Stop your Flippin' Whingeing............

We have just driven back today from a great night up at Hoover House in Gwalia, it is actually our third visit because we love staying at this B&B. Not only does it have a fantastic museum that you can walk around, after 4pm the gate is locked & you have the whole place to yourselves.

My favourite part of the area is the ghost town of the miners houses that the local residents have restored themselves.

It is a grounding & humbling experience to walk through these homes, the stoves that needed wood to cook, the toilets that were non existent, the sewing machines that needed a foot to get them going. By visiting these places it makes me stop & think the next time something miniscule annoys me in my modern life to say to myself...'Victoria Stop your Flippin' Whingeing!'

I was once told that my attitude of being grateful & thankful of what I have will not help me be successful in business as I am too nice to succeed & I should care if others are trying to belittle me or compete. Well if being grateful or thankful for what I have rather than spending my time & headspace caught up with what other businesses are doing will make me a failure then I am more than happy not to succeed.

Chocolate on a spoon?....mmmm yummy!

So in my intrepid travels around the www for my new venture Brusselsprouts Boutique Candy Buffets I came across a photo of chocolate on a spoon with loads of yummy goodness stuck to it.....unfortunately because I am an intrepid traveller I cannot give you the link to the page or give the person who blogged about it the praise & respect they deserve & for that I am sorry.

However what it boils down to is this, chocolate on a spoon is the bees knees.....I know because Mr 4 & 2 told me so. These are the same Mr's 4 & 2 who refuse to eat anything that looks non yellow or non red meaning they only like strawberries, spaghetti, toast &  bananas everything else is "ukky".

My telling them it was 'chocolate' which is a magical word they hear once a year as I am a terrible mother that only hands it out on special occasions piqued their interest somewhat & once they got over the fact that it was pink they were keen to consume it......& like it.

All you have to do is melt some chocolate, I did mine in the microwave it took 30 seconds, add some food colouring, pour it onto a plastic spoon & then add whatever decoration you like. Just a quick note though, dont fill the spoon up all the way before you add the other items as it will overflow.....yes I am an overfiller.

A few small Changes......

are happening at Brusselsprouts. Firstly the Porter St store is moving.....around the corner onto the main st of Kalgoorlie, Hannan St. It is a cute little space & with the different size & shape of the store will come a new layout & some new products.

Handmade will still be available in store, with 12 labels from the eastern states & 5 local there is a great selection. Some small run international labels will also soon be gracing the racks along with the likes of Noah & Belles and the larger mainstream will slowly be phased out.

And most exciting is a new venture that I am in the stages of developing now which will take Brusselsprouts in a whole new direction....I will divulge more when closer to release date :)

It has been a fantastic time at Porter St & I have enjoyed every minute. I have been very lucky to have had such wonderful support from so many handmade labels who encouraged me from day one 3.5yrs ago when I started out & continue to do so today. I have also found the larger suppliers to be very helpful to such a newbie as myself, if it wasnt for their items I would have had an empty store on many occasions & would not be in business today.  I know firsthand that when it comes to handmade, stock doesnt & can't get made overnight, we have children, husbands & many have other jobs, which makes it all the more special & why it sells so quickly. I love to sew & won't ever stop.

Tomorrow will be the last trading day at Porter St....sob....but onwards & upwards with the next step in the journey of Brusselsprouts, a wife, a mother, a sister, a daughter, a woman who had a dream & made it a reality, thankyou to each & all of you xx

Wordless Wednesday........

Naughty Naughty Brusselsprouts.....

My sense of humour has finally got me into trouble....its taken 38years but yes I am officially in trouble. I have been told by facebook that a post of mine was 'offensive' & I have been 'reported'. I suppose I should be feeling chastised by this but I dont really as I posted a photo of a fully clothed person that has been circulating on the internet for quite awhile & my intent was only to lighten the mood of facebooks recent changes which had started a mild mass hysteria amongst business pages.

