Spring 2014 Color Trends for Clothing

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 The fall and winter colors for clothing were dominated by jewel tones and vibrant colors.  Metallics also played a big part in fashion during the winter.  Spring is bringing a lighter, more earthy range of colors, with metallics still factoring in as an important element.


Pantone, the leading authority on color trends for more than 20-years, has surveyed the top fashion designers to give us all a sneak peak of what's to come for Spring.  Their results revealed that pastels ranging from blues, to violets, and every shade of green will be complimented with the colors of "sand" and grays.  These colors are calming, and seemingly a welcome to the coming of spring weather.  The pastels work extremely well too, with the neutral shades of khaki and grays, and create a sophisticated palate that works well for virtually anyone.  

Not all the colors are pastel though......you'll be finding punches of vibrant reds, yellows, oranges and violets that will
work very well whether combined with  their pastel counterparts, or used in conjunction with the neutral colors.  The more vibrant colors can add that "spice" to any one's wardrobe that takes it from ordinary to extraordinary.  Oh--and metallics are still going to play a very important role in Spring wardrobes too!

At Adorable Baby Clothing, you'll find clothing for children that is classic in it's style, but complimented with the most sought after colors and fabrics.  The detailing in our clothing is what makes them even more special, and as we like to think, "picture perfect" when your little  ones are wearing them. 

We invite you to visit the website, and see for yourself what beautiful clothing is available. 

Whether it's a new Easter dress or suit, 

or flower girl dress or ring bearers suit.......

from christenings to communions, 

we offer some of the most beautiful, and 

high quality apparel for children you'll find any where.

http://www.adorablebabyclothing.com 

As always, we offer free priority mail shipping on 

any order of just $50.00 or more within the USA.

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What's the difference between "raw silk" and "shantung silk"?

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Silk, for centuries, has been a fabric of choice; but for generations, was so expensive that generally only nobility could afford to have their garments made from it.  Silk, as you're probably aware of, comes from the cocoons of the caterpillars known as the mulberry silkworm.  What fascinates me, is who was the first person to  take one of those tiny cocoons, and figure out how to unravel it into a thread and then find enough of them to weave into a silk fabric........but that question would be better answered in another blog post.

Back to silk......raw silk is highly prized and it's cost reflects that.  The fabric is a result of a labor intensive process that produces a fabric that exhibits many interesting qualities, from light refraction, to beautiful draping, to a slightly nubby yet silky texture.  Since silk fibers are generally not chemically processed, specific caterpillars are bred to produce a white fiber that can either be left as is, or dyed to a specific color.   Raw silk is the least treated of all the silk fabrics available, and enhances any garment because of it's unique qualities.  If you want specifics about silk and the processes, please go to "Silk-Wikipedia" for a full explanation.

Shantung silk can be 100% silk, but generally you'll find the silk fiber combined with Douppioni type fibers such as nylon or rayon to reduce the cost of the fabric.  The douppioni fibers are a bit stiffer, typically with slubs, and dye well.  It is a bit heavier than raw silk, characteristic with the slight slub, but still drapes and wears beautifully.  You will sometimes find the term "wild spun silk" used to describe shantung silk.  Because it has the same visual characteristics as wild silk, combined with durability, it has become a very desirable fabric for both genders.  You'll find shantung silk used in everything from men's ties and jackets, to women's dresses and gowns, and even on occasion as drapery material.  It has a crisp appearance and wears well no matter how it's used.  

At Adorable Baby Clothing, you'll find both fabrics available.  The wild silk is a new addition, and can be seen in the construction of a new addition to the girl's dresses.

The shantung silk is used in a variety of choices 

at Adorable Baby Clothing.  Some examples: 

Vest and pants sets for boys





 

Christening gowns 

Flower girl dresses

 

                                                                  Eton Suits

 

Adorable Baby Clothing is pleased to offer not only fine fabrics, but beautifully constructed garments that we're sure will make your little one "picture perfect".  Please visit us at http://www.adorablebabyclothing.com to see for yourself!  

