Almond Tree Frames

Finders Keepers Melbourne

2010-08-31T09:29:00.003+10:00

We are so excited to have been accepted into Finders Keepers in Melbourne, yes they are finally coming to Melbourne in October. Having been fortunate enough to take part in their Sydney and Brisbane events it is so nice that we can now go to one in our home town!

Unfortunately Finders Keepers clashes with Bowerbird in Adelaide, so I will be treking off to Adeliade for the 3 days, while Angeline and Simon explore Finders Keepers!

We are going to be so busy cutting to get ready for these two mammoth events!

Your Childhood Fun

2010-08-24T16:11:00.003+10:00

The innocence of childhood - how often do you think you just want your kids to have the simple, uncomplicated life you had when you were growing up, when you could spend hours outside creating your own adventures, skipping or building forts?

Our latest range brings this element of simple childhood into your house. It was originally designed as part of our baby butterfly (TM) range, as we thought they would look great in kids rooms, but surprisingly over half our sales are actually for Mum to keep in her room!

We currently have 6 completed designs that you will shortly see on our website, and in our stockists stores, with designs featuring girls playing ring a rosie, a brother and sister dinking each other on their bikes, two brothers playing cowboys, and a little boy out fishing...

I would love to hear your favourite childhood memories, and see if we could turn it into a design. Without a doubt my favourite past time would be lying outside on a warm day making shapes out of clouds, to this day when I am driving I will often point to a cloud and say to my husband doesn't that look like a .....

Bowerbird

2010-08-16T16:35:00.002+10:00

We are just so fortunate to again be a part of the Bowerbird Bazaar in October this year, this massive three day event was so much fun earlier this year that we had our fingers and toes crossed that we would be lucky enough to get in again, and we have!

We are lucky that it is at the beginning of October, so all of our Life InStyle orders will have shipped, and we will have plenty of new items to show... Speaking of Life InStyle I will do a new post of this soon, we again met so many awesome retailers, and finally got to meet in person some of our loyal stockists, which was great!

If you can't drop by Bowerbird Bazaar in October, we will be back in Adelaide in November for their last Mathildas market of the year!

Hope to see you there!

Achieving your goals

2010-07-12T14:51:00.004+10:00

When we first started our business (officially that is), we had a number of short and long term goals, some of these easier to achieve than others, and covered things from wanting to be featured in our favourite interior design magazines, to being stocked in our favourite stores to just producing work that makes people happy.

Lately we have been having a couple of months where everything has been going right, and things on our goal list have been being ticked off with ease.

A couple of our loyal followers saw our little squirel in some magazines lately, as well as a feature in House & Garden and some of our kids stuff in Comso Pregnancy. I must admit I always get a thrill when the magazines come out, and I am always down at the news agency on the day of release to see how the creations have come out!

For a little while now we have been stocked in Husk, this along with 2 other stores (we only have one to go, and we are in discussions with them at the moment!) was on our ultimate achievement list when we first started out. Carol and the team at Husk have kept us so busy lately, with requests for jumbo pieces, such as the one at the top, to our metamorphis range which we seem to have to restock all the time (not that we are complaining!). So when Carol contacted us recently to do a press release for our products in their gorgeous store, we were more than happy to be a part of it:

We have already had a some press contact us in relation to this release, and there should be a story coming out at Christmas in a magazine that was on our ultimate dream list that we never thought would happen!

We have a couple more exciting things happening over the next 6 weeks, so stay tuned, and keep working on your own goals!

Family Rules Posters

2010-07-09T15:21:00.007+10:00

The phrase family rules to me automatically conjures up rules around making your bed, making sure your clothes are in the washing, and eating everything on your plate.

That is why I think I love this family rules poster so much, it covers much nicer rules, such as love one another, and always tell the Truth. I have one of these posters up in my office, and there are times when it just centres me and reminds me what is important during the day.

We had such a nice request for one poster to be personalised, that I think I am making the change permanent as it is a rule that I need to remember especially as the days seem to get busier and busier.

We had a lovely lady ask us to change the rule from Stay Happy, to start and end each day with a kiss. Which one do you prefer?

