Canberra Handmade Market...

Well Alison and I have nearly recovered from our big day at the markets on Saturday! The Handmade Market brings together talented artists, designers, stylists, craftspeople and gourmets all at one destination. It is a unique event to connect the makers of beautiful things to people who appreciate the quality, handcrafted and locally designed. The time put in to organising the Handmade Market, not just by each individual stallholder but also the Handmade Market organisers truly shows on the day.

The hall was crowded and certainly exceeded expectations, perhaps a sign that people are keen to spend their money on those unique and high quality items! One particular thing I was impressed with on the day was the choice of music (not that you could hear it that well once the crowd arrived!) Michael Buble and I have had a love affair for many years now so he was the icing on the cake, it made setting up even more enjoyable!

Rack of clothing, Brusselsprouts, Ivy Designs and Tikiboo

Evie lala Reversible baby shoes

Bobishi Newborn baby booties


Wild Things of Noosa Ellie and Ivy Designs Top
Brusselsprouts Cardigan with Buttons

We were so busy we didn’t get much time to search the other stall holders items (probably a good thing for our wallets), I think this was the case for all the stall holders – the crowds astounded us all! We did however get a taste of a delicious White Chocolate and Raspberry cupcake by Little Miss Cupcake before they sold out, we also had enough time to eye of some of Col Ellis’ photographs- his photographs are truly amazing and we wish we had more money to satisfy our children’s clothing obsession and to make our homes look beautiful!

We were familiar with some of the other Stalls items as they have been fellow stallholders at other markets we have attended and whilst we didn’t get to chat to them it was nice to see familiar faces around, it was equally nice to see some other products that we were not familiar with! I really want to know how do all these talented people actually exist? How can there be so many unique items in the one place?! Certainly something to be seen to be believed.

It was lovely to see some of our previous customers come by with their gorgeous little babies and swelling bumps – we really enjoy being a part of our customer’s lives and sorry we couldn’t catch up more during the market! We had some wonderful feedback on our products; it was really nice to see them all so beautifully set up on the racks.

We also discovered that some customers who have seen us at previous markets have had problems contacting us. Once again we apologise for our unreliable email system, this is something I am getting on to first thing tomorrow morning!!! If we do not reply to your emails within 12 hours please chase us up! One of us is online almost all the time!

Well that is it from me tonight, still feeling very weary from a day on my feet and keen to hit the pillow!

New Products at Handle With Care!!!!!

I'm too excited not to update with some pictures of our new stock!

This week Handle With Care became the first retailer of Woddlebots All In One nappies.


Krystie Bremer is the founder/owner/creator of Woddlebots nappies. Since 2005 Krys has been admiring, purchasing and making her own Modern Cloth Nappies. In late 2006 Woddlebots became available to customers via an online forum, and in 2007 that customer based extended with the opening of her online store. I'm fortunate enough to have met Krys via this online forum in 2005 and so used a number of Woddlebots on my son. I loved the trimness of the nappies and ofcourse the cute factor of them. As Handle With Care is loving our Australian made and handcrafted products we were very excited to get onboard with Woddlebots this week. Although our fluffy mail is yet to arrive I have added the products onto our website so our customers can view and order them. Woddlebots will offer a slightly different AIO option in comparison to our other handcrafted AIO, Bubblebubs and our other brands Baby BeeHinds MagicAll and Bumgenius. http://www.handle-with-care.com.au/store/WsDefault.asp?Cat=CuteStylishBottoms&Sub=32&isThumbs=Yes&curpage=2&Thumbs=100


Yesterday I also received a very exciting package from Brusselsprouts. Handle With Care has slowly been extending our clothing range over the last few months with ordering more of the brands we already stock and finding other new and gorgeous ranges to stock. We cautiously ordered some Brusselsprouts clothing and awaited our package, I have to say when I opened the products yesterday I let out an audible gasp. They are just absolutely beautiful. Not only do they compliment our other ranges, Evie la la, Ivy Designs and Tikiboo but they offer something just slightly different to what these other brands do. The classic fabrics and beautifully crocheted and knitted garments are a pleasure to not only the eyes but also your hands.

As with all our brands I cannot wait to do another order and Alison and I have already been selecting some other items that we would love to stock up on. Hopefully in the not too distant future. These items are also up on the website, http://www.handle-with-care.com.au/store/WsDefault.asp?Cat=DressingYourBaby

Well that is it from me, I hope everyone has a lovely weekend. Our store will be open tomorrow, Sunday 17th May from 9am until 12 midday and I'm looking forward to seeing a number of customer I know are coming by.

x Heather

Conception

The conception of Handle With Care was in January 2008. Like most evenings Alison and I (Heather) were emailing each other discussing the usual issues associated with our little ones. Reflux was the flavour of our life. Having met in Mothers group in 2007 we found we clicked
straight away – not only did we have boys with reflux but we also had a passion for cute cloth nappies (of course amongst the other things that we have in common). Our friendship forged and we often chatted about many of life’s joys and challenges via email, over the phone and in person.

It was one evening in January that Alison emailed me with THE IDEA - to start a business providing a range of Modern Cloth Nappies (MCN) along with advice on their use. I was immediately on board with this venture having always had the desire to work from home but never quite finding something that grabbed me enough to put the effort in. But this did it.

We excitedly discussed the services we could provide our customers that we had always wanted ourselves having both found it extremely hard to understand MCN from our internet research. We spent most evenings searching brands, discussing the pros and cons and sampling as many nappies as possible.

And so Handle With Care was conceived!

In February 2008, we came up with our name. We had many options but Handle With Care nappy and baby boutique was the one we settled on – it felt right. I might note that many of the ideas come from email conversations we have had very late at night, I think these ideas come to us thanks to being up all night with our refluxing babies (at least something positive came from the hours of screaming and settling). Even to this day I still get emails from Alison at some very odd hours with some wonderful ideas including new products she has found!

Soon after we started to build up our stash of nappies we discovered that we needed to extend our product line. Nappies are fun, but there are so many other cute and stylish yet functional baby and children’s products that are just so hard to find, particularly in Canberra. So
this is when our little baby started to grow its arms and legs. We started to find a great list of products we wanted to stock…unfortunately we have had to keep a lid on most of these as we have had to ensure we can manage this business whilst keeping our families as our priority.

I’m not sure when Handle With Care was actually born, I suppose it was a culmination of all the thoughts, ideas and plans from that first day in January. Somehow we have managed to get to over 1 year old! We cannot believe how far Handle With Care has come in that time. Like most parents we never imagined at its conception what it might become when it ‘grew up’. We have nurtured it with many many hours of love of attention. We have had many dinners to discuss how it is travelling, what we can do to nurture it further and how we will ensure it continues growing with minimal growing pains.

We are passionate about what we are doing and absolutely love what Handle With Care offers us both and our customers. We have met so many wonderful customers who have come into our lives through Handle With Care and each one has touched our lives in one way or another. These customers have allowed us to not only sell them products but to become a part of their lives. We have seen many bellies grow and flourish into beautiful babies and have been so blessed to share this with people who we might otherwise never have known. Its without a doubt the customers we get to meet and know that makes the many hours we put into Handle With Care all worth it.

So thank you to our customers, without you we would not have made it through our first year (which they say is the hardest) and we would not be here growing in our second year without you.

We hope you enjoy reading our blog, and that we can have more to do with our customers through sharing some more about ourselves and our growing business on here!