Hustle

So I have slacked in the blog department. I have taken advantage of my "time off" and now I am having such a time jumping right back in.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We sure were blessed here in our household. I have spent more time with my girls this month baking cookies, sledding, ice skating and of course gift wrapping. I swear they could be asleep and here me pull it all out and then there they were right on top wanting to help :) I have to remind myself that they are only young once and a it is ok if it is not a perfectly wrapped gift.

Spring is on the horizon...at least clothing. Months more of winter here and have I told you how much I dislike the cold.


Should be exciting to share with you a few new patterns and some other surprises too!

Not even Winter yet

and yet last and this week has been in the single digits here for us. If you are not from Colorado you would think that this is "normal" for us. We are all in shock over here. Snow usually lasts only a couple days on the ground before the sun comes back out to melt it and we are going on over 3+ weeks of ice and snow outside with these frigid temps. I get an F for effort in the outdoor decoration department this year from my oldest daughter. I am too darn lazy and hate the cold to go out and put any lights up, call me scrooge.


We did finally get around to finishing up the tree :) All 12' of glory! So much work for such a short time and I wonder what I was thinking when we bought this huge tree a few years back?

Slowly working on the Spring collection here. I can't lie and I am certainly enjoying this little break in between and getting caught up on things here at home. But I know I need to get a move on. Have some new designs coming that I am very excited about and I know you will love!

If you have any last minute shopping or some pieces from the site you missed out on I am offering Free Shipping this week. Use code FreeShip at checkout.

Friday Special

Enjoying some time off with the family and decorating of course. I have never ending boxes of decorations and only manage to put 1/4 of them up. It seems like so much work for such little time and I am sure my family does not want them up through Valentines Day so I will spare them. 3 weeks until Christmas and we have barely even started our shopping and I still need to make a list.

I wanted to offer a little something special to blog readers :) One of the Holiday sets off of the website for $58 shipped! Noel Bow Dress and your choice of cranberry or olive velours along shipped to you. The set is super sweet and comfy and I promise she will love it! The set retails for $81. Send me an email and I can get this shipped to you 24 hours within payment. Please include the size you would like in notes. Email me if you would like to check sizing before buying

Slowly getting into the swing of Spring here too. Seems like just when I have some time to catch up on my house and other things in life that I get behind so I am working on it as we speak. Some new items I can't wait to share!

I am also going to try and get some handmade goodies done for my girls this year like this reversible crayon apron - isn't is sweet?


I am also going to try and get this done as well and of course it will include pink! Ever notice I overuse the word "try"? I really should commit and omit from using the word "try" but I will save that for my new years resolution.

Monday!

Since when are Monday's so fabulous?? When it is Cyber Monday of course! The one day a year that I actually don't mind it being a Monday!

I have received plenty of emails from some of you that missed out on the Black Friday sale so to make you Monday a bit sweeter today only the entire site is on sale! Everything is on sale at least 20% or more! And just to make it a bit sweeter shipping is only $5 - yep $5 for your entire order! US and Canada included (email me for international code if not in Canada)

Happy Monday!

SALE

Just thought I would let you know, Black Friday sale does not start until Midnight MST. I am working on adding things and getting it all ready.

Hope you had a great Holiday!

Sale

In the midst of life and work I missed the 1 yr anniversary sale. So I thought why not make it extra special and share a great deal on all remaining Fall and Holiday.

Sale starts Friday and does not apply to past purchases thank you.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Update

Just as you have asked me to I just finished updating the site with current stock and I have some favorites in stock too!

Let me know if you have any questions :)
-Amy

Happiness

Back orders are in - yay! I worked so hard to get as many as I could to the post office yesterday, just over half. The remaining orders will go out tomorrow, so everyone's goodies will be 100% shipped! You will not necessarily get an email so don't panic if you did not get a notice. It is much faster for me sometimes to do it that way.

Can you believe the Holidays are upon us? I can't and Black Friday too! Last year we took both girls out with us, big mistake. I think I plan on going by myself this year those crowds are brutal and toting a stroller around makes it even harder.

Speaking of Black Friday, stay tuned for a special announcement!!

I am also busy planning Spring and have so many ideas in my head and one little "dainty one" that I promise you and your daughters will love!

I also added some new very limited pretties to the site so be sure to take a peak!

Pie anyone?

