New website!!

Swonderful.co.nz

Our brand new website is now live! Sorry for the down time, we've had quite a few unwanted bugs- we had to call in some serious pest control! It's all shiny & new now! More products will be added this week :)

So from now on you can find our blog posts over on the new site!

Make sure you read our news too!!

Black out!

Congratulations to us! Or rather the All Blacks on behalf of our beautiful & very proud country! We can now all breathe a sigh of relief as it's all over & we are the champions!

In honour of the mighty All Blacks we've put together a bunch of black beauties we have in store right now...

1. Smarty singlet $115 2. Leo organic baby tee $22 3. Scrumptious studs $18 

4. Flamingo shorts $140 5. Black beret $25 6. Honey trap dress $295 

7. Straw boater hat $35 8. Scrumptious cameo brooch $28 

9. Oh Wellington tea towel $22 10. Whistle stop skirt $140 

11. "Yeah, write" pencil $2 12. Smarvelous dress $238

Also check out this amazing video! Via Olivia at Lily's Make Believe.

Absolutely Positively...

Oh Wellington!



Via Devon Smith

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!

So it's our official birthday TODAY! We are FOUR! We can't quite believe it! To celebrate this momentous occasion we are giving away Teza tea! Come in & get free Teza today!! We have 5 glorious flavors  Lemon & Mandarin, Velvetberry, Mango & Ginger, Peach & Passionflower & Feijoa & Limeblossom. YUM! See you soon x

Lookbook is live!

Click here or here to see our beautiful new collection!
New styles are arriving every week x

How Nifty!

New in the shop! Beautiful screen prints of two of our favorite designs- Nifty & Swellington Ahoy!

These are limited edition & at a crazy great price! Just $65 for a signed A2 print. Swell!

Finishes tomorrow!

Our ONCE'IT sale finishes at Midday tomorrow! There are still some great bargains to be had-

 

 KISSIN' COUSINS DRESS IN RED & NAVY $89! 

OUTLAW SHIRT GINGHAM $99!

OUTLAW SHIRT BRODERIE $99 & COLONEL MUSTARD SKIRT NAVY $99!

ONCE'IT

Click here to shop our ONCE'IT sale! Ends Sunday at Midday!

WE ARE FOUR!

Omfg! We can't quite believe it- we're turning 4 this month! We've come a long way since our humble beginning in Brooklyn & we owe it all to you & loyal fans! So thank you! Thank you.


Come celebrate with us on Friday & preview our new range- The Sands. There wil be tea from our friends at Teza & cupcakes! Not to mention beautiful, gorgeous FROCKS.


See you there!


PS- Take a squiz at our video lookbook!

Last days!

Our sale is coming to end- we're making way for summer- oh summer! We can't wait to show you our new collection... in the meantime get yourself a bargain while you can!

SALE!

Our sale is still in full force! We've added a "Nothing over $50" rack- including a swag of gorgeous dresses for $50 and skirts at $40!! More stock is being added & reduced daily.

Also- you may have seen on our facebook page a note about Sunday designer Miriam White's entry into the Westpac Young Designer Competition- you can help Miriam to realize her dream by voting here- And you can be in the draw to win a $100 Sunday voucher by leaving a comment on her blog. GO MIRIAM!

Auckland

Last week I was up in Auckland for a few days- visiting family & showing off this cute baby of mine.


I always enjoy visiting my home town but because its so spread out I often have to make a list of places I want to visit, & this time I'm sharing! Here are some of our favorite spots in Auckland:

Queenies Lunchroom
24a Spring Street, Freemans Bay
Sweet design & decor, lovely staff & who can resist a cafe that calls itself a lunchroom? We've also spotted a staff member wearing on our our Diamond Sea knitted hair clips! Great minds :)

Fabric & pretty things
479 Parnell Road, Parnell
Beautiful fabrics, notions & haberdashery all packed into a sweet old Villa on Parnell Road. I could trawl this shop for hours.

