Welcome to week two of Australian Design in Focus and this week I am excited to be featuring a local Melbourne label, Retrobub.

When I stumbled across Retrobub at Melbourne’s Abbotsford Convent Shirt & Skirt market a few weeks ago I was overcome by the cute! Bronywn makes such a delightful, unique range of kids clothes – for babies right through to older kids – I was completely taken. I’ve got to say that as much as I adore her girls range (and I do) it’s having an equally great boys range that really excites me. It’s so hard to get funky stuff for boys and I just love Bronwyn’s designs! Not only do I love buying local for a myriad of reasons, but the quality of Retrobub clothing and the fun designs have made this a new personal fave.

Tell me how Retrobub came about? What sparked the dream? I started making Retrobub when on maternity leave for my daughter who is now 17. I have always made clothing, first for myself and my friends, then I did fashion design at RMIT and went to work in the industry, so it was a pretty normal next step for me to move into childrenswear when I had my child. With Retrobub I try to make garments that are practical but happy and interesting as well. Some styles are a hark back to what children wore generations ago like little pinny dresses. I try to keep the clothing childish, rather than scaled down versions of adult clothing. This is in reaction to what of the major labels do for children, which is often aggressive for boys or too girly, princess-y or sexy for girls, when it could just be old-fashioned, fun and childlike.

What’s your vision for Retrobub? I have been doing Retrobub now for 17 years and I am pretty happy with where it is. I like selling directly to my customers so markets are great for that. It takes out the middle man , making the clothing more affordable and I like the community of it, people can give me feed back and I can make them things to order and cater to their needs. I have just started working from a bigger studio which has room for a shop, so at the moment the dream is to grow that.

Can you take us behind the scenes and tell us a bit about what a typical day looks like? My typical day involves sitting at a sewing machine from 9 am to 6 pm which is not such a good thing for your back and neck! I spend the week sewing the clothing and then do a market on the weekend to sell.

What do you love most about running Retrobub? I enjoy most the creative side of first designing the styles, playing with fabrics and coming up with new ideas. As a result I make new things all the time, which keeps it fresh for me.whawhah

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And just for those of you with little girls, feast your eyes on this…

 

 

What do you think folks? Gorgeous, right?!?

 

I don’t get it.

Just don’t get it.

The science has spoken. There is no debate.

No debate.

Vaccinations are the best thing for us as a community and every day people LIVE because they and others have been vaccinated.

And yet there is still this bollocks out there that people should have the “right to choose”.

Well actually, no. When you choose NOT to vaccinate then you effectively make that choice for everyone else too.

Every time a parent chooses NOT to vaccinate the child they make a choice to risk life and health on behalf of another family, another child.

And that is not ok.

Do you have genuine questions about vaccinating children? If so, please let me know and I will provide researched, fact based answers for you – I understand that some parents, especially new parents who have heard the fear mongering might be genuinely concerned. I truly appreciate that because I myself was concerned for those very same reasons. If I can help direct you to fact based information upon which to make a confident decision I would be more than happy to do that.

I am writing this for every parent whose baby cries and cries and cries, and who feels lost, alone and exhausted. For every parent who is desperate for some sleep, who knows that if they just got a bit of rest they could face the world, and the baby they love, with greater calm and composure. Is that you? If it is, my heart aches for you because I know that in the midst of the amazing job your a doing with your new baby, I’m guessing you feel like you can’t do anything right and you certainly can’t see what a wonderful parent you are. Chances are you flinch even reading those words.

There are times in our life when we can’t see the things that are right in front of us – we can’t hold onto our inner strength and self assurance because somewhere along the way we have lost it and we can’t seem to find our way back to it. In those moments all we can do is hold onto to the people around us, to the truths that they hold and the words we find hard to believe. But we have to believe them, we have to hold on the belief that they know something that we don’t, that they can see something that we can’t…sometimes we have to let the people around us carry us. It’s all we can do.

When your baby cries and cries, and you don’t know how to help her, you are not doing anything wrong. Your baby does love you and need you. You can get through this.

When your baby cries and cries, and you don’t know how to help her, you are not doing anything wrong. Your baby does love you and need you. You can get through this.

When your baby cries and cries, and you don’t know how to help her, you are not doing anything wrong. Your baby does love you and need you. You can get through this.

 

 

The thing about parenting is that it doesn’t come with a manual, it comes with a million manuals and they all say something different. This is confusing and overwhelming and sometimes leads to a lot of judgement and angst amongst people who believe that their way is the right way.

If there is only one thing I know about parenting it is this…no one knows your baby as well as you do.

Somewhere along the way you might have lost the ability to trust yourself, to believe that you know best what your baby needs. If in that moment you don’t know where to turn, please pick up the phone and call the PANDA helpline – you don’t need to have PND to call them (1300 726 306 – Monday to Friday, 9am-7pm) and they will offer a listening ear, and gentle advice.

