Why no posts, you ask?

Because I've been busy. Seriously, no lie, crazy, terribly, non-stop busy. And, I'm working SO much at this point, that I just can't bring work home (even blogging) with me anymore or I'd be working around the clock. I've officially moved my entire "creative" work station to the store. I had a work counter installed, just like the one I have at home, but now the one at home is bare and a little lonely looking (weird). All of the tulle, and fabric, and scissors, and ribbon, and sparkles, and flowers, and even my sewing machine.....at the store now. So, now I can work on my tutus and sewing projects in between customers and a bazillion other things during my 12 hour stints at the store. Sweet, I say. Having all of that stuff out of the house kind of took a major load off - I don't feel as stressed when I'm at home. I don't always feel like there is a "project beckoning".
I've worked at least five open to closes since the store opened, and haven't had a day off in 10 days. I'm up late doing laundry now because I have tomorrow off completely - no store at all - and I want to spend it with the kids, not doing laundry. I'd rather stay up until 4am doing laundry and only get a few hours of sleep than have to do it tomorrow. To just be honest, I miss my kids. Being that I used to be home full-time, this has been a major switch for all of us. I want to concentrate on them tomorrow, not the mountain of laundry in the basement.
Well, here's the DL on the store. It's been good. We've surpassed our expectations by quite a bit. I placed more orders earlier in the week, so among other things we will have an entire new stock of aden+anais by Wednesday. This time I also ordered some of the towel sets which I think are absolutely adorable. We are also getting in some really cute toddler boy outfits by an Etsy designer - pants with matching long sleeve t's in sizes 2T-4T. And...the birthday hats will be in soon. If you want one of these, I'd pop in quick because I only ordered a few - a few with the number 1 and a few with the number 2. I'm SO excited to get these - they are beyond-words cute. We have more knit hats coming in by two different designers, and more rocker t's. There are a few other possible orders I'm wavering on, and a few more that will be ordered closer to September and October, but I think everyone will be happy with what's coming this week for now. Hopefully these shipments will last longer than a week. :)
So, obviously there is no more stay-at-home-Mama in the house. Jaxie had his first day at daycare a week and a half ago and is...well, not quite adjusted yet. His teacher is amazing - very motherly and loving with the kids which is great. Every time I walk in the room she always has them cuddled around her reading books or doing some sort of art project that they need a LOT of help with. She's very patient. Anywho, he's fine in the car on the way there, fine walking through the main door, fine down the hallway, but the second I put my hand on that doorknob to his classroom the wailing starts. And I'm talking full tears, screaming at the top of his lungs, clinging to me with his legs, and pleading "Mommy" (the worst). However, I did wait outside the door on Friday and noticed that pretty much as soon as I left he stopped, so that made me feel a little better. I don't think he's napping well because he always looks exhausted when I pick him up. And of course, the first thing he does when he gets home is run to the fridge, yank on it and say "ba-ba"? And....I give him one. Oh yes I do. Guilt works wonders.

Five Days.

Five days. Five days. Five days.
Five days to enter in inventory. Five days for final touches. Five days to finish up appliques on the t-shirts. Five days to make 10 more tutus. Five days to figure out our POS system. Five days to finish the fitting rooms. Five days to tie up the window displays. Five days. Five days.
That's just about all that I can't think about. Five days.
I'm doing a segment on KARE 11 tomorrow at 4:00. That makes me feel a little pukey, but I'll take one for the team and get 'er done. It'll be cool to showcase a bunch of our product, not so cool that I have to do TV. TV makes me nervous - way nervous. So, if you want a good laugh, and to see me trip over my words, feel free to watch. It should be a good time.
I'm stoked for the Grand Opening party - but what do I wear? Like I have time to go shopping - with all my free time. I don't even have time to go get a mani/pedi. I feel like I'll have to do my best JUST to look presentable.
I'm also excited to listen to Tim sing - I loooooove his voice. We're also going to have my cousin's husband Travis do some acoustic from 4-5, and he has an amazing voice as well. Lots of good music...
Ninja mode today.

Here we go...

So folks, it starts to get a little crazy now. Our Zulily.com sale is tomorrow. The store is down to the final pieces being put together. Market is one month away, and we are in a mad rush to get everything put together. I'm swamped to say the least.
I've decided not to release any more pictures of the store until we open...I want the rest to be somewhat of a surprise.
I spent last night at the ER with Jaxie - he had a fever of 104.4 most of the day and I couldn't get it down, even with a couple double doses of Tylenol and Motrin. We got home around 2:30am, and I had some work to finish up, so I didn't get to bed until 5am. Needless to say I'm pretty exhausted, but have to head to the store shortly to do some POS training on our new system...
Hence, this is a short post. I'm killer tired. I can't wait for the opening - mostly so I can sleep again.

butters&beans organics Spring 2012 sneak peek!

