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We are OPEN!!

Hello all!! Thanks for hanging in there with me during my Summer break! We had a wonderful time down in Myrtle Beach and I greatly enjoyed my time off. The kids are back to being "bored" today since the entertainment is over and Mom and Dad are back to work. I just finished opening the website and will have Ebay back up and running by tomorrow.

Closed for Summer Break! I will reopen on JULY 14, 2010!

Memorial Day.... In Remembrance

I know many of you are probably watching for a Memorial Day Sale and I am sorry to disappoint but we are just too close to my closing for summer break. The one year I ran a sale I greatly regretted it because I was still filling orders well past the day I had planned to be done and closed. ONLY 20 days left to get your orders in before SUMMER BREAK!

Super CUTE S!

Please Hang in There .......

Summer is coming way faster than I am ready for! My daughter only has 4 days of preschool left and my sons only have 14 days of school before summer begins.

I would like to ask all my new facebook fans and blog followers to hang in there through the summer. There are some cool contests and giveaways planned for late August/early September on FB but it might be super quite here for a couple of months.

A Crystal Garden will be closed for my annual summer break from June 17 - July 16, 2010. I sure wish there were more than one of me so that I didn't need to close but that is the reality of a one woman operation.

I am working on three new products that will be introduced as time allows. Marabou Puffs will be back in stock with many more color options and I love these from the new supplier. Snap n Go's will be introduced in two sizes, both mini (30mm) and regular (40mm). I have new ribbons on the way including Glitter Ribbon which is just to die for!! Korkers will be arriving with about 25 new color options including solids and a Princess Pink that is super pretty. Applique Row will also be growing. My plan is to get more pre-designed items up on the site for those who are more "color challenged" especially in the small layered bow section.

As you can see I have lots in store for the fall months. Please stick around for the new and exciting things to come!

Introducing the Newest Customer Cutie!

I was just checking my email this evening for the last time and look what I found in my inbox! It is Julie's cutie patootie! I just can't tell you all how much I love getting pictures of your girls wearing the bows I have made. Thank You Julie!! She is so beautiful.

Korker Sale!!

LOTS of new korkers just added to the site today! Super cute color combinations. Introductory Sale 15% off already low prices, May 5th - May 9th. Solid colors will be arriving mid-summer along with lots more pinks! I already took two Patriotic ones out of inventory for my daughter and it was hard to not take more! I... just LOVE these. :) For those of you that know me, know I hate to bake korker ribbon (it stinks up the house) but love korker bows so I searched for a high quality supplier to make them for me. SUCCESS!

Our newest customer cutie!

Beautiful!! This little sweetheart is wearing custom made A Crystal Garden hair bows. Her mom sends me a picture of the outfit and I do my best to make a bow that will match. These turned out just wonderful. She is just so cute! Thank you so much to Teresa for the pictures.

Giveaway going on NOW!

I have a giveaway going on now over at Couponing to Disney for a Magical Vacation Gift Set. For those of you who don't know me well, my other passion along with making hair accessories is being a "coupon" mom. I started using coupons March 2009 and have never looked back. I love the thrill of the hunt for a bargain and have saved my family thousands of dollars! My motto - "NEVER pay full price for ANYTHING!" I suppose part of that is why I sell hair bows at wholesale prices to the public as every girl deserves to wear a hair bow.

The Newsletter is back!

A few months ago I closed down my newsletter since the service was costing me way more than it was worth. I have finally been able to use the software that is available with my hosting and have a new newsletter set up. Old subscribers have already been added but here is the link for all my new customers! http://www.acrystalgarden.com/pages/joinourmailinglist.php

Site is back up! Yeah!

Site is back up! Never heard from my hosting company but all looks good this morning.

Website is down......

Ugh! My site is down and I have no idea why. I have put in a support ticket with my hosting company trying to find out what has happened. I know I didn't cause it and didn't even know until I started wondering why orders stopped coming in. Hoping it is a quick easy fix on their end and I will be back up quick.

Sneek Peek at what is coming this summer.....

KORKERS will be here! I just love korker ribbon but I hate to make it. I found a supplier that makes beautiful korkers and the price will be nice! These five will be made available on the website soon but they are in limited quantities! More are on the way in other colors.

Check out our new....

at A Crystal Garden! That's right! Everything in this section is only .99. There are some super duper cute appliques and other items already in there but I also spent today ordering a bunch more that will start off at the .99 price! Brand new items! No more waiting on sales, everything in this section will be .99 ALL THE TIME!

Visit the .99 Spot Here!

My daughter's Easter Hair Bow

I haven't made a bow for my daughter in months! She has a special dress picked out for tomorrow and wanted a hair bow to go with it. This is what I whipped up and her comment "Just Perfect". Awww.....melted my heart.

Happy Easter! I hope you are all enjoying this time with family and friends. We have a busy day tomorrow starting with church then lunch with my brother and sister-in-law and then on to dinner at my mother-in-laws. Good eats and great times with family.

