Fall '12

Fall '12 is here! We released our fall season collection today, well the beginning stages of it. Did you know that it takes an average of about 8-9 hours to upload, list, and load shopping carts in our etsy shop and on our website when we launch a new collection? So, you can imagine what I've been doing all day. I'm very excited about this collection. It's different, there's a lot of new items, and we've ventured into something that I said I would never venture into...children's clothes. It's crazy to think that almost 3 years ago I started off Dainty Button off with  accessories, mainly headbands, and now it's a complete clothing line. There are various different reasons as to why I've avoided this step for so long. One, it's  A LOT of work but at the end of the day, it's rewarding. This collection has simple pieces but we're taking baby steps here and maybe by next spring we'll have ventured off into more exciting chapters.

I've gotten a little bit of a late start on the collection this year but better late than never, right? I scheduled our photo shoot a couple months ago for mid-September with the genius of photographers again, Sam Hassas. He did our Spring '12 commercial shoot and it went over wonderfully. A week before our photo shoot, I dislocated my ribs, which caused my back to go out. I've never had back problems before in my entire life, so this was all new to me. I seriously don't know how people live day to day with consistent back problems. It was scary, painful, and so annoying. I'm always on the go and this was such an inconvenience. I really don't know how to take it slow. I had almost 15 models ready for our Fall '12 shoot and because the doctor ordered me to take it easy and rest I had to reschedule the week of. Sam Hassas is not a photographer that has many openings. He's in high demand and I knew I had blown my chances of him doing our fall shoot. I was wrong! He had an opening the following Saturday, which enabled me to recover those extra few days. I'm still not fully recovered but I'm much better. I went from almost 15 models to 5 models for this shoot due to the rescheduling. I was a little nervous about it because this was a large collection and I was afraid we'd be spread very thin. I was so wrong. 

I didn't put as much planning into this shoot as I did our Spring one. I was scrambling, rushing, and very off. My best friend from Texas came in for the spring shoot and we were so prepared. I literally threw every piece of clothing, accessory, and shoes that resembled fall in a huge suitcase and headed to location. I wasn't feeling too well and because of my back/rib mishap it had put me behind almost 2 weeks on everything. I had 2 adult models and 3 children. Our location couldn't have been more perfect, except it was in the 90's, the models were modeling very heavy fall pieces, the majority of the group were children under 7. They were absolute angels. The shoot could not have gone more smooth and without any hiccups. It was relaxed, fun, but very hot. 

Our location was literally in the middle of nowhere. There was a condemned barn which you'll see in many of the shots. The kids loved the barn and Sam had them believing there were whales in the creek, where they also took photos. 

We had intentions of using a tent we brought along for our dressing room and a place to relax during different scenes but it was the mother of all camping tents to put up, so we set up a dressing room in my sisters SUV, as well as other cars and used my car as the closet and vanity area. We had shoes lined up on the side of the road.

Meet Mehgan and Mikayla, our two adult models who are very good family friends. I couldn't have been blessed with better models. This shoot and collection was very different from our spring. They brought a very different dynamic to the entire collection, which I'm thrilled about. They were fun, professional, and natural at it. Such a fun time!

Fall 2012

What have we added this season? A LOT! We're launching our full children's collection, cardigans, and dresses! 

Here is a small gallery of our Fall '12 collection, which we have selected some feature items and you can now purchase in our etsy shop. You can find the collection on our website at the end of this week, as well. 

