Owls, Chickens and Cupcakes for Spring.

I thought just maybe you would like to see the Spring Additions to my ipod/phone cover line. I have been in the UK and came across these delightful fabrics and decided to make some new cases with it. I have owls, chickens, cupcakes and so much more . I am happy to take custom orders for all my cases , I make all sizes laptops, ipads, nooks, whatever, it you send me the dimensions I can make it .

Charli

Just a quick addition to the previous post , Charli is having a great New Year, this is her on New Years Day , lets hope it is a sign of things to come. She send her love to all of you .

I am so BAD

Back in September I promised to nurture this blog and I communicate with you guys on a regular basis and it is now January and there have been no new posts, now some of you may be relieved that I have not been posting but that is not really the point of a blog so I am trying to get this moving !!!!!!

What have you all got planned for 2011, new products ? new marketing ideas ? more of both and of course more SALES ? please feel free to share your new ideas and photos here , I would love to see them and of course so would everyone else.

My 2011 plans ! I have so many lists ( I am an obsessive list maker ) I am not going to bore you with the plan i will just inform you all as things happen, I think it is better that way and you cant hold me accountable to my resolutions. That is not meant to be an excuse but you really do want want to read these lists.

Just a bit of catching up to do , in November I opened a retail space in Santa Monica with my good friend Robin Wisdom, she has the best line of yoga gear ever , it is called Peace Love and Wisdom , I wear it all the time and I dont do yoga that often, the clothes are so comfy and the cotton is a fantastic quality , you should really check them out. And of course the retail space is full of my Revival products some you will know from my website and online shop and some that are new for the shop only , if you are in the area check it out , the address is Merchants Mart, 2411 Main Street , Santa Monica , CA. I would love your feed back on the shop , let me know what you think !

OK I am going to hand this over to you guys for your feedback and New year resolutions , and we can make sure you stick to them .

Happy New Year , lets make 2011 a really good one, I am sure it will be if we all help each other

Help I need your time management hints !

Children are back at school but the time management problems still exist so this is now a forum so we can all share our tips and hints for making the most of the time you have . Someone out there must have a way to make my life more efficient and I can imagine I am not the only one trying to juggle all the roles we play on a daily basis. Drink more coffee is not an option !!!!

Each day I get up , make coffee and try and decide what is the most important and by the end of the day I often feel as though I have got it wrong. My choices are -
Option 1 -spend the day sewing to build up stock for my upcoming sales events and just ignore the computer , I keep making sea horses and they keep selling, i am so pleased about this but contrary to popular belief they do not reproduce on their own,
Option 2 - do I sit down and list new things on Etsy, (should this be done everyday) which seems to be such a time consuming business especially trying to get those photos right, and then when I have listed I have to spend time promoting the new items or what is the point listing them and then I inevitably get involved chatting with some of my fantastic etsy and FB friends . Oh and dont forget playing in the BNRs !
Option 3 - keep Facebook and twitter up to date and make sure all that love is linked and cared for, and I love seeing what everyone else has been up too , oh yes and this neglected blog needs some love.
Then there is
Option 4 - Design new things , which is always what I want to be doing but always seems to get pushed to the bottom of this list, you should see my book of ideas one of them is going to make my fortune if they ever get made.
And of course I have
Option 5 - Go and find my new fabric , which needs to be done often but the searches are always unpredictable.

And of course somehow fit in all the Mother duties.

SO how do you guys do it !!! I know that some of you have superpowers but surely not all of you so I need your help to get through the build up to this holiday season.

Neglected Blog and Lavender Hearts

I want to say two things , firstly I am sorry that I have not been writing anything on this blog lately , I am not sure if anyone is at all bothered about my lack of blogging but I did say i was going to try and write often and secondly where on earth do you fantastic bloggers find the time to do all the great writing.
My life is not that interesting but it is just too busy and blogging gets put to the bottom of the list.
For all you mums out there with younger kids let me warn you that the summer holidays are a disaster when you have teenagers and teenagers friends. I presumed that now my kids are older (12.15.17) I would have lots of time to myself to sew,blog and generally be creative but No, these teenagers are a demanding race, they want food all the time and they enter your kitchen like a swarm of locusts and just devour everything they see, I would not have believed the amount of time I have spent in the supermarket this holiday. They want lifts everywhere and as I encouraged them to get jobs and do swim camps etc I suppose I have to help get them there and back, so when I am not in the supermarket I am playing taxi driver. And when I am actually allowed to be in the house with time to work there are so many comings and going it is just impossible to get things done so role on september and the new term and hopefully back to creativity !!!!

Now I have finished making excuses for my lack of communication let me show you what i have been up too, i have started creating this great little lavender hearts with adorable charms on them.
They started when i wanted to jazz up a present i was giving to a special friend and I did not have a card or a gift tag so i thought I would make one of these . They really are cute and you can use them for so many things, I fill them with organic lavender and flax seed and I get the charms from Cards and Craft on Esty. I love this shop.
Have a browse through my shop and if you cant find a heart in a color you like just let me know and I will make one for you .

Eco Owls.

Just a quickie to let you know about a new arrival in Revivals shop. Since the creation of Revival my daughter has been saying "make owls mum " and "everyone loves owls mum" so after being on my 'to do 'list for nearly a year I have made some. I have to agree with her they are cute and lovable and totally eco friendly. Each one is made with a combination of recycled fabrics and there is vintage fabric is there too. I can make custom owls if you have a favorite color combination so just let me know what you like. Any feedback would be welcome because at the moment I am relying on a 12 year girl for my critiques.
Thanks.

Prom, teenage hormones and lack of focus

Despite all my good intentions this blog has been neglected and so much has happened since I wrote about my puppies.
The main event in the Shepherd household was that my son went to the Prom with his girlfriend, this might be normal in most US households at this time of year but remember we a Brits and prom is a foreign concept. So somehow the girlfriend got him into a suit and tie for the first time in his life, my son is the casual sort of guy, so all credit goes to the power of the girlfriend. It was my job to get him shoes and he seemed to think that I was being unreasonable to request his presence on this shopping trip, but he soon realized I expected him to try them on and so he appreciated me needing his feet at least to be in the shop. Shoes bought and tux on, he looked amazing even if I am biased and his girlfriend looked great too.
The other things going on in the Shepherd household is school holidays have arrived and so there is no peace in the house as teenagers are always in packs and never travel alone and the cupboards are always bare. I am unsure how Revival will fare during the vacation as my focus seems to be dominated by teenager girls in skimpy bikinis and teenage boys just being loud.
So watch this space for the updates from hormone city and hopefully there will be the occasional new Revival item too.