210: branching out

There's been this branch sitting in our backyard for weeks. It fell off of our oak tree with no leaves on it or anything... I've been ignoring it for a while but it hasn't gone away.

Today, after throwing my shoe at a squirrel, I had to go retrieve it & I decided to grab the branch too. For some strange reason I felt like it would look nice nailed to our studio wall.


...it didn't. It's kind of a naked branch and it looks a bit awkward.


So I decided to just make it sorta cherry blossom branch inspired & started glue-gunning on some random silk flowers we had laying around. It's a bit strange cause they're rose buds, but whatever.


and when I ran out of roses, I expanded to carnations and others. hahah


& now.... I'm happy with our studio wall decor.
It's a bit random but it's 3 dimensional and sits far off the wall & looks pretty fab.

xoxo

188: seeing spots

Phew, I've been sewing a lot of the same thing lately! I only usually experience a rush like this near Halloween & Christmas, but it appears that we managed to hit a sweet spot for the summer too! Swim wear in the summer?! Who knew? ;)



I've sewn so many, in fact, that I'm out of that striped fabric! So that's the end of that bathing suit! I might gather some of our other swimwear fabrics though & see if I can make another combination of colours that is as cute as the original :)


Aptly, I was wearing this shirt today.

More updates on our weekend, what we've been eating & wearing later!

OH! and I noticed a slew of new followers have joined us over the weekend! Welcome lovelies :) Don't be shy, say hi & let us know what you wanna read about.

xoxo

158: friday friday

It's Friday!
Maybe a month or two ago, it would make NO difference to us whether it was Friday or Monday because Sam & I hardly had "working hours". We would just work whenever we wanted & way into the wee hours of the night... I used to joke that "everyday is the weekend when you don't have a job!", haha. Now that we're in our new studio, we're trying REALLY hard to stick to a 9-5 schedule & only doing some work after hours if we had non-productive days.

Finally setting up a schedule for ourselves has helped us to have more consistent meal times & bedtimes... which hopefully means the hours we spend working end up being more productive. We're still trying to find a balance between housework & business stuff though! It's like when you have to study & you NEED to clean your room before you start. Yeah, that's us.

So nowadays, I can get excited about weekends too!
Today, our mom came over to take us out for a quick dimsum lunch. It was awesome & delicious, but I quickly got back to work when we returned.


A couple months ago, I bought this amazing vintage lace duster robe & I've been obsessed with it. It doesn't serve much of a purpose to keep you warm or covered up, but I love the drama of sweeping around in it like Mrs. Roper from Three's Company. hahaha.


look at this douche, missing the self timer. lol


Anyway, I spent today working out a similar pattern so I can make a couple of duster robes from this gorgeous floral chiffon. Our shop is still closed because of the Postal workers strike but I'm hoping that I have a slew of fancy new rompers & summery treats for when we reopen!

Happy Friday, lovelies!

xoxo

157: your ad here.

As most of you may have heard from our facebook & twitter updates, our shop is on a bit of a hiatus right now. Unfortunately, CanadaPost Postal Service was going through rotating strikes & just yesterday, all employees were locked out. This put all mail services to a complete stand still & as our main mode of shipping, that leaves us out in the cold! It's not like we have hundreds of packages to mail out each day but with what few we do have to get out to our customers, it's really screwing small businesses. In 48 hours, they might be forced to go back to work, which is a glimmer of hope for us, but we're still a bit upset about it all.

The L&B shop is currently our only source of income, so it's a lot of pressure to make ends meet.



I've taken the time with the shop temporarily closed to finally do something that I've been meaning to get around to! I've wanted to introduce the opportunity for fellow small businesses and blogs to place ads on "Syl and Sam". So I've prepared our sponsorship page with all the details to get started!

Our goal with the sponsorships is to bring businesses and blogs that are of interest to our readers & suit the vision and style of this blog. We are going to be careful about accepting advertisers that are true to US (that means you too, readers)! And we are hoping that this also means more giveaways and features for our audience to look forward to.


