Web shopping...so many benefits

I've always been a fan of shopping on the wonderful world wide web. As mothers Alison and I knew that providing our shop online and assistance via email would be extremely valuable to our customers as we knew how useful we have found it since we had children!

This Christmas I really threw myself into internet based shopping. Heading into my third trimester and experiencing all the normal aches and pains that come with pregnancy and a 2.5 year old in tow I wasn't so keen on finding the time to walk around the shops finding gifts. Like many I've appreciated the various store newsletters I have received with the Christmas Sales, and let me tell you I have jumped at the opportunity to buy many gifts as a result!

So what have I purchased? Many things including photo canvases and photo books, personalised kids lunch boxes and drink bottles, clothing and more. My latest purchase was this morning; for some weeks now I have been on the hunt for a backpack for my son. Keen to find something different to the mainstream Disney character bags I have searched all the usual sites and just couldn't find something that grabbed me. That was until a friend reminded me of Penny Scallan! I saw these bags a few months ago and was immediately attracted to them, so when I finally came across the website it just took me a couple of days to decide exactly what I was going to get and the order was placed.

These gorgeous bags are made from lined PVC and are just so cute! There are a number of lines available at Penny Scallan to interested you although I did find the boy prints a little restrictive - but this seems to be the case everywhere so I was not in the least surprised or put off! So I placed my order for a Lunchbox, Kindy bag and Wheelie travel bag in the Blue navy star design. So I am now excitedly awaiting another package in the mail :-) I think the postie might know me on a first name basis soon!

Big Christmas SALE

Instead of relaxing and enjoying the festive season with our families we have decided to have a Christmas sale!!! And a big one at that

20% off all myMonkeymoo pram liners and blankets
10% off all nappies and nappy accessories
FREE express postage on all orders over $100 value
15% off EVERYTHING else in store!.

Get in quickly to snap up a bargain, we have many one off’s you don’t want to miss out on.

Sale ends 24th December 2009

Due to the complex nature of the sale a standard 10% discount will be applied to all orders used with the coupon code ‘Christmas’, for orders over a certain value or pram liner orders we will manually adjust totals, so if you pay by paypal we will provide partial refunds.

Another market has come and gone which has finished up our market run for 2009! It's been a couple of weeks now, the Handle With Care team finished this market and subsequently checked out for a few days, resting and just playing mums for a while!

The Handmade market was held on Friday 20th and Saturday 21st November and mother nature was certainly not kind to us! For the Friday twilight market we were left very uncomfortable with sticky 50% humidity and 35+ degree heat. Alison’s little 8 week old Emma tried so hard to just enjoy her night out with the girls but ultimately the heat made it very difficult for her, whilst we were left throwing down the bottles of water and fanning ourselves counting down until the end of the night! Saturday was slightly more comfortable, we came armed with a fan and the humidity was down again.

There is no doubt that the heat kept people away; the September market left us without a minute to spare the entire day but this time we were actually able to have the odd short break and spend a little bit of time with some of our customers. Despite the heat though we still had many many people come through those doors all seriously shopping for Christmas! Our beautiful Bobishi booties were a favourite once again, as were the Little Bean ice packs and Ivy Designs head scarves.

Here are some photos of our set up...unfortunately I was so flustered from the heat I just took a few of the same photos and then resumed my seat by the water bottle, so excuse the poor quality!

Once again I was not in the headspace to shop (well other than for food which once again satisfied me 110%) however Alison did purchase a beautiful lantern from Electric Firefly as well as some gorgeous felt handbags from Heart Felt Australia.

In true form my father checked out what the food vendors had to offer and came to show me some rather interesting looking wine from Disaster Bay Chilis, the wine of course is none other than Chilli Wine. Clearly the handmade market caters for EVERYBODY from young to old!

We are looking forward to the 2010 instalments of markets, we will keep you posted on which ones we decide to attend with March being the big ‘due date’ for myself we are just not sure at this point which markets we will attend and when!

