Festoon is taking a break

For a little while now we have been rethinking the Festoon brand and store, and have some new and exciting ideas and visions for the future. We had always planned to do more than just bunting (hence the 'and more' in our store tagline)... and now, with a house move on the horizon and a whole lot of upheaval ahead, it seems like a good time to temporarily close the store, to focus on other things, and clear the decks for a relaunch later in the year.

We've loved 'chatting' to you here and thank you all for your welcome comments along the way - it's always nice to know someone out there is listening!

Look forward to introducing our bigger, brighter, more fabulous products to you later in the year.... but for now, cheerio and good luck in all of your own wonderful endeavours!

Jenny x x x

"Hmm.... I definitely think Festoon Bunting needs to be unraveled!"

Cupcakes and stars

Festoon has been so busy this past couple of weeks that this poor blog has been sadly neglected... and we're still not out of the woods yet!!! While time for blogging is short, I didn't want to go for much longer without posting something, so here's a little pic of one of our recent customised creations made for a little cupcake fan - her Mum ordered this to go with her hot pink bedroom. I hope she likes it!

Festoon in the media

We were soooooo excited and proud to see a double-page article on Festoon in the Herald Sun Home Magazine last weekend - whoop whoop!! For those of you who didn't see it, here is a piccie - of course, it's too small for you to read ... I haven't quite worked out how to get it any bigger (help anyone??)... but at least you can see all the gorgeous photos they took!

Bunting for weddings

One of Tom's lovely preschool teachers, Jess, got married recently in a gorgeous setting down by the waterside, and used simple white fabric bunting to mark out the perimeters of her ceremony. She hired large parasols to attach the bunting to, and it really looked so effective.

Bunting is such an cheap yet beautiful way to create that special wedding ambience and we can do simple white styles such as this - or can come up with something individual to match your personal wedding colours or theme.

Congratulations to the very happy couple!

Mini Bunting from vintage seed labels

I saw this mini bunting today on the lovely Tea for Joy blog (UK) - isn't it sweet!?

It shows a Cork pen pot from Papermash (£9.95), styled with mini bunting made from vintage seed labels from Burgundy Brocante (from £6.) So simple, yet so lovely - and recycling at its best!

Festoon - a definition

I was perusing the internet this evening when I happened to fall upon the Martha Stewart Living Radio blog. One of her pre-Christmas posts talked about the definition of the word 'Festoon', and I thought I'd quote a little of what she said here as it really defines why we chose this name for our company in the first place...

"Festoon is most commonly used as a verb meaning “to decorate” in a general sense. But a festoon is technically a specific kind of decoration. You’ve seen those long, chainlike decorations that are suspended from the ceiling, high on the wall, or across a corner. Some blaze a message across them, such as Happy Holiday. They’re all called festoons. It’s kind of like bunting meets a banner.

A festoon can also be an architectural detail, like a chain ornament carved into a wall, as if imitating the other festoon. This festoon is very similar to swag. The primary difference is that swag is always hung with fabric. The Romans hung plenty of swags and festoons in the public square. During the Renaissance, they made a comeback. We’ve unfurled them on any special occasion ever since. Perhaps the real difference between swag and festoon is that festoon began as a festival tradition. Yes, there’s a reason why festival and festoon sound so similar. Both words come from the Latin festa, which was the word for holidays. And what did they do on holidays in ancient times? The one thing that remains that same is a celebratory feast. Yes, feast is also related to festoon, which is fitting, because both are integral parts about being festive..."

I love the word Festoon - knowing that our company name derives from the words 'festival' and 'feast' brings warmth to my soul!!! Let's hope people continue to unfurl swags and festoons on special occasions for many years to come...

Let's ring in the bells for the New Year!

Festoon has had a long, long Christmas and Summer holiday but is now back in full force for 2010, refreshed and raring to go, with lots of new designs and ideas in the pipeline. We sold so many of our Christmas buntings with their little bells, and had such a lot of positive feedback, that we're going to offer bells on buntings as an add-on option on our shopping cart in the future.

