Desert Escape - Girls Weekend in Palm Springs

Poolside view from the new Ace Hotel in Palm Springs

Jodi and I and our best pal escaped to the desert last weekend, for a much needed girls weekend to Palm Springs! It was nice to get away from our busy day-to day lives and find time for inspiration, to relax by the pool - with nothing to do!, and share some laughs you can only have with your best girl pals.

We stayed at the brand new Ace Hotel, a hotel chain originating in Seattle, which is charmingly offbeat and hip, staffed by a most boisterous and happy crew. (Shout out to Rachel, Mo and Alex - you guys are the best!)

The Girls hanging by the pool, in distinct colors of black, red and white:

Jules

Mel - our dear friend and inspiration...three is a charm.

Some things of note:

The unique sun shades used by the ultra cool Ace Hotel

Organic red wine , brought by Jules, is rumored to have less of an 'impact,' yet remained only one out of many drink options! :)

The organic fare served by the Ace was a serious bonus, as well as their use of 'eco-friendly packaging.'

Cute feet are a must on vaca. This is Mel's - lookin' good!

Jules & Jode jaunt around town on cute cruisers courtesy of the fabulous Ace.

Jode & Jules capture a playful moment in a self-portrait. Girls weekend = fun and smiles.

Born on Earth Kids - our mompreneur journey part 2

Our new Hang-Tags

In addition to finalizing our brand, logo, hang-tags, etc., over the last few months it has also been really inspiring to finalize the actual products. There is quite a degree of complexity involved in creating a T-Shirt from scratch...you have to create a design, make a pattern, make a sample, fit the sample, change the pattern, dye/wash the sample, approve the final sample, source the material, design and product hang-tags, and then you move into production (which involves many pieces too...dying, cutting, sewing, printing, embellishing, washing, etc.). We are learning so much, and have found apparel creation to be a wonderfully creative and expressive process. Here are a few things we've been working on recently:
Finalized Patterns and Completed Samples: Working with Kelly from KellyB couture, finalized our fits, patterns and samples. My daughter Tessie and Julie's son Jake were our adorable if slightly reluctant fit models.

our fit model Mr. Everest

Picked the Color Palette for our line: We are going with a beautiful palette of pink, lavender, light blue and slate grey for our Spring/Summer line...so many beautiful colors to chose from...Finalized our Dye/Wash Technique: We looked at a bunch of different techniques to acheive a unique, vintage-esque style. Everything from tye-die (too 70s for us), to dip-dye, to mineral wash, to brush dye.

Evaluating different dye and wash techniques

Sourced our Organic Materials: We were able to source luxurious, super soft 100% organic cotton right in LA. All of our work will be 100% based in USA, and 100% organic. I love the feel of our cotton.organic cotton plant

Designed our Hang Tags: Hang-tags are an important part in expressing your brand in the apparel world. We love our new hang-tags (the top of this post). Hope you do too!