Handmade Market this weekend

Can I preface this with reminding everyone that there are only 37 more sleeps until Santa visits! Needless to say we are excited that another market is on! Canberra's quarterly Upmarket 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.

Come along to the Twilight Market, this Friday 20th November from 5-9pm and enjoy a glass of wine, some dinner underneath the 'stars' and a shop around over 50 boutique stalls. Or come along on Saturday between 10am-4pm and enjoy the Eat@Handmade and many many many boutique stalls both indoors and out.

The organisers have really out done themselves this market, with industrial fans organised for within the shed and a free bus running from Civic interchange to the woolshed on the Saturday. Follow this link for more information about the bus service and the market including a vendors page.

I really encourage all Canberrans to venture out and check the market out, there really is something for everyone and it is definitely more of an event than just a market.

Addiction...

This week I am 23 weeks pregnant with my much awaited second beautiful baby. Unfortunately this pregnancy has come with the lovely symptom of reflux. I have been overjoyed to experience it since about week 7 of the pregnancy which left me very ill until I worked out what it was. It’s been managed well since then, but this week I’ve had to use the Zantac and Mylanta together which has left me looking at my diet and wondering if there was something (other than my increasingly active growing baby) that was causing it to worsen. I’m absolutely devastated to work out that it is chocolate. My beloved!

Now Wikipedia describes addiction as an obsession, compulsion, or excessive psychological dependence and in its most common usage these days for things like chocolate addiction it says the term addiction is used to describe a recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity, despite harmful consequences, as deemed by the user themself to their individual health, mental state, or social life. I read this and it occurs to me, I do have an addiction, because despite this awful side effect of heartburn even when I use zantac…I still want to eat it.

Most devastating, is the fact that the Handmade Market is on this weekend. Alison and I have typically eaten our way through each market, conveniently we have had one of us pregnant at each market, and so eating our way through and supporting the food vendors at the markets has been easy.

I was gearing up this week to buy our ever favourite cupcakes from ‘Little Miss Cupcake’.

These Red Velvet and Cherry Ripe cupcakes are absolutely divine…(and chocolate!) and are just one of the huge range of absolutely delicious cupcakes that Little Miss Cupcake offers. At the first Handmade Market we attended Little Miss Cupcake sold out before midday...testament to everything I've said above and more.

And so, I have given this much thought and I have decided that the mylanta will be visiting the markets with us this weekend because I simply CANNOT resist the temptation of Little Miss Cupcake…and I highly suggest everyone try them. But I warn you, once you go there you quite possibly will never come back!

See you there

Heather

A day at the markets

Today Heather and I attended the Mathilda’s Markets in Canberra. What an exciting busy day we have had, so many people! – once again we ask ourselves ‘where did they all come from?’.

As much as we adore our little two year old boys, it’s always nice to leave the house to go and play with all things pretty at the markets. Today we had my little 6 week old Emma accompany us, and she was so well behaved! She certainly put on the perfect baby act, I don’t think people will believe me when I say I am sleep deprived…but really it was nice to have her with us particularly when we apparently bored her somewhat!
One thing contributing to Emma being the perfect baby was Heather’s mum- she cuddled her for most of the markets! Thanks Jan!!

As a stallholder it can be really hard to find the time and mindset to shop and spend at the markets, but this time I managed to do a little shopping and bought this gorgeous soft toy for Emma’s room from Sweet Sista’.

This cute giraffe caught my eye and I had to buy it as it reminded me of Emma’s Aunty Claire who is living over in the UK- her favourite animal is the giraffe and I have no doubt she would love this one too! The girls at Sweet Sista sell all sorts of lovely wares including other really cute animals made from gorgeous fabrics similar to this giraffe. You can see more of their products on their website http://www.sweetsista.com.au/

Once again, a big hit for us were the myMonkeymoo Pram Liners and Blankets, not surprising given these truly are something special. We have blogged about them before and the opportunities just keep arising, these babies sell themselves!
So we packed up (which is the worst part of going to the markets- a bit like unpacking after a holiday) only to be repacking this week for the Canberra Handmade Market which is just around the corner this coming weekend! EEEK!
We had a good response to our nappies also which is great, each market we go to we get the word out more about the benefits of using cloth nappies, so hopefully we've converted some people.

