My little worker bee

Today my trainee, Anne, started working with me.  To be honest I was a little apprehensive of the whole idea, as I am used to working on my own.  I do things my own way, when I feel like it; so I thought it might be hard to work with someone.  But it was great! 

Anne hard at work!

She has much more experience than she had first let on, so I don’t need to teach her any of the basics only explain what I would like her to do next.  What a help! She needs to do several different job experiences within the textile industry before she can start university (this is very typical in Germany).  She’ll be working with me for the next 4 weeks. 

She’s actually here at the best time, as I soooooooo need new bags for the website of course, but also for my other on-line shops, as well as designe, kleine and the upcoming fair. At the moment though it seems like I can’t seem to get anything done. Well that’s not entirely true. I am getting lots done, but nothing in the form of bags.  I am working on my new website. It’s almost finished too!  I’ll let you know when it goes live.  I’m also working on my workshop.  I needed to set it up so that two people could work here. I’ve also been building tons of IKEA furniture to fix up the whole feel and look of it.  It’s not quite done yet, that’s why I haven’t posted any pictures yet (I still need some kind of storage for ribbons, buckles and other bits).  Anyway I’ve also had more bits to do for the kids shop. I’m going to install the whole lot next week so I’ll post some pictures then. Plus on top of all that I’m still working part time. Oh and I’ve had a really bad cold, too.  Oh, can you hear the violins too…  Sorry, I’ll stop whining.  All I really wanted to say was that it’s great to have some help and I look forward to being able to showing you the new collection soon.

Scare of the day

Had a bit of a scare this morning when I came back into my workshop after getting myself a cup of coffee to find a strange man standing outside my window…  We live on the third floor!!!
They cut down the lovely tree outside what a piety.  Sure it wasn’t very healthy but it still offered a few pretty flowers in the spring and some green leaves in the summer. Now it will most likely be replaced by a young tree, which from the third floor I will not be able to appreciate.

  

Anyway, don’t look at the mess on my desk!  I’m in the process of redecorating my workshop!  Finally you might say, as I mentioned I would do so about half a year ago if not longer than that.  (that ‘My workshop’ entry) There is still a lot to do but when it’s done I’ll post some pictures on the blog as normal.

Happy Customers

I got some great pictures of happy customers while away that I’m really glad to be able to share with you.  The first is of the proud new owner of the little gym bag I made and wrote about a little while back. The second is of his mom and him who sent me the lovely comment that I also uploaded and translated as I thought it was so sweet.  It’s great to be able to add a face to the person I’ve been writing to, and also to see the bags being worn and making someone happy.

What a cutie!

Mom and son; both happy new owners of Alex Original Handmade Bags.

a tourist in my home town

It was so great going home, seeing everyone, chatting with family, eating good food, etc. 

I left Quebec in 1992, sure I go back once every 1 or 2 years.  I even spent a winter in Montreal a few years ago when my husband (before he was my husband) and I had broken up for a bit.  But all in all I left ‘home’, meaning Quebec about 16 years ago now. During that time I’ve lived a bit everywhere but spent the largest bit of that in Germany.  Germany now feels like home too.  So when I go ‘home’ as in Quebec, things are familiar, they ‘feel’ like home but the don’t ‘look’ like home.  Things have changed; there are new buildings, roads have changed, there are new bars and restaurants, etc. Plus I am now more used to the ‘look’ of Germany, so in a way when I go to Quebec I partly feel like a tourist with a critical eye while also feel like I’m home.  I hope you can understand what I’m trying to say.  It’s as if the place is both exotic and new as well as being familiar.  It’s very strange…  Does anyone else feel like that? When they go ‘home’ home?

Over the years we’ve developed a great system.  Basically I go to visit my family about 5 to 7 days before my husband, that way I can catch up with my family and girly chat whilst I don’t need to translate or bore him to death.  Then he comes to meet me for loads of family parties and a shorter visit.  This time though his parents came too so that everyone could meet each other as the wedding had been just the two of us. For the first time we even did some touristy things.  It was great!  We went to the Montmorency falls, ate in posh restaurants, visited a bit of Montreal, the Island of Orleans and even St Paul Bay, as well as the family parties.  The weather was warm and all in all I felt proud to show Quebec off.

Here are a couple of pictures, nothing fancy, simply a few ‘touristy’ photos.

Busy old Montreal on a Sunday afternoon.

