After Thanksgiving Sale at Tiara's Boutique: Black Friday through Cyber Monday at tiarastutus on Etsy, and tiarasboutique on Artfire

Halloween has come and gone, and Thanksgiving will be here in the blink of an eye! I will be holding another big After Thanksgiving Sale this year!

I will be running 2 different sales this year:

Etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop/tiarastutus will offer my all time most popular designs, and a couple of new items, at 20% off the full price!
Strawberry Dreams
Pink Powder Pixie
Rainbow Splash
Iris Pixie
Rockstar
Wildflower Pixie
Eolande Pixie
Classic Beauty
Candy Cane Dreams
Sweet Santa Pixie


Artfire http://www.artfire.com/users/TiarasBoutique will have the entire shop marked down 10%! This is in addition to the 5% lower prices available throughout the year!

*In order to keep the turnaround time down to a minimum, there will be limited availability. Both Etsy and Artfire shops will be rendered inactive once the daily maximum of items is reached.
*Beanies are out of stock. Sorry!

After Thanksgiving Sale info coming soon!

Check back soon for a full list of sale items! I will have some great deals in both my Etsy shop and my Artfire shop beginning Black Friday, and continueing throughout Cyber Monday! I will be posting an advanced look at all sale items within the next few days (as soon as I am feeling better)!

Artfire

Not many are aware that I also have an Artfire shop! http://www.artfire.com/users/TiarasBoutique I opened the shop early this year, but I only recently began putting items in there! Artfire allows me to run a shop at a low cost, so I am happy to pass those savings on to my customer! You will always find lower prices on all the items listed in Artfire!
Go check it out!

Busiest week, ever!

Ok, so it's been a looong time since I've had even an extra minute to spare, and I definitely haven't had the time to post anything here. But now things are calming down. Still have some catching up to do, but I think I can take a minute to do this, I hope! ;-)

Today is my 10 year wedding anniversary! I can not believe it's been 10 years already. The time has passed so quickly.
This is a big one! It would be nice to be able to celebrate properly, but unfortunately, there is still too much work to do. :-(
We went out for dinner, toting all 3 kids, and we'll sit and have some champagne together once the kids have gone to sleep. But then it's back to work.
It was quite an eventful week! I got the last of my Halloween orders out just in the nick of time, early last week. Then I still had to make costumes for 2 of my kids!
Tieran decided last minute that she wanted to be a Black Widow Queen. That was ok with me, it was going to be just the same amount of work as all of the other ideas she had over the weeks prior. But then there was Bronson's. Ugh.
Bronson decided weeks ago that he wanted to be a Praying Mantis. He's had an obsession for many months now, so it wasn't a big surprise that he would want to be a Praying Mantis for Halloween. I knew I'd be pressed for time, so I searched and searched for a Praying Mantis costume, and I did my best to try to convince him to choose from the catalog of costumes. No luck. So... with days to go before Halloween I began working on his Praying Mantis costume. I had big plans, too. Unfortunately, as things progressed, I realized I wasn't going to be able to get it all done in time, so I began to drop certain details here and there.
Friday came around and Roman and Tieran got to wear their costumes to school! They looked fantastic! Bronson slept in that morning, so he was very excited to get to go pick them up and see everyone in their costumes, but he wanted to wear a costume, too! His "Mantis" costume wasn't done yet, so he wore a skeleton shirt he had. Then he said to me, "I want to be a skeleton!" Oy, now you tell me!
The day before Halloween, there was no way I was going to be able to find a skeleton costume, nor did I have the time to go looking for one. So I told him, "Sorry bud, it's too late to change your costume."
Now, Friday was also my birthday. It was just another day like any other. Nothing special, didn't even have a cake this year, but there was just way too much going on! Maybe we'll get to do something good for my 30th. ;-)
Then Friday evening I took Tieran to her first Halloween party! She had a blast!
By the time I got home, I was exhausted! I actually fell asleep on the couch!
The next morning I got up and immediately realized that I still needed to finish Bronson costume! A slight sense of panic ran through me, but then, suddenly, I remembered something! I remembered that we have a perfect skeleton costume that I bought to add to our dress up trunk after Halloween a few years ago! I jumped out of bed and frantically began searching!Unfortunately, we still haven't unpacked half the boxes from when we moved. I knew where the dress up trunk was, and amazingly, I was able to get to it and look through it, but there was no skeleton costume inside. :-( I wasn't going to give up that easily. I looked through the boys closet, and all of the boys boxes that I could get to. Then, just when I was about to give up, I remembered that I had a few costumes that got hung up in my room, the last time I washed them. I walked in the room. I could see the costumes from the door. There was a black one hanging right at the end. Could it be the skeleton costume? It was! I was so relieved! Bronson was ecstatic!
Everyone got to be just what they wanted to be for Halloween! Roman was a mad scientist, Tieran was a Black Widow Queen, and Bronson was a skeleton! And, now Bronson has a pretty cool Mantis costume to dress up in at home. :-P

My Little Guy Was On Etsy's Front Page!

