Shop for Great Gifts for a Great Cause!

Just in case I have readers who aren't subscribed to my family/adoption blog, here's the scoop I just posted at www.thehappyneills.blogspot.com!

Hey everyone, I'm going to set up my Sugarplum Boutique shop at this event on Saturday, and Calvin is going to sell his Pablo Candy-Finger Cards! Please stop by and see us, and please buy one of Calvin's sweet little cards, would ya? :) He wants to use the "orphan money" this time to help orphans in Kyrgyzstan have a special Christmas. The entire holiday bazaar is a benefit for missions (a trip to the Domincan Republic to an orphanage), so please save some of your holiday gift shopping for Saturday, and buy meaningful gifts for a great cause!

There's even a Kids Zone, so if you need a few hours to run errands around town, you can have a moms-day-out for a donation!

HOLIDAY BAZAAR
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4
8 am – 5 pm

Unique and wonderful Christmas Gifts!
Dozens of vendors will be offering a broad range of items!• Jewelry • Ceramics
• Antiques • Salsa and Chili Blend Gift Packs
• Cosmetics • Jams and Jellies
• Ornamental Glass • Girls Accessories
• Banners • Cakes
• Poinsettias • Hand-made baby shoes
AND SO MUCH MORE!

Family Christmas Photos
Have your family’s photo taken in a fabulous Christmas setting!
Just in time to put in your
Christmas cards.

Gift Wrapping – Available ALL WEEK!
We’ll wrap ALL your gifts. Just drop them off and pick them up later.
Beautiful hand-made gift tags add a unique flare under your tree!
Gift-Wrapping Hours: (Sunday, Nov. 28 – Saturday, Dec. 4)
Sun: 3-7 pm Mon-Fri: 6-9 pm Sat: 8 am-5 pm

Holiday Bazaar Cafe
Tasty lunch and dessert items will be on sale. Plan to stay, eat and chat with friends.

SHOP WITHOUT YOUR KIDS
It’s easier to shop without the little guys in tow. All day
Saturday, Dec. 4 we’ll have a special Kids Zone where they can play games, do crafts and tons more fun stuff. We’ll feed them too! You can drop them off, shop all over town, and pick them up when you’re done! All for a donation!

For information about having your own booth at the Hope Holiday Bazaar,
contact Tara Shepherd, 316-706-5517, fish2shep@gmail.com
Hope Community Church • 1831 E. 21st Street • Andover, KS • (next to the Andover Turnpike exit)

Holiday Announcements

Is anyone still out there??? :)

I'll be at Hope Community Church in Andover on Saturday December 4, 8 am - 5 pm! The entire holiday bazaar is to benefit missions, so I hope you'll stop by to shop for meaningful holiday gifts!!!

If you need a custom bow to match that special holiday dress, contact me soon! I am going to try to be done with custom orders by the first week of December and not lose focus on my family and the holiday season.

Earlier this week I set up with samples of all kinds of hair stuff at the school Calvin attends, where they have uniforms. Proceeds are going to Drawn From Water. Please check out their ministry if you don't know about them yet!

Contact me if you need hair accessories to coordinate with a school uniform or dress code and I'll put your order toward the Drawn From Water fundraiser, too!

Birthday Bows

I haven't completely dropped off the map with bow-making during this domestic adoption. I've had a few custom orders to match dresses for weddings coming up soon, bows to match my friend's stuff, finally got Fallyn's rainbow-stripe pigtail set made, etc.

This weekend I made this birthday bow for a special little 6-year-old's party we went to. I love how it turned out! It's all I had of the "make a wish" ribbon, but if you need a custom birthday bow, I can do something similar, or something completely different! Let me know if you need a special bow for that special outfit.

The doo-dads are glued on with an industrial-strength glue if you're worried about the little parts. They are HARD to pull off, trust me!

Update! (and Helping an Adoptive Family)

I'm SO behind on letting you all know that Rick and I decided it'd be best to not take on a big project (the dresses and donated dresses in previous posts) for March. He was overwhelmed and I was overwhelmed, just with life in general. Then about a week or so after that decision, we started talking more about making a decision about whether to do a domestic adoption during the Kyrgyzstan delays. We decided that we would pursue a concurrent adoption. So now we're in a whirlwind with that process, so the decision a week before was definitely the right thing, for more reasons than we knew! Please add our family blog to your subscriptions and follow our journey! Because of the need for parents open to any race/ethnicity, this could go VERY quickly. . . we'd appreciate your support and prayers!

