My Weblog

Parties

Before I let Sara take over this blog post, I must say Happy 8th Birthday Miss Amanda!

Here's Sara...."So....the 435 party and art fair are quickly approaching and we have been working out all of the lovely details to ensure you all have a swell time!  The party is Friday, June26 at 6:00pm and will be located at the fabulous Kachmann Gallery.  It's an art gallery, yoga studio, home to some of the coolest businesses around, and very cool place to host a party.  The party is family friendly and will have great entertainment for the kids and a great band for the adults.  As well as some really cute, single bartenders...and lots of really yummy hor d'oeuvres.  Oh, and I've also had questions regarding the attire, just be yourself, and be comfortable (and we definitely won't hold it against you if you are sporting some MJC ;)!  This is just for fun..we will not be selling art fair goodies at the 435 party...sorry!

We have reserved a block of rooms at the Residence Inn (5 miles away) for Friday and Saturday evening.  Our group code is MJCC and our group rate is $89.

We also have rooms reserved at the Hilton downtown (2 minutes) away  for Friday and Saturday.  Our group code is MAT and our group rate is $109. 

(thanks Laurel for the pic)...There are lots of fun events going on in downtown Fort Wayne too.  You should definitely check out our minor league baseball team, the Tincaps (I know the name is very intimidating!)  But, in all seriousness we have a brand new  stadium and it is AMAZING.  In fact Lynette and I just stopped by there this afternoon and we were in complete awe....and there's tons of stuff there for kids to do if you're bringing your families.  And the tickets are super cheap...you can get great lawn seats for $5!  We also have a great family zoo.  The Fort Wayne Children's Zoo was voted one of the top ten zoos in the country by Parents magazine!  Our Greek Festival  is also going on and is within walking distance from the Hilton.  Needless to say, I think there are tons of events going on that will you keep you busy!!

We are so excited to meet you all and can't wait for you to come to Fort Wayne!  On a sidenote, if you have emailed me and I haven't gotten back to you, please know that I did get your RSVP and I hope this post answers many of your questions.....

For new RSVP's shoot me a message at saras@matildajaneclothing.com

So Lynette and Kayla keep telling me people may be camping out in the parking lot. To be completely honest this is not such a good idea. We are not in the best of locations, hint..it may not be all that safe, and worst of all, we do not have a paved parking lot. The gravel may be a bit uncomfortable. So get a good nights sleep...in a bed!

Oh, the 435 Art Fair starts at 10:00am on Saturday, June 27th.  And everyone does realize that this is a Matilda Jane art fair only, right??  It is NOT like PLYMOUTH  where there are hundreds of other exhibiting artists.  The 435 Art Fair is is MJC and MJC only.  No other artists will be displaying. 

HUNGRY

Gabe is having a Hungry Caterpillar party at school Tuesday. I may be more excited than most cuz i get to be in charge of the goodie bags. Though I must add, they are becoming like swag bags!  How cute are these tanks I got from my lovely and talented friend Cristy at Paperlili.  Her work is amazing. And I am so excited the little girls will love them.

Oh, and the boys??? I went to at least 6 stores to find a blank shirt on a short notice. I lucked out at H&M and we're screening those ones.. Super cute

On a side note Sara is putting together a post about 435 to answer all your questions. It'll be up tomorrow. With that said, I am going to go make hotdogs for me and Gabe cuz we are Hungry.

And yes, I am getting closer to be caught up on emails. It is like a nut house around here, planning for 435's Friday PArty, then the art fair, then Pymouth, then conference and on top of that we are neck deep into Fall. I love this! the only bad thing is I hate being behind on emails...oh, and gabe has been puking the last couple days. Sounds sad, but it is so cute, cuz it doesn't bother him one single bit.

I admit it has been days since I have been on the computer. It sucks me in. I told myself,I was not doing computer stuff until I get caught up on all my household junk. Usually, it all gets pushed aside so I can do emails but this time I pushed emails aside. Plus, the Beast is moving into his new room and it has been 3 days of nothing but cleaning, organizing and wondering how on earth we accumulate so much junk.

I hope you all are enjoying your 4 day weekend. I sure am. I have been sneaking into 435 at the crack of dawn and cutting for art fair. It is so peaceful when it is just me, I love  just throwing everything on the cutting table and going to work. I love it.

Ya, and you think Joe will ever get those front teeth? They said he needed braces to pull them down. HUH? Do you really get braces at age 7? I was like in 8th grade. But I guess I'm old school.

