My Inspiration..Aaah, C'est finit!! VIOLA!!!...

MY INSPIRATION

The Introduction of Ava-Mirre – DIVA-in-Training

A mother’s perspective on childbirth.......

Fortunately or unfortunately, I’ve always loved ‘the little people’. I think babies are wonderful creatures and anyone who has them is truly blessed. As a young adult, I used to tell my mom that when I was a bit older and ready to have a family that I would like to have a football team of kids. Mind you, I was probably 18 years old. I vowed to myself that I would follow my mom’s foot steps on starting a family when I turned 22. Boy, was I naïve! So come my 22nd birthday, and I wasn’t even dating at the time let alone claim I was madly in love and thinking about the future of having a family so I knew things were going to change. My plan didn't seem like it was going to be feasible. Boohoo, waaan waan! I became extremely baby crazy at that point. I never knew that it would be several years before that dream became a reality.

After I got engaged in 2005, I revisited the subject of baby making. At least by now, I knew I didn’t have anything that could hold me back! (laugh). You know, I always used to wonder why I would hear people say, ‘Oh, we’re going to try to have a baby next year’. What? If you want to have a baby, it’s easy. I thought to myself, seemed like everyone else was having a baby that quick irrespective of their age. It wasn't rocket science, right?! It shouldn’t be a big deal, just do what you gotta do and make it happen. But it was time for me to consider having a baby, then that statement began to make sense to me. Baby making is a ‘delicate’ major task! I want to believe there is a strategy to a successful baby making process. How crazy is that? Thanks to that one little plastic stick, my life changed in the span of three minutes. That smiley face was the best thing I had seen in a while. Piece of advice to potential "want to be" mothers - make sure you're not in a stressful situation or stressed out when you're in the process of 'trying'....stress kills literally in all aspects of the process.

So, one miscarriage, several faint spells and breathing problems, lack of sleep, 9 months, 3 weeks and 4 days of pregnancy, 1 shot of epidural (best thing ever!), 6 pushes later, I realized on October 14th 2007, that all that work and stress was well rewarding in the end. The most wonderful 6-pound, 11- ounces-18-inch-long-cone-head creature had been born to ME! Me? Really? Wow, that's just amazing! Thank you Lord! I'm finally going to be a mother, I thought to myself. It turned out, Ava-Mirre was truly a miracle of life. Might sound cliché but very true!

The birth of Ava-Mirre led to the birth of Kradle Kouture…………

In the adjacent pictures, Ava-Mirre shows off her modeling stance as well as glimpses of what you should be expecting from Kradle Kouture's fashion line. She loves to use phones, real phones for that matter, as her props! Don't ask me why but I'm still trying to figure out why and how babies/kids always seem to know the difference between toy phones and real phones and tend to go for the latter. A couple weeks ago, I decided to try out a 'test' photo shoot with her so she could get some practice for our upcoming Kradle Kouture photoshoot and all I can say is that she is truly a diva-in-training! Why? I caught her in all these posing and stances without any form of direction from anyone and when she figured she had got the posing just right, she would scream and say "Mommy look".

We (myself, my sister and our photographer friend Priscilla) would then scurry around trying to get the best shot of her expressions. My favorite pose of all time, was when she took center stage by standing on top of a table, dancing and in the middle of her own dance routine, stopped, pushed her waist/hips/butt out to the side with her hands on her hips and remained still until we had acknowledged that she was ready for a shot! Let's not even talk about her dance moves! Talk about a 20 yr old pro in a 2 yr old body. Friends of mine believe Ava-Mirre literally has her own version of 'Stanky waist'! I guess that's her creativity working again, right? It's always a Kodak moment with her. Many a times I find myself catching a glimpse of me in her mannerisms and I'm sure most parents if not all can attest to that with their children also. Hopefully, she'll have a better life than I did and overcome some of the hurdles I was unable to overcome if and only if that is the path she decides to embark on.

MY HUMBLE BEGINNINGS.....

I didn't want to be the average type clothing designer in that, I didn't want people to have the perception that I was going to be behind the scenes with my legs crossed and propped up on a table delegating folks to design, sew, manufacture and what may have you. I wanted to be in full control of the tasks involved. I wanted people to know that the show literally was to start with me. And believe you me, I am certainly not a control freak...maybe a neat freak but definitely not a control freak! Lol!

