Update - website changes and Australia Day ramblings

Just a quick update today to tell you about some changes to the website - I was playing around with it on the weekend and I'm really happy with how it looks. I've been trying to transition it from a fashion designer's website to a bridal designer's website, and I feel like that transition is pretty much finished now. I just need to create some more work to show off in the portfolio!

The blog has moved

The biggest change with the website is that this blog is now fully part of the main site (previously it was hosted on blogspot). So, if you have a bookmark to the blog, you'll need to change it to bell-street.com/blog, or if you use Bloglovin' to follow blogs (great service, terrible name) - you can subscribe to the new feed here. I'm still having trouble with the new RSS feed so I'll keep posting updates at both locations until that's fixed. Ok, hope that wasn't too complicated! Oh, and if you usually keep updated by just clicking on the links that I post to twitter or on my facebook page, you don't really have to worry about anything.

Happy (belated) Australia Day!

Yesterday was Australia day, which is a holiday I always love. Partly because it marks the anniversary of when I met my husband (seven years ago!) and partly because it's fun. Because it's officially the anniversary of British settlement in Australia, there's often discussion over whether this is something that really should be celebrated. I think of it like this - we should definitely have a national day to celebrate what we love about Australia. When should it be? Well, the anniversary of Federation is on New Year's Day, so that's taken. It should be in summer, so we can go swimming and have barbecues. It should be far enough away from Christmas and New Year that they don't all blend together, but before schools and universities go back. So... January 26? Sounds good. Now who wants a cheesymite scroll?

Lastly, I've been making a hot pink evening gown from this pretty lace. I was playing with some of the offcuts and I love how the flowers look individually... so now I'm trying to think of a way to use them. Decoration on a bridesmaid's dress? A pink and white wedding dress? I don't know.

Weekly update January 21

The dress above is a dress I made for a Japanese customer to wear to a wedding. The navy silk is really beautiful and I can't wait to see it on her! Apart from that, This week will mainly be a lot of work-in-progress photos... 

I got an idea last week for a cute sixties wedding dress using these pretty fabric flowers I got in Hong Kong. It's been really fun to work on! 

My other work this at the moment is all in the toile stage - where I make a sort of practice or prototype dress out of cheap fabric to check that the pattern works. Both of the dresses I'm toiling at the moment are big long gowns so I've been working with teeny tiny scale pattern pieces to work out the most economical way to cut these dresses out. 

I'm working on another sash sample, I like having hand sewing to do in front of the tv in the afternoon! This one is a retro flowery style. It's just what I'm liking at the moment!

I was proud to finish off my pub paintings this week so if you didn't see them, check them out.

Awards season has put me in the mood for evening dresses so I've been sketching ideas for more bridal samples to make for the Etsy store. 

I keep my painting stuff (and some fake flowers) in these Andy Warhol soup cans.

Stacey from Rollergirl posted this cute photo of her in her bell street waitress costume rolling at the soda factory last week. Doesn't she look great? They're having a summer of 69 themed roller disco soon, so if you're in Sydney, you should check that out!

In other news, we bought a sandwich toaster this week and my lunches have improved immensely.

Update - Back to Work

First proper update of the year! I've been back at work a week now and so far have been working pretty hard which is exciting for me. I've been running this business from home for three years now (full time for the last year) and it's taken a long time to really get good at working from home, but I think I'm finally getting there.

We had an awesome Christmas/New Years break back in Australia and despite how much we packed into two weeks, it still went way too quickly. We spent the week around Christmas with my family in the Snowy Mountains and then James' family in Newcastle, and the week around New Year's in Sydney. We spent a lot of time taking advantage of the random little things we've missed - fresh healthy food, good avocadoes, breakfasts at cafes, pubs, supermarkets, clean air, usable public transport, quiet streets - I'm not saying we can't find any of that in Manila, it's just all so different. We went from our normal view of tall buildings as far as the eye can see (not that far with the pollution), to views like this:

We were well overdue for a break from Manila and it was just what we needed. I think we've come back pretty refreshed! I've got good work routines in place, we've been keeping the place reasonably tidy and I've been trying out lots of new recipes inspired by the fresh Aussie food we enjoyed over the break.