We also have a new poster, being the family wishes. This is the poster that we see the most emotion from, with 2 ladies at the last Mathildas market in Adelaide start crying as soon as they read the words. I really think the last line Hug me as though you will never grow up sums it all up - When was the last time you hugged your mum like that?

Birthdays at ATF

2010-07-08T11:56:00.004+10:00

It has been a busy July already over at Almond Tree Frames, July is when our significant others have their birthdays, with Angeline's husband Chris, celebrating a big birthday on July 4th, while Simon had his on July 5th.

We have just been so busy with everything, that I almost completely forgot about poor Simon's birthday, and had to quickly run down the street to get something for him - unfortunately long gone are the days when I went to the Collingwood training (which for a Carlton supporter was a hard thing to do!) to get a jumper signed.

I had great intentions to make a fantastically colourful cake that Neivh and Shyla, oh and Simon of course, would love, here was my inspiration:

Instead we ended up with a sponge from the Cheesecake shop... Next year I promise to be more organised!

We have had a lot of incredibly exciting news lately, a number of well known magazines have approached us to do a story on our products, such as Marie Clare, Cosmo Pregnany and Inside Out, our metamorphis designs are taking designers fancy everywhere at the moment, and have been getting so much press (which we will never complain about!). We have just released the hummingbird, and feather design which sold as soon as we popped them in shops! Here is a sneak peak:

Shopping for little boys

2010-07-07T12:19:00.004+10:00

How hard is it to shop for little boys?

Whenever I attend a market there are 100's of things that I could be my nieces, but when it comes to getting things for little finn, I find it a lot harder.

Well hopefully all my troubles are about to end, as a fantastic new website has been set up for all things boys! The incredibly talented Alana has been working on this for awhile, and I am loving the results!

http://www.boygerms.com.au/

This is a fantastic website, that features awesome goodies like the Animal Index, and toilet paper saver!

Thanks Alana for the lovely write up on our products!

Finders Keepers Brisbane

2010-06-01T15:51:00.003+10:00

That's right, we have our next road trip organised!!! We are so fortunate to be selected as part of the Brisbane Finders Keepers event at the end of this month - eekk we better get cutting!

You may know that we did Finders Keepers last December in Sydney, and have been itching to get back to one of their fantastic markets...

Also sorry for the slowness in posting the new photos that we took at the Brunswick Street Gallery, I will be putting them up on the weekend. We just moved house and that has been keeping me plenty busy!

New Works

2010-05-11T09:49:00.003+10:00

We have been busy designing some new works for the upcoming exhibition, eek it is only 10 days away! For those of you who can make it, the exhibition is at the Brunswick Street Gallery, and the gallery features 8 different exhibition areas, so there will be 8 different artists exhibiting while we are, including the talented Tabitha (whose prints we have in our gallery). The exhibition opens on the 21st May, and runs for 2 weeks, so if you get a chance to check it out, please pop by!

We have also been inundated with wholesale orders this week, we picked up a large new wholesale customer late in April, and dropped off their completed frames last Wednesday, to which they then sold out over the weekend, and have now placed another large order, particularly featuring the metamorphis, which I must admit are one of my favourite in our range (if only we could get time do finish some designs to hang in our own homes!)

Pregnancy

2010-05-10T11:36:00.003+10:00

No calm down mum, I am not about to annouce you are becoming a grandmother on a blog, but I have discovered the perfect pregnancy journal for when the O'Day/Pawley baby does arrive.

This journal has no pre-printed information, so you don't need to fill out a checklist of how you are feeling, or if you happen to miss an entry it is no big deal!

You can write as often as you like, or as little, as the designer says it is your journey, it is your story, so you want a journal that can reflect that.

They are available in 4 different covers, and we will have all four in store.

Ever since I heard of the idea of writing a journal while you are pregnant, I have loved the concept, what a perfect gift to give to your child on the 18th or 21st, or perhaps even when they are expecting their first child. It is also a great chance for you to write down everything you are feeling so you can reflect on all the positivness when you are up at 3am for the 5th day in a row!

We will have these in store shortly, along with the matching bookmarks, so you can jot down names when you think of them.

The art of letter writting

2010-04-23T21:35:00.003+10:00

In the age of emails, and needing answers instantly the age old tradition of writting letters seems to have died off somewhat.

