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 :)