Signed, sealed, Delivered and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

So last week I shared with you all some of the tutorials I was using to make Christmas presents for teachers and day care educators. Well we have now delivered the presents and here are the final pictures. I am thrilled how everything turned out. Myself and the girls each made the presents and it was a lovely thing for us to do together. Probably a bit more work than I originally anticipated but fun nonetheless.

School teacher gifts ended up being Journal covers, coffee cozy's made by me, and reindeer noses made by the girls. For 2 of the teachers, my mother also made lovely knitted coat hanger covers. Unfortunately I forgot to photograph those.

Fabrics left: Golden Garden by Alexander Henry. Fabrics right: Circa by Sis Boom and Floral Bouquet by Amy Butler

Fabric left: Sanctuary by Patty Young. Fabrics right: Chevrons from Spotlight, Circa from Sis Boom, and Aqua solid  from Robert Kaufman

For the day care educators, we made lemon foot scrub and put them into mason jars. The girls both helped with the making of the lemon foot scrub and we even tested it and the girls were pretty impressed by the foot scrubs! I decorated the jars with fabric and ribbons, and I think they turned out pretty nicely even if I do say so myself :)

Mason jars purchased from supermarket, plain card from Spotlight, fabric scraps and ribbon from my extensive stash!

Close up of the finished product. Simple ingredients but delicious scents!

Christmas presents don't have to be expensive although that too can be lovely! This year we just wanted to try the handmade route and everyone seemed to genuinely appreciate the effort we made. And if you want to make any of these items, check out the previous blog post as I linked in tutorials to these items. Oops, except the coffee cozy, but there are LOADS out there on the internet. Head to the trusty Pinterest if you want to get some goodies!

To you and your families, I wish you a wonderful Christmas this season. I hope it brings some well earned time with your families and may 2014 bring you and yours peace and all that you wish for.

I will try to pop back in between now and Christmas and New Year but it may be a tad tricky as I will have 2 very excited girls bopping about the house.

Lots of love,
Sarah xx

Handmade Gifts 101

So, if you are anything like me, you like to give gifts to your children's teachers and day care educators. And this year I have tried to be a bit more organised than last year where I cheated and purchased handmade from other creators. This year I have opted to make my own and I thought I would share some fantastic tutorials I have discovered over on my beloved Pinterest (sigh). I have wasted far too much time searching and finally took the plunge last night so here goes.

1. Journal covers.
There are loads of tutorials on how to make your own journal covers. They are a fab way to personalise a journal or diary for a teacher. I was shared this tutorial by one of my lovely friends and I have tested it. http://bloomandblossom.blogspot.com.au/2009/02/journal-cover-tutorial.html
It probably wasn't my wisest move to start making it around 9pm last night but I can confirm that they were a simple but gorgeous make and pretty fast. And I know to read the instructions better in the future.  Here are some pictures of ones I made last night. I have a few more planned for the
weekend.

Fabric: Golden Garden by Alexander Henry

Fabrics: Linen from Spotlight and Golden Garden from Alexander Henry

The second image is missing the diary in the middle, but you get the general idea.

2. Body scrub

While surfing Pinterest the other night, I discovered this fabulous body scrub and as I had an 

abundance of lemons it seemed like a great idea. I am happy to report this is a great recipe, smells beautiful and works a treat. The girls even helped me to make so a great activity they can help with and as it is for their teachers and carers, it gives them something to boast about.  I used this tutorial and they even give you files to print. I cheated and got some labels from Spotlight as I wanted a Christmas 

theme. I will take pictures of our final ones once they are all packaged. 

http://www.iheartnaptime.net/lemon-sugar-scrub/

3. Sweet treats.

Yes, I know we can go overboard in eating at Christmas time, so I decided to go with 2 of my fav sweet treats from my favourite blog, Natural New Age Mum. The first recipe is for a Choc Hazel Bliss Balls Choc Hazel Bliss Balls and White Christmas Healthy White Christmas.

Enjoy your Christmas everyone. I plan to be a bit more regular in my posting in the new year. Chat again soon. 

