Why the name?

It occurred to me at about 2am one morning, often when I do most of my thinking actually, not by choice though I have to admit, I am an insomniac and when the house is quiet and all you hear are your thoughts and the squirrels in the attic, I often start to write a better blog, unfortunately that never seems to materialize. Well as I was laying next my sound asleep hubby and listening to the squirrels and my son snoring that it may seem strange to title a blog "Ella's Wardrobe" when it does nothing to feature clothes, shoes,  Alsan or anything you might find in a wardrobe! So I figured why not share with you ...why the name?!

Back in 2005 one of the hottest summers since I have been here (11 years) we were expecting this delightful bundle of joy, yes I looked crazy cutting the grass with a boob tube on and my pregnant belly poking out underneath, but I didn't care I was hot~literary, passer by's would slow down the car to get a good look at this insane English chick pushing a heavy lawnmower with a 1 1/2 year old (Jude) following me closely! Well later that year  along came our lovely little girl Ella, and like most parents we wanted to make sure she knew how much we loved her by naming everything after her, not that we don't love Jude but Ella is a girl so naturally things will always be more complicated, more effort and more emotional with her, I hate to say that but it's true. Even now at the age of 5 she has mood swings like she is totally PMT'ing! (PMS'ing) get a grip girly pop, you are going to have this for the rest of your life!!!

So anyway in an effort to try to and indulge my little diva I named a clothing line, a blog, an ebay account, twitter account and a facebook page oh and I also have a website address too! All this for a little girl that really rocked our world, we were even going to open up a brick and mortar store called, yep you've guessed it, Ella's Wardrobe. That would have made total sense, as it would have been like stepping into her wardrobe or closet! But thankfully that didn't happen and I can shop without the stress at my fav local boutique without having to pay rent for the space!

The clothing line was fun you can see a sample of what I used to do below, how little those little lovelies were! This obsession with Ella and clothes led to other bigger things, my hubby even built me a studio in our back garden so I wouldn't have to be sewing in the dining room until 3am, although that didn't really stop me, I just had the space to do it in!

5 years later and still blogging (if that's what you call it?) I was thinking of changing the name of this blog to reflect everything else I (we) do, I stopped making so many clothes for other people and now just do one-offs for the princess although I do take requests and oh you can also see some one-of-a-kind T-shirts that I make for the above store too. So go check those out as well when you are getting coffe or something? 
Well we moved the studio to a place that's bigger, still at home but it allows me to really concentrate on home furnishings, windows coverings and my window art. Hence An English View was born, my real business that I actually get paid to do.

So do I keep Ella's Wardrobe? Do I keep this name that started almost everything? I think I will! you never know one day my daughter may take it over from me???

Thanks Ella...Lovexxx

"An English View" through an American window

I think I've said may times before that I am not a writer but I have lots of thoughts going through this brain of mine, normally at 2 in the morning! This is why my blog is mostly pictures and not very interesting, I guess for on-line writing, I'm a "fakey cake baker" (that line is another story) Hence all the photos, I am also very visual too, so I get distracted unless I have something to look at, most of you are normal and are able to concentrate for more than two seconds?!

So today I wanted to write about what an amazing day I have had. I got to spend time snuggling in bed watching the laptop with my two darlings, Jude & Ella, and then I sewed a little, ate a little, but then I got to go and fit a roman shade at this LOVELY families house... really this family are so sweet, they have two little girls and are expecting their third and I had the privilege of helping them out with the nursery window treatments. Sandra was so open but knew what she wanted, not surprising really as she is also a lady of many talents, check it out! It is so awesome working with her. So with my real business "An English View" we have come up with some fun designs, here is a little of what we had concocted for the nursery, it looked SOOOOO cute.

So Before... not to sad with those lovely colour walls but you know my love for vertical blinds! I knew we could make it amazing.

 

And After...

   

 

Remember Joy? Well she kindly worked up a custom birdie for me just for this project!

  

 

I also got to work with her sweet little girl, Charlotte, she is so stinking cute!

Here she is letting me know how much she loves the camera, Oh and the blind should go there...

                      

I can't wait for the next project!

A good clean?!

Whenever Micah & I are talking I'll always reference various stories with "the other day" The other day could have been 50 years ago and not really just the other day! Such as the other day my sister and I were on our bikes (we would have been about 10!!) as you can see I have a vague sense of time! So with that in mind...

The other day I came across this guy and gal! (yah about 6 years ago!!!!!) It feels like the other day, because recently I discovered they make soap! ( about 6 months ago)

So without further ado let me introduce to you Rich & Kate, just look at their picture and tell me that you expected that they make soap?? If I had said they are involved in high fashion clothing, shoes, or decorating that would have been expected right? Nope my fellows... SOAP! In fact not just soap, but lip balm... which is the BEST I have ever had (although not currently offered) and they keep bees and are now striving for a minimalist lifestyle. How rare to meet a beautiful young couple so eager to fend for themselves and encourage others to so the same?! Rich has a unique and interesting blog called I will escape here focusing on perfecting minimalism.

 

I did interview them both, and one of the most interesting to date... Read on...

Rich and Kate have been doing extensive research on their product for about two years now and finally have their own website called "The Duchess and Duke Soap Company" which is still currently under construction, but keep checking back because they are working on getting stocked in the next few weeks. Haven't you seen successful soap makers with terrible websites!! But one of Duchess and Duke's motto's is "the little things are the biggest things" which is great considering you will be coming into close contact with their soaps!

If you couldn't tell by the vintage feel to the photo Rich & Kate tell me that they get a lot of Ideas from the blending of modern and classic elements. "We're inspired by the rich excess of Europe in the 1700's and 1800's. When we began to appreciate the extent of the details put into fabrics, furniture, and clothing of that time period we wanted to incorporate a degree of that into the products we produce but with a fresh approach. We're going to do some homework once we get rolling to make sure we've got some fresh packaging design." Don't the soaps and the packaging remind you of that? They look great.

