It's here!!!!

We are having a great week! Last night we were a vendor at the Trumbull Preschool's Big Night Out and it was so much fun. It was a night out for Moms and some Dads with great shopping and amazing food. the ladies who organized the event were so great to the vendors - I can't wait till next year! I got to spend the evening at a table next to Julia from Innerglow and she was handing out seaweed. Apparently it has antioxidant qualities and she is so fabulous people were munching away!



Today my crew (DH, DJ and Jessie) worked on prepping the catalogs and they are going to be mailed on Monday! We are so excited and I think you are going to love them. When we were putting on the mailing labels we were calling out the states that the catalogs were going. It is so amazing to me that we now have customers from all over the country from NYC to Oklahoma to Texas. I feel very, very lucky that moms and girls love Jessiegirlclothing and can't wait for the future!
If you are not on our mailing list but want to receive a catalog - follow this link and request one!

Good night Morristown!

We are home! What a nice weekend at Morristown and we loved the armory! We have never done an indoor art fair before and learned alot about display. At Grand Central a kiosk is provided and your display is contained within that space. At this fair we had a lot more room which was nice but we really needed to bring more items to set up our back display. I did my best by hanging some dresses and skirts up on the rafters and trying to position our racks in an interesting configuration. But that gray fabric they use is hideous! I will definitely bring my own fabric to hang nest time. Maybe some Jennifer Paganelli - that would be cool!
The people in New Jersey were so kind - I loved meeting everyone and talking fabric and little girls! My new design did well - so I was really excited! I also brought some 12 month dresses along and sold those - so I may be adding those sizes!
By Sunday night I was ready to go home and my roadies (aka my family) came and helped me load out. I was so proud of my son - he got right in there and took apart racks and loaded up the car. He is ten and it is an age where I am starting to see glimpses of maturity and what he might be like as a young man. It is very bittersweet!
This is my hard working crew! DJ worked hard - I think Jessiegirl thought she was on her lunch break.These are my must haves at an artfair! Extra large Dunkin Donuts coffee - to get thru load in and those first few hours. AI am trying to cut down the amount of diet soda I drink and my friend Julia suggested to drink a bottle of water first and then the soda - so I am trying that.

Jersey Girls!!

So it is the night before the first big show of the season and of course I am trying to get a million things done before collapsing in bed. I think I need to accept that little sleep before a show is the norm and embrace it!
We will be at Craft Morrison tomorrow night through Sunday and I am eager to kick this season off. It is an indoor show at the Morristown Armory so no need to worry about rain or tents blowing away. I am excited to see the response and meet everyone who comes out. The artfairs remind me a little of my theatre days as you prepare for the audience and you get the jitters but then it is so much fun when the curtain rises. Loading in to an artfair can be alot of work and despite my best efforts at making lists I always forget something - but it always works out well in the end.

If you haven't added your name to our list for a catalog on our website - do it now! We are getting them next week and they are fabulous!

We also are participating in the fortytoes giveaway. Amazing stores check it out!

Look how cute it came out...our new trapeze dress!!!

This is the new Jessiegirlclothing design that we have been working on! I love it - Thanks to Kimberlyvphotography for the pics. It is based on the trapeze dresses little girls use to wear in the 1970's. The collar is given a more modern cut and I added two ruffles to the bottom. There is some definite twirliblity in this design as well. I think it is perfect for summer and super flattering! These are the two designs that we have available on the website - but I am working on having some limited edition ones at the craft shows this year - one in linen!
We are beginning to pack up for Craft Morristown next weekend. It is inside the armory in Morristown and I am trying to plan how to organize the booth space. I am relieved that we don't have to worry about the weather or the stability of the tent. So excited to be doing another fair!

Our first catalog just went to printers ...if you would like to receive one visit our website and request one!

We are almost there!

DH and I are working furiously on our new website and getting all our spring designs loaded and we should be ready for launching this weekend! We have some really cute spring designs and I am lucky to be working with some fabulous photographers.
What I love about this online community is the wonderful Moms that I have been lucky enough to work with. Melanie Weyer Photography sent us the picture we are using in our header and some beautiful ones of her daughter Holland. Kimberly and her beautiful daughters are working on something special - can't wait! And we love StellaMarie - they will all be on the website in our new spring designs!

Here are some new pics to enjoy during the wait....

Change is coming...

We are getting so close to showing everyone our spring and summer goodies!!!! Love this pic of Kimberly's daughter Claudia. I had this dress made at the end of our run at Grand Central and it sold out we so decided to produce it for spring and I am so glad - the colors are perfect and it just makes me smile! We have more great summer patterned pinafore dresses and fun twirl skirts coming to the website in a couple weeks. I have also designed a new dress I am so excited about...it is going off Kimberly to be photographed tomorrow but here is a little taste...


