Cha..ch..ch..ch changes !!!!

A year full of changes, good and bad, but for the best.

 ****** SOON THIS PAGE WILL SHOW YOU *******

STAY TUNE !!!

Xxx.

LV.

Do you remember...Welcome to the Circus?

I made this costume back in January this year for a friend of mine and here are some pictures of the costume worn by


One Happy Customer....

and one Happy ...what ? lol

Soon.....

Amazing people

Yesterday my day brighten up in the evening :-)
After a quick chiropractic session in Gracia, I met one of the most Amazing Person I have ever met in Barcelona so far; I met Rubina Ansari. A wonderful indian lady who has started importing ecologically made and dyed exquisite cotton fabric from India.
I am so happy I met her and surely hope we could colaborate to put live my project.
If you are interested in knowing a bit more about Rubina and what she does, please visit www.thecaringcotton.com.

Brainstorming session

Oh dear !! It is already May and still no business near to be launched...

I know I keep on saying the same thing: I am working on a Business Plan.
To be honest I am having a very long thought about the name I would like to give to my Company.

Many says that I should just use my name and that it would be fine. But for me, this is not so easy, when you consider the designers out there, that have lost the right to use their own names because it has become a brand and it has been sold to some rich investors when it all went wrong.
Can you imagine yourself, seeing your name tagged on clothes, adverts and other stuffs but you have not taking part in the design of these stuffs? Someone else can decide to put your name on a product and sell it and you get nothing? How would you feel?

Not so easy...

So I feel stuck and this cannot carry on. I can't finish polishing my business plan if I don't have a name.

I need your help, urgently. I need a brainstorming session.
Please suggest your ideas in the comment section.

After all you might have the solution.

The beast is out :-D

OOOOh la la !!
What a pleasure to work with this piece of engineering.
Robust, precise and efficient !!!
Yes, I am talking about my new Juki TL98 P (also called TL 98Q overseas).

Why did I wait so long to get myself one ??
Oh yes, the budget was not there. Because it cost me almost one month salary to get it but to be fair, I am so happy I have purchased it. It is so fast and so practical: there is an automatic thread cutter in the pedal foot thingy and a knee lever for the foot of the machine to lift up without you to need to use your hand.
Also the sewing points are so even and precise, just perfect for the professional look I am looking for.

I know she ( yes a "she") will last me for years as she is made of cast iron and not of plastic like most domestic machines.

She is my hero today. :-D

Is it too late for Happy New Year ??!!

Alright, there have been quite some time since my last post. 

I am really sorry about that. I am not doing so well in writing as regularly as I should....I know, I know, but yeah guys we are in 2014. It is a new year, and yesterday it was the Chinese New Year.

So people before everything else, HAPPY NEW YEAR and KUNG HEI FAT CHOI !!! (hope I spell it right).

How was your end of year?
Mine was quite intense. I will try to be quick in summarising it. ;-)
As I said in my last post, I did not see Christmas coming. I had to rush to get my presents for my family, then worked like crazy for a few months and even on the last day I managed to work for 17 hours straight up in the morning until I flew back to France...I fell that I was just running everywhere try to get things done, trying to catch time. So with that, I have not really done anything about my projects unfortunately. :-(
But as this is a new year, new start, new beginning, new opportunities should come with it. Isn't it?

And I believe it is true. Right back after the Christmas break, I took on a great project: A friend asked me to design and made her a costume for a corporate party which the theme was "circus".

The idea

With her idea and my crazy touch both mixed up, a pretty nice costume was made.

People really liked the result and shared their compliments.

 Corset making

Corset making

Final Result

What do you think? Do you like it?
It was all very exciting for me. This experience helped reassuring myself on what I really want to do, and what I am able to do.

Also, it seems that I have made quite an impression with this project as I have been approached for another challenging one. A big one, which I should not say anything about for the moment. I hope to be able to share more with you in my next post. But for now, ssssshhhhhhuuuuut!!

Anyway until then, I have far more to do, now that the fun part seems to be back on track, I need to get on with the boring part: Finance and Legal...Ufffff !!! Yeah me!!! I am not going to have fun in the next months. But that is the deal; no business if no sweat and tears.
I'll keep you posted.

Where does the time go ...?

20th November, 5 weeks to Christmas, October long gone and still no sign of a business :-o

I promised myself to have all the boring administrative part of the set up done by January. But seeing how things are going and how little I did, I can't promise to meet my deadline.

I NEED A BOOST AND A GOOD PLAN OF ATTACK !!!

Back to ....

Temperatures are going down, the cars are horning in the early morning while the kids are running down the pavement....here it is, back to school or other call it "La Rentrée"

Yes, unfortunately the summer holiday is over and it is time to start seriously setting up the business.
Already you might say, well, yes I know the summer was short, I don't know about yours, but mine was good.

It started about mid July with a nice and romantic trip to Croatia with my other half

then went back in childhood for a crazy weekend in a Casa Rural with friends

to later turn 30 and surprisingly celebrate it nicely in family and friends,


then later had to pay London a visit, and fortunately met with friends and shopping treats up there (still love London Fashion !!), visited places I have never been in the 6 years I lived there, like Hampstead Heath...

then finally enjoyed The Costa Brava and its Parks, Nature and fantastic beaches.....

