ReOpening Soon-ish

I love my jobs. The one as a mom and the one as handmade business owner. If I have to chose, it would always be the first. Getting down on the floor and spending time with my kids is the single most valuable moment in my day.

Up until this point I have made time for both. I have been able to balance pretty well. Adding a forth has obviously made life a little...busier. We also started Kindergarten homeschooling this week. My schedule still has room for sewing but just not the extent that Vessel had been demanding before maternity leave.

Out of nowhere my little handmade business had exploded into a 2 employee + myself, barely keep up with orders type of business. It was wonderful and exciting and fun. We stopped taking orders so that I could have a short maternity leave and it has been amazing. I am dying to get back to sewing though. Not like I was though. I am scared that I won't be able to keep up quite yet.

We have prayed a lot about the final months of this year. I am ready to re-open the doors but not ready for what the shop demands. What on earth am I supposed to do? We have finally come to a decision. The etsy shop will remain closed. At least for now. Until the end of the year.

I will be participating in two small boutiques. Like I said I want to be sewing. I love it. I am ready. I want my business to continue. Not at all ready to give it up. The boutiques will be local and I will be going simple. A few products I love.

Any products that do not sell will be listed in the shop until I am ready to reopen completely. No stress. Just fun.



So all that being said, if you were to walk into a boutique, what would you want to see? Be specific.

 

Is there a princess apron you would want? A quilt for your little boys crib? Our signature foldover clutches? Art accessories? We want your input.



As for the future of Vessel, we are not sure. The doors will surely be reopening. What it will look like is still undecided. We may reopen with just a hodge podge of products that I am currently having fun creating. Or maybe we will reopen as a ready to ship shop with a smaller amount of our typical products. Who knows, I may get a burst of energy or an additional employee and we will be back to our normal business. Only time will tell.

For now, you tell me, what would you like to see. For the boutique line and for the future of the shop. We always value the opinion of our customers :)

NEW Dress Line

A few months ago I had an idea for a really fun dress line. I wanted something that I loved but also something that represented where Rock-A-Bow came from. If you don't know the story, the gist of it is this: Rock-A-Bow was inspired by Rhi and a friend, their love for girly and fun. It has now grown into something much bigger than I imagined. Now that I have learned to sew, I wanted to bring back that inspiration of Rhiannon and her little friends. What they love.

I contacted a few of Rhiannon's best friends moms and had them pick fabrics for a dress, fabrics that would best showcase their little girl. I LOVE everything they chose. It is beautiful. I love this dress line. I am so excited to release it. Drum roll please.......

Hopscotch and Lollipops by Rock-A-Bow Dress line

The dresses are now listed in the shop. I advise you all get over there quick. They were on pre-sale for one week and the inside scoop is the orders are going to come in quickly :) 

Here are some of my favorite shots from the photoshoot. 

These models had some serious character.

And serious beauty!

They tore apart my set....

And made a mad dash.

They reminded me why they were all there...

Their sweet friendships!

My inspiration!!!

Now head on over and check these babies out. 

Impressed by the fab photos? I was too. I have an amazing photog AND I think he's hot. Go check out his website and/or FB. Tell him I sent you.

EX-hausted but excited

Today, although I want to blog about something profound and wonderful, I've got nothin'. I am exhausted and overwhelmed. So can I just pout and complain instead?

This week has been wearing. I have been stretched thin.

As many of you know, I am a work at home mom. I work for a company that is simply amazing to our little family. When it was just Rhi, I worked in the office. I brought her with me and it was tough but I had the best of both worlds. Now that I have two babes in tow, working with them is not as doable. Hence the whole WAHM thing. Anywho, the boss is out of town this week, so I am needed in the office. I have both babies with me. Enough said, right?

On top of working, this weekend is Queen Bee, so there has been lots of sewing and gluing and craziness to prepare. I have been working into the wee hours of the night. Luckily I have amazing support at home. Steven and his parents have helped me a ton with the kids. Although I have had tons of help, Talon is still a nursing baby. Translation: a cling to mommy baby...

I love my job and I love Rock-A-Bow. AND Queen Bee is my favorite show of the year BUT this working mommy/handmade biz owner is tired. No, beyond tired. There are a few things cheering me up though.

Like...
Last night we did a mock up of my booth. A few plans I had didn't work out but all in all I'm happy with it. BTW that is your sneak peek today. I'm in love with those felt flower headbands. You will be too, I promise!

Oh and the other thing making me super happy? I have these two adorable babies and an awesome hubby who have promised me an amazing mommy's day in San Diego, (we always have a ton going on Sunday so we do my day on Saturday). So on top of hanging out at the amazingness that is Queen Bee, I get a fun day with, get this, NO WORK!

Toddler Talk Tuesday

Okay, I have a huge announcement. By popular demand, I will be bringing back toddler talk Tuesday. In case you are new, Toddler Talk was a once a week series I was doing, until Talon was born, where I would share some funny stuff Rhi said throughout the week. I then opened it up for readers to share with me via email what their toddlers had said and I shared for them. Sort of a kids say the darndest things kind of post.