So for now, we're on the hunt for new sponsors who appeal to cool gals, who have a soft side & an edgy side. Our prices are starting at very affordable rates & we have amazingly loyal readers who love fashion & diy. So please check out our sponsorship page or give us a shout at info@lipglossandblack.com :)

xoxo

156: in the studio (cont'd)

So in this post I gave you a sneak peek already at our new studio in general.



Well, here's a closer look at that big shelf that you could see a tiny glimpse of in the first pic:



We've got the woven fabrics stored on the left, the knit fabrics stored on the right & some random muslins, tulles, laces & leathers along the bottom row of shelves.
The rest of the boxes are filled with paints, tools, tags & random other things that are a bit of a jumble. I'm still always staring at the boxes & trying to reorganize them so they look more balanced. It's hard when all of your storage boxes are mismatched & by nature you just want everything to MATCH. GAH.

TIDBIT: The window of our studio is facing all these backyards & the fences are just chain linked, so they're not very private. SOOOOO Sam and I have been enjoying the view of a 60 year old man with white Einstein hair, smoking cigarettes while on his cellphone shirtless. Everyday. It's a sexy view. I'll spare you & not post a photo of that part of the studio. hahah

xoxo

154: custom made

I got an order for a custom tux romper recently... a halter strap was requested cause some gals just don't love strapless like I do. But hey-- I think it's looking really adorable with it. I think it somehow makes it just a bit more pin-up styled. Just need to add the bow & I'm done.



I was working away at sewing all the pieces together & Matt asked me what I was doing. I just kept it simple & said "I'm making a custom order". He said, "Oh, a tuxedo romper?"

How cute are dudes that pay attention to you & know terms like "romper" now? :)

xoxo

151: in the studio

As promised, here's a peek into part of our new studio :)



We've got a bit of a lengthy room, so we kinda divided it by "purpose". In the foreground is our 'sitting area' with a couple of couches to chill out on. In the back (starting at the 'lipgloss & black' banner) is our work area with a bunch of desks, all our sewing machines & shelves for our materials and tools!

In general, we have things pretty together now & there's a place for everything but I'm struggling with adding more decor so that the space is pulled together better. Right now, you might notice that we just have a random Ikea photo frame resting on top of the couch... That's not permanent! Promise! It's a huge space over the couch that I see a lot of potential in but I'm not really sure what should go up there. I'm thinking of painting something on a massive canvas I have, but I'm undecided as of yet. WE'LL SEE.

We're pretty happy in this space cause it's well-lit and roomy enough for us both to work in! And we even have a separate room for our shipments & office things. Being happy in your workspace can make a huge difference in productivity & we're loving it here so far.... so that should mean more clothes for YOU soon. :)

xoxo

147: very superstitious

I promised to show you a look into our new studio, so I figured I would do it little by little. We're still organizing things, tidying up & figuring out where what should go so that it's all efficient and everything... So I'm starting with something small.

When we were moving our entire studio, our mom wanted to make sure that we had a proper lucky cat. It's a popular asian sculpture that is associated with good feng shui for businesses. You might recognize these cats from Chinese or Japanese restaurants or shops & basically the cat "waves" customers towards you. Our family isn't overly concerned in general with feng shui or anything, but we still hang up lucky symbols & signs. So when my mom was going out on her mission to buy us a kitty, my only request was that it would have a really cute face, hahaha.



She ended up buying us this cutie!
Aside from being really adorable & happy, there is apparently a lot of meaning behind why he looks this way:
- calico cat colouring: traditionally it's the luckiest cat
- crystal ball in hand: indicates wisdom & good career path
- mallet in hand: brings wealth to those who shake it
- coin slot: the cat is actually a bank & you have to feed it coins for good luck!

I'm not that superstitious but so far since having our lucky cat, we've had a really successful clothing show, so that was a great start! We fed him some more coins after that weekend for sure :) Thanks mom!

Have you guys seen these kitties before? Do you have any lucky symbols or traditions?

xox