The Good With the Bad

The past week has had plenty of goods for me and for Trove. I sold really well at Magnolia Square, I had a few wholesale enquiries, I was featured in thewhitebook's July chapter and I was nominated by Tess from Planet Treasures for the One Lovely Blog Award. (Made my day, Tess!) So there's lots of goods there.

The bads are well outnumbered but still a little disappointing. Namely I wasn't accepted to the Young Blood Designers Market for reasons unknown, which has really bummed me out. I was so excited at the prospect of exhibiting there - they always have a great line-up of emerging designers and really foster the young designers scene. It's brought up some niggling self-doubts and left me feeling a bit hollow.

That's not to say I won't be applying again, and ramping up my application even further to see that I make it next time. I think they hold another one in November/December. Perfect for the Christmas lead-up.

I won't focus on the bads, though, and will instead be looking towards the next set of opportunities. This week I'm working on my wholesale orders for Nook and Pleien as well as getting together my samples to send to magazines. That ought to shake out the negatives, pump up the positives.

The Week That Was...

I am home, I am semi-recovered from Magnolia Square, I am drinking coffee and I am happy.

Last week was a blur of last-minute prep for the market and the craziness of the market itself. In all it was a fantastic event - I'm really pleased with how my jewellery was received (and purchased!) and I'll definitely be doing the November market. The Thursday was exceptionally quiet for us, but the Friday was great and the Saturday, oh, the Saturday was quite a bit of madness. The best kind of madness though. The Tea House venue was not crash-hot (not quite enough room in the aisles for lots of ladies with lots of prams) and it was a little church-hallish. But the organisers did a stellar job of disguising that fact, and the visual merchandising was gorgeous. (So much so that I felt a little sheepish at the simplicity of my stall design. Next time, yes, next time I will blow their socks off!)






I'm glad it's over, simply for the fact that a three-day market with a four month old is slightly tiring, particularly when she is teething. But not to worry, she coped like a trooper and Sparky was, again, my greatest helper. I did come to the realisation that I need to hire someone to help me with these events, so if you know of anyone reliable, passionate about handmade, willing to work stretches of long-ish days sproadically throughout the year and perhaps with some sales experience, please please please send them my way.

The wonderful flip-side of exhibiting at an event like Magnolia Square is the huge range of delectable shopping opportunities on offer. I restrained myself quite well I think, but did buy a few lovely things for Issy and myself:

These gorgeous little leather shoes were bought for Isla. They're so soft and such a pretty green. I had to restrain myself from also buying these,
these and these.


hamb is a really sweet Melbourne clothing label with some gorgeous mens, womens and kids t-shirts and sloppy joes (does ANYONE use that term anymore apart from me?!)

I bought these for Issy and myself, so that we can have dorky matching clothes days.



And before I sound like a horrible wife, I did offer to buy Sparky a matching t-shirt but he politely declined.

I also bought some of these beauties:



Sparkle Cupcakery make the most delicious, modern little pattypans full of joy. I can personally attest to this as I tried both their Belgian Chocolate and Sparkle Cake (vanilla - classic, not boring) and they were beyond delicious. Yum, yum, YUM!

So that is the week that was.

Frustration Overload and New Friends

I have been unable to access Etsy for the last 5 days. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

Excuse me a moment...

AAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH.

Ahem.



In other news, I had the pleasure of receiving an order from a new store (yet to be opened, in fact) in Brisbane, called Nook. The store Michelle is putting together sounds wonderful and you can keep updated on the building works and renovations on her blog. I can't wait to see it up and running!

There is the most gorgeous sunrise happening outside my window, so I think I need to go and admire it with a cup of chamomile in hand. I will return at some point...

(Late) Weekly Goal Round-Up Round Up

Yes, yes. I know I suck. Very sorry for the lack of blogging love and all that.

Let's cut to the chase and see how spectacularly I failed my goal list this week:

- SUCCESS! Finish the mother-of-all pours from last week (now only 400+ pieces)
- SUCCESS! Assemble 300+ pieces
- SUCCESS! Polish 300+ pieces
- PARTIAL SUCCESS! Prep stock for markets (price, tag, etc)
- PARTIAL SUCCESS! Finalise display for Mag Square
- NEGATIVE. Finish 75 samples for magazines
- SUCCESS! Place packaging order at Rio Grande
- SUCCESS! Visit local stockist
- NEGATIVE. Research sales rep

So that looks to be six from nine, or 66.6%. An improvement on last week's effort anyway.



(And the image above has nothing at all to do with this round-up other than it was the second image found on Google Images when searching for '66 percent'. Makes sense.)

This week I may take a rain check on my weekly goal round up as I am doing nothing much more than feverishly getting prepared for Magnolia Square, which starts in a couple of days.

I guess I could sum up this week's goal list with:

- Arrive at Magnolia Square
- Set up award-winning display
- Sell out of all stock by Saturday
- Drink champagne in celebration
- Eat delicious cupcakes .

I hope you all have a wonderful week!!

Apologies

I have been rather absent the past week and I am very sorry. Things have hit a new high of hecticness and I am currently sprinting up and down on the spot, trying desperately to get ready for Magnolia Square.

It's slowly getting there - I have around 400 pieces that will be ready to go come Thursday, plus qute a few samples to be included in the media bags going out at Friday morning's media breakfast. Should be fabulous!

Anyway, my Weekly Goal Round Up Round Up will be coming up shortly. Stay tuned! I know you're waiting with much excitement!

Today is Tuesday.

I really love Tuesdays. I do. So much.

I'm about to tell you why and embarrass myself wholly.

Australia's Next Top Model is on Tuesdays. This. I. Love. Clare should absolutely win.



I also love this particular Tuesday because yesterday I finished my mother-of-all-pours (600 pieces in total) and now I can get onto the fun part of production, which is assembling my pieces. All 300 of them. Yep.

Weekly Goal Round Up

In follow-up to my less than stellar 50-percenter last week, I'm hoping to have a more productive week this week. I actually have to have a more productive week this week. The Magnolia Square markets are fast approaching and I have muchas work to get through. Plus we have visitors staying next weekend, so the work getting done will be minimal.

The major tasks on this week's list are:

- Finish the mother-of-all pours from last week (now only 400+ pieces)
- Assemble 300+ pieces
- Polish 300+ pieces
- Prep stock for markets (price, tag, etc)
- Finalise display for Mag Square
- Finish 75 samples for magazines
- Place packaging order at Rio Grande
- Visit local stockist
- Research sales rep

So that's what I've got coming up. Fingers crossed I get through the majority of it, and fingers crossed I don't see the bottom two items on next week's list.

Tally-ho! The week awaits!!