Xxx

The stunning "Starflower" hair accessory pattern

When I officially closed my selling side of Izzy B Designs in August I was a bit devastated that I wouldn't be creating any more. Happily that wasn't the case and the opportunity to test patterns for some of the most talented handmaidens around came along. The last few months I have been able to learn new skills and fine tune some old skills through doing this which I have LOVED! I will share details on some of past exploits in my next post, but for today I just want to chat about the stunning "Starflower" pattern I recently tested for Lana from Oh Baby!

Tomorrow night sees the launch of One Thimble, (www.onethimble.com.au) the brainchild of the amazing Jen Kennedy of Ainslee Fox fame. This is going to be an e-zine (online magazine for you old school people!) with a difference. Different because it will be based around the world of handmade, and will feature PDF patterns by a number of Australian creators and designers including Jen herself. And can I just say I haven't been so excited about a magazine launch in a long time,

Over the weekend, an opportunity came up for me to test the pattern for the talented Lana Schijvens who is creator and designer of Oh Baby! fame. Oh Baby! specialise in the most gorgeous hair accessories and Lana's bows are one of her signature designs which are absolutely amazing. I have made bows myself over the years but mine just can't compare to her beauties! They are of course just one of the things she makes and now I am thrilled to say that one of the patterns included in One thimble will be her Starflower pattern. If you have been around Izzy B for awhile, you will know I started off making hair accessories. And although I ended up moving more into clothing, I have continued to make my daughters' hair accessories.  This was the perfect pattern to get my creative juices flowing again for hair accessories. Although I have been making hair accessories for awhile I learnt some great new techniques which is always good. The pattern is sufficiently challenging to get someone like me excited, but also simple enough that a beginner could pick it up by carefully following the pattern to a T.

Some of my favourite things about the pattern was that it used a sewing machine as well as hand stitching. Too many hair accessories these day claim to be handmade when in fact all the person has done is glued part A to part B. To me, the fact that they are sewn by hand and machine means that the hair accessory will have durability and survive the toughest little kid and won't be a 5 minute pretty. The pattern is well illustrated and worded. My first Starflower, although pretty, wasn't quite what I wanted and that spurred me on to want to make a few more.

Lana has created something really gorgeous and unique in the world of hair accessories which I know it is going to be a hit!

Not only has Lana been working on this pattern, but she has also been preparing for her Christmas market. She has her own website www.ohbabyaustralia.bigcartel.com, so keep an eye on her
Facebook page www.facebook.com/ohbabyaustralia for further details.

In the meantime, I want to take the opportunity to thank Lana for the opportunity to test, wish her, Jen and all of the contributors of One Thimble the best of luck with what I know is going to be a massive success,

Here are some photos from my testing.

Test piece 1 using Veranda by Verna Mosquera and a Circa by Jennifer Paganelli

Test piece 2 using Yellow Valentina and Rosetta by Jennifer Paganelli

Final test piece using Little Yellow Bicycle and some cute red/white polka dot. Necklace made by IsAvA Designs

A new chapter, a new beginning

Gosh, it feels like forever since I was here last. Things have changed, evolved and now it is time for a new beginning. Izzy B Designs is no longer a selling tool, but I have decided to reopen my Izzy B Designs Creative blog and Facebook page to share with people about all things handmade whether it be crafty or cooking goodness. The last year has seen so many changes that it meant it was time to revaluate things and I am now super excited to be sharing with you all my musings. So hope you stick around to read.

The first instalment coming up will be on my recent pattern testing for the very talented Lana from Oh Baby. Not too much for now, but this will be hopefully up tonight.

Over and out for now!

Give and Take - musings my dear:)

So I didn't get to the zips last week. Oh dear! It seems life got a little busy last week.

But I am very excited to share with you some absolutely amazing goodies that landed on my doorstep today! So some of you may have heard about the first Give and Take (a kind of secret santa being hold NOW via the wonderful blog Yes, Dear). When I came across this from the lovely Jeni of Handmade Love fame, I thought this sounded like fun. So I emailed Ange from Yes, Dear - answered a short questionnaire about my style (or maybe lack of it - hehehe), and gave very vague answers. This was then sent over to Ange who had to "pair us up". The brief was to purchase handmade goodies based on the questionnaire from our partner from Australian and NZ creators and inject a bit of cash into the handmade community. Win, win all around I believe.

