Working with my Daughter

My dear, sweet daughter was a little upset I had not used her wonderful looking template for my blog this morning. I mentioned to her how it was missing favorite posts as well as a list of older posts. And how I had used her other graphics (like the top of my main page, the header graphic). Nice picture of some cute flower girls in dresses. I appreciate her work, but it needs to be what I need, not what she wants. Some days it's just hard to work with a 14 year old, who does not yet understand the customer (me in this case) is always right.

Mulan Opera

"Mulan" blooms in Vienna State Opera House - I did not know there was an opera of Mulan. My daughter wore the warrior Mulan costume (the cool one) when Mulan first came out. It's a shame that Disney still does not make that costume, they only have the Princess one.

Of course a friend's comment was Mulan's dress in the Disney movie was totally inaccurate, and looked like a Kimono (she wrote a Mulan book that has very accurate clothing). The QiPao I have are is a bit more accurate, but it depends on the time period.

Review Headache

There is a problem with customers finding the link to do a review. It's toward the bottom of the page, after the measurements. Hmm... Trade offs, since nobody is looking below the measurements. I could put them on another tab, but measurements are so important since almost every dress is a little different, especially the Chinese ones.

Cutting Wedding Costs Ideas

Couples are finding ways to cut wedding costs from the LA Times. At my Wedding I did these, and a few more. A previous post Nuptial nonsense about how expensive weddings have gotten.

Ideas from the Article:

• Buy flowers from the wholesale flower mart (did that)
• Hold reception at lower cost or no cost location (did that, mine was at the Church activity room)
• Have family bake treats for reception (did that, my husband's Aunt helped out so much)
• Do it yourself wedding invites adding jewels and ribbons (mine were pretty plain I guess)
• Have friend or relative do photography (did that, I still regret not having a Pro do the photography - sigh. But it does give me something to hold over my Hubby's head; even 20 years later :-)
• Having a friend or relative do the hair (I had a professional do it).

Cost Cutting Ideas I did at my wedding:

• Borrowed my mother-in-laws car.
• Had a friend video tape the wedding. A couple of years later we had a pro edit the video and it came out really nice.
• The cake was done by the Church Wedding Organizer, and my husband convinced me to have carrot cake, and it had real butter cream frosting. It was wonderful!
• My Mother-in-law took a flower arranging class and did all the flowers.
• I had my wedding dress and QiPao custom made in Taiwan. The only mistake was I was super thin in Taiwan and the dress did not have any extra fabric on it, so when I came back to the US I had to be careful on the weight. There is no way my daughter could fit these, she takes after her Dad to much.
• We rented the Maids of Honor Dresses. This took a lot of time to find ones, I finally found them I think it was in Westminster.
• My Husband rented his tux from a friend of his Father's, but there were problems where they increased the cost. So using a friend of the family can be good and bad. I suggest getting quotes from non-Family places and if the family friend offers the same or lower price then go with them.
  

And one that was not mentioned, would be buying the Flower Girl Dresses from me.

Holiday Weekend Weddings

Good article about why many people value their holiday more than attending a wedding on a holiday weekend. The positive is if many people are traveling far, the holiday weekend offers more time together. The negative is for people only attending the wedding and live close, and it can hurt their holiday weekend plans, especially if it's on the middle day.

Chinese Moon Festival

Many people dress up their little princess for the Chinese Moon Festival, here is some information:

• Chinese Moon Festival Calendar of Events for the United States and Canada
• Chinese Moon Background
• Chinese Moon Festival Books and Stories
• Moon Festival Lesson Plan
• Moon Cakes - Where to Buy/Purchase

Web Down

Chinese Halloween Costumes

I am starting to notice Halloween Candy in the stores and a few Halloween Costume places opening up, so may be it's time for people to buy their Chinese Girl's Dress and use it as a Halloween Costume.

Back 2 School

My daughter starts school on Monday, sigh, so soon. Her choir is starting tomorrow. Summer was a nice break from how busy school gets. I hope her Choir is not getting new dresses (you never know). Supposedly this year the orchestra will actually get their uniforms, last year was the first year of the new Orchestra teacher and he just ran out of time.

