RamsdenDesigns

Deck The Halls With Baldy Positioned Ornaments

Doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

But it certainly suits our house at the moment. Our tree is up (and I’m sure Big B is relieved to have not been part of that circus) and the above pic is Little J’s attempt at hanging decorations. Proportion and a sense of space are not her strong points I’ve discovered. While the picture looks nice…and whoa our carpet looks like it’s never seen a 2 year old, the surrounding branches had nary a bauble on them.

And so it went. Bunches of ornaments and then giant spaces of undecorated tree.

Mummy will fix that later.

The best bit about our tree is the two presents already underneath it. Both of which are mine. One from Little J and one from Big B…which I picked out, purchased and wrapped but as we’re both happy about the situation it’s all good. I did balk a bit at the price but justified it by saying it was also a graduation present and an investment piece. And who knows, perhaps Big B will feel it’s worth it as it saved him the torture of shopping for my present and spending time in a place he compares to the depths of hell…a shopping centre.

And he’s totally going to win brownie points with his family for such a thoughtful gift.

While taking pictures of just mentioned gifts Little C saw an opportunity to be a star. I feel compelled to mention she isn’t participating in Movember but rather just indulged in a Tim Tam.

Does she look like my kid or not? She definitely gets her eyebrows from daddy. Poor thing, but not to worry, I’ve started up a ‘eyebrow wax’ trust fund for when she notices and demands they be gone.

Some other rooms in the house got the Xmas treatment as well. Big B wasn’t too impressed however when I told him the master bedroom is now decorated in pink fluffy Christmas lights.

Dearest Reader

I’ve had a hard day today. The children were possessed by the devil and proceeded to whine, complain and mess their way through the day, guaranteeing my tittering close to insanity tonight.

To cheer myself up and keep hold of my sanity for one more night I bought myself a bunch of flowers.

Because even us mad mothers need flowers.

As I’m Running A Day Behind, It Just So Happens…

…that I completely forgot what I did yesterday. I know it involved lunch out with Big B and a quiet day because the kids weren’t around. But thats it really, the rest is a blank.

Things would be greatly improved if I could remember where I put Little J’s swimming form. I think it’s in the bin, which the truck picked up today but I keep looking around the house for it because it’s much cleaner in the house. And you never know.

So how's about a bit of Pottery Barn lust instead? We don’t have Pottery Barn here, so don’t bother Googling it, it’ll just break your heart anyway. But I found this:

It’s a customizable organisation station called ‘Daily System’ and I so want one. Pottery Barn of course doesn’t ship out of America so I have buckley's chance of getting one. But I was wondering what IKEA have and found…nothing remotely like it.

Yay for Australia…not home of the ‘Daily System’.

Sigh.

I’m Running One Day Behind On Posts

So lets just pretend it’s Sunday and I’ve just come home from the Made on the Left market (no really…just pretend with me).

So while there I spent as much as I thought Big B would turn a blind eye to…it’s all about helping the economy I tell myself.

Various goodies that were being sold for far too little money (these people do not know the value of their work).

Super adorable Christmas tree ornaments.

And this is the one thing I should NOT have bought. Thanks to this cute and cuddly little penguin the house is now awash with the cries of “It’s mine!!!”

These things need a caution tag on them:

Warning: May cause fights if children are forced to share.

Day 82 - 84

I’m exhausted but happy today. It’s been day after day for a few days of non stop work; birthdays, parties and markets to do. Today was the Made on the Left market and it was really terrific. In the morning I was pretty nervous as I’d decided to display my soaps without their regular labels and I wasn’t sure if people were going to go for that.

But people really liked the display and responded by buying a lot of soap. I spent the day lapping up the praises of delighted customers…as you do.

My bath bomb display looked very bright and colourful. You can see the disappearing act of the front two bowls, they weren’t completely filled to begin with but were whittled down to almost nothing by the end of the day.

The only draw-back to the day was only having one table to work with. I was forced to cut-out whole ranges such as my bubble bars, solid body bars and gift packs. But Made on the Left only has so much space for each vendor so they can fit in as much variety as possible. Doing a display layout that will work for just one table will be on the cards. 

I’m back at uni tomorrow so expect a lot of ‘I can’t handle the stress’ posts until I finish my degree in December. Just warning ya. Tomorrow I’ll also be banking my earnings and working out how to spend it all.

Day 71 - 73

HUGE changes are being made to Delight Society over the coming months. HUGE. I want to say more but am keeping things a bit quiet at the moment.

One thing I will point out is that my chances of completing my 100 Days Action Plan are almost nil. Some parts anyway. Most notably the parts requiring me to purchase more ingredients, which is pretty much the soap part. This week I’ve attempted to make some soap, only to find out I’m all out of fragrance oils and most of my wonderful luxury oils. It’s pretty distressing (which is a perfect example of how stress free my life is). I’ve written a huge list of everything I want to buy and am just kind of looking at things that I need now and things I can afford later.

