Always Mod

These past two weeks have been an emotional rollercoaster for me. After the thrill of attending Quilt Market last weekend and meeting up with so many old friends, I've had to force myself to jump back into the flow of things, wearing the big hats of mommy, clothing designer and textile designer. Which, speaking of the latter, we are in the final, final steps of the fabric design process and I should be able to show you some sneaks very, very soon!

But what brings me to this posting today is something that I am still a bit choked up about. The folks at Always Mod, an authorized retailer of Marimekko, run this awesome blog which showcases new products and design ideas and shares history and news on the company. Well, a few days ago, they contacted me and asked if they could feature my Etsy shop on their blog! (OMG, right?) I was like.... "Uhm, let me think about it for a sec... YES, YES, YES!"

Well, the feature is up today and WOW, what a feature! They have 5 large photos from my Blüm Collection up on their site and a very nice write up.

Click here to go to the Always Mod blog and here for their online store... such YUMMY stuff! Or click here to check out Marimekko's website... always such a treat for the eyes!

Thank you to the Always Mod staff for taking notice of little ol' me and for that amazing feature... I still can't believe it! :)

Feeling the "Love"

A sweet customer of mine, the lovely Lovelyn, totally made my day with her wonderful pictures of her 3 girls in their MODKIDs and her description of her shopping experience. It was one of those blog postings that made my mouth smile bigger and bigger with every word I read, so I just had to come here and share with you guys!!!

How sweet is this picture of her two oldest running through a field of wildflowers? She totally captured that childhood innocence that we all crave... not a worry in the world, not posed or contrived, just 2 girls running, being silly and having the time of their life! :)


And here is this super sweet picture of her youngest in her Blüm Collection... eeeek! I just want to squeeze those cheeks!


Click here to check out Lovelyn's awesome blog. It's always such a fun spot to rest upon in the sea of blogs I read because it captures real life in such a casual, unfettered way. Thanks so much, Love! You totally made my day!!!

Sweet Accessories for the MOD Chick

First of all, I wanted to thank all of you for your super sweet comments on my big announcement. Your warm wishes and words of support just fill me up with joy and remind me of how lucky I am to be working in this industry chock full of wonderful people like yourselves! Oh, and for those of you who took the time to email me and ask if I would still be doing MODKID, I truly appreciate your concern but please rest assured that I will not forget my first love: designing modern children's clothing. As long as you guys are buying, I will be selling! LOL! I mentioned before... oh, it was in this old post (look at #3 and #5)... that I would love to make MODKID clothing out of my own fabrics and that is still my goal. :)

Anywho, as I will be headed to Quilt Market in 3 weeks, I wanted to make myself some practical but stylish accessories to bring with me and I just loved the way they turned out so much that I decided to offer them up (in limited quantities due to my fabric availability) in my etsy store.

This here is a Moo Card Wallet. I have mentioned here and here how much I love my Moo's and now I have a way to tote them around and also show off my design/sewing skills at the Mecca of Design/Sewing. I listed these late last night and they sold immediately, so I have relisted them for you. This Moo Card Wallet holds up to 30 cards (10 in each slot) and it is sturdy and versatile... it has an attached keyring so you can either use it as a key chain or just clip it onto your purse or backpack as a sweet dangling accessory. Check it out!



I also made myself an iPhone/iPod Cozy. After spending a fortune last weekend on my new iPhone I just couldn't fathom spending another $30 -$50 on something to keep it from scratching up in my purse, so I quickly whipped up this sweet little sleeve for it. This will also fit the iPod Touch perfectly and might work for other electronic devices too (see measurements in my listing!).



I also recently listed a few more Blüm Collection separates. Sorry, these have no modeled pictures because they were customer special orders so I just quickly snapped some pictures on the wall before sending them off to their new owners, but you can find them all here.

Thanks, everyone!