QiPao's for Dance Troups, Group Sales

I have sold a few large order of QiPao's to Chinese Dance Troops and such. It's an area I do need to work on.

Dressing Women of a Certain Size

Dressing Women of a Certain Size in the Wall Street Journal.

I have come across this in girl's dresses, and there is a potential market. Not everyone is thin as a stick and in the girl's Chinese Dresses, size 14 and 16 are challenges on the top part (this is where returns happen). And yes, I am working on getting dresses made per my own size that make sense in the US, it's a challenge with the lack of uniformity in girl's dress sizes.

eBay Changes - Should I go back?

eBay has been making a lot of changes and it sounds like more problems/headaches selling there than benefit. Even with the new changes, it seems to becoming more anti small seller.

Dress Size - Standard vs. Catalog

The more I read, the more confused I am getting. It seems that dress sizes really have no standard. There was one which is used on the back of sewing patterns, but this is not what is used in the stores anymore. This is called a catalog size, and seems to vary a bit.

Some links:

• NIST's Role, Standardization of Women's Clothing Sizes - NIST
• kids sizes estimator.
• US standard clothing size - Wikipedia
• Free Standard Clothing Sizes Measurements Chart from Fiber Images (I am not sure if this is catalog or the old one).
• Overstock.com Apparel Sizing Guide

Summer Vacation is almost over, sigh

My daughter's summer vacation is almost over, and unfortunately she still has a bit of summer HW to get finished. Are schools ruining summer by giving out summer HW, or is it what is needed to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive world.

My daughter's cello teacher was talking about how much more advanced his students are, then when he was a student. He had a high school student at a recital play a piece he did for his Master's dissertation. I was surprised at how some students dressed up for the recital, and others just came in jeans. My daughter dressed up.

My daughter's orchestra does not have a dress code yet, and it's interested to see what everyone wears. It was the first year of the new orchestra teacher and I understand this year is going to be a bit stricter run. I will be interested to see if they get the uniforms this year and what they look like. My daughter's choir got better looking girl's dresses that covered the top in a nice way and were age appropriate.

Flower Girl in Australia - Different meaning

Trophies galore for Queen Lauren - the picture is super cute. It seems to be some sort of contest that a 3 year old won for Flower Girl, but not wedding related. More of a pageant?

Blogger - what I need to fix

Colors, they need to be toned down a bit to make it easier to read. Unfortunately my last attempt was a disaster... Something to keep on plugging away on including testing!

Silk Chinese Dress

I wonder if there is that much of a market for a Silk Chinese Dress for Girl's, priced around $30

Chinese Children in Ethnic Costume - the picture is so cute. During the opening ceremony when they had the kids come out, I was busy looking for the one wearing a QiPao Chinese Girl's Dress. Slideshow of the kids The article is talking about how the kids were Han Chinese which is the majority of Chinese.

My 2 cents, so what. The kids looked great and were showcasing the costumes of ethnic minorities. It would have been nice if the show producer had somehow gotten 55 different kids of ethnic minorities to be part of the ceremony. On the matter of the lip syncing, I have issues with that.

Real Singer is so cute!

The 7 year old real singer for the Olympics is so cute and real. Sad that she was not pretty enough for the powers that be. This article captures my opinion - Silent little girl in a red dress means red faces

Kid Friendly Destination Weddings

For kid-friendly destination wedding, use a mouse - the idea by having a destination wedding you will have fewer guests and it will actually cost less. Like my friend who just got married in Kansas, which is a little ways from California.

Family Pictures and the right Dress

A natural celebration from a Mn paper, The Daily Telegram, about how a family would have pictures done when a child reached two years old.

Family pictures can be hard and can cost a pretty penny. Kathleen Reeve Photography did some amazing black and white photos of my family that my husband arranged while we were in the San Jose area. She really captures the emotion in a picture. On her blog, she has posting on picking the Clothing for Family Portraits. If you have a chance, take a look at her site just for fun. And if you live in the Bay Area, I highly recommend her!

