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A local birthday for a local boy

Evening Rockhoppers. Once again I’m writing from the region formerly known as the Westcountry, when a more accurate description would be the reservoir that now joins The English and Bristol Channels. Seriously – it’s been raining for EVER. Enough is enough – I’m so over winter; bring on the spring.

Anyway – after my last ultra negative post about Poundstretcher, I’ve used up my monthly quota of winge, so I thought I’d try to give this week’s blog a bit more of a positive slant. The reason I didn’t post last week was down to the week-long celebration we ended up having for mini-RT’s 1st birthday. A fabulous time was had by all, although M-RT will not remember a thing about it; nevertheless, we were keen to use any excuse to beat the post-Christmas blues and celebrate surviving a year as parents. (After all, it’s all about US). And it got me thinking – aren’t birthdays are a wonderful thing for the local economy?! Whether it’s going down your local for a few sneaky shandies (perhaps not appropriate at sprog’s age…), or taking yourself out for a slap up dinner, the number of local businesses we supported whilst celebrating the one-ness of M-RT was amazing!

In brief: the day before his birthday we paid a visit to The National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth (where the little-un’ showed his appreciation for the sharks in the only way he knew how – by applauding them…), and lunch at Monty’s on the Barbican the following day (I’ve not yet found a better fishfinger sandwich). On top of that, we held his 1st birthday party at Plymouth Argyle FC at the weekend, mainly because the clan are big fans, but also partly because it’s a venue local to us. To top it all off, and because I drew the line at making cakes to feed 60 odd guests (including sprogs), we ordered super scrummy cakes from Sage cafe, just down the road from us, and ordered soft play stuff from The Play Association in Plymouth. So that’s 5 local businesses we have supported by celebrating our little clapping, singing, crawling, winging, gurgling, screaming, oblivious bundle of joy. Maybe celebrating his birthday wasn’t all about us after all.

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Pound Stretcher Strop

Greetings Rockhoppers. I’m going to keep it short and sweet tonight, as I’m just a little bit narked, and as it’s apparently “Blue Monday” I don’t want to feed into the collective grump any more than I have to. So here goes…

Just when you thought the high street couldn’t get any more bleak, you find that something rather dubiously called a “Pound Stretcher” is going to open in a massive retail unit just down the road from you. (In this case, the Friary Retail Park in Plymouth). This has irked me for several reasons, which I will try to summarise as follows…

Firstly, whilst I accept these places have to exist (otherwise where would we get our £1 bottles of Herbal Essences with the old branding from?), the place for these units is surely somewhere discrete and out of sight, perhaps sandwiched between a Bon Marche and a pop-up calendar shop. The place is not on a highly visible retail park, with neighbours such as Dunelm, Smyths, Hoobbycraft and Pets at Home. (OK, so hardly Westfield, but surely, Plymouth City Council, we can do better than this?!).

Secondly, the sheer size of it. It’s going to be HUGE. I like my pound shops small and harmless, not the size of a small hanger, with rows upon rows of discounted nonsense. Seriously. There’s only so many £1 items anyone needs…

Thirdly, and probably predictably, I’m not a big fan of mass produced, cheap… stuff. It’s pretty much the polar opposite of everything we believe in at Rockpool; but that’s OK, it doesn’t mean we can’t co-exist. But I do object to it being in such a large unit in such a prominent location in the South West’s largest city, mainly because… and here’s my fourth and final gripe…

The message it sends. It says, in gigantic cheap, yellow letters… this country’s had some pretty rubbish financial times recently, things are hard for a lot of people and you can’t afford anything a). nice, b). not made of plastic and c). costing much more than a £1. That’s not to say that millions of people (many of whom live in the Westcountry) haven’t had an incredibly hard few years, but that’s not the whole picture! For goodness sake, give us some confidence, give us some hope, give us… oh I don’t know, something that doesn’t just hammer home the point: “Times are tough – so stretch that pound for all it’s worth”.

Plymouth deserves better Plymouth City Council. And I think anything, literally, ANYTHING would have been better than this. Times may be hard, but as important as it is to be frugal and live within our means, it is also important to not lose sight of the big picture: things will change, things will get better, and when it does, we’ll be wishing we picked up the phone to Mamas and Papas…

 

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New Year, new lines

Evening Rockhopper fans!

Once again, a slightly late entry. The excuse this week is a good one – I spent most of last night writing a mammouth email to a potential new stockist, who makes the most beautiful, handmade clutch bags.

In fact, I’ve been working super hard in the last couple of weeks at getting more new lines onto the RT shelves. Unfortunately, all too often those old pals “logisitics” and “cash flow” buddy-up to scupper my plans for new product lines. I’d love, love, LOVE to fill RT’s cyber shelves with even more wonderful, beautifully made, unusual products for our brilliant, discerning customers, but without getting a stonking bank loan, thereby putting lots of pressure on the teenie fledgling that is our precious little business, we have to bide our time, add lines as and when we can afford them, and grow “organically”.

The problem with growing “organically” is that it can take an awfully long time; which of course can be a good thing (time to grow creatively, develop ideas, build relationships and really try to find our identity in the crazy world of retail), but can also be, quite frankly, mind-numbingly frustrating and an altogether right royal pain in the derriere. What we need is a lottery win – that’d bazooka a whole heap of challenges. Or a wealthy benefactor. Like in those Charles Dickins’ novels, where some long lost, mystery relative (usually related to our late mother who somehow disgraced herself by marrying beneath her thereby cutting herself off from her fortune forever), comes out of the woodwork just at the critical moment, scoops us out of the gutter, puts is in a top hat and tails and presents us at the society ball as the most elegible batchlor in London… OK, there is a chance I’m labouring the metaphor a tad. But the principle stands – what we could do with is a wad of cash all earmarked for stock – *sigh*.