So, having had that passion in mind, I decided to take up some sewing and decorating classes. I was totally geared up for the experience and it turned out to be just plain marvelous! I remember that as part of our 'supplies' list' for the class, we were encouraged to purchase a sewing machine of our choice. I was so excited because I knew that would be my 'make or break' moment. If I was able to purchase one, I knew that would give me confirmation that I was in it for the long haul!

Boy, I have never researched so much in my life. But I had to do it to figure out what I needed at the time. I was thinking I just needed one of those manual sewing machines that our parents used to use back in the day. It sickened me just at the thought of it. I thought to myself that there got to be something technically better and more user-friendly these days. Come to find out that there are several major improvements these days - We have the traditional mechanical sewing machines, electronic machines, computerized machines, sergers, and a combo of electronic and computerized machines.

And so after buying a $300-worth sewing machine, 4-3 hour sewing classes, and numerous trips to Barnes & Nobles to research on everything about sewing, it was a done deal....I was in it for the long haul for sure now!

Oooh Lalaaa, C'EST FINIT!! VIOLA!!!...... (Can someone please give me a drum roll???)

After my very first sewing class, where the basics of sewing was taught, I felt that I was ready to challenge myself, to test my true abilities. Crazy, right? Well, I like to think of myself as a 'recovering' perfectionist, so what do you expect me to do folks? So, yes I kindda 'jumped the gun', in that, whereas my other fellow classmates were busily working on the project of sewing aprons for our Sewing class 201, I thought I would embark on a more challenging task of sewing my first real kids outfit in class instead and be able to utilize the time I had paid for to get assistance along the way and make sure that I was dotting my 'i's and crossing my 't's in the sewing world. When I realized that that was more productive than just participating in sewing projects that I felt were not going to benefit me and my goal, I decided to continue focusing on finishing my 'special' assignment for the last two sewing classes. So, technically by second sewing class, I had charged myself to be fully competent to sew a whole outfit! Talk about being a perfectionist!!!

My very first piece of fabric was also quite symbolic to me too. Ghana celebrated 50 years of being an independent African nation in 2007. Remember the previous blog article where I talked about how each type of fabric had a story to tell and always symbolic for something, someone or some event? Well, during this celebration in 2007, special printed textiles were produced in honor of the festivities. So I was fortunate enough to embark on this journey with my first piece sewn out of a rich and ceremonial piece.

If you look at the six pictures of the finished product, you will find that my first piece that I decided to sew is a form-fitting toddler dress composed of a nice structured bodice with a flowing skirt bottom. Specific detailing was given to the bottom lining edge of the skirt as well as the (spaghetti) straps of the bodice.
As you can see, the fabric has rich colors of orange, yellow, black and blue. I wanted to bring out the more subtle color which in this fabric was orange. Then I wanted to put more emphasis on the orange by using grosgrain ribbon in that color as the straps for the dress and added two tied bows to the straps. Mind you, I could have used yellow in the places where I had the orange detail but I don't believe the contrast would have been that flattering enough, for the lack of a better term. In the future, customers would be able to place an order for a particular style of dress and have the option to change the color of some of the specific detailings like the orange in this item.

Finally, even though I mentioned that initally Kradle Kouture would like to focus on the girly fashions before delving into the baby boy/boys fashion wear, I did want to encourage people and prove to people that that is indeed a serious goal of Kradle Kouture. To demonstrate this, I also had a complimenting boys-wear version using the same fabric as that used for the girly outfit. The model, Christopher Ethan, my nephew, is seen here with a boy's short-sleeved flannel shirt also with specific detailing. Focus is placed on the collar and the pocket(s) where I decided to also bring out the subtle orange color in the fabric by incorporating an orange pocket handkerchief and an orange collar. Man, you should have seen this hot boy pop that collar to show his little budding 'swag'. It was truly 'fierce'........ uuuh I don't think his dad would appreciate that word so I'll try this again - IT WAS TRULY 'Swagger-licious'.....Nah, that doesn't sound good either. Okay, He had so much SWAG, it was truly insane. He had the perrr-fect hair cut to go with it - a half-bow MOHAWK! LOL!

PS: KK Bloggers, please don't forget to give me your comments and feedback. I will sincerely appreciate it. Constructive comments only! (LOL)

Talk to you soon KK Bloggers!