My almost birthday girl!

Look who's turning five! My little birthday girl...Miss Aspen Isabella!

Ahhh...where did five years of my life go? Some days can be very long, but I am pretty sure five years just went by in the blink of an eye! In just a few, short days my sweet Aspen will be five! So here is a quick peek at a new dress inspired by a new birthday! I always think it is rather difficult to design dresses to sell this time of year. People are done buying winter, although the season is just getting started...and spring just seems so far off! So here is my attempt at a dress for all seasons!
Complete with a bright pink and black rosette sash to match! And a headband too, if your daughter keeps them on. Aspen is seriously cracking me up with her poses. She was super excited to have her picture taken this afternoon, and I have to say all her poses were in slow motion to accomodate my impromtu photo shoot!

Cupcakes and cocoa with Santa

This weekend we had the great pleasure of going to an early morning Christmas party with Santa! Santa made a special appearance for about an hour with six sweet kiddos. They had a ball and Aspen continues to talk about what Santa told her about his night around the world. He prefers chocolate chip cookies, and not to leave too many carrots for the reindeer or they get excited and wake the kids up in the middle of the night.


It was a great morning with good friends, and really one of our first chances to savor the season with other friends. We do have the house all decked out and small Christmas projects are part of each and every day! Now, if only these tots would realize they need to behave to get their presents!

on the way to see Santa!

Take my picture Mommy!!! Take my picture Mommy! Those were the words of the day when London decided she was ready to get decked out for Santa Claus! And only her mother would think my stack of fabrics would be a great background to kick off holiday photos!

My favorite photo, was the above picture of my very own Cupie! Don't ya think? I will save the Santa photos for another day...you will laugh...my girls jump right into Santa's lap, but they are awfully serious about sitting with Santa! Aspen finally managed to ask for something other than a teddy bear (which she has never actually wanted, but always ask for because she gets starstruck around Santa!).

Last Christmas...

I was just taking a peek at some of last year's holiday clothes and photos....I love to look back, it is so fun to see how much older my girls get in the span of a year....right away, I am taken back to their moods when I snapped the photos!

Aspen cracks me up...she was so not into this shoot, can you tell? She looks so much younger here than she is now. For me, this reminds of two years ago, not one! That sweet bob of curls, and now she has long, curly Rapunzel locks!

I love Christmas fabric! Christmas Dresses! Always such a fun collection to design. This year I have been so busy sewing up the same couple dresses non-stop, I am hoping to maybe offer a couple one of a kinds for Black Friday or Thanksgiving weekend, which will all depend on how healthy my girls stay between now and then. October seemed to be one thing, then the next! We officially had London knock out her front tooth, emergency trip to the dentist, fix the tooth, both girls get strep the next week, then the flu halloween weekend. So that is it for me, now I am ready for healthy kids and family so we can enjoy the holiday season!

Snow!

Saturday morning the girls and I woke up to the season's first ultra cool temps and some snow! It was a perfect day to snuggle down, sew with the girls at my feet, and then tear into our pumpkins and roast some pumpkin seeds!

Aspen gets right in there to dig out the insides of the pumpkin and harvest the seeds, London on the other hand, thinks it is all too messy. So she just helped Aspen spread them all across the cookie sheet to bake them.

And so after a full two days of sewing and fall projects with the kids, I am almost on top of my holiday sewing! I am getting excited to make a couple new seasonless designs for you all to grab up after the holidays or for your presents under the tree. Hard to believe holiday shopping will be in full swing in a couple weeks! I love this time of year!

A little Christmas Frolic!

Here is my number one reason why you haven't seen me blog much lately!!! This little Christmas set is keeping one busy girl really busy! This year, I finalized all my Christmas designs in August, sent out a few to be photographed, and who knew you all were shopping Christmas in 90 degree weather!

I think I will be reaching my final quantities available in the next week or two, and that is after I was able to score a tad more fabric! Bloomers are all printed red and cream velveteen, so they are cozy and warm on your sweet girls. And the dresses really could not get much more girlie if I tried! There are ruffles, aprons, rosettes.....and every single time I start sewing up one, my two year old asks if this one is going to be her's, so if you think these photos are cute, you will really just gush over it when you see all the pretty details in person!

Now of course, you don't need this all together, and the bloomers are meant to work with all our knit ruffled dresses as well. That way you have a Christmas photo/church look as well as a darling Christmas morning look. Enjoy!

Fall back to school!