Here are some candids from our shoot yesterday!

Elliot in our organic lightweight denim and NYC inspired organic t!

Two-week-old Presley was amazing! Love her organic jersey ruffle dress...

Savanna was fabulous and SO patient with all of the pictures, and she looked so cute with Presley!

Henry was SO excited to dig into the amazing cake that Mary Ann made!

It took all the kids a minute to figure out that this beautiful thing in front of them was a cake, but once they did, they had no problems digging right in!

I love this organic yellow and fuchsia dress on little Jessa! FYI, Jessa is Butters' playdate buddy - they're the cutest together... :) And beautiful little Miss Lucy is off to the leftie, and Elliot in back on the right busy with a fistful of cake.
I adore all of my little models! They did such a fabulous job and were total troopers. It was pouring rain when I woke up yesterday morning, so immediately I was Facebooking/texting/calling everyone to figure out what we were going to do and even if we were going to shoot. We decided to just go for it, despite the rain, and I was SO glad we did because shortly after we all arrived the clouds parted and we had sunshine all morning long!

July 21

July 21st is the big day. I have exactly 17 days to get the store up and completely ready to go. I try not to think about this in terms of days, because when I think about only having 17 days I totally freak out. I have to take this one day at a time, or major anxiety takes over.
Orders have been placed, and we have some fabulous product coming in. There have been snags, no doubt, and it sucks that it is a holiday weekend as I can't get anything done. The one thing that I can say HAS gone smoothly is all of the purchasing with my Etsy vendors...they have been awesome to work with and everything is shipping on time. It's the bigger companies that have been more difficult to deal with...minus aden+anais - they have been super easy. Major kudos there. I'm super excited about all of the product on it's way...
The baby and toddler bracelets are amazing...I ordered some with crosses for baptism gifts, some with Swarovski detail, some with pearls and some with "little sister" and "big sister" on them.

I am also stoked about the puffy crib blankets - these look gorgeous.

I love the fact that NO ONE else has this merch - that it can't be purchased at any other stores. We are the ONLY ones that carry it. That to me is absolutely awesome.
Isobella & Chloe should be here in time for the opening, but I'm a little worried that Tea Collection will not. I'm waivering on bringing in Appaman - it sells like mad on the east coast, but I'm not sure it would do well in the midwest. It's at a little bit of a higher pricepoint than I would like as well...BUT, it's also super cute. I'm also waivering on Robeez. They have a higher end collection that I absolutely love because it's not as available as the other styles, and I think it's WAY cuter than what you see at most stores....but still waivering. We'll obviously have a bunch of b&b, and my co-designer, Thi, does her own line called YVan, which is beautiful as well. And of course we'll have the tutus...
I was super flattered that we were contacted by Zulily.com a couple of weeks ago, and we have a sale running with them on the 16th. They have 3.5 MILLION members - wow. Just the idea of reaching that many people kind of blows me away...
I have so much in my brain right now it's sick - between the store and market creeping up quickly I'm crazy crazy busy. We have our spring 2012 photo shoot this weekend - and I picked some amazing fabrics. I'll release some early pics of those pieces as soon as I have them. Lots of linens and jersey cotton...and all organic of course. :)

Toilet Water.

So Jax has finally figured out that there is a great new play place....the toilet. I USED to be able to lock him in the bathroom with me while I showered - I would just bring up a bin of toys and he would play nicely. No more. Yesterday he discovered the toilet. Now, showers are going to be limited to nap time, which used to be my hyper-speed work time. Naptime used to be my time to make all of my important phone calls without a screaming child climbing my leg (I like to refer to him as baby Jacqueline when he screams - his screams are like the girl-in-the-horror-movie type of screams). No more.
I NEED to clean my house. I'm having guests today and my house is a wreck. I've been putting all of my energy into getting the store open and getting ready for market - cleaning and laundry has fallen to the wayside. I shouldn't even be writing this right now, I should be dusting and vacuuming and scouring my bathroom. I think I look for just about any reason to put it off...
Our open date with the store was moved back to the 21st due to having to tie up some legalese with the company. I'm good with that though - I'd rather have more time for all of our product to get in and set up the way I want to set up.
Must. Go. Clean.

Are. You. Kidding.

