Starting your own company

I was a stay at home mom who had a drive for owning her own business. It was early one morning when I was taking my son to go buy shoes, when in my rear view mirror of my car... I spotted my little guy out of his car seat, standing on the floor board of our family SUV. It was when I had to flip on my turn signal, find a spot to pull over to the side of the road that I realized.. "I wonder if I am the only one who has this problem?"

I went home that day and took out a piece of paper and started to design something that would prohibit my little guy from escaping. 

After many attempts, days, weeks, the Baby Huggable Clips were born. At the time my husband helped design all the artwork required for a patent pending, and the information was mailed off. It took about 45 days to receive a post card in the mail informing me, my patent pending had been approved. I remember jumping up and down for joy and at the same time knowing the journey was just starting. 

I can remember thinking... this is the best little product and it helps to ensure babies are safe in their car seats, strollers, jogging strollers, basically anything with a 2 or 5 point harness. My product allowed those with feeding issues to remain upright. This is great, but how to I move from knowing my product is awesome, to actually selling my product? Sure, I could tell moms about my product, show moms how my product worked.. but how was I to reach moms online? 

I well remember the first stroller group online I joined and posted about my product. The return comments were not what I had expected at all. In fact, I was very surprised that my product was not a huge hit as babies fall out of strollers all the time from removing the shoulder harness straps and falling out. What was the "real" problem for these mothers? These moms did not like the fact, anything placed on a car seat will void the warranty. Yes, it is true, anything anyone places on a car seat will void the warranty. But I also knew it was true, no car seat company had ever been sued in the United States, or had I ever heard or read about anyone who broke the warranty and demanded their money back. Those toys that clip on to a car seat, or that bottle clip, blanket, or extra padding under the car seat, all those things break the warranty of a car seat. Once that warranty has been broken, one can not return the car seat according to some of the manufactures (the small fine print is inside most car seat manufacturer warranty books). 

Perhaps if I gave my product away... allowing a new mom to try my product, she might not feel the same way? This is what I did. I made several and mailed out each one with information on instructions to use, along with a feedback form to return in the mail to me. I waited, and waited, and continually waited. It was about a month later when I started to receive emails. No one had returned the form in the mail to me, the moms were emailing me about my new product instead. 

I remember flipping through the emails and reading the reviews from these moms. One mom emailed me. "I have 2 twins, when one gets out, the other is following." she kept going on and on in her email of how hard it was to drive anywhere, take a walk with her twins, until my product arrived to her.  Another mom emailed me to let me know, "my high chair security strap won't stay tight, your product has helped me keep my little one in safe". Reading through the reviews and then the moms slowly started to post onto the stroller group, started to change the perception of some of these new moms. Slowly over time, my grass roots product was spreading due to word of mouth only. I created and designed all of the website, logo's, and took all of the photos used on my first website. I remember the night my website went live and I went back into the stroller groups, breastfeeding groups, and other new mom groups to post my website was live.  I remember the next day finding out I had orders/sales it was April of 2007. 

It only takes one sale to start a new business, and now I had proven the odds of starting a grass roots business, marketing, designing and building a website, created the logo needed and was on my way... 

I never used any marketing through a company. I started a FB fan page and would do contest to give out a product for free. It was through FB in 2007, that I connected a newsletter to the FB fan page and where people would receive the newsletter that I would write once a week. It was from this newsletter my FB fan page grew. Soon I had customers from outside of the United States. Little by little more customers were coming to purchase the Baby Huggable Clips, and then came along another invented product; "the Houdini Band" to help toddlers and older children remain seated. Once the band was secure over the button, the product became Houdini proof. Parents of all ages were scooping up both products and at times ordering 2 of each. My converted garage became my business hub, where I would manufacture each product, test each product prior to it leaving, to ensure both of my products lived up to their names. My original patent pending allowed for different versions of my product to be manufactured. Having these versions allowed me the right to claim both products were patent pending. 

I could never stress this enough, do your research prior to becoming a business owner or inventing a product. One can find information online, through the BBB, or through the state on starting a new business. Find out the legal laws, tax laws, per your state and ask questions. Education is power!  

Painted Angel

I saw this little angel and knew I had to have her right away! 

 She is made from a plaster mix and cement. She did not weigh a lot, but heavy enough for me to unload and carry around to the back of my house. I realized after I snapped this photo, I did not get her face but the opposite side. 