Dainty Button Children's Fall '12

Bow Ties

Can be purchased here

Reindeer Dress

Furry Shrug

Christmas Plaid Bow Tie

Can be purchased here

Elf Leggings

Taupe Shimmer Infinity Scarf

Can be purchased here

Splash of Autumn Dress and Legging Set

Can be purchased here

Grey Cobweb Dress

Can be purchased here

Cocoa Ruffle Leg Warmers/Boot Socks

Can be purchased here

Katy Bug Leggings

Taupe Shimmer Infinity Scarf

Can be purchased here

Sugar Plum Dress and Boot Socks

Can be purchased here

Santa's Little Helper Ruffle Leggings

Can be purchased here

Leopard Dress and Furry Shrug Set

Can be purchased here

Funky Fusion Purple Shimmer Dress and Furry Vest Set

Can be purchased here

Women's Fall '12

The Fall Knit Maxi Turtleneck Dress

Can be purchased here

You can also purchase this dress with our matching Plum Crochet Vest Dress

This can be purchased here

Ribbon Knit Skirt

Can be purchased here

Tweed Peplum Skirt

Can be purchased here

Polka Dot Knit Skirt and Zig Zag Cardigan

Can be purchased here

Burst of Autumn Knit Skirt

Can be purchased here

Arizona Winter Sweater Skirt

Can be purchased here

Red Plaid Short and Maxi

Can be purchased here

I hope you've enjoyed some of our featured items from our newly launched Fall '12 line. To see the rest of our collection, please visit our etsy shop. 

Until next time!

Charity and DB Team!

xoxo

PIN IT WARS!

We haven't done a giveaway in awhile and I wanted to do something a little different than the typical sharing a photo and commenting. Pinterest has taken over our lives and what better place to host this next giveaway and contest, right? This will be very simple and since most of you are already on Pinterest, fun as well. 

Rules and Guidelines:

To Participate:

1. You must be on Pinterest

2. Find us on Pinterest by searching "Dainty Button" or "daintybutton@yahoo.com" and follow us.

How to:

The PIN IT WARS contest/giveaway will begin on Friday, September 21st and end on Friday, September 28th at 11:59 PM (PST). Beginning on Friday, September 21st, we will PIN one of our favorite items to our pin board and announce this on our FB wall, with a link. We will post a favorite PIN every day during this contest. 

Your participation...

1. A Repin = 1 ENTRY 

2. Repin and a FB comment "PINNED IT" WITH YOUR PINTEREST USERNAME on the Pinterest link we post each day = 2 ENTRIES 

Rules:

1. Only one repin and comment will be accounted for daily, HOWEVER you are more than welcome to repin as many times as you'd like : )

2. The contest winner MUST notify us within 24 hours via email (daintybutton@yahoo.com) to redeem their giveaway.

3. The giveaway of choice will not be shipped until 21 BUSINESS days after redeemed.

How is a winner determined?

We will accumulate the total number of PINS and comments at the end of the contest and draw a random winner via random.org.

What is the giveaway?

The giveaway of choice will be a $150 SHOPPING SPREE redeemable in our ETSY SHOP or at daintybutton.com.

Now, who's ready for WAR?

Charity and DB Team!

FB Auction and POP UP SALE - Labor Day

Good morning and Happy Labor Day! Can you believe it's technically the last "summer" holiday and we're already in September? If you've been following us on FB or Twitter, I'm sure you've seen something about the POP UP SALE and FB auction we're kicking off today, in honor of Labor Day and it being our last summer sale, so to speak. I don't think we've ever covered a blog post about our POP UP SALES, so here is a good time to do it, while we're covering our FB auction.

POP UP SALES

We did our first POP UP SALE in April of this year, I believe. I never intended for the sales to become a weekly or bi-weekly event but it has evolved to just that. What is a POP UP SALE? A POP UP SALE is a FB exclusive sale for our FB followers, allowing them the chance to get items at extremely discounted prices. Sometimes we announce POP UP SALES, other times we don't and surprise followers. We post the pictures directly onto the FB wall, what the item is, what size (if clothing), how many we have in quantity, the price and shipping, then prompt followers to leave their email address. If there's 5 available, we'll send invoices to the first 5 that comment and so on. We give a 12 hour time window to have these invoices paid. For the most part most of the invoices sent are paid but there are those few that are ignored. We do try and stick to a tight 12 hour window but if you do contact us and let us know, we're usually good to keep the invoice open. A few other things to know about POP UP SALES...

1. If you comment on several items, we do our very best to combine shipping.

2. Items are normally not shipped from POP UP SALES until 5-7 business days after invoice is taken care of. We do our very best to include this info in the invoice but sometimes it's overlooked as we are distributing invoices very quickly.

