Warning: Proceed with Caution.

This is the phrase for which I feel should precede all aspects of raising a child. Coming to you live right now from my SON's bedroom floor; here I am. You see; we recently switched Owen's bed from the lovely blessed crib (another one of those awesome things that I didn't really realize was awesome until it no longer exists) to his "big boy" toddler bed, which allows him to enter and exit the bed as he so desires. Now we made the change from the crib to toddler bed to prevent neck injuries and other bodily harm that he may cause to himself because he had become able to escape the crib via Tony Hawke moves. Now; as I sit and write to you from his bedroom floor, Owen has decided that he would like nothing to do with his bed, room, expensive Melissa and Doug over-priced lovely toys but would rather lay in the middle of my bedroom floor, looking up at the ceiling fan. Sleep? No. Totally overrated apparently. On top of that, I am locked out of my office because when the decision to make this bed change took place, it was also necessary (according to my husband, who is probably 100% correct in his thoughts...) that we lock from the inside-out all other rooms in the house and enter them by using a special "key" (made out of a wire coat hanger) that can "easily" be used to unlock the door by any patient adult. I would re-write that last sentence for emphasis but I do not have the patience to do so. This special key, is located approximately 2 feet above my head on the top of the door frame; or it was until when attempting to grab it (this involves taking an actual running jump for me--or a ladder, which I'm just now realizing would have been a better solution), knocked it down and it landed underneath the door of the office. It was truly an epic move to be noted in history. So again, I as I sit here on Owen's floor, I warn you: proceed with caution and have a fantastic day.

Working outside my office today!

What a wonderful Saturday :). Although I am working, which is fine because I love it dearly; I have chosen to take my work to a new location--spice things up a bit and enjoy the outdoors while also catching up on orders. Check out this new outfit I put together last night: http://www.thetickledtutu.com/item_172/Tickled-Tutu-Towering-Birthday-Cake-Outfit.htm So far, one of my faves! I love pink and brown, always have and probably always will. It's a crying shame that for my 28th birthday I could probably not pull this outfit off on my own... Anyhow, just checking in and saying "hi!" and wish you all a VERY enjoyable Saturday! xoxo TT

What a difference a good night's sleep makes!

Hello friends! Do I sound particularly cheerful today??? Well I SURE HOPE I DO! I just had the most amazing night's sleep that I have had in months. And yes, I am going to do some bragging about it right now; so if you are struggling with sleeping lately and will hate me for being excited for blogging about such topic, close your browser now. Moving on. Holy smokes. So for the last few weeks I've been averaging around 4-5 hours of sleep per night (I use the term "night" very liberally as I have been falling asleep around 3am. This not only makes for a very tired Mommy the following day, but a very grouchy wife as well and quite frankly, a less productive person in general which goes against everything I stand for. So; kind of like I gave into the blogging world; last night I gave in to SLEEP HYNOSIS. Insert LOL here. Now I will not go much further because I have a full day ahead of me that is about to completely rock my world (and hopefully yours too), but I slept for 8.5 hours and I remember the first 2 minutes of my hypnosis "therapy". Maybe not even that much to tell you the truth, because I didn't get very far in Big Brother After Dark (another reason why perhaps I don't go to bed until the wee hours of the morning) and I NEVER give up on that amazing live show. So anyway, that's that--I'm feelin' good, have a list of plans for the day, and I should probably also mention that I am doing my makeup right now via my computer webcam. Which is set on the mirrored setting and I don't know how exactly to fix that--so I probably won't end up looking as great today as I feel, but who cares!

A few notes of important business: TICKLED TUMBLERS ARE GOING UP FOR SALE TODAY!!!! As of what time exactly, I will get back to you when I find out this exciting news myself; but woohooo! I'm stoked and I hope you all are too. Have a fantastic day and I will be back later for more news and perhaps a photo or two of how my webcam makeup job turned out.

:) Peace out.

Another week goes by at The Tickled Tutu!

So this week has been quite interesting in many ways. It has--as I find most weeks do--had it's ups and downs (a serious down being when I walked into Owen's room to find that he had removed his "big boy pull-ups" because according to my 2 year old, he didn't like poop on his butt), but today I find myself pretty exhausted and it's only 3:10pm! Ah, such is life I suppose. So let us turn our focus to more positive things that have taken place this week. The Tickled Tutu has welcomed to our site, InStitches With Jes merchandise! Originally, back in 2009 when I incorporated The Tickled Tutu, I was determined that I was NOT going to be one of those e-commerce sites that has tons of merchandise for sale simply because most of it is made by people other than the person who hosts the site. I wasn't into that one bit. And to clarify; I'm still not! However, an exception, if you will, has been made for a very dear friend who has talent beyond belief and who I strongly believe is going to make a HUGE name for herself. I am simply providing the outlet (via www.thetickledtutu.com) for her to sell her merchandise so she can show herself how truly talented she is. Currently, Jessica and I are working (VERY HARD MIGHT I ADD) to get our licensing completed to reveal our (technically HER) merchandise. I'm so super excited for this day to come that I can hardly stand it! Trust me, when it comes, you will know. Everyone will know. I will shout from the roof top (and I have a VERY LOUD VOICE when needed) to inform everyone that InStitches is open and ready for business! In the meantime, you should check out Jessica's Etsy shop: institcheswithjes.etsy.com. Although only a few products have been listed as of yet, this is a shop you will want to follow and trust me, you will want the merchandise as well. (Important: keep husband away from computer when making purchase--not because the products are expensive, but kind like Lays Potato Chips-you can't eat just one if you know what I mean.)

Onto Tickled Tutu business; I have found that the months of April-November are typically my busy months, and that has stayed true this year as well. April begins what I call summer "Birthday Season" (which I love, by the way) and Birthday Season tends to extend through mid-August. Now. "Wedding Season" could consume an entire hour of your time if I were to allow myself to go into full detail so I will save you from that amount of reading. Wedding Season begins at all times of the year, and ends,...well never and overlaps with,...well everything. Which is also awesome. I honestly adore making Tickled Tutu dresses for precious flower girls; it's almost a way for me to look back at my wedding and remember how much fun the whole process was. But I digress. Wedding Season this year has taken The Tickled Tutu by storm. So far in the last 30 days, I have made 17 flower girl dresses--all custom of course, because that's how we roll around here--for girls ages 12 months up to age 6. To say the least, I am in desperate need of a manicure; perhaps need to see any eye doctor to figure out why the needles keep hitting my fingers instead of the intended materials and then...I need a VERY LARGE MOJITO. I wouldn't say that I am a perfectionist--I try to be, but that failed so there; but when it comes to making dresses for weddings, I tend to hold the bar (my bar) for myself, about as high as a commercial airliner flies. My most recent client ordered two custom (what should have been relatively easy to complete) flower girl dresses for the most adorable little princesses and...here we go I am going to admit it...I started over in my process of designing and making these dresses a total of 7 times. SEVEN TIMES. It was like I was back to my novice years. Nothing went right (in my mind anyway), the slip wasn't photographing well (in my opinion) and 7 entire times, I started the project over again. Lessons have been learned--I do believe I cried more during the making of these two dresses than when I first saw My Girl in theaters when I was about 8 years old-- and I will leave it at that. The dresses are now complete--and that's that in a not-so-nutshell. This evening I have 4 orders to fill that were placed via thetickledtutu.com (my customers really honesty rock, I swear they are the best in the entire world) and then; deep breath, I might be searching for the perfect mojito. All suggestions welcome regarding where to find such beverage. At the end of the day, it's totally worth it. Every single bit of it. Love it love it love. And that's me, signing off for now. Peace out readers!