Outtakes!

I use my two gorgeous girls to model my dresses. The photoshoots usually are done pretty spur of the moment when I've finished a new design and I'm eager to get some pictures and a new listing up ASAP. I have a few studio lights I set up in the girls' room. I'll push their cribs out into the hall or out of the way and try to have them stand in front of the armoire in their room. I have the camera on a tripod, so I try to stay casual and chat with them while I secretly snap 500 shots. I've been able to get some really amazing shots this way.

This is not a post about those.

These are the shots that don't make it to the listings. The gag reel, if you will. Here are some of my favorite outtakes from past photoshoots. (I am in no way a professional photographer!)

The Shoving Match

Frightfully Offended

Airborn!

Oh the Humanity!

What's that smell?

Slapstick

Scifi

A Chorus Line

Showgirls

Modern Dance?

???

Vogue

Flying saucer spotting? (big brother crashed the shoot)

Abducted by aliens?

Shenanigans

Sometimes, while I'm sewing, my kids play wonderfully together. Sometimes.

Other times they play wonderfully while working together to destroy re-arrange the house.

This is their misguided attempt at musical chairs. They apparently understood the game had something to do with chairs being back to back and decided to pair up every chair in the vicinity. Even their doll strollers were included. I counted seven sets of "musical chairs" here.

Their other favorite rearrange-the-chairs game is to make a train outside of my door.

Let's just pretend this is the extent of their shenanigans while I work. I generally am not quick to grab the camera to document the let's-dump-out-everything-we-own-and-make-the-house-look-like-a-toys-r-us-tornado-blew-though game.

A hint for the new designs coming soon....

• Fish bowl
• 1950's Nautical
• Fourth of July/Americana
• Lotus blossom

Squeee!! I can't wait to get started on these!!

Better get back to working on my current orders first.....

New Direction

After what has been a very busy start to this year, I'm having to reevaluate how I run my shop. I am certainly grateful for the recent success and flood of sales. However, I am just one person. One person, with three needy small children at home. I do want my shop to grow. For me, this is not just a hobby or something I do for fun. I want my business to succeed. I just need a more sustainable way to go about that. I can't sew fast enough to keep on top of the orders and having that backlog of 30+ dresses to make weighs on me greatly. The other issue with this backlog is that there is no time to create anything new. I thrive on design. The part of this that I enjoy, the part that gets me excited and truly fulfilled, is the design part.

After a couple of illnesses swept through my house, the backlog of orders really became an issue. Thankfully, most of my customers have been incredibly patient and understanding, but I hate to make them  wait even longer than they were expecting.

I put the shop on hiatus for what was supposed to be two weeks to get caught up. During that hiatus, the family got sick again. So, I extended it another week. This made me do a lot of thinking, trying  to come up with a way to stay on top of new orders and be able to design new things.

I have decided that I am going to transition the shop to primarily ready-to-ship items. I will have a small section of made to order dresses for my best sellers that are very time consuming to make, like this one:

I plan to start making the ready to ship as soon as I finish my last few orders. I sketched out several new designs that I'm really excited about! The plan is to make 4 of each design in sizes 2T, 3T, 4T, and 5T as those four sizes made up about 95% of my sales this year. Smaller or larger sizes can be made by special request if the fabric is still available. Each week I will debut a new dress in the shop, with 4 ready to ship! Woohoo! I'll be blogging throughout the week with sneak peaks of what's to come, so you can get a jump on the new designs. I can't wait to get started!! (But first I need to finish up the 14 other dresses on my "to-make" list)

Such a weight off my shoulders! Now I'll be able to create new things, spend more quality time with my precious children, and even take some time off without feeling guilty!

Big Changes Ahead!

Stay tuned.....