Oh I loved reading all your comments. It really us nice to see what so many of us are thankful for even if it is peace and chocolate! I am an indecisive person and could not choose, how can I choose 1? I so need a helper! Then I can load the "guilt pick" off on to her. So this time I cheated and used the old reliable random number generator and came up with

32

Random numbers generated Nov 17 2009 at 20:2:54 by www.psychicscience.org.

Sandi you are number 32 so send me an email so I can get you the hook up :)

Not much else going on here. Doing tons of housework to play catch up from the past few months and the local charities will love me for it. I finally gave up on the fact that some of my favorite jeans "pre pregnancy" would just never work. I am much to "hippy" and no matter what I do it comes down to genetics, darn science! But I must say how wonderful it feels to clean the closets! So refreshing and new and I can actually see what I have in there. And since I did mine why not the hubs and the girls and so on and now I have piles everywhere.

Back to business :) back order items will be in most likely Friday which makes me a busy bee Friday night and early Saturday. I will do everything I can to get them to you asap with turkey day coming. Same goes for tees for those of you that got back to me.

Off to find a fabulous pie recipe. I don't bake and have never baked a pie a day in my life - at least a fresh one does frozen count? My family is having a pie baking contest on the night before thanksgiving and they don't mess around, they are gourmet all the way Julia Childs and all. If you have a great one to share please do as I need all the help I can get!

Thankful for Thursdays

Aren't Thursdays great? You are more than half way done with the week and there is a light at the end of that tunnel, a light called Friday ahhh.

I plan on having the site updated with current items sometime next week and I will post here first.

Backorder items will be in end of next week and I will do my best to get them to you as fast as possible along with your t-shirts.

Today I am thankful for frozen cookie dough in my freezer, clean sheets, box wine, pre-purchased tickets to New Moon and dinner out with my family tonight. Life is good.

What are you thankful for today? Let me know and I'll pick a winner!

No Name

Sorry for the lame blog title but my creative juices today are on standby. I am looking forward to a slightly slower pace over here and of course my girls getting better. Man they just got over the crud #1 and a few days later here came crud #2 and we finally got hooked up with some antibiotics, the pink kind their favorite!

Things seem like they should have slowed down a bit but I have been busy with emails and such. If you are wondering were your tee is if you were affected by the website oversold items then they are coming soon. I am having them special made and once I get them in they will ship.

As for me I plan on getting the inventory on the site updated but I have a slew of size exchanges coming in and once the majority of those are addressed I will update the site. My guess would be early next week.

I also have a pretty pile of one of a kind knot tops, dresses and circle skirts from the fair that I want to share and not quite sure where I want to put them yet. I am not sure if the blog is the right place or etsy which only complicates things. So once I get photos I will be able to share.


I have received a few photos, please keep em coming. It just makes me smile to get a nice email with a cute little girl in it wearing LMN. Totally makes my day!

Finished

We are finished as of a few seconds ago, Yay! I so could not have done it this fast without Stephanie's help .

Everything has shipped unless it is a backorder item and I will keep you all up to date on the status of those items.

And to think the kids are sick again, yes I can't take it any more! Ack! Either it is the same crud back again or something entirely new and the kids have given Stephanie and Miss J something to take back with them, how nice of me!

I do have Noel Holiday items left and some Fall so I will update the site over the weekend.
-Amy

Let the fun begin

Just a minute to let you all know shipping will start today. I am guessing it will take me about 5 days to get all of the in-stock orders shipped. All orders ship via US Postal Priority and take 2-3 days unless you are not in the US.

I wish it would be faster but as most of you know it is "me" doing all of the sorting, folding and shipping so it will take a few days.

Thank you!
Amy

Exhaling over here...

Refunds and all change adjustments are finished.

If you received an initial email from me and do not think you have received your refund yet please contact me and do so in a timely manner.

I have received a few emails regarding PayPal fees. Refunds are generated off of PayPal and no fees are taken out as long as they are refunded within 60 days or original payment. IF you paid by cc via PayPal then it will go back on your card. Refunds can take up to 5 days.

Appreciate all the kind words and patience in this process, wow I do not want to deal with this again.

Now I can begin to ship orders. Once they have shipped I will have a list of what is left and post here to the blog and anyone that is interested can email me directly as I do not plan on using the site anytime soon for any high traffic sales.

What is up on the site now is accurate and you should have no issues shopping it if you choose to do so.

