Fall 2010

Just a few pictures of what is to come! Media - please contact Lola Red PR @ (612) 333-1723 for pictures and more information. All items are made from organic and eco-friendly materials and will be available at buttersandbeans.com in October of 2010.

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Nancy Hauck, Liz J. Design Company

Photo by Nancy Hauck, Liz J. Design Company

Photo by Nancy Hauck, Liz J. Design Company

Photo by Nancy Hauck, Liz J. Design Company

Buzzing Week

A week of buzz - photo shoot in t-3, first pieces of production due tomorrow (dresses and pants finally coming in), PR, screenprinters, website programming going on...
Butters heart appointment today with the pediatric cardiologist - hopefully we'll have some answers about the hole in his baby heart. Feeling a little somber until we get through this appointment...

Break before craziness...

Well, almost a break. When I say a break, I mean my web developer is off today and I do not have any meetings or appointments. I have some media things to work on (media is hearting us already!), and some writing to do and some numbers to crunch, but that would be considered a break.
Tomorrow on the other hand is going to be one of "those" days. My Mother-In-Law gets in from Jersey (actually a wonderful thing - I adore her) at 1:30 so I have to pick her up from the airport, I have a meeting with my merchant account company at 3:00, and then we have the last of our cutting to finish up at 6:30. I also have to approve the final web design - just the basic design aspect of the home and secondary pages - so we can stay on deadline and move into the programming phase of development. This will mean a lot of emailing back and forth with my developer and constant checking of updates she makes to the current design. This may not sound like much to the average person, but you need to factor in all of the in between stuff like, um, kids? And having an extra person in the house. Janie is easy to have here - she is not one that needs to be entertained, but I know I'll want to sit and chat with her after she gets in and I won't really have the time to do that. Chatting will have to wait till Saturday...
Personal note is that my fat cat, Miles, thinks he's a dog. He's a huge Maine Coon, and is an indoor/outdoor cat. He does everything a dog does - meows to get outside and inside when he wants to, follows us around the yard and the house, hops up on the couch on our laps when we are watching TV, sleeps on his "bed" (a blanket on the chaise in the living room), rolls on his back so you can scratch his belly...I wonder if he was raised with dogs? He's the best cat ever and is huge but is so docile. "Beans" comes over and has tried to ride him on several occasions - failed every time unfortunately - and he just saunters away like it's not a big deal, but he's just not having it. Oh - and he chases and meows at the squirrels. And walks around the yard and pees on everything to mark his territory. Hilarious.

A little overwhelmed.

There is a lot going on right now, a lot to keep track of both in my head and in my planner. Bank stuff, budgeting, website stuff, media stuff, writing the bio/organics info, obviously production, the photo shoot, PR...a lot to handle. And then there's the kiddoos (priority) in between all of this. Lots of meetings...my phone rings constantly. I went over my phone plan last month by 2800 minutes - time for that unlimited plan. Luckily AT&T backdated my plan (one of the few things they've done right in the last five years).
Eight days till photo shoot!

Almost done cutting...

We are so close to being done with the cutting phase...which is kind of boring, so that makes me happy. There are two bolts left that haven't been cut and we are taking care of that tomorrow night. Thi and I took care of a lot of cutting last night - we finished up the bibs, travel blankies and large blankies. I am SO loving the fabrics and the way they are going to look finished. The fleece is so soft...there is such a huge difference in the way organics feel as opposed to regular cottons. Every time I roll out the bolts of fleece or herringbone I just want to curl up in them...
I've spent a large amount of time the last couple days writing our mission statement and our "Why Organics?" statement for the website. It amazes me the facts I've found about non-organic cottons. It takes one POUND of chemicals to produce three pounds of cotton? Amazing, and absolutely disgusting.
I finished up the cutest upcycled travel blankie made out of a turtleneck, sweater and pair of cords...darling, I absolutely heart it. I'd love to post a pic, but I know that's a major no-no. Must wait until October! The anticipation is killing me, and I know it's only going to get worse! I've gotten other big news as well that I can't share and it drives me insane - I'm a terrible secret-keeper...you should put the below stamp on my forehead!

More cutting...

