ALEX in the press

  

Journal Frankfurt, issue nr. 12/08, 30 May to 12 June (click on the article for a larger picture)

Translation: Totally stylish 

The fashion fair, Stilblüten, opens its’ doors in Sachsenhausen.  

A whole weekend* of shopping, until your closet bursts? During the last weekend of May this dream can come true thanks to the Stilblüten fashion fair. The Exhibition hall at Schulstraße 1A will transform itself into a showroom for designers from Frankfurt, as well as for the first time, from Hamburg, Cologne and Mannheim.  Local fashion authorities like goyagoya, Coco Lores, Charlotte am Main, Frank Harling and ichwareindirndel will be presenting their latest collections.  Stylish hats of all sorts will be provided by Schmitthut from Darmstadt, unique and original bags will be brought to us by Alex Original Handbags, and cheeky buttons by Stellarium.  While a variety of live DJ’s mix House-Music why not discover the creations of renowned designers such as glüxpfennig, Celluba Cou(l)ture, or Gamblersjewels.  Then renew your strengths with a Bio-Sandwich from Nachwerkstatt, and continue browsing the shops down Brücken street.  On Saturday night at 21:00 there is also an After-show party in the Yahtclub.   

*In most countries I guess that’s not that special but here everything is still closed on Sundays, so all you shopping has to be done either during the week or on Saturday.

 

 

More new bags!

And yes, the production continues!

Today’s new bags are my little ‘Day bags’.  I love the shape and size of these. They are so girlie yet still practical.  The size is perfect to go out with for a walk in town or a date.  For any occasion really. You can fit a wallet or purse, mobile, keys and a few bits of make up.  Everything you need really. I think that my favourite is the brown one with the flowery flap, I used this same material as lining for both the brown bags actually.  It’s a little 50′ies I think.  I just love it!

I also soooooo love the red ones!  Oh, it’s impossible to just pick one!!! I actually got all the pretty ribbons as a birthday present for my sister who still lives in Canada.  When I saw the ‘Bavarain’ one (right-hand bag) I had to get them for her, the idea was that she could use them on her next bag collection.  But in the end I just HAD to use them myself.  Sorry Sis!  In the end I got her something else!

Here’s a close up of both of them…  They are really nice quality as well, they aren’t just printed, but rather woven.  I should really have bought more.  Oh well, I will learn eventually, I tend to always make that mistake.

  

Which is your favourite?  Are there any colours that you would like to see in the future?  I would love to know what you think!

 

 

New little purses

I’ve been keeping really busy!  Yesterday after adding the pictures of the new make up bags I kept on sewing until late, making all these new little purses.  These could be used for all sorts of purposes really, for money or for a few cosmetics that you like to carry around for touch ups or why not use it for business cards, or yet again for receipts if you like to keep them apart from the rest.  Or yet again for pencils in your school bag… or for an iPod or MP3 player, ok for the older ones that were a little larger, or a newer one with head-phones…

They measure about 17 cm wide x 12cm high.  So loads will fit in.

Unlike yesterday with the make up bags I can’t pick a favourite one.  Though I really, really like the little mushroom tab on the red polka dot one. They all have matching linings, so they are all just as pretty as the other one.

I’ve been making all of these for my next show but if you would like any of them, simply contact me, my email address is at the top right of this page.  Or if you would like a custom made one, either smaller or larger for a specific purpose simply email me. 

New Make up bags

Loads of new little make up bags in preparation for Stilblüten, the fashion fair I’ll be participating in at the weekend. I know that I shouldn’t really have any favorites, but I do…  I love the brown one with the lime green zipper, I just love the combination of brown and green. That and the fact that the ribbon is sooooo cute! All of these have plastic lining so if something were to spill then it won’t stain the pretty exterior. 

   

Which one is your favourite?  It would be fun to compare. 

 

New website

If you’re a regular reader of my blog then you will know that I’ve been in a bit of a dilemma, I’ve not known if to have my website re-done professionally or to try and re-do it myself using a different program.  This all came about when a few weeks ago I started reading about how to improve my website. I did some research on the internet and read all about this SEO* stuff.  I then wrote to a few companies asking how they would go about SEO-ing my site and a quote for their work.  They all wroteback saying that I should completely redo the site. So I um-ed and ah-ed, weighed all the pros and cons of all the suggestions.  Some wrote that I should go for a standard e-commerce site from a template (cheaper option), others suggested a brand new custom site (one quote was as high as 20K), while others thought I should I concentrate my attentions more on Branding, while yet some others suggested more SEO with a SEO site. To help me make a decision, I made a list of everything I wanted my site to do.  Then looked through all the offers and picked a company that would do ALL I had on my list.  It was as basic or sophisticated as that.

Still I hesitated…  hesitated some more and doubted a little longer.

