Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Don't Look Down.....


"Don't look down, look straight ahead at eye level.  Take a full 30" step forward and let nature take it's course."  
This is what my Marine Corps drill instructor said to me so many years ago as I stood at the top of the 60" tall rappelling tower.  To be honest, she added some colorful interjections as she stood on the ground shouting up at me.  

This moment comes to mind again today.  These are the words that keep playing out in my head over and over again as I sit here this morning typing out this announcement to share with you all.  I feel like once again, I am standing at the edge of that tower and it's time to take that full 30" step forward.

By now, you all are wondering..."OK, so what is the big deal?"  or thinking "Get on with it Nancy."  Let's do that now...

Six years ago, after being prodded by a couple of friends, I went onto a not very well known website called Etsy, opened a shop and put a single doll up for sale.  I didn't really think much about it at the time, I logged off and went to bed.  

The following morning, I woke up to a message in my email notifying me that I sold something and a sweet message from a mama in Australia who cheerily said, 
"Yay!  I just bought the first ever Dragonfly's Hollow doll!  Cheers and best of luck to you going forward."  

From then on, we all know the rest is pretty much history...I would make one doll at a time and put them in the shop...they would sell and I would make more.  

Time kept moving, I enlisted the help of family and friends and DFH grew.  It kept growing and moving in this forward direction, taking on a life of it's own.  It's been an awesome ride, to say the least.

There have indeed been bumps in the road, mistakes made as well as good decisions, bad decisions and amazing opportunities to touch the hearts of so many precious people.

About two years ago, I started chatting with my sweet friend Mel Scamuffa.  I told her if DFH were ever to grow I would want to do it in a way that helps other folks to grow and enrich their lives...I would want it to make a difference for others.  That was when the seed was sewn for this very moment.

You see, as you grow a business, there is always pressure to grow...grow more, grow bigger.  The pressure comes from all around.  I have done a lot of thinking about the direction that is best for DFH to take.  There have been lots of discussions and debates about the whole subject.  We have had numerous shops contact us to wholesale our items, even had discussions with a buyer for FAO Schwartz.  We just never felt comfortable with going that route.  It just did not fit with our philosophy of making a difference in people's lives.  It just did not seem to fit at all. 

So what is it we intend to do, you ask?  Well, we have decided that if DFH is to ever grow any more than it has so far, it will only happen with all of you.  That is why we are officially inviting you all to join our team and become a consultant for DFH.  

That's right, you read correctly...as of today, DFH is officially taking on consultants to partner with us.  

Like I said, the only growth we want to see is growth where we are enriching the lives of others...making a difference in real people's lives.  

We are opening up a limited number of slots at a time.  Each new consultant will be an independent business person...this is YOUR business endeavor.  You will make it be whatever you want it to be.  We will be your support,  your encouragement, your community so to say.  

How will it work?  Well, it's not much different than many other such organizations.  You hold in home parties, have a good time and show off the awesomeness that is DFH.  Take the orders and send them to us.  We then fill the orders, and ship them back to you.  As the consultant, you would then make sure everything is right and then distribute the items to your customers.  We have an online forum for you to go to for support and encouragement.  You can call us or email us with questions.  Basically, our job is to support you and your business.  Our super awesome friend Mel has agreed to come on board and help lead our troop of consultants.  To help come up with ideas and to encourage.  She will be heading up the forum.

 Now, this is all new.  It has never been done before in this sort of way, so I will be honest with you...we are heading into uncharted territory.  There will be bumps in the road, there will be changes made to things...additional things added.  As we progress, we will talk with you and as a team we will guide this thing together.  This will be our combined endeavor. 

We are limiting the number of consultants we will take on at first...then continuing to add members bit by bit.  

So, we are inviting you to join us on this wild ride.

We are standing at the edge of the tower and I am inviting you to take that full 30" step forward with me.  

Follow the link below to our web page we have put together with more info.  I am sure you will have lots more questions, so please join us in our forum and we will answer all of the ones you have. 

Join Our Team

As time goes on and our consultants grow, we will diminish our RTG uploads.  Our goal is that over time, we will eliminate RTG uploads altogether making it so that the only way to get a DFH will be thru one of our consultants.