As always, we offer Free Priority Mail Shipping on any purchase of just $50.00 or more within the USA.


 Posted first on AdorableBabyClothing.com Blog

Just when you think the holidays are over......the holiday of "love" is looming......

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Whewww.........Christmas is over......New Year's eve is over........but oh wait......the holiday of "love" is looming ahead.......yikes!  Just when you think it's safe to exhale, you realize another holiday is on the horizon, and you have to start thinking what, where, who will be involved.

I don't know about you, but the holidays have morphed in meaning for me through the years.  Christmas is all about my grandchildren now......I honestly could care less if anyone got me a present.....I just love watching my grandchildren's faces as they marvel at Christmas decorations (no matter how cheezy), and rip through the wrapping paper to discover their newest and most prized possession.  New Years......honestly, it's never lived up to the hype for me, so rather than dwell on what the marketing experts are telling me it should be, I find meaningful things to do on that evening and the next day.  This year I took a rocking chair I bought for my oldest daughter over thirty years ago and painted it for my grandson's third birthday.


 
 He's a shark fanatic, so the decision of the subject matter was pretty easy......it became a labor of love, and to see the little smile on his precious face when he's sitting in makes it worth every hour I spent making this old chair new again.  I can tell he really likes it because he gets up after sitting in it to  look at the sharks on the seat.....really kind of comical (although I would never tell him that!).

So why am I writing about this?  Well, the holidays for many are a source of painful reminders, and bring with them a mixture of anticipation and dread.  It's easy to bog down in self-misery, but rather than focusing on what might or might not be in your life, find an activity that takes your mind off.  Try focusing on what's positive.  If you're sitting in your own home, in front of a computer or I-Pad, you have much to be grateful for right off the bat!

Putting your focus on someone else tends to make what might be an unbearable day, bearable and actually enjoyable.  Choose an activity that you enjoy and adapt it to become a gift for someone else.  That "someone else" can be anyone.......the point of the gift is two-fold.......the recipient may be feeling the same as you, and cheered up by an unexpected gesture of thoughtfulness.  You, as the giver, create a positive thought process in  your own mind, and become the recipient of bringing happiness to someone else.

Allowances........To Pay.....or Not To Pay.....

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I think one of the rights of passage from child to young adult, is the age old debate of whether or not your parents give you an allowance.  Back in "my day" my parents were of the opinion that because they were providing food, shelter, and clothing, we didn't need an allowance.  My brother and I were expected to do certain chores.......without complaining.........and get them done when expected.  The alternative of not doing them was some sort of punishment.  Needless to say, we weren't always happy about this particular philosophy, but guess what......the treat of punishment out-weighed the desire to not do the chores!

The debate will probably never end as long as there are people having children. I've seen every kind of position on this, and while some are way out there, there are a few that seemingly make logical sense.  I ran across an article on a father, Jake Johnson, who decided that rather than just paying an allowance to their son for certain chores, they would leave it up to him to decide what needed to be done, and then pay him accordingly.  At first I was a little perplexed, because unless you have a really mature child, how many of them are going to look for "meaningful" chores around the house.  However, I then harkened back to the days I taught third grade, and remembered how I marveled at my eight and nine-year-old's ability to use insight and intelligence to figure things out.  It dawned on me as a teacher, that sometimes we sell our kids short when we assume what their abilities are.

Most kids love a challenge.......especially one they get to be in charge of.  So as I pondered this, the article I read really began to make sense.  Mr. Johnson's goal was to encourage his son to take notice of the world around him, and look for things that needed to be done.  Why wouldn't any of us want to encourage that?  Why wouldn't you want your child to pay attention, look for a problem they themselves could solve, and then do it?  This kind of experience would prove to be invaluable as they go through school, and then what lucky company wouldn't want to hire someone who from early on learned how to recognize the issues, and resolve them.  I personally thought his approach was brilliant.

