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!

Angie collection - finished!

I'm back! and I'm married!

More about that later.

For now I'm excited to say that I have "finished" the Angie collection. I say "finished" because I didn't end up producing as many pieces as originally planned. As I said in the previous post, I ended up going back to Australia early to attend a funeral and so I was away longer than I thought I would be. I didn't want to drag out this collection forever and fall behind, so I finished off the items I was working on and called it a day. Time to move on to the next collection!

I'm just in the process of adding the last few items to the Etsy store, it will all be there by the end of the week. I'll also have lots of wedding photos to show you on Friday!

Tonight, in an effort to make working from home feel like a normal job, my husband (!) and I are going out for after work drinks to celebrate finishing the collection. I think it's better than celebrating things alone in the studio with my mannequin.

New in store: Angie & Ayumi T-shirts

Remember I mentioned maybe calling the new collection 'Angie'? Well, this is Angie. Angie arrived in Tokyo with nothing but a sewing machine. She knew no-one and got lost frequently. One day she stumbled upon a textile workshop, filled with happy chattering girls dipping scrunched up fabric into indigo dye. Angie introduced herself to Ayumi, who immediately said 'Angie? from the Rolling Stones song?' and Angie knew they would be best friends.

These t-shirts were made from quick illustrations I did while teaching a fashion design class. I liked how the girls turned out, so we made them into a screen print and coloured in their dresses by hand. Each one is slightly different and they are very limited edition.

This is Ayumi, in her favourite rainbow dress.

She also likes to wear her blue polka dot dress.

Angie has a blue polka dot dress to match.

Get the girls from the etsy store!

New(ish) items in the shop!

I've been adding some random items to the shop lately. Most of them are from a sample collection I made a couple of years ago when I was applying for my business grant. I didn't end up producing any of them because I wanted to focus on bags at first, but I sold a few of the garments at my market stall last year. Then when I was packing up our apartment in Sydney, I decided to photograph the rest of the collection and add it to the shop. The prices are really reasonable, most items are around $15-$25 as they are just one-off samples.

SHOP NOW!

As all of these samples were made for a presentation, they are all an Australian size 10 (to fit an 87cm bust, 69cm waist and 99cm hips). Most of the garments, due to their shape or stretch fabric, have a bit of room in them. Check each individual item's page for measurements.

On the subject of measurements, which do you prefer/expect to see - a full measurement (ie. tape measure round the body) or a half measurement (garment measured lying flat). I can never decide... I used to do measurements lying flat but it gets confusing for people when it comes to things like stretch waistbands and measuring lengths and sleeves. This time I've done full measurements but that has its problems too - I need to make it clear that it's the garment measurement, not the measurements of the body it is designed to fit! It's all very tricky and I know measurements are really important to online shoppers... so what do you think? I'd really like your input.

Oh, and yes, I know Americans prefer inches. I usually provide both but I've been listing so many items lately I haven't got around to doing the conversion yet. In the meantime, use this.

New sample in store - Embellished denim shorts

I was photographing a bunch of samples to put into the etsy store when I came across these denim shorts I 'made' (as in, I shortened some jeans). I had always intended to embellish them somehow but never got around to it.

I grabbed some masking tape and went crazy...

...mixed up some gold paint (acrylic paint works well on denim)...

...painted over the masking tape...

...and peeled the tape off!

As with most samples I make, I immediately fell in love with them and decided to keep them for myself.

I then remembered that I'm moving to the Philippines in three weeks (!!!) and already have too many clothes, so into the store they went.

Get 'em here! and keep an eye out for more samples going into the store over the next week or too. 

Remember, you can follow Bell Street on facebook or twitter if you're cool like that.

Christmas shopping reminder!

Christmas is less than two weeks away and if you're as disorganised as me, chances are you haven't done any Christmas shopping yet. To help you out, I'm having a bit of a Christmas sale.

When shopping in the Etsy store, enter the code YAYITSXMAS at the checkout for 20% off your entire order. That's better than my staff discount at work! That code can be used by anyone in the world right up until Boxing Day (EDIT 27/12/11: this code has now finished).

Also, for Australian customers ordering between now and Sunday 18th December, I'll post your orders by Express Post at no extra charge to make sure it gets to you as quickly as possible. I'll even giftwrap them if you want me to send them straight to the recipient.

Get shopping!

Terms & Conditions (doesn't that sound serious!): 
2. The Express Post offer is available only to Australian customers until midnight Sunday 18th December, AEST. I send all orders via Australia Post, from Sydney, on the next business day after receiving your order. Australia Post guarantees next business day delivery within the Express Post network. However, all those letters to Santa can clog up the postal system at this time of year so please use your own judgement to decide whether your order will get to you on time.
3. Santa is always nice to people who support small businesses!

Shop update!

My online store now has all of the pretzel necklaces, bags, t-shirts and reversible skirts. Yay!

Now get shopping!

New store

Just a quick update to let you know that the old store is now closed - I have moved all of my bags over to my Etsy store which can be found here.

When I find the time and get a nice day, I need to photograph more products like the reversible skirts and printed t-shirts so that I can put them in the store!

I liked the layout of the old store (hosted by big cartel) but the monthly fees weren't worth it and Etsy has a great community and existing customer base, so it suits people like me who don't have time to always be promoting their store! The downside is that I can only set prices in US dollars - you can shop on Etsy in Australian dollars but this means that whenever the exchange rate changes, the prices change. There's not much I can do about that.

Today is rainy and horrible here, which is annoying after all the nice warm weather we've had. I'm going to make Cha Siu Pork for dinner which is that red coloured, sticky sweet chinese dish. I just marinated the pork and it smells really good!
What's the weather like where you are and what are you having for dinner tonight?

Our market stall

 

We had such a fun day at the markets on Saturday! It was great to be back at UTS and meeting so many lovely people on Open Day. We did pretty well for the day considering that not many people knew about the market, the alphabet rings were a best seller! 

I also had fun catching up with other students who had stalls and some of my teachers who dropped by. The market had a few stalls from fashion students, some from Industrial Design and lots of yummy food stalls. Oh, and I won a bag of popcorn for throwing a ball at a target so that was pretty exciting.

I'm currently moving my shop back to Etsy - I don't like their interface as much as bigcartel (which is what I'm using at the moment) but I do like that they have a solid customer base already there and there are lots of good opportunities to publicise your work. Anyway at the moment the bags are still at the old store (here) and the Etsy store has some Alphabet rings and pretzel necklaces. It's all still in transition mode though so I'll let you know when it's done!

Syb's stall - she's in fourth year

Project Menagerie - I love the idea of this. The first year students designed some motifs, set up some screens and have spent the last few weeks madly printing t-shirts to sell at the markets. Isn't that cool? I bought a t-shirt from them.

s.e.v by Sarah - a third year student & awesome model!

Some of Sarah's jewellery

This is the t-shirt I got from Project Menagerie!

New bag colours in store!

Just wanted to let you know there are some new bags in the shop!

Convertible Pretzel Bag - Blue, $58

Window Shopper Bag - Blue, $38


The green bags have been in stock for awhile but I don't think I've mentioned them here yet. The turquoise print is less of a contrast than the orange/blue, but I love how it looks.

Convertible Pretzel Bag - Green, $58

Window Shopper Bag - Green, $38

Shop Here!

Also, I finally made a Facebook page for Bell Street. I'd love it if you could Like it and/or Share it so it looks a bit less lonely!

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