Back to Work

Back at work today and I've been flat out busy. It pissed down rain all day and i really thought there would be no one about and it would be an easy day. Instead I had customer after customer and a million emails and admin jobs to catch up on.

Not that I'm complaining. Being busy is good. The day flew by and before you knew it I'd picked up Emily, served take-away chicken for dinner, bathed her and put her to bed.

I've been playing with logo's for the new shop all night and my eye's are beginning to get sore. Do I do a colored logo or a black and white logo? Do I put a picture on the side or faded behind the name? So many options and I'm terrible at making up my mind on these things.

I'm so excited about the Melbourne Kids In Style Expo coming up on 3rd August. I've booked Mum and I into the Art Series hotel - The Cullen. Mum was an art student and teacher back in the day and it's right up her alley. She'll love all the art deco furniture and original works on the walls.

Tomorrow I've got a little more stock ordering and re-organising to do, and endless amount of paperwork and hopefully get this artwork sorted. It's going to be a really busy 6 weeks ahead so this chest infection better hurry up and get better!



A Very Belated Freakin Weekend Recap

I started writing this post on Monday. Then I got sidetracked with a sick toddler, shop sale, buying and other stuff. Anyway, this is what you should have got on Monday.....






A trip to Melbourne, a sick toddler, a birthday cake & a new baby. That was my weekend.


It started Thursday (yes I know it's not officially the weekend but any time I am child free and not in the shop is a weekend to me) when I drove to Melbourne to check out a bunch of children's clothing boutiques, wholesalers and shop fitting places to get ideas and buy for the new shop. 


I stopped off at a little place in Moonee Ponds that I won't name because I don't plug businesses that are rude to me. Whilst she had a lovely set up and I got some great ideas for display, the owner was less than helpful and spent most of her time behind the counter chatting to what sounded like a friend on the phone. 

I did love the little dolls cradle and Tiger Tribe Owl Mobile though. Had she been more helpful I may have purchased it for Emily's birthday......oh well, you snooze you lose!


After visiting several shops and a couple of wholesalers I checked into my hotel and got ready for my girly night out. I finally found a blue Esprit top in the Myer sale before I left and it was a perfect match with my blue suede shoes. Hair and make-up done I was ready to rock and caught up with my girlfriends for a scrumptious meal and loads of laughs in St Kilda. 

Clearly bored I started taking selfies in the hotel room!

My bestie that I was supposed to meet up with has been sick for the past week with an allergic reaction to a medication she's taking and nothing was helping it go away. She had to miss our dinner and was so miserable at home. On Friday I stopped off at Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio and picked up some Salted Caramel Éclairs to cheer her up. 

If you're ever in Melbourne you must check it out! Talk about a sweet tooth's heaven! 

After that it was a quick stopover at Shop for Shops and Ikea for some shop fittings and then on home to my little girl who had been sent home from childcare with a 38.5'C temp. While I was away she had developed a chest infection and there's nothing worse than being in another state while you little angel is home sick and just wanting her Mummy. 

After spending Saturday in bed for most of the day she seemed to brighten up briefly on Sunday for her birthday. It may have been the massive amount of gifts she was given.......

For dinner I cooked an amazing slow cooked coriander and cumin marinated leg of lamb in my Nanna's slow cooker. I love that my friends think it's some kind of cool retro piece I purposely bought when in actual fact Nan left it to me. She was the one who gave me my passion for cooking so I love when I can utilise something of hers for big family meals. 

Next I started on the cake. This is another recipe of my Nanna's and I'll put it up on the blog tonight. It's called Beat It Bake It Chocolate Cake It. I don't know who came up with the name but it's been passed down from my Nanna to my Mum to Me and it's such a simple recipe where you throw all the ingredients into the bowl, turn the mixer on for 3-5 minutes and then pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Viola, rich fluffy chocolate cake! 

I took inspiration from the Melbourne trip and Googled a Salted Caramel Frosting which was delicious!

It went down a treat, even though she mostly tried to grab the candle and didn't have much of an appetite. Dad (also known as the Chocolate King) and I loved it! 

So that was my weekend....how was yours? 

Stealing Time

Lately my life has been so busy. Moving house, single parenting, family get togethers, birthday parties, markets and planning a new shop. There seems to never be enough hours in a day. I sneek extra minutes wherever I can, whether it be sitting in the car waiting for the all-day car park to open and checking my emails on my i-phone while I'm waiting, to sitting on the bathroom floor with the laptop paying bills while Emily takes a bath. I jam as much as possible into my day because at the moment there is just so much to do!

I'm currently in SALE mode at Bearly Worn, getting ready for the endo of financial year and clearing the shop of stock in preparation for the closing down, renovation and opening of the new shop. I have some beautiful handmade clothing and today I put up a Facebook sale for C is for Cat who exclusively stocks Bearly Worn. You can check it out here.



I love her reversible Babushka Pinafores. They are the best thing for pre-school and birthday parties.

