Wednesday 31 October 2012

Time Flies!

Where did the time go to in the last two weeks? Everyone and I mean everyone has been working like mad to get things ready and I am still in panic mode today!

Justin took this picture last night of the coffee shop, we have our training at 3pm today on how to make coffee so you will have to excuse our coffee making abilities on Saturday!

Today we start the big move carting all the stock over to the premises.


This is Ruth and I working until 12:30 last night recovering some chairs we found at the Eco Store for $5. It was loads of fun and we manged to come away injury free - well except when I dropped the chair on Ruth's head!

We have a brand new range of gorgeous home decor prints in store and these will be up online soon too!

I think the staple gun is my new friend!


This is me getting paitning - I know unusual! I had grey paint all the way down my sleeve by the end ,but the counters look good now! Many many a night spent in there until 1am! 

There we go all finished! The sewing machines of course won't be there but they will be replaced with yummy french pastries - which I have to choose today :)
How do you love our CHCH bricks - a special type that does not require our staff wearing hard hats behind the counter!


Here is the other side, with the soon to be fabric and craft supplies. I love the table in the window - a perfect place to craft together! Holly, Treena and Juliet got busy yesterday painting picture frames too which also came from the Eco Store - new life ♥ :)


This is Paul putting up the signage - I do love our signs! Let's hope that little fingers won't be scratching it off! 


So we are almost all good to go for our Saturday launch, do be easy on us as it is a huge learning curve but we are super excited to finally have a craft haven in Christchurch! 


The Make Cafe - 355 Riccarton Road, Christchurch
0220 179 296 - Kirsty for all enquiries

Wednesday 17 October 2012

Boys to Men

Taking a plunge into something very unknown takes your breath away sometimes, and I found myself updating Facebook this week with Excited, Scared, Excited, Scared .....

This is exactly how it feels - moments when you relax and see a glimmer of what it is turning into and then total panic to get it all done on time!

As you can imagine a time like this is incredibly stressful on the family, we try to make a rule not to talk business over the dinner table but it is a huge topic of conversation when Daddy brought home Charlies Honest orange juice and the phoenix organic juices for us all to try - which we will now be stocking in store :) Yeah!

We try to make the boys feel involved all along the way, they were super proud to help us with the painting the other day - hopefully if we teach them well, they will turn out to be great guys like these two!

Justin said there was a mutual respect when Chris & Jason met for the first time at The Make Cafe, they both were fully kitted out in named overalls and full head gear to get going! Two amazing guys who have spent till many a midnight to build all our shelving, the cafe & fabric shop counter - all for nothing! Well of course they will get free coffee for life now!

I also want to say thank you to their wives who have sacrificed their family time together over the last few weeks. Outstanding Kiwi men you have here!

This is the progress of the cafe area, the men decided in the end that part of the wall had to go, so Justin spent the day knocking it down! A good way to relieve some stress!

  


And of course the finished product is on the top picture with  Chris & Jason.


I may have mentioned the mustard couches, going to be  a bit of work to get them how I want them, this is my fantastic artist work in Paint :) I love the grey & mustard as well as mustard & teal colours that are coming out this season - hoping to use some of the new Joel Dewberry range next year too. You will have to wait and see if it looks better or worse than this! 







Saturday 6 October 2012

Black


 
A great day at the Woman's Expo! We have just a wee stand but managed to get the overall Make Cafe effect squeezed in somehow!

I am enjoying hanging out with Lee & Lee from Pretty Birds & Cloud 9 Creative all these fabulous jewels around me is very tempting! Also got to look at Brenda's amazing patterns over at Natural Star going to have to have her come teach some classes and Fiona Marie from Piece - another yummy crafty store!





One of our new workshops at the Cafe is Learn to Sew over lunch, a complete beginners sewing lesson where you will be taught how to thread a machine, wind your bobbin and sew some gorgeous bunting!

All materials and machine hire included as well as a light lunch! This class will be available to book online soon, but if you are super keen, email me kirsty@themakecafe.co.nz. $35 reduced to $30 each if you bring a friend!









Who will be queen of craft @ Make?
Believe it or not these are soaps! 


Plenty of strokes for the Singer 160!


Gosh there feels like a lot of black around in all these pictures! But hey at least our fabric is bright and cheerful! Would not want to detract from that in anyway! Progress is continuing at the shop, poor Justin is painting his hair  heart out. These are all 50 of our shelve stands! Each individually handcrafted :)

Well "more is nog n dag" (tomorrow is another day!) and it will be spent at the Woman's Expo again and Justin collecting Trade Me purchases, including our "golden" Make Cafe couches! Watch this space!