That being said, every parent has to use the methods that work for them and their own families.  I don't think every method, every word of advice, or every person responds in the same way since we're each wired in a unique way.  I guess the point of this post is to say, think outside the box when it comes to compensating your children with an allowance.  It can be fun, it can be challenging, it can be frustrating.......but no matter what you choose, it should be a lesson learned each time that will benefit them when they grow up.

I'm curious.......how do you feel about allowances?

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Choosing the Colors, Lengths & Styles of your Flower Girl Dresses

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For years, the color of a flower girl's dress was white or ivory.  Typically very understated, and more of a dressy dress than anything.  In today's world of what seems to be unlimited color selections that rule no longer "rules"!  Brides today can express themselves in whatever way fits what they have in mind.

 

 A few key points to keep in mind are.......

 

 Choose colors that compliment your over-all theme.  That doesn't mean they have to be the same as the bridesmaids dresses, it means you

want colors that compliment one another.  That can mean that the flower girls can wear a "pop" of color that accents all the other colors, or you can use a sash or headpiece with complimentary colors.  Try to imagine how those colors are going to look together in a picture.  For instance, if your color scheme includes, let's say peach.......there's nothing that says the flower girls sashes could be turquoise for contrast, or even dark orange to add some "zing" to those pictures.

Choose the length according to their ages.  If you've chosen toddlers, you'd do well to stay away from floor length dresses, because they're just more apt to trip on them than older girls.  If you're having junior brides maids, they open up a world of possibilities when it comes to length.  Just keep in mind their body frames and comfort levels before you choose the dress.  It might be a good time to consult with the mother, or if they're old enough, the girls themselves.  At Adorable Baby Clothing, most of the dresses range from infant sizes to a girl's 12 or 14, so you can create uniformity in style, but choose colors to delineate the ages.



 
 Choose a style that compliments your own dress.  There have been many weddings where the flower girls were dressed in what appeared to be a mini version of the bride's dress.  My personal opinion is, that this is your day......you deserve to stand out, and be recognized for it.  Although there's no set rule for the style of the flower girl dresses, why not let them express their "cuteness" in their own way, and become that special compliment to you. 

At Adorable Baby Clothing, you'll find a large variety of styles, colors, sizes and fabrics.  Virtually all them give you the ability to either choose the color of the dress, and/or sash and flower embellishments.  Each one is carefully crafted here in the USA, and you'll even find crinoline slips sewn in to each skirt to help retain their fullness while they're being worn.  We invite you to come and see for yourself, what a wonderful selection you'll find, and at such reasonable prices.  

As an added bonus, we offer Free Priority Mail shipping to anywhere within the contiguous United States.  
Below is our new video that will give you a little peek at our beautiful selections!

When is something too good to be true?

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One of the things that bothers me the most about having an online business, is unscrupulous practices of websites.  They mark an item WAYYYYYY up and then supposedly mark it down to make it look like you've saved a whole bunch of money.  The fact of the matter is, if a deal looks too good to be true.....

it probably is.  

Every business has to make a profit, that's the bottom line.  However, making a profit honestly is different than making a profit by misleading a customer about the actual price of something.  At Adorable Baby Clothing, we try very hard to give all our customers a fair price, offering excellent customer service, and excellent quality in all our clothing.  

The dress below is listed on another website (which shall remain nameless), and they really expect you the consumer to believe this dress retails for $149.99.......and, I suppose it could if no one cared what anything costs, but in reality, this is the furthest thing from the truth.  Even with their markdown, and offer of $5.00 flat rate shipping within the US, it is still just about the same price you could order it from at Adorable Baby Clothing.   We even offer FREE Priority Mail shipping of any order of just $50.00 within the USA.

So the long story short, it you're looking for quality, style, honesty and integrity, shop at Adorable Baby Clothing.  We won't embellish the truth about anything on our site, and we promise to give you the very best price we can on everything on our website.

Ivory Lovely Taffeta Pick Your Sash Multi Layered Flower Girl Dress (Sizes 12months - 12)

List Price: $149.99

Sale Price: $44.99

You Save: $105.00 (70%) <---Seriously?!