Yellow Brick Road
279 Parnell Road, Parnell
Discovering The Yellow Brick Road was like coming home. It's like my Swonderful away from Swonderful. Gorgeous clothes & knick knacks- all very affordable & situated behind an ice cream shop.... too tempting!

Douglas & Bec
9 St Mary’s Road, Ponsonby
Douglas & Bec has a great mix of amazing designer furniture & home wares but also cute jewellery & cards. They house a great mix of price points so even though I can't afford one of there amazing lamps I can support them by buying a tea towel!

Peppin
184 Jervois Rd, Herne Bay
The best kids boutique. Ever. So many gorgeous clothes with cute twee prints- mostly organic & all beautiful! Plus there's a little boat in the middle of the shop! A boat!

The Bread & Butter Letter
The Bread & Butter Letter is like Swonderful if we did vintage. A quirky mix of stationery, jewellery & crafty things & the finest picks of affordable vintage clothing.

On the girls this week...

Roxy, Pizazz and Stormer are feeling fresh in mustard this week...

Left-

Merino scarflet $40

Harriett Falvey Bea coat $280

Sunday short n sweet top $160

Colonel Mustard skirt $170

Center-Winter white beret $35
Cat Cat Owl brooch $22
Bonnie dress $255

Right-

Outlaw blouse broderie $180
Outlaw mustard tie $18

Cat Cat Owl birdie brooch $22

Alfie skirt grey wool $185

Winter at Swonderful

The shop is looking rather gorgeous right now if we do say so ourselves! We've got pom poms, bunting & cute & cozy clothes galore! Head over to our flickr for more pics :)

On the girls this week...

This week on Roxy, Pizazz and Stormer-

Left-

Winter white beret $35

Kidnapped merino blouse in navy $165
Colonel Mustard skirt $170

Center-
In the Navy merino scarf $60
Kissin' cousins dress in navy $180
Spotty fabric belt $38

Right-
Black beret $35
Victory blouse in mustard $135
Colonel mustard skirt in navy $170

In situ

Here a couple of our favorite Devon Smith prints we have in the shop up on a wall all framed & pretty. Don't they look great? At just $18 each they are such a great affordable way to spruce up a wall & make your home look spiffing! x

Workroom sale

Our workroom sale last Saturday was AMAZING. Thank you so much to everyone who came & supported us. We really didn't know if many people would come & we were blown away by how many of our lovely fans showed up! It was lovely to see so many familiar faces too.
Thanks so much to Sunday, Love Love Lorelei, Free Range Baby & Ragdoll Illustrations. We're looking forward to organizing more events like this in the future! xxx

On the girls this week...

Some nice combos on our mannequins (Pizazz, Roxy & Stormer) this week!

From the left -

Sunday Celestial top in cream silk $180

Papercup Jubillee scarf $40

Sarah McNeil bunny brooch $38

Papercup Casino Royal silk velvet skirt in rose $170

Center-

Harriett Falvey Rosie Posie dress $310 
Winter white beret $35

Right-

Papercup Outlaw shirt in broderie $180 
Sunday Short n' Snug top in cream wool $170 
Papercup Diner skirt in khaki $135 
Cuff Hunter stag necklace $46

Guest post

We've got a guest spot up now at Word on the Street! It's all about what we love about this fine city of ours. Pop on over for a gander!

The Adventures of Audrey Sparrow Part IV

Click here for Part III !
It turns out that one wears a casino royal velvet skirt & outlaw broderie blouse, feels somewhere in between 'nervous excitement' and 'nervous nerves,' and drinks two glasses of wine before leaving the house.

Caroline and I trotted up to the designated bar at 7pm exactly, ready to be swept off our collective feet. 
"I hope it's not full of nutters," I said.
"Don't be ridiculous," Caroline replied, "speed dating is now completely socially acceptable." 
I frowned. I didn't feel socially acceptable, I felt weird. "I feel weird. Do I look weird? I look weird."
It was only after much coaxing from Caroline ("you don't look weird, you look nice, you're just being paranoid") that we walked into the bar, where I breathed a sigh of relief to see that, for the most part, it was full of other people who looked about the same age - and level of nervousness - as we were.  There was one middle-aged, sweatily bald man in khaki shorts but it turned out he'd come to watch the cricket and was in the wrong pub. 

