By Jescalyn Vazquez on July 17, 2011
The logo has been awarded! I was a stressed out mess during this contest, but I finally had to just pick the logo that jumped out at my a screamed PeachHoneyPreemie. I think I found it. Now before you say anything… yes, I know it kinda looks like an apple, but it was more important for it to resemble a heart. Preemies (well, all babies, really) deserve a little heart, so I think the logo speaks volumes.
How to pick the logo that speaks without words
- Less detail means a bigger impact. Pick something that is simple, with less intricate work. This meant passing over some of the cuter designs (that were beautifully done, by the way) and picking the logo that packed the bigger punch, and had the ability to speak for itself without any words. You can look at the logo and clearly see a PeachHoney.
- Choose a scalable logo. This logo can be blown up on the side of a truck, or shrunk on a teeny tiny onesie, without losing its power. Close your eyes and picture the Target logo… powerful, right?
- What’s your message? For me, it meant picking the logo with more heart (literally), and a little honey. If I was picking a logo for a shipping company, I would have chosen a more mature logo, and not the light-hearted alternative.
- Go with your gut. Especially when dealing with a service such as Logo Bids. You will have the designers competing for your attention, and they will do anything to make you pick their entry. Some of their suggestions are very valuable, but in the end you have to pick the logo that speaks to you. Ignore the chatter, and go with your gut.
Posted in Inspiration, Updates |
By Jescalyn Vazquez on July 1, 2011
Erin Darcy worked so hard on my logo… it’s beautiful and sweet and it was just what I was looking for. I loved it… and then I was told I didn’t know what to look for… I was told the logo was all wrong, and I was heartbroken. “It needs to be something similar to the Ralph Lauren pony logo.” “It needs to be scalable to a teeny tiny size that will live on every piece of clothing you make. When people see your design they will say THAT’S A PEACHHONEYPREEMIE!”
I went to work brainstorming and sketching. Then I realized… while I do have an artistic background, I’m not a branding expert, nor am I a web/logo designer. So I searched for some professionals. After emailing a logo designer, who wasn’t excepting any more clients, I was referred to LogoBids.com.
This website’s concept is genius!! You create a design brief, that includes everything you want your logo to be, assign a prize, and then designers from all over the world submit their ideas to you. You can communicate with them to tweak the logo as you see fit, and then at the end of the competition you pick your winner. The great part is that you can assign a price you are willing to pay, and you get to choose from multiple designs/designers. No pressure… they are working for you, and they really want to give you what you want.
My contest ends July 8th, but here are some of the front runners so far.
Posted in Uncategorized |
By Jescalyn Vazquez on June 27, 2011
So I have tried every way around this decision, but it had to be done… I have to manufacture in China. There is absolutely no other way to offer professionally made clothes at a price you are willing to pay. The US is making it impossible for me to make money… absolutely impossible!! It’s really sad because our economy is struggling and I would love to turn this new clothing line into an job opportunity for others. I broke my heart when I realized it was impossible. Not only is it more expensive to produce here, every little process is done at a separate location, so I’m paying the shipping to and from every step. In China, I can print and roll my fabric, cut and sew my clothing line, print and attach my hang tags and care labels, and then ship everything to the US is one pretty little package. Of course, not everything is roses and sunshine… there are some drawbacks to producing in China, but the hard work and money I put forth in the beginning, the better rewards I’ll see in the end. Please bear with me…
There is a positive side to this decision… I finally have a plan. I was wrestling with how to produce my own fabric line, finding a place that has the correct machine to attach snaps, and getting my garment manufacturer’s license. I now I have all the answers. I just have to slowly work through my to do list, and it will eventually get done.