Backorderd items will ship once I get them and I will post here keep you updated.

On another note, we got hit with a major snow storm and got 25" of snow total with it still snowing a bit. My girls are still on the mend and not happy that they can't go out and play. Major cabin fever going on here with that flu that hit the kids and now snow so I will be happy to get out of the house soon. I scored and had some neighborhood kids do all our shoveling for a $1 each but we gave them $15 to share. What can you even buy for a buck anymore?

-Amy

When it rains it pours

That is so the truth for me this week - what gives?

This has been one trying week. My girls are both ill with the flu, not positive on what kind because the dr. office does not want to see them unless they are "extreme" by means of a temp of over 105, listless or dehydrated so I have no way of knowing if it really is H1N1 or not so best I can do is give extra snuggle time.

Last night we were hit with a storm which has since turned into a blizzard and I had no internet access until this afternoon and I am praying we don't loose power. If for some reason you have not heard from me yet and are still waiting then it is possible I lost power or will hopefully get to you tonight.

I am about 60% done issuing refunds and adjusting orders. Your patience has been appreciated and I am almost done and then the fun part begins of getting the orders to you.
Thank you
- Amy

Refunds

I have sent some refunds as of tonight but will continue to send the rest tomorrow. It is taking a bit longer than I thought but I have a lot of requests and questions to answer for each of you so please be patient I have not forgotten you. I will get to everyone as soon as I can.

Good night

PC Overload

I have worked diligently all day today to get emails out. All emails have been sent and now I am going to go through each response and apply changes to your order accordingly. Please be patient this is a process I need to be sure I handle correctly.

If you did not receive an email then your order was not affected.

If you received an email and have not responded yet, please do so soon as the run for backordered items will begin shortly so I need your response.

Thank you

Momma always told me some days are better than others

I’d like to send out a big thank you to all of you for your love and support.

Today as I was preparing to pack and ship I came across an unfortunate event. The shopping cart on the website “oversold” certain items that I did not have in stock. I personally cannot explain the situation so I am including the email that was sent to me by Merchant Moms my webhost:

What happened was that there were more people adding items to the cart at the same time, and since they were simply added to the cart - not processed payments yet -- they didn't decrease inventory.

For example (and this is only that);

Customer A - shops around, puts items in the cart, continues browsing
Customer B - puts the same item in her cart
Customer C - puts the item in the cart *and* checks out
Customer A & B check out with what they already had in their cart (even if customer C already beat them to it).

This is not something we dealt with with the Fall release. The site had over 7,100 site visits on Friday alone. I would like to send my sincerest and deepest apologies to each of you that is affected by this problem. I have been working hard to resolve the issue. Some of the items that were oversold can be included in the new production run with the backordered items that were sold on the site.

Items that were oversold are being prioritized by order number.

If you do not receive an email from me then your order is fine and there are no issues. If you receive one from me please respond in a timely manner so I can get moving on what needs to be done whether it is a refund or adding you to the back order list. I should have all emails sent out to those that are affected by 10 pm tomorrow night (Tuesday).

During this process, I will be unable to answer emails as I will be focusing on the issue at hand.

Once I have resolved this issue, shipping will resume. I need to be sure I have all my ducks in a row before I start to ship orders out. I would guess I can resume shipping later this week. Thank you for your patience and understanding. This is something that was completely out of my control and I had am just sick over the entire situation. I am so sorry.

- Amy

Olympics

Ok so I think I am going for the gold medal in most blog posts in one day. For me this is the easiest way to notify you all of any updates or changes.

I am going to have more or the Sugarplum and Holly Lap Dresses made along with the Cream Brulee Leggings. Estimated shipping time of 4 weeks.

The Winter Blush is not going to be available for back order and either will any of the Fall items.

Thank you

Oh Goodness!

I have to say thank you all so very much for your support. I am blessed and so happy to share my designs with each of you and your little ones.

I have received some emails with some interest on the Holiday Lap Dresses. What has sold will ship out soon. I am thinking about taking orders on these since so many of you missed out. If you are interested in either of the dresses you can post here or send me an email. Shipping would be approx 4 weeks so just in time for the Holidays. If I have enough interest I will add them to the site and get rolling. If you order in addition to these I will ship the other in-stock items and then ship the dresses when they are ready

Ready to go

I had a couple emails asking about the shopping cart and shipping. Once something is in your cart it is not necessarily yours until you check out. However, please be aware that I will be unable to refund shipping if you have more than one order. I apologize I can't go through every order to refund shipping charges. Being one person here I have to keep my time open to ship your orders and answer questions.