It's always nice to get an item on the Front Page of Etsy! Views and hearts sky rocket!

But this one was extra special:

Bronson was nice enough to model these dragon wings for me a few months ago, and on Tuesday they were included in a Front Page treasury! On his birthday! I thought it was a pretty cool coincidence!

Launching a new product!

Boy, oh boy! I feel like summer came and hit me like a ton of bricks! I was so excited for summer to be here, and I truly am enjoying the extra time spent with my kids, but I definitely had not anticipated just how much it would change things.

As if I was not busy enough before, there are definitely not nearly enough hours in a day now! I've been meaning to post about Roman's birthday since the beginning of June, and here it is now, July!

I made Roman an appliqed shirt to wear for his birthday. It came out so cool! I was quite pleased with it, and so was Roman! He wore that thing for 2 whole days, then when I finally MADE him take it off, he did some laundry so he could wash it, then wore it again!

I have also been offering appliqued shirts and onesies in my shop. So far I've only listed number shirts, but I've got others I've been meaning to list and just haven't found the time. But I've also got an awesome NEW product that I'm dieing to list!

I will soon be offering custom appliqued tutus! Inspired by the design style of the Queen of Hearts tutu, and my new love for the creativity involved in making the appliques, I realized there was no reason I couldn't do an applique directly on the tutu!

Here's a sneak peek of what's to come!

HULA!

I am so excited to be offering my new Hula tutus! It is about time I finally got them listed, but they may not have been as special had it not taken as long.

Last Spring, Tieran was obsessed with Hula things. Inspired by an activity they would do each week in Miss Vivian's jazz class.

We bought the coconut bra, the lei necklaces, halos, and bracelets (she wore them on her ankles too). And finally, at the end of the year, just before her Graduation last May, I made her the hula tutu that she had been begging for as a reward for doing so well in preschool. But my tutu creativity had not yet been what it is now. It was just a simple tutu with straight cut ends made in two shades of green.

I had intended to list it in my etsy shop, but the summer quickly got so busy, I ended up nearly closing shop until the fall.

This February I got a request for a Hula tutu for a Birthday Party. Being the experienced tutu maker that I am now, I immediately thought that it needed to be a pixie tutu! I made her a beautiful, two-toned green, pixie cut hula tutu and rushed it out of here (she needed it 3 days from when she contacted me). So, of course, it was another awesome original tutu that I didn't get a chance to take pictures of.

Now that summer is approaching, and the seasonal flowers came in. I found these big, beautiful bushes of Hibiscus! I was inspired! Unfortunately it took a couple weeks to find the time to make something simply because I wanted to. My days are pretty jam packed with making tutus that have actually been ordered. But eventually, I was able to squeeze it in. I took the original idea of the pixie tutu I created for the birthday party in February, added in accent strips of the colors of the rainbow, and added about a dozen hibiscus flowers all around the waist. It came out even better than I had imagined!

Roman finally decided he was tired of having long hair!

I didn't mind it long. It was actually much easier to make it look nice when it was long, than it ever had been when it was short. And he looks good with long hair, too. :-) But it had definitely gotten too long.

We could have just gone in for another trim, but it grows so fast! So, when he told me he wanted it cut short, I was very excited! Unfortunately, with our busy schedules, time just kept passing, and his hair just kept getting longer. Finally, he was sick of it, I was frustrated with not being able to find the time to go to the salon, and I pulled out the clippers and a pair of scissors, and I did it myself. ;-)

Let me tell you, I HATE cutting hair! I hate it with a passion!

I was not taught how to cut hair, yet, for 10 years of Navy life I found myself playing the role of barber to my husband. I'd cut his hair and it would turn out great out of pure luck. But I despised it so much, after a few times I make him go to a barber. Then he'd come home with a bad haircut, that we paid for, and I'd once again be forced to assume that dreaded role.

Out of desperation, I pulled out those familiar tools and began cutting Roman's hair. It wasn't long before I fully regretted it! But now I had started, there was no turning back.

In the end it turned out alright. Once again, I remember why I so hate cutting hair, and somehow his haired turned out pretty nice, but I certainly won't be doing that again for a looong time!