We officially kicked off pre-K this week...what a whirlwind, and it is only Wednesday! I have been driving, and driving, and sewing, and driving, and sewing some more...we are on the go! So far, Aspen will tell you she loves everything about school...although, I only get the funniest tidbits of what she says she does at school...mostly she tells me she plays...and then I get the memo of what they did, and it is more along the lines of we counted to 23 in both Spanish and French today, and the kids drew self-portraits...funny...what a kid!

It so cute as the girls get older, or maybe I notice it more as they are together more now that I am home with them both most of the time...they are so close, and they play almost on top of each other constantly. Yesterday, while I was making dinner, they were outside and Aspen was setting up a garden of lemon trees all along the chaise lounge made of iron...she had had all these branches and flowers out, stuck into the iron slats so that London could have a 'lemon garden' to pick lemons from....all while lounging about on the chair. Seriously, that child is so creative....I love to hear what she comes up with...some days I want to make it a book, or have her make it into a book.

Ahh...welcome to the fall school year....and welcome to fall...sometime soon...these cooler nights make me ready to go and grab a pumpkin spice latte!

School Days!

We have been busy around here lately, busy sewing, busy working on Christmas designs, and filling all the normal orders. It has been such a transition to move my business online from running a boutique. Some days, I just want to go back to feel like I have the certainty of visibility with my customer base, but then I think, how visible is it these days? Who shops in boutiques anymore? Almost everyone I know uses the internet as their primary resource to shop for something unique. So here I am building a brand, with a voice that I hope is somewhat unique among all the other boutique children's lines out there!

So today, amongst the sewing, London actually wanted to model for me! I wish I had some cute set up at the ready, but I knew I tried to make one up, she would be done and moment would be over, so here's our little impromptu shoot of one very cute new back to school design. I tried to pick some girlie colors for our girls who want pink all year, but twist it a bit into a fun fall, back to school look. I'm sure you will see more of this design, when it gets photographed for real! Maybe with some bloomers or lacettes...and a pretty light pink lace sleeved tee for the chilly days ahead!

On another note, my other good news is finding out that my oldest gets to go to Pre-K at the elementary school...we have been on a list forever, and finally we made it, just in time for the start of the school year. She's excited to have new friends to follow her thru the ranks in the years to come! Mom might just have to whip up a new, little something for a new day and a new school!

Fall, la, la, la, la!!!

My favorite jacket.....here it is in all its glory! Looks like I have put this jacket on a sweet, ethereal, angelic, little girl, right? Not so much... yesterday, Aspen managed to give her little sister her first haircut...I was sewing a new pettiromper, cut my finger...run off my chair to grab a bandaid...and who swoops in with the scissors, but my sweet angel pictured below....yep, you would never know she could be so mischieveous by these photos, right?

So this fall I partner with Chickapee Creations and Filigree Flowers on etsy to bring you these made to match sashes and head pieces to match our fall collection specifically...so if you love the adornments, you have to visit them to get your own...they are limited, just like this fabulous jacket!

I am getting ready to print up new, fall promotional tags and such...and I am thinking this photo below has to be the one to be my new tag...pure a.n.g.e.l. that's my girl!

Most all new pieces from this photoshoot are now available in my etsy shop...Working on round two now! But if you pick one item that is your must have, let it be this jacket! It is a work of art for sure! I'm pretty sure your little girl won't make it from the parking lot to the inside of the grocery store without a comment on this one!

Happy 4th of July!

Hope you all have a fabulous fourth! May your long weekend be filled with fantastic festivities, parades and fireworks!

Here's a couple favorites from last summer's liberty collection! Swoon!

for the love of aprons....

Don't you just love aprons, I think they make the most fabulous presents....who doesn't love getting one? I think little girls really love them. My two are happy with any sort of apron you throw their way. I tend to like it to be over the top, as you can see...but we have recently found out how happy they can be with a dollar store apron. There is only one of them at my mom's house...and can I tell you how many arguments there have been lately about who gets to wear it...

The full aprons are my latest creation, but the half aprons tend to be the present every little girl needs...and if you are lucky enough to attend the right birthday party, they could just be the presie that is given to each little girl attending the festivities! Yep, that's right, one of my customers had me do 30 of them last spring for her twins' birthday celebration. What a fantastic day that was! I actually handed off the task to my mama! I was so busy trying to stock my shop, run my shop, and take care of two wee girlies I knew I just could not do all of them.

So put your pearls on, break out the lace bloomers and throw on an apron...ruffles tend to make everyday happier! These are the French Market Aprons, all available now in my shop. Stay tuned, I am getting ready to make some fun fall and halloween aprons as well...I just cannot resist...as you all know, I love designing for halloween!!!

more photo love!

I love this photo of Aspen, it is just the happy-go-lucky girl I see all the time without her shy exterior she tends to portray to so many people when they first meet her!