So I had much fun when the lovely lady I had been paired with introduced me to some wonderful handmade businesses I hadn't come across before - Sally and Jane (gorgeous handmade clutches), Molly Dag Made (handmade games for children) and am now big fans. It was a wonderful shopping experience. If you get a chance to do something like this again, I recommend it.

Well today, my wonderful items from a gorgeous lady called Helen made their way to me. I am blown away. She did an amazing job considering my lack of information. So here is the photographic journey I am going to share with you...

 This card is now up on my noticeboard. It is from LAURENCARNEYart.com. Stunning!

So this is what the first peek of the parcel looked like. Beautifully wrapped. Sooooo exciting opening something that isn't a birthday or christmas present...

Squeal! and then came the second peek!!! Oh my such pretty packaging I am in heaven already!

I absolutely adore this gorgeous pile of goodies from blossom & cat. Earrings, a clip and the cutest Owlet Sewing Kit. I have been wanting to make an owl forever and just haven't got around to it. NO EXCUSES now. Most of the work has been done...

Then this assembly of beauties from the uber talented Jo of Joallie Petit! A cuff, necklace and shoe clips. I must have looked quite a sight - wandering around the house with my black tights, birkenstocks (I had just taken my boots off, honest) and tried on the necklace and cuff. I couldn't put the shoeclips on the birkenstocks, although I did contemplate it for a moment...

So all I can say is thank you again Helen. I am a very happy lady right now:)

Links for you to check out:
 http://isaidyesdear.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/blossomandcat
www.facebook.com/JoallieP

So it's official. I am a bit of a break from my main little handmade business. I am taking some time of for myself and my family and to find out what creative styles work for me and scream IZZY B at me! So the months of June and July will entail me trying out new things, experimenting, learning new sewing techniques so when I come back in August I hopefully have some new skills that mean I can try new styles that I no longer fear.

Fear 1 to overcome: Zips! Zips, zippers whatever you call them have been on my list of sewing phobias and would have to be number 1. I generally make children's clothing and don't like using zips as kids have a tendency in my house to be pretty rough on their clothing. I like items that are easy to pull on/pull off as a child is running away from me whilst being dressed! I am sure there are plenty of other parents like that around here too;) My youngest seems to have ants in her pants all the time at the moment and just won't keep still when getting dressed. She likes to dress herself if at all possible so elastic and pull over the head items seem to be the best. But one of my other goals is to make more items for me and all the ladies patterns I have seen lately seem to have zips. I bought a new skirt pattern that looks really cool, so I am going to road test it and share the before and after on my little old blog.

Hopefully my instruction following skills will be better than my recipe following skills (teehee). I always read my patterns and recipes multiple times before I start to make items but this doesn't remove the muck up factor for the first few times...

I am also planning on creating a ladies skirt for my part of the Collaborate for A Cause submission and it really will need a zip. So why not make myself a few test run items first.

I will show you my novice attempts at inserting a zip. Share any tips I have along the way.

My lovely mother in law turned up to our house yesterday with a bag of zips for me to practice with. That will hopefully help.

That's it from me now, but I will be popping back in a few days hopefully to start the project xxx

And the winner is...

Thank you to everyone who has particpated in the Swan Lake Giveaway.  I thought we would get a few more, but I am guessing as it wasn't on Facebook, people got a little scared and it was slightly more complicated than a post on there;)

The winner is comment number 20. I can confirm that the person is a liker of the page, so the winner is Jenni Michon. Jenni wins the Black Swan, White Swan feather headbands and the black cabochon clips! Jenni, roll up and CONGRATULATIONS!!! (Hear the roar in the background or perhaps that is Miss Emily roaring from her bed;))

Thanks again to everyone who has participated. There are so many familiar names in there that I feel very lucky to have had you all participate and support this little give back to you.

I am officially on "hols" as of tomorrow (yippee), but that means I am going to be focussing on my family and do some personal creating and training up in time for spring/summer time.