No Shipping Easter Weekend

There will be no shipping Easter Weekend - Friday through Sunday. I imagine I will have a large number of packages going out on Monday.

Our Newest Pooch Patch Pup! Ms. Meika

OH MY, Can you get any cuter than that!! What a sweet heart and so cute in her Simply Sweet Dog Hair Bow!

Summer is Just Around the Corner..... Order your Patriotic Bows Early.

Ok, well maybe more like two months away but I wanted to give all my blog and FB friends a heads up about my planned summer schedule.

Starting around the second week of June, I will only be making Sweet Petite Baby Bows, Small 2 1/4" bows and Simply Sweet Dog Bows for the summer months. I am able to sew these bows at night and assemble them in the morning while still having a large portion of the day to spend with my kids who will be on summer vacation. Other than items that I don't have to make, the rest of the website will be closed for the summer and will not reopen until around the third week of August.

I also have some closing dates in which I will be completely closed, as you can see on the sidebar for July 4th and Labor Day holidays.
June 17, 2010 - July 11, 2010
August 29, 2010 - September 7, 2010

So this just means if you are thinking of ordering Patriotic Bows or Back to School larger bows, please plan to order them early.

If this still proves to be too heavy a load to keep up with while my kids are home, I will have to make further adjustments but right now feel this is the best solution.

Thank you to each and every one of you so much for your continued support of my fun home business A Crystal Garden.

Website is back open!

Store is back open and ready for business! The kids had a great time at their party tonight, my house is almost back to cleaned up and I am ready to start making bows again.

Oh...Say it ain't so!

Nature is truly working against me this week. MORE SNOW is coming! I had grand plans of heading to Costco tomorrow and loading up on food and party stuff. I wanted to clean on Friday and bake the cake as well as some brownies and cranberry bread. Saturday would be a day of touch up and some Wii playing with my kids. Saturday night all the party guests would arrive and my now 7 and soon to be 5 year olds would be enjoying their party.

BUT NO! It is supposed to snow tonight and all day tomorrow 6-12". I closed the store to prepare for a party that may be canceled, well at least pushed to next weekend. URG....... Parking is the true issue since we will be dug out by Friday night or early Saturday morning but can't really have guests over if there is no where to put their cars.

Ah.... the best made plans.......

I may be reopening sooner than planned. It does feel good to be almost completely caught up on making bows though. :)

Website Catch Up Closing....

I always hate to have to do this but I will be closing the website today in order to catch up on orders and everyday life! You all have blessed me with a large number of orders that stays at a pretty high level continually. I asked God to bless my business and WOW has he ever. My mom jokes with me to be careful what you wish for. LOL.

We are celebrating two birthdays this next Saturday and I need to get my house cleaned and in order and I also have a large pile of orders that need to be completed.

I will continue to work on all the current orders in house until they are all shipped. Ebay will not be affected by the closing and I will continue to fill Ebay orders as they come in.

Over the years I have been told to just increase my shipping times instead of closing the website. Problem I have with that is when orders come in I feel like I should be working on them. I try to play with my kids and enjoy their birthday weekend while in the back of my head the number of orders piling up makes me feel stressed and thinking I should be working. I suppose that is one of the downfalls of having an at home business, as in you are also always at work. :)

The End of the Newsletter.....

I have decided to end my service with YMLP which is the service I used to maintain my newsletter. After looking at the cost of $45/year and the amount that I actually use the newsletter, it made sense to save that money and use it in better ways.

I plan to offer some freebies and discounts to facebook fans in the summer months and possibly sooner depending on how things are going. All communication will now be done through FB and this blog.

Business has been nothing but Superb this year! Thanks to all of you!

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Happy Chinese New Year! So I am a day early but we will be celebrating tonight with local Chinese take out. I know it isn't "real" Chinese food but we still like it and can pretend we are sitting at our favorite restaurant in Nanchang. As many of you know our daughter was born in China so we like to celebrate events from her heritage and I have learned so many interesting things about a country that is truly magnificent. Look past all the "political" jargon and you will see a beautiful country full of culturally diverse people that are just like you and I.

For more information about the Chinese New Year, I found a great site: http://www.theholidayspot.com/chinese_new_year/

Gong Xi Fa Cai means wishing you to be prosperous in the coming year.

Big Snow again!

Here it is again! Big snow storm and we are snowed in today and tomorrow at least. Nothing will be shipped until at least Friday. My hubby is in the kitchen cooking yummy pancakes this morning. Mmmm they smell so good!

Also want everyone to be aware that we may lose power later due to high winds expected. We frequently lose power during storms. If I don't answer emails or questions quickly this will be why.

Happy Snow Day to everyone in the Northeast! It is like a friend on FB said "for all those affected; the Northeast USA will close tonite at 8pm. We will reopen on Thursday morning. We apologize for the inconvenience." - too funny but so true!

