Au revoir

Hello lovely blog post followers. I have not been here for nearly three years!

Every week I get messages from blog spot to say that new people have joined up to follow 

my blog which is really lovely.

I never made a conscious decision to stop posting it just happened.

 Life moves on and evolves and every month or so I would think I should post and it 

just never happened.

My house is now fully renovated which is wonderful.

My happiness group is still going and this is its 4th or maybe 5th I think year. 

Praise be to Gretchen Rubin and her book "The Happiness Project" 

for inspiring me to start this group.

I am still sewing and my designs are stocked in stores in both 

New Zealand and Australia 

which is just amazing to me. 

My little business is now in its 8th year.
I am sharing photos of some of the designs I have made in the past few years throughout his post.

Last year I went back part time to working outside of the home as I wanted to 

get out of the house more and mingle with people. 

This has proved to be a nice mix for me.

Master O is now 16 years old and taller than me and my lovely dog 

Lucca is about to turn four and Mr O is still putting up with me!

I have become a mad gym junkie and in the last 18 months I have completed 6 half marathons. 

I can honestly say that I never saw that coming about, but I am so grateful that it did.

This post is not to say good bye as I may one day come back to regular posting.

It is a post to let you know that if you want to know what is happening with me 

you can follow me on facebook. 

Here is the link.

You can also see all my designs online in my online store, 

I have added shipping costs for all around the world so wherever 

you are you can buy my designs. 

Here is my online store link.

In french Au revoir, literally means "to the seeing again".

I hope to be seeing you all again, I am not sure where life is taking me, 

I am still creating and sewing and I thank you all for wanting to follow my journey 

and for appreciating my creations.

My designs are evolving and changing just as I am so thank you

 from beginning part of the Adventures of Alex O journey.

Hello

Suddenly I realized it has been 6 and a 1/2 months since I lasted blogged.

This year I made the decision to spread my energy around in to a few other areas as well as 

Adventures of Alex O.

This blog started as a lifestyle blog about the adventures of a crafty person so I thought I would share

what I have been up too since November!

 New Rabbit Purse design from November/December 2015

Christmas 2015 was the busiest time my business has ever had which is wonderful.

However I did come out the other side of it exhausted.

I came up with a new saying for 2016

"DREAM BIG, ACHIEVE MORE"

This year my dreams are not so much about my crafty business but more about my life.

Three of my friends are battling cancer right now.

This makes you take stock and look at your own life, your health your priorities.

PROJECT ONE ME

I decided to throw myself into being 100% Paleo. I had been dabbling with Paleo for about 18 months but I never fully committed. So I signed up for a 10 week Paleo Challenge. I am now in week 11 and I feel amazing and I have said goodbye to 7kgs. I think Paleo is the new me, I have no plans to stop this way of eating.

I decided to do more exercise. I now walk Lucca (my dog) 3 kilometer's 4 days a week. I joined a woman's fitness group and go to the gym 2 to 3 times a week. 

I have also organized  with a friend a Women's Netball team that starts in 11 days time (I am a little scared as I have not played since my school days!).

I bought myself some wonderful motivational t-shirts to help keep me focused.

It all seems to be working and I feel much happier in myself for it.

New Inscet Purses from  February/March 2016

MY HOUSE

My lovely old lady of a house needed a makeover on the outside. Mr O is away overseas with work alot at the moment so I have been overseeing this make over. I have had Builders, Painters, Roofers, The Shingle man all working on her.

This is what she looked like a few weeks ago, she is getting stripped right back to her bones.

This is a wonderful thing to be doing, it is however a slow process. We are up to week 11 and the guys are just finishing off the last of the stripping and starting to put undercoat on. I cannot wait till she is fully restored to her glory.

DREAMS IN PROGRESS

I have some more dreams for this year that I am starting to work on. I will share them with you when they start coming to fruition.

I am still working away making new designs, stocking shops and taking customer orders. 

But because of these other projects I have less time for social media.

 I am still here just maybe not as present online!

Do you have Dreams for this year ?

If so are you working towards achieving them.

To Market we go....................

 

So its coming up to that busy market time of year.

This year I am either being brave or foolish!

I have booked myself in for four markets.

Only time will tell.

 

 

Scandinavian Market

Sunday 2 November

10am to 4pm

The Danish House

6 Rockridge Road

Penrose

Auckland 

 

 

Michael Park School Fair

Saturday 7 November

9.30am to 3pm

55 Amy Street

Ellerslie

Auckland 

 

General Collective Market

Saturday 14 November

9.00am to 3pm

C3, 20 Cawley Street

Ellerslie 

Auckland

 

 

Auckland Fair

Sunday 6 December

10am - 4pm

Shed 10

Queens Wharf

Auckland

So if  you are free on one of these dates please do come along to one of these markets.

Please do say "Hello" I love meeting the people that take the time to read my blog, facebook page

or buy my designs. 

Without you all there would be no Adventures of Alex O & Co.

Fabric Rep

Recently I saw a beautiful fabric online that had Rabbits and Mushrooms on it.

Two of my favourite things on beautiful Linen Cotton.

I managed to find out who brings the fabric into New Zealand.

