Allbell studio

This is just a short post about a few things happening this Friday night in and around Allbell studio, Dunedin (the building my space is in). The talented photographers Emily Hlavac Green and Alex Lovell-Smith have partnered up to form a new business venture A&E Studio, it's their opening at 5.30pm, then another studiomates, Moodie Tuesday (Official), are launching over the road at The Attic and after that The shocking and stunning are playing The Attic Rattle.

It sounds like that's friday night taken care of then. If you'r in Dunedin you're welcome to drop by and say hello. I'll be hanging around for the first half of the evening at least and if you ask nicely I might let you take a quick tour of my space:) 

Level 2, Allbell Chambers, 127 Lower Stuart Street Dunedin.

Pre order

If you're interested in taking a nosey at my new line of tees and sweatshirts before they are released, all you have to do is join my mailing list. It's very easy to join, the link is in the side bar next to this post called 'Subscribe to our mailing list'.

There is no obligation but I'll be offering a pre-order service. This service will let you order your size and give you a choice of base colours/styles. I won't bore you on the blog, I'll save that for the newsletter:) I'm aiming to send it mid day, tomorrow, 9 May, New Zealand time. So if you're interested please sign up so you don't miss out.

Mash up

Ok this is a quick post about a few things, hence the title. First I just received these macaroons in the mail, totally out of the blue with no note or anything. It's not my birthday for a few months and I haven't done anything nice in ages. I'm utterly undeserving, not that that's going to stop me from eating them. I'm no Colombo or anything but given where they came from I think I might have figured out who sent them. Look out lady some love coming back your way soon.

Secondly I'm setting up a news letter for 'Dear Colleen'. It probably won't be more than 3 or 4 times a years so it's not going to block up your inbox but will keep you informed about any interesting news and offer little discounts here and there. Plus it'll mean you're amongst the first to see new designs. 
Signing up is easy:

1. See that little gadget, the one in the side bar it's a bit ugly and called 'Subscribe to our mailing list'! Well you type your email in the box under that.
2. Next you'll get a little box pop up asking if you're sure you want to go through with it, hopefully here you click the 'yes' button.
3. Then you'll get sent an email to confirm the address is yours and asking you one more time to OK things.
4. That's it. Now you can make a cup of tea and forget about it until I send you a message in a few weeks time:)

Third and finally you may have read that I had a deadline for today. I had planned to have a website of sorts up and running plus new branding. Well last week put a bit of a spanner in the works. I have been quietly working away on both but neither are ready to hit the go button on . Trying to repoint a web address is melting my brain. For today I thought I may as well share the new logo. I loosely have been using 2 branding marks up until now, the 'hi' speak bubble and 'dear colleen' in woodblock type. The new mark shows a mix of both but in a style that sits with the new designs I have be working on in 2012. There is more thought behind it but I'm heading out any minute and don't have time to get into that now. 

I actually spent a day on this mark, unlike my existing 'brand' (if you can call it that) which I pulled together in under an hour. I'm not sure why but designing for myself just isn't fun. Big sorry to Amy and Liora who I made the deal with but at least it's got me going on it if not all the way there.

Misfit

I'm a plus size girl and I for one get sick of not being able to buy many of the cool clothes on etsy because they only come in XS, S, M or sometimes/rarely  L. When it comes to tops I'm sort of lucky (if you can call it that) God didn't bless me with a large rack so I can usually wriggle into high street and if I want something on the loose side I just buy boys. I'm cool with this but I am an eternal tom boy at heart. Anyone who takes I look at my Pinterest stream could be forgiven for thinking I'm pinning mens jumpers for my boyfriend, well I'm not they are all with myself in mind. I have my eye on the ASOS number below. I think it'll look pretty sweet with skinny jeans and my winter biker boots.

Anyway as always I digress. As you may have already read I am about to release a line of tees and sweatshirts and I would like to offer a plus size option. The only thing is I've hit two problems. One the wholesale base stock I'm buying doesn't go any larger than XL which in women's will be around a 14-16uk and in mens the XL will work out at around a 18-20uk maybe 22 at a push. The second problem is that I know high neck line tees and sweatshirts are a bit of a no no for big boobs... if you've got them you may as well be proud of them, right. I personally get round high neck lines by wearing a scarf as shown below (how cool is this olivia mew silk scarf!) this brakes the visual and stops the overwhelming wall of jugs look. So I'm putting a call out to other plus sizers, help me:
1. Are you ok with wearing boys stuff? 2. What type of tee/sweatshirt style do you like (if you have links please share below)? 3.Would you like me to offer a custom print serves, you provide the base item of clothing and I have it printed for you at a discounted rate*? 

*The last option would be good because you would get the exact fit you like but as I have to have printing done in runs of at least 20 I would need to get a few people on board. This would mean a lot of organising and with anything that involves getting a number of people to pull together it will take time. You may be waiting 5 weeks or more to get your item, can/ would you wait that long?