I am also going to be participating in Collaborate for A Cause with the talented Melisa from Melisa Jane Handmade and I can't wait. I have some gorgeous fabric waiting to be unleashed into something.  I plan on utilising my blog a bit more. When I can think of something to do a tutorial on, I may even unleash that you the world too!!

Night all,
Sarah x

Swan Lake Giveaway!

To celebrate Izzy B Designs (finally) reaching 1000 likers on my Facebook page, I wanted to give something back to my lovely likers. 

I have some absolutely wonderful customers and friends who have been there with since the beginning when I was based in Port Hedland. Over the last year and a half, the friends have gradually grown and since moving to the South West of Australia Izzy B has definitely grown and evolved. I am extremely proud of my wee creations, where we have come from and where we are going.

This is also to say "adieu" as I go on an extended leave for rest, recuperation and precious family time as of May 31st, back in time for summer. 

So here are the details...

This is a "Swan Lake" Gift Pack:

2 hard headbands:

Black Swan - is positioned to fit a woman, a gorgeous black hackle feather, with a lovely rhinestone feature attached to a satin wrapped headband.

White Swan - is positioned to fit a child or could still fit an adult, but is positioned slightly higher than the other feather.  It features a stunning white hackle feather, with a vintage inspired pearl and rhinestone feature attached to a satin wrapped headband.

And...

Black Cabochon bobby pin set - vintage inspired silver bobby pins.

And to remind you what these look like on, remember this stunning photo taken by Nicole Yardley Photography, here is Miss Izzy B wearing the first one created....

(c) Nicole Yardley Photography 2011


Rules of the Giveaway

To enter:

• Giveaway ballot opens Friday 18th May and closes at 7pm WA time on Thursday 31st May. The winning ballot will be drawn at 8pm WA time on Thursday 31st May!
• To be eligible, you need to be a liker of www.facebook.com/IzzyBDesignsAustralia  
• If you aren't already a "liker", please like the page first:)
• You need to enter on this blog under this entry (NOT on Facebook) by posting a comment. You do not need a google account to comment on this blog and can comment as anonymous, but make sure you leave your name if you don't have an account so I know who to notify!
• As this is being run as a giveaway, I am running the giveaway totally via my blog rather than on Facebook so as to not break any Facebook rules as I understand they are getting pretty strict again.
• Open to Australian residents only.

• Winners will need to contact me within 24hrs to claim their prize and where I can post their prize. Normal postage costs are included with the prize (registered post will cost $3.00 to be paid by winner if requested) prior to shipping.
• If I haven't heard from the winner within 24hrs, I will redraw the prize (sorry no exceptions) and will be announced here at 8pm (WA time) on Friday 1st June

So now, go forth, and enter!!!

*Acknowledgment that this promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. You are providing information to Izzy B Designs Australia and not Facebook

Hello my name is Sarah, and I have been guilty of not keeping ANY of my new year's resolutions LOL! I do love to blog, but have become a facebook addict and it has taken over my life, well just a little, so I think that I will have to devote some more time and energy to my lovely blog.

The first thing I want to do, is to have a bit of a giveaway to celebrate reaching 1000 likers on my facebook page. I will be launching that this week. It will be fun as I haven't done a giveaway for ages and I am going on a bit of a break over the winter while I hibernate, practice and get new skills and... watch Masterchef too (children going to bed on time too of course!!!)

Well, this is the first blog in nearly 5 months so feeling proud of myself. I have also given the blog a bit of a spruce up with my lovely new branding. I am in LOVE with it. Done by the talented D of The Photo Spot.

Off to feed my lovely family.

New year's resolution

Gosh - it has been 6 months since I blogged last and I am feeling a mite guilty as I just had to go through a rigmarole to remember and reset my password... not good.



My new year resolution is to blog more regularly in 2012. I will try and do some tutorials and fun stuff and generally get a bit of creative fun on!

Well now that this blog has been resurrected, I think it is time to go and finish off some orders:)

Winner, winner, winner!