This is such a shame, I remember the excitement when I was growing up to wait to see if I had a letter when I got home from school, which was largely from my penpal in the UK. These days it seems that the only letters that I get have a plastic window in them and come from a man called BILL....

This is why I was so excited when I discovered Write to me.. Write to me is made up of two very talented girls who bring us the most gorgeous letter writting sets and journals, I fell in love when I first saw these products on line, but when Anna dropped them into the gallery on Thursday they were even more divine in the flesh...

Write to me make a range of products that include wrapping paper with matching card - I love the one above, with the Love Tree products, as well as the letter writting sets at the very top which include 20 cards and matching envelopes.

I now need to touch base with that long lost penpal, and again anxiously wait by the letterbox for an actual letter...

fun photos

2010-04-18T17:39:00.005+10:00

We thought that we would take some new photos of our kids specimen designs, and thought what better way than to actually have some kids in the photos, here is a sneak peak!

Shyla was a bit dubious at first, how good does the mural that Angeline painted look....
We then started to warm up once the products were in the background, Shy started to warm up Then the fun times started...we then took a couple of paper butterflies outside to play and take some photos, luckily Neivh doesn't share her mums fear of moths - it always amazes me how someone so terrified of moths can spend hours and hours handcutting butterflies...

Exciting Happenings

2010-04-16T12:33:00.004+10:00

Some times good things all happen at once and unfortunately I can't give too much away here, but more details will follow over the coming months.

This week we have found out that we are going to be exhibiting at a well known gallery in Fitzroy for two weeks, we were approached by the curator of the gallery and were only too happy to accept! The ad will be in next months art almunac magazine so keep an eye out for it!

We also had a meeting with a major homewares store in Melbourne this week, and they have confirmed that they would love to stock our products, which is great - They literally gasped when they saw the new song birds, and fell in love with the morphis range, so we will be in the shelves in those stores in 3 weeks (once we have finished cutting everything!)

We also have the business awards night tonight where we have been nominated for three awards, so fingers crossed we are lucky enough to win won!

Lastly we also were approached by a couple of magazines this month and sent off some products to be photographed, including my new favourite the squirel, so 7 of our products will be in the mags next month - I will upload photos from them once they are published!

As I said this week has been a lot better than the last one, which is nice!

Song Birds

2010-04-14T20:11:00.004+10:00

We have an exciting meeting tomorrow with a store in Victoria that has a few show rooms around Melbourne, and have been busily preparing new products which we can show them, which is where the show birds designs have come from. These will be shortly making their way to the webstore:
I think they look just gorgeous, and can't wait to the rest of the series are finished!

We have had a big couple of days, which I will fill you in on a little bit over the next couple of days...

On the front of the person copying our design, we have just the best lawyer who is drawing up papers to serve her for a breach of not only copyright laws but also the trade practices act, for a breach of section 52 - which is misleading and deceptive conduct, as she hasn't contacted us the lawyer will be serving the papers on Monday, and I must admit I can't wait!!!!

Sadly though it appears that copying our designs is not enough, we have seen that she has also some designs that look scarily like the talented Lisa from the Red Thread - I can't actually believe that someone has the nerver to copy a few artists and pass them off as her own...

We also have some exciting news about an exhibition that we are going to be having at Brunswich street Gallery in May, I will post details of the opening closer to the date, but we are busy busy busy cutting at the moment!

Alice in Wonderland

2010-04-12T11:56:00.003+10:00

Now i know wall decals have been done to death, and we are all familiar with them, but last week I came across some Alice In Wonderland decals that just got me so excited!

We have been working with Paul in the US to create a whole series of Alice in Wonderland decals that will only be available in our gallery, at this stage we have about 10 designs finished that will be in the gallery in about 3 weeks - here is a sneak peak!

Disappointing

2010-04-08T21:53:00.003+10:00

Sometimes I get so disappointed in people, we have recently been made aware of a person who has copied not only our product (which is bad enough), but who also has copied our brand names "Baby Butterfly" and "Paper Papillons".

I thought that this was pretty bad, and in the interest of good faith we sent her a letter outlining our concerns in relation to the naming of the product which went unanswered, and has now forced us to engage a lawyer, which is distracting to us from our own business.

