a look back at 2013- a year of awesome things!

 

 

what a year! so the first day of the new year I woke up with an inkling that something was different, a few hours later a little blue line told me I was having a baby! and so 40weeks went by and then 10 more really long days!, and finally my little boy turned up, he is so different to his brother, in looks, temperament and personality, he has made our family complete and I cant remember him not being here. It was also a mega birthday year with most of my favourite people turning 30!, mine past by in a haze of sleep deprivation, baby gurgling and unbelievable joy as my best friend and partner proposed on the morning of my 30th.

Me&My has also had a huge year, working with some great stockists, meeting some inspirational designers and proving to me that hard graft sometimes takes a while to pay off!

Christmas has be awesome,I got some really cool presents, like my Mister Peebles 'David Meowie' print, I got another one called 'keeping it reel', I had a close encounter with a friendly goose and I made A LOT of homemade gifts! in the process I ate my body weight in truffles, shortbread and mince pies, and glugged my way through a small draft of sloe gin... I know not every year can be this great, but for now I am enjoying and appreciating what a lucky life I lead.

I hope your year was just as good as mine, heres to more of the same in 2014!

 

support small business Saturday!

HI! Tomorrow is support small business Saturday!

I for one will be buying my fruit and veg from my local grocer, I will be buying some flowers from my local florist and my Christmas pressies from etsy! I will shop local, if you would like to as well I am offering FREE shipping for UK customers in my etsy shop.

Code XMAS001 at the checkout. Keep small business alive and kicking and make the high street less boring!

www.etsy.co.uk/shop/itsmeandmy

 

code:XMAS001

seasons greetings !!

hello hello!,
well its all go here at Me&My HQ.....its the busiest time of year not surprisingly!
We are really happy to announce that we are stocked at the We Make London boutique in Camden AND in their pop up boutique at Kew Gardens Christmas. Its an  incredibly exciting! so apologies for the lack of posts!
Our toys are doing really well, its lovely to know that all the hard work, sore fingers, and messy work room pay off and that they go to homes where little people will treasure them.
to buy our products you can go to the following- www.etsy.co.uk/shop/itsmeandmy
or actual real shops! - raindrops on roses St Albans, Felix & Lilys- Islington, We Make London- Camden and We make London Kew.
Happy Christmas. XX

Christmas at Kew

Hi,
so Iv been very bad with this blog recently, turns out life has a habit of making it impossible to get everything done!.
So what's coming up over Xmas I hear you ask....
well I have been busy stitching up a storm in preparation for Christmas at Kew,
its the first year Kew Gardens have put on a winter wonderland type event and I'm so excited to be a part of it. Its a magical place, I remember jumping on the train down to Richmond with my Mum and two brothers to go and see the giant lily pads, its amazing what games you can come up with amongst the flowers.
So here's what might be featuring in the We make London pop up shop at Kew this Christmas....
hopefully all this hard work and late nights pay off!

we have a new member

 

 

so we have a new member of the Me&My family....

work is not on the agenda right now....

but lots of plans in the pipe line for Christmas.

really easy baby bib make

soooo...I'm now 3 days past my due date and there's no sign of this baby turning up! so despite being the size of a house I am determined to keep busy. Iv been meaning to make my own bandanna style bibs for ages, with my first born I spent a small fortune on them, and realised too late just how simple they are to make. So I picked though my fabric stash, found some bits I liked and that are unisex! and basically traced around an old bib of my sons, used that template to cut out the fabric and the cotton backing, them whizzed it through the sewing machine inside out leaving a little gap to turn it right side out, sewed up that hole, and added some poppers, basically cost nothing, and each one took less then 15mins. It is addictive, because it ticks so many boxes for me, its a project that is super quick, it uses up fabric I cant find any other use for and they are going to be practical...

so I'm off to make some more and hopefully baby will decide to turn up this week.

 

 

 

creative holidays....

