Facelifts & Fashion & Frosting, Oh My! :)

So I guess the word is out, so I might as well just come out & tell everybody the news about the facelift....

RUFFLES RIBBONS N' BOWS BOUTIQUE HAS GOTTEN A FACELIFT!!!

New Logo!

So now ya know. ;-) 

I'm feeling a bit HOT with my store's new LOOK. 

"I feel so pretty, picture perfect beautiful!"

Click, Flash! 

Thanks to Michelle at http://cherishedmemoriesdesigns.net, we have a beautiful brand new logo & our Etsy store is totally revamped! Our new slogan is " Frosting & Flair, Sweetness You Wear!" 

You may even notice that the sections in my shop have been renamed as well:

~ Ribbons N' Royalty Tutus

~ Ruffles Truffles Tutus

~ Beautifully Basic Tutus

~ Happy Holiday Tutus

~ Delectable Bows

~ Belle Fleur Clips

~ Sweet Treat Headbands

~ Candied Hats

~ Scrumptious Bow Holders

~ Lil Cupcakes Crib Shoes

Its all about the "sweetness" with us! 

Be on the lookout for our Spring tutu dresses & Flower girl tutu gowns coming soon! 

Need a unique Easter dress that will blow everyone else out of the water???

Visit us in a week! Made to Order Easter Tutu Dresses will be available for sale!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/RufflesRibbonsNBows

In other news, there are some exciting things going on in my sister's lives that have me excited. So happy & feel so Blessed to have a great family & wonderful friends. 

Now for bed. My hubby's snoring is only SO bearable. ;-P

Thanks for sharing in my moment of elation & God Bless you & yours this weekend,

-`☆´- *´¨)
…… ¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)
… … (¸.•´… (¸.•` -`☆´-
.¸.•´•☆*¨★..~Chel

XOXO

What's New With Me, What's New With RRNB?

OMGosh! Has it been that long since I've written a blog post??? My life hasn't been that busy...has it? 

*sigh* 

Being Supermommy is a Blessing more often than not, but it's the 'not' times that make us question what the heck we are thinking half of the time. For instance, my hubby and I made the decision a long time ago to homeschool, which is awesome. We feel that God has led us to follow through on this course of Christ-centered education, so I'm happy I have a hubby who is on the same page as I am with that. Of course, since I'm the SAHM, I will primarily (and most certainly) be the one teaching our son & any children to come. But I don't really STAY home. As a matter of fact, having this Etsy business keeps me pretty busy during the day and most of the night, working often into the wee hours of the morning. And burning the candle at both ends doesn't prevent me from awaking at 8 a.m. and dragging through my home making breakfast, feeding our cats, feeding the neighborhood cat colonies (yes I DO help to trap/spay/neuter too), preparing our lesson for the day, checking emails, fiddling with social networks, writing my play & my christian childrens book series, dishes, housework, laundry, shopping/ to-do lists, phone calls, meet-ups/ playdates and spending quality time with my son...while petting the cats. Makes me want to just run off screaming down the street, like in a Looney Toons episode. Why CAN"T we just go Daffy Duck on our responsibilities? Moms deserve to have a mini breakdown and well as a mini vacation too!

Unfortunately, we don't get to do either. I always tell my mom, if I could go back into time & stop Eve from eating the forbidden fruit, I'd slap her one good for her part in the plight of women. However, on days like today, when the weather is above 80 degrees and I'm in my backyard taking photos of my little one riding his bike with the new helmet grandma sent him (adorable!), I'm reminded of my Blessings. 

I get to stay home and raise my son. How awesome is that? I get to nap once in a blue moon too. I also have some great pets and a hubby who works hard so that I can stay home & raise our kiddo. I'm in a new playgroup which seems absolutely awesome and we're about to join a christian homeschooling network of folks who can actually help me get the hang of this home educator thing. Whew! That is a lot! And I didn't even get to the part of my sweet extended  family, my best friends back home, my growing boutique business, going back to college in the fall and shedding 70 pounds. Sure I'd like more sleep and my house looks like we just got out of the Wizard of Oz tornado, but I'm getting there. With God's help ALL THINGS are possible, so I'm going to keep moving forward and being the best "me" possible. 

My Beautiful Family - Two year ago before I lost the 70 pounds! 

Arden 4 yrs old

HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT!!! 