I thought about restocking the Etsy shop with some spring/summer items, but that isn't going to happen. . . As always, though, you're always welcome to contact me for a custom order!

Click here to read about a family who is on the homestretch of raising the final $3,000 to bring home TWO precious girls from across the world who happen to have Downs Syndrome. They are having an Ebay fundraiser, including a couple items from Sugarplum Boutique. Go see what you can buy and help Harper and Hailee come home!!!

Good Timing for Pillowcase Dresses!

Right after I wrote my last post about vintage pillowcase dresses, I read something on a blog I follow and decided it WOULD be a good time to sew a few and see how it goes! The blog is Real Hope for Haiti Rescue Center, and I encourage you to check it out.

They are asking for donations of--get this--pillowcase dresses! The dresses are perfect for the orphanage because they're light and breezy.

I decided it's fine time, then, to start on some vintage pillowcase dresses. If you purchase one from Sugarplum Boutique, your purchase will also include a handmade dress that will be sent to the orphanage in Haiti! I have a couple friends lined up who have a heart for orphans and are great sewers who are willing to sew the donated dresses. Thanks, ladies!

Once I get some pictures and more information ready, I'll hopefully be able to take some orders this week! I'm a little nervous, honestly, because I know not everyone is "into" vintage or appreciates it. :) But I hope that there are at least a couple buyers out there, considering the double-whammy of helping orphans--the purchase going toward orphans/adoption in the first place, plus the dresses that are going to the orphanage!

So stay tuned!

Vintage Dresses?

I've always wanted to expand Sugarplum Boutique *someday* to include sewn items made with sweet vintage materials... I'm sewing Fallyn's Easter dress from a vintage sheet and wondering if I should make a couple extra dresses at the same time to try to sell... And some pillowcase dresses. I love pillowcase dresses. I don't mean just pillowcase-style, because there's lots of those out there. I mean the real deal...sweet little sundresses made from actual pillowcases. I have a stash of adorable vintage pillowcases just waiting for the right time to expand to include stuff like that in Sugarplum Boutique.

Since there is so much hand-sewn stuff for babies and kids out there these days using modern prints, I don't want to try to compete with that. Plus, I just looove those sweet original vintage prints so much, not to mention the vintage softness that you can only find with vintage pillowcases and sheets. There's just nothing like it!

The main dilemma is the time commitment as a SAHM with young kiddos. These years are priceless and I'll never get them back. And I'm being protective with these next several months since our firstborn goes to Kindergarten this fall, plus there are so many things I need to get done around my own house! So all that, coupled with the gamble that there may or may not be buyers out there, the time it takes to put it on Etsy...

What to do, what to do...

Perhaps I can coerce one or two of my sewing friends, like this gal, to help a little... :)

p.s. Go to my family blog and enter my giveaway this weekend! I think you'll really like it!

Still Here...

Quick post before Rick and I leave for Iowa for his school's last homecoming! The smallest school in Iowa is closing after this year. Check out a couple pics here--you'll be impressed!

Well, I've enjoyed a break from bows this month. The busy season a couple months ago just took it out of me! Trying to think through how much to do this spring/summer... How much to focus on the Etsy shop, preparing for shows for 2010... I've realized this month just how busy last fall and December was. In the end it was worth it, but it really was too much of a toll on our family. It was a bit of an experiment to see how many shows I should do in a season, so I kinda just had to go for it and see.

So this month I've been more rested (which is a huge benefit to my family), and I've had much more time I have to spend quality time with the kids and get things done around the house. I don't have the desire yet to pick it back up to speed, restock the Etsy shop with new pics and listings and all that jazz. A big part of that is the fact that Calvin is going to Kindergarten next fall! I never wanted a part time job having young kids at home, so I need to figure out how to keep this at a "hobby level" as best as I can for now.

