All American Girl

In honor of Memorial Day and the 4th of July, which is coming up quicky, check out this new to tutu bug, All American Girl tutu!  Who wouldn't love showing their pride in the U.S.A with this super cute tutu.  This tutu is made with royal blue, red, shimmery red and white tulle.  It can be finished off with a red, royal blue or white ribbon bow.  You can check out the link on my website here.

tutu bug Shout Out!

This week I want to hightlight one of my followers, Rita, from Bitsy Baby Photography (http://photographybyrita.blogspot.com/).  She lives in Maryland and is a photographer specializing in photographing infants, children and their families.  She does this with great skill, artistic ability and truly captures beautiful images.  Now most of us know a few, if not several photographers who do this sort of work, but what I love about Rita is her passion for her work and her desire to create lasting memories of children and their families.  Even if you don't live in her area or have small children, you still ought to go and check out her beautiful pics!  So swing on by and give Rita some bloggy love!!  In the meantime, here's a sample of her amazing work...

tutu bug Tutu Giveaway Winner!

Thanks to all my new (and old) bloggie friends for entering my tutu bug tutu giveaway!  I was so excited to see such a great response! 

Now on to the good stuff, the winner of my drawing (based on http://www.random.org/) is #76, which is Lisa from Beyond the Cover.  You can check out her blog here.  Congrats Lisa!!!

It's Giveaway Time!!

In celebration of my newly released website, it is now time for a tutu bug giveaway!  The giveaway is for any one tutu of your choice that I have offered on my website in any size between 0-6T, shipping included. The contest will run for one week, starting Saturday, May 15th through Monday, May 24th.  Here's how to enter:

1-Become a follower of my blog at http://www.tutubugblog.blogspot.com/, then browse my new website at http://www.tutubug.com/ .  Come back here and post a comment with your favorite tutu (This step is required and is worth 1 entry).
2-Grab my blog button and put on your blog (worth 2 entries).
3-Blog about my giveaway, with a link back to my site (worth 2 entries).
4-Facebook about my giveaway (worth 1 entry).
5-Follow me on Facebook at tutubug.com (worth 1 entry).
6-Twitter about my giveaway (worth 1 entry).
7-Follow me on Twitter at tutu_bug (worth 1 entry).

As you can see, you have lots of opportunity to be entered into this drawing!!  Step one is required and steps 2 through 7 are all optional.  For EACH entry, please leave a comment after this post letting me know which step you have completed.

To find the giveaway winner, I will use the true random number generator at http://www.random.org/, based upon the number of entries I receive. 

Good luck!!

We're Live, Folks!

It's official, as of today, my new website (http://www.tutubug.com/) and updated blog are officially up and running.  I am SO very happy to announce this, as I have been working on it for about 6 weeks now.  I think it turned out great and I cannot wait for you to go check it out!  I have to say, when I first started up my own business, I thought to myself, 'Hey, how hard can it be to make your own website?!'  Oh seriously, if I only knew, I probably would have gone screaming the other way!  When I first created this blog, I thought that it was pretty challenging (hey, I am not, WAS not, too web savvy).  Let's just say blogs are to making toast as websites are to cooking coqauvin or a chocolate souffle - definitely harder!   But, it was a wonderful learning experience and I am pretty proud to call it my own.  I would definitely do it all over again in a heartbeat (Yeah, ask me that the first time my site crashes!)  Anyway, without further ado, please help me welcome my new site to the world wide web by visiting it at http://www.tutubug.com/ !!

tutu bug Shout Out!

This week's tutu bug shout out is for Heather from Fertility Chick (http://fertilitychick.blogspot.com/).  She candidly and humorously shares about the struggle she and are husband are dealing with in regards to infertility.  I've had several friends struggle with this as well and so many find it too hard to share their struggle with others.  So it's wonderful to see 'Fertility Chick', as she likes to be called, openly talk about how hard and pretty much sucky it is, to go through infertility.  All the medical procedures, hormones, shots, visits to the gynecologist and the worst of course, is the waiting and waiting...would be so emotionally and physically and spiritually draining!  What I love about Fertility Chick is that she has a 'bring it on' attitude; she is determined to become a mother and the humor, candor and bluntness she brings to her blog is so refreshing.  Just to give you an example, she writes poems about her ovulation.  It goes a little something like this:

Two big, mature follies,

One on the left, one on the right,

Time to T-R-I-G-G-E-R tonight.

Will one be THE ONE?

With time we'll see.

IUI on Saturday,

Then the two week wait insanity!

I mean who can't appreciate a woman who can write about something like this?!?!  She is my kind of GAL!  So, please swing on by and give Heather a little bloggy love, why dont-cha?!

I am a member of this great community of fellow bloggers called The Secret in the Sauce (http://www.thesitsgirls.com/), where we support eachother by viewing and commenting on eachothers blogs.  Every Saturday they have a blogger who talks about how to make YOUR blog better and I thought that this weeks article was awesome.  This week's featured writer is Marlynn from http://www.marlynnschotland.com/ and she has very helpful information when it comes to creating your 'About Me' section on your blog:

Photo
Whether it’s a photo of you or your family, be sure that you have a current photo that tells readers in an instant who you are and what you’re about. So much can be said through photos: what clothes you’re wearing, your expression, your body language, the colors in the background. Remember to use a photo that speaks volumes of your brand, and include a watermark.

