2014 archive

Porches

In the summer and spring, and sometimes the fall, here in Florida it is always warm – even hot. Porches in Florida are a decorative thing with shade.

pegeen-sunporch

 

It’s not often you get to sit on them, its usually buggy and hot. Like New Orleans hot. But around October through February, even March you begin to understand why you moved here in the first place.  The weather is beautiful and as Florida likes to brag, truly a sunshine state.  It is pretty rare that there is overcast like we got up north…. and the skies are so blue.  Of course, Florida is also the land of lakes, lots of lots of them.  Yes, you sometimes curse them as you have to wind around then, roads stopping, starting again…. and Orlando is notorious for crazy roads that go part of a way around lakes that stop suddenly.  But this story is about porches.

Sitting outside on the porch or even the sun porch is just lovely. You read the books you couldn’t outside. You sometimes get a “Florida Room” which was really a screened in porch with glass…. urgh that ugly glass. You know, those small 4″ panes in a louver glass window pattern and then you kind of roll them up to let in the sun and air. NEVER the heat though. Well, we decided to use the glass from an old renno, rather our old house, and put them into the screen windows. They were really the cut glass inserts from doors around our old house that we carted from storage to storage until we found a place where we could use them.  So it was time to get them out of storage and get cracking on this new project.  We really did it last Christmas vacation when my boys were home from college and they could lift those 400 pound doors into place.

 

We were able to get sliders from Johnson Hardware that allowed them to pass each other. Although we did this last year, we are happy with it now that we are in that time of “Florida Porch” weather.  This year we were able to finally enjoy the porch and we are in the middle of Christmas Decorations, finally bringing out those Thomas the Tank Engine trains that the kids loved when small and those ceramic Department 56 houses we collected long before the bills got crazy…. you know “AK” “after kids” when you no longer had any money. Enjoy the Christmas Holidays!

What is your favorite family time?

A YouTube video featuring a man trying not to laugh while gently scolding his two sons for covering themselves in paint reminded me of this happy day many years ago when my boys were young.  Their imaginations would take them to magical places, and that day they were on a voyage to the land of Pocahontas. The night before we had a family movie night and watched the Disney VHS tape and it fired their creative instincts.  My wife and I are so thankful for those times which we cherished then and, now that they are adults, even more so.

Although the movie nights are not as frequent as I would like, we all enjoy the time together.  As sentimental parents, we need this now as much as we needed it then. When I hear the boys laugh during “The Internship” with Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, it warms my heart.  I can close my eyes and still hear that same laugh that I heard years ago watching “The Lion King” or “Pinocchio”.  That same laugh I heard when they looked at my face upon seeing all that paint on my little warriors that memorable day.  I wasn’t angry, in fact I live for those kind of moments that last a lifetime. I don’t know if they had more fun painting themselves, or washing each other off with supersquirters.
Indian Brothers

Putting up the Christmas Lights

The daughter of my very good friend, Jessica Abraham, is about as crazy as I am about decorating early for the holidays.  She is quite a bit younger than I am so I am happy to report that this year, my 22 year old volunteered to help with festivities for Halloween.  Once Halloween is over, out come the Christmas decorations at my place.  The very next day.

We had a good time last night, getting our place scarey for the Trick or Treater’s.  We did a few new easy-to-decorate tricks my husband discovered on Pinterest.  My favorite?  Putting green glow sticks inside orange balloons and lining the walk way.  It cost less than $4 to do and sure added to the ambiance.  I took some of their old masks – scarey ones – and stuffed them with paper, threw some red paint so they would drip down the “stakes” and placed the wolf and gorilla mask on the stakes.  Even had these battery operated monster glow eyes and placed them in the masks to make them look even scarier.  Put an entire bottle of red dye in an old pot and placed this fog maker inside that we had and included some apples to BOB in the water that were long past their expiration date. I chuckled when some tough looking teenagers came for their tricks and set off a motion detector that made all this stuff “happen” and scared the bejeezers out of the kids.  Priceless.

Halloween 2014

Today, I almost fell over when my oldest came down stairs before noon and announced it was time to “get Christmas on” but we needed to take Halloween down first. I could hear my dad in my voice when I asked him “what do you want?”  Nothing he replied, “I just want to help”.  Gosh, he even put them in separate plastic zip-lock bags so the lights didn’t become tangled unlike his old habit of throwing them in the plastic tubs!!  A-MAZING  #KidsGrowingUp

Completely overwhelmed.  Watch it Jess – you have competition for Christmas.

