Too Much Inspiration!

I really don't believe one can have too much inspiration.  I feel so energized and focused when another artist's work has struck a chord in me or has inspired me to approach my work in a different way.

Canadian illustrator Helen Dardik does this for me.  Her work is whimsical, colorful, happy, quirky, energizing..... I'll stop drooling now.  Last year she created a fantastic collection for P&B Textiles called Too Muchery (now sold out). I purchased the whole collection and have finally put together pieces that I think do it justice.

The patterns are so "Helen Dardik"  with funny shapes, quirky flowers, butterflies, geometric details--very colorful.  So, the clothing pieces I designed are very simple and almost traditional in shape focusing on skirts.  I wanted the fabric to lead and the shapes of the clothing to follow.

These piece will be available on line soon at GirlyGirlProductions.net and at my Spring Trunk Show on Saturday, March 23 at the Beehive, Atlanta.

What is Love?

What is Love?

"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other."

Karl--Age 5

What is Love?

We are working on home-made Valentine cards this afternoon.  The kids will be distributing them to their class mates next week.  During our discussion of what Love is and how we express our love, they came up with some sweet answers.

My boy wonder said, "Love is when you help me with my projects, mom."  True.

"Love is when you cuddle with me," said my girly girl.  Absolutely.

I found some fantastic, funny and poignant responses by some other kids who were asked the question:  What is Love?

I'll post a quote a day for a week in honor of St. Valentine.

"When you love somebody your eyelashes go up and down and small stars come out of you."
(what an image)
Noelle, Age 7

Inspirations in Technicolor

When I was eight  I watched New York, New York , the 1949 MGM musical starring my "dream boat" Gene Kelley.  I saw American in Paris, Singing in the Rain, and Brigadoon many times over!  I decided then, when I grew up, I would marry him.  I had the very cool fortune of actually meeting Mr. Kelley when he came through Atlanta in the mid-70's, but you probably guessed, I did not marry him.  Sigh.

When I started playing with fabrics for a new collection of girly skirts I wondered if the colors I was gravitating toward were too "technicolor".  But the word made me think of Gene Kelley and the vibrant films he made that took place in magical cities all over the world (mostly Hollywood back lot studios).  But that's beside the point.

The Girl in the World Collection was born!  There will be ten featured cities on adorable, vibrant, fun skirts with an all-important pocket for collecting and keeping treasures! There will also be coordinating reversible Peter Pan collar "necklaces" that can work with any simple top!

The cities featured will include:

New York
London
Paris
Rome
Amsterdam
Barcelona
Moscow
Sydney
Tokyo
Mexico City
There might be others ....

You'll be able to find them on my Etsy shop and at GirlyGirlProductions.net.

You can also see more about the collection as it develops on my Facebook page.

Ready.. Set.. Goals!

Happy Monday!  Happy New Year!

No more excuses now.  The decorations (with the exception of the outdoor lights) are down. The kids are back to school. I'm OFFICIALLY back to work now.  Friday I cleaned my studio space and sat down to make a list of everything I wanted to accomplish--develop new designs, sew, photograph, blog, write press releases, work on my website, do bookkeeping... I was immediately overwhelmed.   Deep breath.  One step at time.  I had to take all the thoughts and ideas in my head and turn them into business goals with a plan of action!

Knowing that the help I sought was out in the bloggosphere, I searched, and voila found a great outline and simple guide to writing  down my business goals for 2013.  Marketing expert Laura McCulloch-Carter has created a simple and straightforward worksheet that can help you write down those goals and then identify the steps required to achieve them with quarterly milestones.

My top three business goals are to develop my website into a viable sales and marketing tool, establish five new wholesale customers and be featured in five blogs and two magazines this year.  Are these goals too lofty?  Not enough?  I don't know.  Its what I feel is part of a successful year for my small hand-made business.

As someone who has been a successful business owner at times, and a not so successful business owner at other times, I do know that establishing goals and identifying the steps to achieve those goals are critical to my vision. Knowing I have a plan calms me.  I don't feel so overwhelmed now.  Breathe in, breathe out.  All is good!

From my blog post for the Beehive.