mmm, after a pretty crappy day yesterday it seems things are picking up today. Which is weird because i had a terrible dream last night. Anyway,  my first happy surprise was this morning after walking the dog, I found in my letter box the mugs i’d ordered from Etsy ages ago. They’re finally here and i love them, they’re even prettier than on the site. These guys are really clever, you should pay a visit to their shop. But beware, when you start surfing around on Etsy you just can’t stop.

The other good news is that i’m finally seeing work on the horizon. Good job I did a big clean up of my studio last week. This means i’ll soon be adding stuff to the sewing section, yeah!

It’s here! The French Kit Etsy store is up and running! So far I’ve only got four designs showing, that’s because I only want to put the new pictures up. I also opened a couple of other stores on some french equivalents of Etsy but they’re nowhere near as nice as Etsy. So now I have a Ravelry store, an Etsy store, a DaWanda store, an ALM store and my very own French Kit website, I’d say that’s enough exposure for now. Setting up all these stores has taken its toll on the pattern writing for Capuccino and Cambridge, but not to worry, I’m back onto them and they should be finished very soon.

Well the photoshoot went very well after all despite the fact it took us an hour to get there in the car (it’s long). We drove around the rue saint honoré and the rue de rivoli several times hoping our lucky star would give us a carpark, everyone knows in Paris one of those has a life expectancy of one or two seconds at the most. So we settled for the public parking which cost us just under 10€ for a little over two hours, ouch!

We went to the jardin des tuileries, Quentin did his best to take neat photos and I did my best not to feel too self-conscious. We were walking around with a suitcase, so funny. Unfortunately we only had time to do two designs, it’s crazy how time flies by. I really feel for those models and photographers who stay hours on end in the freezing cold, kind of..

The result is really nice for Capuccino, on the other hand I’m not so pleased with the Beehive pics, too bad it’ll have to do. Now we still have Pearly and Cambridge to do, but they need more an indoor situation, we’re going out tonight, how convenient!

Is it today Quentin and I get a divorce? A fake one of course. We’re off to wander around the streets of Paris this afternoon to take some pics of my designs, and I speak from experience when ask myself, will we still be lovey dovey when we return home? I don’t know why whenever we do some teamwork together we verge upon divorce. I won’t even mention what it’s like when we team up at pictionary…

Rime helped me do the styling of my designs, she came over last friday which was perfect timing seeing she’s starting a brand new job today.

I think this is my favourite one.

What a good surprise it was to get into the Atmosphere trade show for free, here I was expecting to pay 30€ for a 3Omins visit, what a relief. The free pass was even more appreciated as the welcome I got from the french stores went from cold to ice cold. I suppose it’s a bit normal, after all the counter did give me a buyer’s badge instead of a visitor’s one… Those poor buggers payed an arm and a leg for a tiny booth wishing the sales they get will at least pay for it, which these days is no guarantee. So yeah, when they see a buyer’s badge, they expect a buyer,  not a knitwear designer/patterncutter looking for contacts. And just as I was leaving feeling all alone in the merciless world of fashion, I bumped into Helen and her colleague who have the brand HEMYCA. Helen is pretty, Helen smells nice, Helen’s got style, and can you believe it, Helen is lovely. She’s english  (like me! I was born in Birmingham), besides being a great designer she’s a patterncutting teacher (like me!), and she’s a succesful self-employed young designer. After I get over having been bled dry from buying out my old business partner I’ll be proud to say like me! Anyway we had a good chat, she told me a bit about the british fashion scene, we said goodbye and her smile just made my day. I would so love to work with London..