Please Eloise is closing down...

After a great 3 years in business, Please Eloise is closing down. Life is full of conflicting priorities... I have 'real job' consulting work that needs my attention, two lovely little girls who need more time with Mummy - the biggest one due to start school next year - and I desperately need some more family time that isn't juggled around creating accessories, updating the website, packing orders and getting ready for and going to markets. In short, something has to give. This has become all the more apparent to me now with the exciting news that I am three months pregnant with our third little family member. Baby is due to join us in July.

The websites are now closed. In March (I need some time to organise myself!) I'll be holding a clearance sale at the Etsy site. I haven't quite decided how it will work, but I'm planning on offering packs of accessories, selected at random from my remaining stock, at enormously reduced prices. If you have any thoughts about what you would like to see, please feel free to get in touch with me here, on Facebook or by email at pleaseeloise@gmail.com

I won't miss this hectic pace, but I will miss my lovely customers including my wonderful regulars, and all the priceless friendships that I've made along this journey with Please Eloise. Thank you to everyone who has provided me with support and advice along the way - you all know who you are, please know how very much you are appreciated! I've listed some of the amazing business owners and bloggers below that I've been privilleged to meet or work with along the way so that you can visit and hopefully continue supporting them on their journey.

Cupcake-a-licious

Gifts Created

Retro Mummy

Mee a Bee

Katie Rose Designs

Twice Designs

Michelle Stening Photography

Pretty Princess

Handmade Kids

Kelani Fabric Obsession

Handmade Market Canberra

Mathilda's Market

Bella Piccolo Photography

Fly Bird Fly Designs

I may be back one day. Never say never. For the forseeable future however, I'm looking forward to a break and some creative time with my new love - the Brother NS10. I'm armed with 'Quilting for Dummies' and my first job is to start working on a quilt for the baby's room. I may continue to update this blog with my creative efforts.

So, until the March clearance sale, thank you and farewell! xx

Our Christmas break

Our online stores have now closed for our Christmas break. It's exciting for me to have an end to all my hectic Please Eloise work in sight, but not until after this weekend when we've finished our two days at Handmade Market. That will give me one week to finish off all our Christmas shopping and get the Cubby House sorted. Thanks to all the Sydney rain we've had it's not yet painted and I still have to sew the curtains. I haven't decided yet when we'll reopen the online stores, but you can keep in touch here or at our Facebook page. Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

Etsy front page

Out stained glass ponytail holders were featured on the front page of Etsy yesterday. They're one of my personal favourites, so it was nice to see them have their moment in the limelight!

Take that Santa

This is not the first year that I've felt like I'm in competition with Santa. Eloise is obsessed with Santa. Every trip to a shopping centre in December requires a chat with Santa. Santa is the subject of conversation almost constantly. Santa also gets to take the credit for the most coverted Christmas presents, and to be perfectly honest, I'm a little jealous. So when I arrived home from Mathilda's Market this afternoon to find this cubby house had been built down the side of my house, I smugly thought to myself that I had one up on Santa. This is our special Christmas present for Eloise and Ava. It's pretty fantastic, and when it's painted and I've decorated the inside with some curtains, bunting and pretty pictures, I'm confident that it will make a lovely little cubby for the girls. So here's our 'before' photo. I'll update you with the 'after' as soon as it's ready!

Christmas trading notice

Please Eloise will be taking a well deserved Christmas break and will be closing our online stores as of 13 December 2011. All online orders will need to be made prior to this date. You will still be able to find us at Mathilda's Market Sydney on 4 December 2011 and Handmade Market Canberra on 17 December 2011.

4 Days to December... todays offer

Have you been following our 12 days to December promotion over at Facebook? I can barely believe that there are only 4 days remaining. It's nearly time for the Christmas tree to make an appearance at our house. Todays you can receive 20% off the entire Itty Bitty Ava Collection using promotional code DAY4. You'll need to hurry though, stocks are very limited. 



My latest holiday plans

You may know that I'm not happy unless I'm planning a holiday. In fact, I suffer acute stress when there is no holiday in the works, so I'm relieved to have a holiday to plan at the moment. I love everything about planning holidays... searching for flights, accomodation, researching things to do, places to go, restaurants to visit - for me, it's an endless list that keeps me occupied right up until we leave. We're off to Kingscliff in northern New South Wales in March for two weeks. Just looking at this photo is enough to feel my blood pressure lower. It's felt like a long time since our last holiday - our Hawaii trip in 2010 - so I'm really looking forward to it. I'm not brave enough to plan a visit to an overseas destination while Ava is so little, so this time we're keeping it local. Having said that, my mind is already occupied with thoughts of a trip to the US in 2013/2014. It's never to early to plan!