Thank you... yes YOU!

At the risk of sounding like a C grade celebrity who's a bit tiddly on wine at the TV week awards, I want to say Thank you.... yes you... my lovely supportive customers, fans and fellow businesses.

I'm counting down to the release.... 2 hours 14 minutes for those of you playing at home.... and I just have this warm fuzzy feeling inside as you all leave such wonderful comments on my FB page, take the time to look at the collection and give me your feedback - I truly appreciate each and every comment left even if I sometimes miss one or two when replying. Facebook pages are priceless, 10 years ago where could we have gone from the comfort of our homes (in our PJ's!) to advertise our wares and directly liaise with hundreds (sometimes thousands) of people who love what we do? I love the personal level it allows me to have with you, I feel like I "know" many of you just through our online chats or emails :)

When you see one of my updates on facebook you don't have to comment or encourage me, but you do time and time again and I don't think this gig would be anywhere near as fun without the support I get from you, in fact, I know it wouldn't!

I have so many plans for Little Wildrose and whilst I may not reach some of my goals, by gosh I'm determined to give it a go and have fun trying!

So thanks once more, I hope you stick around and continue to support me as I progress and hopefully outdo myself (and your expectations) each and every collection. A very big special warm squishy Thank You to my very supportive husband who I know is very jealous of both the computer and sewing machine and yet still lets me toil away for hours in a day.

a little about me

For those who may actually read this, I thought I'd tell you a little more about myself.

My name is Janine, I am 26 and I live in Brisbane up in sunny Queensland (humid one day, more humid the next). I am one of 4 girls and we are all very close... my memories of my childhood are filled with love, laughter and music. I am now married to a wonderful man and we have two gorgeous children, Emily who is 1 and Parker who is 15 weeks old.

Parker

Emily

My husband and I

I met my husband through a car club I joined when I had my ute and we just clicked.... We have since gotten rid of both our cars in the place of something more family friendly (family life will do that to you!), but still share a passion for them and hope to do up a muscle car down the track.

I am a qualified hairdresser and did that for 7 years before tiring of the industry and making the switch to a normal 9-5 office job which is where I remained until I had Emily in 2009. She is an absolute joy besides the occasional toddler tantrum and is also very stubborn which my mum would tell you she gets from me but I'm sure she must get it from her father :p We added Parker to our little family 15 weeks ago and I'm just so in love with my family, they are my everything. Parker and Emily are both fantastic sleepers so at nights I transform into Little Wildrose mode and between that and my kids I lead a very busy life! My husband works in the mines in central QLD on a week on, week off roster. I hate the weeks he is away, but do enjoy the good quality time we get to spend as a family every second week.

We own a large block of land out west in a rural town and plan to build our dream home once our current house sells. I'm very much looking forward to the fresh breezes, the beautiful views of the mountain range and having more room for the kids to grow up and run around in when they are older.

Our dirt :)

With that serene picture in my mind i'm going to sign off and get some housework done! Someone has got to do it and seeing as my husband is away at the moment I guess that someone is me!!! :)

The countdown begins... 7 days to go!

Well only 7 days to go until the April Collection is released and I'm SO excited! I've been sewing like a mad woman trying to get as many lovely clutch's made as I possibly can for you all!

I must have pink on the brain, because both of today's additions were pink!

 

Tatiana in Tea Rose

 Elle in Fuschia

If you are curious to know what else is left to be included in this collection, I can tell you that currently on my sewing table there is animal print, dupioni silk, lace, pearls and satin...... you won't have much longer to wait! 

This week we unveiled our new website, and I'm thrilled with how it is looking! If you haven't already created an account for release night then pop on in and sign up now here, will make it just that little bit quicker to snap up your preferred pretties on the night :)

There are some exciting developments brewing behind closed doors here at Little Wildrose and although I can't share what just yet, I can tell you that it will mean more clutch's available for my lovely customers!

I hope you all have a safe and happy Easter, and over-indulge in chocolate - I know I will! :)

 

So.... blogging aye?

Now I'm not going to pretend to know the first thing about blogging. I've never been an avid blog reader, nor have I ever blogged before! So please bear with me as I clumsily fumble my way through the process of learning how to write a blog. My aim is to not only bring you latest news about Little Wildrose, but also for you to get to know a little bit about me, my life, things that inspire me...... and all the other dribble I'll no doubt find to chat about along the way.

I thought I'd start the blog with how Little Wildrose started and became what it is today. I had always wanted to be a stay at home mum and after the birth of our daughter my husband was very supportive of my desire to be home with her and forego childcare. Having a newborn was challenging and kept me very busy but after a year or so, whilst I was pregnant with our second baby I started to get niggling thoughts about needing something else - something besides being a mum to challenge me and give me something to do that was just for me... basically I needed a hobby! So I bought myself the cheapest sewing machine I could find and started learning how to use it ($120 on sale at Spotlight, thank you very much!). I'd only ever used one once before in Home Ec at school, so mum came over and gave me a refresher in sewing and taught me how to thread the bobbin and change the needle. I found a free tutorial on making fabric covered notebooks online and made myself one, it was pretty addictive and soon I had a few made. I opened up my Facebook page under the name of "Little Wildrose" and started selling them through there.

Pretty soon just doing covers wasn't enough so I dabbled in other crafty goods including dolls, kids shoes/boots and home decor items. I then tried my hand at making a clutch. The first one I made was nothing to write home about, but I really enjoyed making it so after tweaking the pattern about a thousand times and experimenting with different interfacing and batting I finally came up with a design that I was happy with that had a nice feel in the hand. I started on my first collection and was overwhelmed by it's success, I was sold out completely within hours and had an inbox full of custom order requests.... I knew I must have found my calling!

With the April Collection release approaching, I'm extremely busy but loving every minute of it. I'm constantly trying to think outside the box to bring my customers something new, fun and unique and I hope you enjoy seeing and reading about my venture!

I'll leave you with a picture of my first ever clutch made from the original pattern with ugly super pointy corners and everything... try not to laugh too hard!

Okay I can't do it... I can't leave you with that picture in your mind it's too cruel! Here is my latest one "Tatiana". Enjoy!