 

Does anyone know of someone who is a caretaker? Let them know you are thinking of them.

I posted this story last week on my Facebook page.  After hearing the great news about Sargent Tahmooressi’s release today FINALLY, I hope you all think about our wonderful military in your thoughts and deeds.  I wish our White House did.  Oh, and Army V Air Force today.  Go Zoomies!

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED ON FACEBOOK: “I had an interesting conversation just yesterday. I’ve been in a Debbie Downer mood for some time cause things don’t always go my way (damn it). Well, my hubby’s diabetes is so bad, I convinced him to let me sell all his power tools a few months ago. That’s not the story though. A woman had come by then and yesterday she again knocked on my door. Her husband is a Wounded Warrior and she remembered we had a bow flex that I said was collecting dust due to his joint degeneration and asked if I would be winning to sell it so her husband could do strengthening exercises as he lost use of his (3) limbs. Naturally, I wasn’t going to sell it to the nice wife of a Wounded Warrior so my son dismantled it to fit it into her car. We got to talking about what her life was now like being a caretaker yet she reminded me of my friend Kelle from East – always smiling and still amazingly, praising God and happiness.

I mean this wife had it bad. Her day started like mine around 5am but what she had to do in a days time was a lot tougher than my 18 hour days. She was also lifting my mood (I am never down much at all but the past few weeks have been trying), in a quiet way as we both sobbed about the worries we have about illness/injury meant on our children from a parent how we fretted for them and laughed about the endless wonderment that we never forget to give medicine out but forget our own, and the satisfaction at the end of the day was that our kids were happy or our sadness that they may not be. Such a common bonding we women experience, likely because we do talk.

So Jim and I always like to say, what we would do if we were blessed with good fortune? My life is nothing like this young wife who believes in sickness and in health to be never complaining and happy to get support from Wounded Warriors for her husband. How can I, one person only make this woman’s day happier for her? To put her first instead for just an hour? Anyhow, longer story shortened, a couple years back some one gave me a spa card. You know, one of those 25$ gift cards that I never seem to use. I dropped it off to her this morning. Told her she should get her nails done or a massage. First thing she said to me is that she hoped my family was doing well and she had a very close friend who’s life was tougher than hers but said, to sign the card and she would do the same and give it to her friend. You know, like pay it forward. I wonder, how many “friends” could you share a gift card to so that person knew you were thinking of them to make their day go a little bit better. Just for a time. No comments, no likes – go find someone who takes care of a sick one, or a mom who just can’t take it any more, or a remarkable mom who takes care of a special needs child and let them know, in some small way, you are thinking of them and want to make their load a little lighter that day.”

For my friend Jeff Smith….

I have a friend from high school, grade school even who is this incredible film maker, photographer and writer, Jeff Smith.  A lot of what he photographs is nature – and I remember just a week ago telling him how his photography takes me to places I can’t go to now but through his eyes, I see the most incredible things.  Like a grizzly in Alaska, at the side of the flowing river, salmon about to land in his mouth, or capturing firelight with a bunch of cowboys standing at night’s edge.  I mean, Jeff has beautiful talent.  You have likely seen his work, whether in National Geographic or even a recent “mermaid” shoot for an advertisement.  (see his work at oasisphotography.com)

Sadly, Jeff lost his brother with a sudden heart attack.  He is raising funds selfishly for his nephew’s college on GOFUNDME.COM  – and wrote a wonderful tribute to his brother as well.  I often think about this from my own perspective – what we all think about – if what if something happened to me? How would my children react?  What if I suddenly lost a sibling, gosh I am still reeling from my parents death.  My heart goes out to Jeff and his family.

Please check this on GoFundMe.com and if you can help, every dollar is well deserved.

Another Beautiful Wedding….and flower girl dress

The bridal business has been a real joy to work in.  I don’t know if I will do this the rest of my life, but it sure makes me happy to participate in wedding festivities.   Early this month, I traveled to Kentucky for what was likely the most magnificent wedding I saw in a long, long time.  I have been fortunate to attend a few weddings each year via my clients, but this wedding was a family wedding, and honestly, I think we have a new WEDDING PROFESSIONAL in my family (LOL), my sister. I was so proud of all she did and happy to share in her excitement this past year, getting her “girl on”,  for Emma, like me, is surrounded by testosterone in the form of three boys (I have two, and trust me, I get sick and tired of smelly socks, football and shavings on the floor).

The couture flower girl dresses were from our Pegeen Fairytale Collections Style 904.