The bells would particularly make a lovely addition to our wedding bunting - can't you just imagine hanging the bunting in an outdoor setting, a gentle breeze making the bunting waft and the little bells jingle?

Merry Christmas from Festoon

Festoon is taking a little break for Christmas and won't be back until the New Year, so I just wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and look forward to catching up again in 2010!

x x x Jenny x x x

Handmade Christmas Gift Guide

I can't believe Christmas Day is only NEXT WEEK - we are too excited for words at our home! Most of our pressies are now wrapped and under the tree, looking gorgeous and proving very tempting for the kids, who can't resist picking them up, shaking, prodding and trying to peer through any gaps in the wrapping.

I'm sure it's the same in all your homes, but for any of you who haven't quite ticked everyone off the gift list yet, I wanted to introduce you to the Handmade Gift Guide - a lovely selection of gorgeous handmade goodies, created by a bundle of handmade designers (including Festoon) with the help of clever graphic design from Nykie from Noo Creative.

You're sure to find some last minute stocking-fillers here!

Japanese double-sided fabrics

I've recently discovered some gorgeous Japanese double-sided fabrics, perfect for making bunting.

Using these fabrics it's possible to make bunting that can be strung across a room and look nice from every angle, without needing to sew double-thickness... so a less expensive option for the customer as of course we are able to sell them at a much cheaper price.

The fabric is a gorgeous cotton-linen mix, so feels lovely, and the patterns are adorable too.

Here's a sample of one of our new double-sided designs called 'Robots'... at the moment exclusively available on Trifle.

Mega Christmas Giveaway

Our bunting seems to be appearing everywhere at the moment! In addition to the fab competition being run by Fairy Bread (as mentioned earlier), Festoon is also sponsoring the Mega Christmas Giveaway at Handmade Kids this week. They have two fantastic packs of handmade goodies to give away by Friday - one girl's pack and one boy's pack. The boy's pack includes our gorgeous retro Spaceman bunting and I definitely recommend you head over and enter - all the goodies are divine and would make perfect Christmas presents.

I particularly love this handy notebook from Poppy Bean and Bloss:

Enter to win here and don't delay - entries close at midnight on Friday 27th November!

Our wedding bunting in action

Just thought I'd share with you a little pic of Festoon's simple white linen wedding bunting in action recently...

P.S. personally I just can't take my eyes off that table of goodies..... yummy!!!!!

Win on Fairy Bread

Fairy Bread, the wonderful social network dedicated to ideas, advice and inspiration for parties, is running a competition this week to win some of our lovely Christmas bunting. It's simple to enter - all you need to do is to be a follower of this blog (that part you've done already!), join Fairy Bread, and leave a comment on their site saying why you'd like to win one of these elegant Christmas decorations. The competition closes on 6th December, so make your way over to their site now for your chance to win...!

Fantastic Find: Mee a Bee

OOoooh how I love to swap! Some wonderful friends on Skout Trade Fair have recently been swapping goodies and I've really enjoyed taking part - it's a great way to promote each other's businesses and get some gorgeous handmade creations for free! My latest swap was with Jacqui of Mee a Bee - she makes cute little bags for girls and boys - whimsical and a touch retro - so just my cup of tea. Jacqui is a New Zealander who now lives in Japan with her husband and two little boys, and her creations are stunning - she uses gorgeous Japanese cottons and linens to make her bags, which I totally love. These Japanese fabrics are some of the same ones I use in my bunting, and the quality of them is unrivalled.

It was so hard to choose something from her range of designs, but in the end I chose a reversable messenger bag for Tom - it's adorable - red stripes with gorgeous airplane fabric on one side, then denim and funky cars if you turn it inside out. He is going to LOVE it - he loves collecting treasures when we are out (usually just stones, or shells from the beach) so this will be perfect! I really want to post a piccie of him with it, but have decided to save it for Christmas now that's not too far away - so in the meantime here's a picture of a bag similar to the one Jacqui made me. Check out Mee a Bee's Etsy shop here.