Posted in PeachHoneyPreemie Products, Updates |
By Jescalyn Vazquez on June 22, 2011
The samples finally arrived, after threatening my sewing contractor with cancelling my check… yeah, I have to deal with those type of people. He sure did send me the bill for the overnight shipping pretty fast. Within a day of talking with him, it was at my doorstep. Surprise, surprise. Anyway, like I was saying before, the samples were perfect!! I tried them on a preemie baby at work, and, oh lord, you can’t even imagine how cute! The only glaring change, was the snaps need to be better applied, and one needs to be moved up an inch. I may have to change the fabric to an interlock, instead of a baby rib, but I’ll have to make some more samples and just compare the two.
All this takes time and money, and I’m running out of both, but I’m pushing through!! We will get there…
Posted in PeachHoneyPreemie Products |
By Jescalyn Vazquez on June 15, 2011
I had an overwhelming negative thought… and it crippled me. I’m deep into an intense retail class, and it’s making me really look at the nature of my business and what it has the potential to become. There are so many positives I’ve uncovered because of this class, but the few realities are destroying me. I gave up on the idea of creating my own fabric line… way too expensive, so then I got some advice to screen print my ideas myself. This was a great idea… when I was thinking I would sell less than 100 items per month (I’m still not sure why my hopes were so low, but they were). Unfortunately, when I got to talking with my Kim Lavine, my teacher and mentor, she made me realize the probability of being able to screenprint my designs, on the thousands of product I would be selling, was not possible. Heartbreaking, but true.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited about the possibility of selling thousands of product to big-time retail stores, but now I have to find another pattern making option. I have to submit my clothes for safety testing, and get hang tags, research merchandising in my top stores, create a 5 year sales forecast, write a business plan, and a million other things in order to just make my clothes. I can’t imagine what I will have to do once I actually have them in my hands. I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty stressed… I’m running into these types of roadblocks around every corner, but I’m sticking with it… this is my baby, and IT WILL BE A SUCCESS!!
Does anyone have any advice or experience with this type of business? EMAIL ME!!
Posted in Inspiration |
By Jescalyn Vazquez on June 1, 2011
Welcome to the newly designed PeachHoneyPreemie website!!! I’ve been working tirelessly these last few weeks on making it perfect. It’s, by no means, complete (my TO Do list still glares at me from the edge of the kitchen table), but it was finished enough to give you a sneak preview. I just couldn’t wait any longer.
Ready for a tour?
The Home page, as you can see, is not complete. I’m working with my hospital to allow me to snap pictures of our preemies and their families (with parent’s permission, of course), so that I can put together a slideshow. If you, or someone you know, have had a preemie and would like to be featured on the PHP website, contact me!!! I would love for you to have a special place in the PHP community.
The About You & Me page is missing some pictures, which will come in time… maybe you guys could help me out with that (hint, hint). I would like to feature preemies wearing the PHP clothing line, so for future customers: SEND ME PICTURES!!!
The Testimonial page is a special place because this is where you share your story. Tell me how being able to dress your baby has impacted your everyday life, but more importantly how it helped you deal with having a baby in the NICU. Do you have a story… contact me!!
Since there is currently no Press about PHP, the Press page is blank. Let’s fix that, shall we?
My shop is not open at the moment, but it’s still on target for it’s grand debut in July!!
Do you want to receive the PHP newsletters? Sign up on the sidebar… just enter your name and email address, and click “subscribe”… then go to your email and confirm. That’s it!!
After you have signed up for the newsletter, check in with me via Twitter, Facebook, and subscribe to my RSS feed.
Are you as excitied as I am?
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged news, NICU parent, questions |
By Jescalyn Vazquez on April 30, 2011
The beginning of a new life for you, me, and my family. This line is going to be success!! Please repeat after me, “This line is going to be a success!!”
Preemie babies and their adoring families will finally have a voice, and the style they deserve!!
Posted in Inspiration | Tagged preemie baby voice, preemie clothes, success |
By Jescalyn Vazquez on February 28, 2011
I know, I know… it’s been a while. I’ve been extremely busy working tirelessly to get the PeachHoneyPreemie ETSY shop open by summer. I put a 3-post-a-week quota on my other blog, which has left this one a little neglected. That’s changing now. I have to cut back to two posts a week, until the business is running at a steady place (the start-up tasks have me just slightly busy), so I can start posting on this blog at least once a week. I’m still unsure what the future holds for this blog, but for now it will be fairly relaxed and unstructured. Once we have a steady following we will make some structural decisions, together.