So I decided that I need a little relaxation at night and something that is just for me. I love retromummy's blog and taking inspiration from her last night I trotted down to the local Lincraft before work this morning and picked up a $2.95 pattern book and a couple of balls of wool. I'm going to knit Emily a jumper for next winter. I say next winter because it always takes me ages to knit anything! Jumpers are so expensive to buy new and if i can pull this off I will have a lovely pure wool jumper for Emily for under $20. Not bad....... 

This Thursday I have to go to Melbourne for two days to buy fittings for the new shop and meet with suppliers. I'll also be having a little R&R with my bestie Lisa. She always cheers me up and she's a foodie so we always go to an amazing restaraunt. We'll also be going to a comedy club after dinner and meeting some friends there. I really don't want to look like the frumpy single Mum I've been feeling like lately so I pulled out my absolute favourite shoes and it's been my mission this week to find something that goes with them.

Are these not the hottest blue suede shoes you've ever seen? Mollini baby!

In the whole hour I get to myself between dropping Emily at childcare and opening the shop I stopped off at Valley Girl to see what tops or jackets they had that would go with my awesome shoes. We don't get a lot of choice of shops in Albury and I don't want to risk waiting till I get to Melbourne to find an utfit.

I swear Mrs Woog was reading my mind this morning when she blogged about Retail Discrimination! Anyway I entered the shop just after the 16 year old shop assistant pulled up the roller door. She looked pissed off that she already had a customer and then proceeded to totally ignore me while I floundered around trying to figure out whether to get a jacket to go over a slinky black dress or a layered top look to go with some skinny black jeans. I left empty handed as it turns out a large at Valley Girl is equivilent to a small at Susan..... seriously.....

Anyway I'm open to all suggestions about the shoes and what would go with them. What would you do?

The Big Chop!

When things aren't going right in your life what else can you do but chop your hair off?

Yesterday morning I woke up and decided I needed a change. I'd been thinking about it for a while but it took a major event to spring me into action.

I've had long straight hair for as long as I can remember. It has been every color but always long and straight. Yesterday morning I decided it was the day to get the big chop. Yes I was going short!

I've been trying to find something for a before photo but it's been difficult since I've hardly worn my hair out in 3 years. My hairdresser Jill said to me before I went on holidays that if I wear my hair up more than 3 times a week I need to chop it off.

This is my before picture taken in Cairns a few years ago because that was the last time I had it down.....Sad because it was still the same color and cut until last night.

We looked though lots of hair magazines and discussed lots of options. I was dead set not having a bloody fringe so Jill convinced me that I should have something that swept to the side that was "sort of a fringe, a bit like it but different".

She began chopping away, then got frustrated, told me to close my eyes and go to my happy place. She grabbed all my hair into a ponytail and did one big chop. And then it was short......

I was sure this was a small terrier dog that had snuck into the salon but apparently that's my hair!



20cm of length gone in one chop! It was freeing. I already felt lighter, like I'd lifted a weight.

So for the final result......

Sort of fringe my arse!

I wish I'd done it years ago. I wish I'd had the guts to change and do things for me, not what I thought someone else would want.

Onward and upwards I say!

In other news the Baobab and Levi stock came in yesterday and I love it! Great quality and it's going fast. This weekend I have the Little Me Market where I'm taking a heap of kids clothing from the shop and also some handmade children's clothes and accessories. Fingers crossed the sun is out and people are in the mood to shop!

Little Me Market

Very soon we have a new handmade market coming up in Wodonga called the Little Me Markets. It specialises in baby and children's handmade items and I'm determined to make something worthy of it.

My idea is simple. A bag. A library/childcare/swim/wet bag to be exact. I've ordered a heap of fabric on line because nobody likes to see fabrics they can buy at Spotlight.

Last night I began making my prototype with a cheap fabric I had lying around the house.

I started with a bag 30x40cm and my intention was to sew a clear plastic window on the front that you can slide a card or piece of paper into to write the child's name, class and school on. The plastic PVC was too thick and my sewing machine just pulled it along and wouldn't sew it to the fabric. The bag was also too small to be a decent library bag. Kids picture books can be big and i wanted a bag big enough to fit a towel if used for swimming classes.

This was my second attempt tonight and I purchase thinner PVC earlier today hoping I would be able to sew it on. I ended up hand blanket stitching it and I'm still not happy with the finial outcome. Whilst the rest of the bag is great, the plastic window looks shonky and hand stitching it means I can't turn out 20 or so bags by market time as it'll take too long.

So back to the drawing board and I'll have a third attempt tomorrow night.

One success of the night's crafting was my stand for the new boys accessories range I have at the shop. They're fabric covered magnets and badges and they look very cool. Apparently boys love these. I grew up in a house of girls so I'm taking Mum's with sons word for it!

The stand was originally a slate grey color so I covered it in white fabric and the two ribbons were hot glued to the top and bottom of the stand so I can attach the badges to them. I can't wait to put all the magnets and accessories on it tomorrow and see how it looks.

Finally this is my little munchkin this morning pretending to blog while we watched retro mummy on Channel 9.

I love that she's my walking advertisment for the shop in her Gaia Organic Cotton Tee and Leggins and her Walnut Melbourne Mary Jane shoes.