new blog address

hi all, just letting you know that I have a new blog, with extra details about the shop and the grand opening next Tuesday :o)

you'll find it at www.chaosandpookey.pookeypockets.com.au so come on over and have a look!

I'll be deleting this blog soon, and all the updates from now on will be on the new one, so don't forget to bookmark it!

Today's effort was the floor :o)

We now have carpet (yes, decided not to do vinyl in the end, lol!) My goodness it makes a difference to how it looks!

These are taken from the back, looking at the front which will be the main shop area

The different coloured square at the front left of the photo is where the kids area is going to be. There's a huge playpen, and the boys are ready to pick out which toys they want to take in. :o)

This one is taken from the front of the shop looking back at the sewing area (and kids area)

and this last one is just a closer view of the back of the shop

Unfortunately there weren't enough of the carpet tiles in any one colour to do the whole of the shop, so we've created 'zones' with different tiles for the different areas of the shop. I guess it will all make more sense once there's some furniture in there!

So that's the next step - starting to put all the stuff together!

painting's done!

We've got the second coat on the walls now, and it looks great if I do say so myself! The doors to the sink are yellow now too :o)


I'm still tossing up between carpet tiles for the floor, or vinyl flooring. Vinyl would be easier to look after on the whole (just sweep up sewing mess, pins etc) but more expensive, and potentially more likely to get marked/damaged easily with heavy furniture etc. Carpet tiles are easy to lay ourselves and half the price of the vinyl quotes so far. Spills can be cleaned by pulling up the tile to wash if necessary, the main downside is that I'd have to vacuum sewing scraps, and pins etc would be harder to clean up. Still trying to decide!
These are the carpet tiles I'm looking at at the moment - the plain ones would be a border on the outside, the spots and squiggles would be for the sewing area and kids area (cut pile, so pins less likely to get caught up in it) and the multi coloured pattern would be for the main shop area.


Please comment if you have any thoughts/suggestions!! :o)

So now I need to concentrate on the furniture, stock and other fun 'shopping' stuff! (I love going shopping, lol!!)

add a bit of colour...

We started painting on the weekend - didn't get quite as much done as I would have liked, but there's now one coat on the walls and the ceiling. The colour is called primrose yellow :o)
Here's a few photos of the progress so far...

"before" photos

I thought it would be cool to have a bit of a before and after record of the shop here on my blog. So here's the "before" shots ;o)

<-- This is the front of the shop

Ok, so I'm helping your imagination out with a very badly photoshopped logo image up there! But if you can imagine that that's a real sign, that's vaguely what it's likely to look like!

As you can see in the reflection, there's some parking spaces just accross from the door, and there's more around the corner to the right of that photo.

This is the view from the other side of the front window -->

I can see I'm going to just love cleaning all the glass!! Theoretically, this is where my desk/counter is going to be, and Hopefully I'll have some cool things up on the window to look at as well.

So then, moving inside the shop, you'll see we have a bit of work to do ;o)
The walls are going to be painted next weekend, but I have just a bit of cleaning to do first! (and we all know just how much I love cleaning, lol!!)

(excuse Mikey's sad look in the photo, lol, he'd been told off for running around like a lunatic!)

Then there's the back door of the shop, which opens into an arcade type thing, and last but not least, a picture of the sink ;o)
Which I am assured will be operational soon!

So that's what it looks like right now. Stay tuned in the next few weeks for an amazing transformation!! Hopefully we'll be on track and ready to open at the end of the month, but we'll see how it goes!

the Shop

Today I'm feeling totally miserable (horrid snotty cold that came out of nowhere!) so instead of trying to do anything constructive I thought I'd do some long overdue blog updating, and tell you about
It will be in the western suburbs of Brisbane, at River Hills - I don't have a set opening date yet, but will be updating (semi-)regularly on here as the fit-out progresses. If you hadn't guessed, lol, I'm pretty excited!!

There will be nappies (of course!) hopefully a good variety of brands of MCN and accessories.
Plus you will also be able to get all the supplies you need for making your own nappies - hemp, bamboo, PUL, microfleece, 80% cotton velour, snaps, velcro/touchtape, elastic, and more.
Maybe even wool and knitting gear ;o)
A snap service for snap repairs and/or snapping nappies you have sewn.
We're also looking at running small nappy sewing workshops if there is interest.
Plus lots more ever-evolving ideas!!

So there it is - a real-life shop, where you can see and pat the nappies before you buy them. Plus you can see and feel the fabrics, and ask questions about nappy making and fabric combinations etc.
And then take everything home with you straight away - no waiting for that fluffy-mail fix! What more could you want?? ;o)

June already!

Hasn't that gone fast!?!

I had a June 3rd deadline to have Rhiannon's communion/confirmation dress finished... and I've made it with days to spare! (well, I still need to do the hand finishing on the jacket, but that's only a half hour job) Photos are here.

Moving the website to the new domain and server seems to have mostly gone ok, there are a couple of niggly errors still, but they don't affect the working of the cart, just look bad. I'm still working on finding out what the problem is. (If you're a tech genius and can tell me how to fix it, please do, lol!! I'll give you a nappy!!)

So now, back to the grindstone to get some stock into the store and finish getting things organised for my special project - things should start happening pretty soon!!

just letting you all know

That I will be transferring the store to a new host over the next 24hrs. I'm not expecting to have much in the way of downtime, but figured I'd say something just in case there are some unforseen glitches. (which usually happens somewhere along the line, lol!) Wish me luck!

another update

Oops, I've been totally slack again and haven't updated for a while! We're all back to being mostly healthy now though, which is good!