I mixed my own DIY chalk paint and since I wanted to ensure I was able to really give her wings a complete make over, using my hand, fingers and thumb seemed to be a great option. Since I am working with DIY chalk paint, the paint comes off really easy with a light scrub. 

Here she is with her knew coat of chalk paint. I even did her lips, toes, and provided just a hint of pink and white chalk paint to the outer rim of her wings. I thought she turned out darling... 

The little angel did not come with this stand, I found this stand at another tag sale. I combined the same chalk paint using a mixture of pink and white to go around all the edges of the stand, so they match. Ignore my painted rug, its where the work takes place to save my cement porch. 

I had this angel for a few days, prior to being sold for an upcoming Mother's Day gift. Lucky mom!

Enjoy painting, crafting, sewing today...

Daddy and Me

I received some photos the other day, and to my surprise, was a photo from my childhood of my father and me. I am around seven years old in this photo. The boy in the purple shirt is my cousin Rick. I am not sure why Rick got the comfortable rocking chair and my father and me are sitting on a metal chair? My father is wearing the watch he received from his parents for his high school graduation. My father told me as we were looking at this photo, the watch was his favorite gift from his parents. My father's mother (my grandmother) passed away right after I was born. I only knew of her by photos, and my grandfather passed away when I was a younger woman. My father told me he was 28 years old in this photo. When I saw this photo, the missing mustache is the first thing I noticed different about my father. My father was everything to me when I was a little girl and still is to this day. 

My father came to town a year ago and we were able to spend time with one another.  My father moved away 15 years ago to a warmer climate. I miss being able to run over to his house still to this day. We do speak on the phone monthly, and keep in touch through email, however it is not the same as actually being able to give someone a huge hug :( 

I use to joke with my father about his "nerd pocket," every shirt he owned was equipped with all sort of writing pens and pencils, a hair comb, and at one point an extendable ruler. My father in this photo is 75 years of age and the last surviving member of his own family. My uncle Kenny (my fathers brother) passed away several years ago, Kenny's wife and their only son soon followed his death. 

Make the most of being with your family... time goes by so quickly!  

Dining room hutch to Shabby Chic Desk

The photo below is not the actual piece of furniture I purchase, but similar to the piece I purchased. As I was unloading what I purchased, the top dropped to the ground and broke into several pieces- the photo below is to give you a mental picture so you can see what I have done.

When I look at furniture, I do not look at the flaws a piece may have. What I am actually looking for is how to turn the piece of furniture into something unique. The piece I purchased had been listed as a curio cabinet and under cupboard.

The furniture I purchased had solid sides and no glass. I was glad too because when the top part dropped off the back of the truck, it would of been a huge mess to clean up glass. The front legs on this cupboard are not the same as the piece that I did purchase. The legs on the original piece of furniture I purchased were the same in the front as the back. You can see below the original bottom piece, the legs, and the drawer.

When the top fell off, this is what the bottom ended up looking like. I filled the holes in the top where the top had been attached. I loved the legs on this piece too. Here you can see the actual legs. Ignore my painted rug. I use this rug outback to place all my furniture on to help absorb paint spillage.

Once all the holes were filled on top. I got to work with while chalk paint. I mixed my own chalk paint by using 2 cups of water, mark line on a container where the 2 cups come to (I used a black marker on the inside of my container) dump the 2 cups of water out in the sink. Use 3 TBS of cornstarch and add 1/4 cup of water and mix well. Now add 2 cups of desired paint back into your container to the 2 cup line. Stir well and you have DIY chalk paint. After I had painted the entire bottom piece with white chalk paint (allowing dry time). I mixed up 2 more containers of chalk paint in different colors of pink. I used both colors of pink chalk paint on the desk, allowing both to dry. Once the paint is fully dry, I used a brick out of my yard to score a diamond pattern to the desk drawer and to pull of the paint in some other areas. I used a fine sand paper on the corners and the legs.

I simply adore this new Shabby Chic desk with the pink crystal door pulls. The desk is 2 feet across the front and the back, 32 inches on each side, and stands 27.5 inches tall. Perfect for a nook area, entry area, or to be used as a makeup table in a young ladies room. It is the perfect desk height and the drawer is very roomy inside. A clear seal was used on top of the desk.

Below is a few more pieces I have had fun with!

This was a little stool and I thought it would be so cute with pink chalk paint and distressed. Its now a Shabby Chic plant stand. I used a stencil across the top and on the bottom shelf. I placed a clear coat of sealant over the entire plant stand.