Have a great Memorial Day, miss you all!

All I want to do is go to bed and David keeps saying, "You know you really should blog, we had a great weekend and you didn't even say thanks". And then I realized he was right.  Well, I guess I did say "thank you" very briefly in the Kylee post, but another one is certainly due.  So, a huge thank you to everyone for making the first MJC on-line art fair a huge success.

I have way too much on my mind to even think straight. It has been a tough couple of weeks, both good and not so good. 

But despite the 35 minutes of grief when the show first started, it was wonderful.. amazing...holy wow...thank you. It is so fun pulling the orders..you guys did a pretty good job picking out your goods. I don;t pull that much, and it is so fun to see all the outfits and what you love and what is still on that shelf!!!  THANK YOU

But here's one real cute thing: I was actually early in carpool line on Tuesday. Good thing, cuz I saw Gabe walking around with a girl on each hand.  He is such a player at the young age of 3.. This morning Joe is asking me if I he can bring some clothes to some of his friends. He loves to bring presents to the girls.  Gabe over hears and says " What about my girls mom...they get clothes?" 
Okay, art fairs orders are moving out fast. We have been getting quite a few phone calls so I promised to blog about shipping.  We got lots of orders on the 15th.  While it only took a few hours for them to all come in , it will take about a week or so to get them all shipped out. 

So while your friend may get hers today or tomorrow, you may not get yours till next week.  Sometimes looking at order numbers may help, but in truth, there are always situations. Like today, I had to pull a few orders aside cuz i was waiting for Sara to finish ironing Slim Jim..so they got out of order a bit.. Nothing big, but just the norm. As far as Express, they take 1-2 days to process and then ship Next Day on the 2 or 3rd day.  Usually the USPS takes 1-2 days to deliver depending on your location.

And lastly..how about lovedressingherinmj, tania, Misty T. Email Sara at saras@matildajaneclothing to get your goods. Yup, It is Lynette's daughter, and I just picked randomly.....no rhyme or reason...

Also, remember Sara needs your RSVP if you are coming to the 435 party Friday night. Remember, the art fair at 435 is Saturday, June 26th...but the party is the night before.  You have to come...we are having so much fun talking about it.. We all have our own ideas of what we want..so I should say we are having fun arguing about it...and if we are real lucky, Chris's mom's band is gonna play....they are super "rat pack'ish" cool.

And yes, I know I have been ignoring emails... tomorrow will be email day....

about darn time, right?!

..and probems with the internet at my house continue! but enough with the excuses...it's time to blog!

MJC is nuts right now! absolutely bonkerz i swear. would you like to know WHY? well, i'll tell you... cutting 1000 pieces a week, receiving and unpacking LOADS of fabric, getting items we cut returned back to us sewn all silly, and pulling all the orders which is REALLY confusing. not to mention the regular MJC drama that ensues during our online sales..like our system crashing, blog confrontations, selling out of EVERYTHING, and of course, a 435 building filled with stressed out women! other than how nutty things have been i think MJC is doing just swell. i feel like such big things are happening around here. i mean, with the 435 art fair and the premiere party the night before, how could i NOT feel that way?! i'm so excited about those events! i hope a lot of you can make it out to BOTH of them, and if not both, then at least one! you guys have no idea how much work sara and denise have put into the both of them. i just think it'd mean the world to them, and all of us if there was a good turn out. you all have to do matilda jane proud! and we'll try our best to do the same for you :)

can you feel the summer right now? oh my gooooooooosh, i can! i feel it when i wake up every morning..because my alarm on my phone never even gets a chance to go off anymore since the sun wants to wake me up! i feel it because i don't have to bring a hoodie everywhere i go! i feel it because alyssa's pool opened this weekend, and that means MY pool opened up this weekend (i live with her, you see!)!i feel it because i'm going to the mall with cady RIGHT after work to buy pretty summer dresses! i just plain feel it, man and i'm sooo excited about it! you know what ELSE i am excited about?! all the things that happen in the summer. there's just so much more to do when it's warm out: swimming, concerts, going to the park, bonfires/cook outs! everything thing is better in the summer. you know what else seems particularily great about this summer?! ALL THE MOVIES. there's whatever works, transformers2, funny people, harry potter and the half-blood prince, ice age IN 3D, land of the lost, and public enemies! and that's just to name a few! now, which one am i most excited about you ask?! well, that's a great question...maybe one you should be asking yourself in order to win a prize? yes, yes i think so. the first 2 ladies to guess my top 3 movies i am excited for this summer will win a fabulous prize. this is tricky, and basically completely up in the air because i didn't list all 3! good luck, i'm off to the mall :) - Sam

PS...Nice way to blog on my blog SAM!!! Oh, that girl...I'd move it over but I don't want to mess up the comments...-Denise

Swoon

 
Okay, for real...how are you 16 and this beautiful? And let me tell you, talk to Kylee for 2 seconds and you'll see she has a heart of gold. You know what they say, like mother like daughter.