I wanted to add a few tiered knot dresses to my fall line. I really had not done them for awhile and when I was dressing London in some of her sister's old frocks it made me remember how much I love the tiered dresses...so here is the Pumpkin Twirl dress for fall....awesome laying dress, and this is just so cute for back to school photos!

London is wearing the market roses dress...doesn't this just remind you of a French market? It pairs up with the Antoinette linen army pants, currently available online....a little bit of pink for fall...and she had the birdcage shrug over this....the back features one of our fab screenprints....

So did I tell you how humid it was early Sunday morning when we shot this? London's hair is perfect proof of the weather...Aspen's stayed in perfect, little ringlets the whole time, no sign of the humidity...London's is little miss frizz....Just like her mama! London has one of my new full apron's on, as well as the cinnamon layering tee...

So, here you can't see the details, however, Zoe {on the right} is wearing the fall version of my ever popular French Frolic set....since that set was so popular for summer I thought I would offer a fall version...so the apron has the little girl with her balloon...with purple accents...and the pants are velveteen!!! I like to offer pants in the winter that can actually be warm and stylish, and this fits the bill for me! Peasant dresses always seem to be rather popular, and I haven't ever had them on an older model, so here you are! Once again the apron has the girl with her balloon...all in cream and gold... I will also be offering a version with the deerly deer that is one of my most popular fall/winter screenprints!

The whirlwind photoshoot!

So here are some of the first images I have seen of this weekend's photoshoot! I really was so busy taking care of my one high maintenance daughter who preferred no pictures....yes that would be my nameless 2 year old, and then getting outfits on these little ladies, that I had no idea things turned out so pretty!

We had a bit of a snafu with getting all the accessories on time...somehow overnight in fedex world was more like priority mail, so we are missing a few accessories, and we will still be doing a few more outfits, but for now, it all turned out really darling.

And, can I tell you, it was 58 degrees! You think when you are planning an outdoor session mid-june it will be really warm, not the case! It was rather chilly and wet!!! So we had to break out the cowboy boots to stomp around on the grounds!

I had several sashes made by Chickapee Creations made to match our fall collection...they are super fun---can be worn as an actual sash or in your hair as well. And then the pictured hair pretty in these photos is by Filigree Flowers...sort of an everyday fascinator clip for the girlie girl! Aspen wore it out to lunch last week, and loved every minute of attention she had.

And this coat, yes it is a jacket....all lined in pink, in fact you could reverse it! But your little girl can also wear it as a dress if you would like. Such a fun fall piece in my opinion! I love it!

getting ready for a photoshoot!

So next weekend I will be doing my local photoshoot for back to school and fall! I am very excited, and I am under the gun to get it all done! So here is my current plan, for every order I am making right now, as soon as I finish I try to design a new fall piece...so hopefully the four girls will all be adorned equally as darling by the time next sunday rolls around! Designing is always so much fun for me, but sometimes, I put together fabrics over and over and they just don't work, and there goes two hours out of my day! Other times, I get it right away, and those times it seems I can do 3 pieces in two hours! I love those times...but you know when that happens, when I am under the gun to make it and get it done!

Thinking back to when I had Aspen, and started this little thing called Pipsqueak Couture...Pipsqueak Couture was just a logo onesie, a pipsie, with a ruffled bum...and now it flourishes into a large collection. Even just four years ago, it seems like it was so hard to find the fabrics that were just perfectly me! Now, I have to stop myself from thinking they all need to be a part of Pipsqueak Couture! Fabrics are stunning right now, and now I have two little girls to add their opinions of what they like...it is hilarious...I show them fabric one on one with me...so one can't see what the other picks...and what do you know, they both pick the same exact one...each and every single time! Just like clock work! It never ceases to completely crack me up! I hope they always love textiles as much as I do!

Last week I scored a ton of vintage ribbon, old store stock french florals....so you can look forward to that to be a part of the details in the collection! I am working them in bit by bit. I have really tried to mix things up a bit, so you will find darling items you don't already find in the custom boutique ever growning world of little girl's clothing! I have also paired up with a few different designers to bring you some extraordinary details to the next collection! Very fun for me because when each little, pretty accessory arrives, it is like Christmas to open the packages and have the girls try on all the pieces. Sorting out who models what is always interesting around here...it is a fight to the end over every last piece of goodness...each girl wants to wear each darling accessory! And if I try a hair piece on...you would think the world has ended around here...both scream at me that they are the models for hair pieces! I am so blessed to be able to do this, thank you all of you who make it possible for me to stay home with my girls and design and produce Pipsqueak Couture!