The Little Mod Dress

I've been busy creating a few new goodies for my Etsy store. These first three I am calling "The Little Mod Dress" ... super soft, comfy and stylish. Perfect for the warm Summer months but also look great layered on top of a long sleeve shirt and tights during the cooler months.

Click on each picture to visit the Etsy listing:







I also made this sweet little dress that I am calling 'The Euro Twirl Dress":



And the matching yoga pants:



If these links come up SOLD for you just click here to go to my Etsy. I will keep relisting them until I run out of fabric (I don't have a lot of the Euro flowers one, just so you know!) :)

Back in business!

I sewed and sewed and sewed, ate some sushi, blogged and sewed some more and VOILA! my orders are almost all finished. If you shopped during my April Fool's SALE, you should be receiving your package sometime this week! All I have left to finish is a couple of orders that I haven't received measurements for yet. So... if you ordered from me but haven't sent me your info yet, please do so and I will get your items out a.s.a.p. :)

This means that my store is back up... YAY! No new items yet, but they'll be coming up soon! I promise. :)

Etsy Buy Handmade modkid

I missed Bernie's 30th Birthday!

My sweet and loyal Bernie turned the big 3-0 on April Fool's Day and I totally forgot to celebrate her. I was too busy playing our little boutique prank and having my 1-day sale and it just escaped me. But I will make it up to her this weekend as we will be spending lots of quality on-on-one time again. Jon took the kids to Chicago so I could catch up on my Etsy orders. Of course I am still allowed a few minutes of computer break every now & then, so I wanted to come here and share what's been going on. First, check out this hilarious message at the bottom of Bernie's sales receipt:

If you can't read it on the picture, it says: In the event of mechanical problems, place the machine in a Greyhound Bus, directing it to Alt's, 335 North Ashland Avenue, Green Bay, Wisconsin. Alt's will pay the cartage both ways and we will not charge anything for a period of five years.

A greyhound bus? WTF?!? Well, my FIL tells me that Bernie has never had to take that fateful bus ride and as long as she's been with me she has never had a malfunction (I have but she hasn't). So I really think Bernie has super powers.

This weekend, actually Bernie will get a bit of a break because I am sewing with knits and will be using Baby for most of the construction. Bernie will only be there for hemming and sewing on the tags, etc.

Want a little peek into my madness? Here's what my studio wall looks like right now. Not very pretty but keeps me organized and focused.


My cutting table looked like this yesterday morning, now they are all packaged and ready to ship.


I received a new shipment of Marimekko fabric yesterday and thought it looked just so sweet all piled together like this. I *heart* fabric so much I could just stare at it all day! LOL! Oh, and for those of you who've been keeping up with my Marimekko clothing designs, YES, that's a new print there (new to me) second from the bottom. It's the KIVET dots in hot pink & white. YUMMY!!! I'll be making some stuff out of this and other coordinates as soon as my pile of work is back to a manageable size.


Now I'll leave you with a fun close-up of some rolled hems. Jon thought this looked like a can-can skirt (It's actually 4 of my KIVET twirl skirts piled on top of one another!):


***adding to my post***

So, this is what $21.75 worth of sushi looks like:


Yes, my family is still in Chicago. This was just for me. I bought this much because I intended to eat half of it tonight for dinner and the other half tomorrow for lunch. But I parked my ass in front of the T.V. and watched an old episode of Project Runway that I had DVR'ed and next thing you know I'm plucking away at an empty take-out container with my chopsticks! Well, there goes my plan to lose 10 lbs. by Quilt Market! pfft

Gotcha!

Thanks for all the emails, convos and phone calls yesterday congratulating us on our merger, new name and new endeavor. All I can say about that is.... APRIL FOOLS!!!!

HA! By now you've probably seen the flashing "April Fools" logo in my previous posting or on all the "LimeJaynes" listings on eBay or even in some discussion boards. But in case you haven't... well, it's true. It was a practical joke we cooked up late last week to add a little fun back into the custom boutique community. It's all been so dark & dreary lately... well since the strike in February. There was a mass exodus -- a few designers left boutique altogether, others went to Etsy or other sites. So we felt we needed to do something wacky & fun to sort of brighten everyone's day.

