Guess what...I'm back! A whole month later!

Well hello there friends! That is if I haven't lost all of you in the last month for which my blogging efforts have been non-existent. Now, coming from the girl who hates more than many things--excuses, I really don't want this be considered an "excuse" or anything silly like that as to why my posts have been MIA--but when I say A LOT has gone down in the last month, that is NOT an exaggeration.

 HOWEVER, as I do have 2 blogs, one which is more about my personal life (and if you are interested in entering the land of craziness, silliness, and in my opinion quite entertaining to read if I weren't me..then you are more than welcome to hop right over to: Happy Cakes and Cheese Pockets; but don't say I didn't warn you) and one blog (which would be the one that you're reading now) is supposed to be focused more on what's shakin' at The Tickled Tutu--there are at times obviously overlaps as I am only one person living one life, so some of the funny times, are too good not to be shared in two locations. Anyway, moving forward; let's go back to my last post and move forward from there, shall we? Yes? Great! Hold on to your seats fun friends, here we go!

The Tickled Tutu, as I've mentioned before has times throughout the year where I tend to not have finger tips due to the high volume of merchandise being purchased, made, packaged and mailed and then those times in which I just stare at my display of tulle and wonder, "will toady be the last day of my enjoyment being a business owner?" Well needless to say, I haven't had even the TIME to sit and wonder ANYTHING more than, "Did I run out of elastic AGAIN! How in the world has this happened again?!? #*T& KRISTEN GET IT TOGETHER!!" Thank the good Lord above that Wal-Mart is a wonderful (cringe--that truly hurt in a physical way to call Wal-Mart "wonderful") place that is open 24/7, and saves me from lack-of-elastic crises often. However, as with all night time Wal-Mart outings, you must review the "Going to Wal-Mart after the hours of 10pm alone checklist", and if every single box cannot be checked, then consider the Wal-Mart trip on hold until daytime, in which other more preferable stores are open, so problem solved, wonderful and great. A sneak peak into the checklist: 1. Do you have enough gas in the car to outlast a high speed chase from a man that spoke to you in Walmart and decided to follow you outside to the parking lot and ask if you want to join him at the local bar, to which you reply no thank you strange weirdo. (I wish I was joking you guys, but I'm not. This really did happen..Twice.) 2. Have you taken off your cute outfit of the day and put on the old sweatpants, perhaps add a layered look with the top layer reflecting a stain of whatever your 2 year old threw at you on the particular day--this tends to deter anyone who may think talking to you would be a good idea. 3. Have enough strength in you to be able to hold many conversations with yourself while in Wal-Mart, which will usually clear out an isle and you will have the freedom to look at whatever merchandise you need in peace and quite. And those are just the top 3 bullet points on the list of 12 that need to be reviewed prior to a late night trip to the big WM.

But sometimes, and actually often, I have clients experiencing a tutu crisis in which they need a outfit in 2 days and they might as well live in Africa because rarely do my local clients find themselves in this timing predicament (way to go Denver-Metro TT lovers!). 

So within the last month, I have counted 6 customers purchasing merchandise in which the Africa situation applies. Well let me tell you; this tutu maker is always up to a challenge and I'll be damned the mission is not complete within the given time period. End of story. Come hell or high water, all 6 outfits were not only successfully delivered within the impossible time period given, but were probably some of the cutest creations to have been made by The Tickled Tutu as of yet! *patting my own back, yes I know.

Anyhow, as I mentioned before, you are more than welcome to check out my personal blog if you're interested in the very long list of other things going on in my personal life (which inevitably overlaps with The Tickled Tutu) that have been interesting to work with and around while trying to maintain a profitable business and enjoy getting to know additional and new Tickled Tutu customers. As of now, all Christmas orders from The Tickled Tutu have come to a cease; as my family and I will be leaving in just a matter of a few short days for the sunny beaches in Mexico. Although we will be returning prior to Santa's arrival, there simply won't be enough time to create and ship Christmas merchandise to anyone and have the package reach its destination in time for Christmas Day. A HUGE thank you to everyone who purchased Christmas TT merchandise this year; we had a successful December thanks to all of you and especially to our returning customers--wow, A HUGE thank you to you guys as well!! Nothing feels better than having a previous customer come back for more; it's like getting a high five from...well..hmmm....someone really cool in business :).

One very fun Tickled Tutu Customer/Model! : )
Proving that tutus are not only for kids!

Merry Christmas to you all and The Tickled Tutu will be back and better than ever by Wednesday, December 21st. (And yes, that is prior to Christmas, but like I said--we will not be accepting any further Christmas orders until next year!)

The above client's wonderful daughter and awesome Tickled Tutu model!!

XOXOXO

TT

Cutest Kid in a Halloween Costume Contest!

Hi Friends! I hope everyone is as excited for the weekend as I am! It's been a long but fun week here at The Tickled Tutu. With Halloween quickly approaching, I have found myself staying up far too late at night filling orders that have been so extremely fun to create. Since I don't have much time to write today, I just wanted to give you a heads up about the new contest being held by The Tickled Tutu: Cutest Kid in a Halloween Costume!

The contest has just begun and will end on Sunday evening. To participate, simply post a photo on The Tickled Tutu's facebook page (www.facebook.com/tickledtutu) of your cutie in his/her Halloween costume and send your friends/family over to vote for photo! The photo receiving the most votes by Sunday evening at 7pm MST will win a gift certificate worth $50 in Tickled Tutu merchandise. It's that easy! So hop to it and post those photos!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend; enjoy your friends and family!

FYI: All orders placed within the last week will be shipped out by tomorrow (Saturday, Oct. 22nd) with the exception of Christine B, of which will ship out on Monday, October 24th. Take care everyone!

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!