Emails like this are one of the many pleasures of being a business owner:

Dear Ann,
I am sorry to inform you that per direct my activities for XXX Export / XXX are ending. A very unfortunate accident has happened within my family and I have to return a.s.a.p. The consequences of the accident result in me not being able to return in Peru this year. Hopefully in the beginning of next year.
I realize that this has also consequences for your business in the potential we were about to uncover. As I am the main person responsible for all export activities, I can not guarantee proper continuity for XXX Export in regards to our communication and agreements we have had and made so far.
However, I do not want to abandon you with the potential order we talked about and therefore offer my personal services in connecting you with the Roxana, if you are still intending to continue with the sample order. As she talks Spanish only, as do other people I work with, I would suggest to run communication between the two of you as personal favour – also ensuring there is no service fee from my side as I can not contribute in fulfilling export procedures and quality control.
I understand that you might not want to continue with this construction, and I will certainly respect that decision. If we do continue for f.e. the order specs we talked about, we need to make sure that you and Roxana have a signed order request (from Roxana and your side), that money flows directly to her (from your side) and that I ensure Roxana is updated on all export procedures (from my side).
Let me know what your thoughts are.

Would you REALLY like to know my thoughts? I can promise you they are extremely selfish in nature. Only speaks spanish? WTF. So, now our complete sample line for market is wacky, as we may be missing a few key items that would be extremely difficult to produce elsewhere this close to deadline. I'm sorry for your accident, but apparently it did not leave you unable to type emails. Buck up.

So, anywho, the store. On hold waiting on legalese (ish) to sign all of our paperwork. I despise legalese. I don't speak it, and don't care to learn. I understand the process itself in and out, have no problems writing up the business plans in layman's terms, but transferring all of this info into legal terms takes time, and time is not on my side right now if I want to open July 15. Again, buck up all, we are on Ann hyper-speed right now. :) Keep up.

Personal note: I am currently addicted to wearing flowers in my hair. I think my collection of flowers has now reached about 15 flowers (thank you, tootyfruitymonkeyluv). I'm all about hippie headbands and little bobby pin flowers. Love them. This Etsy seller has the CUTEST selection - and, is also, my neighbor (good and bad - very accessible). Oye.

Tutus - still filling tutu orders, but trying to slow it down a bit with both the store and market fast approaching. I finally finished the huge feathered tutu for the little figure skater (she is a total doll), and if I do say so myself, it turned out pretty amazing:

I'm loving our spring 2012 b&b fabrics - lots of jersey knits, some linens and lightweight denim and the pointelle. Hoping to still be able to release the hats and sweaters for holiday despite the snafu in Peru...

Jax is NAUGHTY. He's a boy-boy. He eats dirt and sticks. Logan's report card hasn't come in yet, and he loses his DS for the entire summer if there are any D's or F's. You can bet he watches the mail like a hawk.

The BBQ's and bonfire have started, and we spend most days outside...some random summer pics:

Jaxie playing in the water

The amazing and "special" job I did mowing the lawn for the first time

Jaxie playing peek

The new store...

A happy Mama...

Two months since last post...

Wow. The last two months have been pretty crazy. Between b&b, the tutus, the kids, four websites now, market coming quickly and a some other big news that I can't share quite yet, crazy busy doesn't quite begin to describe where I'm at in my head.
I have been making my "to do" lists every day. Today however, I'm taking the day off. Well, KIND OF taking the day off. I've monitored the websites, sent out about 20 emails (no exaggeration) and finished off a tutu. I've done this all while outside sitting in the sun, so I guess it feels like a day off (except the tutu). And now I'm updating our blog - finally. So maybe it's really not a day off....
I'm not really the type to stop working. I love what I do and therefore just keep going.
I want to finish up some sketches today - that might be my last "to do" for today. I would LOVE to just sit and enjoy the sun. It's a beautiful day - not a cloud in the sky and should be about 85 degrees. In Minnesota you never know how often you'll get these days, so you have to soak them up when they come.
So here's the breakdown of where I'm at with all the different pieces of life in general:
There has been TONS of b&b stuff to get done for market, and I feel like I'm falling behind. Market is only two and a half months away, and I have so much to do still. Production is moving steadily with our samples, but has to be done before the beginning of July so we can shoot everything for our lookbook and banner for the back part of our booth. This is probably my biggest concern of the moment - just getting all of our samples done. Also, I need to start making my calls soon to set up appointments for market. I'll probably start this the beginning of July. Picking which stores to call out of my list of 3,000 will be a challenge to say the least. Then, I'm still working with our vendor in Peru which is also a big project. Importing is a complicated process, and I'm still learning how it works. These are the big things, but this is in addition to my daily little things like taking orders, monitoring the website, photography, accounting and working with clients (just to name a few). It can be a little overwhelming at times, but like I said, I love it, so it's good.
Tutus. I pulled all the tutus from the b&b Etsy and put them on their own Etsy site. This is hard because the new site obviously has no feedback, so it's starting all over again. I'm working on a feathered bluebird tutu for an adorable little figure skater, and that has been SUPER fun. It's close to being done, and I'll for sure post a pic when I finish it.
The kids have been busy bodies. Logan is almost done with school for the year, and Jax is into a tantrum stage. Jax LOVES being outside, and is for sure a boy's boy. He loves playing in the dirt and wandering around the yard to find sticks.
My big news? I'm STOKED about it. I want to tell so so so bad but want to make sure it's 100% before I do. It's at 99% right now, but I never want to jinx anything. It would be an amazing thing, and VERY ironic. Hopefully I can break it on Monday. :) It will add a LOT to my plate, but I'm ready. Bring it.
Lastly - I marked down our spring dresses to 40% off for the month!