 

Our price on this dress  always starts at $56.00 which includes FREE Priority Mail Shipping 

Walk the Talk

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Who hasn't heard the phrase, "because I told you so!".......and I'm betting it was your mom or dad who said it more than once in your lifetime!  Of course there are times when it's totally logical and acceptable to use that phrase....but, have you ever had it come back to "bite you" later?

 

I was thinking about how we tell our children to do this, do that...think this, think that, and assume they'll just do it "because we said so".  And yet, how many times have you told your children to do something and then turned around and done the opposite yourself......you know they do watch and listen to us!  

For instance, they come home from school one day upset 

 because of what a classmate said to them.  We try to toughen them up and tell them to just "turn the other cheek" to that person and be kind to everyone.......maybe good in theory, but that's hardly the solution.  And, then......oh my.......they over hear you telling one of your friends what "so and so" said about you or someone else, and your children can hear the anger in the tone of your voice.  So what kind of message is that to your child?  The "do as I say, because I said so" is hardly worth the air you breathed, if you turn around and contradict yourself.

It's so important to really listen to what our children are telling us, and then "walk the talk" if we expect them to do what we've told them to do.  I know it's easy to say, and so much harder to do, but parenting is never promised to be easy.  Parenting is perhaps one of the most exhausting, frustrating, perplexing and lonely things a human will ever undertake.  There are a million books and articles on "how to parent", but in the midst of life we are pretty much left to our own devices.  

 
 

There will be times that we look and sound like the Dali Lama in our wisdom, and there are times we'll look like a raving maniac......but, the short of it is, that if you expect your children to do as you say, you can't just order an edict and expect them to comply if you don't follow your own advice.  Why?  

"Because I said so!"



 Posted first on AdorableBabyClothing.com Blog

DreamsitesStudios.com .......they can make your dreams come to life!

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As a website owner, one of my frustrations has been my lack of technical 
knowledge when it comes to making major changes to my website.  I'm perfectly capable of doing the day-to-day changes, but when it comes to html.codes and "css" and all the other stuff, you might as well talk to me in Greek.....consequently, I've kind of been at the mercy of whomever I'm working with.  Most of those experiences have not been positive ones, and left me feeling like I should have taken the money I spent and just set it in a pile on my driveway and had a nice little marshmallow roast.  

However, I have met one incredibly talented and even more importantly, knowledgeable and honest man, named Jeff Davis.  He's been in the business for 16-years, and is the owner of a website called DreamsitesStudios.com, and seemingly can to do just about anything you want from creating a website, to improving your existing site, to creating amazing videos for your site.........well, let it suffice to say, Jeff can do it all.  

 

What I particularly like about Jeff, is he really listens.  He doesn't give you what he thinks you should have.  He takes your ideas, and then makes them even better.  His goal is to improve and embellish whatever your concept is, and then make it a product you're proud to call yours.  

Jeff and I started by changing some obvious elements on my website, and within a matter of a few days, I was startled to see how much better it all looked.  He even added what's called a "slider" on my storefront, which gives a potential customer, a sneak peek of what's on the website without ever leaving the front page.

 After that, he created three amazing videos for me, and as far as I'm concerned hit the proverbial "nail on the head".  I just sent him my ideas, we talked on the phone, and then VIOLA!  He was sending me the videos.  I immediately started looking at other videos on You Tube, to compare what he sent me, and was over-whelmed at how much more professional and comprehensive his work is, than what I was seeing elsewhere.  


We're now working on the SEO of my website, which honestly, just baffles me.  I look at my analytics, and my eyes glaze over.  Jeff starts looking and explaining what he's seeing and it makes perfect sense.

So--if you own a website, and you want it improved and optimized to it's fullest potential (CORRECTLY!!!), you'd do well to get in touch with Jeff.  He won't disappoint, and I'm betting your results will be just as rewarding as mine have been.  Tell him I sent you!

