Yay! It's been a long wait but we have finally released our new line of Baby Photo Quilts. Available in two great color palettes for the chic baby in your life, our Baby Photo Quilts are the smaller, softer and cuter version of our oh-so-popular Photo Quilts.
The front of the quilts are 100% cotton and the backs are lined in soft, cuddle fleece. Baby's love them. We tested it. Look:
See how little Jett loves his new Baby Photo Quilt? The cool thing about these is that they work as a training tool for your little one. Studies find that babies have an early ability to recognize faces. With our Baby Photo Quilt, you can place all the baby's relatives along with their names on a cute quilt.
We can't believe the news. On Sunday night, Gus was watching tv and heard that there was a stabbing very close to our house. We found out the next day that it was Kendra Beebe, Gus' ex-wife. We were shocked and horrified! She was stabbed by actor Shelley Malil, a charachter actor best known for his role along side Steve Carrell in 40 Year Old Virgin. Malil stabbed poor Kendra over 20 times and practically killed her but luckily, she is a strong woman and she survived his attack. Kendra's two little kids were asleep upstairs when the attack took place. I hope and pray that they didn't witness any part of this. Poor little kids.
Kendra is recovering and I'm sure she is surrounded by her family and loved ones which is comforting. She was a big part of Gus' life and he is very saddened about the pain that this has caused. Our prayers and thoughts are with you, Kendra!
We had a great weekend. Our good friends, John and Stacey got married and my sweetie, Gus, was the officiant. He did such an amazing job that the wedding coordinator asked him for a card! They wrote their own wedding vows and the majority of the ceremony as well. It was mucho touching.
The photo above shows Gus' take on my pacecard - he ripped off my old last name and replaced it with my soon-to-be name.
The wedding reception was held at the bride's father's country club. It was formal but not too over-the-top formal. If you are looking for some tips for your own wedding reception, click here.
We are very excited! The walls of the new factory were painted this morning and we couldn't be more stoked! It's like K-Mart circa 1968 on a super sugar buzz. Here's a pic of mom modeling one of the new photos we will use to decorate the lunch/conference area:
We plan to be all settled in by September 1. It's going to be a lot of work. TYB has been at our current space on La Costa Meadows Drive since 2003 so you can just imagine the amount of stuff we have coming out our ears here. The new space is about 1000 square feet larger so we get to have a whole big work area that we never had before and guess what? It's air conditioned! YAY!
The new floors go in on Tuesday. We picked "Ocean Blue" which is a really dark turquoise and the baseboards are going to be purple. Yes! Purple! I am going to paint large younique daisies all over the walls just as soon as I get some time to go to Lowes and get the stuff.
EXCITING!
Mom made Gretchie and Hunter matching bandanas. They are only for special occasions.
I just received another call from a customer who has received one of our Family Portrait Platters, loved it, and wants to buy one for a friend. This was the third such call this week so I thought I would share with you this wonderful product line. Family Portrait Platters make a great family gift idea.
With up to 22 figures on our biggest platter, we will hand paint each member of your family to look like them. You pick the hairstyles, hair and skin colors - heck, even tell us how they normally dress. If the kids have sports or hobbies, let us know, we'll incorporate those too.
The interesting thing is that The Younique Boutique sprung up as a result of my wedding and now, with my wedding this October, I get a chance to really experience the web as a bride. I find myself watching tv or reading a book and thinking, "I really need to go online and research wedding vows or wedding hairstyles...I wonder if a picture my wedding dress is online somewhere." Today, my friend and I were talking about if I wanted a bachelorette party and we started brainstorming some ideas. As soon as I got home tonight, I rushed to my trusty MacBook and started searching from some ideas. In the interest of the web at large, I would like to add our ideas here:
- Wine tasting and dinner in Temecula. We live really close to Temecula, California, home to many, many fine wineries. We could meet and take a limo North for about 45 minutes at around 3:00 and visit two wineries for a tasting and then have reservations at one of the winery restaurants there. Limo ride home.
- Salon day. I love visiting the spa, don't you? What a luxury it would be to spend a whole day with my favorite peeps getting pampered. I would arrange it on the Thursday before the wedding. Facial, nails, pedicure, massage. If we had it at a resort, we could arrange lunch half way through - preferably in robes.
- Catalina Island would be fun if we got a couple of rooms in late September. There's great seafood and little shops. We could take walks or rent scooters.