Thanks to all of you lovely ladies for taking part in the giveaway! I really appreciate your support. We had an anonymous comment with no email address at number 3 so that means that the lucky winner is...Natalie!!!   I have sent you an email, so please let me know what you would from the range asap as my lovely husband has sold my sewing table and the boxes are piling up as we speak for our relocation to Leschenault in the South West! Luckily we still have a dining room table so I can still sew and create on that.

To everyone else, please keep up to date with what we are doing with Izzy B as I have some wonderful ideas for creations once I have access to more fabrics and delights. Thanks to the wonderful people of Hedland for getting started on this creative journey. It has been a blast so far, and I just love making things!

Celebration giveaway!!!

Well as promised, I am going to do a giveaway to celebrate hitting 300 likers on Facebook. I had thought that it would take a bit longer and I would be settled into my new home by the time I hit that number so I have had to think on my feet. But I am not going to complain, this is wonderful news!!

So, drum roll.... I have decided to leave the choice of the final choice for the giveaway up to the winner!!! The prize is up to a value of $35 plus free postage.  The winner can choose from the current range of Izzy B Designs stock or request a custom item from available fabrics up to this value. This includes the Penny Skirt/appliqued tee sets, Caroline Dress, headbands and hairclips.The rules of the giveaway are as follows...

1. You must be a follower of Facebook to enter this competition. If you aren't already, just head to https://www.facebook.com/pages/Izzy-B-Designs/131104803589617 and hit the LIKE button.
2. Head back to the blog to confirm that you have LIKED our page, leave your email address so I can advise the successful person via email under this post. You don't need an account or be a follower of my blog to comment on my blog - you can comment with the Anonymous option in the drop down selection.
3. The competition is open until 8pm WA time Sunday June 26th.
4. The competition is open to international and Australian residents.
5. The winner will be selected using random.org and will be notified via email. If I have no response from the winner within 48hrs, I will have to redraw so that the prize doesn't go into cyberspace, never to be heard of again!

(Fine Print - By entering this competition the entrant acknowledges that Facebook is not connected in any way with this promotion and that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.
Any information provided in order to enter this competition is provided to the owners and administrators of Izzy B Designs and not to Facebook)

The Big Move

Well our family is down to our last few weeks in our wonderful town of Hedland and I am wondering if I have bitten off more than I can chew! Of course I have - that is just the way the cookie crumbles! But that is what makes life fun and exciting! We are preparing for a monumental move - to put it into context, the distance would be equivalent to that of moving from England to Spain, and that is pretty massive. Phil and I both arrived independently here of each other with not much to our name. We leave with a family and a household of "stuff" that we have managed to accumulate.  As the packing goes on, I am clinging onto my sewing and craft stuff till the last minute. Luckily I am able to keep this out as I have a legitimate claim - I am having my last market stall for a while at the wonderful West End Markets. I can't wait. I had such a wonderful time I decided to go for it and sew like crazy for one more. These are run by FORM who also run the Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery. They have been great for me personally. We had a wonderful course last time to help us with pricing and it has really helped me along the way (see my previous blog entry). 

Well I would love to go on, but I have been told to go to bed early as I had a late one last night sewing and pricing up for a wholesale order.  Things are ticking along nicely and I am grateful for each and every achievement.

just realised I had been remiss and not posted any of the WONDERFUL photos from the photoshoot we had last month.  Nicole Yardley from Nicole Yardley Photography took some amazing shots and they have helped to get my brand out to a larger audience because of the WOW factor her photography has given my products. Thanks so much Nicole - you ROCK!!! She will be launching her site soon - watch out for it. www.nicoleyardley.com 





 

Pricing and other thoughts

I have been reading some interesting articles in people's blogs lately about people under pricing their products lately and I have decided to put my two cents worth in.

I have struggled with the whole pricing concept. Each time I finish an item I have inner turmoil as to whether people will buy it or not, is it good enough, what should I charge etc. That is stupid because I have extremely high standards, I finish my products well, I don't sell anything that I wouldn't be happy receiving it. If they don't like it, it will come down to personal taste rather than quality.  Secondly, I believe that I have been guilty of underselling my items in the past, and even now from time to time.  However after attending a really useful workshop at our local Art Gallery in pricing stock for Markets, I have revised my pricing structure. They gave us an extremely useful formula, and I am sticking to it as much as possible. They pointed out that underpricing your stock can have a negative effect on your products.