Also did you see the cute matching shoes that match the Holiday line? So cute and my girls love them1 I know I am not in the shoe business but when it comes to matching up for the Holidays I can say that this may make it a little bit easier.

Happy Friday and most importantly Happy shopping :)

Midnight Oil

Ok so in the essence of not torturing anyone and sleep depriving you too (our kids have that job already) I have decided to wait until tomorrow morning. I just cannot get these images to load correctly for me and I am not a computer whiz, that is for you left brain types. I so wish I had an internet whiz with me now because I am worn.

So I will continue to work on it and I wont play any "tricks or treats" on you and go live in the middle of the night, that just would not be fair. So my best guess would be sometime tomorrow morning around 9am MST so you Pacific Coasters can sleep in a bit and the East Coasters can get their morning errands finished.

I also plan on answering everyone's emails at some point but I am so swamped right now that I have to apologize if I do not get an answer back to you before you order. I did update the sizing chart and it includes pants and lap dresses now too so hope that helps.

I have the cutest women's tees and since I did not get them photographed my attempts at doing so is terrible. I am a sucker for tees, any style long or short. I am not a shoe nor a purse girl either. I so wanted to share them with you but the silver logo on the front does not photograph so if you are interested in seeing a not so perfect photo email me and at some point next week I can send one to you - they are so comfy too!

One last note on a few questions that have been asked. The cranberry velour ruffles are not the same as last years. Last years were crimson red and these are a true cranberry wine color so not to confuse :)

Go to bed nighty night.

Patience

thank you all for your patience I am working hard on an image problem with the site. I want them larger and they are too small to show the pretties. Thank you all for your emails and calls and I promise I will respond but most likely not until after the launch

thanks

Tick Tock

Ok so I am trying to get through all of this today but things just have to be "so" and I need to update the sizing information, add all the inventory now that it is counted and still load up some photos. They are appearing too small and I want them a bit larger.

So for now just an update to let you know at best it would be tonight but no promises because if I loose my patience and it takes longer it will be tomorrow.

Thank you !

The Waiting Game

Ok so I can defiantly tell you the site wont be live tonight. Tomorrow is possible but tonight just isn't in the cards. I am dealing with trying to resize the gallery photos so you can view the pretties a little larger. So go ahead and run your errands and have dinner with the kiddos, as I seem to rarely do that anymore and they will grow up and move out right before your very eyes if you don't sit still every once in a while.

I thought I should touch on one little subject since I have gotten a few emails :). Some of these items are in very limited quantities. I really do wish I had more but they were not intended to be a part of the Holiday line and were intended for the fair, I just got them a little late so now I can share them with you online. Some of the items in very limited quantities are the blue lap dresses, the blush dress, silver velour ruffles and the all dolled up top in espresso. A couple of these items also only come in sizes 2 4 6 so maybe this will help a bit with your decision making.

I also wanted to let you all know I am adding a sizing section to the top of the site. So if you are new and have not ordered before you can find some simple sizing information her (still in the works).
And a special shout out to Monika and Leah who did my photographs for the Noel line. I am always amazed by how beautiful the photos can be. I just do not have the patience to do them myself so I am blessed to be surrounded by such talent. Thank you ladies!

"Noel" in the Rockies

So today seems fitting as it is snowing outside here in the Rockies, third time so far this season. It seriously is a winter wonderland here and I still have not taken my girls for our annual pumpkin patch visit. Our local Safeway might have to be the substitute this year and I can top it off with a visit to Dairy Queen to make it all good.

Holiday collection "Noel" will be available this week. I am working hard on updating the site and I will post here before I go live so be sure to check back. My guess is sometime late late tonight or by Friday. I know I am sorry I wish I could be more specific but working from home with unpredictable interruptions is a hard thing to predict. And I still have my 7 year old's poodle skirt to finish up - yep she loves me.

Everything is here in my hands and will begin to ship on Monday :) including the remaining Mish Mash pieces which I think you will be happy to see. I also have some very limited quantity lap dresses in the blue and a blush pink that will be online and modeled by my lovely class act mannequin, so please forgive me.

Egg Rolls anyone?