3. Over the span of 5 months of doing these sales we have had situations where items were missing and invoices were overlooked. This is not intentional or us "scamming" you, as one customer recently told us. Ha! Sometimes, you just have to laugh. Please keep in mind that we are using a PayPal system, where there is no third party database, that's helping us manage orders, as our etsy shop or website allows. FB is basically our "online store" during this sale and when there are at times, well over 100 women commenting different items, it's extremely easy for us to overlook a comment. Again, we do our very best but mistakes do happen. I paid my invoice but never got my item. Once customers pay their invoices, our production team prints out all of the invoices from that sale. We try to print these invoices out after all of the invoices are paid but a lot of times production is wanting to start on it, as there is a 12 hour time window and if one item has been reissued a couple times, it could prolong the shipping status of others, and they start printing. If your invoice is not taken care of at this point, it's not printed. If it has been taken care of, again, it's extremely easy to overlook printing an invoice, which is why there have been occurrences where items have been paid but not shipped. It's simply an oversight on our part and we do our best to right it ASAP. 

 4. Quantity control and oversells: Before a POP UP SALE commences, we go through our inventory and see what we're wanting to get rid of or sale, count the quantity (keep in mind we're counting fabric and how many production can get out of what we have in fabric inventory), which is where we normally put the quantity on the post. There are times when oversells occur, which means there are too many comments and not enough to go around. When this happens, if we're able to obtain more fabric in inventory, we'll email the customers and let them know or offer a refund. We try to avoid this but it does happen every once in awhile.

5. POP UP SALE items are FINAL SALE.

FB Auction SALE

I've seen online auctions and always thought they were really neat but honestly never thought of doing one. One of my very dear friends suggested we do an online FB auction when I told her we were in the works of doing an "end of the summer" type sale. Her theory was "So many of us want items during your POP UP SALES but because we log on to FB way after you've posted, we don't even stand a chance. A lot of these items, I want so bad and other women do too, why not have an auction and let us outbid each other. If I really want an item, I'm going to fight for it. Ha!" So, today we're kicking off our very first FB online auction, which I'm very excited about. We will have two FB albums on our page, one that's POP UP SALE and the other that's Auction Sale. What's the difference in the POP UP SALE and Auction Sale? Our POP UP SALE will have items in quantities over 1, which makes auctions pointless. Our auction sale will have items that are one of a kind and we're also including some fall items that you'll see at full retail in our etsy shop and website in the coming week or so. We will post the starting bid, ask you to leave your bid. The auction will end tonight, September 3rd, at 11:59 PM (PST). Once the auction has ended, we will close the post out by asking the highest bidder to comment with their email address, where we can email an invoice. Again, we will use our 12 hour window to pay the invoice, otherwise it will be redistributed to the next highest bidder. 

Now, I'm off to finish preparing for this fun sale today! I hope to see you there!

Charity and DB Team!

Support Mary Jane

I hate cancer. I hate everything it represents...the heartache, hurt, pain, depression, fear. I have lost some very dear people to cancer, as I'm sure many of you reading this can say the same. This blog post is dedicated to my best friend and her family. Jana lives in Houston, Texas and married a good friend of mine from California. A few weeks ago, her mother-in-law, Mary Jane, was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. Jana is the young mother of two wonderful children and has spent the last 6 weeks here in California caring for her mother-in-law, as she begins chemo. I have heard the heartache and sadness in Jana's voice as she speaks of this and not to mention the toll it's taken on their family and friends. Along with cancer comes unexpected expenses, which is where I'm hoping I can play a part. Dainty Button  has designed a special infinity scarf in pink to support Mary Jane. 

This special LIMITED EDITION infinity scarf, which we have appropriately dubbed The Mary Jane, retails at $7 (plus shipping). Half of the proceeds will be going to a "Support Mary Jane" fund. There is a link at the top left corner of our blog to donate any specific amount, if you choose to do so. I'm rallying our customers, fans, friends, and family to support Mary Jane in spirit, prayers, and financially. Everybody needs someone in the bleachers cheering them on and I know Mary Jane and her family can use all of the support, prayers, and cheerleading they can get during this difficult time. Who's in? 

To purchase The Mary Jane Infinity Scarf directly from our etsy shop, please click here. We appreciate all of the support we receive and please keep Mary Jane and her family in your prayers! Let's help fight this for Mary Jane!


Charity and DB Team

Mary Jane and Jim Campbell posing with her "new hair".

Jana (my best friend), Jim, and Mary Jane.