Hope you enjoyed the prank! Thanks to the fabulous Jaynes for being our "partners in crime." :)

Oh, and my 24-hr sale was a prank too... I want my money back!!! AHAHAH... sometimes I crack myself up (probably too much!). Just kiddin', of course. The sale was real, and OH MY GOODNESS, you guys really took advantage of it! WOOOHOOO! Thanks for all the luv! I *heart* all you guys so much.

So, in order to fulfill all my orders and retain a certain level of sanity (as if that was even possible) I have temporarily closed my Etsy shop until these orders are shipped... probably for a 2 week period or less, depending on how much caffeine my body can take before totally breaking down. ;) I did leave a couple of ready-made items up there, so if anyone is interested in those, you are welcome to purchase them since all I have to do is package & ship. :)

So... thanks again! And since I have a hard time doing a post without pictures, I will leave you now with my very first Blüm customer cutie! Thanks so much Christy! I just adore seeing pictures of Miss Abigail strutting her MODKID! Abigail is sporting the Blüm Appliqued Tee and the Blüm Raspberry Flare Legged Pants. :)



Oh and here she is showing off her navy & cherry banded tank and her navy blue yoga pants:

Working, working, working...

To the tune of "rolling, rolling, rolling..." (I'm sure that song has a real name but I'm too tired to look it up. ;) So, that's been the tune I've been dancing to for the past few weeks. But don't worry, it hasn't been all work and no play in the MODKID household... we've had our fun times to break up the monotony of work (which, as a matter of fact, it's not very monotonous in my book). We did enjoy 4 days of splashing and gorging out at the Wisconsin Dells, followed 2 weeks later by a few more days of skating, egg hunting and more gorging out (yes, we eat a lot when we travel! LOL!) in dear St. Louis. But now it's time to get back to business.

I've been tagged by two fabulous ladies that I love and admire deeply, Jenn of Take A Bow and Alla of My Little City Girl, to share 7 random facts about myself. Well, I was gonna take the easy (read: lazy) way out and just link you guys to some prior very similar postings, but I decided to turn this little meme into an opportunity to "talk business", so these will be 7 random business-related things. If you are looking for some wacky fun facts, like the weird things I like to consume or the strange places I've visited in my lifetime, check this post or this one out.

So, here we go:

1. All my hard work has finally paid off... I have been offered a fabric contact by a very reputable fabric company that I'd bet every one of you ladies who sew have worked with and all of you who don't sew but buy custom boutique regularly have received things made from their fabric. Oh, and believe me, it is killing me as much as I hope it is killing you to not be able to reveal the full facts, but I just don't know when it's actually safe to do so. I have an email in to my contact there asking when I can share my big news. I am not a secretive person by nature... I wear my emotions on my sleeve and have been accused before of "having a big mouth", so as soon as I am able to share, I will! Promise! :)

2. I will be attending Quilt Market in Portland from May 15th (my b-day!) to May 18th, so if you are in the area and would like to get together or if you are already planning to attend, please leave a comment. We are organizing a HUGE get-together of boutique-related ladies. This will be fun!! The ones I know will be attending for sure are: Daria (Boutique Cafe), Megan (BrassyApple), Chelsea (PinkFig and Vintage Chic), Amie (PrincessPicasso), Sandi (PortabelloPixie), Em (SugarSweetBoutique), Tanya (Bug-N-Belle), Michelle (Boutique Buyers' Blog). I think there are others but I am not sure if they are going or not, so I won't mention them here yet.

3. I would like to continue making my knit pieces and selling them either on Etsy or my own website (if that ever gets finished) even after my fabric line comes out in the Fall. I really, truly enjoy working on my Blüm line... yes, the honeymoon period isn't over yet! Of course, I will design a whole new collection with my new fabric line (which will most likely be printed in 100% Woven Cotton at first) but my next order of business will be to see if I can get a line printed on knits... my new passion!