For those who have never braved the social sushi train of speed dating, this is how it works: you start off with a little card numbered 1 - 10 down the side, and each number corresponds to a complete stranger that you spend 5 minutes chatting to. At the end of the 5 minutes if you fancy the pants off him you write YES opposite his number, and if you'd rather the pants stayed on at all costs you write NO. At the end of the night the cards are collected and, if you had a Mutual Yes, contact details are exchanged and you embark on the romance of your lives. Or something like that.

Caroline and I took separate tables and I sat, looking impatiently around the bar, tapping my fingers on the table and wishing that there was free wine. My first date was a perfectly nice truck driver who really should have been dating a truck, because he talked about nothing else. He seemed interested in me though! "I'm actually driving up to Hamilton tonight," he said, "if you want to come." Must have been my headlamps.  I wrote down NO.

Next up was a chap who decided to tell me all about his recent ex, an extraordinarily patient woman who would "massage my legs every night, because walking home from work made them sore." He looked at me hopefully.  I peeked under the table to where stubbies revealed a pair of large and hairy thighs. I wrote down NO.

He was followed in quick succession by an engineer with terrible breath, a charmless banker with a monobrow, and a man who did artificial insemination in cows and talked about this with far too much enthusiasm.

Seven minidates in, I was beginning to doubt the likelihood of a Mutual Yes ever emerging... until Number 8 walked up to the table.  I was a little intimidated by Number 8 - he looked confident and casual and, on top of that, rather handsome in a long-haired, rock band kind of a way - but then he sat down opposite me, completely missed the chair and landed heavily on the floor with a shouted expletive. Everyone turned to stare.  I attempted to stifle a giggle.
"Sorry," he said, hoisting himself back into the chair, "I missed the- the thing. I'm terrible at this, I haven't been speed dating before and I came with a friend, I thought there might be free wine... sorry. I'm Harrison. Hello."
United by our dismay at the lack of free wine, we started chatting - I found out that he was three years older than me, worked in event management and was not, despite appearances, in a band. (I had no complaints about that - one too many musician ex-boyfriends had made me completely sick of going to a concert each weekend just to help pack up the drum kit.)

Five minutes later, when the bell rang to move on, I felt like we'd barely started talking.
Harrison stood up, pointed to Caroline's table, and said "Well, I think I have to go over there now."
"It was nice to meet you," I said, "I, um..."
"I'm totally putting Yes," said Harrison.
"Oh! Oh, good. So am I, but I wasn't sure if I should- OK then."

Next up I was confronted by an appalling bus driver who would not stop making filthy puns but I didn't care! 
I had found my Mutual Yes.

***

At the end of the evening I met up with Caroline as we left the bar.
"How did it go?" she asked. 
"Good! I really liked Harrison. The one with the long hair."
Caroline wrinkled her nose. "He looks like he should be wearing a leather jacket and holding a guitar," she said distastefully.
"I know! He's so cute. I think we're going to see each other again."
"You have weird taste."
"I know. I know. How did you go?"
"Actually," she said, staring dreamily into the distance, "I met the most lovely guy... he's a truck driver. He's taking me up to Hamilton tonight!" 


(The Adventures of Audrey Sparrow are written by Ally Mullord, visit her blog- Today is my Birthday!)
(Illustration by Sally Shand)

I'm baaaack!

Things have been a little different around these ways for a wee while while I (Ginny) was on maternity leave. That's right we have a new addition to the Swonderful team~ introducing Heidi Louisiana June, the smallest, cutest, brightest spark around these parts.

Heidi Lou is now 3 months old & I have returned to work so expect to see some more regular blogging! More changes are afoot too- we also have a new Brand Manager- the wonderful Sally Shand of Ragdoll Illustrations has joined the team & we're so pleased to have her.
Here's to many more good things to come!