I look on Facebook, Etsy and Madeit.com.au and notice that so many businesses seriously underprice their stock. They must barely be covering their costs, and definitely not making any profit whatsoever. Sure, making handmade stuff isn't about making huge profits, but you do want to make a little bit of money. Why would people pay what I am asking for? Well at the end of the day, I guess you have to believe in what you make. Now, finally I am starting to. You need to cover your costs - yes, you do it for the love, but DONT lose money. Your costs are never going to be as cheap as in mass produced shops so don't even try to worry about what they are charging. Yes, you need to be reasonable, but your time as a WAHM (which most of the people who are doing this type of stuff) is your most precious commodity and that should be factored somewhere into your pricing. You find yourself staying up till the late hours making your stuff but you still need to get up to the kids in the night and early mornings. They don't care what time you worked till!

At the end of the day, handmade clothing is special, unique. Even it's little flaws make it unique. That's what you pay for. You are supporting someone's dream to make something handmade, and you and your family are wearing wearable art be it clothing, hair accessories or something similar. It harks back to a time in the past where everyone's clothing was handmade and mass produced clothing was unheard of, and for me personally, that is something I love!

The Race Season

Wow! What a crazy week last week was getting ready for Family Day at the Hedland Races for B Tween Tides.  A few late nights, but some beautiful creations later and I was really pleased with the outcome.

I am longing to start sewing again though as my first batch of beautiful fabrics from the States arrived. I am even more excited as the girls and I are heading off for a photo shoot with talented local photographer Nicole Yardley and will get some shots of the girls in some clothing and hair accessories. I am still not 100% whether I am going to sell on Madeit.com.au the items photographed or still to facebook, but I am really wanting to get a madeit shop set up as I believe it will open up a different group of people and there are a few safety nets to selling on that as opposed to FB.

My photo of the week has to be Isabella modelling my fav fascinator I made. I named it Alice in Wonderland. I was thrilled with how it turned out. A little bit of gorgeous vintage. I

I wanted to also say that I am a huge supporter of handmade clothing and had to promote the great logo that Crafty Mumma's have set up and display it proudly here on my blog.

 

Neglected!

Gosh, I just realised how slack I have been at posting on my blog - a month! How embarressing!!!

Well April was a busy month what with househounting, a market stall and life in general. But all good. We discovered a lovely new home which will be ours by July and we now have to prepare to move from pretty much one end of WA to the other end. I will be extremely sad to leave this wonderful town that has been so good to us. And not only that, we will be leaving from the most perfect time of year here to winter!!

Good news though, we had a successful giveaway, a better market and I have been stocking B Tween Tides for about a month now and my hair accessories are finding new homes which always is a blast. I have been making gorgeous custom dresses too which has been exciting.

I am really excited about the photoshoot I will be doing next week and hopefully we can capture some of the kids fascinators that I will be working on now my supplies have arrived!

Well best go finish cooking dinner! I will post a photo of my favourite headband of the moment! It is a mini Stella featuring high quality dupioni silk, vintage lace and a rhinestone button. Bliss:)

Acknowledgements

    
    
    
         

    

I just wanted to thank and acknowledge some of the wonderful talent on the internet that has helped me get started. The first is the wonderful Frogs, Legs and Ponytails. Fantastic patterns and designs perfect for little girls. The second is the wonderful Joy from http://www.distinctdesign.blogspot.com/ or otherwise known as Snazziedrawers. The internet has opened up a world of beautiful designs, patters and fabrics to me and I just wished to acknowledge some of these fantastic ladies!

Facebook competition!

Yay! Today has been such a lovely day, and has been topped off by hitting my 150 likes on facebook:) So to celebrate this, I have decided to do a giveaway. Facebook rules are a little tricky so I have now changed the rules on how to enter the comp! Check out my FB page under the discussions tab, but people no longer have to enter on the blog... apparently it was causing some confusion and that isn't what this is about...