The talented West...

Handle With Care is proud to stock a number of product lines from Western Australia. Brusselsprouts, Woddlebots and Green Kids are big sellers at HWC.
Well, Alison and I have been on Etsy and Madeit...again and we have found even more talent that is now on its way from WA and I had to share them with you!

First up are Jingle Sox! It's that time of year again and the moment we saw these we wanted them...needed them in our store! Jingle Sox are the creation of Jenny; wife, mum of four beautiful children and grandmother with an obvious love of fabric, designing and sewing!
Deekie Belle Designs creates fun and funky Jingle Sox made from many fabulous high quality fabrics and quilts. We are so excited to have a parcel on their way to us which we will have at the upcoming Mathilda's and Handmade Markets - unless they sell out before!
Have a look at these gorgeous creations! don't you just love them as much as we do?!!

Our next show off creation Little Bean is designed and made by Emma Little, a mum of 3 girls under the age of 4!
Being mums of 2 year old boys, we are all too familiar with the need for ice packs.
These creations spell cute, fun and highly functional all at once!
These gorgeous children's cold packs by Little Bean have many more uses than for just those little (and not so little) falls! with summer fast approaching we are keen to use them to help keep our children's lunches cold, keep ourselves cool, use on our own aches and pains thanks to lugging toddlers around... the list goes on.
Emma's creation of a smaller ice pack to use on her pulled muscle after having a caesarean section quickly became a cold pack specifically for children. With some gorgeous fabrics to choose from and a high quality finish these cold packs are sure to be a hit (and easily beat any pack of frozen peas!)
We cannot wait to show them to our customers at the upcoming markets!

See you at the markets!

What we love...

Living in Canberra, we were fortunate enough to have a public holiday yesterday for Melbourne Cup Day. In a bid to avoid more housework that never seems to end anyway, I decided to finish unpacking our latest beautiful Ivy Designs order and hang them ready for our upcoming markets.

It is always good fun unpacking our latest orders and this one was no exception.

As Summer approaches we enjoy dressing our little boys in light and fresh clothing, and it is just as fun helping other people have the opportunity to dress their little ones in beautiful unique clothing too.

The amazingly talented Wynona and Anna of Ivy Designs design and handcraft all their gorgeous wares. The have once again created a beautiful range of girls clothing for summer.

This season features a lovely range of clothing and accessories that meet the light and fresh requirements of Spring and Summer!
The theme for this season is Tea Parties! and as you can see from the the photographs featured, the range certainly does bring back memories of tea time in the garden and picnics in the countryside.
The modern vintage collection brings together florals, ginghams and polka dots which are not only pleasing to the eye but look absolutely delightful on any little girl.

Ivy Designs clothing is so beautiful and is always made with close attention to detail and are superior quality- we can't wait to showcase Ivy Designs in the Canberra market.

Ivy Designs range is now available in store, online or you can visit us at the Canberra Mathilda’s market on Sunday 15th November, and the Canberra Handmade Market on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd November.

Heather & Alison

Emma Elizabeth

As promised some updated information on Alison's new arrival!

Emma Elizabeth arrived at 3.45am on 27th September 2009, at nearly 3.9kg with a lovely head of hair Emma is just stunning. She decided on a dramatic entrance with an intense and quick labour (well after weeks of start/stop) on a cold rainy Canberra night arriving a mere 10 mins after getting to hospital!!! Both Mum and bub are doing well and recovering in the comfort of home.

The photo below is of Emma at about 7 hours young - welcome to the world baby Emma!

Spring has Sprung at Handle With Care...

...With the arrival of Alison's darling little girl Emma! She arrived in the early hours of this morning so I'll provide more details as they come but I'm too excited to sleep after the news so thought I may as well get up and blog!!!

x heather