Below is a plain old normal bar stool that I found at a garage sale. I mixed up some DIY chalk paint and got to work on this little bar stool. The finished product is another Shabby Chic plant stand.

I used the same brick out of my yard to pull the paint back off to expose the white of the legs through the paint. I used a stencil across the top of the stool. A little light sanding on the legs for a total distressed look, and this piece was complete. I thought this little stool turned out very adorable.












I wish you enjoyment today while painting!

Vintage Apron

2 Shirts, 1 Skirt re-purposed into a Vintage Apron 

You probably have some older clothes hidden in the back of your closet that are really adorable, maybe too big or too small, out of style or perhaps you just can't bare to part with them. Here is a really cool re-purpose which will allow you to again wear these clothes. So now you can wear all those clothes that are either too small or too big and you just can't part with them or when you shop at Goodwill.

I just fell in love with the skirt and the shirt with ruffles. The size of the skirt and ruffled shirt was very small, too small for me but I couldn't resist the colors of spring. I snagged the aqua blue t-shirt from Goodwill  Despite I could not fit into these clothes, didn't mean I couldn't figure out a way to wear them ! 

I removed the zipper from the back of the skirt and measured the half way mark from (L) side to (R) side on my hips. I then cut the extra material away from the back of the skirt. The ruffled shirt (adorable). Both sleeves were totally removed and the entire back was cut away, leaving only the front of the shirt and the ruffles and the neck line. The top of the ruffled (new shirt) was then sewn into the the new skirt. The blue t-shirt serves as the belt. I cut the entire back of the t-shirt and made strips and sewed all the strips together until I had one long piece. I measured the half way mark to find the center on the ruffled shirt, and the new bottom portion of the skirt. Pin in place and sew across the top of the ban and across the bottom of the ban.  

I took a one inch seam around the sides of the skirt. Since the ruffled shirt had a neck already there was no need to use anymore of the aqua t-shirt to create a new neck tie. If your shirt does not have a neck line, you will have to use the front of a t-shirt to create a tie that matches the ban across the front. The skirt already has a hem so need to sew a new one unless the skirt is too long If this is the case, measure at knee length and cut the skirt at the measured length. 

Here it is, a new vintage apron that simply is adorable. Make some up for gifts to give to a neighbor or for your co-worker. I thought a really cute basket with a decorated recipe card, all the necessary items to make the recipe and a re-purposed apron would make a wonderful gift to give to anyone who loves to bake or is learning, or who just got married. 

If you are interested in purchasing this re-purposed vintage apron, please use the contact us link at the top of our blog. This re-purposed vintage apron will fit 120-190 pound and approx 5.6 inches tall. 

Please leave a comment for any questions or just to let me know what you think of this idea. I love reading! 

Happy Sewing ! 

Easy DIY Fence

My yard is a small postage stamp lawn and because of this, I did not want to spend a lot of money trying to keep people off of my yard while I grew new grass. 

Here is the awful mess by my walkway which created a huge mess of mud every single time it rained outside. 

My cheap solution:

These are bamboo stakes for plants sold at the local Walmart store for $3.49 for a big bundle. I used green twine to hold the stakes together; also sold at Walmart for $1.39 and this they will not fall over. 

Remove the bamboo plant stakes from package and insert into ground. Use the green twine to weave in and out of each plant stake to hold them all together. 

When finished, re-purpose and use for:

 plant stakes, or to hold up garage sale signs, make a kite, use to hold wind mills children make, or to hold up a bird house off the ground. Help your child craft up a raft and float it in a bucket of water or near by stream. The idea's are endless and the cost is so cheap. 

Enjoy crafting today !

Best Pacifier Holders

These are the best infant pacifier holders and stay put during the night. Easy to wash up after spit up and spills from bottles. The Sassy Passy can snap to high chair stroller, car seat, and easy to keep off the floor where many germs lurk. 

When I created the Sassy Passy Infant Holder I had infants in mind of using my product. Never realizing after pacifier use, this one product can convert to many other uses. One use is holding a blanket to the side of a stroller which helps keep the blanket off the ground. Can attach to car seat side for the same purpose. 

Mom's can also use Sassy Pacifier holder on the stroller to hold a purse while out shopping (just please use with caution) as stroller can tip if purse, grocery bag or anything else has a lot of weight. 

I love this couture Sassy Pacifier clip. This clip went to a Hollywood mom who had her second baby. 