For those of us who don't live in the Bay Area, I found when my daughter was smaller that Sears did a great job of enticing a smile out of my daughter and had coupons that made it reasonable. They were an early adopter of digital so you could nix that picture with the eyes closed.

The god daughter of the person we bought out grand piano from has a neat business, where she hangs out with a family all day taking pictures of them. She calls it ur papparazi. She also did some of my dress photos. She's in the LA area and if your interested I can E-Mail you her contact info. I could not find a web page for her.

Bridezilla - How not to be one!

New term - Bridezilla! Momzilla is another!

Cute article with some great advice - Bridezillas are lurking everywhere. Here's how not to be one.

Key Advice:

1. Have great communication to avoid surprises, such as on Bride's maid dresses and how much they cost, wedding location, etc.
2. Budget extra time just in case
3. Focus on what is really important. Don't let the small stuff ruin your day.
   

Dress Store

I guess I was doing a Sam Walton today. I was in the Mall and I saw a store selling girl's dresses, so I went in and started chatting with a sales person.

Key Points:

• All the dresses were strapless
• They had no petticoats, you can only find these at wedding stores
• First communion, sweet 16, Quincarra, and Philippino sweet 16 are all popular. Flower Holder and Rose Holder I need to find out more about.
• Philippino in first communion has a veil, and Hispanics in the US don't.
• Flower Girl Dresses are also big
  

Chinese girl's hair

The Chinese girls in the traditional costumes during the opening ceremony were so cute. And that got me thinking about their different hair styles. Something I should write up. The two pig tails on either side, the pony tail on the back, and of course just regular hair. Another is using chopsticks to hold it up in the back.

Lucky Day for Chinese Weddings

Triple 8's Means Wedding Bells from the SF Chronicle - Couples rush to get married on 8/8/08, considered by some Asian cultures to be the luckiest day of the century.

Some articles I have:

• Chinese Symbol and Color meanings
• Chinese QiPao Cheongsam Dress History
• Chinese Wedding Customs

And of course Chinese QiPao Cheungsam Girl's Dresses that can be used for the flower girl.

Nuptial nonsense

Nuptial nonsense from the Baltimore Sun. Fun article to read. Two reality programs on Weddings, wow.

I like this quote:

From engagement baubles that cost as much as a used car, to dresses that cost just as much, to events so big that bank loans are a common thing, has our culture gone a little wedding crazy? I know that I have gone a little off the bend lately, watching so much wedding TV. And what does this do to relationships? Existing ones and future ones?

Of course to save some money, I do have pretty cheap discount Flower Girl Dresses...

Flower Girl Practice Makes Perfect

Flower girls, ring bearers need practice to stay on track - makes sense. Another tip is have the Flower Girl, wear her Flower Girl Dress a bit before the big day to get used to it. I also have a few tips for Flower Girls:

• Choosing a Flower Girl
• Ettiquette for Flower Girls
• Flower Girl Tips

Boy's Ao Dai's Vietnamese Traditional Clothes

I should have these soon. Actually I have them in sizes 1-5, I just need to take some pictures. Boy's Ao Dai's Vietnamese Traditional Clothes

Beautiful Wedding Dress

An article or may be press release I stumbled across showcasing some beautiful wedding dresses. The flower girl dresses are $250 and below, of course my discount flower girl dresses are $39.99 and below...

New Ao Dai's - Vietnamese Girl's Dress

New Ao Dai's - Vietnamese Girl's Dress will be up soon, I just got them in yesterday. So I need to take pictures and take the measurements. My plan is Monday.

Customer Service can be challenging

I messed up on my inventory system and a customer ordered a Chinese Girl's Dress I did not have. So I went to my supplier to try to get one. They did not have it at their store, but they said they would have it at their warehouse. So I finally got to their warehouse, and surprise, they don't have it. I did get some items for another customer! So I went back to their store in downtown and started going store to store looking for it. I finally found one and I paid retail for it, since my goal is a happy customer. So I get back, ready to ship it, and when I test the zipper... Any guesses? Yes, it broke. So I eMailed the customer asking what to do. I should have tested it in the store. Another learning experience!