Overdrive.

Crazy times. This is going to be a short post. This is where I'm at, and thank GOD I have a lot of energy.

-PR PR PR PR and more PR. Praying for Parents Magazine and City Pages Best of the Cities. We may not get City Pages, but still praying for it. The online version comes out tonight, so I'll be checking. I've done several press releases to several national outlets, so we'll see where it goes. I can see on my Google Analytics who is clicking on my links, and I know some MAJOR peeps are, so I'm looking forward to seeing what comes.
-Sewing. And more sewing.
-Tutus. And more tutus. Good thing I love my friends. :) These are not for b&b, but I love doing them, so I'm going to keep taking orders. Glitter, tulle, gems, sparkles, rhinestones, butterflies, flowers.....so fun.
-Picking out fabrics for spring. Actually more like finalizing. Not typical spring colors, but I'm good with that because I never wanted to be a typical organic company. I'm leaning towards red, indigo, purple and black. I'm loving the fabrics.
-Budgeting. Nuff said, no fun, hate math. Thank god for Numbers (Mac version of Excel).
-Photography and Photoshop. Getting good at Photoshop and figuring out how to do way more stuff.
-Bloggers requesting samples. LOTS of bloggers. Love it.
-OllieOlio sale. Had to re-do inventory three times. Ick.
-Lots of calls coming in from customers. Very cool. Love talking about our products.
-Volunteer stuff. Don't want to get into deets, but always makes me feel good.
-Ads. New ads running.
-Trying to set up Earth Day giveaways. More complicated than it should be.
-Jaxie is running a 102 fever - the doc thought he might have strep, but came back negative. Just a nasty virus, but he isn't eating or sleeping well. No fun for baby, Mama, or the Dada that has been super-duper helpful while Mama works.

And this is just today. For reals. Good thing my brain is organized.
Quick update - back to work I go!

Wow.

Just wow is all I can say to describe the last week or so. Crazy busy.
Although I've been absurdly busy, my thoughts are organized, so I'm good on that front. Unfortunately, though, I do come to a point at the end of the day where I must lie my head on a pillow and sleep. I almost feel guilty going to bed at night - is that absolutely insane?
Between b&b - getting ready for market, working samples, nailing down fabrics, working on the website, taking photos, editing photos, learning photoshop (oye, not user-friendly), launching and promoting the spring pieces, securing production for after market because I KNOW we're going to be a huge success - and then working on tutu orders for my friends, life has been a little nutty. But this is good - it is all organized chaos. I work literally from 6am till 10pm.
And then there are the kids...
I took Logan's DS away. Like, completely. He only gets it on the weekends when he brings me home tests that he gets A's on during the week, and only gets 30 minutes of DS playtime per A. Needless to say there has been a few meltdowns since this has transpired.
Jax is getting another molar - I feel so blessed that they are coming in one...at...a...time. Four of them. One at a time. For real?
Oh - AND JAX'S CRIB IS NOW IN LOGAN'S ROOM. Yes, I have my bedroom back. After almost 16 months. I know you all are thinking I'm insane.

2011 Ultimate Baby Shower Gift Guide - Coolmompicks.com

So fabulous to see our Abby Collection stroller blanket featured in Coolmompicks.com's 2011 Ultimate Baby Shower Gift Guide - this is great recognition for our/my hard work! This is such a lovely blanket...a fetching sea blue, chocolate, olive green and ivory mod pattern (woven 100% organic cotton) top with an ultra-soft organic cotton fleece cuddly under-side. Coolmompicks.com is one of the few - maybe the only - Mom-based website that I trust for information regarding kids products. I've said before that I found out along my b&b journey that most of the Mom websites are actually mostly paid advertising, which was really disappointing. I love that Coolmompicks.com actually features products that they like and support, rather than products that pay them to advertise.