I'm now officially the most pregnant I have ever been!

 summer holidays+ 3 year old+ pregnancy = a challenge!

so we have been getting creative, seeing as tree climbing and football in the garden are off my list for the time being, we have been painting, scrap booking, baking and making good use of the library!

I have found keeping busy is very helpful, and this mobile design has been in my head for about 6 months, I finally finished it, and I love it! its incredibly satisfying making something for your child, that you know is just for them...now I might have to make my son a big kid version...robots and dinosaurs knowing him!

We also found this amazing little place in St Albans called pots of art, which lets you paint a piece of pottery, which they then fire and you collect a week later, it was a lovely way to spend 2 hours, and I now have something I will treasure forever made by my son.

 

now roll on September!!

 

its been a while......

well its been a while...

I'm now at the every end of pregnancy, the bit here your feet swell and walking 5 minutes down the road seems to take all day! Work is definitely on the back burner at the moment and the nesting instinct as well and truly kicked in. not only is my house the tidiest its every been, my 'stuido' (essentially a shelving unit covered in fabric, thread and ribbon) is all packed away and replaced with baby stuff!
Its my sons first summer holidays, and we had the chance to go away for a week to France, at 34 weeks pregnant it was a challenge, it was hot, and humid and I slept a LOT but it was an amazing week full of very happy memories, good food and lots of photos!
I have had time for a little bit of making, its sometime really lovely to just make something for fun....
My son tried his hand at plate decorating, he painted, I traced over his lines, it will be fired and ready to use as a real plate in a weeks time!
I also made a start on a baby mobile, I have big plans for it, with elephants, clouds and balloons, and I hope it will be done in time!

July makes and winding down......

Happy July! Summer has finally arrived and it is lovely! I wish I wasn't 8 months pregnant and could actually wear comfortable clothing, and enjoy the heat wave, oh well, there's always next year (hopefully). So after a busy 7 months for Me&My I'm finally able to slow down the pace, 4 regular stockists, a lot of plans in action for autumn, and a emerging customer base means I can actually start making something for the baby with out having a load of orders needing my attention.

I always have a list of new things I want to make, with my son it was a cot quilt, which having never made one before was a tricky task, but 4 years later its still going strong, despite being washed a million times and dragged through the park several times , so this time around my new make is a mobile, I'm going to scale down my toy ellie design and see how that goes! in the mean time I made my baby its first toy (not knowing the gender means using as many colours as I can!) and my first attempt at a dribble bib! (as modelled by bear) enjoy the weather, my heart goes out to all the heavily pregnant women out there who are just preying for a cool breeze! :-)

 

 

July! already?

 

Wow, so June flew by in a whirl of making and designing, what started out as a break from clothing design has turned in to its own little business, Our Me&My soft toy range is proving incredibly popular and they continue to sell out at all our stockists a scary rate!

This week we have added a whale toy, taking a break from the world of floral and pastel patterns and going for something bold! these little beauties will be available at our Etsy Shop MeMyUk or selected designs are available at our stockists, Felix & Lily's in Islington, We Make London in Camden and Raindrops on Roses in St Albans....

 

 

Im a busy bee

 

 

 

 

This week I have mostly been sewing, sewing and more sewing! not to mention running around London with bags of stock, dropping them off to different stockists, its all very exciting and lovely to see that hard work does pay off, and all the late nights, sore fingers and neglected house work are worth it when your stock actually sells out! amazingly at 7 months pregnant I feel full of energy and ideas, and can believe in a few months Il have a tiny person to look after and all this will have to take a break or be handed over to a very clever friend of mine to run for a while!

what do you think of the new designs? everyone loves elephants! I'm thinking I will attempt to make a whale soft toy next, but for now its back to sewing these little ellies up for my Etsy shop!

 

 

Stockists

Felix and Lilys http://www.felixandlilys.com/

We make London,Camden pop up boutique http://www.wemakelondon.co.uk/

Raindrops on Roses http://www.raindropsonroses.org.uk/home.html

an obsession with Elephants....