AND, we're hoping that adding another child to our family (via adoption) is not TOO far off in our future. My nesting instincts are kicking in, even though it's likely we could have another 12 months or more ahead of us. But time flies with young kids, so it's really not all that much time. I want to spend more time focusing on things I've wanted to do for my kids and our home, and I've already got some of those things done this month! Keep an eye on our family blog for pics of fun projects--I spent last weekend with boards and a saw making a castle for outside play (pics as soon as it's painted!), I've got a spaceship project lined up for Calvin's room, robot PJ pants for Calvin, a little makeover for our living room, Fallyn's quilt...

All that being said, I am DEFINITELY still taking custom orders, you can still stop by to buy bows, you can still shop the Etsy shop... I'm just kickin' back a little for now.

Hope you all have enjoyed your month!

December in Pics

The kids love to "help".

Tara and I each had our own booth space side-by-side and opened it up into one big space. We loved our location being alongside the wall of the gym....perfect spot for our stuff. And Fallyn, who spent the 2nd day with me. She loved her little perch. Check out Tara's new machine--if you need any custom embroidery (monograms, names put on blankets or shirts, etc.), she's your gal! She's GOOD.

Outfit for my niece, sewn by Tara. The skirt is an adorable tiered skirt and so well-made! Of course I had to make matching bows!

Special pigtail bows for my niece, who told me her favorite colors are "pink and orange together." I cannot for the life of me, get pink to show up in photos very well. Doesn't look so hot here, but they're really cute in person.

Fallyn's Christmas bow, which matched the dress from Grandma perfectly, as well as a dress I sewed for her out of this fabric. No green in this fabric, but I just had to use the gorgeous jewel! So cute with a plain ivory top, too.

Special pigtail set I made for Fallyn.

This ribbon is too sweet! It matches so much with shades of green and pink!

Vintage earrings turned into hair clips!

Get exactly the size and colors you want with a custom order! Here's a small order I did for a friend, who picked her perfect size and ordered a few basic colors, with a little sparkle in the middle (no extra charge) to add a little somethin' to a plain bow.

Pray for Our Friends!

This is unrelated to Sugarplum Boutique (except that Ian--the dad--is the one who donated his time to design the Sugarplum button/badge for me!), but I just wanted to get more word out so that more people can be praying! Pray for our friends and their baby girl!

New Items, Ebay, and the WINNER!

Here are the most recent additions to the Etsy shop! This little flower clippie has been a bestseller at shows and to other customers. I love the fact that these little flowers suit any age! There are more varieties of small flowers on Etsy.

These are my newest product! I just started making these in time for the last show I did. They are real-feel hydrangea petals... they're so gorgeous I think!

This is the biggest bow I have made to date, with the widest ribbon I carry (2.25"). Right now I only have it in light ivory. You can contact me if you really like this size and want it in more colors. Depending on what you need, I may be able to add it to my next bulk ribbon order.

I snatched up this brown/ivory snowflake print ribbon as soon as I saw it! I only have 2 available, so snatch it up in the Etsy shop if you like it! I love versatility, and this bow would span all the winter months, not just Christmastime! I am keeping one for Fallyn to dress up her plain ivory shirt or her brown sweater.

Here are some 5" bows made with 1.5" wide grosgrain in colors that would match many of the holiday dresses out there. They're in the shop, and you're not limited to just these 4 colors (dark red, white, light ivory, brown), that's just all I had ready for a pic. Let me know if you need a jewel in the middle instead of the plain knotted center. It's an inexpensive way to add a little something special to a plain bow!

If you're interested in ordering several bows of the same size in various colors (whether it be this 5" bow or a different size), email me for details about a discount on orders of 7 bows or more.

I have several brand-new-with-tags Vera Bradley handbags on Ebay (here) that are oh-so-cute! Retail price is $45.00, starting price is $19.99.
Quality handbag + helping orphans/adoption = Great gift idea for ladies on your gift list! :)
If you live locally and want to pick them up, you don't have to worry about the shipping charge.

I haven't received the Kyrgyz wool felt items I had planned on listing at the same time as these purses, so that will have to wait.

And the winner of the giveaway is ....... my friend Julie! I promise it was not rigged :) You might remember her from this post about a bow party fundraiser for their adoption. They are expecting their referral for their little Ethiopian son ANY DAY!

Thank you, everyone who left comments, told your friends, posted on your blog, etc.! I wish I could send all of you free stuff!!!

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I'm truly thankful for all of you and your support and encouragement!