To be featured next to companies such as Skip Hop, Graco and serena+lily is pretty amazing.

Anywho - I've been working on fairy wings over the last couple days. Those of you that know me well know that I can never do things the easy way - I always over-complicate. These have become quite the endeavor. Most people make fairy wings in what I would consider a pretty cheap and lame way (coathangers - really?), so of course I had to "upgrade" and find a better way of doing them. Finding the right type of wire has been the most complicated part - it took me four different types to find one that I liked. Aluminum was too soft, copper too expensive - and stainless was very difficult to find, but ended up working the best. Then figuring out the right gauge (thickness)...it ended up being a much bigger project than I anticipated. However, I'm loving them and can't wait to put them out there for my friends. A few minor adjustments and they'll be ready to go.

I've been at a crux with b&b over the last month or so. There are several roads we could take and I'm not sure which one is best. It's very difficult to run a business by yourself, mostly because I have no one to bounce ideas off of. I had a terrible experience with a business partner awhile back, and for that reason don't want to bring someone else in, but in a way DO, just for the purpose of having someone to brainstorm with.

Random, but there's a Blue Jay on my deck right now - spring is coming and I can't wait. :)

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

...Robert Frost

Woodbury Magazine

I was super stoked to see the online-version of our Woodbury Magazine article released last night. Normally I'm pretty on top of these things, but actually one of my models parents saw it before I did and texted me that it was up (thanks, Julie). Yet again, I re-hashed my words and wished I had been a little more eloquent, but what can I do at this point...
The picture looks adorable, but there's kind of a funny story behind it. I chose to shoot our little models Elliot and Ayva for this article because they have contrasting hair and skin tones (as well as personalities) so I thought they would be super cute together. Elliot is normally my happy-go-lucky little boy - always very easy to shoot. Ayva has been a little more difficult in the past, but is just so darn cute I wanted to give it another shot. Now, the funny thing was that during this shoot, Elliot ended up being a little more difficult and Ayva ended up being pretty easy going. Point being, in the picture, it shows Natasha (modeling our great post-partum women's dress) with both kids, but really Elliot was edited into the picture because he wanted pretty much nothing to do with Ayva. He wouldn't get closer than five feet to her without starting to get fussy...I was kind of worried that one of the kids pics wouldn't go into print because we had such a hard time shooting them, but I was grateful they were able to edit them into one picture together.
I was happy to be able to mention Francesca's and Elodie in the article as well - unfortunately the only two clothing stores I really shop in Woodbury. I REALLY heart Francesca's - I always seem to find something there when I really need it. We just did some family pictures a couple weeks ago and I found a super cute dress there that looked amazing. I'll post pics of our family session when I get them. I shop Elodie often for accessories. They advertise and are known for their denim, but I can never seem to find my size when I go (which is a 27).
Callie V. Photography did our family pictures and I really enjoyed working with her - we were able to see a sneak peek of the pictures on her blog and they look ah-mazing. I can't wait to get the full disc.
We're gearing up for market for b&b which to be honest I'm not entirely looking forward to. If you're familiar with the fashion industry, market is absolutely CRAZY and a three days of super hard work. I've decided to do KIDShow which is in Vegas in August. I was talking to my husband about it the other day, and he gave me this jealous look when I told him it was in Vegas - right, like I'll get time to sit by the pool and spa it up. Nope. It's three days of hell. Three days of back-to-back appointments with retailers from 8am-6pm. That doesn't even get into the effort put into BOOKING those appointments which will start in July. Not so much fun and vaca, Chad, not so much.
The tutu thing has been fun - a welcome distraction while some of our b&b stuff is in production. I'm a little ADD sometimes, so it's nice to do something different for a little while and take a break from organics. I've been trying like mad to get my hands on some sort of eco-friendly tulle so we can make tutus for b&b. Here's some pics of the latest...

I'm in love with this dress - there are a few things I'm going to modify as this was my first sample, but it has eight whopping layers of tulle and is super super full. And Jessa is an absolute doll! She's actually coming over today to have a playdate with Jax because they are only a couple weeks apart in age...

I did this one for my cousin's little girl, Emily. Their entire family has attended A&M, and I love the team tutus I've been making!