Happy Birthday Bunting

I just had to show you some pics of some fun 'Happy Birthday' bunting we were recently asked to make for the Green Bean Cafe, a lovely play cafe in Fairy Meadow, Illawarra. They asked us to match the bunting up to their cafe colourscheme, and also wanted three of each letter of the alphabet to slide on and off a second string to display the name of the birthday boy or girl.

This was a bunting unlike any other we have made, especially since the flags were square and not triangular, but it came out really well don't you think?! I hope it will make lots of birthday parties at the cafe just that little bit more special...

Winner time

Just a quickie to announce the winner of the Nudey!Rudey! Mothers Little Helper organic soothing balm - we only had four entries this time - so I got my hubby and three children to take a name each, throw them all up in the air and the one that landed first was the winner (novel approach, I know!) Well, despite not having the shortest body or arms, the piece of paper thrown up by my middle child William landed first.... and on it was written "Raegan"!

So well done Ms Foldesdy of A Little Bit of Cheek - this soothing balm will be making it's way to you very soon!

Handmade swap - Thula Thula

I have recently taken part in a handmade swap organised through Skout, and was lucky enough to swap some of my bunting for this GORGEOUS top from the lovely Naomi at Thula Thula.

It's so sweet, even more gorgeous in real life than it looked on the picture on the web, and Tom loves it (sorry it's such a grainy pic... it was taken on my iphone!) It's made from 100% cotton with a lovely ticking stripe pattern and will be so cool for the Summer, plus has a sweet little pocket perfect for Tom's little treasures (stones from our gravel driveway mostly...)

Thula Thula (t'ula) is a Zulu word meaning hush, and Thula Thula is a children's brand focussing on classic styles and cuts from the 30s/40s - all beautifully handmade using traditional techniques in pattern making and sewing by Naomi. I definitely recommend you check out her site for some goodies for your little ones, you will not be disappointed!

Blog Giveaway: Mother's Little Helper soothing balm

'Mother’s Little Helper' is the environmentally-friendly must-have for nappy bags, handbags and glove boxes, now available from Nudey!Rudey! 97% organic and containing no palm or nut oils, and packaged in a gorgeous and reusable tin, it's a sumptuous and soothing New Zealand-made balm, ideal for quenching dry skin, protecting nappied bottoms and soothing itchy skin on a swelling pregnant belly.

Not only that, but $1NZD from every tin of Mother’s Little Helper is being pledged directly to Catherine Bolt's charity Project18. If you haven't heard about this charity before, take a look at Catherine's blog - you can read all about her incredible mission which involved a move for her entire family, husband and 9 children to Indonesia to raise an orphanage for abandoned children and increasingly vulnerable orang-utans.

I have one of these beautiful, environmentally friendly and socially conscious tins of balm here to give away to one of my followers - just comment below on why you'd like me to send it to you, and we'll draw the winner one week today (Monday 9th November.)

Ooooooh I won!!!

OOOooooooh I am SO excited, I just had to come on here and gloat a little!!!!!! Remember the Oz Material Girls competition I told you about to win the lovely shabby chic fabric and sewing tin? Well, guess what!!? I just found out I am the winner!!!! I can't believe it.... happyville... I think this fabric will make some beautiful bunting! :-)

What a lovely start to the week...

Trifle - Layers of Lovely

We are BEYOND excited here at Festoon to have been invited to join the 'layers of lovely' at Trifle.

Trifle is an online shopping experience for the consumer like no other - customers can shop from over 50 hand picked designers from all sectors of the kids products industry – all in the one place. Better still, customers can buy from different designers, from different parts of the world, in different currencies with just one click. As the blurb says, it's a "collaboration of designers, niche companies, handmade artists and amazing start-up companies destined for greatness". So you can see why we are so thrilled to have been asked to join!

Head over to the Trifle blog to see the amazing women (yes, all women!) who make up the 'layers'. You can also join the mailing list on the Trifle website. Plus of course, there's always Twitter!

At the moment Trifle has teamed up with Design Mom for a huge Halloween giveaway - with a prize totalling over $1000 in goodies. This one is just too good to miss! To find out how to ENTER please visit DESIGN MOM BLOG. Here's just one of the prizes included in the huge loot - gorgeous giraffe wall decals from Sticky Tiki: