Late Night Tie Dye - Notes on Custom Orders, and Makin' People Happy

     Just finished a couple hours slinging dye down in my basement la-bor-a-tor-ee . . . washed out a small batch that'll be ready to go to the Boutique tomorrow - a couple of real nice long sleeve rainbowy spirals and side spirals, a REAL nice Ripple V in either a 2 or 3X, a SYF Flag for our vending tent, and a couple other pieces.

     What prompts me to write, tonight, though, is a little bit of pride and some tooting of my own horn. I have a custom order for an XL Shamrock - she liked some of my green shamrocks on purple shirts, and gave me a little freedom to 'just make her a nice green and purple shamrock shirt'. So I made three variations. I do this a lot with custom orders, if I possibly can, and if I think I can sell the shirts the customer doesn't pick. These unchosen shamrocks will go, for sure, and my customer is way more likely to get a shirt they absolutely love, which makes us both happy. Sometimes they pick up one of the other choices for a friend, which makes me happy, and makes their friend happy. Everybody is just flippin happy! And I have to say that I have a particular feeling that these particular shirts will be particularly nice . . . can't wait to pull them apart and rinse them up tomorrow or Saturday. If I get around to it, I'll post pics in a future blog installment.

     I can think of dozens of times I've done this. I had an order for about 15 pairs of socks to match a softball team's uniforms - I made 20 pairs, plus a few t-shirts in the same colors. The customer bought everything I made, so there were some happy fans showing their team's colors at the games, too! I had an order for about 20 matching rainbow spiral t-shirts for a family reunion. I made about 25. That customer didn't pick up the extras, but we put them all on happy customers within a few months, anyways.

     We don't charge extra and we usually don't take money up front for custom orders, unless it's some odd request that I don't think I could sell if the customer didn't buy it after I made it. I've been burned a couple of times doing business this way, but the successes far outnumber the abandoned orders, and I can only think of one shirt I've been stuck with that hasn't sold. I've been thinking about adding a couple bucks for a custom request and about taking at least a small deposit - but for now at least, I like the way we do this.

     Yeah, I'm bragging a bit, but I want people to know how we like to do business, and how your smile makes me smile, and is as valuable and rewarding to us as the sale of the tie dye. Check us out at our downtown New Castle, PA Boutique, or online at http://www.lovelightboutique.com/.
    

Late Night Tie Dyeing

Up late dyeing a whole bunch of new stuff. Leann goes to a good friend's baby shower next weekend, and we've got a batch of great baby items in the mix to give as gifts. I'm real anxious to unfold a fire palette curved "V" ripple pattern XL long sleeve I dyed tonight - I just have a good feeling about the palette I used, the way I pushed the dye, and then as a finishing detail touch, feathered in the pleat ridges with a soft brush. I spent more time on this one shirt tonight than the price I'll put on it can justify, but every once in a while, I just gotta get fancy and try some new things. I'll try to remember to put a picture on here when it's done - it'll be a least a day on the rack, wet for the dye to set, then a rinse day, then to the shop for a picture and its place on a rack. Also dyed up a bunch of baby onesies, some socks, a custom ordered hoodie, and a new test pattern for a five pointed star I have another custom order for. I usually test new patterns on cheapass flour sack material, but I was pretty confident in this star design and tying technique I came up with, so I went straight to a t-shirt with it. Fingers crossed. I've ruined shirts doing this before . . .

I also put a lot of the new dyes on our website today, (http://www.lovelightboutique.com/) and created a new category called "Brian's Choice" for dyes I am particularly proud of. With any luck, this fire ripple XL I did tonight will make the cut. Also planning on adding a "Leann's Choice" category, so she can feature her favorite dyes or other products that we carry. I think it'll be kind of fun.

Lovelight Boutique and Yoga Studio is open 12 -4 tomorrow, and I have to get down there early to help set up for Leann's Chakra Yoga workshop, so I better cut out and head to bed. Busy day today with lots of customers all day - hopefully be even busier and crazier tomorrow!

Shamrock Season!

Done making Hearts for Valentine's Day, now on to lots of Tie Dye Shamrock's for St. Patrick's Day! People seem to love them, for themselves and they make great gifts.

It's been tough, lately, squeezing in some late night tie-dyeing time. Funny how you develop your passion into a business, which then leaves little time for the passion that started it all . . . between managing our website http://www.lovelightboutique.com/ , daily business, taxes, shop and yoga studio upkeep, staffing the boutique all day, ordering raw materials and resale merchandise, there is often just too little time to make tie dye. I need to get a couple dozen shamrocks done over the next week or two to be ready. Last year, shirts like the one above, and other styles with shamrocks, and lots of green and green/yellow, green/orange spirals and other patterns, sold like crazy - I make a bunch ahead of time, and I take and make a lot of custom orders, too. I could make one for you!

St. Pat's day is extra tough, because I also play in Mixed Greens - a trio playing traditional, old-timey, Irish, Scottish, and other Celtic flavored music, and we book LOTS of gigs around the holiday, and we practice a lot during the month before. Time gets crunched, but it is a real fun time of year for us, too.  Check us out online, or if you are in the western PA area, stop by the boutique and say Hi!

Lovelight Boutique and Yoga Studio
114 E. Washington St.
New Castle, PA 16101
(724) 698-7220
http://www.lovelightboutique.com/

Decided I needed TWO blogs, to keep my personal ranting (that blog will be 'Spacewheel'), separate from our Boutique, Yoga Studio and Vending Blog -- which I see as a little more professional in tone and content. Our website is Lovelight Boutique and Yoga Studio, and I'll be using this blog for featured products, articles, how-to's, vending schedules and stories, yoga announcements, etc.