Ruffles Ribbons N' Bows Boutique will be moving in a different direction. I've decided to focus primarily on tutus and tutu dresses. Oh sure, I'll still offer crib shoes, hairbows, bow holders, legwarmers, flower clips and more, but I'm figuring out more effective and unique ways to do so. Be on the lookout for our new look as well. We'll have a different logo and boutique look as well, so check back in with us in a week or two. 

SIDE NOTE! 

We'll be offering Couture Easter tutu dresses, M2M Gymboree hairbows & tutu sets, and Unique themed tutu sets & tutu dresses. I'm looking forward to going on this fashion journey with you gals! :-)

Have a Blessed Day! XOXO

~ Chel

P.S. BONUS! Coupon code for Free Shipping: FREESHIP1 to use the entire month of March! 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/RufflesRibbonsNBows

NEW YORK GIANTS TUTU SET IS HERE!!!

New York Giant Tutu Set is finished! Just giving my Blog fans the heads up, as promised. To purchase the Ready-To-Ship set (sized 24 months - 3T) or to request a custom order, go to:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/RufflesRibbonsNBows


Nite all! XOXO


Thanks & God Bless! :-)

-`☆´- *´¨)
…… ¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)
… … (¸.•´… (¸.•` -`☆´-
.¸.•´•☆*¨★..~Chel

New Year NEWS!!!

What is NOT to love about this pick me up, 'Funky Jesus Music'??? It rocks and gets my creative juices flowing! If I'm going to listen to great Christian tunes while making my creations, why not pump up the volume on cool faith-filled awesomeness that is Toby Mac? Rock on...and keep on praising! ;-)

Just a mini note to everyone...

I'm making SUPERBOWL tutus all week!!! Making a Giants tutu in a bit that will be ready to ship & taking a few custom orders as well. I will post photos & give my faithful followers the heads up right before I post them to Etsy, so be on the lookout to get first dibs!

Missed you guys over Christmas break!!! Now it is a New Year & I'm looking forward to moving Ruffles Ribbons N' Bows with the times. We will be focusing a lot of energy on tutus & tutu dresses for every occasion, holiday & season. We will even be making crazy themed tutus like:

CAT IN THE HAT TUTUS

PUNKY BREWSTER TUTUS

TWILIGHT TUTUS

No keeping up with the Joneses here. We are keeping up with the creativity! Will keep ya posted on more design ideas & please offer up suggestions or even request a custom tutu! 


xoxo

~ Chel

CREAMY CHEESY POTATOES

CREAMY CHEESY POTATOES

Going to try my hand at making the above recipe! Yummy! ;-)

Christmas Crazy Days, Coupon Codes & More!

Christmas Season is here!!!

I've been away for a bit being a busy mom of an even busier 4 year old! 

Homeschooling is AWESOME, but trying to balance teaching, crafting, photo taking, online business stuff, volunteering & looking into "real" Christian homeschooling curriculums for next year when I have to teach my little one...it's insane. 

Oh, I forgot to mention a huge thing...I'm dieting. 

Not really dieting in the sense that I'm depriving myself from the Holiday treats that come with Life-team potlucks, Holiday feasts, and free samples at Sam's Club (yummy!). 

I'm hoping that this will be a life-changing way of eating, for me. I've lost a little over 70 pounds (whoo-hoo!) since I've started this fat-smashing journey 4 years ago, but I'm ready to hop back on the wagon & lose about 70 more. My motivation? Valentines Day. Hehe...

Oh to fit my sexy black dress from when I was 17 years old and had a figure like Jane Russell. But I digress.

So how have everyone's Holiday madness been? Thanksgiving for my family was super awesome, as usual. I made my huge Turkey dinner from scratch, like I have all 6.5 years of my marriage. My husband doesn't give me nearly as many props as I'd like, so I'm taking a second (or two) to shower myself with accolades. :-D

My food is "da bomb" (for lack of a better adjective), and this year we got to share our holiday with Kim, our  Life-team's babysitter and my good friend. She made the day extra special and I had a buddy to pig out with after my hubby left for work that evening. =)

Nope, this is NOT my actual dinner table. Dont' feel like uploading pics now. :-)

So now I'm listing more Christmas hair-bows & tutus on my Etsy site and have been Blessed to gift some of my hair treats out at last week's Life-team meeting gift swap! It was so much fun to see the ladies fuss over who would get the hair bows. *sigh* I cannot wait to have a little girl... from my heart to God's ears.