When I thought it was already bad enough, today I found out she was approaching some of our retailers with her product, which she claims in hand-cut despite the fact that they seem to be of an identical shape and size to this paper punch...

http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog/zoomImagedetail.jsp?PRODID=9932161&imageType=m&itemType=sku

It is frustrating that someone can claim them as handcut when we actually spend hours with our trusty scaple cutting them out...

Anyhoo I am sure that Karma will result in a postive outcome but it sure is a painful thing to have to deal with!

Next post (which I will do tomorrow), I will update you on our visit to SA which was amazing!

Mathildas Market

2010-03-10T07:55:00.002+11:00

We are so excited!

This Sunday (yep the 14th March), we will be showcasing our wares at Mathilda's market. This is a fabulous niche market that offers unique, stylish and affordable baby & kids goods, which are all lovingly handmade.

Please come and see our stand at the market from 9am to 1pm at the Hawthorn Town hall, or for a sneak peak of the retails, check out the Mathildas market website.

For our interstate friends, don't worry, we will be coming to the next Sydney, Canberra and Adelaide Mathilda's markets!

Grand Opening, sorry for the delay!

2010-03-06T15:39:00.015+11:00

Well where to we start... I guess the first place to start is the gorgeous displays that the team had done over the last couple of weeks - Now it had been about 10 days since I had been to the shop before the opening, and the back room was still a store room, so I was absolutely amazed when the guys had transformed this into a new gallery space, it look amazing!!!!

I love how they have grouped like items with each other, so we have a very distinct feel to each part of the gallery, which was devine - The amazing paintings above also looked great hanging, we are hoping to have a feature in an up coming blog on this talented artist, Emma Ward.

Once I walked in and saw how perfect the gallery looked, I just knew the night would be a sucess... Angeline and I had spent the night before making the food, for the Alice in Wonderland inspired theme, and when I was walking past the cupcake bakery in Collins Street, I couldn't go past these gorgeous cupcakes, which I was just so excited to open from their box - we had a range of 6 flavours, which of course meant we had to keep trying until we had tasted one of all of them!

Also the team at Prospect wines did an amazing job with our "Drink Me" wine (which everyone did!)

Well with such a great aray of food, and such gorgeous layout could the night be anything but a success? Of course not! It was fantastic, the gallery was completely full, and there was such a nice buzz around! We met some lovely Williamstown locals, and talented artists, and did a story the next day with the local paper, which was interesting!

Thanks to everyone that came along and made it a great night.

Getting ready for the launch

2010-02-18T12:44:00.003+11:00

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

2010-02-17T10:54:00.003+11:00

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

2010-02-16T12:17:00.002+11:00

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

2010-02-08T17:38:00.004+11:00

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

2010-02-04T15:34:00.004+11:00

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

2010-02-03T07:03:00.002+11:00

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!

2010-02-02T07:50:00.002+11:00

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...

2010-02-01T08:31:00.007+11:00

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...

Dogs and Shops, what a week!

2010-01-30T19:23:00.005+11:00

Well 1 day to go until we get the shop - here is what the space currently looks like

I will post again tomorrow to show you the work in progress...

Today was spent busily at our Melton shop framing everything, including some new paper forest designs that will only be available through the Williamstown store, and look absolutely gorgeous, with little country fences in the background.

I was also lucky enough to see the Mingus bags and purses that were delivered on thursday to the shop, they were absolutely devine, and I am struggling not to keep one of them for myself.

On the way up the the shop today, we say a sign that had Boarder Collie pups for sale... Simon and I have been speaking for about 18 months to get Coupy a little sister, and thought that the sign must be an omen, as Simon really had his heart set on a boarder collie... So after 10 hours of fitting frames, we thought we would just pop in for a look, and definately not buy one but think about it...

needless to say, we popped in and I immediately wanted to buy 10, but eventually settled on a gorgeous little girl with a black head and a white strip around her tummy... She is just 5 weeks old so I couldn't whisk her away, but I will pop up a photo as soon as we bring her home!

2 days and counting

2010-01-29T12:10:00.002+11:00

Thats right, there is just 2 days until we get the keys for our new handmade gallery in Williamstown....