Ahhhhh it was nice...now it is a little hard to set the mind in working mode, but no worries, bit by bit, I will get back to business

9 months and 3 weeks

Yes finally it is over, the delivery has been very hard but that's it: I have obtained my master
So now I am a qualified Fashion designer, Creative Director :-D
It has been a very long and hard 9 months, especially at the end; I thought I was gonna loose it. But I got there and delivered the baby on time.
I am not 100% happy with what I did but, huummm if that was enough to get the tittle, I am happy !!:-D

I kind of already celebrated it by going to Croatia with my other half and spending a romantic holiday there, but some part of me still want to have a few drinks to conclude this again... Will see
Now I am giving myself some time off to enjoy the summer before starting really working on setting up the brand.
Ufff!! I am exhausted !

Nearly there ...

I delivered my final project memoir after 3 weeks of very painful work and almost no sleep. No need to tell you how exhausted I am. I slept 10 h last night!! The first time in the last 3 weeks :-)
Now I still need to prepare for the presentation in front of the jury next week.
Wish me luck !!

1 illustration down, 8 to go

14hrs !!

Sunday morning, 1:30 am, my desk is a mess and I just finished my "fichas tecnicas". It took me bloody 14 hours to get there. Big huge ooouuufff !!!
I still have the illustrations, about 9 of them and the business plan to write and all that in only 3 days !!!! :-/ :*)
OMG !!! Paaaaaaannnniiicccc !!!

Is it the end soon ??

1 week left until I have to deliver the final project and I feel like I have done nothing :-/ I have been working on illustrator for the last week and got my statement line almost done. Still need to do the business plan, the fashion illustrations, sew 3 pieces for real..... :-S
This is so frustrating!! I have so much left to do in so small time, I am starting to panic with a big "P"
I work everyday until 2 am and still I don't see the end. Is it the end yet ?

Drawing and drawing and drawing ....

Hand drawn 51 pieces for the final collection, now just about to do all of this again in illustrator...
So much to do and so little time to accomplish it. This is very stressful !!

Inventory in progress

For the final project of master ;-)

Plan of attack !

This is the last week of the Master and here I am building on a strategy to go through the next 4 weeks of my life and hopefully produce a final master project that will correspond to my standards. Time for a plan of attack !!
Hard, yes very hard as I feel so much like relaxing, putting my feet up and do absolutely nothing....I am exhausted and really fed-up.
Hey !!! I did not spend that tremendous amount of money and waisted all my evenings of the past 9 months to give up now!! So Ladyee, get the motto back to work and get it done !!
Wish me luck, the road is long :-/

In progress

I have rationalised my stress of the other day and I am now trying to do one bit at a time. Anyway I am no wonder women so I can't do everything in same time.
Yesterday I had a financial tutorial about costsheets and other aspects I need to think about while setting up a business... That was useful.
Today I took the time to enjoy the sun, rode to the center and discovered this interesting place : Eliurpi
This little taller-shop is run by its own designer Eli Urpi. This is perfect for my visual merchandising project I thought. This boutique instantly got my eyes attention, cosy, charming vintage style, so inviting !!! Shame it was not opened when I passed by, but never mind, there is a website and a blog where I intend to get in contact with the designer and see what more this charming rincon can offer.
 

Back at home and full of new tools and toys I can play with, I tried myself at watersoluble pencils illustration....huuummm definitely need to progress on that :$
Well now inserted an invisible zip with my new special machine foot... Not bad for a first time, I am quite proud of myself...

Now back to work while the positive spirit still shines !! :-)

The Finishing line

Who would have thought that it would be that hard ??!!!
I knew I was not going to enjoy it fully but I never thought that I would be in the brick of the depression. Really!!
I don't know if it's because managing a fulltime job plus evening school plus tonnes of homework well the whole situation that is driving me nuts or it is because I am deeply disapointed by the school and that is leaving me really puzzled or it's because summer is coming, a lot of festivals and activities in perspective and everybody seems to have fun but not me, because I don't have the luxury of the time to have fun...I don't know but I feel quite sad and I don't know what to do to get better. Maybe time will help.
This is the finishing line, there are only 3 weeks left of school but my stress level is reaching hights: I feel that I am not doing enough, I am so late on every project but I am so tiered and really can't do more that I am already doing. I believe it would be almost impossible to get everything done by the time I have left.
Maybe I am being too ambitious and need to reduce my wishes? I certainly need help! I had my boyfriend doing all the "house management" so I can focus on my design homework, I even had my family helping me on a tremendous project... Is that enough ?! Not so sure, the list of things is never ending.
I am meeting with someone today which I hope will be of great help and will provide me with experts hands.
Will see, my hope is huge!
TBC...

Spring is in the place

Kids are flirting, skirts get shorter, hair are floating with the wind, and with it the hoard of tourists .... Yes spring is here ! Finally !!

What a pleasure to walk in the street without a jacket, and to feel the sun slightly burning the skin... I love spring, the excitement that it brings and that soon summer will be here :-)

But the only downside of this is that my workload also goes crecendo and so until the 18th July, presentation of the final master project.
I sware I will throw a party just to celebrate the end of my hard labour, I so need it ! :-P B-)