I promise to share more of this wedding because it truly was a wonderful event, filled with TONS of roses and pink and all the things Emma and I missed out on during our child-rearing days. So to you my sister in pink, bravo.  I am so proud of what you did!

Photo by CHRIS CORNWELL

Rehersal Party - Chris Cornwell Photography

Flower Girl Dresses by Pegeen will be posted later on another day but here is a sneak preview.  Photo below, family

Toffee silk and tulle flower girl dresses encrusted with Swarovski Crystals

Oh boy – here we go…. I love Gene Simmons even more!

I have to admit – I am a “Family Jewels” addict.  I am not the kind who follows the celebrity ins and outs (except of course when they purchase Pegeen for family weddings) but I was so interested in hearing him last week on Outnumbered. (Fox). He made such good sense and for any of you that did not hear his perspective :  ” A mother who loses a child is always about family and less about politics,” he continued. “On either side, it’s a terrible thing that’s happening.”

I watched Gene Simmons since I got hooked on Family Jewels – I mean the guy is really business smart.  I was never a KISS fan, but certainly I was cheering him on The Apprentice a few years ago – makes good business sense.

http://foxnewsinsider.com/2014/08/07/gene-simmons-outnumbered-my-mother-was-holocaust-survivor

 

Pegeen Launches it’s first Crowdfunding Campaign!

We Proudly Launch our Fairytale Collection for Flower Girls at a special price for our Indiegogo Supporters!

Pegeen Fairytale Wedding Collection

Pegeen.com Designer Childrenswear announces the launch of their Fairytale Collection through a Crowd Funding campaign. What exactly is crowd funding? The easiest way to describe it is this:

 

  • Crowd funding is when a Business (like ours) posts a project available for funding on a crowd-funding site (in our case indiegogo.com) to help get backers interested in our products and company.
  • In return for backing a project, our customers receive different rewards depending on the amount of funding they commit (from levels of $5 through $500) and also with a very special opportunity, that is to collaborate with Pegeen and help design, name and receive the dress you designed along with our ensuring someone who is less fortunate or has a very special wish to receive a dress so they can be a princess too!
  • Interested backers donate during the project, sharing our campaign over their social networks with their friends and contacts
  • What we receive in exchange for your support is the ability to expand greatly our advertising and marketing budget as we grow our company to an even higher level
  • What you will receive are various rewards, the opportunity to be able to say that you helped our company realize our dream of growing our business to the next level, and someday even, to fulfill our dream of being able to open a store (s) in the Downtown Disney area and beyond.
  • Moreover, Pegeen has arranged with a few organizations to be sure that we can provide to someone in need a princess dress of their very own through some really great charities like Give Kids The World. We are reaching out to Wounded Warriors and Make a Wish foundation as well and hope to get a response from them soon!

Everyone can participate even at the smallest of levels and know that Pegeen is one company who will REFUSE to outsource to other countries the manufacturing of our goods. In addition, you will help with building within our community the opportunity to share our really beautiful dresses with some really sick and needy kids so that they can become princesses too!
We hope that you will listen to our pitch and pass it on to friends as well!

We Proudly Launch our Fairytale Collection for Flower Girls at a special price for our Indiegogo Supporters!

For details click the link above for the video.
What your contribution to our campaign would mean to us:

We at Pegeen know that we create exquisite and well made products, not just for girls, but for boys as well. We are really proud of what we have accomplished in 33 years started by the talents of Marg Hyland. Behind the scenes are still the husband and wife team of Marg and Jim whose union formed just four years into the company’s origin and who steadfastly believe that answering the phone, producing in the US and dedication continue to help steer the company’s mission: to create beautiful clothing for children to remain looking like children. Joining the couple are some very dedicated seamstresses and one heck of a talented web developer.

Pegeen is always anxious to grow. Moreover, it’s a personal endeavor. “When I see the garbage that is coming in from China as counterfeit goods, I am mortified. I realize everyone has financial constraints but our job at Pegeen is to price our dresses so that a reasonable amount of people will make sure that their children wear heirloom quality goods. By offering our garments on the internet we actually can offer our creations without the markup of a retailer. We will continue to do so while improving the way our customers can purchase our goods.”

We really want to thank Addie Brie Hays for her wonderful participation in this project, Bill Frank for his guitar accompaniment and Rob Fong for an unbelievable new website and our now famous Pegeen Dress Dreamer!

For more information on our campaign and info on how you can help make a little girl feel like a princess, click the link below.

