The Petite Edit

fête Press – KIDS

It is difficult to sum up in just one post, the drive, passion and commitment Annabelle Kerslake and Jane Cameron have for not only their magazine fête Press but those that collaborate and feature in the title.

It is no mean feat to produce a print magazine within this current landscape and  particularly one which consistently remains so true to it’s core and keeps on getting better with each issue.  fête Press magazines are more than a magazine. They are a journal,  they capture a wonderful moment in time and a collection of beautifully curated stories, recipes and profiles of some of the countries most inspiring creatives and regular folk.

Annabelle and Jane pour their heart into each issue, travelling the country to meet, photograph and document the stories of those who appear in their pages. The duo, write, photograph, conceptualise and maintain the day-to-day requirements of this growing business.

Having just added a KIDS Issue to their series, I thought it was fitting to share the story of fête Press and the idea/concept behind the KIDS issue which I know will be of interest to many of you. The issue celebrates the joy of children and is filled to the brim with beautiful children’s spaces styled by Megan Morton,  tantalising lunch box treats, party round ups for boys and girls and so much more.

Read ahead to lean how you could WIN a copy of fête kids.

Meet Annabelle Kerslake and Jane Cameron of fête Press and take a sneak peek into fête kids.

fête Press team – Jane Cameron (left) and Annabelle Kerslake (right) – Image fête Press

How did fête Press come to be?

Annabelle: After working together on another print title, we were both at a point in our lives where we were craving flexibility and a better quality of life. We knew we were in the unique position where we had all the skills and experience needed to produce a magazine so we bought a laptop each and a camera and away we went and never looked back! We wanted fête to speak to our friends and family in a voice that was genuine and authentic and delivered in a sophisticated design aesthetic. fête is our dream job – it’s a lot of hard work, but we have complete creative control and we take comfort in the knowledge that we will always get back what we put in.

Who makes up fête Press team?

Annabelle: The creative and business side of fête is made up of a team of two! Jane Cameron and Annabelle Kerslake – between us we cover everything from writing, design, photography, marketing, social media and much more. Rebecca Kidman (Annabelle’s sister) and Belinda Carter handle the advertising and while we outsource our financials, print management and distribution management, we are also still involved with all the day-to-day decisions in all those areas.

What are your career backgrounds?

Annabelle: I started my career working with flowers, which led me to start my own event styling company; this was when I first met Jane, collaborating with her on design aspects of my events for various clients. From there we went into publishing together and after a successful  5 year stint working on a wedding title we started fête.

Jane: I went straight from school to study graphic design at university and have worked as a designer ever since, first in big national corporations, then in my own design studio for many years. In order to satisfy a little creative hankering, I started an online stationery business on the side which is how I met Annabelle. She was working as an event stylist and needed someone who could customise stationery for her clients’ needs. We worked together on another title for five years before both leaving to start fête in 2012.

What inspires you creatively and personally?

Annabelle: Creatively I am most inspired by Jane…working as closely as I have with such a talented designer has changed my whole approach to life and work. I feel like I always had the ideas and the natural eye for balance of form and colour but working with Jane has refined my skills, a great deal of what I do is spontaneous and I always go with what feels right, regardless of rules or principals, I think working with flowers in my early days taught me that – To respect the natural beauty in everything and not make things feel like you have worked too hard to achieve that look. Personally, I am a big dreamer, always have been and always will be. Nothing ever feels impossible to me, which can sometimes be a curse! Everything I do at work comes from my want to live the best life I can and be the best version of myself – especially for my husband and child, it is really important to me that I make them proud.

Annabelle’s home office space – Images – fête Press

Jane’s home office space – Images – fête Press

Jane: I just love typography, typefaces, page layout – detail. It’s all about the detail for me and my obsessive compulsive tendencies. Like most designers I can find inspiration in pretty much anything and everything. Right from the start I was taught to be highly perceptive and notice the details and interactions happening all around me. Nothing brings me greater pleasure than structure, order and organisation – in my work and surroundings. Publishing can, at times, be very demanding so I find comfort in a calm and ordered place to retreat.

Jane’s home office space – Images – fête Press

Jane’s home office space – Images – fête Press

Jane’s home office space – Images – fête Press

What has been the best thing about being your own boss?

