Melbourne Cup.Just an excuse to dress up and drink an itsy bitsy bit too much?

Have you organised your outfit for Cup Day yet?

 Do you long for a made to measure dress and hand made head piece?

Well dear, it is WAY TOO LATE!

But luckily for my nearest and dearest family members, I am yet again going to attempt the near impossible (will I  never learn?) and make two dresses and two head pieces.

So look out for Miss Jennie and young Miss Bianca in the Bird Cage in Couture dresses and head pieces hand sewn in vintage fabrics.

Now I had better get started. Only five days to go.

Stay tuned..........

Prettiest pretty pretty party dress

I did it!

Well one dress anyway.

A dusty pink sparkly dress with vintage lace trim. A perfect party dress for any little girl.

And for me.. well thank goodness I have a few Cicciolina samples lying around. It comes in handy being your own house model.

The little girls range for Sunshine & Daydreams is finally coming together. It's taking so long I no longer know what season I am working on.

 Lets just call it trans-seasonal.

And thanks Jennie for the beautiful photos.

More to come soon.......

I love Yarraville

I just bought all this for $12 from the delightful Green Collective in Yarraville!
A bronze platted wide belt, a silver chain necklace and a pearl ( I suspect fake) bracelet with a butterfly clasp.

This morning I walked to the village, bought a coffee from the fantastic Corner Store, had my hair done at one of my five local hairdressers, window shopped at Laquer (where we religiously buy our jeans) and browsed at the Sun bookshop (where we buy all our presents). And found the exact belt I needed for $6 at Green Collective.

How lucky we are to live here.

And seeing as I'm in a good mood, I'll forgive whoever took over the lease on the shop I had my eye on! To you I say "pooh pooh" and I really hope you put something interesting, independant and green in there. Please please don't let it be an out of the box juice bar, fast food or chain store. After going to Highpoint (the lowpoint of the week) I felt shell shocked, freak out and depressed. We don't need a little highpoint in our main street, quelle horreur.

And now I'm off to whip up Ava and myself dresses to wear to a wedding. Less than 24 hours to make 2 party frocks. Can I do it? I bloody hope so!

Our pre-opening sale! (Not often you see one of those....)

Thanks so much to the follower who kindly pointed out that we should be working a year ahead. That is true, but not in demi-couture.  We just make up pieces and put them out there, the way we used to work through the fashion incubator many  moons ago. If we feel like making a pink dress, we make it, put it out there, someone buys it -  done! Viola! We do not want to be dictated to by the big chain and department stores,  and that is why we a working to have our own stand alone and online flagship stores. And while you wait for those, you can find some pieces already for sale through ebay, stay tuned for more details, or feel free to email us/leave a comment and we will get back to you asap.

And don't forget to become our facebook friend http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sunshine-and-daydreams/123110211072943

Set back number two

oh dear,



we have had another slight set back.

Just when Jennie is starting to look a little less green, my darling daughter fractures her foot on the first day of the school holidays!

She has to keep off her foot for another two weeks, so it looks like I will be hanging out at kindergarten making paper plate people instead of sampling the new ranges.

Maybe if my paper plate people are any good I'll get Jennie to photograph them and we can sell them?

And just incase you thought something is terribly wrong with Jennies photography, I took this snap of Ava and her sore foot. Can't you tell?

Stay tuned.........

Go the mighty Nutcrackers!

We love Melbourne......


Sunshine and Ballet one day
Rain and footy the next


On Wednesday I took Ava Sunshine to the Australian Ballet's Nutcracker. Boy oh boy what a visual feast. Tulle and sequins on the beautiful ballerinas, tights and thigh high boots for the oh so fit young men. 

And on the subject of fit young men, GO SAINTS! (or Collingwood,  if you're that way inclined!)


So in between all this excitement we're off to check out a couple of shops in Yarraville, so keep a look out.

When we do open our doors, we'll be offering not only demi-couture womens and childrens wear, green objects of desire but also Jennie's photographic skills. We hope you'll enjoy!

Set back number one

Day 21

Miss Congeniality

Jennie ill. Not with anything serious, just disgusting. But enjoying the drugs.
We will have to halt looking for a shop for at least two months , while she endures triple doses of antibiotics and all the lovely side effects that entails.
On the bright side(and I'm sure there is one) I have longer to get the two ranges together, finish the business plan and source stock.
And it looks like the shop might end up in Yarraville, Melbourne's best kept secret.

Above is a photo from my very last Cicciolina range that I have re titled 'why you shouldn't try to go back to work when your new baby is waking you up every 40 mins through the night'.

Somebody did love this dress and bought it for their 18th birthday party. Bless her whoever she is.

But I am very glad that Ava now sleeps now and I can spend a little more time on each design. I don't miss having to design and sew a range in a week.

Good things come to those that wait.

Stay tuned.......