Obviously not everyone was offended by it as I received the most likes,comments & shared pics I have ever received, a total of approx 310 combined in the space of 2hours. I dont think this is a massive achievement in facebook interaction as some pages put up a 'ballot' for something & get 200 comments in 10 minutes.

Here is the extremely offensive picture & please feel free to avert your gaze, or unlike my business page or not follow this blog................

yes folks it is a person whose identity is not shown & they are wearing leggings........arrrrgggghhh! the indignity how dare I??? Facebook is a business/networking tool & not a popularity contest & I would hate small businesses or wahms to give up on their dreams because they felt invisible on this one marketing avenue because of all posts saying you need likes, you don't you are all fabulous xx

Things that make you go Hhhmmmm #13......

I would think that is the bike seat but then I look at her expression & it makes me go Hhhmmmmmmmmm.....

Dear Dad, Happy Fathers Day, Sorry about the Banana's........

Being Fathers Day I decided to buy Mr Sprout a rare treat to take to work today.......a banana.

Still costing $12 a kilo it is a rare treat indeed to have them in the house. Unfortunatley I forgot to tell my husband I had purchased them, a whole 4 of them which totalled $10.97, so he went to work without one.

I thought it might be wise to move them to a higher shelf before they were discovered by the boys ......obviously I was too late.

Cheat Sheet for Men.....

Shop 4 Kids Spring

A gorgeous handmade product that I stock has been featured in the latest issue of Shop 4 Kids - Spring 2011 the vintage print kewpie onesie!

Shop the Shoot Pg 146

I love these retro prints & have many more designs available online & instore in either the onesie or t-shirt version.

Thankyou Shop 4 Kids x

Business upfront..........& a party in the back.

This morning I have to be all about business for a few minutes in regards to pre-ordered & sale items. I would just like to re-iterate that I only hold these items for 1 week after they arrive.

Listing & sorting & emailing & messaging regarding this stock is time consuming & though most customers are fantastic & either pay within this timeframe or make other arrangements with me there are many that dont & then complain weeks later when their items are no longer available. As of today I will also no longer be accepting direct deposit for orders, payments can be made with a debit card via my website.

I am but one woman who has a store to run, stock to sew, children to care for & a husband who I like to hang out with sometimes. With that off my chest I can now get to the party bit, next week the Porter St store will be closed as I will be hanging out with my two little sprouts.

Thankyou Facebook Likers......

Today I listed my 2000th custom sale, not from the Porter St store or the website or made it or etsy, all 2000 from Facebook!

I was very hesitant about signing up to facebook & had no idea if anyone would want to know what I was making or read my ramblings but I jumped in and gave it a go. If someone had of told me that I would have achieved this many sales in 16months just from one source I would have never believed it.

I would like to say a massive thankyou to everyone who follows my page, to all my awesome customers,  & a big special thankyou to the customers that have been with me from the start & still buy from me. I think a big glass of champagne is in order xxx

Changes..........& 3 Goldfish.

These last few weeks have had alot of ups & downs, the shop being robbed was a down, our family trip to Perth was an up, my fathers stroke last night a definate down. Amongst all these happenings I have been working harder than I ever have & it is time to make some changes. I cannot continue to sew full time, run a shop with 3 staff & myself working, keep on top of website sales, source new products & be a present wife & mother.

I absolutely love what I do and my motives have never been money oriented, if they were I would have given up years ago. So changes there must be, what they will be are yet to be ironed out but I can say that I will no longer be making a Brusselsprouts range each season that will be available for wholesale. I will continue to sew but it will purely be to sell myself. It got to the point where I was sewing 120 dresses a week just to make deadlines & I was a walking zombie. I do have some leads into outsourcing & manufacturing overseas but if I want to go down this road & continue to have the shopfront is yet another decision I need to make.