   Christmas shopping is almost over...NOT. I have so many more family members and friends to get things or make things for. But the great thing about this season is the real reason we celebrate it. St. Nick was a great guy and all and he has his place in our home as the "sweet man who gave gifts to kids". We, as Christians, tells our kiddo that Santa is God's helper. He gives out gifts to kids to celebrate the birth of Jesus, since we can't physically give Jesus a gift. My son LOVES this idea! He even asked me if Santa was a Christian! What could I say, but a man that goes about Blessing people with kindness must believe in God. ;-)

This Holiday season, as we run from store to store chasing sales & clearance items, listening to Christmas carols on repeat until you'd like to throw the DJ over a (short) cliff, hurriedly wrapping your family's gifts before they burst through the door and spoil the surprise, remember the true meaning of Christmas. 

We are celebrating the birth of the one who lived and died for us. And we are reminded by our families smiling faces, the Blessing of having loved ones...and being loved.

Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas from our home to yours,

-`☆´- *´¨)

…… ¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)

… … (¸.•´… (¸.•` -`☆´-

.¸.•´•☆*¨★..~Chel

P.S. If your looking to save big bucks this Christmas on great quality gifts, check out my online store at:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/RufflesRibbonsNBows

♥♥♥ Use coupon code: CHRISTMAS to get FREE Shipping on your order! ♥♥♥

Business Mommies & Their Tazmanian Devils

So I decided not to promote my newest Fall items today. Because if I was going to do that I would TOTALLY tell you guys to check out the tutus, bow holders, crib shoes sets, and hair frosting that I've recently made. That's not what this blog post is all about...although if you'd LIKE to see those cool things, you can catch them at: 

www.RufflesRibbonsNBows.com

Since I'm not focusing on that right now, I'll go on to what I do want to speak about: our hectic lives.

Since seeing the film "I Don't Know How She Does It", I've been re-evaluating my life, my schedule, my mommy-son time, my mommy-cats time, my crafting time, taking photos of my crafts time, exercising time, laundry time, household cleaning time, time with my hubby, time for myself...*sigh*...see what I mean???

We moms are just way too busy! It doesn't matter if we are full-time homemakers, small or large business owners, working moms, single moms, homeschooling moms, couponing moms, blogging moms (uh-huh), we just have too many things to do and we tend to wear WAY too many hats to get the jobs done. But if we don't start really and truly taking care of ourselves, then we will quickly make the dive from SuperMom to PsychoMom. At that point you head to the nearest mental health therapist and down Zanax like they are MnMs. I personally don't take any stimulants or mental health meds, but I'm also not against it either. Whatever helps, do it. I, personally, pray and read my Bible for encouragement & guidance. I also, however, have an awesome understanding therapist who does wonders helping me to find "my way back to myself". 

Speaking of SELF...who are we? Most of us cannot answer that question because our identity is tied into what we have become and women, being the beautiful nurturers that Christ has made us, are always putting our needs on the back burner. I think that what ends up happening is that while we do lose sight in what our initial goals and ambitions had been pre-kiddos & responsibility, we have also lost ourselves. 

I can tell you that I have always loved to sew and that I am elated that I own an Etsy shop that is dedicated to spreading the "pretty" around and help gals of all ages feel like a princess. But recently that late-night crafting sessions and Etsy listing has me wired at 4 a.m. and sleepy at 10 a.m. My day is filled with household chores, play-dates  homeschooling, crafting, picture-taking, reading, writing, preparing to go back to college... Unbelievably exasperating, no matter how much of a Blessing it is. Some days I long for that time in my life when I was aimless, had a pre-baby body, and wanted to model for Ford or Wilhemina. I smile remembering the fact that I changed my hair-color more times than I did boyfriends, and I just knew that my writings were going to be as well known as the Nancy Drew book series. *sigh again*

HOKU - Perfect Day From My FAVE movie Legally Blonde!

Fast-forward to the present day. Although all I ever really wanted to be was a wife and mom, truth is, I miss the "old me" sometimes. That carefree me seemed to be able to do it all (even though I rarely did). So my new obsession is getting back to that place and space of realizing who Michelle is. Figuring out who I am in the midst of my hectic life, and strutting my stuff once I re-define that old diva deep down inside. Yes, I can be a SuperMom. I can even be a Super-Psycho-Mom and relish in it. But at the end of the day, I just want to be 'me'. So I'm eager to CREATE who that will be...

>>> Doing my John Travolta "Stayin' Alive" strut. <<<

♥The Strut :)♥

♥♥My Beautiful Little Blessing, Arden♥♥

XOXO

God Bless,

-`☆´- *´¨)
…… ¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)
… … (¸.•´… (¸.•` -`☆´-
.¸.•´•☆*¨★..~Chel