Glitz or Natural

My daughter has been to several Natural Pageants over the years and just last year she tried Glitz. Well, a monster we created. She loves Glitz and we will be doing several this coming year.

I asked her which she preferred doing and she said Glitz. I asked her why did she like doing Glitz more than Natural pageants and the answer was obvious. She told me she liked Glitz better because they were more FUN!

I can see why. The music is better, louder and the stages are much more elaborately decorated. More lighting, and the feel of being a real "STAR" when your on the stage. Not to mention the Glitzy dresses and getting to have your hair and make-up professionally done, and all the special outfits you get to wear and be "sassy". And most of the time the pageants are a full weekend and not just a day...So what little girl wouldn't want to feel like a movie star for a whole weekend?

Even though it cost alot more and very stressful on us Mom's, I like it just as much as she does. So I'm getting my pageant calendar ready for the new year and trying to decide which ones we will be attending.

We still have a few Natural pageants we will be doing also. Those are very rewarding when you get to use your titles for something good and give back to community. We just attended and event where all the girls wore their sashes and crowns and brought toys in to be donated to Toys for Tots and local needy families for Christmas.

Bottom line is we do BOTH. How about you?

Why do the popular girls win?

Does it seem like ALL the popular girls win ALL the time? Why do the same girls seem to win the big titles all the time?

I am not sure if it is because they are THAT much greater than the others or just more popular. I notice that once you win a title, especially a big State or National level title, that your face is appearing on all the ad banners, voy boards,websites,Facebook, pageant paperwork, etc. I think their faces and names get branded in ALL of our heads and surely trickle into the heads of judges everywhere. I mean if you are in the pageant business in any capacity I am sure you have heard of at least some of these girls.

I think it would be nice to see some rookie come out of nowhere and blow everyone away! Put everyone back on the same playing field.

I don't think that it is any ONES fault. I don't think necessarily any ONE is to blame. I just think it is because we are used to seeing these winners and expect them to win. BUT it would be nice to see someone different sometime!

Pageant "Bumps"

There will always be "bumps" in the perfect pageant world. We attended our first glitz pageant a couple of weeks ago and we had several.

First of all, I could not find a casual wear outfit so at the last minute I found someone to make my precious daughter one. She was going out of town and only had the weekend to create it so we did most of our chatting on the phone. Picked up outfit and it was very cute. I got home and laid it across the kitchen chair while I was trying to put together pageant photos, etc. in preparation for the upcoming pageant.

The next day I walked by the outfit and looked at my daughter and said "those pants look too big!" Well my daughter tried them on and guess what? They were way too big! I panicked. This was a Monday night and pageant weekend started Friday. I frantically called someone who I had a number for who did alterations. She said I could come by the next day. We went and tried on and had them taken in and the elastic in the top as well. I also had the alterations lady sew an extra ruffle and some beads on the swim suit I had, to dress it up more. Pick up outfits on Thursday and she tried on Casual Wear outfit and everything looked fine.

In the meantime, I was emailing the photographer who took the Glitz photos and she said she would be overnight them to me. Those arrived Wednesday. Thank goodness!

The evening dress we had, my daughter had worn once in a pageant about 7 months ago (did not realize ti had been THAT long). I knew it would be fine because it actually was a little too big when she wore it last. So didn't worry about that, why should I, right??

OK, arrived on Friday at hotel, got checked in and got all our pageant "stuff" into room and relaxed and waited to get spray tanned and some extensions put into her hair to make it a tad longer. Everything is going just fine......

Pageant day and competition is going on and we show up for our hair and make-up and that looked awesome! Tan looks great! We are having problems with extensions because my daughter has super thick hair and it is blunt cut and the extensions just didn't blend. Sooooo, grab some scissors and cut the extensions off! Problem solved.

Put evening dress on and put hoop skirt on and it seems a little long...what the heck!! Turns out that the hoop skirt I brought is not the same one we used the last time she wore the dress. It is a tad bit too long now and she is sort of tripping on it! THE SHOW MUST GO ON, so I just tell her to kick her feet out when she walks to keep from tripping over it. She almost had a melt-down over it just before she went on stage, but she stood tall and kicked and got through it beautifully!!!

Now Swim Wear is next. No problem. We go to put swimsuit on and the "darn" thing would not go any further than her hips! WHAT??!! The alterations lady that added the ruffle and beads did not take into consideration that the band needs to stretch to pull up the swimsuit, so in a frantic state I run in to get her H/M touched up and we had to cut the ban in the back of the swimsuit and literally inch the swimsuit up. To late to try to sew and her hair just covered the spot in the back so again... THE SHOW MUST GO ON.

We are in the final stretch now, the Casual Wear competition. We put the outfit on and it look great, still a little large but looks really good. During competition and her modeling, the pants started getting a little longer because of still being a bit too large.

