Getting ready for the launch

We are busy at the moment getting ready for our grand opening which is on next Thursday night, so as well as trying to make sure we have some yummy nibblies for everyone, we are also trying to make sure we have plenty of handmade goodies in the store.

We stumbled across these gorgous handcrafted, reversible shoes for bubs, and thought that they were such a stylish alternative to traditional booties! The elastic at the back of the shoes means that there is no cutting into the little ones feet... We only have a few in the store, and i have a feeling they may go like hotcakes!


Also in the same package, we received these notepad and crayon sets, with each set including a notepad and 5 crayons, and done in a beautiful portable little pack - perfect for little birthday presents, and taking on holidays if you can't bear to give them away!

New products

It seems each night that I get home from work I have another bundle of goods sitting on my door step - it makes each day just like Christmas at the moment!

Last night the bone china bamboo dinner plates arrived, and I was so tempted to keep them at my house for the dinner party next weekend, as well as the match bamboo vase...

Also the shippment that I was hoping would arrive before Valentines day arrived yesterday, however I still think they will be great in the shop - the first one is a pack of 3 handmade wishbones, that come in their very own calico bag...

The second were these faux bois logs, with the sweet tag line of wood you be mine...

The are so sweet, I have to remember to keep one to give Simon for our anniversary!

McKenzie and lack of sleep

Sorry for the break between posts, this week has been quite hectic - on top of the new gallery, I have been busy cleaning out my room at Mum & Dad's (I didn't realise I was such a hoarder, until I found all my childhood toys!).

We also picked up McKenzie, our new puppy this week, she is absolutely adorable, though having trouble sleeping at night (she is great at sleeping during the day!) - She is so full of energy and literally bounces every where!

McKenzie & Coup are still a little wary of each other, and sussing the other out, but are starting to play chasey around the house... Our biggest challenge at the moment is keeping McKenzie out of Coups food!

On another note, we had two gorgeous shippments arrive this week, just in time for our grand opening on the 25th - I will take some photographs tonight, and share them with you tomorrow!

Paper City

Over the weekend I was going through all the lovely emails that we have received from everyone (thanks!) when I noticed an email from Emma, that was talking about a Paper City that she had seen in toyko, that had took art student, Wataru Ito over four years to make by cutting and folding hundreds of pages of craft paper...

The design is based on El Temple de la Sagrada Familia, Spain and comes complete with a tower surrounded by a cathedral, school, theme park, factory and airport and of course comes complete with electrical lights and a moving train.

Now if I can just wrangle a holiday to Toyko to check this awesome display out!

A week of contradictions

This week has been one of the most interesting I think I have had, we have had so many great things happen, such as the opening of the new store, plus organising to get our new puppy this weekend, that I guess it is natural there were going to be some not so great things...

Yesterday my dad, who lives in Northern Victoria, was told that Murrary Goulburn were closing down their factory, and the 80 people that work there would need to find other jobs. What makes it sad is the town that the site was located in, only has about 300 people, so this effectively wipes out most of the jobs - I sometimes forget living in the city now, what an impact such a thing can have on a town...

My mum and Dad are now grappling with the decision of whether to relocate and move with Murray Goulburn or to try their luck by staying put... It will be sad to have to pack up the family home, but i really would love them to be a bit closer!

On a lighter note, we have just ordered some of the most beautiful products into the store, which will be arriving hopefully next week - I will post a picture when they are all set up, but here is a sneak peak of some of them!

Almost there

The talented trio spent yesterday arranging the shop, and as I went by last night to see what they had done, I realised why I was an accountant, and Angeline, Rachel and Monique were doing the store layout! I was so impressed with how they had arranged the store!


We were lucky enough to get our hands on some synthetic grass, which has made the display so much nicer, and meant that the girls could make it look like the little birdies were on sitting in the grass...
There were some setbacks - not all of the gallery hangers turned up so we were unable to hang everything in the windows that we had hoped, however were able to hang these gorgeous Kareena Zerofos prints, that we are absolutely in love with!

So many goodies!

Well day 2 of the refit went well, not without a couple of hiccups, but the good news is that we should be open by lunch time today...

The first part of the day saw the boys having to install the gallery hanging system, and the display boards for all the frame corners, this is where a couple of the hiccups occured, with some of the brackets going on the wrong way, but nothing we could sort out...
We were so lucky during the day to meet all these wonderful people from Williamstown, who happened to be walking by and popped in to welcome us to the neighbourhood - what a great place to live, it really reaffirmed our feeling that Williamstown some how still manages to have that country town feeling, with all the amenities of the city...

The fun part of the day was then unloading all the stock, the team will be busy arranging these today, but here is a sneak peak of some of the stock that unwrapped yesterday...

These gorgeous plushies from Harper Grace took our breath away, we were so lucky that Harper Grace has made a range of plushies only for our store, thats right she is not selling them any where else, which was so sweet... Harper Grace has made some gorgeous monsters, who my neice saw and wouldn't let go of, each with different faces, some owls, and some sweet little monkies.
Susannah Tucker popped by on Sunday to deliver her photo blocks, again this was one of those products that you saw and they were just so much more gorgeous in real life, we have such a nice range of these that I think they may go like hot cakes!
The shop is located just next to a fish and chip shop, which everyone in Williamstown seems to know, and yesterday we found out why - the fish and chips were amazing, some how they didn't leave your mouth with that greasy feeling that you can get so often from fish and chips - if you pop by the shop make sure you visit the fish shop next door!

Painting, Painting oh and more painting...

Well yesterday at 9am we took over the new shop, a big thank you to the wonderful Michael who had been in the shop for all of his help in the transfer, it made getting the phone, power etc turned on really easy!

We eased into the day, with a fantastic breakfast at provisions over the road first, nothing like a stack of pancakes to kick start your day!

We then got cracking...

First to come down was all the shelving and mirrors that we didn't need any more, unfortunately with 2 broken mirrors we can now look forward to an interesting 14 years!

Then we had to get rid of the old signage and start to paint, Simon was in charge of turning the back wall into a gorgeous piece of chocolate colour...

While the shop was in pretty good nick, there were cream coloured walls that we had to transform into gallery white, and give the red wall a touch of paint.

Angeline and the girls were on hand to provide advise as to how we were going, while being safely tucked up in the backroom - surprising there were no disastors given that we had lots of open paint tins, wood floors and 3 kids under 4!

Joe and Tracey, the new additions to the Almond Tree Frame team, started off with the painting, then had to go and see Jersey Boys, as they had bought their tickets before we arranged hand over, and then headed back to do some more painting - now that's dedication! By the way the absolutely loved Jersey Boys, and highly recommend it!

So we finally got all the painting done yesterday, and today the team will be concentrating on getting the gallery hangers hung, and some stock installed - so tomorrow pictures will be a bit more exciting!

Here is the final picture of yesterdays results...