I emailed the company and they called me to ask if I would like there rep to visit me.

I explained that I am only a small business.

They assured me that I was not too small.

So the lovely Vivienne from "Nutex" came out to see me.

We spent half an hour or so looking at all the beautiful fabrics that will be coming to NZ in 

future months and she even had some end of lines for sale.

I had a wonderful time and I felt most special.

 So I placed a yummy order.

My Rabbits and Mushroom fabric is coming in October (which I will share with you then).

In the meantime I bought a gorgeous end of line fabric that I can use on my Animal Cushions and purses.

Here is a peak of it backing a couple of my "Mr FOX" cushions.

 

 

 

 

You can find the "MR FOX"  cushion in my online store

here

Right Now

 

 

 

 

 It has been a busy seven weeks since I last did a post.

I have been busy stocking stores with my designs and

some great things have happened along the way.

 

One of my "Mr Fox" Hotwater Bottle Covers was given as a gift on 

National Television on a programme called "STORY".

This was most exciting for me. 

A big Thank you to all the people that ordered covers off of me after seeing Mr Fox on TV.

 

Master O is now in his 3rd week at a small Steiner Home school of seven children.

He is absolutely loving it and wakes up every morning singing.

This is a bit of a change for us as two days a week he finishes at 1pm 

and another two days he finishes at 2pm. 

So I have made a work space for him in my studio where he sits and does

 homework while I sew away.

I am really enjoying this afternoon time with him.

New designs have been happening.

Little Kiwi's are popping up on Hotwater Bottle Covers, Ipad Cases and Purses.

All year my wonderful mother and I have been sewing Pixies for Christmas.

The first 20 Pixies went out to a store today and another 20 are off to Wellington tomorrow.

The silly season is about to start.

 

So even though I have not been blogging so much of late, I am here in the studio working away.

I leave you with this lovely quote that I read the other day.

 

Mooses

Behind the scenes alot has been happening the last few weeks.

I live in a bungalow built in the 1920's that over the past 10  years we have been slowly doing up.

Just last week we had painters and plasters in to plaster and paint my studio and our bedroom.

Our lounge looked like "Hoarders are us" with all the stuff from my studio and our bedroom stored in there.

Master O and I left Mr O and the tradesmen too it and took off to the Bay of Plenty for 6 days to visit with family. 

We took Lucca our lovely puppy with us and introduced him to the beach.

He is so our dog, he just loves the beach.

I am now home, I spent yesterday moving everything back into my studio space. 

I still have boxes to unpack but it is so lovely.

Before I went away I had a baby shower to attend for a dear friend who is having a little boy in September.

I wanted to make a new design on my large nappy case (or it can be used as an Ipad case)

My friend loves Turtles and I sat down with this in mind.

But I came up with something completely different!

A Moose Head with a little bird.

I blame it all on the fabric that I found to line the case with.

It has Turtles and Moose in the design and the Moose won out!

I was so inspired that I made a few more designs and they are now loaded in my online store.

More is happening but thats a blog for another day as those boxes are needing unpacking.

I leave you with this lovely note I found the other day.

Right Now I am Grateful for

The last few months have been busy to say the least so I thought I would do a right now post to give you a peak at life at Alex O:

* MR O was overseas for 3 weeks in April then back for a week then away for 3 weeks in May then back for a week then away for a week. He is now home for a while and its great to be a whole family again.
I am grateful for being together.

* In a crazy moment I agreed to get a puppy! Who is an absolute joy and he has now been a  part of our family for 6 weeks. But in those early days he had me up 3 times a night.  The last 6 weeks I have lived on 5-6 hours sleep a night. I will confess that I was very naive about all involved with having a puppy.
But for all the drama he is so worth it and he now sleeps through the night.
Right now I am so grateful for more than 6 hours sleep a night and this beautiful fellow in my life.

Here is Lucca

* I finally after years of being asked do you have a logo had a lovely logo designed to go on the bottom of my pixie bases. I am so grateful to have this off of my to do list.

* I was mad busy sewing in May. My sales were up 33% on the previous May so thank you to all my wonderful customers I am so grateful for you. Here are some designs that I worked on in the last few weeks.

* I am grateful for customer orders as they often get me sewing things that I had not thought of sewing
and they stretch and grow my creative process. Just like this order I did for a client who provided me with this orange and brown blanket which to be honest is not one I would usually choose but I love how the Hottie Covers have turned out.

* I am so grateful for my Happiness Project group, the ladies are all so supportive and encouraging and we are all getting so much out of the group.
Some things that have changed in my life:
I exercise more and because of it I feel great.
I am taking the time to appreciate people more and this is so fulfilling for all involved.
I have in the last few months managed to declutter my house (this is still a work in progress)
I am achieving 1 or 2 things a month on my to do list of things that I am forever putting off such as cleaning the oven, mulching the garden. I feel great when I achieve one of these things.
The list goes on of things I have tried, some successful and some not but it is a great process to think about "What makes you happy? and What does not make you happy?" and either bring these things into your life or getting rid of these things.
If you want to know more refer to Gretin Rubin here.

* I designed a new range of purses that I am loving making

So life is good and I am grateful for so many things.

What are you grateful for right now?