Yes! Desert Dancer Imports is relocating to Montana! This is big, and so very exciting for me (for all of us actually)!

As most of you know, I took the month of March off to go to Kuwait to visit with my sweet hubby, who has been working there supporting the Army since August 2005. For the past 2 ½ years, he would come home about every 5 months (that’s the absolute longest we could stand being apart) for about 2 weeks. Last March I went to visit him in Kuwait for about a week during spring break to see what it was like over there. I absolutely loved it! So we began to make plans for me to come and live there with him. This is a very big and serious decision and there were so many things to consider; my kids (who are grown, but I’m still their mommy *_*), selling our house, my school, leaving my friends and family, and of course the future of Desert Dancer.

I started this company over 11 years ago as a way to help me pay for my dance classes and costumes because I was a single mom and of course my disposable income was zip *_*. Over the years, it has grown and flourished to become one of the top costume resources for my beloved belly dance community. I am so proud and honored to have the confidence that has been given to me by my peers for whom I have the greatest respect and admiration. I wish I could explain in words how this opportunity has changed my life and made me believe that I can achieve any dream I could possibly dream of.

Because of that, I feel a tremendous responsibility to my customers and my community to make sure that I do not just abandon those who placed their trust in me and afforded me the opportunity to do something I love to do, make women (and men) feel beautiful, while I was able to be home and be available to my children and my family and to further my education. I have said many, many times that I have the greatest job and I sincerely mean that! So it has been heart wrenching this past year to contemplate what would happen if I did move to Kuwait to be with my husband.

Those days of worry are over! God has dropped an Angel into our lives to rescue us all in the form of Betty Patterson from Montana! (known on Tribe by her dance name, Zanubia) I met Betty many years ago when she moved to Dallas/Ft. Worth and became a student of mine when I was teaching at my studio. We hit it off instantly (she is a Pisces too!) as we had many things in common; mostly that she is a serious student and performer of this dance for many years (I won’t say how many, but I saw a very cool picture of her from the 70’s *_*) and she is an accomplished seamstress with a lot of very cool ideas. She eventually became part of my student troupe (my anchor) and we have been good friends ever since. Even after she moved to Montana a couple of years ago, she would come to visit us and we stayed in touch. I can remember quit a few times that she would come to class with some new costume piece and I would say, “That is so cool! Can I copy that and put it on my website?” She always gave me her permission so it seems like a very natural transition that she has agreed to buy Desert Dancer from me and continue to carry the torch for quality products at an affordable price. This is the most unbelievable outcome I could imagine! I just wish we could all sit down and have coffee so I could go on and on about what a perfect solution she is for us all.

After all of my handwringing and worry this past year, I am completely carefree and happy that I will be able to hand over the reins to her and know that they are in the best, most capable hands. To be able to move half way round the world to FINALLY live with the most wonderful man on the planet without regret is THE most wonderful feeling! Thank you, Betty, for taking care of us all!

So, how is this going to work? Well, I will continue to accept orders until the 23rd of March and will ship everything by the 3rd of April. Then there will be a short transition period for Betty to get set and running. Any orders placed after the 23rd will be shipped from Montana starting around the 15th of April (sooner if she is able) and then a regular schedule will resume (shipping within 7 days of ordering). The website will stay the same and you may not even notice any changes to it right away. One of the best changes will be that she will be vending and traveling!! Something I could not do much because of school. Also, because I knew this past year that this was coming I had slimmed my inventory considerably, so expect that new items will be added (and some old ones that went away) and the inventory will fatten up over the next few months. We already have a new color for the pants, burnt orange! And royal blue will be back this weekend also. Will post pictures on Saturday or Sunday.

Of course we will work together to make sure that the transition goes as smoothly as possible, and I am going to continue to make my Unique Tier skirts which will be showing up on the Desert Dancer website after I get settled. So much has gotten in the way of my skirts this past year, and I am very excited to be able to do them again.

Whew! Did you stay with me thru all of that? It’s big, I know! I’m about to jump out of my pants just writing it down! You can still contact me about things for now and I will be letting you know her contact info as we move along in the process.

I am so happy and excited about this next chapter for myself and also for Betty and Desert Dancer! Thank you all so VERY much for all of the love and kindness you have given me over the years!

Big ol’ booby hug to you all!!

Love, Donna