It really has been a whirlwind January, with Angeline and I swapping from panic to doing our happy dance every 5 mintues, is it no wonder our poor husbands can't keep up!

This week especially there have been a lot of happy dances, with all the gorgeous products we have selected arriving - it is so nice when as gorgeous as something is on the internet, it is even better in real life, and that is what we have been experiancing this week! Here is a sneak peak of some of the parcels that arrived this week....

aren't they gorgeous - I am going to find it hard to make sure I take all of them to the gallery, and not leave a couple behind for my house!

So we get the keys on Sunday, and will then spend the next 3-4 days fitting it out, and open our doors to the public on Wednedsday, this is the bit where we are a bit more nervous, as we have to hope the people of Williamstown love our idea as much as we do...

This week has also seen the start of our new part time staff who will be manning the new gallery, we have been thrilled to bits with the three people that we were lucky enough to find, that share our vision. When we were trying to find staff, this was the part that worried us the most, but we really must have luck on our side, as all three girls are absolutely fabulous, and fit perfectly to the image we were hoping to present for the shop...

Also this week, we were lucky enough to find out that we were accepted to the Bower Bird Bazaar, for those of you not from Adelaide you may not have heard of this event before, but it really is a sensation handmade market. On twice yearly there is three days of trade, with one day being a trade fair, and the other 2 general days for everyone to come and have a look. Once we have finished making all the stock for the new shop, we will then be onto our stock list for Bowerbird....

Wow looks like next year will be just as busy

2009-12-18T17:48:00.002+11:00

For those readers who don't know, we actually started our arts business as a supplement to our shop - In 2008 we purchased a frame shop and gallery in Melbourne, which is how the 4 of us started in business together, we thought that we had all bases covered, the artist, the accountant, the IT guy and the manufacturer, but buy did we under estimate how much work goes into owning your own business!!!

Some 18 months on, and I think we have found our feet, so much so in fact that we are going to be opening our second shop!!!

We are just so excited, it is like it is Christmas morning here in the Almon, O'Day and Pawley households!!!

Stay tuned for more details, but we are already playing our swanky invitation only launch and many other great ideas!!!

2009-12-17T09:50:00.007+11:00

Wow what a month we have had so far, we did our very first Finders Keepers market in Sydney and it truely was an event to be seen, shopping and wine should always go hand in hand I think!

Thankfully Simon came with me to Sydney to help man the store, which was very lucky as we were so busy that I don't think I would have survived if he hadn't been there. It was nice to see the new products that we have just launched be sold so quickly, with our new Alice in Wonderland frames selling out on the first day (stay tuned for some exciting news about a national magazine set to do a feature on these little designs!)

This was the first chance that we have had to introduce our products to Sydney and it was so nice to see how popular and well received they were. So many of our paper forest range run out of their editions, my personal favourite Murder has now sold out and has been discontinued...

Angeline has been frantically cutting out the new Anatomica designs, we didn't think that they would be as popular as they were, so I am very thankful that we got them finished in time to show, this owl design was a particular hit with only a couple left to go before it too is discontinued...

So for anyone that missed Finders Keepers, please make sure you get along to the next event - we managed to get all of our Christmas shopping done over the two days - not a small feat given our picky families! www.thefinderkeepers.com

Markets and Publicity

2008-10-21T15:35:00.004+11:00

Well we had two markets this weekend, we had Werribee on Saturday which Simon and I went to, and then we had Flemington on Sunday which Angeline and I did.

Both were great, on Saturday we did our best market sales ever, and then on Sunday we beat Saturdays result, so we were really really pleased! We delivered the photo frogs on Saturday that we had a custom order for, and the customer was so pleased, we have now added this to our etsy shop so feel free to go check it out http://www.almondtreeframes.etsy.com/, or here is the sneak peak

Saturday at Werribee, once again our Marquee got blown over, however this time we were more prepared, and rather than having to display the products on the ground, (which is never a good look!) we had tables and display stands ready so it didn't look too bad, though without the marquee shade, I did get pretty badly sunburnt! I love going to the markets, walking around and seeing all the gorgeous pieces that everyone has, I always seem to buy something, on Satuday it was a great dress for Neivh (Angeline's oldest) that is in Christmas colours, and hopefully looks great, as well as some doggy treats for Coupy (who scoffed them in 2 seconds and didn't even notice how nicely they were presented! And then on Saturday I bought some Strawberries that were direct from the farm, and tasted heavinly and some soap that smells so great! I can see that I will probably do most of my Christmas shopping at these markets!

