Thursday, July 31, 2008

Does It Get Any Cuter Than THIS???

The pics are IN! The pics are IN! The pics are IN!

We're updating the web, creating our marketing materials, sending out press packets... YEAH! Here's a sneak peak - and you too can have such wonderful pics of your own dirty birdies if you so choose - our photgrapher is for hire!

Contact Emily Parker - http://www.gigglesandgrins.smugmug.com/ .

Thursday, July 24, 2008

8 Kids, 4.5 Hours of Photos... Seriously

This past weekend we had our first photo shoot for My Dirty Birdie - YEAH! We wrangled up friends, nieces, nephews, neighbors - anyone who could fit into a 12 months to 5/6T shirt. So we had 8 kids ranging in age from 1 year to 3 1/2 years old, and were able to stage/shoot 17 tee designs... plus I had so many gorgeous Moms over here, we got new pics of the aprons too! The shoot went FABULOUSLY - and I think my photographer has even recovered by now:) We'll have new pics on the web asap, and you can start getting excited now for the 5 new designs we'll have. Plus, as soon as we get the pics back, we've got press kits standing by ready to go... we're excited to see dirty kids and stains everywhere! Here are a few candid shots one of our fabulous Mommy's shot at our second location.


Some handsome budding artists sporting the Colorin' shirt.


One of our new designs debuting later this month - perfect for the holidays.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The Update to GMT

As I wrote back in April, we were selected to appear on our local morning show Good Morning Texas. They were highlighting "mompreneurs," and we made the cut - fantabulous! Most of our friends and family have heard all of this before, but most of you don't know about the dramedy that lead up to the big event.
A full week of preparation ensues - manicure, pedicure, hair cut, fashion shows (a total of 27 to be exact), spray tanning, setting up product displays, having some new product samples made... you name it, I did it.

Major incident #1 - The day before the appearance, Ava takes a header on the sidewalk... ixnay on Ava's first television appearance (I was going to have her model the infant dress). The giant scab that was her nose (gulp - which I cried over) would have been entirely too distracting.

Major incident #2 - The morning of the event storms are blowing through like crazy. Meteorologists are preempting programming to confirm that it is in fact raining where we are... I call EVERY person I know on the way to the show, to let them know how TOTALLY panicked I am that our portion of the show is going to be preempted.

Major incident #3 - I drive to the studios and THANKFULLY there is a slight break in the weather so I can run to the building from the uncovered parking with 4 bags of crap. Crises slightly averted - you see I have VERY curly hair, which I did go through the trouble of "straightening" that morning (as you check out the intervew keep that in mind). However, crises not entirely averted because my husband who is 20 minutes behind me with my daughter and 3 giant product fixtures is going to have to figure out how to get all of that the 200 feet from the car to the front door of the studio without getting the baby wet or getting struck by lightening...

Major incident #4 - The studio is one of those "open" studios - it's a brand new beautiful facility, but everything is out in the open. To give you an idea of how this works, the green room is actually also the entryway, and the first camera is about 20 feet in front of the front door. Because of the space constraints, you can't set up your product and then leave it until you go on. We had to set up and tear down three times in the thirty minutes before we actually went on. What this means is... there was NO time to prep for the interview, touch up make up or anything. about 2 minutes before we went on, I made mental notes about my intro, my closer and the three points I wanted to make. As you watch the segment keep that in mind, because poor Paige barely got to "interview" me because I was on a mission. Thankfully my tendacy is to be verbose under pressure, and not clam up.

Overall, I was very pleased with the segment. We didn't get preempted, my daughter didn't get wet getting into the studio, my husband didn't get struck by lightening, the rain let up enough for Jeremy to go outside and take a picture of me on the jumbotron (didn't know how I was going to feel about that...) We got some great air time for Progeny and I got all my points across. Personally, I was a bit bummed that I didn't get to touch up make-up because it didn't look like I had any on - and it was a total travesty that the viewers didn't get to see my shoes, they were most fabulous...

I know this is blurry picture, but it demonstrates 2 things - this is the "green room/lobby." My husband is standing at the front door, and that's the meteorologist in the background - 5 feet behind him is the set. Also - if you try really hard, yo ucan see my yellow shoes.

Me and Paige (one of the tiniest women in television) on the jumbotron - Paige in all of her 5'1" size 0 glory, and me... well, I'm 5'5" and we'll just leave it at that.

Jumbo-rific.

Sweet Ava with a busted up nose watchin' Mama on the jumbotron...

Progeny Hearts Lisa Loeb

So it's been two months, how embarrassing... I have been shaming myself for weeks now, and will make it up to our loyal visitors by posting one of our most fabulous celebrity experiences to date. We met Lisa Loeb - and GAVE HER AN APRON! And she loved it... and blogged about it... twice... and wrote me a thank you note... and we exchanged e-mails... and she's the cutest thing you've ever seen in person... and... and... and... well it was over the top, and we heart Lisa Loeb.

The story goes a little something like this. Ava's very favorite children's CD is Lisa Loeb's Catch the Moon - and truth be told, it's the only children's CD I even listen too - because all others make me want to pull my hair out. We found out she was coming out with a new children's CD AND that she was going to be in Dallas for the launch tour, we knew we had to take Ava to her first official "concert." We got to see her perform some songs from her new CD, Camp Lisa, and she sang some of our old school favorites from Catch the Moon - she signed our CD, and we gifted her an apron. She was incredibly gracious and presh.












It just so happens that Lisa Loeb and I go way back (well in my mind's eye anyway). As I wrote to her (did I mention that we exchanged e-mails?)

"...I'm sure you hear it all the time, but it's so fabulous to have a kids CD that doesn't make me want to pull my hair out. And it's all too much fun that it's from one of the artists from the soundtrack of my young adulthood - Reality Bites."

I think everyone who was under 30 in the 90's owned that tape. Aaahh... brings back memories of teenage angst and rebellion.

And as Paul Harvey would say, now you know the rest of the story.

So, check out her blog and get her new CD, a portion of the proceeds will be going to S.C.O.P.E. to help send kids to summer camp.