4. And speaking of my knit pieces, I do have 2 new things up on my Etsy store. Both of these were special orders by sweet customers of mine and they turned out so cute that I decided to offer them to you guys.

The popular "Blüm Banded Tank" was recreated in navy blue / cherry red tones and I thought it turned out fabulous! How cute would this be for an Independence Day picnic, paired up with my Yoga Pants... YUM!! Check it out!


Then, the also popular black & white striped yoga pants were spiced up with a Marimekko applique on one leg and a contrast cherry red waistband with decorative buttons! How sharp is this?!?


5. I still dream of taking MODKID to the next level and get my clothing designs manufactured and sold in stores. Believe me, I lie awake at night thinking of ways and possibilities... did I ever mention that I have a serious case of OCD? Jon came home the other day and said that he spoke to this guy at work that has close connections to the clothing manufacturing industry in India (his birthplace), so of course that got me even more excited and my OCD kicked in again! LOL! Of course, with a child at home full-time and another one in school, it may be kinda hard right now to take off to India to meet with these people and get this thing off its feet, especially when I'm trying to finalize artwork for my fabric line and work on fulfilling my Etsy orders...

6. And speaking of fulfilling my Etsy orders... all paid orders that were placed prior to Friday have been shipped! YAY! I did a short mail run on Friday and a slightly bigger one on Saturday, so now I get to play with a couple of new design ideas! The new orders that were placed this weekend will be created this coming week and I plan to have everything shipped out by Friday if all goes well. Thanks again for all the Blüm love... I'm so glad you guys like them as much as I do!

7. If you are on my mailing list, you will receive a special announcement on Tuesday (can't reveal the specifics yet, but it will be a good one!). If you are not, don't fret, I will post it here on my blog as well. But it may be a good idea to join my mailing list anyway. I send out special promotions at times and offer FREE shipping. :)

OK... PHEW... how was that for an informative random meme?

Blüms and Blossoms

Oh, happy day! The sun came out today in our little corner of the world. It melted the snow and brought warmth to the air. And as a little miracle of Spring all sicknesses were banished at once from the MODKID household. Everyone, including my little Sydney, is healthy and happy today... we even went outside without our coats for the first time in months!

So, to celebrate the coming of Spring I have brought you guys some Blüms and some Blossoms. ;)

First, let's talk about the Blossoms. Today is the start of the Ginger Blossom launch on eBay. 75 custom boutique designers have gathered to honor Sandi and design some super scrumptious pieces with her debut line of fabric, Ginger Blossom.

My contribution to this launch is this One Of A Kind 3-piece set perfect for a 3T princess but may also fit a 2T or a slim 4T. I'd be glad to make some minor alterations to make sure it fits your princess just right... email me to discuss.

I have set up this auction as a 99-cent-NO-reserve listing... this means if you bid 99 cents right now and no one outbids you, you are walking out with an OOAK MODKID design for under a buck! What a deal!!


Click here to visit the auction.

Now on to the Blüms... I've been told by several of you that I needed to add some new Spring tops to go with my line of Yoga pants on Etsy... hmmm... why didn't I think of that? Actually I did, but since I'm a 1-man-shop right now, there is only so much I can do at once. I guess I could have waited until everything was finished to list all at once, but what fun is that? If you haven't noticed already, I am a super impatient person so as soon as I complete any design I just have to list it! LOL!

So... here you go... a few cute Spring tanks and halters for your yoga pants and flare-legged pants. If you see a design you like and would like it made in a different fabric (solid, striped, dotted, any) just convo me and I'd be glad to set up a private listing for you.


Click HERE for the Lime Green Banded Halter Top.

Click HERE for the Lime Green Banded Tank Top.

Click HERE for the Navy Blue Banded Halter.

