Exhale.....

Today has been a big day! I met with the manufacturer today and handed off everything :) I have spent hours upon hours of drafting, tracing and preparing to get all of your orders ready. Now we wait. My dear husband Steve hand cut all 70 sheets of posterboard himself, I owe him huge!

I will still be making about 30% of the items on my own such as the twirl skirts, tanks, headbands, women's items and tank dresses. So if you have one of these on your order not including something else then I will be shipping them out as I complete them. The rest of the orders that have multiple items will ship once I get everything back from the manufacturer in approx. 3 weeks time.

I am all about sharing the love. I believe in the motto "What goes around comes around" and I am so grateful for such wonderful friends that I would like to give a little bit back. So with Mother's Day coming up I would like to give away a custom designed flirty skirt, made by moi, in my choice of fabrics. Just post here and the number generator will choose who wins. In addition, I know there are others out there not as fortunate as some of us in today's economy. So, if you know of another Mother who could use a little inspiration or pat on the back please shoot me an email to lovesmenot@comcast.net with a little bit about her. We will choose one to send a custom made skirt to and be sure that you can get her measurements too if she is chosen. Winners will be announced Saturday, May 2.

On the subject of sharing the love, can Mother Nature please send some my way? This is what I woke up to again on Monday morning. It is almost May and we are still dealing with snow. Every time I put the boots away, they get drug back out again.

I so need to scrub the heck out of my house. I have put the cleaning and laundry on hold until I had everything ready for today and trust me it needs it bad!

Look Ma, No Training Wheels

I have been really busy getting ready to have everything to the manufacturer by Monday. I never imagined I would be to this point and how much work it actually is! I need to provide them with a pattern for each style, and each piece of that style in every size - that is a whopper!

I have been tracing, grading, adding and subtracting almost non-stop for the past two days and I seriously think I may have lost some brain cells...certainly nothing that a good bottle of wine can't fix I hope!

Tonight was a nice break from my repetitive madness. My husband brought home a wonderful crab leg dinner and flowers :) My 6 year old reached a mile stone and learned how to ride her bike without the training wheels. She was ecstatic and Dad was a wonderful teacher - he has more patience than me :)

Ms. S had to throw on her boots as we watched big sister show off her new biking skills. That girl has a serious shoe addiction. She has more shoes in her current size than I own total...and we all know how fast they grow out of their shoes. And why is it that they always want to trudge through the puddles in their good shoes? Murphy's law I guess.

I have turned off shopping in the Etsy store as of today. I need to get my final order numbers together with sizes and colors. After everything is finished and shipped off to all of you, I will consider adding more ready to ship items at that time.

As I grow and learn I too am taking off the training wheels and being as cautious as I can be with the business. I may need that extra push sometimes. I need to be sure that I have on my helmet and knee pads just in case I fall.

Oh and I want to do a giveaway in honor of Mother's Day! I kind of have an idea of what I am going to do but if you have something you would like to share - shoot me an email please!

Being Productive

Yep that is my theme lately. I am trying to multi task as much as I can and balance everything in life so nothing falls through the cracks.

And I should tell you my secret to sewing like a mad woman and being productive. I manage to let all of my laundry pile up until we run out of clothes and then I wash and dry and wash and dry. I can wash/dry with the best of em. Now on the other hand folding and putting it all away, not my area of expertise.

My second secret to being productive lately is visors. I love my visors. I get up, shower, get dressed and makeup but my hair is lacking the usual attention it is used to. So I throw on one of my cute and sporty visors and viola I am ready for my day. I believe I cannot have too many cute visors or vintage T's.

Tonight I caved and went on a bike ride with the family, which was really nice because the sun was out and it was in the 70's here today. Yep all the snow is melting and we are back on track for Spring :)

I am in the final stages of working out the kinks and negotiating a deal with a local manufacturer here and if all goes well I will have everything to them to begin production no later than Monday! What a relief that will be and we will be moving in a positive direction and I will be able to get every one's orders out much much quicker. I do not have a timeline yet so I wont guess, but I would hope to be able to be shipping everything out 2nd week of May.

April is the new December

I need to have a conversation with Mother Nature about this whole weather situation here in Colorado. Snow, sun, rain, hail, tornadoes...what gives? I think this is the 3rd blizzard in the past 4 weeks!! I am so ready for spring and the smell of rain mixed with fresh cut grass. So over this teasing of warmth only to be followed by another slap of sleet and snow.

On another note, check out Ms. Heather's shop, this girl has got some talent! I love pretties to match my girls clothing and she does amazing work and will even do match ups to your favorite clothing.