I can honestly say my feet have never ached more in my life. Not when I wore the "pretty" shoes on my wedding day and not even when I walked miles when I was pregnant with my first and attempting to get labor started. Wow. I seriously need some spa love this week.



The fair was great, my first with Loves Me Not "fair" and a great experience. Wonder what they ever put in food at these fairs? They don't let you bring food in and I certainly am a terrible liar because the front security caught me with my bag of McDonald's breakfast. My stomach is paying for it and I blame it on the veggie egg rolls.

For the contest, thank you for your wonderful stories. I love the holidays and each and everyone of your stories was a blessing to read. Took me back to my childhood. I used a random number generator and winner is post Number 26 "Tracy". Send me an email with your size and I will send you some goodness :)

As for the Holiday collection, I will have it up this week. I cant give you an exact day, but I will give you fair notice here. As soon as I have all of the photos ready to go and all of my sorting and counting done the site will be updated. I will also be adding what I have left of the Fall line Mish Mash. I have several, more than several, one of a kind pieces that I made for the fair that are left and not sure where I will share them yet - the site or etsy, but I will let you know.
For now I will share a couple sneak peeks ....

Winter is here!

Well I took some time today to update the blog a bit and give it a Holiday twist :) I also had to add my own very favorite classic holiday music - I love holiday tunes from the "olden days" as I call them and just cant seem to get enough of them!

I am busy getting ready for the fair later this week and it runs from Thursday to Sunday so if you live in the area and stop by come say hi we will be in booth 104 main building.

Speaking of Christmas, can someone tell me what happened to my Fall? My trees in the yard are completely barren and void of all the colorful leaves. In fact they had barely just started to change and boom we were hit with a cold snap that froze them all off and now the trees are bare. Luckily I had enough brains to pull the tomatoes off of the plant and now I will attempt to ripen them in the house - I need all the luck I can get as I am not a gardener.

My grand plan in the scheme of things is to have the still unnamed Holiday collection up and ready to go next week - yes next week along with the remaining Mish Mash items. I have a few ideas in my head and I am sure by the end of tonight I will be inspired. Hope to be able to post some sneak peeks this weekend!

Oh and I am feeling like I would love to do a giveaway and I really have no reason but just for fun! So since I now have Holiday music on here, leave me a comment with your favorite Holiday memory and I will choose a lucky winner later this week.

Thumbs up!

My little Savvy girl giving us a big thumbs up from the field amidst all the drama. Yes drama. Have you ever been to a soccer game with 3-4 yr old boys and girls? It is quit entertaining, and not only because my daughter is playing on the team. There is always a few kids on both teams that are just a tad cranky and it is hilarious to see how they react on the field when the ball is kicked the other way or the other team scores.

Wow what a month September was and we are already a week into October. Seriously at this rate Christmas will be here in no time!

All of you have gotten your orders by now and I appreciate all the sweet emails with photos, I just love to see them!

Working like a mad woman to get ready for the fair next week - I remember saying I had 8 weeks to go and somehow the 8 became 1 and now I am in panic mode. I have a fancy new cutter now so I can cut a whole bunch of goodness at one time and my goal is to avoid being cut myself as anyone who knows me knows I am clumsy.

I hope to have Holiday ready to go by the end of the month and it will all be ready to ship, no waiting time on production. I also switched manufacturers for the Holiday line and the quality is superb! I only have one little sneak to share with you now and it really isn't much but it gives you an idea....lots of deep reds, olive greens, creams and rich browns and even some velvet!

The fair will have items from the Mish Mash line, some one of a kinds and what I have of the Holiday line as well. Anything that I have after the show will go up online around the 19th this month so be sure to check back!

Doing the Happy Dance

Yep, that's me. So happy to say I am officially done sending out all of your pretties as of yesterday. Everything is in your hands or in the mail. Took a bit longer for me than I had predicted but now I know for next time right?

Holiday is in the works and also getting busy for the local fair here I am doing. Send me an email if you plan on attending and I can send you a flyer to save you a whole whopping $2 on your admission...courtesy of the Jr. League.

All remaining Mish Mash inventory will be available for purchase after the fair on my website around the 19th of October, and there just may be some other goodies you have not seen before too :)I have to say that I adore all of the wonderful photos I have been greeted with in my in-box. Can a designer be so lucky to have such cute shoppers? I am one lucky gal!