Life in Style...

For anyone who is part of the wholesale and retail world you most likely would know what the Life in Style trade expo is. For those who don't it is a huge trade expo with all different wholesalers showing their fabulous items such as clothing, jewellery, accessories, design and furniture etc etc.
Swede Little Things will be there as part of the family run Nordliving together with some beautiful porcelain jewellery (Sagen) and lots and lots of Sandgren's clogs!

Make sure you come and visit the Nord Living stand if you are planning to come this week. Oh yes, of course.... Thursday to Sunday at Melbourne Race course, but you will need to be part of the trade as it isn't opened for the general public.

I will be there on Sunday as on Saturday I will be part of the retail team at Nordliving shop in South Melbourne and the two days before that, well I have my little darlings... don't really need to add more there.
I am really looking forward to it, although it is somewhat nerve wrecking as your heart and soul of what you love and have created is out there ready for everyone to see... and hopefully love enough to place orders for their shops.

So I still have my sign and flyers to finish off and print but I am going to finish this post with a quick look at the latest updated sign (which most likely will be changed many more times till I am totally happy with that).

Reindeer facts and a new flyer...

Reindeers are such beautiful animals! Did you know that the male reindeers grow their antlers to impress the cows and fight off other bulls in the mating season, september and october (remember that we are talking the European seasons :)) and then consequently loose their antlers for winter at the end of the mating season, in november, whilst the cow keep theirs till they have given birth to their calves in may. It is the shed antlers that the buttons are made of and no reindeers are killed for their horns.

New antlers start to grow in the spring and are then covered with velvet fur. 

During the summer months the calves start growing their antlers.

Last bit of Reindeer fact is that like the cows, reindeers also have 4 stomaches. 

Posting my new flyer, this first one will be going in to Nordliving shop in South Melbourne, giving the customers a little know how on the Swede Little Things jewellery.

Mid-Winter 'spoil yourself' special...

Even though the winter here in Melbourne has been anything but cold I still feel that it is time for a spoil yourself special.
So I have decided to put all my designs, those pre-made as well as custom orders, on a 25% off sale.
That is 25% off the RRP, not the Fb or blog prices.

Here is a selection of the different designs:

For those who wondered how the new dark navy, I should really call it Midnight Blue, turned out...

I think it gives a warmer depth than just plain black, what do you think?

Here is also a picture of my son's (Oskar, 5) new bracelet that he had asked to me to make. He is really into red, which is sooo nice I think :)

And I know that I most likely have already posted a picture of Hugo (now 1,5) with his, but I just have to do it again. This was taken about 6 months ago.

This guy will not let me take it off so he bathes and sleep with it on. A great experiment to see how it wears and so far it hasn't looked better.

Here it is now with 6 months wear and tear by a toddler... add drewl and what not that has gone on it...

It is a classic to have captured one of the lego guys (think Robin) in his clutch as he just love lego just like his two big brothers.

Navy, a new shade is here...

Arriving to Swede Little Things is the new navy reindeer leather. It is a much darker blue than what I have had previously, but it is a beautiful deep dark navy that is hard to beat.

Here is a picture of a 3 wave I have started on the navy, beside a 4 wave started on black as a comparison.

I have a limited couple of meters of this so if you are interested in having a bracelet done with it, don't hesitate to email me.

School is back, sad not to have the kids at home, but maybe a little more can get done now... as long as everyone remains healthy :)

School holidays work and kids juggling...

So after a packed school holidays filled with nose colds, ear aches, tonsillitis, tummy bugs, fever (I think we have covered every single ailment) the order for my newest client has finally been done and sent!

It always seems to amaze me that anyone gets anything done with sick kids over the school holidays and when you have four of them, chances are you will miss out on either sleep, own hygienic needs or down time to fill it with much needed r and r for your children.
Yet, as I dropped my 2 recovered boys to the cinema yesterday, all the mothers look amazingly fresh and made up! I on the other hand was sporting the gold old cap to cover a not so washed hair and a mixture of clothing that was closest at hand and that I could reach while trying to nurse my youngest little sickling. Sigh! How on earth do they do it?? I just don't seem to have the time for anything remotely for myself trying to fit in my own business, four kids, home (in some kind of clean and tidy state).