PeachHoneyPreemie News!!
I’ve been on a fabric buying rampage, Amy Butler, Joel Dewberry, etc… I’m in desperate need of a 12 step program for shopaholics. I told myself “You do not need anymore fabric,” but then quickly changed my tune to “You do not need anymore fabric, but if you find a really cute pattern on sale, buy 5 yards.” This prompted a shopping spree on ETSY and my local fabric stores. It’s been a busy month at the sewing mill, and I have some seriously adorable fitted sheet and blanket sets for all my preemie families. Are you excited?!?!
The preemie clothes are close… very very close. I have just recently sent my drawings to a sample maker, who will hopefully, give me a good deal for production. I ran into a little roadblock when picking fabric. As it turns out most of the cute interlock knit fabric is copyrighted, so I was running into some major issues with the cohesiveness of the line. So, I talked to some people, who have produced their own fabric, and guess what I found out? It’s extremely expensive!! I didn’t have $30,000 to start a fabric line, so the next best thing was screenprinting… genious!! I have decided to make this line eco-friendly, so I’m using un-dyed natural fabric, and I found some water-based eco-loving screen print ink. It’s all coming together, and I can’t believe this is my wonderful life. I hope to have some exciting news next week and, some even bigger news in the beginning of summer.
Posted in PeachHoneyPreemie Products | Tagged blog, ETSY, fabric, news, preemie clothes, screenprint |
By Jescalyn Vazquez on November 3, 2010
I came across an article in the New York Times about a Mother of a preemie baby. The mom’s name is Kate Hopper as she so lovingly penned her struggle to love her, then fragile and sick, baby girl. I see NICU mom’s every day struggling to ignore the alarms and focus on the beautiful light that is their baby, scared of loosing them at any moment. This article has it all… the struggle, the triumphs, the frustration over loosing the dream of having that perfect newborn experience. If you’re a NICU parent, please read it… it helps to know you’re not the only one feeling overwhelmed. I promise, you’re not the only one.
Picture provided by Artistic Portraits
Posted in Inspiration | Tagged fear, mother's fear, NICU parent, preemie baby |
By Jescalyn Vazquez on October 2, 2010
I went to Costco yesterday with a list of five things… almond milk, tequila, eggs, sparkling water, and ziplock bags (I realize it’s an odd list). I walked out with a cart full of stuff totalling over $400. Yes, I know, we’ve all been there… sucked into the vortex that is bargain shopping. And the worst thing is that they only had 3 out of the 5 things I needed… but of course they did have shoe racks, a 3 pack of frozen pizzas (for the Monday night football party that always seems to end up at my house), and, more importantly, a Singer sewing machine for $140 (oh, did I mention it was a “Martha Stewart” approved sewing machine… don’t get me started). This is where my “hiccup” began.
I sat down this morning to start sewing the very first article of PeachHoneyPreemie clothing… exciting, right… yes, and a very big no. I successfully loaded the bobbin, threaded the machine, and pinned my garment in all the right places… and that’s where the successes ended. I tried to zigzag stitch and the knit fabric got caught in the teeth of the machine… I tried to reverse over the edge of the fabric and it got caught again. I sewed the ribbon at the wrong place, causing my wrap top to look a little… well… off. The end result was an unsellable piece of fabric, and not something to be proud of, or worthy enough to be labeled “PeachHoneyPreemie.”
No, I’m not giving up… not even close! I called my mother-in-law for back-up, and we will attempt the pattern once again, with her by my side for guidance and support. Every new adventure has it’s pitfalls and I’m assuming this will be the first of many…
By the way, did I mention I’m now a Executive Costco member… I’m in desperate need of a 12 step program…
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged hiccup, sewing, shopping |