Location
While I do not advocate including your home address and telephone number, your readers want to know where you are in the world. This is just another way for them to feel a connection with you. At the very least, include a state (and country if you’re out of the United States).

Personality
Are you quirky and alternative or do you see yourself as more mainstream and the Average Jane? Do you like bacon as much as I do? What’s on your iPod or what’s your favorite organizing app? Inquiring minds want to know details that show glimpses of your personality that make you different from all the rest, so try to include items that also tie in with your blog focus (i.e. mention your fave cartoons if your blog is all about children’s television programming).

Details, details
How long have you been blogging? Why did you start the blog? What makes your blog unique? What will readers NOT find on your blog? Spelling out your blog history & mission is fantastic way to ensure you retain quality readers.

Press
Even if you have a separate Press page, it’s always nice to include one little line in your bio about press to help add to your credibility. Include if you’ve been quoted in national magazines or even local community papers, if you write a regular column for another blog, if your blog has been featured elsewhere, and so on.


Contact
You should have a separate contact page and/or contact info in your footer or sidebar so it shows up on every page of your blog, but it’s also always a good idea to include a short mention of how to contact you at the end of your bio on your About page as well. Since you’ve reeled ‘em all in with your stellar bio, now they’ll be clammoring to get a hold of you, so make it as easy as possible for them to do so.

A final note from Melanie:  I personally think these are ALL awesome tips and hope you do too.  I can't tell you how many blogs I've visited where I go to send a personal note to the author and there is NO contact info anywhere!  I don't always want to leave a comment for everyone to read, rather I'd like to contact them directly.  So, I hope you have found some useful info and HAPPY BLOGGING!!!

Website Update

Well, I was hoping for a May 1st launch of my new website, but unfortunately that didn't happen.  Between having lots of family come to visit (for some reason, those who live in the cold LOVE to come to Phoenix in March and April :)) and trying to coordinate the schedules of 7,  yes 7, families for my photo shoot, it was harder to hit that May 1st deadline than I thought it would be.  The good news is, my photo shoot was on Wednesday and it went great.  I had an awesome photographer come out and take great shots of my 5 cutie patootie models!  I can't wait to share with you some of the photos that were taken the other night.  I got the proofs Saturday and have been uploading data onto the new site all weekend.  My goal now is to have the site go live no later than Tuesday, May 11th, but am hoping for tomorrow sometime!!   Once the new site is launched, I will be doing a giveaway (or two) to thank you all for being so very patient with me during this 6 week ordeal :)!

New Tutus for Summer 2010

I have come put with several new tutus for this summer - they are all so gorgeous and I am SOOO excited to share them all with you.  I wanted to go with something that was very bright and colorful and summer-y, so I hope you like them as much as I do...Finally, many of them are without a name as of yet, so if you have any ideas, please let me know!!

P.S.  I love names that are food/beverage related, but am definitely open to other suggestions, too!! 

Unnamed #1 This tutu reminds me of something that is 'rich' or very decadant...

Unnamed #2  This tutu reminds me of the Caribbean, something very tropical and ocean-y...

Unnamed #3 This tutu was actually a custom tutu for someone getting tutus for their twins.  It turned out so cute I have decided to add it to my line, so a big thanks to Allie for coming up with the color combo!! 

Raspberry Lemonade

Bumble Bee

It's teacher appreciation week!

Teachers are overworked and underpaid, especially those who deal with my boys on a daily basis!!  So, as a very small token of my gratitude, thankfulness and appreciation for their hard work, I found this super cute and easy craft to do for them.  These are plain clipboards that have been embelished to create super cute clipboards.  Here are the instructions to make 2 clipboards:

Step 1: Gather your supplies.  You will need:
-2 clipboards (I purchased mine at Walmart for approx. $1.50/ea.)
-2 pieces of complementing scrapbook paper (watch the Joann's and MIchael's ads for sales)
-sponge paint brush (oops, forgot to put it in the first photo)
-Mod Podge
-Ribbon
-Paint (optional)














Step 2 (optional) : If you wish, paint the clipboard.  Once it is dry, move to step 3.

Step 3: Cut scrapbook paper to fit board, leaving a small margin around clipboard.  This helps to ensure that the paper won't lift during use. 

Step 4: Mod Podge the clipboard.  Put a nice, thick coat on there, be sure to use nice, even strokes.

Step 5:  Place scrapbook paper onto Mod Podge'd clipboard and press it down.  Use your fingers to press out any air bubbles that you might see.



















Step 6: Add more layers of paper if you wish, then paint a thin coat of Mod Podge over the top.  Be sure to paint all in one direction with even brush strokes to minimize streaking (unlike my photo there-I could try to blame it on the 5 yo helping me, but I don't think you'll believe me :)).

Step 7:  Let clipboard air dry.  It'll dry super fast in the summer sun!

Step 8:  Tie 3 pieces of ribbon onto the pen holder part of the clipboard and voila, your clipboards are complete!