Hosting a Trunk Show

Fall and the holiday season will be here before you know it and we at Dainty Button are preparing for the rush. During the holidays we do a lot of craft fairs and trunk shows, which make it fun because there's nothing more that I love than the holidays, mix in a little shopping and it's close to perfection. We attempted to do this endeavor a long time ago and received many inquiries but due to crazy schedules, we were not able to follow through with it. But now, we're thinking this is a great opportunity for us AND YOU! A wonderful customer of ours emailed me awhile back and suggested this and then it jogged my memory of what we had attempted to do a long time ago and I've not been able to get it off the brain. We'd like to bring the trunk show to YOU and YOUR AREA, by allowing you to host your very own Dainty Button Trunk Show. We're taking baby steps here and our first few trunk shows would be exclusive to our popular infinity scarves, only. We want to make sure this is going to work and what better way to break it in, than with some of our lovely scarves? So how does this work?

It's 3 easy steps and it's FREE...

1. Simply click on this link to fill out an application Dainty Button Trunk Show Application.

2. Once the application has been accepted, we will contact you within 48 hours, with further details and to secure a date, if you are a good candidate.

3. Every scarf sale you make, YOU get to keep $1 for yourself. Not only is this a FREE opportunity, you're getting paid. 

Interested? We're anxious to start booking Fall Trunk Shows! 

Let's get crafty!

Let's talk about crafts, shall we? I'm a very crafty person. I was raised with a crafty mom and I adore doing crafts, which would explain my business. I love DIY projects and I'm pretty good at looking at something and going home and doing it on my own. I would rather do it on my own, anyways. It's a talent, I guess you could say. And there are some that don't have a crafty bone in their body. I have a few friends like that and it's a disaster when they're helping me do something. It's ok, they admit to it. I have lost count of how many customers, intrigued, curious, and nosy (it's ok, most of us are) people have asked how we make our accessories at Dainty Button. When I was first asked this, I would just stay mum and say "thank you." I felt like I would be letting out a huge secret and punished for it, somehow. I'm weird, I know. But the more we've expanded at Dainty Button, the more I've come to realize that it's fun to share ideas. I love getting new ideas and I'm sure you do too. So, that being said, I'm going to announce something that we think is really exciting and I hope you like it as much as we think you will.

Last week, we were cleaning out our supply cabinets and was amazed at how much we had accumulated over the span of 2.5 years. I'm not sure if any of you participated but we had a big crafter's sale on FB and it was such a success. Leave it to me to start brainstorming. My mind never quits. I started thinking back to previous conversation's with friends and family, emails from young girls, women and even other businesses about our production process, etc. And I realized that I want to share what we do here at Dainty Button. You have the crafters that love to make things on their own and even resale them and you have the non-crafters that would not go within 10 feet of a glue gun. So, why not offer the best of both worlds to our customers, right? We started off as an accessories business and have taken a little break, so to speak, but this week we are launching new accessories and trying to get back in a groove, after many customers have contacted us and frankly, we really miss it. But with launching new accessories, which we will always have available, we are launching...

The Krafter's Kloset

This will officially launch on Friday, July 27th in our etsy shop Dainty Button etsy and our website Dainty Button. This will be a place where crafter's and even other accessory businesses can purchase crafting and accessory making supplies at a really great price. Here's what you can look for...

Fabrics

Buttons

Notions

Trims

Lace

Pre-Cut Felt Flowers (made with our European wool felt in a ridiculous amount of colors)

Rosettes

We're bringing it to you! We thought we'd give you a little idea of what will be offered and you can actually purchase these items today...

Rosettes in a Bag

Rosettes in a bag on etsy....

And last but certainly not least. 

Headband in a Bag

So, my business partner and best friend (one in the same) and I were just throwing ideas around and she asked me why don't I do a "headband in a bag." Genius, right! There's been several occasions where we've gotten customers who wanted a custom made headband or maybe something altered on a headband in our etsy shop or website. Well, this is having your cake and eating it too, so to speak. Just don't eat the headband. We're introducing "headband in a bag." What is it?

This is our first one, so more options will be available soon. 

