Spacey

Ah its been a rocker of a week with a break in (bad) and then a miraculous return of our most precious possession - family photos (on the laptop). I would not believe it if it hadn't happened to me. I have crafted birthday presents - a skirt for my beautiful sister and a kindle cover for my wonderful dad. And the countdown to holidays has begun, with the charts to be crossed off on the fridge and the list making commenced.

So, one last mangolime thing before we head off on holidays - I have donated a small rockets mangolime nappy to the online auction being held by the Childbirth Education Association Darwin as a fundraiser. There is a heap of wonderful stuff there up for auction, for a good cause. Bidding begins at 8pm tomorrow night (Sunday November 28th).

Mangolime will be closed from December 8th to January 18th - wishing you all the most wonderful Chanukah, beautiful Christmas, happy happy holiday and a peaceful and safe new year.

Random

And now for something completely diferent:

It is the end of mango season, they are rotting on the streets, but never fear there is even more tropical fruit delights to replace them! So, on Sunday we ate rambutans. It is such a Dr Seussish fruit - just had to share the beauty.

Last mangolime stocking for the year!

Don't know about you, but I am ready for my the last mangolime stocking for 2010...and what a year it's been. I won't get all reflective on you now, will save that for mangolime's 1st birthday party in February 2011!

So this stocking has all your favourite nappies, as well as a couple of new dresses and the new line of shorts which I am loving making. So many ways to use all my beautiful fabric. Love it.

There's a few new nappy prints:

All items are now able to be previewed on the site, and will be able to be purchased from 7.30pm Central Standard time, so, for the chronologically challenged, that's:

• 7.30 pm for NT
• 9pm for NSW, ACT, Victoria and Tassie
• 6pm for WA
• 8.30pm  for SA
• and 8pm for Queensland
• (ahhh the madness of it all)

 After this stocking, and maybe, just maybe, some custom slots available through my facebook page only), mangolime is off on a loooong holiday, sashaying our way down the south east coast and across and down again and across the Tasman, playing with lovely old friends and family along the way. We so so need this holiday, I cannot tell you! We'll be back in January but then its all about school and work and cleaning up the Wet-season mould for a while so I can't imagine much sewing will happen till February. Will keep you posted. Hope your day is happy!

Feeling the love

There is a mother's group in Darwin where all (or almost all?) the babies are proud mangolime wearers. This group must be the nicest mother's group in Darwin, not just on account of the good taste of its members(obviously), but also because everyone I meet from this group just seems to be so ...well...nice! They did a photoshoot of all the bubs in their mangolime nappies a little while ago, and I've only just gotten around to posting it now. I cannot tell you how much happiness this photo brings me. How cool is this?

And the flipside...

Now if I was in the running for a mother's group, this would be my top pick. Thanks Tanya and Jackie ♥

Excuse me while I get a bit ruffly

I am not much of a girly girl when it comes to fabric and designs. You won't see much in the way of lace or pastels or that kinda thing around here. But....I have a newfound love of the ruffle. Especially since discovering my overlocker can do gathering (have I told you how much I love my babylock?). So here are some more shorts/capris, but this time with a ruffle cuff. They have a double gauze designer ruffled cuff with a rolled hem, high rise for cloth bums, finished seams, and a gathered round back pocket trimmed with ivory satin ribbon. Just because. Size 1. More of these to come I think, in the November stocking. If you like them?

Shortstuff

Lately I've been getting in to making shorts - as well as nappies and dresses. They are linen blends with reversible cuffs from all my fave designers, with pockets and a high rise in the back to cover the cloth booty bums. I'll be stocking these and more later this month, for my last stocking of the year before we head off on our road/air/sea trip.

And today I'm finishing off a pair of ruffly shorts dsign for girls which, if I were only several decades younger, I would be keeping for myself. I love them. Will post pics later, depending on how tolerant Arlo is today with me.....(he should be super tolerant considering I slept on a 20cm sliver of bed last night after he crwaled into our bed following a nightmare (apparently it was about a "broken chair".... must have been terrifying.)

To custom or not to custom - that is the question.

One of the way I have managed to keep my life under control, and not to let mangolime swamp me completely, is to not do custom orders. For those who aren't sure, "customs" is basically where a customer orders the item (nappy, dress etc) that they want, from a selection of available materials. It is a great way of making sure some people get exactly what they want, but it also means that you are working under deadlines rather than producing what you choose, in the quantities you can and you when you can. Instead, I have opted for the "stockings" way - where I make however many nappies I can each month or so, and then its first in gets them. I figured this is a fair way to make sure everyone gets at least a chance to get a mangolime item, and also guarantees that I can remain semi-sane as I'm setting my own deadlines. (How's that working for me? Might need to ask the mangolime family for the answer to that one!)

But....I am always getting emails and requests for custom nappies, and this month I broke my 'no customs' rule and made a custom for someone, and then in the spirit of newness I opened up 3 custom slots on facebook which were snapped up quick as a wink. I think I will probably do this every now and then, as it is nice to meet someone's needs completely isn't it? I think at this stage I will do it through the facebook page only. (So if you're not a fan, maybe its time?!)

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this!


In the meantime, here are the customs for this month which have gone out to Michelle, Kylie and Justine:

I have also opened up 3 custom slots on dresses which have not yet been snaffled, the details are here. May be cheeky for a Jewish girl to say so, but wouldn't these be great Christmas gifts?