But in the end I did take the plunge!  The new site has been ordered…  I’m excited and scared at the same time.  It is a lot more money than I thought I would end up spending on a new website.  It’s actually more than I presently have.  But if — or rather, when (one has to stay positive) it finally takes off then it should — will– pay itself back quickly.   I hope!

If you are in the same position I’m in, then why not give it a couple of months before you take the plunge; you can learn form my mistakes, if you like…  I’ll be the Gena-pig in this little real life experiment.  I would also love some comments or feedback from anyone else that has already taken ‘the plunge’! 

* SEO:Search Engine Optimisation is the process where you try and get a website higher up the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) in the organic listings.

Stilblüten #6

Only one more week to go for Stilblüten. Which in turn means only one more week to get ready; sew more bags and plan a nice (but affordable, even cheap) display. As my machine is still ob the blitz, sorry I know I’m going on and on about it…  Well anyway, as it’s still on holiday in Berlin getting fixed, I’ve managed to borrow one to be sure to have enough new bags for the Fashion Fair.

I’m really looking forward to it actually. I think it’s going to be a real success but also fun, as Miss Tula Trash has the stand right next to mine.  If you remember she did the ‘Shopping under the lemon tree’  event with me and she’s a great laugh; really chatty too!

Anyway, just a short entry for today.  I will keep you up to date with fair preparations and new creations in the week to come. 

New funky materials

Well I still can’t sew anything as I STILL don’t have my sewing machine…  Actually that reminds me that I should call the company and nag them a little see if I can pressure them or annoy them enough to fix it quicker, quicklier…  quickliest?!?   Although that could always back fire on me…  I guess I’ll call and just ask really nicely.

In the mean time I have been buying loads of new funky materialy and have been cutting and planning loads of new bags.  To be honest I’m starting to panic a little as ‘Stilblüten‘, the next fair I’m participating in is on the 31st, that’s one week away…  I really would like to/ need to make some new bags for that!

Happy Customers (continued)

This has been a great week for Happy Customer pictures! If you are also a happy person wearing an ALEX – Original handmade handbag it would be great to receive your photo(s) to add to the blog along with all of these.

If you remember a couple of weeks ago I posted pictures of a great new round bag in beige and light blue tones, with the note that it had already been picked as a present even before it was even sewn. Annett and Susanne had come to my workshop to pick out a present and left with a little more than planed. Well, the young lady who received it was very happy indeed and they sent me pictures to post.  Thank you girls!

          

Left: Isabelle with her new round handbag
Right: Annett, Susanne and Isabelle

Happy Customers

My sewing machine is still on strike, well not really, it’s being fixed. So sadly I still don’t have anything new to show you. But I did get some pictures sent to me from a happy customer; perfect timing Mrs. Semple, Thank you!!!

I think, she seems very content with her new ALEX Original handbags.  She looks very elegant too, they even suit her outfits perfectly.  I thought I should share them with you all. 

                               

Here are the original pictures from the website, they aren’t very clear but we can see some of the details a little better.

 

 

Improving my website

I’m officially frustrated!  And seriously don’t know what to do.  My website isn’t going anywhere and not getting anymore visitors than months ago.  Sure, as long as I had the Google and Yahoo PPC (pay per click) ads the amount of daily visitors went up but sales didn’t, so they ended up being rather expensive. Plus as soon as I stopped them the number of visitors fell again.  So I started researching on the Internet what I needed to do to improve my site and it’s ranking.  At first I found the information a little hard to understand because of all the abbreviations, they all seem to assume that you know what they mean but when it’s the first time you read these; SEO, ROI, SQL, W3C, CMS…  They don’t make any sense…

SEO - Search engine optimization or optimizer, seems to be the in-est thing at the moment.
The explanation from Wikipedia is: “SEO is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results for targeted keywords. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results or the higher it “ranks”, the more searchers will visit that site.”

There are many companies that specialize in this and I’ve written to a few asking for quotes to improve my site and the feedback was rather depressing.  Basically according to these companies the only good thing about my site are the actual bags, the rest needs to be redone from scratch.  Some of the problems pointed out were:
-it is difficult to navigate
-there are too many pop up windows
-the pictures open up too slowly
-there are MANY coding errors

To be honest I knew there were problems with it, but I was still surprised to hear that it’s soooo bad.  I was so proud of myself as I had created it all on my own.  It was the first time that I had done something of the kind and I really tought that I had created something good. 

Oh well, you learn and try and improve don’t you.  My motto has always been ‘You learn form your mistakes!’ I now know what I want. I know what I want my new site to look like and what it should be able to do.  For example, I want a built in shopping cart / Webcart and it to be easy to use for both the visitor and for me.  My dilemma is do I build it myself with a shopping cart program or do I get it done professionally.  I know what you’re thinking: “If she’s learned from her mistakes, then she’ll have it done professionally not try and do it herself… again…” The hick is the cost!  Ouch some of the quotes I got were rather scary!