We found out today that our designs are likely going to be in the next issue of Shop 4 kids, which is due out in February 2009, so between the Herald Sun, Cosmo Preganancy and Shop 4 Kids we should be getting plenty of publicity for baby butterflies - who knows it might even be enough so that I can pack in my day job!!!

Paper Forest - New OOAK art work

2008-10-16T09:28:00.007+11:00

I finally got around to listing all of Angeline's great new designs on etsy today, we have moved away from Nursery art with these designs, and are now making the paper designs more general. There are four designs on Etsy at the moment, and I am absolutely in love with the paper reflections design, I think I am going to have to get one to put up in my house... Here is a peak at the designs in our Etsy store ( http://www.almondtreeframes.etsy.com/ )

We will try and get these framed in time for our next market, as I feel really good about these designs!

We are working on our new website, and have come up with some great ideas, hopefully the new website will be up by the end of the month, just in time for Christmas! Keep your eye out for it http://www.almondtreeframes.com.au/

Off the topic of the shop for awhile, I was shopping the other day, and saw the most gorgeous puppy (well most gorgeous after Coup of course!), and it started me thinking that it would be great to have another one, so Coup had someone to play with all day. I was pretty close to buying this puppy, only it was a boy and I was worried with two guys there might be some territorial issues - plus that would mean our house would have 4 guys, and 1 girl - I am already outnumbered as it is! IThe other issue that we have is where will they sleep.... Coup currently sleeps on the bed with Sime and I, so it is quite cozy, if we get another dog, they would need their own sleeping arrangements, which I am struggling with - I love having Coupy sleep on my feet in winter - it is so cozy!!!

So I would love to hear all your thoughts about buying another dog, I am worried that as Coup is nearly 2, he might not adjust to another dog, given he really hasn't had much interaction with other animals, and also your thoughts on how I can get Coup to adjust to not sleeping on the bed...

2008-10-14T12:10:00.004+11:00

I mentioned in my last post that we had seen the proof pictures from the newspaper, I have included some below so you can have a look. These pictures were taken in Angeline's youngest's nursery, Shyla, you can see the tree in the background which Angeline has painted on the wall, it is just gorgeous, and makes our designs look even better.

Neivh, Angeline's oldest, has a similarly gorgeous painted wall, that looks like a kingdom, so we are going to take some pictures with these as the background and update our Etsy pictures.

Speaking of Etsy, we have recently dropped the prices on our unframed designs given the decline in the AUD, so these are now $10 cheaper at $33 - you can check them out at www.almondtreeframes.etsy.com

If the AUD increases, these will of course go back up to their normal price of $43....

In the middle of getting this business off the ground, we seem to be surrounded by weddings in the family at the moment. Simon and I are planning our wedding for October next week, so far we have gotten as far as booking a place for the ceremony and the reception, and chosing a colour scheme - chocolate and pink, and that is about it... I really need to get cracking on picking a photographer and dress (though that means that I need to go on a diet first!).... We also have Simon and Angelines brother, Paul, getting married in December this year - He is getting married at Angeline's house, so that makes it more interesting, and also my sister is getting married in January 2009 - so it seems that at the moment we are running from market to market for the shop then to dress fittings, to invitation supplies... At least things are never dull!

We took Coup to the canine country club on the weekend - I love that place he gets to go swimming in the lagoon pool, then has a shower, goes on the agility course and has an absolute ball - as do we! If any of you are in Melbourne you should check it out - it is a great plus for your pooches

http://www.kepalak9countryclub.com.au/

When we were there we saw that they have classes for dogs on rounding up sheep, given that Coup is a working dog, we thought that we would enroll him in this over summer, once his knees have been given the all clear - I can't wait, I am sure he is going to love it!!!!

Angeline has been busy designing the new logo for baby butterflies, to make is a seperate entity from Almond Tree Frames, so keep checking out our website www.almondtreeframes.com.au

to see when the new logo goes up!