 I used this buggy to hold all the items I made, see the Sassy Pacifier Clips dangling off the side. I sold so many of these to parents across the globe and at different craft events, and through my online store.

Lots of fabric choices !

This is my little granddaughter when she was just a infant, so adorable ! My granddaughter will be 5 in June of this year. How time passes by so quickly.

Products hold a patent pending ( do not copy or reproduce )

Until tomorrow, have a very blessed day !  

Black Tie Fingernails

Black Tie Fingernails

If you are attending something special, give this quick fingernail polish trick a try.

Paint your fingernails as you normally would do. Take a second light color and go over the tips, allow to dry with this second tip coat.  Repeat this process one more time.

Now once the tip color is dry. Take what tip color you are wanting to use and paint this over the first tip coat. 

The underline first tip coat becomes your guide. 

Wait until fully dry and you are sporting a brand new nail look. 

No need to pay to have your nails done. 

Enjoy painting your nails today, you deserve a break !

DIY designer floor in a snap !

 DIY designer floor in a snap !

See this floor, yuk ! Right? This is what my children and myself have had the pleasure of walking on for almost 9 months now. The cracks are so bad in this tile that when I would try to wash this floor the tile would come up.

It was a never ending struggle of putting the pieces of broken tile back. Talk about hurt toes as well.. OUCH !

Look at what I did in less than a few minutes.. 

You are never going to believe what this is on the floor.... are you guessing right now ? 

I love this pattern and it comes in all sort of designs, it's durable too. 

The designs are endless and boy did it sure ever change my floor in just a few minutes per tile. 

Instructions:

Make sure you clean your tile floor with vinegar and water. You can do this per tile as you go and use a clean rag to wipe all the dirt back up, after a really good cleaning. If you have a steam mop, this would work just as well. 

Take your designer packing tape and start laying down tile by tile. Stand back and you have instantaneously created a brand new floor for yourself. 

Call some of your friends over, serve wine, cheese, and have designer packing tape party. LOL 

I am going to keep doing my floor until it's completed.  This is the designer packing tape I selected. I fell in-love with the design and my kitchen cabinets are white. Having this on the floor means that now I can paint the walls a very deep burgundy which will set off the whole kitchen.  

My appliances are black as well, so having this on the floor gave my floor a whole new look. I am going to have to Google on how I can seal each tile, but I am sure I will find a way... 

Run and give your tile a make-over ! 

Shopping Tote

Shopping Tote 

Here is a little tote I whipped up today using my favorite fabric. I use to have this fabric hanging up in the windows of my little boutique store in TN. The outside of the store had all sort of black dots on the outside of the house. Inside the little house was filled to the brim of all sort of little boutique goodies. 

I will have to take a better picture of this little shopping tote. Would be fun to take tag sale shopping, antique shopping. It's just the right size, not too big or too small. 

Here are a few pictures of my little boutique store in TN. 

This is my youngest daughter Kristina standing outside on the covered porch. She was about... 6 years old when this picture was taken. She will be a freshman this year and 15 in October. Wow, how the time goes by so quickly. 

See the little house, it's PINK... The inside was very tiny. Just enough room for all those goodies and deliciousness chocolates that I had shipped in from a wonderful chocolate company. I think I had a new sample every single day... 

Close up of the black dots on the side of the house. I had to special order these dots from a printing company in TN. Each dot came on a huge sheet and I had to peel each each dot off of the sheet and manually adhere them to the side of the house. I had to smooth out all the tiny little bubbles too.  

I had this vision inside my head of a little PINK house with black polka dots on the outside and everything inside really adorable. Not how the inside turned out.. because it was stuffed full to the brim inside.. but still I was very proud of this little store. 

Here is from a little distance of all the black polka dots on the outside. I thought the outside turned out really adorable.. 

 I do not have any pictures from inside the store. Not after it was completed. Here is one picture I dug up of the start of the construction from the inside. 

The little house use to be a beauty shop. All the hair stations were up next to the wall where the white pipe is (on the right) 

The new front door is laying on the floor. Found at Lowes on clearance outside for $40.00. Was not a thing wrong with this door either. Believe it or not, this little house had one very tiny little bathroom. I decked it out in a purse theme.. 

Fun returning down memory lane all because of a shopping tote with the fabric that hung inside both of these little windows.. 

Enjoy crafting and your memories ! 

Summer Beach Tote

Summer Beach Tote

Last night when I arrived to college our class found out the AC unit was broken. Since we are on the 3rd floor, you can imagine how hot it was. Because it was so hot our professor let us out earlier then normal. I could not wait to arrive home, crawl into bed and just relax in the AC and fall asleep.... 