Rich & Kate tell me how tired they are of receiving so many things which are mass produced in factories overseas these days.
We would agree with them that most of it is complete junk and don't you get tired of junky things. In this economy if we are going to be spending money on luxury items then the wanted quality needs to be the best! And that's what Duchess and Duke have resolved to provide.

In Rich's words "One of my personal mottos regarding Duchess and Duke is "Every Detail Ardently Observed." We're not selling soap, but we're providing a sense of quality and a feeling of luxury to every person who unwraps a bar of our soap. Every morning I make a french press from freshly ground coffee beans, and to me that's a small luxury that I enjoy. I feel that premium soap is another one of those small luxuries everyone can appreciate.
How do we stay inspired? We pay attention to the littlest details and when you're so focused on something, you always find new things to be inspired by, but for me personally, the biggest motivation is Kate. She's said that I'm the brains behind Duchess and Duke, but she has to be the heart of it"

 

Honestly, its so nice to see them passionate about what they are doing and, not just focus on selling, but that they focus on perfecting their product.

Don't think its all roses for out ardent couple! It has been a struggle and a learning process, with more to come no doubt! Especially trying to start a business here in friendly CA! (detect the sarcasm?)

Thank you so much Rich & Kate for your input and candid response! I can't wait to test the soap out for myself! I hear it's an amazing product!

Before and After... and a little plug...

I have been dying to add this before and after to the blog for sometime now. Most of you know about An English View , my real business where I actually sew real things such as curtains, blinds, bedding, pillows etc...  

I was going to wait until I had made all the throw pillows before I posted pictures! Ha! no such luck in getting those done anytime soon so I'll have to post those pictures another time! 

When we moved into this amazing house back in July we quickly changed the paint and I made the blinds for Ella's bedroom that kind of left me a little winded, after all making 5 interlined roman shades is no easy task... 

Well crunch came to crunch and the wretched blind in the living room finally fell down one to many times, grrrrrrrr do you know how hot and sweaty and flipping irritating that can be to keep having a dog chewed blind (not ours, we only have cat's and a bunny) fall on you 20 million times!!!! it makes you that way!!!!!

So I HAD to do something about it but you know me I'm not happy with run of the mill fabric from some cheesy craft store, no that would make it way to easy!

Instead I peruse the world wide web in order to find delicious and exciting new and different fabrics, one of my fav places to shop...

HAWTHORNE THREADS

They have an amazing selection and a great website. The colors are really close to what you receive. You can tell they  really spend a lot of time with it.
They also have the site set up so you can find coordinating colours. It really is well done (thank you :) hope its also ok to use your Logo picture?)

Well I saw this fabric from the lovely  Anna Maria Horner  and bought a half yard to make some nice cushion covers with, but I fell in love! yep sorry Micah, move over and make room for Innocent Crush Velveteen... Turn of Events in Pow! love the name!


So back to the dog chewed ratty blinds! Here are some (awful, I'm not a photographer!) pictures of the suspects! THEY HAD TO GO... HAD TO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Not that they were too horrible!

okay sorry I can't do it I HATE these types of shades, I know they serve their purpose and are very cheap and practical etc, etc, etc... but they are so sad looking and did I mention they fall down really easily? Just a pet dislike, rather like walking into Walmart! we all have standards... don't judge me!

 

Can you see how bad this was, it was always so close to my head too... bletch ( am I building it up enough for you?!)

So I hired (ahem married) a hunk and he set to work helping me remove these blimnin, dog chewed, head wrecking awful blinds.

Can you see a glimmer of the delicious fabric?




And I just had to post a picture of the drill-set my lovely man bought me... most girls like diamonds, chocolate or flowers... I like power tools (I do like the above to though ;-))

And here we go...

The first stages of the blinds, measure, cute and sew!

Yep that easy, except not! 

You really have to make sure everything has been cut "square" so it pulls up straight, again not so easy especially when the windows are old and not square.

Here I have the backing fabric laid out and pinned. The pins represent where the pockets for the rods will go. Notice I also used a checked fabric for the backing instead of just ordinary lining, that way from the street it still looks good. 

 I ended up rolling the fabric on to a cardboard roll, this helped to get rid of the half carded crease that came in the fabric.

So when I have the pocket sewn in I then sew onto the shade (by hand), again there are many more details that go with this for instance you can see I have the sides of the blind already turned in, they also have to be "squared" up, again a pain in the rear, but worth the hassle! 

 Yep, I do use my own felt rings for sewing too and not just a fun accessory!

 

I really do do the work too! 

Here is a close up of the back, you can see how nice the check contrasts with the face fabric.

... The Final Product...

Now the fun begins! 

Once the old blinds were done, I fasted the wooden battens up in to place and Voila! new blinds from amazing fabric.

 Things like this really make a difference too. Remember Joy from my last post, well she made these sweet little birds that I used as pulleys for the blind... Perfect!

 I found this little fairy thing too, I thought she could keep the birds company whilst we are not home. Hmmm I think she needs a name!

 

The view from the outside

 Oh and notice in the first picture too, the old sofa! Well thanks to my lovely Ella we had to replace it, we found this velvet one from West Elm, which happens to be perfect with the shades of the colours in the blinds... completely planned, but don't tell Micah it was!

And what room would not be complete without these awesome Mongolian sheep skin pillows?

Well if you finally got through this and are still reading, I would love to help you with your roman shade project... first person to email me about this wins a free (full day) session with me and a tutorial... yep I'm keeping it small just in case you miss it ;-) Oh I do get to post pictures and blog about it, so if your camera shy... sorry.

~ With Love

Georgina!