Cotton Candy Totes Against Child Abuse

It's been a rough couple of days in the news. In light of the Casey Anthony verdict, there is not a single person I know that isn't appalled, disgusted and downright heartbroken over the decision the jurors made. Caylee Anthony was a victim of child abuse plain and simple. At who's hands...we can speculate but we will never know the truth. There are thousands of children each year that pass too soon, go missing without a trace and go to bed hungry at night. There are thousands of little kids just like Caylee suffering every day. It might be a child your child goes to school with, the next door neighbor or a co-workers child. If we aren't these children's advocates, who can they turn to? Social services is often overworked and understaffed and we all watch the news and see how many of these children slip through the cracks. Children are my passion, my own and all the other special little beings in my life. I thought....I can't change what has happened but what can I do to help in the future?
While one person can't change the world- I can certainly help spread the word and make my contribution. In honor of Caylee Anthony, Cotton Candy Totes will be donating 10% off each sale for the months of July & August to a great organization called Prevent Child Abuse America. Their website is http://www.preventchildabuse.org/There are 47 chapters around the US dedicated to providing services and help for families that need it. You can even report a suspected case of child abuse right from their site. And PLEASE...if you do suspect that there is child abuse going on, please report it. you can be saving a life and a family.
In addition to donating a portion of our sales, we are going to be looking into designing a special bag just for Caylee that can be purchased exclusively on our site at the suggestion of an old friend and fan of our FB page.
Even if you don't purchase a bag from me, please look into donating to Prevent Child Abuse America. They depend on people like us to keep their organization going.
Thank you and may we all keep Caylee Anthony and all the other victims of child abuse in our prayers tonight, and every night!
XOXO Cotton Candy Totes

New ready to ship items are being added & a HUGE thank you to our fans!

We have now added a 'Ready to Ship' Section to our site. As we make stock, we will be adding bags that you can purchase as is and we will ship in 48 hours. Normally our customized handmade diaper bags take about 2 weeks from the time you place your order. We are hoping that by stocking some bags in house, we can build our business and hopefully move in the right direction.
Speaking of the right direction, Cotton Candy Totes would like to give a huge shout out to all the people that have given us encouragement and passed our link along to their friends. We are seeing an increase in website hits and can see that there will be great things to come for us. We couldn't do it without the support of our customer base so we thank you!

In addition to our diaper bags, we have added handmade tutu outfits and couture tutu dresses to our site. These outfits are truly just darling and alot of attention to detail goes into making these outfits. Please take a look at these great looking Handmade Tutu's- perfect for birthday outfits and there are even couture bridal dresses available which can be customized to match your bridal party colors! Our favorite is the Lil Sisters Roll tutu outfit. Simply adorable!

We have also added our new Lil Mama bag line made just for your daughter to match your Madison diaper bag. All the same fabrics that are available for your diaper bag are also available for your lil diva! The Lil Mama has been a huge hit with our customers and some have mentioned even using them as a lunch bag during school months!

In addition to getting the site rolling- we had a 'Do it Yourself' photoshoot this past weekend which was a lot of fun. My daughter Madison had a blast posing for the Lil Mama bag line and we got some great pictures which have now been added to our site.

We are in the works of creating a new bag which will differ slightly from the Madison diaper bag and we hope to have that up on our site as early as next week.

That's all for today- we hope you all have a happy and healthy July 4th weekend!

Much love,
Cotton Candy Totes

We are now open!!

Good morning all! It's been a long month of late nights but our website is officially ready for business!
Please use coupon code FREESHIP to receive free shipping on your order until July 31st.

We are expecting a nice shipment of fabrics today and will be working on some new designs that should be up for sale by the end of the weekend. Although we offer custom bags, we are also going to be adding a section to our site for ready made bags. We have put a lot of time and thought into what would be appealing to our customers and we hope you like what you see!

We also have a winner of our $10.00 Gift Certificate Giveaway- Stacy Modlin from Virginia was our lucky winner! Please check back frequently for our new contests and giveaways and drop us a line either here, or on FB or Twitter to let us know what you think of our site.
Most importantly- thank you all for your support and please pass along our site to anyone you know!

Have a great day!

Twitter me this....

So the idea of opening a Twitter account has bounced around my head for a while now. Having a business conversation with my younger and more tech savvy brother confirmed my suspicions that having a Twitter page for my business is not a bad idea. After doing some research- it seems that large businesses like Zappos.com are even using Twitter to answer customer inquiries. Apparently, Twitter also has 10x the networking and connecting capabilities than Facebook. The downside? You can only Tweet 140 characters...and I like to talk. So I am going to have to learn how to promote and connect in way fewer words than I am used to, while making an impact on my customers. Tweeting, along with blogging will hopefully drive lots of traffic to my site...which in the long run is the goal.
And don't worry Facebook- I still love you and will continue to utilize you in both my personal and business life
 :-)
I hope you all will follow me on Twitter (coming soon) and have a wonderful weekend!

Why Mom-Made Products Rock!

I have been a huge supporter of mom-made products for years now. So much so, that I wanted to be 'That Mom'. I had an idea and brought it to the table. I took a chance not even knowing how to use a sewing machine and my business took off. I had a lot of support and ideas that I got from other mom businesses that continue to inspire me.
What makes mom made products so awesome though? The attention to detail and customer service is unmatched in comparison to any of the big corporations out there. I took phone calls from all over the country, at all hours of the day and answered customer questions, gave them suggestions on fabrics and sent them online swatches to help them see my vision. Often times it took 4-5 phone calls before an order was placed. Each order is tailor made specifically made for you and often times these hectic mommy-trenuers are packing up your order, or putting together your hair bow right on their dining room table while making dinner or helping their kids with their homework. The amount of work and dedication to owning your own business and making your own products is immense.
There are some talented moms out there and often times those items are one of a kind and you are not going to find them in a store. And when you buy a mom-made product, doesn't it give you warm fuzzies to know that you are actually helping to support a household very much like your own?
And on that note- hope you all had a fabulous weekend and a productive week ahead!

We need 100 fans on Facebook!

Become a fan on Facebook and be automatically entered to win a $10 gift certificate good towards any purchase on our site! Click on the link below to become a fan!
Cotton Candy Totes on Facebook

Site Launch

Cotton Candy Totes is gearing up to re-launch their new and improved website in the coming weeks. We are busy working on graphics, loading our products and looking for models (mommies and babies alike) to showcase our great products. We are also in 'design' phase. While our Madison bag was and still is our #1 seller and named after my first born, we felt that we needed to bring more to the table in terms of design and functionability. We are putting on our creative thinking caps and coming up with some great ideas! Our design philosophy will remain the same- trendy, fun, and functional. We are very excited about launching and will keep you posted as we get ready to 'go-live'.
If you are interested in doing a photoshoot and are the mommy of a baby or toddler, please contact us below and we will be in touch. Please note this is not a paying gig but a great way to get exposure for you or your child. Our site previously ranked in the top 3 slot on Google and had high visibility. This would be a great opportunity if anyone is looking to get their child into modeling!
Thanks and always remember to support mom-made products!