If any of these designs come up as SOLD, just check my Etsy store. I will relist them for as long as I have fabric available. Oh, and for those of you who were inquiring about the solid raspberry fabric, I got more in today... WOOOOHOOO... so I have relisted the raspberry flare-legged pants and the raspberry tie-strap tank. I only have 2 yards of this fabric (that's all the store had left) so it will be first-come-first-served again. :)

I do have some dresses in the works made from a couple of new Marimekko prints I got in the mail today... those will be listed in a couple of days (I told you I was impatient!). If you want to take advantage of the shipping discounts ($1 each additional item) but still get these items before they sell out, you can go ahead and purchase whatever you want from my Etsy store now but don't pay yet. Then you can see if you want to add a dress to your order later on and then pay all at once. Just convo me to let me know what you are doing. :)

Happy shopping!

BLüM is blooming!

So, why is Sydney perched so adorably in the Om position, you might ask? I will answer that question in a bit. But first of all I wanted to thank you all for the Blüm love ... thanks for all the sweet comments on my last posting and for all the convos on Etsy and of course, for all the orders. I am just ecstatic that you guys liked the collection as much as I do. There's something about this line that just felt right from the very beginning and I don't think I had ever sewn with such a big smile on my face before... LOL!

But the weirdest part of all is that I usually love making my original designs but when I have to re-create them for a custom order, I ... well ... let's just say, I'm not quite as enthralled with them. ;) But this time it was different. I enjoyed sewing the custom orders as much as the originals. How weird is that?!? I'm telling you... there's just something about this Marimekko fabric that just puts a little extra spring in my step. The MODKID Studio (and consequently the MODKID house) is positively blooming with BLüM right now... there are fabric rolls, pattern pieces, scraps and what-not strewn all over the place, but yet... I'm STILL happy! And even more happy to report that all orders placed by last Friday are finished, packed and shipped! WOOHOO! Check out the fruits of my labor:



So, if you are one of the first few customers to order some BLUM, you will have your sweet pieces in your hands before the end of the week as I shipped everything via Priority Mail.

And as if sewing all those orders wasn't labor-intensive enough, somehow I mustered the energy to create a whole other collection that is somewhat related to BLüM -- like a super cute, health-conscious, fashion-forward younger step-sister. And here my friends is where our tour makes a full circle back to the beginning and we address Sydney's meditative state. Well, my little ball of energy is taking a few seconds out of her busy schedule to reflect on MODKID's latest collection... YOGA BABY.


I created a new line of Yoga pants that are completely customizable and very affordable! These have a double knit waistband with no elastic, so they are super soft and comfy!

There are 8 styles/colors to choose from and since each pair is made-to-order, you can fully customize it... want it shorter or longer? appliques? no appliques? the possibilities are endless. And at such a low price, you could even get a couple of different styles! These would look great with a plain tee and, of course, are a perfect match to the BLüM Collection tops in my Etsy shop.

Check them out!


JUST A QUICK UPDATE: I am fresh out of the solid raspberry knit, so I have removed the raspberry flare-legged pants off my store (so sorry). I do have some remnants that can be used to make the raspberry tie-strap top and possibly a small twirl skirt, but definitely not enough for pants. Also, I only have enough of the raspberry/grape stripe to make a very small pair of custom pants (maybe up to a size 2T). And one last note, I have received a few inquiries for size 6 & 6X items, and just wanted to tell you that yes, if I have enough fabric, I can make these in that size for $2.00 extra plus adjusted shipping charges. Convo me to inquire about a specific item and I'd be glad to set up a listing for you. That's it! :)

ANOTHER UPDATE: I sold another one of those raspberry tie-strap tops this morning so now the raspberry fabric is all gone and I have taken that item out of my store as well. :( But the good news is that I found a fabric online that looks like it will be a good match (crossing fingers) so when it arrives I will relist the items if it indeed is a match... you never know when looking at pictures on your computer screen. Thanks for all the orders, ladies! :)