I also had a logo worked up for the new labels for this season and it all has not quite sank in yet but I think I like it?

As for me? The ball is rolling as you might call it, the wheels are in motion and I am moving forward with big things! As soon as everything is finalized I can share, so for now have a wonderful Friday!

Baby Steps...

This is what I keep telling myself. I am completely surprised and grateful all at once at the success of this latest Summer collection. When I really start to think about it my mind races a mile a minute and I starting asking all different totally unrelated questions out loud to the nearest person in the room or on the phone. Most times it is my husband. Then he tells me "Don't stress or worry, you will do fine." And then I am fine again for the next 30 or so minutes.

I have big plans for Loves Me Not and I would love to share my joy of designing with all of you. In order to do this I have to grow a bit so I can "share the love" so to say. In saying this, I think that when you are developing a new plan, making changes and taking big steps all at once that it needs to be done slowly....hence the "baby steps".

I have met with a couple manufacturers here in the wonderful USA! Isn't it great to be American by the way? I would love to say we are 100% made in the USA and help out people right here in our own country. Nothing is in stone at this point as we are still talking and nothing has been decided but I am pretty certain I will be getting some help in quickly completing the pieces from the Summer line. Some items will still be made my me...baby steps. One can't grow too fast and I still need to be thoroughly involved in the production of my pieces.

If all goes well and we come to an agreement then the items you all recently threw in your carts will be done much sooner than the original 8 week wait - wahoo - can you say it again? I would love nothing more than to get those pretties to you asap! I cannot give a timeline yet but when I know more I will promise to share!

On another note, I know some of you are feverishly checking here and the store for one particular tank dress....well I can say I have a few more to share so check the store for availability.

I am seriously lacking in the sleep department so have a wonderful night!

Who says Mondays are bad?

Today has been a great day, busy, but great! I cannot thank you all enough for your support and positive comments! Wow it is humbling!

As for the store, things are up and in full swing. Yes there are some sell outs that may not be restocked such as the tank dresses and the Lacey May dress. In between answering questions and dealing with the shop, I am trying to see what I can do. I never seem to know what will be the top seller, and I goofed again.

I hope you all had a great Easter! What a busy weekend! After staying up late last night so everything would be ready today I am seriously dragging but the excitement and these malted robin's eggs have me going. Does anyone know how many calories are in each one? Dare I even ask!

I have a big week this week as far as planning goes, so please be patient if I don't get back to you right away.

Happy Easter

Isn't Ms. S just the sweetest? Thank you again Kim for the wonderful photos!

Easter is finally here and my girls are begging me to go dye eggs as I type this so I will be short and sweet!

If you are a facebook fan you can look Loves Me Not up to join the group. I will post sneak peeks, special announcements and sales there. I would also love to see some photos posted of my littlest of fb fans wearing there LMN goodies!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday with your family and friends.

I also wanted to give a shout out to my "peeps" out there who have been a huge support to me and my business (and you know who you are). And I can't forget my husband Steve, who is celebrating a birthday this weekend, none of this would be possible without you.

We are getting closer!

I wanted to update everyone and let you know that after further thinking about the launch date and the upcoming holiday weekend, I am changing the launch date to Monday.

I want to be sure I am available to answer everyone's concerns or questions when the shop opens up and with Good Friday and Easter coming I think that would be a challenge.

When I originally said Friday, I completely forgot that this was Easter weekend, just goes to show you how busy I have been! I still need to shop for Mr. bunny so my girls will wake up to a wonderful Easter morning. Lets just hope that it does not include any snow or rain.

I am still in the works of creating a women's logo tee and getting some help so I can bring you some more goodies. I want to be able to "share the love" so to say with each and everyone of you and if I do not get help then I cannot grow as a business and dress all the little girls out there.

So check back Monday and I will have the shop open and in full swing :) Not sure what time but I will do my best to have it all ready at once sometime in the morning.

Chaos

I am getting closer! I am shooting to have the shop up and ready to go no later than Saturday. I have lots of things going on this week and you know how family life can be unpredictable, so I don't want to break any promises :)

My head keeps spinning and I am coming up with new designs but at some point I have to just stop because sometimes less is more right?

Did someone say Summer?

I opened up some sweet email tonight from Kimberly. I could not be happier! Little Ms. N looks so sweet in her Loves Me Not and she rocks that headband!

Not sure about you but I sure wish Summer were actually coming soon. We have had snow on and off for over a week now and I thought it was safe to put my sweaters away and take out the flip flops.

Just waiting on get organized this week with photos and all to get the site up and ready to shop. I do have a couple other secrets up my sleeve and hope they work out, will share with you soon!