It’s not that we’re broke it’s just that it feels like we are. Right now we can’t afford my extravagant soap hobby so I’m looking at ways to cut our living expenses so I can spend more…shopaholics will get me...

So out is the ironing man (yes man…yes I had someone to do my ironing…yes I’m THAT lazy).

Out is Weight Watchers, I won’t need it because…

Out is takeaway food and…

Out is skipping sessions at the gym…if I have to fulfil my contract I’d better make full use of the money.

Out is trips to the video store.

Out is buying stuff…any stuff really that I don’t need. That means you Dora DVDs and lifestyle magazines.

And in is turning lights out, making lunches not buying them, eating what's already in my pantry and only heating rooms that need it.

Oooerr none of that sounds fun…but making soap is so I’m willing to forgo the conveniences of life in favour of the joys of life.

Everything else, bath bombs, bubble bars, website and market display will still be completed on time. I already have most of the materials needed so will be jumping into them wholeheartedly.

Mundaring Markets – A Week Late

I just found these images on my camera.

 

Little J took them while we were at the Mundaring Markets last weekend. Honestly it looks a little bare, I’ve no sign, no height, no marquee. My market display needs a bucket load of work.

The soaps look pretty though.

While at the market I bought some cushion covers from the delightful Pretty In Purple. She’s also making me an Amy Butler table runner for my future jarrah dinning table and future redecorated dining room. I hope I wasn’t too finicky a customer.

Check out the cushions. Gorgeous. The couch, not so much. That couch would definitely win an ugly couch contest. Thankfully in a week or two the cushions won’t the roses among the thorns because we’re this close to chucking it out and buying a brand spanking new couch. I’ve got my eye on a green patterned one from IKEA, with some contrasting plain cushions and these two beauties. Delish.

Day 6 - 7

Saturday was a day off. I spent the day cleaning (you wouldn’t know it now though), meeting up with other Etsy sellers and then there was dinner with my brothers girlfriends’ family.

Today has been spent being a slave to the Zen. Zen Cart that it, I’m trying to implement a shopping cart onto my website and it certainly is a tricky assignment. Learning a new platform in a day requires a great deal of chocolate, mess (the kids always like to contribute) and the entire 5th season of Alias.

Screenshot time:

Day 3

Today was spent going shopping, going to the gym (ouch, my poor arms), napping after said gym visit, picking up kids from school, giving up that Big B will get me a mothers day gift despite my constant reminding, signing kids up for netball lessons, taking them to gymnastics instead when netball lessons fall through and nodding off in front of the TV.

Despite the hectic pace of my life I still found time to complete some tasks in my 100 Day Action Plan. These included:

1. Work out my economy soap wholesale and retail prices – looks good too, not too expensive, not too cheap but I guess we’ll see how it goes.
2. Buy some supplies that are found at the supermarket.
3. Research more bubble bar ideas.
4. Call about soap packaging – done for me, my supplier got back to me…he must have had a long weekend.
5. Register my business name – filling in forms tonight and will post off tomorrow.
6. Contact a potential retail shop – big fail. I’m too chicken scared to do it. Now the question is is how am I going to get my products into shops if I’m too much of a scaredy cat to contact shops? Well I’ve thought of that and have a secret weapon…details later.
7. Order more soap supplies to pick up tomorrow – meh I’ll do it tomorrow morning, no rush so I’m not too worried.

One thing I decided to do was to make the economy soaps a bigger size. Each will be a nice 160 grams and so will feel like a big piece of soap. I like the idea of a bigger size, it takes me no more time to make and is only a bit extra for the customer so they are really only paying for the extra ingredients and will be getting a nice deal.

I cut my luxury peppercorn soap today as well. Gosh it feels nice and has a super silky feel to it. The colour I’m not sold on yet, I’ll try another one next week and whiten it up a bit more and see how I like that. It seems the silk adds yellow to the soap, which could be nice for some things but I was hoping for a whiter look.

All I need to do now is try it out. I’ll have to wait a few weeks for it to cure but am confident it’ll be all I’m hoping it will be.

When all else fails: point form.

• There are toys from this end of the house......................................................to this end.
• Which is a lot more than 10cm in my house I can tell you.
• What’s more upsetting? The fact that the house was really clean at lunch today or that I now have to go and pick everything up? Again!
• There’s a toddler following me around the house letting me know of her displeasure about I don’t know what.
• I’m behind in the washing and hanging out and folding and ironing and putting away...well not that far behind, just 3 or so months behind. About as long as my folks were away (mums my helper, she irons better than me).
• A little someone keeps touching the keyboard and making the computer beep.
• At least the cookies I made were delish but all eaten now...bad sweet tooth.
• There are texta marks on the computer screen. Big sigh!
• The kids drove me bonkers this morning. Bigger sigh!
• To cheer myself up I made up this cute little girl outfit. Totally loving Polyvore.com  

And Little J came up with this...look at the heels!!