So for now I am enjoying my boys & waiting for hubby to come home from the mine.....today we went to the petshop & bought new goldfish. Benjamin (4) has called his fish Bubbles, Joshua (2) has called his fish Bubbles & the boys decided to call my fish .....wait for it....Bubbles.

Robbed.........

Last week I got the phone call I had been waiting for, the one where the caller tells me my windows have been smashed in & I have been robbed. Unfortunately there has been alot of vandalism happening in Kalgoorlie lately & with all the other businesses around me being targeted it was only a matter of time until it was my turn. What disappoints me the most about being robbed is the fact that I support & stock 8 local wahms, I am a small business woman working my butt off trying to bring something different to a small town & have to encounter such stupidity as this.

I will not be deterred & these sorts of incidences just reinforce my decisions & give me the energy & drive to succeed. It is but a small bump in the road!

Giveaway Winner..........

Eldest Sprout has been given the honour of drawing the name from his fedora.........

here he is with the winning slip

& the winner is Nicole!

Congratulations Nicole & heres hoping you get a dishwasher this year instead of washing up gloves :)

Thankyou Peeps............

Things have been a little hectic in the house of sprout the last 2 months so I would like to apologise if I have taken a few days to answer any questions/emails/enquiries etc. At the moment I average 100-150 emails a day which I try to answer on that day however sometimes I can't so I am very sorry if it does take me a couple of days to get back to you.

The shop is going great guns & the response has been so positive in Kalgoorlie I am just so happy! Lots of new handmade suppliers have come on board, a few overseas labels & ofcourse I am still sewing alot of the stock myself. I now have 3 other staff in store besides myself & I am looking at larger premises to lease later in the year & a new venture with a girlfriend of mine.

I would like to say a big thankyou to everyone who supports me online as well as in store. If anyone had of asked me 3 years ago if I thought I would be where I am today I would have scoffed. It is truly the online community that has helped me open my own bricks & mortar store & the trust & generosity of other handmade producers & I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. From my first sale of a little hand knitted beanie I made to now stocking 15 retailers plus my own store I truly thankyou.

It warms my heart to see the same customers buying from me & that inspires me to be a good business woman. I like to post up funny pics on my facebook page & love all your comments which inpsires me to be a good person. And lastly I thankyou for your understanding emails & well wishes if things are a  little delayed because I am busy with my children, which inspires me to be a good mother.

Thankyou xxx

The night I met Prince Harry & the Media fallout after...........

About 8 years ago while I was still living in Qld I met Prince Harry in a very obscure way. At the time I was working as a night manager of a surf club and one of the bar staff who I supervised was turning 18, Prince Harry attended his party & I was also invited to the party. It was a very low key casual affair at the young mans parents house & very hush hush. Some of the other staff also knew so we all arrived together.........to a nightmare!

Poor Harry was holed up in the bathroom of the house hiding while half the female teenage population of Noosa sat outside the door giggling & squealing. I felt so sorry for him & after being given access to the bathroom discovered him to be a very nice & handsome young man. I left that evening after a few drinks & chats & didnt think anything more until the next issue of Womans Day magazine hit the shelves.

Supposedly one of the girls I went to the party with & left with & spent all her time in my company with, had hung out with Harry taking drugs & having you know what on the front lawn. She even made the front cover. I was disgusted that someone would make this up just to try and get a bit of fame & that a magazine would pay her thousands for an untrue & unsubstantiated story.

The next thing I know I have reporters calling me &  putting my photo in the Brisbane papers purely because I was there & they thought I was her boss. Aaarrggghhh!

Todays royal wedding was lovely & I must admit I would love to be a princess in the sense of no cooking or cleaning but I think I can take a bit of work and dirt to have privacy in my life. Best of luck to you Kate :)

Mothers Day Giveaway..........

I think its fair to say that sometimes in life we are gifted things that are bad & in my experience this usually happens at birthdays or mothers day so to celebrate Mothers Day & hopefully ease the pain of a bad gift I will be giving away two gorgeous, yummy, scrummy handmade soaps from Inner Earth Soaps.