And for now please let me, and this community, carry you through the dark times and believe us when we say – you are a great parent, you are doing a great job and it will get better.

Much love

xx

 

On the weekend I had the pleasure of listen to Hailey Bartholemew from You Can’t Be Serious speak at the Kidspot Voices of 2013 event in Sydney. She was so full of passion and enthusiasm it was hard not to be inspired. Hailey got me thinking about what my passions are and how fully I am pursuing them – something that has been playing on my mind of late.

There are lots of things that I am excited and a million things I could do but that can lead to a whole lot of nothing actually happening. Increasingly I have been feeling like I want to hone in on the things that really get me fired up and pursue them with more diligence and focus – not character traits that are innate to me.  Since my darling Bluey came along I am just so busy and I can see that without stepping back and choosing to be purposeful life could easily just slip me by.

Does that sound familiar?

I loved Hailey’s blueprint for her life and dreams…

 

Her talk really left me thinking – how do you find your true passion?

It seems to me that it’s impossible to sift through the “possibilities” to find “passion” in a world so cluttered with noise and content. Since getting back from South Africa I have had a renewed awareness of just how distracting social media can be; there’s always a new tweet or update to read, a moment to broadcast or something “important” to respond to. I don’t watch much TV but I suspect that all media is the same…a lot of noise.

The most precious and important moments in my life, and probably in yours too, are the ones that happen right in front of our eyes. And we don’t need to share them with the world for them to be real.

I’ve been stepping back from social media recently. I regularly leave my phone in the car and am trying to check it less regularly when it is on me. I don’t have Facebook or Twitter open in the background all the time and I deliberately turn off the screens when the kids are around. In a world full of so much content, I feel like letting my mind be uncluttered is going to be a key part of this journey for me.

 

Do you know what you are truly passionate about? Are you living it? 

Every now and then something comes across your path that just makes you say YES!

Today it was this…

 

To read more about this speech, check out this information from Joe Berkowitz

I am really excited to introduce today the first Australian Design In Focus business to Louisa Claire: MummaBubba Jewellery, owned by the incredibly lovely Tash.

 

Since becoming a Mum I have said goodbye to many lovely necklaces, either because one of the kids (I’m looking at you, Bear!) has broken them or because I too afraid they will be broken to wear them. Enter MummaBubba jewellery and Tash’s gorgeous range of child friendly necklaces, bangles, bracelets and pendants.

I was introduced to MummaBubba at the same time by two different women I admire and thus it sparked my interest. I now am the delighted owner of two necklaces (one I bought and one I was gifted by my lovely friend Alli when Bluey arrived) and the only reason I don’t own more is because I can’t decide which one to get next!

Today we get to go behind the scenes of MummaBubba and chat with the creater Tash…

Tell me how MummaBubba came about? What sparked the dream? When my baby was about 5 months old I would take my bangles off for her to hold while I changed her nappy. Of course the first thing she would do with the bangles was put them into her mouth. I suggested to my husband someone should make Jewellery that would be safe for babies to chew on, which he responded “That’s a silly idea”. I then researched the market and thought that I could make a contribution with my designs and ideas.

What’s your vision for MummaBubba? My vision is to take MummaBubba around the world. We have already expanded to New Zealand and we have Japan and the UK only weeks away from launching. I hope mums continue to find our products an essential part of their wardrobe.

Can you take us behind the scenes and tell us a bit about what a typical day looks like? Our  morning is usually full of chaos. I have two little girls ages 2 and 5 so by the time I drag them out of bed at 7.30am we do the usual morning routine that I’m sure every other mum has to go through.  After school drop off  I then head to our office/warehouse where I spend the rest of the day either on the phone, skype or email talking to our factory, our stockists and our customers! There never seems enough hours in the day to get everything done and I generally have to log back on at night after the girls go to bed.

What do you love most about running MummaBubba? I’m a creative person, so I find the design process of my business the most rewarding. I love playing with pantone cards and drawing up samples and ideas for our next release. The best part of all is when I see a stranger walking in a shopping centre or out and about wearing my jewellery. I still get so excited and run up to them like a crazy person.

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I am more than willing to put my hand up and say that my MummaBubba necklaces are an essential part of my wardrobe, so that’s one person you have converted on your way to global domination Tash! I have previously listed MummaBubba as one of my top buys for new mums and continue to rave about them. They are fresh, fun and durable and it’s so great to be able to add a safe accessory to the mama wardrobe each day!

Tash has offered to share the love with one lucky Louisa Claire reader so today we are giving away a necklace and bangle set of your choosing. You can enter easily via the Rafflecopter box below (note: this is the first time I have used Raffelcopter so if you have any feedback on how you like it then I’d love to hear from you!)

This competition is now closed. The winner was Kristy! Congratulations!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway