You may have noticed a new feature on our site–look to your left–and you’ll see “Product Search”! We’ve finally moved the blog to our dedicated servers, and linked the blog to our database, allowing all of our customers to search our inventory for products, read descriptions, find out prices, and whatever else they’d need to do. If you’d like to see particular features in the search process (be it the search page, results pages, or product pages) just let us know at costumecurio@gmail.com. We’ll do our best to make this as intuitive as possible, and look for a shopping cart in the near future.

The only inventory online now is the majority of our makeup stock–well over 500 products. But for now, some pages will not have a product image (but we’re working on that, and hope to have all of the images in by the end of the week). Let us know if you have any problems, and as always, we’ll keep you updated as to how things are coming along. Our top priorities now are adding all of our product images and finishing configuring our shopping cart–allowing our customers to purchase makeup online through PayPal, using their own PayPal account or any major credit card.

Thanks again for reading!

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This is just a quick update on the new site–the search engine is fully functioning, and results and product pages are created. We still haven’t created the layouts yet, but the data is all there and working perfectly. Now, all we’ve got to do is sort out our page layouts in CSS and start putting everything together (as well as complete the database). We know this sounds like quite a lot, but most of the dirty work has been done.

The current iteration of the engine is plain text–but upon searching for a keyword, a list of relevant results is sorted. Once the results load (which takes about 0.0043 or so seconds on average), one can click on each of the results for specific information about it. The nice part is, we’ll be able to easily tailor the results and product pages. For now, the results give the searcher a list of the product’s names (as hyperlinks to the product’s pages), price, size, color, and manufacturer. All one has to do to view the product page is to click on the product’s name (this is all done using php’s fantastic &_GET functions to read product IDs from within the links, using them to dynamically create web pages–something our users will never have to worry about).

We’ve also tested the speed of adding new entries and products, and have come to the conclusion that it is, well, instant. The moment we’ve added a product, removed a product, changed a price, or altered a description, it is changed on the database and within the site.

The current plan of attack is as thus:
1. Add more product to the database
2. Develop and test multiple layouts to determine which one is the most user-friendly, while still aesthetically pleasing
3. Add in paypal functionality and a shopping cart
4. Unleash this animal to freely roam the internets

As always, we’ll keep you up-to-date on how things are developing. Thanks again for reading, and have a fantastic Friday!

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We’ve got our database for the new site, up and running. It’s not done yet by any means, but some of the nasty bits and technicalities have been worked out. So far, our makeup inventory (well–most of it) is searchable by all of the following categories: product name, manufacturer, size, price, color, base (as in grease, oil, or water)–or simply by keyword. For instance–to find out what we carry in red or clowning makeup, one can just search “red” or “clowning” and everything related will appear. The new site will have a straightforward and prominent search bar, allowing all of our inventory to be searched quickly and easily from any page on the site.

The point of all of this is to make it easier for us to help our customers–and we’re doing our best to make sure everything is fast, straightforward, and compatible. It’s widely known that our current website only works on Internet Explorer–but the new one will work on Firefox, Opera, Safari, Netscape, Seamonkey, and yes, Internet Explorer.

Just as some proof that the database does in fact exist, here’s a teaser:

And yes, this will make life easier for all of our customers, and due to our choice to design the website around a MySQL database, we will be able to update our prices, changes in stock, and new products in almost real-time–all with the goal of serving our valued customers even better.

Stay tuned for updates–we’ll keep everyone in-the-know as to how the development’s coming along.

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We’ve got a new site under construction–so as we start making progress, we’ll be posting the updates and features here. So far, what we’re working on:

- building the site around a database that will allow easy searching for products, by many different criteria (for example, search for oil-based makeup by Mehron, or for all wigs of a specific color)
- designing the site so it will be almost real-time in its representation of our pricing and stock
- making it easy to leave feedback, to help us better tailor our services to your needs
- making each of these products easy to order online with paypal

In general, we’re striving to make what we have and how we can help you more clear. We’re almost done writing our software that’ll help us build the database of our stock quickly. So, in short, be on the lookout for more information soon–we’ll try to keep you updated!

For now, please enjoy this fantastic still from La Boheme:

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We hope no one–since we put some up and all. Check out our Photos page if you’d like to see some; so far, we’ve got “La Boheme” as presented by Converse College, as well as “Pirates of Penzance” as presented by Furman University. Both of these schools have fantastic opera programs–if you want more information, be sure to stop by their sites: this is the Furman Department of Music’s page, and here’s Converse Opera Theatre’s site.

Both of the shows were fantastic; we definitely recommend catching any of their shows if you get the chance.

Anyway, we’ll be uploading more photos soon, as we find time to do so.

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We’re trying to make information about our company, and what we have, and what we do, more accessible and easy to follow. You can now check us out on the Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or just subscribe to our RSS feed here.

This way, you’ll be in the know as soon as when we get our new shipments of costumes, makeup, and a plethora of other accessories–and get first dibs on those items. After all, we’re expecting our shipments from Disguise, and Rubie’s soon, as well as our massive Leg Avenue order.

Also look out for our posts on upcoming shows (but don’t expect too many of those during the summer) and info on the many Halloween parties and haunted trails we’ll be costuming–we’ll let you know when these are happening as soon as we get the info ourselves.

We’ve got a FAQ now as well, so if you’d just like the rundown on our business, or want to have your general questions answered, you can head over there now.

Remember to check back or subscribe if you don’t want the hassle of checking manually.

Again, if you’ve got any questions at all, give us a call at 864.271.4260 during our business hours
or email us anytime.

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