Well.. when I arrived home, opened up the door to our house, I realized when I hit the heat that the AC unit at home was broken as well :(

This is the summer beach tote I whipped up today using vintage fabric. I love the fact that it will hold several towels, water bottle, book, cell phone, and keys. 

What else is a girl to do while waiting on the AC man to repair the AC unit. This tote did not take me long to whip up. About an hour from start to finish. 

I have a lot of card board boxes left over from the move. I used one of the side flaps to create this pattern. This way, I will have it to create more--the same size. 

Cut 2 pieces of fabric. My pattern is 20" (inches) wide by 17" (inches) tall. You could cut your card board to 20x20 inches or 17x17 inches so it's square. Half of 20 (inches) is 10 inches. This is the middle of the card board. This is where I set my soup bowl to make the curve in the card board. 

Cut 4 pieces of fabric, 2 pieces for the outside of your summer beach tote, 2 pieces for your inside. You can follow the rest of the directions here from Makeit-loveit. (click on link to see more photo's of how to finish this tote) 

**If you want a really thick summer tote, please use very thick fabric for the outside** 

Have fun sewing today ! 

DIY Packing tape uses

Designer Duck Tape

I came across this designer Duck Tape in my stash of crafts earlier last week. WOW, why was this not around sooner. I could think of a million uses for the diva designs I come up with.

I happen to be very fond of this print... so much so I was thinking this would look adorable inside a white picture frame. A million uses for one single role of tape. 

I decided to give my water bottle a new look. Easy to do, just peel off the water label and use designer duck tape in it's place. 

I was looking at my old nasty car... would take a lot of designer duck tape to give it a new look. Just kidding. Wonder if anyone has used designer duck tape to give a car a new look. I must look that up on Google for sure. 

You can purchase designer duck tape at your local hardware store or Walmart. I think I picked up my roll at Walmart on "Clearance" for 2 bucks about 8 months ago. Must of been when I was getting ready to move and thought I could use this tape for my personal effects in my bedroom. 

Enjoy crafting today inside your own home !

Baby Booties

My newest grandson is quickly approaching 4 months. I figured it was past time I dust off my sewing machine and whip him up some baby booties. Despite the fact he has adorable toes, in the evening the air is chilly and those adorable toes need to be covered. This is the first pair I whipped up and added a little zebra bow. They are lined inside with airplane fabric that is soft and comfortable. 

The second pair I created turned out really cute. Until I realized I had sewn the heel wrong. I will have to create a new pair because I don't think the booties will be comfortable for the (right) foot. Can't have the little guy in tears because his adorable feet are not comfortable. I love the contrasting color of these booties with the bright red button. Wonder what else I could do with one bad bootie? 

The third pair I whipped up, I think by this time I had realized what I was doing and doing wrong.  Did I mention when I spoke to my daughter, she informed me the baby has wide feet and 4 inches long. These little booties would not fit, they are 0-3 months. How could I have sat all day long and sewn baby booties prior to making sure his little feet would fit these little baby booties ?
 They are really cute ! 

What is it about taking pictures outside during the day that is so refreshing? I was lucky enough to snap this shot prior to the night sky falling. This is actually on the side of my yard and the little booties sat up on the fence all in a row.  Looked really precious seeing all these little booties all lined up. 

I did manage to whip up this adorable pair of baby booties for a little princess. My grand daughters have since outgrown the baby stages. They do grow up quickly.  Maybe I can see if I can't make the pattern larger and create bath shoes for my grand daughters. Or perhaps Diva Bath Slippers. Oh, that sounds so much better. 

L-R Andrew, Mirenne in pink, Taylor in aqua and Aaron. Anthony is in the back in the white t-shirt. This photo was taken at the park while we were all together celebrating Taylor's 4th birthday. 

I feel totally blessed to have such awesome grand babies. Look at those precious smiles. Whip out a camera and they all become so silly, alright so does Oma :) 

Everyone participated in making a silly face except little Taylor. She just sat with an adorable smile across her face. I get a chuckle out of the silly faces every single time. I love being an Oma !

Here is Kristina (my last little girl) and baby Luke. Look how adorable he is. Isn't he something special ! 

All the grand babies have the cutest little button nose and butterfly lips. I have no idea where they ever got those features from... 

Enjoy your blessed day and craft up something special in your home !