I adore these soaps and for your chance to win all you have to do is tell me what was your worst Mothers Day present ever. The winner will be drawn at random on Monday 2nd May 9am (aest). To make it easy for people to comment you can either leave a comment here on my blog or you can go to my facebook page and leave your comment under this photo. I can post internationally you just may not recieve the soap before Mothers Day :)

Mr Sprout goes 5 star Camping.........

Mr Sprout has been sent off to work at a mine north of Kalgoorlie for a week. He made a few obligatory grumblings about missing the children & myself but deep down I know he loves these little jaunts. He has his own private airconditioned, ensuited accommodation (okay its a donger but its still his own), 3 meals a day (hot breakfast, packed lunch, smorgasboard dinner), free phone calls nationwide & internet access.
Last time he went he gained 8 kilos, came back critiquing my food & knew all sorts of gossip from chatting to friends back east. I'm really looking forward to him coming home next week ;)

NB: I am a huge Bear Grylls fan but this photo is just too funny!

Ending Facebook Friendships..........

Last night I made the decision to delete my facebook friends. When I joined up to facebook it was for two reasons, the first so my relatives over East & in other countries could easily view photos of my children, house reno etc. The second reason was to launch a business page so customers could view new & upcoming products & see how the business grows.

I did not know that facebook would start to take over my life! The amount of time spent chatting, pm'ing, tagging, being tagged, answering posts was astounding & when you times it by two it became overwhelming. Hence my decision to virtually cancel everyone on my personal page & just go back to the good ol days when friends used to ring me or drop by for a coffee.

So if you find that you are no longer on my friend list please dont take it personally,I am still your friend but I prefer to be your friend riding rollercoasters in the real world not online.

Cupcakes & Clowns........

Only a few more days to go until my Cupcakes & Clown day happening on Saturday 2nd April!

Lots of gorgeous yummy cupcakes are being supplied by local business Cupcake Crazee & a fantastic clown will be in store to paint faces, play games & make balloon animals.

Pop on down between 10am &12noon

20 Porter St

Kalgoorlie

SALE 30% off Storewide...........

30% off storewide today

with the discount code FBOOK30

ends midnight 15th March aest

Monday Meanderings......

Its a public holiday in WA today & the sun is shining so I decided to clean up the back yard & prune back the roses. To encourage the boys to get involved I gave them the car wash n wax to clean up their dump trucks.

Junior sprout seemed to think it also had some great shampooing benefits.....

Pssttt!....Look over there -->

Yes over there, I have a new button....a Li'l Magoolie quake button....click on it...go on...have a look and if you see something you like place a bid.....I have donated one of the very cool & very popular pilot hats.

Wordless Wednesday.......

Autumn/Winter '11 Photo Shoot

Date Nights.....reality or just bad TV??

Three weeks before Christmas I answered the door to the Foxtel salesman, this happens every year & I am always able to ward him off however this year Mr Sprout happened to be working night shift & the knock at the door woke him up....meaning we now have Foxtel.

I have come to the conclusion that Foxtel is more boring than bats**t. It is full of reality tv shows that are so far from reality it pains me. For years I have flicked through magazines at the checkout not knowing who the hell any of the 'celebs' were, I now know they are all from reality shows!

I have also discovered that alot of people in these reality shows who are married, have children & are somehow ridiculously wealthy without seeming to have any type of employment make sure they have a date night each week....each week?? So I posed the question to my husband...'when do we have date nights?'

After some consideration we decided that we were actually on our date night, he had just finished his 2week mine shift, the boys were in bed, I was in my pj's, we were drinking wine & a pizza was about to be delivered. This is our treat once a month which is now officially known as our 'date night'. However instead of rekindling romance ours usually ends up with both of us falling asleep on opposite couches .....yeah I like date night :)