WELL, I’m changing it up a bit. Instead of just what kids have said, I want to know fun things they did, games you all played, crafts or really anything that you want to share about your fun toddlers and/or life as a mommy with a toddler. Basically instead of just sharing what our toddlers talked about, we are gonna talk about our toddlers. Make sense?

Here’s the fun part. I am going to go out on a limb and make this a, drum roll please… LINKY PARTY!!!.

So starting next week, come on over and link up your post about your toddlers! We will try it out for a month. See how it goes and hopefully make it permanent.

For now, let’s see our second sneak peek of products that will be at Queen Bee this Friday and Saturday.

Since we are on the topic of toddlers, I’ll let you see a product designed for them. Artfolios. These babies have been hot, so you will want to rush over and snatch one up before they are gone.

There’s this one as well as these cute lil things…

Meet me at Queen Bee!

I {Heart} Mondays + a Sneak Peek

On Friday, I mentioned on Twitter that I would be posting daily sneak peeks all week of products that will be at the Queen Bee this coming weekend. (Look here to learn more about Queen Bee). Sooo…this week look through each post. There will be some sort of sneak peek in each post.

Alright folks, are you ready for some cuteness? I am seriously dying over here and so excited to share this product and my friend with you. I recently met an amazing couple. They go to my church and are on the worship team with my husband. For some unknown reason (completely sarcastic), my husband thought Gaby and I would get along well.

Gaby is a fun, young momma like myself. The young momma part, not trying to inform you all of my coolness. Ha! She also happens to be an extremely talented crocheter. I know, crocheter is not a word, spellcheck informed me of that. Either way, she is amazing at it! After talking to her a little about Creative Estates and some of the great product trades, we decided to barter. Are you even ready for the cuteness you are about to see? Take a look!

Are you dying? I am! Did I already mention that this is killing me? Rhi just loves it, as I am sure you can tell. She refused to take it off all day. We seriously love Hello Kitty in our home, so this was perfect. We were even able to choose the color. We stuck with the trademark red because it is Rhi’s current fav. Oh, and the bow, it is removable. So, if we wanted to dress Hello Kitty up or down we could switch it up. How fun is that.

Gaby aka Nature Mamma, also had an aviator beanie that I am wanting to get for Talon and so much more. She is fairly new to the handmade world, so go show her some love. You seriously can’t beat the cuteness or her amazing prices. Go Go Go!

www.naturemamma.etsy.com

Oh, what’s that? I forgot your sneak peek? No! Here it is. The item that I am bartering with my friend Gaby. A custom bible case. Gaby went with one that was listed in the shop but there will be a few fun fabric combos at Queen Bee. Smarty pants me forgot to take pictures of the ones I am bringing but here is a little idea of what you can expect…

I {Heart} ____ Mondays

I have been oogling over all kinds of handmade and bloggy goodness lately, so, I thought I would share it with you all. Say, once a week? Let's just go ahead and make it a series. I {heart}____ Mondays. Not to be confused with I heart mondays... because surely I do not!!!

First up, Olive Blue's Baby Leg Warmers. Nicole at Olive Blue (a good friend btw) totally kicks butt. As do her baby leg warmers. Rhiannon has a pair of gray and white stripes. ADORE them!

Sew Chatty has changed up her look and now does a canvas with designer fabric accent. I already loved the look but the other day she added these bags to the shop. I die!


I have been searching the web for owl stuff. One of my closest friends has a lil girl turning one and having an owl party, not long after we are throwing another great friends Owl themed baby shower. I stumbled upon these. Why did I not find them before I had my two littles?


And then...the other day, these babies popped up in my twitter feed. I think Eclectic Whatnot shared them. She has been posting lots of tempting yummys BUT nothing like this Chocolate Kahlua Cupcakes? Oh My!

Also, not to toot my own horn or self promote but have you seen my new Artfolios? Adorable and so much fun. One is part of a giveaway over at Sew Chatty right now, in case you missed the memo!

(Click on any of the images to go look at these lovelies yourself)

Boy oh Boy!

Remember this blog? You know the one about how I used to be so uncreative (is that a word) and then I somehow was inspired over and over again by the changes in my life? Well, it has happened again. Rock-A-Bow has a new inspiration and his name is Talon. That's right folks, my baby boy has got me creating fun new things. We have burp cloths, tag blankets and onsies. I'm even thinking of venturing into the world known as pee pee teepees. What do you think?

Rock-A-Bow released the new items at a very small neighborhood boutique. They won't be going up on the website for a while since I'm trying to stock up for all of the holiday boutiques I will be participating in but you can take a look at these pictures I have for you. These are from that neighborhood boutique I told you about.

Don't worry I will keep you posted on when and where all these boutiques will be and if you can't make it to one, you can always custom order whatever you need!

Anyhow, here are some pictures for ya!

Don't worry there is still lots of girlyness going on at Rock-A-Bow!