So cute and girls are going to love it for the summer! I want to name it - but haven't figured one out- will have to work on it.
I am getting ready for some great art fairs this summer - and working on dresses, skirts,cute shirred tops, aprons etc.
can't wait!

My favorite college professor Tim Ward, was an old hippie with a long gray beard and Birkenstocks. At 19, I was struggling with whether or not I wanted to be in college or begin my theater career. Tim called me into his office and told me that education is like putting money into a bank account. That I should never stop learning and education is never wasted.

Last night I took my first college course in a long time - at the Parsons School of Design in NYC. It was scary, intimidating and wonderful. The class is filled with hip, young international students and a very elegant professor who worked as a fashion designer for years in NYC. In her very chic french accent she asked us to create a design using only triangles - not as easy as you think! I kept wanting to peek at what others in the room were doing - but then I felt like that would make it even more difficult if I got stuck on someones idea. Eventually I came up with image which I thought represented a spirit breaking free and the professor saw it as a xmas tree with snow - lol! I think when I was younger that would have really bothered me - but with age and experience I have become much less self conscious and judgmental of myself.

Next week we will be studying different silhouettes and sketching ideas that would work with them. I am very excited, but need to go out and get a sketchpad and soft pencils - apparently my pen and lined paper does not cut it. It is exciting and a bit unnerving to be a student again. Tim Ward would be proud!

Is it spring yet!

We are dreaming of spring here at Jessiegirlclothing! In CT we are facing our fourth snow day of the year and looking at another one on Friday. Today was more ice then snow so kids were forced to stay inside and conditions look pretty bleak outside. It definitely not a snowday where you grab your sled and play outside all day with your friends and come in for hot chocolate.
There is absolutely no color outside - the trees are bare, snow covers the ground and the sky is gray. It is on days like this that I totally buy into the theory that the amount of sunlight you are exposed to can impact you mood. So...I will pop some extra vitamin D and get out my spring fabrics. My favorite for a day like this is SisBoom! These are the first photos from our spring line - - thanks so much Kimberlyvphotography for the photo! This dress is all SisBoom and it just screams joy!
I am so excited about spring - we are revamping our website to be more user friendly and we have some adorable new designs debuting!

Bora, Bora...

We have a new member of the family! We have adopted a scruffy and sweet Maltese from the local animal shelter and she is quickly becoming one of the clan. Our children have been clamoring for a dog over the past year and we have put it off due to various reasons. But finally the stars have aligned and we feel that we are ready to expand our family.
Bora was the first dog we saw at the shelter and it was love at first sight. Bora is an old scruffy Maltese that we think may be going blind, though she is not bumping into anything yet. The SPCA had her spayed and said they would address her dental work before we took her home. Well the dental work turned into extracting most of Bora's teeth...so now she is toothless. That makes feeding her a little challenging but someone suggested baby food so we may try that. Despite it all we are so excited to have her here.
Having a dog was so important to DJ and he is turning ten this month. I can see instantly how much he loves the dog and how important it is for him to have one. He slept last night on the floor of his room with his head next to Bora's crate...so sweet. We try to provide so many material things and educational opportunities for our kids when in the end the simple act of caring for another living being is teaching him one of the most important lessons in life - to think outside himself!

Jessiegirlclothing sighting at PBK

We are so excited for Bri - one of our models from last spring. Her mom from lizbrownphotographyspot.com let us know that Bri won PotteryBarnKids December Kid of the Month contest!
I was so excited to see her in the Jessiegirclothing dress she modeled for us last season!
Yay Bri!

Check out the link on http://www.facebook.com/potterybarnkids?v=app_125026127508055

We are loving the snow....

Winter has definitely hit New England and we are loving it! The kids have started sledding and boarding down the neighborhood hill and building snow forts with their friends...not to mention the snowball fights. We were hit with the blizzard the day after Christmas and another 8" this week. There is nothing more beautiful then seeing the tree branches covered in snow lining our snow covered street. It feels almost too perfect...like a movie set. More snow this week?
Bring it on!

It's keeping me up at night...

Here is a sneak peek at what I've been working on this week. I am creating my patterns for the spring line! It literally can keep me up at night. the cut of dress can make all the difference - if it is cut too wide it can look very boxy - almost like a potato sack. At the same time girls need to be comfortable in the dress. I am lucky enough to have a live-in fashion critic(my daughter Jessie) to let me know what works and doesn't work.
I am hoping to have at least one new style of dress that is a bit more structured and fitted - but still be able to incorporate my love of mixing color and patterns. And of course it will have plenty of twirl!