Annabelle: Flexibility, without a doubt, no day ever feels like Monday to me! We both love being able to choose our work pace, depending on what’s going on in our life. (Except for deadline of course, when it gets pretty relentless, our family and friends know that we go to ground every two months!)  We are both fairly strong-willed so being our own boss gives us the freedom to take risks and extend ourselves. We have a great give and take between us, which comes down to the simple fact that we need each other equally to achieve our goals, there are no egos, and we have a once in a lifetime partnership.

Jane: I have worked for myself for many, many years and cannot even begin to imagine going back to being an employee. I love the freedom and flexibility self-employment affords. I have a full and sometimes challenging family life and a number of health issues I need to juggle – I just don’t know how I would do that if committed to a 9-5 position. Now, I can work my own hours, whether that be late starts or into the wee hours (which happens a lot!). Thankfully Annabelle’s life is equally as manic so we can both appreciate that there are times when other commitments come before work and be forgiving of each other.

How are your day’s structure around your children and family?

Annabelle: My husband does the school drop, I get them out the door with lunch and bags packed by 8am, then I go through the house like a woman possessed, making beds, sweeping floors, wiping over bathrooms, doing dishes and a load of washing! Once the house is all under control, I make my coffee, and something nutritious for breakfast. This is my favourite part of the day when the house is calm and I can get my head straight following the morning rush. I have managed to get this morning routine down to around an hour so that I can be all set and ready for a days work by 9.00am. I try really hard to stick to this on the days I work from home and try desperately to not pick up my phone in that time, if I do my morning always turns to chaos and I somehow just “lose time!” It’s pretty simple – I work as hard as I can during school hours, then be finished for school pick up at 3.30 – I use this time to be focused on Eliza and try and be there for as many extra curricular activities as possible. We will often chat on the drive home, do the shopping and plan what we will make for dinner together, when the weather is good she has a ride on her pony after school and helps me with the horse chores. I really cherish this time and try hard to not get distracted by devices, which is important. Once the evening routine of homework, dinner and bath is done, I then sit down with the computer at night, (albeit in front of the TV) I use this time for research and planning – things where I can be more relaxed. I usually work until midnight most nights, but it’s a sacrifice that is worth it to spend those quality after school hours with Eliza.

Jane: I don’t have children of my own but try hard to play a positive role in my niece and nephew’s life. I absolutely adore them and would do anything for them. I do try and spend one day each weekend with them but things go a bit haywire close to deadline. Luckily my entire family know to take a wide berth during this time as we really don’t have a moment to do anything but work. During the week I take each day as it comes but know if I’m not dressed and at the computer by 9am it’s all downhill from there as I am so not a morning person and could easily slip back between the sheets at a moment’s notice. My husband, John, our dog, Billie and I are all currently living in one room of our small cottage while the remaining two rooms – which used to house my office and our bedroom – are undergoing some pretty major renovations. Having our living/bedroom/office and dining room all in one has been surprisingly easy and I’m actually wondering how I’ll go back to the way it was before. It’s like living in an IKEA catalogue – we have absolutely nothing we don’t need or use and I can’t tell you how liberating that is. I’ll generally work until John gets home from work which can be anywhere between 7pm and 10pm but my day is often broken up with appointments, lunch dates and dog walks.

Party with Isobel – Baked Apple Doughnuts – recipe page 105 – Image fête Press

Party with Isobel – Puffed Rice cake – recipe page 107 – Image fête Press

You have launching the first FETE PRESS KIDS Edition, what has inspired this edition?

Annabelle: We know a large number our readership are mothers and working mothers, we have big plans for additional titles with fête and Kids seemed like the obvious place to start. It was important to us that we created a magazine that was not only inspiring from a design and fashion perspective, but that offered support through candid articles and a like-minded community. Bringing up kids in today’s society is filled with challenges, we wanted to celebrate life with kids and let all parents know that we are in it together.

What can readers expect from this Kids issue?

Jane: Fête/Kids  is full of kids’ bedroom decorating ideas with a brilliant feature and unbelieveable competition by renown Sydney-based stylist, Megan Morton. We’ve included lunchbox ideas, places to eat out with kids, personal stories from parents about their children, the latest fashion pieces, great party ideas as well as interesting and affordable gifts suggestions.

Bedrooms with Megan Morton – Styling Megan Morton, Photography Jason Busch for fête Press

Bedrooms with Megan Morton – Styling Megan Morton, Photography Jason Busch for fête Press

Bedrooms with Megan Morton – Styling Megan Morton, Photography Jason Busch for fête Press

Best piece of advise you have been given

Annabelle: My Nan’s favourite saying…”Fortune Favours the Brave” I live by this saying everyday…I also once heard my dad say that “it doesn’t matter what choices you make in life, as long as you don’t live with regrets”. That is so true, if you make a mistake, move on, be proactive and look forward. Life is too short to dwell on your mistakes!

Jane: ‘Let it go.’ I really should remember that more often when I’m lying awake at night crucifying myself over a typo in the issue! (Having read Annabelle’s answer above, I really, really, should remember this more often!)

Tell us about the process of pulling together an issue, how does it start, who is involved, how long does it take to produce one issue?

Jane: We have two months to prepare each issue from start to finish. We will usually start by preparing an outline of content and then coordinate any photoshoots needed. Annabelle and I work collaboratively on any styled stories – usually one of us has a really strong vision and the other will support that. We work separately from our home offices, speak on the phone or email each other about a million times a day and then catch up maybe once a week to review each other’s progress. This works really well for us as we’re both quite autonomous and used to getting things done on our own. We are very fortunate that we seem to agree on everything too which means the end product is very cohesive. Whilst we are very similar in some ways, we are also very different in other ways.

Annabelle is most certainly the big-picture person – she makes the grand plans and takes a proactive role in the growth of the business, whereas I’m definitely the detail-orientated one who ensures we’re kept on track and our obligations are met. Once we have decided on a story we’ll both source product using Pinterest– this is a great way for us to remotely share ideas. We’ll then try and shoot the story in a day or stagger it over a couple of days if it’s a bigger story. I take the majority of the photographs in the magazine which comes down to my need to control everything! I found it was much easier to take the photos myself rather than rely on someone else to interpret what we were after. After processing the pics (which is a big job in itself), I then lay them out in the magazine and design the story.

Annabelle does a lot of the writing and collectively we embark on the mammoth task of crediting all of the product we have used which really takes some organisation. While I’m working on photography and design Annabelle manages our advertising, together with her sister, Becc and our NSW consultant, Belinda. Once the issue is off to print we work on all of the marketing and promotion of it, manage our social media and continue with the business development. Somehow, between the two of us, we manage to get it all done. We are very fortunate that between the two of us we have the skill-set to produce the entire magazine ourselves. I think this has a lot to do with our success to date.

What are your goals for Fete Press in 2015 and beyond?

Annabelle: We are really happy with the progress we have made in such a short time. Since we started in print in Dec 2012. It’s a tough industry and even tougher as an independent publisher so every now and then we try to remind ourselves to just pause for a moment and enjoy it. We have so many plans for the future, the potential for fête is endless and we do get carried away from time to time. We really want to consolidate this year; we have introduced two additional new titles (kids and Holiday) in the last six months and gone from quarterly to Bi-monthly, all with the same tiny team. So for the short term it’s about getting our name out there as much as possible and spreading the fête love, which our wonderful loyal readers and instagram followers do a fabulous job of. We have a couple of speciality issues which we feel very passionate about and I know it want be long until we are chomping at the bit to release them…hopefully by mid 2016. In the meantime, we would love to hold more pop up restaurants and fête reader events, as well as building our retailers list to become even more accessible.

How do you balance (juggle) family time and work time? Who is your ‘village?

I have always been passionate and “driven” about my work – being your own boss will do that to you! I never imagined I would have a career as such when I was at school, but somehow here I am and in many ways it now defines who I am. I think fête has made me a better wife and mother. I am more fulfilled and independent and I wake up feeling passionate everyday. I try to translate this in all that I do and to instil in my daughter a zest for life and hard work – no matter what your path, I feel good about the example I am setting for her, I think it will stand her in good stead for her adult life. In saying that Eliza has never known anything other than me juggling my own business with family life I was back to full time work load two weeks after she was born and things haven’t slowed down since. There are never enough hours in the day, but I do tend to pack a great deal in. I have an amazingly supportive husband who has flexibility with work and now that Eliza is at school the juggle is a lot easier. When she was young I had amazing help from both of Eliza’s grandmother’s – it is fair to say I wouldn’t have the career I have without them. For the first three years we juggled, days with grandma and Nanna, with childcare and time with both my husband and myself and it was a really good balance. I found having family support greatly alleviated the guilt of being a working mum! I try to stay pretty strict with my routine and I am always looking for ways to improve my work processes. !  I couldn’t do it all without the support of Jane, we try to have a “do what you need to do, when you need to ” policy where if family commitments come up just do it and it all evens out in the end. Being understanding and not laying guilt on each other is vital to our success as a partnership, I am sure we both have our moments but being supportive of each other’s family lives is key to our sanity.  One day when Eliza is on the school bus and I have more hours in the day I hope I can slow down on the night work, as I would love to have some “couch time” with my hubby a little more often.