DreamsitesStudios.com on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/dreamsites

DreamsitesStudios.com on Twitter - @dreamsitescom

DreamsitesStudios.com - http://dreamsites-studios.com/

Check out the videos he created for me below!

Actions Speak Louder Than Your Words

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It's a new year, and everyone is talking about "new year resolutions".........and we all know how that usually goes.  You make some resolution that in the moment seems "doable" and you're so determined to follow through, and within a month (if not sooner) you've found a million reasons why that was a stupid resolution and not worth pursuing.   And, then.......we resolve to not make resolutions, or to at least make better ones.......NEXT year!

If you have children, and they're old enough, they are of course watching.  So what are we really teaching them when we make some silly resolution, and then toss it aside within a few weeks?  Perseverance can be one of the toughest roads to walk.  Whether it's persevering on a diet, or the language you use, or finding your 'soul mate', or whatever the quest......the perseverance can be daunting.  Sometimes it just feels easier to give up and not worry about the outcome.  We humans are masters at rationalizing why something should or shouldn't be.

Now.....back to the kids......we all want our children to grow up to be healthy, happy and successful.  Many do in spite of the parenting, or because of the parenting they received growing up.  One thing is for certain.....there are no guarantees that even if you do everything exactly perfectly, your children will grow up the way you imagined.  However, parenting requires not only perseverance, but.....uh oh....here comes that word......resolutions!  With that in mind, it might go a little better for all of us if we remember just a few rules:

• Focus on Short-Term Goals versus Long Term Goals: Young children, 
  
  don’t often have the ability to set a goal long term and keep the motivation up to achieve it....especially if it is something that will take them a year or more to reach. So, don’t focus on  long-term goals with your children. If they've come up with a big goal, it's best to help them break it down into little goals.  This way they'll be able to achieve the smaller goals more quickly, which encourages them to keep striving towards that BIG goal.

• Limit the Number of Goals:    Children pretty much live in the 'here and now'.  Have you ever told one of them to do 3 or 4 things before they can go out
  
  
  to play, and then realize an hour later you haven't heard them at all......and then, find them doing something totally unrelated to the tasks!?  When young children are given a big long list of goals, it is easy for them to feel overwhelmed and lose motivation. Prioritize what's really the most important thing, and keep that list short!  No more than 1 or 2 things.  Interestingly enough, what you'll usually find is, when kids see just one or two things, they'll dive right in and get them done before you expect them too.  Then, once those are out of the way, add a couple more.......like they say....."baby steps" towards the ultimate goal.    

• Let You Children Set Goals That Matter To Them: The temptation as parents is to establish "our" goals for our kids.  And to a certain extent that's okay, but ultimately kids need to learn how to set their own goals.  If we continually come up with the idea, set the priority, and then demand performance, we are in essence setting them up for a life of waiting for someone else to tell them what to do, when to do it, and how to do it.   Let your children create their own goals that are important to them--teach them early on how to set their own achievable goals and how to reach them.  (Remember.......don't do the work for them!)

• Don't Rescue Them:  One of the things most parents are guilty of doing is rescuing their children when things don't go according to plan.  Of course
  
  there's always an instance where it's necessary, but I'm talking about rescuing them from things they probably shouldn't be involved in, or from things they don't need.  Just because their best friend got a new 'whatever' and they're upset because they don't have one, doesn't mean you run out and get one for them so they won't be sad.  And, there are times when they get themselves into trouble, and we want to rescue them, but honestly, how do we all learn best......by suffering the consequences of our own bad decisions.  If you're constantly rushing in to help them out of situations they got themselves into, guess what......you'll be doing it when they're adults to.  So let them suffer the consequences of their bad decisions (and I hope you know I mean within reason), and just be there to encourage them to do better the next time.  At this point too....resist the temptation to lecture or say "I told you this would happen"....you know all those "parent words" that seem to flow so effortlessly from our mouths.  This is a time to help them reflect on what they could have done differently to achieve a more positive outcome.  (The resisting part for you is the really really hard part!)

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