All in all, my daughter had a GREAT time. It was MUCH MORE stressful on me than her, but we got through it and believe it or not she wants to do another one!!!!

So don't ever let anything bring you down or get the best of you during your pageant experience because it will all work out in the end and all you can do is improvise those little "bumps" in the road and more than likely no one else will ever know! LOL

Dress Color...Does it really matter?????

Ask someone what color dress does best and gets more wins at pageants, and you will get all kinds of answers. Lots of people seem to think that WHITE is best. Yes you will see tons of white dresses at pageants,however I think that with the sheer number of girls entered wearing white dresses ,that someone is bound to win wearing white!

Over the last couple of years, I have noticed that alot of girls seem to choose the Fluorescent Orange color. I love it on girls with dark skin and dark hair.

I was looking through my Facebook friends and came across a recent pageant,and one age division (7-9 years I believe) had 7 contestants and ALL of them had on BLUE dresses. All different styles and shades of blue...but blue!

I personally think that the color dress you wear should compliment the contestant...Meaning choosing the color that looks best with your hair and skin color. I have noticed that Redheads seem to choose blues, greens and lavenders most often, however I saw a redhead in a bright red dress with lots of crystals on it and looked awesome!

Blonde's usually choose whites, pinks, and some lighter blues. Brown Brunettes usually choose whites,corals,blacks and Dark Brown/Black Brunette's usually go with whites,reds and royal blues.

If you are not sure what color looks the best on you, go to a fabric store and drape the color fabric around your shoulders...if the color fabric is the only thing that stands out then that is NOT your color. If your face really POPS in a certain color then you know that is the color for you. I tried this with my daughter and it works great!!!

I think that the "person" inside the dress is what matters and how she acts on stage and off stage is really what shines through and ultimately is what wins no matter what color of dress she has on.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

The Glitzy Crown is celebrating her Anniversary! Wow! Its hard to believe that another whole year has passed. We have grown, added new features and we are constantly restocking best sellers and coming up with new styles.

We at The Glitzy Crown, are so excited to begin our new year. We work very hard to provide excellent customer service, communication and quality products .Every customer is special to us and we always welcome your suggestions.

We want to say a special 'Thank You" to ALL of our past,present and future customers. YOU ARE THE BEST!

Please check us out at www.theglitzycrown.com

Thanks so much,

Faith

PAGEANT DIRECTORS...PAY UP!

Why is it so hard for some Pageant Directors to pay?

I had a problem 2 months ago with some Pageant Directors who needed crowns for their pageants coming up THAT weekend and needed me to get them out right then. Well, being as trusting as I was (because they had ordered from me before), I went ahead and sent them their crowns before I recieved payment. BIG MISTAKE!!!!!!! One claimed that she would send me a money order in the mail (which she did last time) and the other that her paypal account had been comprimized and she would send as soon as she got it straightened out.

Needless to say, that the money never got there. Finally after a month and posting on Facebook the story...I finally got payment on the first one. The second one however, I still have NOT recieved payment because of a LONG list of personal problems. She has promised to get it out 2 weeks ago and I still HAVE NOT recieved it!

Never mind them for a moment....I have had numerous Pageant Directors that want crowns but they have to wait until enough people submit their entry fee into paypal before they can pay for the crowns. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS! Why not keep enough $$$ in your paypal account (from your last pageant) to cover nessesarry items upfront like crowns, sashes, trophies. These things you have to order ahead of time to meet your pageant. Use a credit card if you have to and order these items and then when the pageant is over and all fees are collected.......PAY IT OFF!

I have another Pageant Director right now that was sending me payments as her pageant fees came in. I went ahead and sent her crowns and she has a balance of $35 left that I have sent her several reminders OVER AND OVER again, but guess what? She HAS NOT paid it.

Pageants are a business and like any business you have to plan ahead and prepare and pay your bills on time. In my opinion, the quickest way to ruin your pageant name and your name as a Director, is to have a reputation of not paying for the crowns on the heads of the girls that attended your pageants.

Well I have learned my lesson and if you want the crowns, you are going to have to figure a way to pay for ALL of them UP FRONT! SHAME ON YOU PAGEANT DIRECTORS!

THINK ! PLAN! PREPARE! PAY YOUR DEBTS!

BASHING

What is up with all this bashing going on? I have heard from several different pageant directors AND pageant moms of terrible bashing. I have actually read a lot of it myself on different pageant forum boards, facebook...just to name a few.

Look people, just because your daughter has always won before and happens to lose to a newcomer, doesn't mean that it is OK to bash the innocent child because of it! Or the pageant system's director for that matter.

I just have a hard time with pageant moms who just cant accept losing. And what kind of example are you setting for your daughters? And for you to let your daughters bash their fellow contestants, is just horrible!

Pageants are a fun and exciting sport to be in. Please show "sportsmanship" as you should in any sport! And remember mom's.....it's GREAT to win,but the most important thing is to let your (children) have fun!!!!!!!!