This is the recipe photo from Real Living. Our dinner was just as good but maybe not as stylish looking!

I've just finished a custom dress order and right about to start another one, and I have a bridal order to work on this year as well! I'm also trying to produce lots of bridal samples for the Etsy store, which is now back online after the holiday break. There's not much on there at the moment so I want to fill it up a bit more with samples and custom orders.

Finally, Jodie from jodiehilton.com did a feature on me and my work for her site this week, so go and check it out here if you want to learn some random little known facts about me!

Happy New Year!

Yay, it's 2014! I like even numbers. I thought I'd be really original and do a New Year's post about what I did in 2013 and plans for 2014.

Things I did in 2013

Celebrated the first moments of the year on our rooftop in Manila surrounded by fireworks in every direction
Did regular outfit drawings for awhile
Created a small ready-to-wear collection that I'm still pretty proud of
Got married (obviously this was the major highlight of the year!)
Travelled a lot - to Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and lots of places around the Philippines such as Boracay, Bohol, Baguio and Palawan.
Re-designed my website
Made more costumes for Rollergirl Promotions
Made some awesome sixties bridesmaid dresses
Changed the focus of my business to custom made bridal wear
Started experimenting with watercolour illustrations
Made some bridal samples
Came home to Australia for Christmas
...and just because I like to keep track of these things, I reached my goal of reading 45 books this year (up from 42 last year).

Things I plan on doing in 2014:

Make lots of bridal samples
Start making bridal accessories - sashes, veils, headpieces etc
Create a custom made wedding dress for an Australian bride
Go to Japan
Move back to Sydney
Attend the Blogcademy
Blog more consistently
Paint regularly
Read at least 48 books

I realised in looking back over the year that I don't take nearly enough photos of the fun things we do. I take plenty of photos for instagram during my work day, but when I'm not working, I hardly ever think to take photos for myself. I'm proud of myself for knowing how to live in the moment and have fun, but I always find myself later wishing that I had at least one photo to capture the experience. Last night we spent New Year's Eve at an amazing house with a perfect view of Sydney Harbour, watching the fireworks and all the beautifully lit boats. Great photo opportunity, right? I didn't even think to get my phone out all night. I was too busy enjoying the view! So this year I'm going to work on finding the balance between documenting the fun stuff, and still allowing myself to enjoy the moments properly.
Happy 2014!

Weekly(ish) update - typhoons and travel

I've been taking a break from work lately because we've been entertaining visitors all month! What a tough month it's been... seeing friends, getting treats from home, eating out, beach holidays, city holidays, mountain holidays, Disneyland... oh wait, it's actually been a pretty great month for me.

Our first guests were my friends Jess and Caitlin - Jess and I went to uni together (she was also my bridesmaid) and Caitlin is her sister. As soon as they arrived in Manila, I attempted to take them to as many of our favourite restaurants and bars as possible - we ate a lot that first weekend!

The three of us flew to Palawan to enjoy a week of total back to basics beach time. We stayed at Secret Paradise Resort which is very much as the name describes. I still couldn't tell you exactly where it is because I have no idea. We drove for about three hours from the airport through farmland, jungle and along very bumpy, narrow mud tracks until we reached the tiny seaside town of Port Barton. We arrived during a typhoon (no, not that typhoon... that was still to come) so we sat at Port Barton for awhile waiting for the rain to die down enough for us to head out on our little boat. Of course as soon as we set off, it started raining again, but we were so wet by that point that it didn't really matter.

At least our boat had a bit of a roof!

The rain had stopped by the next morning and we had a few beautiful days of relaxing, swimming, snorkelling and reading. I took lots of photos with my film camera which haven't been developed yet, so all I can show you for now is one of the many sunset photos I took on my phone.

The day we were due to leave Palawan, Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan was hurtling towards the Philippines. Of course we had no idea, because we'd been gleefully frolicking around the beach all week with no internet or TV. We wanted to see the Underground River at Sabang so we arranged for the boat to pick us up at 6am. This was a stroke of luck because as we sailed away from the cove the sea was very rough and the heavy rain had just started.

