Important News from Kathryn

Almost a year ago, I started this business with a small bundle of yarn and a few crochet hooks- never dreaming that it would grow so quickly! It has been a complete joy and an absolute pleasure to meet so many wonder people along the way!

So much has changed for me in this past year. It has held many challenges for me both good and bad. So far I have been able to meet each challenge as it has come my way, until recently. I have felt like Baby Buttons Design has grown past my ability to keep it up effectively and efficiently. I am a firm believer in great customer service, quality products, and effective communication. The very last thing I want to see is for that to weaken.

For that reason, I am resigning my position with Baby Buttons Design. But do not worry!! This business is still going to thrive and move forward with the exact same people. In case you haven't known, I have handled all the communication, book keeping, and general business plan as well as replying to all of your wonderful comments on Facebook and lovely emails. I stopped crochet about 4 months ago because of our steady growth. Joanne, Jacki, and Amy are now going to be working together as a team to keep this business strong. Jacki will now be answering all of your questions and lovely Facebook comments as well as any orders. Joanne will be handling all of the shipping, and Amy will be handling any events that we do in the future. We are also excited to be bringing on my INCREDIBLE Sister, Hannah. She has a brilliant mind for business and tons of creative ideas.

So, basically Baby Buttons Design is staying the same, going strong and ready to meet all of your needs for your darlings. So what will happen to me? I'll still be around- just in a very very small way. I'm sure I'll still be putting in my two cents worth of ideas, but I'll be mainly focusing on homeschooling my sweet Isabel and selling my house! I hope to return by the beginning of the year, but we'll see when we get there. =)

Thank you all for your business, and your friendship. It has been a pure joy and delight to see your creativity and your cute babies! My hope is that you will continue to come to us with your business. Many Thanks!

-Kathryn Nordyke =)

Meet Jacki Shutteworth!

Jacki joined our team of designers about two months ago. We went crazy over her adorable teddy bears- and we knew she would be the perfect compliment to our business.

Here are some fun facts about Jacki:

When did you start crocheting?

My grandmother taught me to knit when I was 7 or 8 years old....I think I was in my early 20’s when I taught myself to crochet.

What inspired you to keep it up?
I’ve put it down and picked it back up several times over the years depending on how busy I was with kids and ministry and work. Now that I am home helping to care for my grandson, I have lots of time for it and I’m loving it.

What is your favorite thing to crochet?
I tend to like to get into the more complicated things….sweaters and such….but I just love to see something come out of nothing so knitting or crocheting anything is very satisfying to me.

What is your favorite yarn to work with?

I love to work with good quality yarn when I can afford it….I also love to work with cotton yarn.

When did you start making your own patterns?

It never occurred to me to design my own patterns until I met up with the ladies of Baby Buttons Design….they have challenged me to come up with designs of my own and I’ve enjoyed discovering that I could.

When is your favorite time to crochet?

I love to knit and crochet whenever I have the time….right now that’s during the day as well as the evenings…I love to stay up pretty late when the house is quiet…so I get a lot done then.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

Most of my inspiration comes from looking around online to see what’s out there and figuring out how to make it my own….from customer requests…and from brainstorming with my fellow Baby Buttons designers.

Tell us a little about yourself:
Over the years I have had my hand in many things….being a stay-at-home Mom…catering…real estate and a lot of church related leadership and ministry. I came to Texas (via Toronto Canada and Jackson Tennessee) about 7 months ago…with my husband and pregnant daughter. Now I am a very happy and blessed grandmother to Kai Trevor and get to help care for him so my daughter Val can get on her feet and make a home for her and Kai. I am so blessed and grateful to have been invited to join the Baby Buttons team. It has given me an outlet for doing what I love and the opportunity to grow in relationship with some amazing women.

What are some of your other interests or hobbies:

As well as the knitting and crocheting….I love to cook…and mostly I love to have my home filled with people enjoying some good food and one another.

What is your favorite beverage?

My favorite beverage is hot tea….it’s a Canadian thing…lol…but a glass of good wine is a close second.

And just for fun: If you were stuck with one food for a whole week, what would you eat and why?

Hmmmm…..if I could only have one food for a week…it would have to be pizza..veggie pizza…I LOVE PIZZA!

Summer Fun Idea!

Summer Fun idea from Baby Buttons

With summer being here…I have enjoyed having the grandchildren over. But there are times that they are tired of the same toys and it’s too hot to go outside. So we make Play dough together. It’s

easy and they have fun for hours using cookie cutters with it or just creating animals, volcanos or funny faces. I thought you might want to do it also. The recipe is:

Play Dough

1 cup of flour

½ tsp. of salt

2 tsp. Cream of tartar (found with spices)

1 cup of water

1 Tbls. Cooking oil

A drop or two of food coloring of your choice

In a saucepan, mix flour, salt and cream of tartar. Add water, cooking oil and several drops of food coloring. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.

The mixture will pull away from the sides of the pan.

Knead immediately. Play or store in a plastic bag.

I like it better than what you buy in the store! And the kids love the

idea of making it with you. I usually put a plastic tablecloth on the

table, and bring out the cookie cutters, play dough sets or even

potato head parts. It’s great to see their creativity and you get to

enjoy the fun!