I think this is going to be the news for the next week or so. It's quite a process, and there's four bolts of fabric that haven't even been touched yet. Yikeroos. We're going to be in a time crunch soon which is exactly what I didn't want. Photo shoot is in 11 days, and we need a least one of every piece in every size for pictures. I was cutting last night (with one wonderful friend that came over to help me) and got a few pieces done. I'm going to get as much as I can done today, and just keep plugging away at it by myself until we have another cutting night where all my seamstresses are here. We should be able to get the rest done at that point.
On the upside - the weather is MUCH nicer, the humidity broke and it cooled down. Only in Minnesota can you have a 40 degree temperature swing in a matter of 24 hours...feels like fall and is absolutely beautiful outside.

BIG news...

Butters has slept through the night for the last three nights. That tops anything I can think of... :)

Cutting, cutting and more cutting...

SO much cutting last night. All of us were on the floor cutting. My body is sore today from being squished into a corner to make room to spread the bolts of fabric out and cut at the same time. We were able to get 45 dresses, 36 pants and 12 bibs cut. Some has to wait as we haven't gotten the organic sherpa or the organic fleece in yet. The sherpa should be here today or tomorrow, the fleece next week (I'm hoping, they are behind on production). Now, it's finally time to start putting everything together. Thi had a few upcycled items done and LOVE them...super cute dresses. One she did out of an old flannel shirt, one out of an old pique polo mixed with a cotton t. A-dorable.

Shipments!

Got our tags and LOVE them! Perfect. Also got our fabric stamp - we are using our scrap fabric for our outer tags and stamping it with our logo to be as waste conscious as possible. I had to try it out right away and ADORE it. I also got our industrial snap press, which is exciting for me, but probably not as exciting to read about... :) I'll forgo the details and pics of that.

Where to even start...

On a personal note or a professional note? The professional side is fairly fun and light-hearted, so we'll start there.

Everyone will be here at 3:00 (T-minus 2 and a half hours) to start cutting the organics. We've already started the upcycled items, which I am SO looking forward to, but the organics are the big dog of our business. Elizabeth should have some sample herringbone dresses put together for me today, so I am absolutely STOKED to see them. I'm going to try to get a model over to the house so we can take some pictures and post them on FB and Twitter. It'll probably be a long night...we have over 200 pieces to cut.

Personal side is a bit harder to discuss. Butters' echo didn't come back positively. He has a small hole in one of the valves in his heart. It's called ASD, and is apparently fairly common and often heals itself over time, however it is obviously scary from my standpoint. We moved him back into our room last night - just more comfortable for me. Shed some tears yesterday, but try to think about the aspect that it is normally not a huge deal, and normally something that corrects itself. It also sounds though, like often they DO patch the hole through open heart surgery to prevent later problems. We see the Cardiologist on the 23rd and will find out more then.

http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/CongenitalHeartDefects/AboutCongenitalHeartDefects/Atrial-Septal-Defect-ASD_UCM_307021_Article.jsp

And another cute logo...

Hearts. Thank you Liz J. Designs. :)

Not so bad.

Today wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It never is as bad as you imagine it to be right? Your mind builds things up to be terrible, but they always seem to work out okay.
Butters's appointment went great. He slept in a bit, which pushed his 1st naptime back a bit. Worked out golden. He waited so patiently during the echo, spending most of it sucking away at a bottle. We should find out the results tomorrow. I just keep telling myself that everything HAS to be fine.
Meetings went well. The web meeting was amazing - I actually got to look at a bunch of options for the home page that were based on my initial ideas. I feel like she took my ideas to another level and put a great spin on them...the artwork was beautiful and I loved the layout. It will be both visually stimulating yet simplistic at the same time - very boutique-y, which is exactly what I wanted and expected. I adore it when people meet my expectations as it doesn't happen all too often (the higher my expectations, the lower my serenity). We discussed the elements that I wanted to keep, and we'll look at a few more options next week. I'm loving the direction we're going in.
Outside of writing this, no working tonight. Eating za, watching The Office and going to bed early. I haven't done that in weeks. More meetings tomorrow, and Thursday production and cutting starts on the organics....that'll be a HUGE day!