Jenny at Festoon

Laura at LK Photography has sent me back the portait she took of me yesterday - here it is!!! Finally you can see what I look like... eeeeeeeek!!! I guess it's always good to put a face to a name.. but then again, I am not so sure......

LK Photography

You may have noticed that I have been rather quiet for the last week or two... hopefully those of you out there who follow my blog may have noticed a lack of chatter from me lately (or if you haven't then I guess I should be feeling concerned at not having been missed...) Anyway, the lack of blog chat has been for a couple of reasons...

Firstly, we have been incredibly busy with bunting creation, so it's been sew, sew, sew here at Festoon Towers. That's a good thing, right! Secondly, we have been awaiting the free photoshoot we recently won with LK Photography - knowing we had some great piccies about to be taken meant that we felt less inspired to post any of our own shoddy ones!!! This was due to take place early last week, was postponed to Wednesday due to a delay in shipping of our new Christmas fabric, then was again postponed when we awoke that day to bright orange sand-stormy skies! Orange-tinged piccies are sooo not a good look where product shots are concerned, although the sepia tinge looked beautiful...

(LK Photography's pic of the sky that day...)

Anyway, to cut a long story short, the much-awaited photoshoot finally took place today - yipppeeee! The lovely Laura from LK Photography was an absolute star and worked like a trooper to get all the product shots done and even took the time to take a portrait of me as requested by a newspaper shortly running a feature on Festoon (more of that when the feature comes out...)

She is such a pro and so sweet - the allotted time over-ran but she didn't complain, and I would totally recommend her. She does portraits, weddings and commercial shoots and is able to work under even the trickiest of conditions and with the most un-photogenic of models (me!!!)

I can't wait to see the finished pictures...and introduce our lovely Christmas bunting to the website!

Fairy Bread

I was so happy to see that Fairy Bread have made Festoon Bunting their 'favourite thing' this week. Fairy Bread is a wonderful social network devoted to ideas, advice and inspirations for the perfect children's celebration and we're so glad to be part of it!

We have some winners!!!

After some thought, it was decided we'd separate the four packs of identitats offered by Tat your Tot in this comp so that we could have four lucky winners instead of just one ... so with that in mind my lovely little Miss 9 drew the following names from the hat:

Mad Cow (Amanda)

Louise Deed

Little Diva

Pretty things Distract Me

You will ALL be receiving your own pack of write-on identitats - helping to keep your children safe when you are out and about. Well done all and thanks a million for all the entries we received!

For those of you who didn't win, don't worry - we are running another giveaway here at Festoon very soon - this time in conjunction with the groovy A Little Bit of Cheek - it's going to be a big one! Watch this space...

Blog giveaway and fantastic find: Tat your Tot

Tat your Tot is a wonderful website with a really innovative and gorgeous product - personalised identity temporary tattoos or 'Identitats' for kids.

As a parent of three myself, I know how scary it can be to lose your child even for the shortest amount of time in a busy place. Identitats come in all sorts of different designs, and have on them contact and medical details (either already printed or you can write them on yourselves), so if a parent's worst fear should happen and their child goes missing in a crowded place, they can quickly be returned to them.

The great thing about the Identitat concept is that it pleases everyone - kids love nothing better than tattoos so will wear them with pride (I can imagine my little ones not wanting to take them off) and parents can take their children to busy areas safe in the knowledge that they are armed with all the information they need for a speedy return.

And now for the best bit ... Marieke at Tat your Tot has very kindly offered to give away 4 packs of each design of 'Write on tats' to one lucky reader of my blog!!! All you have to do is to tell your friends about the wonderful Tat your Tot site and concept - every tweet, Facebook or blog post mentioning Tat your Tot and this competition will count for one entry each (this includes RTs too!) - comment below once you have spread the word and how many entries you have made, and we will draw the winner one week today (Friday 11th September)!!

Good luck!

xxx Jenny & Marieke xxx

Shabby chic bunting

I am a huge fan of shabby chic - it's a simple style evoking comfort and romance. I love those dreamy, soft floral fabrics you find at Cath Kidston or Laura Ashley - they make me think of cosy English country kitchens with a distressed kitchen table, jugs of wild flowers, and a vintage Aga with something home-cooked and delicious baking in it!

I already had an 'Autumnal shabby chic' bunting in my range, but not only is it no longer Autumn (!) but the fabric for this is now out of print, so it was high time for something new!

I hunted high and low for something that would fit the bill and came up with these lovely coordinating Moda fabrics - the big roses are the epitomy of shabby chic to me. So any of you with a big country kitchen, this is for you - I think it would work beautifully for a country wedding too, don't you?

Mexican oilcloth bunting

I bought some lovely Mexican oilcloth from Susie at I just love that fabric ages ago, and until now haven't got around to sewing with it. However, with the sun shining today I decided that would be my next project - some outdoor bunting that would work perfectly in a poolside environment - practical and waterproof yet bold, bright and gorgeous!

I found the oilcloth really beautiful to sew and cut, but had to leave the stitching on the outside instead of turning the oilcloth inside out to create a neater seam - it does look lovely still though and I'm definitely going to add oilcloth bunting to my website as I think it'd be great for the Aussie outdoors!

Here is the finished product hanging out on my terrace this afternoon (wish I had a pool!!) - double-sided pink hibiscus and tutti fruit stripe bunting - gorgeous!!