To enter you need to post a comment below the new post about the competition. You need to include your email address so I can notify the winner by email.  Entry is open until Monday 4th April 7pm WA standard time. I will then head over to random.org and select an entry number at random and post the winner by email and also advise on my FB page.  Please feel free to share the link with your friends. As long as they have liked my page and followed the competition rules, they too can be in the running!

Our giveaway is this gorgeous little mini fascinator. It can be attached to a newborn, toddler, teen or adult sized lace headband or satin wrapped plastic headband. The winner will be able to choose the headband type and size.

These are cute "Emily Rose" rolled flowers finished off with beautiful birdcage veiling overlay and 3 small beads off centre on the centre rose. I love this soft aqua blue. It is beautiful cotton fabric using Heather Bailey (Bijoux) for the outer flowers and Patty Young for Michael Miller (Dandelion) from the Flora and Fauna range for the centre flower. Beautiful!

Now go forth and enter!!!

A sense of achievement

There is always a great feeling that, yes - "I actually did that!" when you meet your deadline. Well, for me there is. I had a mad day yesterday when I found out that I needed to get some headbands ready for a fashion parade the next day. I didn't think I could do it, and yes I did stay up to a ridiculous hour this morning which wasn't my wisest move, but I am sooo pleased that I managed to get them done. Fantastic!

B Tween Tides is a new fashion boutique for tots to teens opening up in our town, and I am thrilled that they will be stocking some of my creations! So I spent last night creating and finishing Ava, Audrey, Isabella and Bella Blossom headbands in as many different colours that I could in a short time. The end result was that I managed to create 12 headbands and get them delivered by this morning! Here is a look at some of the creations.

This is a mini Stella headband. I was just wanting to do a simple version to match a similar styled shirt in store.

 A small felt Audrey

A medium organza Audrey

Another medium organza Audrey

I think this might be my favourite - a small Ava featuring a rhinestone centre

An experiment with an Isabella which I am really pleased with the end result - very shabby chic.

A large Bella Blossom flower

A cute, super curly Bella Blossom

Another variation on the Isabella theme

The end result, packaged, coded and ready for delivery. 

An Emily Rose rolled flower on stretch elastic.

It just shows you what you can achieve when you set your mind to it. I guess we have reserves we just didn't realise we had when there is a need!

Well, I am off to have some well deserved sleep. I am also looking forward to a night out with my girlfriends in the weekend which should be fantastic too so it isn't all work and no play!!!

Deadlines... and sneaky peeks!

Like my friend Amanda said, there is nothing like a deadline to get you moving! I have 2 at the moment. I am frantically preparing stock to go into a new shop opening up in our local shopping centre, and also trying to sewing and create headbands for my market stall at the West End Markets coming up on April 16th. Oh, and we are also going for a short weekend trip to Bunbury to look at houses in the middle of all of this! Luckily I have managed to get a good headstart on my sewing, and so far, I am pretty pleased with the results. I have sewn 3 pillowcase dresses, and have 8 skirts sewn awaiting elastic on the go. I would like to get another 3 dresses at least sewn and more skirts, but will have to be realistic about what I can do as I really need to do some more headbands.

Speaking of headbands, I have come up with a cute little headband that I love to be the giveaway when I hit my 150 likers mark on Facebook. I have attached a preview for any fans that have popped over for a sneaky peek!  So here goes...

 My cute little fascinator that is going to be the giveaway. This is awaiting headband size. It can go on a white lace headband sized from newborn to adult! Love it:)

My new pillowcase dress, sized 1. I am loving these fabrics from Hawthorne Threads:)

The size 2 - if only it was a 3, Isabella would be wearing this now...

And lastly, the size 3 featuring the beautiful Sandi Henderson fabric, Pop Daisy I think it is called. She creates the most bold and fantastic designs.

And lastly, my cute Juliette La Fleur. This photo doesn't quite do it justice as this is a gorgeous shabby chic flower, but would make a great brooch or headband.

Right, I am off to make some Audrey headbands now. Have a great night!