Cute-ture than my house

After an entire weekend of incredibly heavy rain in Los Angeles, it is great to see some sunshine today. The plan had been to move into our house yesterday....BUT we didn't quite make it. Instead we spent a lovely long weekend (I took Monday off for Australia Day) working to bury our plumbing work in the backyard in torrential rain. I guess that's the only way to do it...mud mud mud.

Then because it looked like to was letting up, we bought some grass seed and Joey was given the task of evenly sprinkling it across the yard. Somehow though, when I went outside to see his hard work, it seems he got a little carried away, and I have grass seed in every garden and surface in the yard. I will have very green grassy gardens!

We continued filling in our Koi Pond with soil to make it our new vegetable garden (also a green grass oasis with the grass seed) and finally we finished putting up the chandeliers in the house. They are beautiful!

Cute-ture is never far from mind though, and Monday morning was spent getting out orders as we prepare for our new Oobi stock - arriving this week and in-stores in two weeks. We have had lots more media requests for samples and I have no doubt Oobi Baby is on its way to be a staple in the 0 - 4 year wardrobe.

Big news - J Lo ordered our Minimink Bears for her twins!!! 16 of them. I cannot wait to see them cuddled up with their Minimink bears. Adorable.

So from celebrity buyers to knee deep in mud - we have it all at the moment!

Chaos, Cute-ture and an adorable little red dress

So I realise I have been a little slow on the blog updates but somehow life just got in the way! Between organising a week of film events and having a tradeshow taking place concurrently, I also had Cute-ture to run and a house to renovate. Thankfully two of those things have now finished and life is slowing down to our more normal hectic pace. For about 6 days - I only saw my husband between 11.00pm and 6.00am and most of that was with my eyes closed. I won't even mention how unhappy our two kittens have been and they are now determined to get make up cuddle time.

Cute-ture has been growing at a rate of knots and I am so excited that our new range of Oobi Baby is ordered and on its way to the USA. Cute-ture was featured in Parents Magazine this month - a full page with our Oobi Baby 1950's Party Dress in red, and I just can't wait to get them in stores. They are simply adorable!

The Cute-ture website is about to get a big update with a lot of new product including Australian jewelry that is just incredible. I hand picked $20,000 dollars worth of jewels over the weekend and I just wish I could keep all of it. So beautiful.

And finally - our house renovations continue - photo's coming later in the week...

I'm SOOO 70's

I am so excited as I have discovered the most delicious bean bags ever!! One our my stores asked me to look into a company called Cocoon Couture from Australia that was in need of a partner in the USA. We did - and my 1970's heart - leapt out and whammo - we are now bringing these delightful vintage inspired (but very modern) bags to the USA. My samples arrived a few days ago and blew my mind!! If only they came in adult size..... Oh that's right - I run a children's company.

Each bean bag cover features quirky critters in vintage fabric applique on pinwale cord colours that blend in with any décor and they also have matching wooden bookends, and a fabulous tree (I wonder what Joey will say when it finds it in our room). They will be up at www.cute-ture.com later this month and in stores across the USA very soon and perhaps a few in our new house as well.....

Funny thing I just have to mention though - beans bags don't really have beans in them but since Joey thought they did - he may get a lentil bag for his birthday!

You Did What!

It is now January 2nd and I am heading back to work after a week of home renovations - oops I meant holidays.. And I am exhausted! In the space of one week we sanded, stained and varnished the floors of our new house, cut back the garden and put in new plants, rewired a large portion of the out of date wires, knocked out most of the kitchen and moved the previous owners junk and trash out of the house and off the street where it had been placed. And for all that - I managed to also lose just one pound.

I hopped on the scales today - knowing that when I got on them just over a week ago for the first time in many months that they must have been broken. So today I fully expected that surprising number to be about 10 less... And it was only 1 less which means that last year I really did indeed put a whopping 15 pounds on. Ouch. So - having made no resolutions this year, I realised this morning that something had to change. I can no longer live in Los Angeles and pretend I am on holidays. I really live here and I really have to watch my diet.

I have always been a strong proponent of "don't complain, do something about it", and all my excuses of running a company and having no time, just won't cut it. So I packed my gym gear today and at lunch went for a run. It hurt. A lot. But... I feel so much better for it now that its done. No more watching 'The Biggest Loser' while eating my caramel pie. So this year, as well as running Cute-ture, renovating a house and finalising our adoption - I am going to get my butt back into shape. And because I don't believe in doing anything in small ways - I signed up after my 3 mile run for a marathon! 2008 here I come.