I have quite a few fleece pockets to list as soon as I've finished snapping, and some seconds too, so keep an eye out for them going up soon.

Plus I have lots of exciting plans in the pipeline at the moment! I'll post more about them as they get closer to happening, but it's all going to be very cool!! :o)

totally miserable

Well, my darling children have shared their rotten cold with me, so I am feeling snotty, sneezy and totally miserable and sorry for myself :o(
Apologies to those waiting on stuff, I think I've managed to email all of you, but if I missed anyone out, I'm sorry, and I'll be getting things done as soon as my nose stops dripping like a tap!

spot the booboo competition!

Here's how it works ;o)
When we were making the curtains for the back, we made a booboo! (oops)
Mum assures me it's not really noticeable, but *I* noticed it! So I thought I'd put the theory to the test, and offer a custom slot for one nappy to the first person who can tell me what I stuffed up!
Post your answers in the comments here!

Here's the photo... good luck girls!

post school holidays musings...

Today was the first day back to school, yay!!
I'd love to say that it was an incredibly productive day and now my house is shiny and spotless and I got heaps of sewing done, but that would probably be exaggerating slightly ;o)

We moved into our house just over 3 years ago now, and soon afterwards I bought fabric to make curtains... Well, the curtains for Rhiannon's room got done straight away, the curtains for the loungeroom were done 6mths later, but the fabric for the boys' curtains has been cut and sitting there making me feel guilty for 2 1/2 years now! I bought fabric to do curtains for the rumpus room about 2 years ago... it's been all cut and sitting around waiting to be sewn for 18mths now!
Anyway, on the weekend I asked DH if he could put up some shelves for me in the cupboard in the boys' room. He has resorted to blackmail/bribery, and said he'd do them when I did the curtains! So when my mum came to visit the last couple of days, we've been pinning and sewing curtains! They're not quite finished yet, but I've hung them up so I can measure the hems, so I thought I'd take some photos to make this post a bit more interesting.

So, here's the before and after shots (excuse the mess!)

Back - before

Back - after

Front - before

Front - after

school holidays

Well, as one would expect, the school holidays haven't been particularly productive yet as far as sewing goes! Still working through customs, slowly but surely.
I've started adapting the pattern for Rhiannon's communion/confirmation dress. Let's just say that it would have been easier to start with a kids pattern rather than to try to adjust an adult size one! But after a lot of effort, I think we now have a working pattern for the bodice of the dress, and the skirt should be easier than trying to take 'boob space' out of the top!

The kids managed to break the door of the dishwasher on the weekend, so it's now out of action for a week while we wait for the hinges to be ordered. Hopefully that's all that's wrong with it! Needless to say, the kitchen looks even worse than usual now, although my darling mother did a lot of washing up for me today while I was swearing over the dress pattern adjustments!

Oh well, there's a reason the word 'chaos' is in the name of this blog!!

update...

I *think* it worked, lol!
If anyone notices any problems let me know, but everything seems to be transferring to PayPal OK now, so with any luck, that's the end of it!

Now to pry my backside off this computer chair! My eyes and back are telling me I've spent too much time in front of this monitor today :o(

%^$&^% shopping cart!!!

After trying extensively and unsuccessfully to fix the PayPal problem with my shopping cart, I have given up, and will be reinstalling the whole bl@@dy thing!

I would like to say at this point, just how much I *hate* it when things decide not to work for whatever reason!! So, here goes, wish me luck, and hopefully I'll be a much happier little vegemite at the end of the day! (if it doesn't work, then stay away and don't come near me, lol!!)

it's clean!

Yes, you heard right, the sewing room is clean! (and vacuumed)
I thought such a monumental occasion deserved it's own post and photos ;o)

Saturday...

With only one child at home for most of the day today, I managed to finish cutting everything out for all my current orders, yay! This is all the cut out nappies waiting to get sewn!

Now, I think the next step is to clear some space in my sewing room, so I can actually move around and sew! At the moment, I can only just turn around with all the piles of fabric and stuff :o(

And this is what Ben got up to while I was working :o)

lunch-time thoughts...

Taking a quick break while I have some lunch...
I'm just remembering why I hate one-directional prints!!

I've started cutting out for all the custom/semi-custom slots... these are going to be gorgeous nappies if I do say so myself!

Whales, dolphins, wizards, tiny little newborn size nappies...
I'll post some pics once they're all cut out ;o)

oops

my poor abandoned blog!

It's been a busy month and a bit!
I'll update some more later when I get a chance!

deadlines!

Well, again, what a week it's been!
I got my big order finished and posted on Wednesday, so have spent the last couple of days of the week catching up on a bit of housework, having some 'relaxation' computer time, and even managed to spend some time with my poor neglected husband and children!
Watched a few movies, and pulled out my knitting (which hasn't seen the light of day in about 6mths or more, lol!)

So now, it's back to the grindstone again! Only a month until Reusable Nappy Week, so there's lots to be done, and there's never enought time to do it all! I'm hoping to have my OzeBaby store re-opened in time for RNW, with some special custom slots and other goodies :o)
Plus new stock going up on the website also.

shopping cart woes...

Yes, well, this week has been challenging to say the least!

I made the mistake of trying to make a couple of modifications to the shopping cart on my site...
aarrgghh!!
However, with a bit of help from MrCherub'sKiss (thanks Shane!) I think I've got it mostly sorted again. (phewww!)
(note to self - never try to modify your site in the first week of the Nappy Hunt!!)

So now I just need to get some serious sewing done to complete an order before Tuesday (don't you love deadlines!) and then can concentrate on stocking my own store for the last half of the month!

Anyway, to end on a happy note, I thought I'd put up a picture of Ben that I took after his shower tonight.