Two good birds

Alright. This is a bit embarrassing. But I spent a whole 20 minutes today perving on two good birds.
They’re names were Dot and Mildred. And they were quite happy to strut their stuff while I sat and sipped on my glass of vino.

I’ve always wanted chooks. Fresh eggs for breakfast. And someone to recycle the food scraps and all the old bits from the vegie garden. But I never realised how relaxing it could be just sitting and watching them scratch around the ground. I do think I am in love. They're only eight weeks old right now, so we still have a few months to wait until they're ready to lay, but I know these girls and I are going to be the best of friends.

The kids on the other hand, well, it’s all hands on with them. They’ve named their three chicks Rosie, Petal and Audrey. While Dot and Mildred are pure bred Speckled Sussex layers and likely to be a bit hoity-toity, the little Pekin Bantam girls just love to be cuddled. They’re so cute – I just pray that some of their docile nature rubs off on Alice and Lucy!

I’ve thrown in a few pics of our new garden too – just because I can!

1.

Sharing the love

Those of you who follow my Facebook page or visit my store regularly would have noticed that in recent months I’ve started to introduce a range of new and exciting items, in addition to my own handmade goodies.

This is something I’ve been tossing around for a long time now. I love to shop – anyone who knows me will tell you that – and I LOVE to share fabulous finds. In a perfect world, I’d be the proud owner/operator of a quaint little handmade boutique – complete with workshop space for social gatherings and classes, a play area for the kiddies, coffee and homemade sweets. But for now, while my children are so young, I have to be content with my little webstore.

Little Toot Creations has been in operation for a couple of years now. I will confess – I never really had a ‘business plan’. When I started out I considered Little Toot more a self-sustaining hobby than a way to earn a living.

Demand for my products has gone through many peaks and troughs. There have been (many) times when I’ve thought about giving the whole thing away. But at the end of the day, I love to create. And I love to share my creations with others.

I’ve always said that at Little Toot Creations I would only ever make and sell products that I myself would purchase for my family. And that, my friends, will never change.

For a long time I was steering Little Toot down the path of the bigger brands – a seasonal collection, planned and executed ahead of time that allowed me to submit items for consideration to the long lead-time magazines. I’ve been lucky to be published a few times now (which with a background in PR was always one of my personal ‘goals’), but doing things this way has been quite limiting for me creatively, and has led to my store becoming quite stale mid-season. So, as part of this new direction, I hope to get back to doing smaller runs of a larger variety of products.

So why am I telling you all this? Because I know there are some people out there who will be questioning this new chapter in the history of Little Toot. For me though, there is no question. I’ve always enjoyed bringing my customers a wide range of fabulous handmade products. But to become a profitable business, and maintain some work/life balance, I can no longer continue to make them all myself.

You can be assured that each and every item available at www.littletootcreations.com.au will be tried, tested and a personal favourite of mine. Where possible, products will be handmade. Some will be Australian made. And some may be ethically made offshore by small, Australian companies.

And I look forward to having you along for the ride!