Seriously?? MORE SNOW?

As you can see by the picture we have having loads of fun with all this snow! We got around 30 inches on Saturday and have been playing ever since. What is amazing is that starting tomorrow night into Wednesday we are supposed to get another 18-24 inches! I have no idea where they are going to put it all to make the roads passable in our neighborhood. This is a kids dream world with no school until next Tuesday for my kids between days already scheduled to be off and snow days.

For ACG business, orders from this past weekend will go out tomorrow and if yours is included a shipping notice will go out from paypal in the morning. I don't expect to be able to ship again until Friday at the earliest. I will just have to see how things go with the snow and I can't work as fast when all the kids are home. I have to build a few snowmen myself as well as sled down the driveway or I am just not being a good mom. :)

Anyone want some Snow??

I don't know about you guys but this is what it looks like outside my house today and it is still snowing! Last I looked they were reporting 20+ inches for us but we have not ventured outside yet. I have Chili in the slow cooker and the hot chocolate ready for after snow warmth. Surprising enough, I think I have the only kids on the planet that are not big fans of the snow. I know when I was young we would have been out there the minute we woke up!

As far as ACG business goes, I have all my orders caught up for once! I thought I would be playing in the snow with my kids today and worked hard to get them caught up so I could play without feeling like I needed to be working. I have been working on the blog and updating the header and slide show. Next up is to add the new Simply Sweet Clip sets I have created to the website. I also need to update all the dreaded color lists for each item. This is one task I truly do not like as I have to go into each item to update them. It is so frustrating that there is not an easier way to do that.

Hope you all are enjoying your families on this wonderful Saturday!

North East are you ready?? For the SNOW!

I am super busy here at A Crystal Garden trying to get as many orders shipped out tomorrow morning as possible. Depending on the snow it could be Tuesday before I can ship again. I know some of you way up northerners are saying. Puh - what is 12+" inches?? We handle it pretty well here too but it could mean no school on Monday and Tuesday which means I wont get out to mail my packages. I also want to get lots of orders done so I can play in the snow. :)

But the real purpose of this post is to let everyone know shipping may be delayed a couple of days while I hunker down, drink hot cocoa and build snowmen.

Our newest customer cutie!

I was so excited to get these photos today. It has been a dry spell for sharing pictures of my wonderful customers kids! Ok, break over back to making bows.

Whew!!

I was finally all caught up on orders for the first time since well before Christmas and was enjoying some time to do other things. I love to make hair bows but a break once in awhile is nice. Usually the last two weeks of January are a bit slow according to the last couple years of sales figures so I thought I was going to have a bit of time to spend on my messy house.

The weekend was spent cleaning out the basement and while that wasn't fun boy did it feel good when I was finished. All the junk is cleaned out and what is left I either need to keep or felt like it could be sold on Ebay.

While walking through Target yesterday with my mom (it was her birthday) we were commenting on how free we feel this week with no appointments, cleaner houses and bows all caught up. We planned another day of shopping. When we got home we had both lost power so that meant eating dinner out too. Yeah!

So this morning I sign on to find 11 (some rather large) orders all from one day! What a shock for one of the normally slowest weeks of the year. Today I am back to making hair bows. It is such a shame that I suppose that attic clean out will just have to wait. Ah.....too bad. (giggle)

What's in a Name?

I have been asked how A Crystal Garden got it's name since it has nothing to do with hair bows? When I made the decision to start my own little hobby (wasn't supposed to really turn into a business), I found that I enjoyed making beaded Swarovski Crystal Bracelets. Along with that I made a few little basic hair clips to sell on Ebay. The bracelets did really well thus the name A Crystal Garden since my bracelets were made with crystals.

While making the bracelets, I found that I had an obsession with ribbon. :) I started making the flower bows, basic clips and other small bows and they also began selling well. As time passed the hair bow part of the business dwarfed the jewelry part and I changed my focus onto the hair bows.

At this point I have stopped making any jewelry and now have a business name that has nothing to do with hair bows. Although I have considered changing it, I still like the name and think I will stick with it. :)

A Crystal Garden and Etsy....

I am so fickle! So I thought expanding in Etsy was a great idea and then during a car ride with my mom she has helped me see the light.

Her question was Why?

Hmmm...so I can get more business...

She says Don't you already have a hard time keeping up?....

Hmmm well yeah, I guess I don't really need to be doing that.

SOoooo I will not be expanding into Etsy. I was thinking I could put some easier to make items or premade items on there. But she is so right. Aren't moms great? I will add the sets that I already made for Etsy to my site.

Batgirl and smiley faces....

So have you ever wondered why there is a little smiley face on your packages that come from A Crystal Garden. My daughter wanted to know what job she could do to help me make bows so none other than batgirl herself is in charge of adding a little cheer to each and every Crystal Garden package.