Bella Jean Boutique: October 2010

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Candy Bouquets by Laura

A new product we have added to our boutique shop is candy bouquets by Laura. She artfully creates beautiful bouquets with flowers, ribbons, chocolate and more. They make wonderful gifts for baby showers, birthdays, "get well soon" presents, anniversaries, seasonal centerpieces and more. Laura custom makes each bouquet how you desire it. If you can't think of what to get someone for a present these bouquets are perfect alternative. Here are a few photos showing off her work! Soon she will have an Etsy shop to display these so you can order them!

Here's one for a fall centerpiece

What a great baby shower gift! It's so cute! (the blue balls are chocolate - yummy)

She adds ribbon to enhance the designs

Perfect for a baby girl gift

And yes, there's chocolate in this one too!

for a baby girl (or might I say, for her mother)

They make great Valentine gifts too!

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Crib Bedding for Eloise

Ever since Eloise was born we decided we would make all of her crib bedding. Eloise's nursery was going to be Bella Jean's model room. We found a photo on Pottery Barn and surprisingly Nate and Louise really like the bedding, so last weekend when we went to Portland we found fabric that was similar and again, they loved it. (yeah! sometimes it seems hard to find something the first time that they love) Well, anyways almost every evening we do a little bit more on the bedding. We started with the side bumper and just finished it tonight! (for the most part)

Each of the flowers are applied using the "raw edge applique" technique. We cut each flower out of the material and a duplicate out of flannel. The reason we did a flannel backer on the flowers is so the fraying would be accentuated. We sewed an 1/8" in around each flower, added a ric rac stem, some leaves and washed and dried the strip. This creates the frayed edges. For an added touch we put a tiny bit of stuffing in the center of each flower.

Let us know your thoughts or ideas!

Here's the original fabric we started with

before any stuffing

you can kind of see the flannel behind the flower

stuffing the bumper

I think it turned out pretty cute!

a closer look at the detail

What do you think? I think Eloise will love it!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Finally Got our Fall Photo Shoots In...

The costumes are getting finished up and we are now getting a chance to get some of our fall photo shoots in, as the leaves are turning. I love these brisk fall days when the sun is shinning!

Remember the latest Shirley Temple fall dress we were making? Well, its all finished it we got some great photos Daisy and Emma in their matching dresses.

They love to play with each other

Emma calls it her "twirly dress"

Daisy loves to come over and play in the yard

I think they both just had fun playin' together

What a good little poser!

She likes to dress-up so she had lots of fun!

Friday, October 15, 2010

Another Trip to the Portland Fabric Stores...

Today we took a trip down to Portland to go to our favorite fabric store again-Fabric Depot. We are starting to create our Christmas Collections for this year so we stocked up on Holiday prints. We also splurged on fabric for Eloise's crib bedding. We are planning to make all of her bedding and curtains and it will be Bella Jean's model nursery. Sound good? It's nice to be able to be down here with our friends, who live 5 min. from Fabric Depot. (I told them I think it is a good thing I live so far away, or else I would be broke by now!) We are also making a special occasion dress for one of them so it will be business mixed with pleasure! (I think more pleasure!)

Check out all the great fabric we got! If you have ideas what we can do with it let us know!

Some Christmas prints we picked up

some more!

These are corduroys we found.

Old Fashioned fabric the reminded us of our friend Leah

Fabric for Ruby's dress (how do you like it?)

Fall fabrics to go with apple fall fabric we already have

I love these patterns- they come in a range of sizes too!

more patterns

We had to stop at a store and buy Eloise some cute outfits!

I know, we should have made them, but to tell you the truth we can't make these tiny outfits for the price you can buy them!

Another cute outfit that ties along with the one that her Daddy bought her

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Our New Niece...Eloise Joy

Yesterday we became Aunties to a cute little girl named Eloise Joy. She is very sweet. Before she was born we said we weren't going to spoil her that much, but now that she is here how can we help but to make her cute little things. We already have made her a knit hat and a little pair of pants, and many more items for her room and for her to wear are in the makings! We are so blessed to have her, she is such a gift from the Lord. She is so tiny, being born 7 weeks early, so we are learning to make clothes smaller than we ever have! It is a fun challenge, especially for such a cute little girl.

Daddy with Eloise

Grandpa loves to touch her

Getting her "growth" sleep

The little knit pants we made

Friday, October 8, 2010

The Many Happenings of the Past Week...

Yes, it's been a while since we've posted but things have been quite busy around here. The costume sales keep coming so those are a constant project every day. I'm so glad our Little Red Riding Hood costume was so popular this year! Amidst all the hustle and bustle of our jobs in the shop, yesterday we purchased a new Babylock Evolution Serger! It is the best in the business. It has already saved us so much time with the way it threads with air, and has an extremely strong cutter. Once we get the different for it on Monday, we will be able to do beading by machine, cording, blind hemming, ruffling, knit cover stitches, and much much more! It is so nice!

We also have a homecoming dress we are working on which we are designing from a picture. It will definitely be one for the website when it's done.

We've got a couple little Shirley Temple pinafores and dresses, in the fall colors. I love working on old fashioned style dresses!

And now, in the late evenings we are working on a couple little knit hats for our niece, Eloise Joy Williams!!! Along with the hat, we are planning to make all of her crib bedding, curtains, and outfits for her. It will be so much fun to have a little baby to make so many things for. (when we get the time)

Friday, October 1, 2010

Happy Birthday Bella Jean Boutique...

Today marks Bella Jean Boutique's first year anniversary! WOW, time sure does fly. It's amazing how you can have a dream of a shop you want to open with all sorts of goodies, and lots of people coming in and out all day... well after much discussion a little over a year ago we put our plan into action. My brother Chris had already framed in two rooms of our huge storage shop, so that made it easy. All we needed was some money- (ver's $700 only got us insulation). My dad helped out (alot) on that end. Since this was going to be our shop, we did the work of building it, along with the help of some local contracters (my brother, especially). We also needed a sign- we talked to my Uncle and some friends, and thanks to them we were able to get an amazing sign (which my brother Nate and Jordan built). We have a friend designer, and she created the logo, the sign design and the business cards (thanks very much Olivia). It all came together pretty quickly.

The night before we were supposed to open all of my brothers and dad worked on our shop till the end. We had some of the little girls over we knew and they helped us clean the furniture, iron the clothes and much more.... It was all great fun. So as you see, it took lots of help and communication to get this business up and running! And we still need lots and lots of help. Thank you to everyone who was a part of building this and still is. We hope to be around for many years to come so your daughters can take lessons, then work for us!

Here are a few pictures showing our business in the workings!