FAIRYTALES COME TRUE: Pegeen Childrenswear

Disney, be the Happiest Place in the World – return to your policy for families with disabilities

Disney, Common Sense, and Discretion

Disney has asked a District Court in California to throw out a lawsuit by families of some children with developmental disabilities. Apparently these plaintiffs feel that a new policy carried out by Mickey’s people that leaves the children waiting in long lines for which they are ill-suited. I have had firsthand experience at Disney World with an autistic family member and we were treated with dignity and respect under the now defunct disability protocols. It seems Disney had to do away with and then replace them because of abuse and misuse by guests. Stories abound of guests hiring disabled strangers to accompany their families in order to enable them to skip the lines, people feigning disabilities and so forth.
Greedy, lazy people spoiling it for everybody, but most of all for those who really need it. Many autistic kids (and adults) simply cannot wait forty five to sixty minutes or more, often in the hot sun. This is Orlando and Los Angeles, after all. Funny thing about lines, the longest lines are for the most popular (and fun) attractions. While everyone deserves the same access to these attractions, may I suggest that the autistic child and his or her caregiver perhaps deserve a little bit of extra consideration? I’m willing to bet that the vast majority of people waiting in line would gladly give up their spot to a family with an autistic child. The trick is to do it without embarrassing or stigmatizing the family. Any ideas?
I also think the cheaters would be reluctant to con their fellow man in a long queue (most of them anyway). Now I know there are line jumpers out there and I think they are the lowest of the low. Ask my wife and kids, I always embarrass them by pointing out the perpetrators and making a scene. They are much more likely to try that on a Cast Member (that’s what Disney calls their employees) because it’s more impersonal. The cheater rationalizes that the Cast Member is not waiting so has no skin in the game. Therefore no harm, no foul, the people behind him in line are a step removed, no pun intended.
Discretion has been removed from the equation in this matter. I happen to think that left to their own devices, people in line and Disney Cast Members will almost always do the right thing, particularly when it involves compassion and children with special needs. For me, the best thing about going to the parks is seeing the joy on the faces of the little ones and their parents. It brings back the happiest of personal memories for me. It’s a shame that the harsh, intractable rules that needed to be put in place because of a few bad apples will deal another blow to families who already have enough to deal with.

Rather than arguing with the courts to throw out the lawsuit, do your homework Disney and figure out HOW to catch the cheaters. Be the kind, happiest place in the word and get your act together.

My little munchkin, Jessica, is engaged!

From the moment I met her, I loved her.

My niece Jessica wearing Pegeen.com  c1995

When I was a single gal, my closest brother had the most beautiful girl in the world named Jessica.  I had a few other nephews and nieces by then whom I love dearly, but when Jessica was born I got a “daughter” as well.  I was close to my brother Tom – very close, and when his first child was born, it was as if I was a “mom” too.  Tom and Joanne, my sister-in-law, let me into their lives like no one else could.  Thomas followed Jessica and all I could think about was how amazing he was – and mechanical!  When they were sick, I was sad.  When one of their kids got hurt, I was devastated.  These were MY children.  When their 3rd and final child Kate was born prematurely, this tiny little bundle would sleep on my chest and I would just watch her in amazement.  Here below is “my fam”.

Here's my "fam"

Jessica was and still is the apple of my eye.  I love her intelligence, her humor and sweetness.  She, and her two siblings are more than just my children…. she is the honorary Godmother to my oldest son, and really I think of her as a more than daughter, and the same for her siblings. I spoiled her to the point of madness. When she was little, I would give her EVERY dress from our then Pegeen Everyday Collection and we would pick out bows for her hair, making sure she had one for every outfit for Kindergarten. She hugged me and said, “Aunt Marg, you are the best aunt ever. You give me every dress I could ever want!”   My brother’s kids and mine grew up together, in fact we would trek to her town some 50 minutes away every Halloween just so we all could go trick or treating together. It wasn’t until we moved to Florida that my kids remarked that Halloween seemed empty without their “siblings”.

Jessica and her siblings were my models too for Pegeen. Here are a few of my favorites!
Jessica and Janelle modeling their Pegeen flower girl dresses Jessica's getting married!  Jessica and Thomas modeling their Pegeen Children's Bridal Wear

Now, my Jessica is going to be a bride. I am like so in love with her Alan, and now I am not sure who will be sobbing more at her wedding, my brother Tom or me!  As a flower girl dress designer, I KNOW Jessica will have kids in her wedding – “even if I have to rent them Aunt Marg” she once exclaimed!  I know she will because we picked out those styles YEARS ago.  I love you Jess.

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