Any later and we wouldn't have got out at all - a bamboo hut with no electricity is fun for a quick holiday, but not where you want to be during a natural disaster. We drove through pouring rain to Sabang, where a man greeted us at the car with 'You can't go to the underground river today! Don't you know there's a typhoon?!' If you're wondering why I wasn't tipped off by the crazy weather, let me explain. We're at the tail end of Philippine rainy season and big storms happen almost every week - sometimes it can be sunny one moment, then raining so heavily you can't see the end of the street, then stinking hot a few minutes later. So without seeing a weather forecast, the weather didn't seem unusual to me at this point. That is, until we got back to Puerto Princesa and accessed the internet. Messages, emails and missed calls popped up from our families and text alerts from the airline telling us that flights were grounded. We found a hotel and spent two days sitting on our beds watching America's Next Top Model with the volume turned right up to drown out the incredible torrential rain outside. We were extremely lucky in many ways. Lucky that we were staying on the west coast and not the east, where the typhoon hit most violently. Lucky that we got on that boat just in time. Most of all, we're lucky that we could afford to wait it out in a nice hotel and fly out as soon as it was over. As I'm sure you've heard, many people weren't that lucky, so please consider helping them any way you can.

After Jess and Caitlin left, my parents arrived fresh from a big European adventure. They were in the mood to relax for awhile (and so was I after the typhoon) so we spent the first week doing exactly that before flying to Hong Kong for a few days. Mum and Dad haven't been to Hong Kong since we went as a family in 1997 so it was fun for them to see what's changed. As with my last trip to Hong Kong, I spent a lot of time in the haberdashery shops around Sham Shui Po being overwhelmed by choice.

We also spent a day at Disneyland and got to see Mickey and Minnie lighting their Christmas tree! Totally magical.

Our next trip was to Baguio, a little city up in the mountains of Northern Luzon. James and I went earlier in the year and absolutely loved the place we stayed (The Manor at Camp John Hay). It's like a giant log cabin hidden away in a pine forest, but with a fantastic restaurant and wonderful five star service.

One of my favourite things about Baguio is the relatively cool temperatures - such a novelty after living in Manila! They also had the place all tizzied up for Christmas and that made me very excited.

Now we're back in Manila and Mum and Dad will be leaving soon so I'll be back to work next week. For now I'm doing that quintessentially Gen-Y thing where I regress into childhood while my parents do all my housework and make dinner for me.

Weekly update - books and bags

I'd love to have a new dress to show you, but the dress I've been working on this week is nowhere near completion. I'm making a sort of 20s/30s inspired gown with beautiful soft draped silk, which is notoriously difficult to work with so I'm taking it slowly.

I rearranged my studio (again) this week, mostly to take advantage of the one corner in the room where the wifi works well. I also got my sewing machine serviced and then put some more stickers on it to make it pretty. The stickers came from Rookie Yearbook Two, which I bought this week along with the A Beautiful Mess book.

The Rookie Yearbook is basically a printed anthology of rookiemag.com's content from the past year, and it is so wonderfully designed (it kind of looks like a giant handmade zine). The other book is a 'photo idea book' from the creators of the A Beautiful Mess blog, Elsie and Emma. It's full of pretty pictures and ideas for mixing up your photography style - should be useful for whenever I run out of blogging ideas!

My other favourite purchase this week is this beautiful bag from Brit Stitch. As the name suggests, it's a British company, and the story behind it is so cute. A leathermaker in England made a bag for the local milkman to carry his cash in, and 45 years later, the milkman came back to ask for a new strap - he'd been using the bag for all those years and it was still in good condition! They now make the 'milkman' style in all sorts of pretty colours and now that I have one of my own, I do get the feeling that it will last a very long time. The leather is so thick and sturdy and the hand stitching is perfect.

Finally, in the 'sounds ridiculous, looks adorable' category, there's this travel agent for stuffed animals. You send them your toys, they take photos of them living it up in Tokyo and upload the photos to facebook for you to enjoy. Oh Japan, don't ever change.

There won't be much of an update next week, because my friends are arriving from Australia on Saturday and we'll be too busy having fun. I will schedule a quick post to go up while we're away, though.