Montmorency falls, just out side of Quebec city. Pick a nice warm day to go as there is a boardwalk right up to foot of it. If you dare... It's a rather wet experience!

 

St Paul Bay about 100-150 Km north-east of Quebec. Cute little town full of art galleries and arts & crafts.

Quebec parliament by night with a new ‘posh’ fountain flown in from France.

A slightly more artistic photo of old Montreal.

 

See you in two weeks!

Just to let you know that I’ve gone home to Quebec, Canada! 

I shall be back in two weeks, so the 22nd of July with pictures and a smile.  Hopefully fully relaxed but probably also a few kilos heavier! 

If you’re also going away anywhere have fun too!

Quebec City

No more stripes!

I don’t think I could bear to look at anymore stripes for at least a week, or maybe to be on the safe side, two weeks

These stripes are the reason why I’ve not written much over the last two weeks.  I got a contract to upholster poles for a children’s clothes shop. I know it sounds weird but I think once finished and hanging it will be super cute.  It will make everything look softer and friendlier.  The complicated thing was the variety of shapes and sizes.  There were the simple poles on which you hang hangers, but there were also some different ones.  How can I explain; these will hang perpendicularly off the straight ones. Here’s a picture:

The thing is that they must also be removeable, as the whole idea behind these poles is the possiblity of changeing the shop or display around easily when there’s new merchandise.  I guess if there had been only a few poles it wouldn’t have affected me so much…  But this is a shop, so there were about 30 of each type to be upholstered.  Ahhhhhh, that’s why I went slightly loopy from all the stripes.  So for the last 10 days or so, even over the weekend and the great 30 degree weather, I’ve been sewing cute little puffy condom looking covers for all these poles.

At one point they were everywhere; on both working tables, in boxs, on the ironing board even on my chair! But it’s a great feeling to know that they are all done!  I wanted to them before I went home, I’m going to see my family for two weeks in Canada.  So I wanted to finish these before going.  As when I return I want to work on my website.  Anyway, in the first week of August I shall go and install all of these in the shop and on the 8th is the grand opening.  I shall take pictures on both occasions and post them on here so you can see what it looked like in the end. 

Custom made

I got a request recently to make a custom made bag for someone…  She particularly liked one of my round bags but at the same time she liked the messenger-bag shape better, though she thought they were too big. So after a bit of back and forth we agreed on a messenger bag that would be about 20cm x 20 cm, with the matching small purse and mobile pouch.  The last two options I sent her to choose from, were the following:

 

 

 

 

Both are super cute, don’t you think?  She picked the purple, I would have too to be honest.  And this morning I got up super early to make it for her.  I thought she would want to wear it as soon as possible, I would.

 

So do you think she will be happy with it?  I almost didn’t write back to her and simply kept the little set for myself.  I think that when my new site goes online, in less than a month, I shall have little sets like this for sale too, what do you think is that a good idea or do you think its too much of a good thing?

Good Morning!

I’ll be back a little later with a proper entry!  Just wanted to share my coffee with you.  Well, it’s actually a picture my sister took when we were in Barcelona…  Looks so good doesn’t it.  Enjoy your morning coffee and be sure to pop around later for my entry about my latest contract.

Lovely comment

I got the loveliest email from Christiane; the young mom who ordered the custom made gym bag for her son, umongst other things, like a messenger bag for herself with matching little purse.  Anyway, I asked her if it would be okfor me to share it with you as I found it really touching.  And she said, that of course I could as she really meant it.

Here the original message:

Hi Alex,
gestern kam dein Päckchen an. Der Turnbeutel ist super schön geworden und auch so, wie ich ihn mir vorgestellt habe, klasse, danke! Niklas mag ihn auch, er hat ihn gestern gleich im Garten herumgetragen und Kindergarten gespielt. Die Taschen für mich gefallen mir sehr, ich finde, du machst deine Arbeit einfach klasse mit Herz und Liebe und viel Geschmack, ich werde bestimmt wieder bei dir bestellen

Translation:

Hi Alex,
Yesterday arrived your package. The gym bag turned out great, just how I had imagined it, super, Thank you! Niklas*  likes it too, he put it on right away while in the garden and started playing Kindergarten.  I am also very pleased with the bags meant for me, I find that you do great work with heart and love and lots of great taste, I will definitely order something again  

*Niklas is her little boy who will be starting kindergarten in August.

*****

Anyway, I just wanted to share that with you as I though it was so sweet.  She also said she would send some pictures, so I’ll post them as soon as I get them.