Before:

After:

They grow so fast!

My oldest son's birthday is less than 2 weeks away! How did it get here so fast? It seems like he just turned 7 yesterday. How can he posisibly be turning 8?
As stunning as it may be, we are all super excited! He's decided to pass on a full blown party this year (works for me, would have been difficult to fit in the planning involved in the elaborate parties I like to throw anyway). We'll be having a small celebration at home and the big celebration at Legoland!
We haven't been to Legoland in over a year, and I am so so so excited! You'd think I was the 8 year old with how excited I am!
The last time we went, my littlest one was too little to enjoy it as much. He slept through at least half of the trip, and still wasn't walking or talking great. Since then he has flourished! His speech and gross motor skills were delayed due to a number of cases of pneumonia between his first and second birthdays. Now he walks and talks like any other 3 (almost 4) year old, and I know it is just going to be so magical for him!
I can't wait!

Mermaid Tutu Dresses, Some of My Favorite Creations!

I haven't gotten a chance to make too many of them, but the Mermaid Dress is so fun to do!

It's probably a good thing that I don't sell too many of them, since they take so long to create! The dress itself is easy. It takes just as long as any other dress, of course. But the part that makes it so special, the seashell decoration, takes hours!

First I've got to paint the sea shells. I'm not a big fan of this part. I'm sure the kids would LOVE if I gave this job to them. I probably would too, if they were just a little bit older. ;-)

After the many coats are dry, I can begin creating the bodice piece! This part is fun, but takes a long time too! It's kind of like doing a puzzle, but no box to look at! After many tries, and twisting and turning each seashell into place, I have to redo the whole thing! The first time through is just a dry run to see what fits best where, then I go back and secure each one into place. Along the way I add the "seaweed," rhinestones, and lots of pearls!

After all is said and done, I've spent about three times as long creating the seashell decoration than I had making the dress. :-/ But it's soooo worth it!

So exciting to see them come to life!

I was recently contacted by a couple different customers asking for unique custom designs.

Nearly all my work is custom, but customers usually just designate colors and the rest is in my hands. :-) These requests required the customer being able to see my ideas before I began work on them, so I drew them out exactly as I imagined them.

The first request I had was from a returning customer whose daughter was invited to a Disney Princess themed birthday party. Her favorite Disney Princess is Mulan and naturally wanted to dress as Mulan. I drew up a sketch for her and she loved it!

With the OK from the customer, I made up the dress.

The next request was from a customer asking for a "Queen of Hearts" tutu. I was very inspired by this idea and gave her many sketches. She liked this one the best:

And this is what I created:

I was so pleased with how perfectly they resembled my original drawings!

Ice Cream Rewards

We have tried chore charts, sticker charts, reward charts. If it's a chart recommended for encouraging children to be responsible, we've tried it!
They always start out great! The kids will be excited and on task and reach their goals. But inevitably, after a few weeks, the excitement always dies out. So we started giving the kids an allowance a while back, still based on completing certain responsiblities.
Since the weather has been nicer and the ice cream truck comes around every day, all their money was getting shelled out on ice cream from the ice cream truck! I found it to be quite frustrating. Yes, they can choose to spend their money however they choose, and treats from the ice cream truck are always fun, but this was just too much.
We needed a new system. After some thought we came up with one that not only seemed genius, but also so simple that it made me wonder why in the world we hadn't thought of it before.
We picked up a variety of boxes of ice cream bars from the local grocery store and offered them up for $0.50 a piece. Now when they earn money and do their chores, they can still buy ice cream treats. $0.50 goes in the money box, they get their reward, and they are learning the value of a dollar! Even my 3 year old is starting to add up his money accurately!

We ♥ Etsy Day!

Woohoo! There seems to be alot of extra traffic over on etsy due to all the etsy day stuff. How exciting! It's amazing what an impact we've made with it! Keep it up guys! Everyone should know about Etsy!

NO POWER!!!

I never fully realized how important electricity is to run my business!
We lost power for about 30+ minutes today. I don't know why, but it was the whole neighborhood.
While we had no electricity I couldn't check my shop, I couldn't "promote," I couldn't even make a tutu because the sewing machine needs to be plugged in!
I don't know what I would have done if it stayed off for any significant amount of time!

But now that the power is back on, I better get back to work!

Check out my shop @ http://www.tiarastutus.etsy.com/ !

Yay! I finally did it!

Creating a blog has been on my To-Do list since March of 2008. Life has been incredibly busy over the last year, but I have finally found the time to do it!