 

Now I'm a fabric hoarder, I tend to stick to the same key colours and styles in my designs, but like a magpie I will buy anything that catches my eye, and I had this beautiful brushed suede sitting on my shelf for nearly a year, there is only about half a metre of this and I couldn't bring myself to chop it up, then one night when my mind was racing with ideas I decided to try and make a suede Ellie and I love it! (its the cream one in the photo) Suede is a joy to work with, it is strong and doesn't fray, and it feels amazing! so I now have VERY limited stock of cream suede luxe Ellies. Wish I could keep them all, but that just wouldn't be fair!

 

These beauties will be available at my Etsy Shop shortly....
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/MeMyUk

SALE!

Hello! just to say that I am currently offering 25% OFF all children's clothing at my Etsy store, with coupon code May01, this offer is only available until Monday 28th May, so grab your self a beautiful hand made bargain while you can!



https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/MeMyUk

 

Me&My sunny days.....

 

We have had beautiful weather the past couple of days, and a flurry of activity on the designing front, I'm determined to fill up my Etsy shop with as many lovely things as possible, plus there has been a whole heap of friends who have either had a baby or are expecting one (myself included!) which always helps with ideas....

I have loved watching my ideas evolve, its been less then a year since I started all of this as a hobby! and only 6months of really making it a viable business, and in that time my style, has become cleaner, brighter and most of all very much my own :-) the next few months are seriously exciting, Me&My will be featured in a book, more stockists to be confirmed, and if I'm brave enough I may even attempt a trade show, all this while counting down until September when our family of 3 will become 4!

 

not getting very much done..........

So as the weekend draws to an end, its dawned on me that I have actually not done a lot! I did finish one Me&My design, that's been in my head for a while, but with orders for other designs coming in, its hard to find the time to do something just because you want to! this baby grow is available at my Etsy shop

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/MeMyUk

I also spent much of the weekend trying to get my son interested in crafts, basically if it involves making monsters and gluing things to paper he is good to go! 

( I drew the monsters, as he just wanted to do noses and googly eyes)

 

New stockists.....

Its been a crazy week here at Me & My HQ,

not only did I finally get round to adding new lines to the Etsy Shop, but I also delivered some to our new stockist Felix & Lilys! as well as lining up new stockists in the coming weeks!

 

Felix & Lilys are an awesome little boutique in Islington, its a treasure trove of beautiful kids clothing, toys and accessories, I could of easily spent hours

pouring over the toddler clothing!

for more info on Felix & Lilys,

go here ---> https://www.facebook.com/pages/Felix-Lilys-baby-boutique/130157453682374?fref=ts

 

 

 

Day dreaming....oh and new stock on Etsy!

So while the sun has finally shone in the UK, I have been busy gazing out of the window as I upload pictures to my Etsy Shop, dreaming of ways to turn this small scale business in to something I can retire on! its a lovely day dream, but for now, you can check out new stock at my Etsy Shop- MeMyUk

Feedback is always welcome.

 

 

 

My Home........

 

 

 

Because I work from home, and tend to roam around into different rooms with sewing in hand, I often don't notice or appreciate the things I own, so today I decided to go around and snap some pictures of the things that mean something to me, 1.Paper art from Shanghai 'fake markets', these remind me of my brother who lives in China, and the time I spent over there visiting him. 2.this amazing folded, quilt thing, I don't even know what it is, a coaster maybe? bought at a  craft fair because my stall was opposite and I thought it was stunning. 3. the green bling ring was bought in NYC in China town on a cold April morning when I was on holiday there with my boyfriend. 4.the two toys are made by me for my son and are the only mouse and owl I've ever made like them. 5.this is a silhouette of my son playing my Granddad's old piano. he must have been only 6 months old and was obsessed with it! and finally 6. Prints bought in Paris in a street market, literally cost about 5euros for all of them, but framed they are my favourite things on the wall.

 

and that's a snap shot of my home...... I spend far to much time on pintrest looking for ideas and not enough time enjoying what's around me!