Jessie Boan!

Congratulations Jessie. I’ll be in touch with a fabric selection for you to consider!

Thanks to everyone who completed the survey – it was very helpful and I’ll be putting something special in your next Bloombub parcel….

Bloombub Elegance Range – Debuts November 2011

Is your child a Princess? Does she deserve the most refined party dress of the season? Then our new Damask range is perfect for you!

Want to be THE FIRST to own a
Bloombub Damask Mini-Pinny or Maxi-Pinny?

Fill out our super quick Customer Survey for your chance to win! You don’t need to be a previous customer to win, so feel free to share this lik with your friends – I’m looking for honest comments and data about current and future customers.

Entries close November 1st, and the winner’s name will be published here on Monday November 7th.

So I’ve had to rug up on the couch with my crochet needles and crack out some revised prototypes – a twist on the Tuxedo Tee and Dress I was planning earlier in the year. Vintage style is making a comeback, and Bloombub is embracing the trend with our new lacy bib-front tees, with pearls of course.

To celebrate (and to get some test-drivers) I’m going to giveaway not one, but TWO of these new prototype tees. I have the following sizes available:

1x size 1 black l/s tee (white ruffle)
1x size 1 cream l/s tee (lavender ruffle)
1x 000 onesie in white and 1x size 2 white l/s tee (you can choose the ruffle colour if you want these sizes)

All you have to do, is help me name the new design!
And leave a review on our Facebook tab once you win, with a picture of your adorable cherub wearing their Bloombub gear, of course.

So, spread the word to all your mummy friends and leave a comment here with your suggestion of a name for the design (lacy bib-front just ain’t doing it for me); the size tee your cherub wears, and make sure you are either signed in or leave an email address for me to contact you on.

I’ll choose one winner and one runner up on Tuesday (June 21), and post the results on Facebook.

Get those thinking caps on mums (and dads).

The custom at Bloombub headquarters is to drag out birthdays for as long as you can milk them. While the official birthday was Tuesday, Miss C had playgroup cake on Tuesday morning, cupcakes at daycare on Wednesday, and a extravagant party in the park on Saturday.

The “Martha Stewart” in me takes over at birthday time, and the kitchen has been a bomb site of flour, chocolate, sprinkles and butter since Monday afternoon. I’m loading the dishwasher for the third time this afternoon and it’s still not all done! I have been planning the Ballerina Birthday party since mid-April, and have been busily crafting away for the party bags (no gratuitous lolly bags here!) and table decorations, as well as scouring craft and discount stores for many weeks for the perfect party accessories.

Here’s a pictorial history of Miss C’s celebratory week:

Playgroup

Daycare

All dressed up for daycare

Cupcakes for daycare

The Party

Party bag goodies and a selection of the party baking goods

I just LOVE a good birthday! Next up is Daddy’s birthday, June long weekend…..

Birthday Adventures… Part 1

The cooler weather has brought with it a time for contemplation at Bloombub headquarters. I had grand plans for our winter range – three or four new items as well as the old favourites, and of course custom orders for my loveliest customers.

A change of season has also coincided with lots of changes in my personal life too – the hunt for a new home, a never-ending string of family birthdays, the moods and whims of an almost-three-year-old and lots of change at my day job. Don’t get me wrong, I love change – I get bored doing the same thing day in day out, which is why I have been happily juggling work, motherhood and Bloombub for the past year – but a year is a long time! I need to give myself some time each week to chill out, to play with my toddler instead of leaving her in front of the TV, and to pace my sewing work so all orders get my fullest attention and best work on every outfit.

So, after a lot of thought and some consultation with other mums and colleagues, I have decided to concentrate my efforts on a few key Winter outfits, instead of a full new range.

I have also evaluated the pricing of my items compared to other handmade labels on Facebook and Madeit, so there are new prices too. The good news is, that all new prices INCLUDE postage and GST.

There are still new items in the mix, and I’m sure I’ll be inspired at some point in the next few months to crack out a new pattern. I have taken on board some feedback regarding my sizes too and will list the length and waist measurements for each item so you can gauge whether it will fit your child before ordering.

This is what will be on offer via Facebook, Etsy and Madeit from next week:

Long Sleeve t-shirts for boys and girls (or onesies for baby sizes).
White or pink only. $15
Designs as shown, custom requests also welcome. Sizes 0000 – 6.

Corduroy and Denim Skirts
(A-line, with or without lace trim). Many fabric choices. $25
Sizes 6m – 3T

Slouch pants – corduroy and denim
(unisex style, lace trim can be added for girls). Many fabrics available. $30
Sizes 1  - 3

Winter length Bloombub Signature Pinny $30
Falls just above the knee – designed to be worn with a tee/spencer or cardigan and tights. Sizes 6m – 3

Matching SETS:
Long sleeve tee and corduroy/denim skirt: $35
Long sleeve tee and corduroy / denim Slouch pants: $40

Thank you to all my loyal customers for their support, feedback and referrals. I love creating beautiful clothes for your children and hope I can continue to do so for a long time yet.

My goodness, look at the date! January is almost gone and so has summer (although it’s still quite muggy and hot here in Brisbane today). It is a welcome change from the wet rainy, flooded weeks we’ve just come through though.