Weekly update - polka dot dresses & pink flowers

That's right, you heard me - weekly update! Well, that's the plan anyway. Signing up for The Blogcademy has made me determined to put more work into this blog and turn it into something that people would actually want to read. I love reading other designer's blogs to get to know the person behind the label, see what inspires them and what they've been working on. With bridal it can be hard to share what I'm doing all the time because I feel like I should wait until after the wedding day to show any dress details, but I'm sure there are plenty of other things I can show you in the mean time.

This week I've been working on another bridal sample which I've named Daphne. It's made from a soft polka dot tulle (also called swiss dot or hail spot) similar to the fabric I used for my own wedding dress. It turned out so pretty and frothy I just had to try it on and have a bit of a dance around in it. Isn't that the point of owning a bridal business?

This dress works perfectly with a ribbon sash. I only had a dark green grosgrain ribbon and a purple velvet ribbon handy to try on with it, but they both give it a lovely vintage look. 

I feel like the phrase "I've been enjoying my garden a lot lately" makes me sound like a 75 year old, but... I really have been enjoying my garden a lot lately. It looks bright and pretty in the daytime, and at night we can hang out there and have a drink before dinner. I never know if pot plants on a balcony count as a 'garden', but it's all I've ever had (as an adult) and I don't see myself having a real garden with grass and trees and things anytime soon - thank goodness, we both get terrible hayfever so I don't know who would do the mowing.

The bougainvillea makes me especially happy, partly because it's bright pink and partly because my grandpa used to hate them to the point of obsession so thinking about his famous 'killer bougainvillea' rants always makes me laugh. In fairness to him, I did cut myself on one of the thorns when I was taking these photos so he may have had a point. 

James brought home these colourful flowers on Thursday. Pink, orange, yellow... perfect!

I always take photos of my mannequin to set up self-timer shots and test the settings, and I love the lighting in this photo. If I started work at 6.30am I could enjoy this light every day, but there is breakfast to be eaten and tea to be drunk and internet to be read. I normally just catch up on blogs and instagram in the mornings, but I recently found a site called Show + Tell which I'm really loving. It's run by Monty Dimond, and her 'On the Couch' interviews with influential Australian women are just perfect to watch with a cup of tea and vegemite toast.

Update - Samples & Cigarette Girls

It's been far too long since my last post so I wanted to check in and update you on what I've been up to since the awful day when I spilled water all over my laptop and killed the wi-fi (handy hint: don't do that).

In my last post I mentioned that I am taking Bell Street in a new direction, focusing on bridal and custom work rather than ready to wear collections. As a result most of my time lately has been spent on business planning, dreaming, designing and pattern making. I am currently working on some bridal samples and finished 'Maggie' (above) last week - she's very sweet.

As much as I want to focus on bridal, I also love doing costumes and will never say no to working with Rollergirl Promotions - those girls are too much fun! I made them these vintage style cigarette girl outfits for a corporate event and they looked amazing, as usual.

James and I recently went to Hong Kong for a quick break as it's less than two hours flight from Manila. We had a great time and loved the city, although we didn't get to see as much of it as we planned due to us both getting horrible sniffly colds. We didn't let it ruin our trip though, and hey - if you have to be sick in bed, better to be in a lovely hotel bed and have someone else clean your room each day!

I did manage to make it to Hong Kong's garment district, Sham Shui Po, and had a bit of a 'wahhh, why don't we live here?!' moment when I realised how easy it is to find and get everything you need. I got some beautiful ivory silk fabrics for bridal samples and stocked up on a whole lot of miscellaneous haberdashery (James' favourite word) that I haven't been able to find in Manila.

Manila is already in full Christmas mode, which I love! I'm in a very positive excited mood at the moment, because I have so many fun things to look forward to - and that's the key to happiness, according to my Mum (or a book that she read). In just over two weeks my awesome friend and bridesmaid extraordinaire, Jess, will be arriving in Manila with her sister and the three of us are going to an amazing beach resort called Secret Paradise. On the same day that they leave, my Mum and Dad are arriving! They're also keen to do some travel so we're heading back to Hong Kong (with a compulsory day at Disneyland) and then to Baguio which is a few hours north of Manila. It's safe to say I'm not going to get much work done in November. I'll be working furiously on a custom ball gown and more Rollergirl costumes in December, then it's back to Australia for Christmas and New Years - I can't wait!