However, today was going to be he first day in a very long time that I actually decided to think of a shower for me before breakfast...lunch and dinner for that matter too. Was it as rewarding and nice as I thought and hoped it would be??? Hmm, sadly no as the 1,5 year old was either standing at the doorway with the door wide open so that anytime the smoke alarm would go off, with the thick yellow / greenish mass gunk from his nose joining his never ending trail of saliva that he would wipe against anything that came his way. Or he would decide that the bathroom drawers would need a clean out and help me remove this and that. The other children were not of any help as two of them were stuck in front of their screens (and that is another painful parental issue) and the oldest I had not seen and were probably not going to see till it was at least 10 o'clock.
The final straw that forced me to turn off the hot beautiful shower was the track marks of the 1,5 year old bright blue fingers, from trying to draw with a thick texta on a very small pad, on our 'white' walls and bathroom floor. One started to wonder at the state of the floor / table or whatever he had had the notepad on...

So, after picking up STUFF everywhere, do the pile of dishes (still trying to ignore the sandwich maker that my kind hearted husband said a while ago not to worry about as he had dirtied it and he was going to clean it), gather washing scattered nicely around the rooms and put a washing on... As I type this (4pm), I am very embarrassed to admit that it is still in the washing machine...feed everyone at 11.30 it was finally time to start work... Ha ha ha I always have a little snicker when I say 'work' as I feel that it is exactly what I have been doing since I opened my eyes, but not just getting paid for it.

So here is the result of the some of the work produced this school holidays.

Thank you Kerrie from Gypsy River for being so very patient for these!

Time to unload the washing machine and maybe if I am fast I will be able to take the kids out for some fresh air time!

A little bit more Scandinavia in Melbourne...

So very happy to announce the new retailer Gypsy River  about to get their stock of the Sami reindeer leather bracelets. There will be brown, turquoise, natural and white 3 wave bracelets in stock. Below I have photographed the brown and the turquoise... soon ready with the other 2 colours.

As you may be aware of by now, the bracelets are made with the silver / pewter threading or the weave and they all have the shed (emphasise the shed as the reindeers actually shed their horns seasonally) buttons.

Now time to finish off the rest...

Welcome Gypsy River to the Scandinavian family :)

All things come in three, right??

Last time I blogged I commented on how busy I was and when I posted it on Facebook my comment then was that I loved being busy... Well someone or something must have listened, but not quite fully understanding that when I said it I did mean the work that I do, not all the chores! So, not long after that post we have had:
* Some lovely little crawlies in my son's hair (blah!), and having to treat every ones hair and change 5!! bed linen and wash copious amount of washes;
 * A chipped front tooth happening totally at random by my daughter bouncing a tennis ball, which hit the table which made her perfume bottle fall and of course she was sitting on the floor by the table getting bottle on her front tooth! So off to the dentist...
* And thirdly a projectile vomit in the boys extremely messy bedroom floor at 330am! 2 big kitchen tidy bags full of vomited things, books, lego an other useless but loved toys were thrown away. I must say it was very hard and cold standing outside on the nature strip (bin night) in the middle of the night trying to squash these disgusting bags into a very full bin. The problem then was the stench! Not having had carpet in bedrooms for years I was not prepared. After lots of hard cleaning, and yes I actually have post exercise soreness in my legs and triceps from it, I managed to remove the stain. After some great advice to put instant coffee grains on the floor like they do on planes to get rid of the smell I have now gone from a quite invisible stinking stain to a mix of coffee and vomit stench, with a poo brown stain!

Not really the busy kind that I like or had in mind.

Never the less my bracelet orders still have to be made and the start of this week saw the packages of natural and black 3 wave bracelets leave for Nordic Fusion and a combination of red, blue, tan, white and natural leave for Red Hill House.

School holidays soon, couldn't come at a better time :)