So who is Nicole

2008-10-11T15:53:00.004+11:00

As you may have seen in the about us section, Almond Tree Frames is a family business owned by a brother and sister - Simon and Angeline and their partners. So far you have had two blogs from Angeline, but I thought this time I, Nicole, would blog. Angeline is my sister in law (or soon to be), Simon my fiance is Angeline's sister.

So while Angeline is the creative one of the two, my role in the business is really to take the internet orders, do the bank rec (hey I'm an accountant!), attend all the markets and other boring odds and sods!

This is my first market free weekend for a little while, and I think it is the last one until Christmas, but I really love doing the markets - you get to be outside all day, which given that I am in my office at my day job all week long is great, you meet so many lovely people, other sellers and buyers alike, and you get great feedback on your product pretty much instantiously. Some of our most popular product lines have come from suggestions that we have had at markets, such as the rabbit design below.

When I am not at markets, you will pretty much find me at home, or at the park with our dog, Coup. Coup would have to be the most spoilt puppy (not that he is a puppy any more at almost 2 years) that I know - he is most definately our surrogate child!

Coup has had a pretty bad run, though thankfully (touch wood) the last few months have been incident free - Coup was born with hip displacia, and that has meant that he has had to have 3 knee reconstructions and a hip replacement, so has spent far more than his fair share of time at the vet hospital in Werribee - which if anyone should ever need to go to, is an absolutely fantastic centre, and so understanding about how traumatic the whole process can be. So I think that is partly why I spoil him so much, though Simon thinks he was just as spoilt before he had all the operations! Here is a picture of my baby

Angeline and I were sent the proofs of the photo's that are going to be used in the Herald Sun article, and they looked really great - I will have to see if we can get a copy so that I can upload them to show you all! We will let you know when the article is going to be in the paper as well.

OK, I better sign off - I have a work ball to go to, and have not yet picked what dress I am suppose to be wearing!!!

Don't forget to check out our website www.almondtreeframes.com.au make sure you look at the monkey page - the cheeky monkies are easily my favourite!

Markets

2008-10-07T12:23:00.002+11:00

I have spent the last week or so trying to get ready for all the craft markets that we have coming up. From now until Christmas pretty much every weekened we are going to be at various markets, from Flemington, to werribee to Lardner Park and I have been stock piling to make sure that we don't run out of stock. Also our new website is going live tonight - so check it out www.almondtreeframes.com.au - also if you register your interest, we can also send you emails to let you know of any sales that we are having - such as our October unframed print $29 sale!

I have also designed a new paper collage range that I am incredibly excited about, and will list on our etsy shop within the next week or so. This range is looking at branching out (when you see the picture you will get the pun!) into art work for adults as well as kids. I have also been working on some ninja designs to go with the geisha girls that we have.

Shyla (my 11 month old) is now standing, and on the verge of walking - so looks like I am going to have to baby proof the house again! They are so cute at this age!!!

Publicity

2008-10-01T12:15:00.003+10:00

I am so excited, not only is this my first every blog post (which is in itself pretty exciting!), today I had a photographer come around from the Victorian paper, for all you Australian's out there - it was the Herald Sun....

Now why was the Herald Sun photographing me I hear you ask??? Well they are going to be doing a feature on baby butterflies, in their Saturday home magazine (not sure when I will keep you all posted!!!)...

I got over the sick feeling of knowing that I was going to be photographed, knowing everyone I went to school with would see me, and changing my outfit 5 or 6 hundred times, when the photographer (who was just lovely) started to explain the process to me, and in the end it was pretty pain free - well until I see the pictures anyway!

I will keep you all posted about when the article will be out!

Now I was hoping to spend the first post introducing me, the blog and the business, and I have gotten all side tracked! I am Angeline and I am very excited to have a blog for baby butterflies. Baby butterflies was something I created when my two littlies were born (they are now 11 months and 3 years), and when I bought a frame shop with my husband, brother and his fiance I had a forum to start selling these designs a little more seriously... They started off simply being personalised butterfly motif's, however have grown now to include geisha's, cars, aeroplanes, rabbits and so on - and I still have so many more design ideas - such as the elephant below!

I would love to hear what motif's that you would like to see so please email your idea's through and I will try and cut some samples.