Truck 2012: done and dusted!

Hurrah, the sun finally remembered what it’s supposed to be doing – just in the nick of time. Last week was spent manically stitching while keeping fingers, toes and ears crossed that the rain would stop for Truck Festival... and it worked!

Highlights included: the amazing range of vocal sounds illicited by handmade vintage fabric knickers; witnessing the brilliant sales skills of a 2 yr old daughter (“do you like my mummy’s shop, there are lots of colours...”); meeting our stall neighbour Geoff the Vintage man; and holding a serious sales conversation while wearing a zebra mask on Wild Animal dress up day.

Camping is definitely good for the soul – nothing tastes better than a cuppa in a field or food with grass in it. And as ultimate testament to the restorative powers of fresh air and no showers, Mr Loulabelle has just installed a new outdoor light without either swearing or throwing about of tools!

Made by Zoo-labelle

Bestsellers

Trucking on for Truck Festival

Slowly, slowly, ever so slowly the stock pile for Truck Festival grows. Currently it is accumulating next to our wine rack - this seems fitting somehow.

A weekend of wonder

I was just flicking through my phone picture gallery and realised what a busy - slightly surreal, possibly kitsch - weekend we had! Saturday was Oxford's Alice Day, celebrating the 150th anniversary of first telling of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.  We haven't introduced Freya to Lewis Caroll yet, so we feared she'd be wierded out by Alice related madness. But no, she loved the 10 minute Alice Musical (what's not to like about dancing prawns), went cuckcoo for crafting a Mad Hatters hat, and completely enthralled by story telling from the Storytelling Laureate (it's all about the eyelashes!).

 Sunday was strawberry picking day, vamped up with a little mouse face paint and jazzy green nails.

Then today we watched the Olympic Torch go past - try explaining what that's all about to a toddler! However, I have learnt that in toddler land, no reason is needed for a spot of flag-waving and flame-watching:  it's totally reasonable - in fact, expected - to be standing at the side of a road making whooping sounds at random strangers.

I guess every day is pretty much full of wierd and wonderful stuff when you're 2 and a half and like putting a bandage on every finger.

As for Esther.... well, she just came along for the ride...

When pant patterns go baaad...

Sometimes, my friends, things do not go according to plan and the cute baby knickers you had foolishly cut 4 pairs of without testing the pattern first make your poor innocent child look like they are trapped in a leopard-print potato sack.

Bad pants

So, off we go, back to the drawing board;  ditch McCalls (I'm not letting them near my baby for a while!) and draft a pattern from an old pair of pants you have already. The result? One happy baby!

Good pants

Oh dear...

Is it wrong that I hung out my washing in rainbow order... and then decided to make my baby the "pot of gold" at the end? This is how I entertain myself these days!!!

And finally, on the subject of new beginnings/rebranding... I am now officially a short hair convert!

I went for the chop just before Esther was due, in readiness for the onset of post-pregnancy hair loss (depressing stuff!). Scary as it was to see all that hair I'd been growing for ages scattered over the floor, it was worth it. - look, I now have a "do"! It's supposed to be 60s bob-ish and miraculously it works if I spend a bit of time with the hairdryer, but I've been pleasantly surprised that even on the barely-out-of-pyjamas, toast-in-the-hair, baby-brain days it still looks more or less passable with a quick bit of taming!

More new beginnings

So, you may have noticed some changes to the Made by Loulabelle look. What do you think?

Much as I liked the old pink and swirly branding, I felt it was a bit too whimsical and girly to be a true reflection of the style and 60s/70s textiles of my products. So I called upon the considerable talents of illustrator and all round good gal Kate Hazell to help me out.

Check out her great work for yourself at www.katehazell.com

My brief to Kate was a pretty vague "something curvy with a 60s/70s influence". (Helpful 'eh? I blame the late stages of pregnancy.)  So, it's a testament to Kate's cleverness that she pulled together a mood board that perfectly summed up what I had in mind!

I'm pleased as punch with the resulting logo and love the purple/orange colour combo. Just a couple more design tweaks to make to this site a bit easier to navigate, and then the new look will be complete.

 Now, I wonder if I can find myself a purple/orange vintage dress to match....