last week with guilt being away from my kids all day long all week long I started reading this book my mom passed along to me. (we have the same creative mind and passion to move foward with our ideas).

The book really gave me a boost and perspective of things I need to look into and start doing to help my success:

1. Somehow patton a name asap (we'll see how soon that comes along, as $$$ is involved)



2. I have already started a pretty lenghty business plan, so that was good (my college degree came in hand with that one since I'd did plenty of them throughout my college days).



3. I need my products to have a niche, something more unique about them on why they are different from the rest of the market. The niche was created for the shop idea, just not my products yet, and I'd certainly hate to just be a plain old copy cat! So I have been brainstorming that one and have a few ideas that will need some practice first.



4. Don't be bashful or ashamed of what you are doing. I am a very modest person and hates to brag about what I love (besides my awesome kids!), so practiced that already by trying to be more confident when my friends and family asked about my venture this passed weekend.

So I gained all this insight just from a reading the beginning of this book while driving home from my 9 to 5 while carpooling with my brother inlaw.

So then I didn't have much time to work on any products this weekend between showers, kids, cleaning, kids, cooking, kids, husband lol, kids, rest, kids, ahhh and its Monday again! But I was able to keep up with online correspondence and was asked to by a few people to create tutus for gifts, which got my creative juices flowing.

1. a tutu for a "scary" ballerina - will be my first real black tutu

2. a special tutu for a birthday girl who's family is very into their Irish heritage, which I actually began last night while trying to appease my husband by watching a movie with him at the same time.

3. a purple tutu dress for a possible etsy sale I am looking forward to

4. There was one request I seen too for a tutu design needed for a marathon runner, which I thought would be super exciting to make and it to be seen by all the runners and spectators, so I made a bid and am hoping for the best :)

Some more confidence came from my husband telling me he'd take the kids out one night this week leaving me with the free time to actually get some good work done. That is a long cry from him before being upset with the money I have spent so far to get things going, so that helped!

And again all I want is to do things I love, one see my kids grow up first hand and be apart of it and make things I love for great people in my life and others.

I see this by opening a cute boutique with my friend Laura whom should be having kids soon and will be in the same predicament. Have the ability to work and create on our own time/working time within the shop, have my little "cobeman" (Jacoby) running around where he pleases in there under my supervision :) while I can come and go to bring my "monster" (Camryn) to school, dancing, soccer etc whenever she needs to or be home when they're sick like Camryn is today who is at home being nursed by Grandma and not me :(.

In end today, I've convinced myself and Laura to register for our first craft fair! We'll see which one we pick and where it goes from there :)

To start a business

Forever now I've been stuck working in Corporate America. I constantly tell myself and others if I only new better and had more confidence to succeed in what I enjoy doing when I was in my teens I probably wouldn't be working in what I call the obvious main stream market for college graduates. Then I was looking for a safety route, and recently I began to realize I am still young enough to take a leap of faith :)

My journey began with a long time friend of mine when we conspired and brainstormed about opening a little boutique to carry specialty children's items from apparel, accessories, and shoes and we would also be able to create and sell our own creations for under our own line as well. Since we've begun a business plan and the whole nine yards, but are still left short of time and money to put it into action. Since then we've opened our own etsy shops to start to work on our own lines and creations.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6815966

I love being creative and making special personable things for the people in my life, but I have so many ideas and only so many people to plenish them with. So when I found Etsy I thought it would be a perfect place to start. And I am still looking for some great ideas to get this boutique in gear and or get these online sales in gear!