Thursday, April 17, 2014

DIY - Sewing the Belly Button

Can't have our dollies without belly buttons :)

Click on the link below...it will take you to our full length video showing how to sew the belly button :)

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Customs

I'm feeling kind of energetic after getting over my recent bout of illness :)  Due to that, I have decided to offer 8 custom slots to be made by the end of May 2014.

The slots will be as follows...

6 - Jewelwing/Sprite size

and 

2 - Pixie size

These will go up for sale tomorrow 4/14 at 10:00 am central US time.  
Once these are sold out, there will be no more.  

These are the ONLY planned customs for 2014....There are no plans to offer customs again after this. 

Please take some time and read over our listings completely so you can understand what these involve.  



One (1) order per person.  These are not transferrable.  In the event of an oversell, the slot will go to the first person showing in our database as having completed payment.  We will email and refund the other person immediately.  

I will begin emailing the recipients on Tuesday 4/15 to begin working out your details.




Friday, April 11, 2014

DIY - Sewing the face on your doll

We receive a lot of messages from folks asking us for tips or pointers on how to make their own dolly for their kiddos.  It was because of these queries that we began the whole Mama Made line a couple years back.

Well, we are no longer offering Mama Mades, so we decided to share our info publicly on our Youtube channel.  

We will share each video one by one, each week.
Yes, there will be a corresponding blog post to direct you there.

The first video is a full length demonstration on how to sew the face onto your doll.

Click on the image below to follow the link...



If you have questions, please feel free to message me thru out FB page or our FB team page.

Enjoy the videos, we look forward to seeing the lovelies you create of your own.










Monday, April 7, 2014

A Whole New Website...wooo hoooo!

We have a new website!  

Some of you might have noticed it over the weekend...it went live on Friday and we sneak peeked it onto Twitter for an advance sneak peek.


We are super excited...its been a long time since we revamped things around here :)

You will notice a couple of positive changes...

First, it's easier than ever to view our galleries.  The first group, of course, being the weekly preview group.  Then the rest are broken down by the type of doll or set they are.

Next, our updated Calendar will make it easier to update you on what is happening and when.  You will also notice, at the bottom of the page, we have installed an easy time zone converter so those of you outside of the US and our time zone will have an easier time figuring out what time our uploads are.

You will also notice one little addition to the website that is completely new for us...our


This is where we will be moving our Team DFH FB page as well as our Mama Made FB group page...don't worry, it will be over time but by the end of the month, both of those pages will be migrated to our discussion forums.  It's no secret that FB has undergone many changes recently that have inhibited our ability to interact with our followers.  We would like to control our own communication so we feel as though it is better for us to move our own discussions away from FB.  
No , we are not leaving our main business page...that will remain exactly how it is.  No worries on that. Just our more personal chit chat and non business related things will be moved over to our forum.  

Speaking of interaction...you will also notice we have a Newsletter sign up right on our page.  We are in the process of migrating our huge list of folks who have signed up for the newsletter from our shop to our Mailchimp list of folks who have signed up thru our FB link.  We will soon be able to send out one Newsletter to our entire group of folks who have signed up.  
Speaking of our newsletter...if you haven't signed up already...go on and pop over to the page and sign up :)


Want to contact us?  
We have made that easier as well...sure you can message us thru FB but you now can also submit the form thru our Contact Us page.  

I am so excited to unveil our new site...Andy did an amazing job creating it for us.  I am in love with how it looks and how easy it will make it to find all the info you need to know about us.  There are so many exciting things happening here at DFH...this is step number one.  It is such an exciting time for us.

Pop on by the website and take a good look around.  Join our forum and sign up for our newsletter...if you aren't already following us on Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram, hop on over and join us there as well.  There are so many different ways to keep up with all that is happening at DFH, so however is your favorite way, hop on board and join us.  We have a pretty major announcement coming up in the next week or two...so you will definitely want to be around for that :)

Have a great day everyone...oh...and, keep your eyes peeled for a few random listings coming up :)