Does Eliza influence the way you create and does this influence your content?

I would say I have really simplified my approach to everything I do since children; my style has evolved in to something a lot more functional and practical. I still love beautiful things, but I really crave only what is necessary. Children turn life as you know it upside down in so many ways but I don’t think anyone can prepare you for how your priorities change. Now I crave simplicity and time in my life more than anything and this is reflected in everything I do creatively and in our fête content…many times I ask myself “would anyone actually be bothered to do this?”  If the answer is no, then it doesn’t cut it for me! It’s all about making our lives simple and easy in a beautiful way. Less is more and do what makes you happy, I really hope this is what our readers take away from our pages.

Annabelle and Jane’s Petite Edit

Best place for Sunday breakfast?

Annabelle: We are mad keen horse fanatics, so in summer Sunday mornings are spent up in the early hours and traveling around the countryside with our show ponies to all the horse shows, so when the show season stops for the cooler months we love nothing more than a slow breakfast at Miss Perez or Patch in Stirling in the Adelaide Hills (about 10 mins from our property) or my famous super thin crepes which I like to whip up at home on cold wet weekends.

Jane: As my husband, John, is a chef with his own restaurants he usually works weekends so my Sundays are often spent with our dog, Billie. I delight in taking a cup of tea and a bowl of homemade muesli or porridge back to bed with me and catching up on my magazine reading (with Billie cuddled up next to me). If John can start late we’ll head on down to one of our local farmers’ markets and stock up for the week while enjoying a bite to eat too. We like the Adelaide Showground Farmers Market or the Market Shed on Holland which is only a few blocks away from our home in the city.

Best place for a family getaway?

Annabelle: Once again, I am probably not the best person to ask as every holiday we go on is horse show related! We do have a ball camping away at the interstate Royal Shows, catching up with friends we see a few times a year at the various events. It gives kids such an amazing sense of independence and achievement and teaches them to be part of a community, which I love. I also find that I can completely switch off when I am in “horse show mode” as Jane calls it! It’s a lot of work, but does give me a complete release from the pressures of everyday life. If I do ever get a chance to go on a real holiday…I have heard Fiji is awesome with kids, Eliza would love it she is such a water baby, it is definitely on the wish list.

Jane: Most summers John and I try to get away with my sister, her partner and their two kids for a week away at a beach house. The past few years we’ve visited Robe which is South East of South Australia. It’s got a great laid-back country town feel with the most stunning beaches and great local produce but it is definitely becoming more popular so we may look closer to home, perhaps Normanville Beach, next year.

What is your go-to resource?    

Annabelle: My sisters! If I am ever struggling with anything as a parent, I find my two older sisters are a wealth of knowledge… I am lucky to have them.

Jane: Pinterest. 100% totally addicted!

Favourite children’s fashion range

Annabelle: I am loving Feather Drum at the moment, they are amongst Lizey’s favourites in her wardrobe, Witchery have some great everyday pieces too this season that are a good for kids that are tricky to fit. Oh and Target for best kids’ jeans!

Jane: Country Road and J Crew Crewcuts. I’m tiny myself and can fit into most children’s brands which is a bonus. Well, there have to be some perks to being so small!

Give a shout out to another inspiring business (ran by parents)

Annabelle: Pony Rider – Kelly is an inspiring business woman, wife and mother who doesn’t try or claim to be perfect. She is one of those people I could just talk to all day about love, life and motherhood.

Jane: Mr & Mrs White – beautiful, simple furniture and homewares.

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To go into the draw to WIN one of 15 copies of fête kids simply say hello as follows:

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^Details: competition open Monday 11 May 2015 and closes Friday 15 May 2015, 8pm and open to Australian residents only. All entries will be added to a draw and selected at random. Winners will be notified via social media and must advise postal address within 24 hours of announcement.

Bedrooms with Megan Morton – Styling Megan Morton, Photography Jason Busch for fête Press

Bedrooms with Megan Morton – Styling Megan Morton, Photography Jason Busch for fête Press

Bedrooms with Megan Morton – Styling Megan Morton, Photography Jason Busch for fête Press