A little more plugging for our great evening! Check out the following, Bewegungsmelder. This site is all about what to see and do all around Germany in the coming weeks, obviously our ‘Shopping under the lemon tree’ event is mentioned for the 26th!
Hope to see you there!
Why not join me at ‘designe, kleine!’ on the 26th of April??? Enjoy a drink and a chat whilst browsing!!!
On that day instead of just having the one little box, myself and 4 other designers shall take over the whole shop, each will then have several boxes to display more of our work.
The participating designers are:
ALEX – Original Handbags – little old me! 
I’ll bring loads of new bags for the spring and summer!
Faszination Schmuck - really beautiful jewellery, all handmade of course!
kummerdesign - cool lemon-shaped serviette holders.
Miss Tula Trash – makes little spooky brooches.
she doesn’t have a website yet… But here’s one funky example!
Naschwerkstatt - pestos & marmalades, Mmmmmm!
Be sure to tell all your friends about it too. If you would like a flier sent to you directly then simply contact me including your postal address in your mail!
Or rather happy Easter Egg!
Enjoy your time off, hope you didn’t decide to drive or travel anywhere as all the News stations said it would be horrible! We decided to just stay home, take it easy and eat Easter eggs! It might sound boring but it was the best decision ever, if you ask me! It’s been so relaxing to just cuddle up to read a good book and not feel like you ’had’ to do anything. Plus the weather has been so bad so far that we haven’t even had the feeling that we ’should’ be doing something. It’s been great! And there are still two more full days to go and may more Easter Eggs. I hope you are all enjoying your time off too.
You definitely have to try these Milka Eggs!!!! Mmmmm!!!! Super creamy! And chocolaty!!! I soooo love the packaging too!
When we were growing up my granddad used to get us a 3 foot high chocolate bunny!!!! Each one so there wouldn’t be any fighting and we were three can you imagine just how much chocolate that is!!! They were as tall as us! My mom used to break it into little pieces and we’d still be eating it come July! No kidding!!!!
Which are your favourites? The typical Cadbury ones? Or do you know of more exotic ones? Tell us abou t it!
Sorry, I know I’ve not written much recently but since the ‘big show’ I’ve been trying to improve the site and add new bags to all my shops. It’s such a slow process! I don’t know if it’s because I created my own site, without knowing much about it. Probably… But when I make a change, even a small one, I need to go and change every single page. Crazy, I know! Especially by some 180 pages.
I have a scroll down tab to let people choose the type of shipping they need. So as a customer you could/can choose either shipping for within Germany, Europe or World-wide. But I guess it wasn’t clear enough as everyone was just leaving on Germany. So to make this clearer I added a simple sentence, the thing is, even if the sentence is simple, I had to go add it on every single page… And in French and in German… So even though I’ve been sitting at the computer now for two days straight I have only added a few new bags so far. Oh, how depressing.
Anyway, I hope you will check them out! I will continue to add more. There are yet more messenger and shoulder bags to come. I also need to add some to my other shops; on Shopwindoz and DaWanda. Here are a couple of pictures to get you in the mood!
The Freibank Fashion Fair was on last weekend which is why I’ve not written for the past few days. I’ve been/am pooped to be honest. It all started on a rainy Friday morning. We were there at 8:00 am to set up, the official opening was at 10:00, so that didn’t leave that much time to set up, but it was enough. To be honest many people didn’t show up until about 12:00 which was a little annoying as we had been there so early to get ready, I too, would have quite happily stayed in bed a little while longer. I was there until about 10:00 pm, as there was a fashion show from 7:00 to 9:00 pm and everyone was hanging around, chatting, having a drink. The atmosphere at this point was really nice so it was quite nice to have a glass of bubbly with everyone I had just met. Saturday it was on from 10:00 until 8:00 pm then Sunday from 10:00 until 6:00 pm… Then we had to dismantle everything and bring it all home. So now you know why I am pooped.
It was quite an experience though, it was very different to the fairs that I’ve participated in in the past, which was a real eye opener. There was some cool stuff for sale from designers from all around Germany, not always self-made but self-designed, well mostly, there were also a couple of agents there too. There were some really cool people walking around with all sorts of outfits! I wish I could pull off such style!
Another reason I am so pooped is that I am used to working at home all on my own in my little workshop, but the last three days has been, chat, chat, chat, sell, sell, sell in German at that. I can speak German but I still find it strenuous. You have to think more than normal for the right word all the time, then I end up dreaming in it… So after a day of speaking German I don’t normally sleep well, as I’m still thinking of how to say things correctly and about the grammar and the conjugations… Silly isn’t it!?!
Anyway, what do you think of my stand? I thought it looked quite funky and fit into the atmosphere of the fair really well. Though, it isn’t ‘IT’! I still think it can be improved. It looked cute and fun but it was a little unstable and the boxes were a little too small for the triangular and shoulder bags who are actually the favourite bags! Also they were a little deep, so the bags kept on falling over. So I have to come up with a better idea. One that will make more of a separation from the stands on either side too, as I had to ‘defend’ my area from people who wanted to look at the jackets from the stand next to mine from my side all the time. I had to keep post and chase them away so that ‘my’ customers could see ‘my’ work, that was really annoying to be honest. Most importantly though I need to find more fairs of this type! I don’t particularly want to do arts & crafts fairs anymore… They simply aren’t worth all the effort!