We have over 100 guests on the guest list so far, and it's growing. The problem with marrying someone so sweet and so nice is that you end up with a large guest list. Gussie knows a million people and has a million fans. He also has a very large family. We are really lucky.
Here's what I can tell you so far about the wedding: It is October 11, 2008 at 5om in the evening. We are pleased to be having the wedding just up the street from our house in Elfin Forest at a really lovely private estate. We will do a tropical theme and serve Polynesian fare and three types of cupcakes! TYB's next door neighbor happens to be one of the best caterers in North County San Diego so we're totally stoked.
We are each having four attendants. On Gus' side, Stookey, Tony, Jesse and Aaron - his closest buds. On mine, Pamela, June, my sister Candy and Gus' sister, Lisa. I will always remember the day we asked our friends and family to be in our wedding. It was very special. The ladies will wear four shades of pink/peach and the dudes will wear white linen shirts with khaki pants. Gussie got a lovely beige linen suit which looks FANTASTIC on him. He's normally very adorable but just wait until he puts on a suit. WOW! He's the most handsome man I have ever met.
I went shopping yesterday with my mom and Gus' mom, Jan. We bought their dresses. My mother is going to be wearing the most beautiful, glamorous Calvin Klein gown. Jan will be wearing a gold Adrienne Papel gown. They are going to be total knock-outs! The dads will be wearing dark blue suits with white, open shirts.
We are having a band play called Sticky Situation. Gus is good friends with the drummer, Scotty. They play reggae and ska and some covers. I think they're great so I'm super happy they agreed to play. They have also agreed to letting up play some songs; Gus' dad, Steve will play a song for us and then Gus and I will also have a number worked out. This time, I will just sing while he plays guitar as the last time we arranged a number with both of us on guitars, I got really nervous and anxious about not being very good and pretty much ruined it. It's much better when Gus plays and I sing.
We selected our former Customer Service Lead and Production Artist Julia Russell to do the photography. Since a large part of the day will be dedicated to product photography, Julia was the perfect fit. She knows the TYB product line inside and out and she's a fantastic photographer. Also, we just plain miss her since she moved up to Orange County so we're happy to have her back for a night!
The invites go out on Monday. Everyone at work has been really helpful in getting this all together. Tim, my shipping and ceramic studio manager, made all the mailing tubes and my mom worked for two days straight rolling the invites up and tying raffia around them.
My next task is to tackle the vow writing. Gus and I will do our own vows and it's really important that I get them just right. There are a million things bursting in my heart right now and I just can't wait to tell them to him that night in October. I found my perfect fit, my soul mate, my best friend. Finding my sweet Gussie has been an answer to a thousand questions and has renewed my faith in the universe. That two people can find one another in this vast world and mold so perfectly into one - it's so mind boggling. Every day that we have been together has been a gift and I can't believe my good fortune to get to spend the rest of my life with this extraordinary man. Along with Gus also comes his wonderful family who have accepted me into their hearts completely. Yay for me!!!
Looking for something special to bring to your next bridal shower? We have some great ideas. I went to my friend Stacey's shower on Saturday and brought with me a signature platter with our wedding shower bride design.
This is our Recipe for a Happy Marriage print. Isn't it adorable? They are hand made with care and personalized with the couple's names and wedding date. This would have made an excelled wedding shower gift except for the fact that my mom cancelled the order before it was ever submitted for production. She figured it was a test order. Oh well.
Guess what? I'm getting married! Gus and I got engaged a few weeks ago in Julian. It was a really great weekend. We went wine tasting and horse back riding and then, Saturday night after dinner, Gus popped the question - and I said, "YES!!!"
We are getting married on October 11, 2008. I can't wait. Oh, and guess what will be on top of our cake? Well, of course - a custom wedding cake topper.
We are really proud of our wide selection of Swarovski Crystal Bouquets. We offer our stunning bouquets in several sizes with many, many options. We can create your custom bouquet in glass pearls, Czech glass beads or Swarovski Austrian Crystal. The beads come in many lovely shades like amethyst, aquamarine, topaz, emerald and of course, cystal clear. Two constructions are available too - either a cascading waterfall bouquet or a straight construction. The stems can either be left looped with an organza bow or complete ribbon wrapped.
The nice thing about a crystal bouquet is that unlike a floral bouquet, these bouquets can be kept for generations as keepsakes and passed down. Start a new tradition! Also, many brides (and grooms) are allergic to fresh flowers. The crystal bouquet provides a great hypo-allergenic solution.