1. Blank headband

2. Pre-cut unglued/unattached European wool felt flowers

3. Buttons/notions

4. Trims, lace, etc.

5. European wool felt pre-cut leaves

These items will differ and alter, depending on what designs we offer. This is allowing you to put your headband together as you please, but with our designs. You can purchase the one pictured now in our etsy shop...

Headband in a Bag on etsy

We're really excited about this and hope all of you crafters will be able to get some good use out of what we offer. Check back on this Friday, July 27th for the complete selection of crafting and accessory making supplies. Until then, cheers!

Charity and DB Team

Kept Promises

This thought has been on my mind all week long. I've been swamped in VBS (Vacation Bible School) for the past month and as we kick off our VBS tonight, it's been extremely busy this past week. What does this post have anything to do with DB? A lot. Let me explain...

Many people always ask me, "How did you start your business?" Well, believe it or not, it didn't just pop up in thin air. It actually started about 5 years ago, although I was not aware of this. I don't just put this out there all the time because I'm a very strong believer that your lifestyle, actions, and character will speak for themselves. That being said, I'm sure most of our blog followers, as well as social media, know that I'm a Christian. A little bit about me...I come from a strong Christian background and my dad is a preacher. I was always known as "the preacher's daughter" at school. I started working my first public job at 18 and worked my way up to management position in the dental field. I then became involved with the children's ministry in my home church, here in San Francisco and I realized I loved children. So much in fact that I became a teacher. Prior to becoming a teacher, I was in a very stressful job in the dental field. I was managing an office and with the hours and demands of my public job and the various ministries at my church, I was exhausted, not to mention discouraged. My heart was where my passion was and that was the church. I knew as an adult I just couldn't quit my public job and go volunteer at the church, so I began to pray. I prayed fervently for God to open doors so that I could give 100% of my time to the ministries in our church. I never quit praying this prayer, even when it didn't seem that this prayer would ever be answered. I started teaching in a Christian private academy, not really understanding that God was leading me through an open door that would essentially place me where I am today. See, I made a promise to Him. I told God that if He opened the door for me to work for the church or at least present an opportunity that allowed me to dedicate my time to the ministries of the church without the demands and stress of a public job, I would always put Him first. Always. I remember this strong thought one day that I couldn't get out of my mind "Stay faithful to what you're doing." That was my motivation every day that I got up for work dreading the day. I didn't dread teaching kids but it was so discouraging knowing I was putting in 8+ hours a day and my evenings were crammed full of various projects and jobs for the church. I was beyond tired and knew a burnout was right around the corner. I knew I had to stay faithful to what I was doing. Two years ago a friend of mine presented an opportunity to visit Europe with her. I knew that I would never get to Europe any time soon on my teaching salary, so I started making headbands selling them on the side. I never knew that this was the answer to my prayers 5 years ago. To make a long story short, I was able to quit my teaching job and put my time into building my business. This was the answer to my prayers, although I didn't even realize this until I set down with my dad and some business mentors to draw up a business plan. I was able to generate an income on my own hours, while dedicating my time to the ministries in my church. This past week as I've been at our church working on props and preparing for next week's VBS, I'm reminded that I never would've been able to do this 5 years ago. Yes, overseeing a business and making sure it runs efficiently is hard work, if not harder than a public job, but over the past two years God has placed a wonderful team of people in my path to help me run my business smoothly and efficiently, where when projects or events come up at the church, I can devote however many hours I need to that cause and not feel exhausted or tired. I'm reminded that God is faithful and keeps His promises. Don't give up on praying that prayer, even when it seems like God's not hearing it. He hears every prayer and in due season will reward it. Be encouraged today!

Here's what we've been working on this past week for VBS...

We made hot air balloons out of bouncy balls, fish net and baskets from the dollar store.

Gobs of clouds made from insulation foam core bard, traced out with a hot knife and covered in batting.

Ha! Me on our "white carpet."

Our diligent workers getting the clouds done.

Clouds, airplanes, and kites hanging from our foyer.

Our friends for the week. 

We used blue plastic table covers from the dollar store to cover our entire platform.

This was not very easy. So glad it's up!

A man in our church made this hot air balloon for us. This is a picture pre-completed but you can still get the "awe" effect. I really hope that fabric is salvageable after VBS because I'd love to have it!

Clouds suspended above the pews.

And our final stage set!

Charity
xoxo!