Bloombub headquarters shows up on the flood maps as a big blue puddle, but the park at the end of our street (where many of the Bloombub photos are taken) soaked up the majority of the overflowing creek and we were spared from the horrible murky water in our home. Houses opposite the park and just around the corner from us weren’t so lucky though, and as soon as our power was reconnected (3 days after the water started rising!) I held my own mini-Baked Relief and took muffins to the workers who were emptying out the damaged homes. They were gratefully received, but it felt like a small effort compared to those complete strangers who were walking and riding their bikes from house to house offering help. What a great community spirit has surfaced in Brisbane over the last few weeks.

But on to happier thoughts – Valentine’s Day is now just around the corner, and though Mr D and I have now been married for 6 years and the most effort we go to for Valentines day is to go out for dinner or lunch, I do still love the concept of giving your loved one a gift, a token or a hug. Lil C is still too young to really know what it’s all about yet, but her big brother and sister (in high school) may come home with a card or a tale of unrequited love.

We thought we’d spread some toddler love with a giveaway!

There was a great response to the survey I held in December of current and future products – it was very helpful to me when choosing fabrics for the next ranges of Bloombub dresses, tops and tees (the most popular items as per the survey). I’m already looking at lovely corduroy fabrics (I know!) for an Autumn range – beautiful florals, birds and fruits.

Autumn corduroy fabrics

I’ve also go a mini-range for Valentines Day coming – the Lollipop Halter Pinny has already been debuted on the Facebook page, and our giveaway prizes will also be available, plus one or two other sweet little tops and dresses I’m thinking about over the public holiday tomorrow.

But on to the giveaway!

Just leave a comment on this post
telling me a sweet thing your child has done or said, and you could win:

A Sweetheart Mini-Pinny; matching bloomers; and coordinating Lovebub singlet

all made to whichever size your sweetie wears right now. That’s $40 value!

So get thinking and commenting! The competition will be open until February 7th - tell your friends too – it’s open to anyone!

This is what I’m looking at:

See those cute strawberries? I’ve been eyeing them off over at RetroMummy for a while now – it’s perfect for the Ruffled Swing Dress pattern. Speaking of RetroMummy, Corrie is very generously giving away TWO fat quarter sets from the beautiful Flower Sugar range by Lecien. Wouldn’t they be lovely Mini-Pinnies in your wardrobe.

Swing Dress and Mini-Pinny

Hope I win! Pop over to RetroMummy’s shop too and check it out – lots of beautiful fabrics, patterns and books. Perfect to spend that Christmas $$$$ on!

First, I made the RetroMummy Rumball mixture, with a teeny splash of Grand Marnier instead of Cointreau or rum. I also used a store-bought fruit cake instead of madeira cake for extra festive flavour. I let that sit for a while in the fridge to harden up, then used a melon-baller to scoop out litle balls of yumminess. This got old quite quickly and I ended up reverting to the spoon and hand-rolling method, but if the mixture was hard enough, the melon baller would work.

When you have a plate full of little balls of cake mix, put your lollipop sticks (or bamboo skewers or popsicle sticks would also work depending on the size of your cake balls) into the little balls, then put them in the freezer. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. You must have put the sticks in before you put them in the freezer, otherwise they will fall out during the coating process. I learned this the hard way.

Leave them for about an hour (you can keep rolling more cake balls while your waiting if you have the freezer space). When you’re sure the mixture is firm enough and the sticks are wedged in tight, melt some dark chocolate (or milk or white if you would prefer) in a bowl. I added a little dribble of vegetable oil to make it shiny and thin enough to work with. Gather your decorating materials now too – I used coloured sugar crystals, chocolate flakes, hundreds and thousands and the perennial christmas favourite, coconut. Put each of your decorating things into separate bowls and line them all up on your kitchen bench.

NOW you can get your bare cake pops out of the freezer. Dip them into the chocolate mixture (holding on gently to the lollipop stick), using a spoon to coat the area closest to the stick. Hold it up and let the excess chocolate drip off, or smooth it out with your spoon if it’s too thick. Quickly transfer your chocolate truffle to one of the decorating bowls, and coat the cake pop in delightful coloured christmassy goodness.

Ooh, I forgot, you also need to have found some styrofoam to stand your cake pops in while they set. This was harder than I thought, as we did a big cleanout of our styrofoam earlier in the year. Luckily the packaging from my new sewing machine was still sitting in the studio (and lord help me if I ever need to post that somewhere for repairs).

When your cake pops are coated in chocolate and decorations, stand them up in the styrofoam. I found it useful to ‘pre-pierce’ a hole with a sharp bamboo skewer as the blunt end of the lollipop stick wasn’t very nimble and my truffles fell off a few sticks while trying to get them to stand up. (Another reason they need to be frozen.) The chocloated coated pops will set in just a few minutes in normal weather.

Repeat this process until you’ve run out of lollipop sticks or cake balls (or make some standard truffles or rumballs without the sticks to use up your mixture like I did).

Bon appetit! The rumball mixture is so soft and gooey when you bite through the chocolate coating. I was most impressed with myself on this ‘hacker’ recipe. Even Lil C approved.

These lovely little treats are going with Miss C for her daycare class and carers, and a batch is also coming to work with me for our festive lunch.