Okay, so on another note, thank you so much for all the support through the online art fair. You guys have been nothing short of wonderful.  I wish I had more but I am pretty much empty handed.  But if you can tell me who Kylee's mom is, I bet I could get Sara to send you something real cute!
Okay, off to call it a night. It's early but my little guys need some loving.

Update

There was over 18GB of traffic over the first hour.  I don't know exactly what that means, but  what I was told was that it blew the "Oprah effect" out of the water.  What is the Oprah effect?  When a website gets mentioned on Oprah, that site immediately, almost instantaneously, gets bombarded with hits.  So, had MJC been mentioned on Oprah instead, the site would have seen very little traffic compared to what it did today.

Over 1,100 orders came in during the first 35 minutes or so.  I'm so glad we put a $500 limit on everyone's purchase so that we could help spread the love to as many of you as possible.

We're aware that some of you are getting email confirmations that are blank.  Those will be resent to you within the next 24 hours containing the proper information.  If your email confirmation wasn't blank, but contained the correct info from your order, you will likely be getting a second email confirmation sent to you anyway.

There's still lots of goodies available with possible a few more things added in  later.  (We seem to be getting art fair pieces all the time from our local group of home sewers.)  So, check back when you can.

2:00 p.m. Eastern

Shopping will be turned on.

Thank you so much for your patience!

Fear not

I know thousands of you, ya, thousands of you are having fun hitting refresh..but we forgot one thing, poor California has to wake up. And we may let them take showers too.

So breathe....we have more stuff than you now. I am counting more right now to add, Sam is labeling shelves, Lynette and Kayla are putting your fears to rest, Becki is adding inventory, Kylee is ironing dresses so we can add those, Chris..ahh.she is decorating cakes, Diane just punched in to go count and last but not least David is trying to teach but we keep texting him to promise he has the system under control.

So fear not you haven't missed a thing..it has not been turned on, remember California needs showers and we want to keep it fair...Oh, please remember rule # 4...No drama.... Matilda Jane is all in good fun.

for those of you have called, you guys are so super sweet and dang funny.....

Oh, and David apologizes.  It wasn't meant negatively.  He is a "Lost Crazzee" and views it as a compliment.

We'll announce right here on the blog when the sale starts...so no need to keep visiting the site.  It will be no earlier than 2pm Eastern.  Promise!

LOST....

I gave up taking pictures for the day. I am so not meant to be a photographer. It is hard work. I now have an even greater appreciation for the art. My gosh.

This'll be quick cuz we all know LOST is on. And we all know I have lots more to upload.

1. Yup, the online art fair starts Friday.
2. All I can say is it will be a fair time for all. (and, no, it will not be at 12:01 a.m. on Friday.....it will be many, many, many hours later.
   
3. There is a $500.00 limit per person on Friday, let's keep it fair.
4. No drama allowed!!!
5. 435 Art Fair will have a few of the same pieces but expect a slew of new pieces. You will not be disappointed.
6. We may be adding some more inventory throughout the weekend.
7. The online art fair will end Sunday at 11pm EST.
8. As with all Art Fairs, ALL SALES ARE FINAL. NO returns, No exchanges, No exceptions.
9. Thank you for all the nice emails. If you have not heard back from me , you will shortly, I am now at 212 in the inbox...but I truly do take time to read each one and respond. Sorry for the delay.
10. Please remember to use your TK code if you have one. They work so hard all season. I want to make sure credit goes where credit is due.  You are not required to have one to order.
11. To thank all of our Canadian customers, we are offering shipping to Canada at the same rates as U.S. shipping.
12. The online shopping bag works just like most online carts work.  That is, when you add something to your bag it will be held for you for about an hour.  If you haven't checked out by then, it will be removed from your bag and put back into inventory.  So, don't add several items to your bag on Friday...wait a few days (or even for a few hours)...and then checkout on Sunday, for your bag will be empty and you will be sad.

Good Night, off to watch LOST.  I'll still be uploading more tomorrow. We have so many headbands, my gosh, I still need pics!