-Joanne

There's a First for Everything

Today was our very first Photo shoot with the incredibly talented Valerie Cannon. All along we have been wanting to get some professional shots of our items on babies because let's face it, my poor attempt at photography is just not working out. When the majority of your customers tell you that your items look "much better in person" and that "pictures don't don't do them justice", it was a good hint that maybe we should hire someone who actually knows how to take photos.

I have been following Val's photos ever since I became connected with the Tarrant County Birth Network. I have been drooling over her rich colors, vintage styles, and gorgeous lighting since then. I thought she would be the perfect candidate to represent our business- and WOW was I right! She knew exactly what to do and I absolutely loved watching her work.

We had 2 toddlers and 2 infants- and they ALL were champs to go through 2-3 outfit changes and keep up their charm! I put up my larger than life Christmas tree (still trying to figure out how I can keep it up until Christmas) decorated it with some lights and added a few stockings and voila we had a photo shoot! Cookies and Classic Christmas music set the tone as we all swooned over their cuteness. (after 3 hours of sleep and staying up way to late, the poetry is oozing from my mouth).

Without further ado- here are some of our highlights. These are MY poor videos by the way. You will get to see Valerie's LOVELY work very very soon! Enjoy!

Hope you can join us for our Christmas in July event! Merry Christmas and Happy Summer?? -Kathryn

17 Giveaways, 17 Winners, and 1 Website

It's official! Our website is live. www.babybuttonsdesign.com. It's ok, you can take a moment to look at it.

Big thanks to my gem of a husband for designing it and for Erik Uunila at Emu Industries for doing all the programming! You guys rock!

As you may know, we gave away over 17 items to celebrate the launch of our website! Due to the enormous amount of comments we received on our Facebook wall, I thought I'd publish all the winners here just in case you got lost in the excited!

HD Cleaning Discount Organizing: Therese Philpot

HD Cleaning Discount Regular Cleaning: Melissa Holloway

HD Cleaning Discount Deep Cleaning: Kayle Marie Wenzel

Bows and Bees Custom Headband or Clip: Jennie Biles

Scraphounds Puppy: Shannon Dehaven

Rachel McCoy Photoprahy Session: Tiffany Edwards

Valerie Cannon Photography Session: Ashley Wenth

Baby Luxe Bows Peach headband: April Parkhurst

Baby Luxe Bows white headband: Carolyn Murphy

Baby Luxe Bows black headband: Lindsay Mitchell

31 Gifts by Sharon All in one Organizer: Leila Stoutenberg

Sassy Jo Designs T-shirt: Cynthia Haggerton

Nordyke Elite Travel Jewelry Bag: Alison Sheffield

Baby Buttons Design Diaper Cover: Stephanie Mathew

Baby Buttons Design Owl Hat: Michelle Polling

Baby Buttons Design booties: Elizabeth Libby Goldman

Kara Kreates skirt: Hannah Willoughby

A big thank you to all the businesses who participated in our giveaway! We're STILL NOT DONE!! (this is sounding more and more like an infomercial) =) If you sign up for our newsletter on our new website, we'll send you a special offer in your email. Thanks for partying with us everyone!

-Kathryn, Joanne, & Amy

Canadian, eh?

One of the things I enjoy most about running this business of ours is meeting new people and connecting with them. I wish I could say I'm amazing at the whole 'social media' craze, but I'm still pretty new to it. Don't even ask me about twitter! I'm very much a green horn when it comes to "tweeting".

So, why the Canadian flag?? I couldn't help but notice that we've had 14 "reads" of our blog from Canada!! Why is this so special to me? Well, because I am partly Canadian! That's right, got the good 'ol maple leaf pride within me. =) My Mom (Joanne) was born in Canada. My sister-in-law is Canadian, and several of my friends are Canadian. My Great Uncle Joe even played for the Leafs once!

Pass the REAL maple syrup, give me a tuque to wear while we sip our hot tea, and don't forget to remove your shoes before entering my house! A big shout out to all our Canadian fans! Leave us a comment- we'd love to read your Canadian accents. =)

-Kathryn

Don't forget to check out our Online Launch Party! We're giving away tons of prizes to celebrate our new website.

Giveaway BLoOpers

Yeah..so part of the "fun" of running a business is trial and error. Seems like I've been heavy on the "errors" lately. Could be due to fatigue, and then on the other hand it could be just "Edison" moments.

BLUNDER NUMBER ONE:

Create an online giveaway that is so confusing even the most "savvy" of Facebookers are completely confused. Yeah...can we say too many words??

I just spent two hours rewording everything and hopefully (crossing fingers) making it much easier for everyone to understand.

BLUNDER NUMBER TWO:

"Bows and Bess" - Sorry Melissa! You know I'm a fan of yours and I PROMISE I know the name of your business!

BLUNDER NUMBER THREE:

How "to" I win this amazing give away? - Believe it or not, English was my favorite class. sigh..

BLUNDER NUMBER FOUR (or is it three?)

listing out options:

1,3,4,5

I promise I know how to count.

We're always creating, experimenting, and dreaming up new ideas. Some of them become light bulbs, and others become great additions to our trash can.

If you can't laugh at your mistakes, then your sense of humor is broken.

-Kathryn

What silly mistakes have you made recently?