Well, I’m all packed and ready for the Freibank Fashion Fair that starts tomorrow morning. I always find it so hard to pack, as each bag is unique I always find it difficult to choose which bags to bring along and which to leave behind. I mean, you want to offer your potential customers as many choices as possible, but at the same time you can’t take them ALL. There wouldn’t be any point anyways, as it won’t be possible to display them all. And I think it’s a little silly when you start rummaging through boxes for a bag you think you packed but aren’t sure in which box while your customer stands there, waiting and getting annoyed.
I started with the thought of bringing 5 of each large bags, but in the end I have more shoulder bags as shopping bags, simply because the shoulder bags are cooler but also because I think that the clientele will prefer them. Although I’ve never been to this particular fair or show, it is aimed at a much younger and stylish public as the average Arts & Crafts fair. So over the past weeks I’ve tried to make funkier, more colourful bags, that I hope this public will be able to appreciate. I’ve also packed as many little bags, purses, make up bags and wristlets as I could.
I will take loads of pictures and post them as soon as I can. Though saying that I think it wont be before the beginning of next week. The fair is from 10:00 til 20:00 on Friday and Saturday, then 10:00 until 18:00 on Sunday so it doesn’t leave much time for anything else, even Blogging. It was all a little confusing actually as on their website it says it starts at 12:00 on Friday, so I thought, wow, that’s plenty of time to pack everything and build up the stand without stress on the Friday morning. But it turns out that it is actually starting at 10:00 which means that we should really be there at 8:00 to start building everything. I say ’we’ as my husband was great enough to take the day off work to help me set everything up. We could have built up the stand this evening actually but today is his birthday so we’re not going to build anything… We decided it would be nicer to enjoy a nice evening for his birthday and then build everything tomorrow, even if it means more stress then. It also means a nicer, less sweaty and less stressful evening tonight. As I must admit that I tend to get a little bossy when we are setting up my stands. I don’t mean to, I just can’t help it, it’s when I start worrying about if I thought of everything and wonder how sales are going to be and so on and so on. Anyway, that’s exactly why we are saving all this until tomorrow morning. Tonight we are going out for sushi as it’s his favourite!
Shopwindoz is now available in English!!!
I also improved the look of my shop. I hope you think it looks better. If not, I’m open to suggestions. To see the old not so nice version - click here.
Please go check it out and give me a good rating
Yesterday we drove down to Stuttgart to visit Blickfang Design Fair. I wanted to visit it, firstly because I had applied to it and didn’t get a spot so I wanted to see if it would be worth trying again. Secondly, to see what else people are making. Thirdly, I needed some desplay ideas for my fair coming up next weekend. And lastly, just to get out of Frankfurt and to spend the day something different.
The day started off cold and dreary but the sun came out as we were driving there, which made it all that much better. Well, where to start?!? The city itself was a lot nicer that I thought it would be. I had heard very negative things about it, that it was very industrial and not worth visiting. I have to totally disagree, there is a castle right in the centre which actually reminded me of Versailles in Paris. All the cafes were full with people enjoying the nice weather. It was Sunday so all the shops were closed but there was a very good variety of store and I bet the shopping there is very good. All in all it was lovely, but that wasn’t why we did the 2 hour drive.
Blickfang in Stuttgart is a three day event. It also takes place in Vienna, Zurich and Tokyo, you should check out their site for more information and dates if you are interested in visiting. I thought that the quality of the designers was impressive, the stands looked great as did their designs, what disappointed me was the size of it… We were done in an hour. I was expecting to be there all afternoon or at least for several hours. I mean we didn’t rush through or anything, but the was sooooo many people it was often awkward to see some of the stands. To be honest we were done so quickly we went through it a second time hoping to find a section we had missed the first time around.
The were many furniture stands and I must admit some of their products were very cool indead. One had a rocking bed! But my favourite of all was ‘Kißkalt Designs’. I so wish I could make my stand out of their cool shelving system, but then I guess everyone would be more interested in the selves rather than my bags. Check out their site for their other cool products.
My husband’s favourite had nothing to do with furniture or displays but their product was probably the most original. Well in his opinion… ‘Schlauch’ is the name of the company, they make really funky belts and key hangers out of ’Schläuche’ or better known in English as inner tubes.
I was simply browsing for nice sites the other day when I found this! I thought it was SUPER COOL! It’s worth a watch, it isn’t too long either!
I might give it a go, though saying that living here in Germany you never really have too many plastic bags. Here you have to buy them, so most of the time you bring your own or a cool tote/shopping bag, why not have a quick look at mine. It’s much better for the environment than getting tones and tones of those thin plastic bags that are so thin that you can only really use them once, as you do in the UK and most of North America. I guess it’s not set up, like here, for you to use your own. Anyway, I know I’m going on and on. Why not watch the clip and tell me what you think. If you try it, let me/us know how it went. And if I try it I will let you know to. Deal?
I came away from the Froh Markt on saturday with two more custom made orders. The first for a large mobile purse and the other a little camera case.
One woman fell in love with my little mobile pouches and purses but she owns one of those HUGE things that you can flip open for a full keypad. She said she had looked everywhere for a pretty little something to protect it but hadn’t found anything so far. So she asked if I could make her one, just for her. Of course! She liked the yellow material the best, so I measured the phone and promised to make her something nice. I think it looks really cute.
The other order is a birthday present for a man. Basically his girl friend had borrowed his camera and thought it would be nice to have a protective case especially made. Something that no one else would have. She popped around to my workshop yesterday so we could pick the material. It went really quick, she like the green right away. It was rather difficult to make, anything small is much more difficult to work on than large things. But I think the end result is quite cute and practical as it is heavily padded. I’m not usually very good with manly things so I had to make a big effort and held back, not adding too many details. We decided on Velcro, becasue this way the camera straps can still be used.
Wouldn’t you like a little something simular???
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