Anyhoo – in other news, I’m booking in craft fairs left, right and Chelsea, so keep an eye on our social media and home page for updates. Can’t wait to get back out on the road with all the new gear. Sadly we’ve been turned away from a couple of events because we’re not the actual makers of our stock (which would be impressive – see The Elusive Super Crafter entry…). It’s a pity that some people see retail outlets as the bad guys; incidentally, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Sure, we sell products so I guess in that respect we have something in common with John Lewis or Amazon, but I think we can all agree that’s where the similarities end. Hey ho – we’ll continue in our quest to change hearts and minds, and who knows? Maybe one day that long lost relative  might come a-knocking…

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The merits of communal dining…

First of all – Happy 2014 one and all! Having said that, it is 5th January, so it’s waaaay too late to be bothering with all that palava. I’m sure most of us by this stage have made resolutions, broken resolutions, re-made more realistic resolutions and started counting the days until the next bank holiday weekend. (Just me? Oh, OK then…). Christmas at RT Towers was quiet and fairly uneventful. Mini-RT loved the wrapping paper and labels as much as what was actually inside – as expected, and I actually managed to get dinner on the table by mid-afternoon – which most certainly not expected.

In an effort to combat the post-New Year blues (and because we didn’t eat enough during the previous week), the hubby and I went for dinner at The Riverford Field Kitchen near Buckfastleigh in Devon last night – and oh my word, what an unusual night it was… The food was absolutely amazing, and incredibly reasonably priced, but that wasn’t what was unusual – the out-of-the-ordinary element to the evening was that Riverford have you sitting at communal tables; so when we arrived we were seated with 2 other couples, who also didn’t know each other. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have an ominous sinking feeling about the whole evening – my past experience of striking up conversations with strangers has not been entirely successful, not least because I tend to laugh when I’m nervous or when I can’t actually hear what the other person is saying – with some unfortunate consequences. But I was to be proved wrong! Not only were our dinner companions very friendly, but they were really interesting (one of them was an Oscar winning sound engineer – I kid you not!), and it got me thinking – maybe Riverford were on to something? If we’d have sat at our own little 2 seater table, OK Mr RT and I would have had a perfectly lovely evening, but we would invariably have ended up chatting about one or more of the following topics: mini-RT, the state of the spare room / loft / utility area, when we were going to start doing some proper exercise, and what we would do if we won the lottery. All worthy and productive avenues of conversation, but pretty much what we talk about over dinner at home. Whereas being thrown into a table of strangers (not literally) meant we had to ask questions and take an interest in something outside our little universe. And yes, it helped that our table were full of very interesting people, but still – we wouldn’t have discussed post-Oscar parties or the overpopulation of Holland if it had just been the two of us…

But anyway – a truly fab evening was had by all and the food, as I said, was out of this world. As a local success story, we love Riverford anyway, but that aside, we’d heartily recommend the whole experience to anyone looking for an evening with a twist. Plus the desserts have to be seen to be believed – think hubby and I had better get back to that exercise conversation…

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Ding Dong Merrily on High, In Devon the Bells Are Ringing…

Seasons Greetings one and all!

This is a hideously late (but hopefully worth the wait?!) update from an incredibly windy South West. Apologies as always for the lateness of this post – I can’t even blame DMT (Dreckly Mean Time) for this one – I’m laying the blame squarely at the door marked “Christmas bonkers-ness”, and there it shall stay. Not only have I had a really busy month taking Rockpool on the road for Christmas (more of that later), but it’s also our first Christmas with my little’un, and in a fit of what I can only imagine was hormone filled madness, I’ve offered to host Christmas. (Am hoping mini-RT might distract the guests from what will almost certainly be a bit of a burnt offering…).

Anyway – excuses done with, and on with the show. We maxed out on fairs in December, and actually had a really good month by going down this road. 2013 has been our first year of really doing the craft fair thing, and OK, I could have done without the 6am starts, but I really enjoyed getting out, meeting customers, nattering to other stallholders and generally having a lovely time. The last fair (14th December) was an event organised by the fabulous Outset Plymouth, who gave us loads of helpful guidance and support when we were taking off. The fair was shared between Outset businesses and local Young Enterprise teams, so the day was…well, lets say…”lively”. A brief explanation for those who didn’t have the pleasure of doing Young Enterprise when they were at school: I don’t really know the ins and outs of it, but it’s an extra-curricular scheme where schools get to put teams together (often paired up with other schools), and have to come up with a product or service to sell – the aim being, of course, to teach kids about business. Coincidentally, I actually did YE when I was 16, and the fair on Saturday brought back A LOT of amusing memories, not least being the bizarre approach to sales which YE seems to promote. To give a general gist, there must be a memo floating around somewhere entitled “Your Young Enterprise Step by Step Guide to Sales Success”: 1. Shout. 2. If other people are shouting, make sure you shout loader.  3. If shouting doesn’t work, jump out in front of people. 4. If even further persuasion is needed, wear amusing headwear and offer free biscuits. Basically, Enthusiasm is King. (Ahhhh…. if only that’s all there was to it). Still – the teams at this fair were spirited and happy, and it was lovely to see. Hopefully some of these young’uns (Oh God, how old am I?!) will make the brave leap into the entrepreneurial world and, furthermore, will actually succeed. And if they do, I’m sure they can employ someone to shout on their behalf. Happy days.

Finally, a big THANK YOU to everyone who has supported RT over the last year, either by buying unique, handmade items from us, coming along to craft fairs, helping out behind the scenes, interacting with us on social media or supporting us in any number of other ways. We’ve had a crazy but wonderful year, and we can’t wait for bigger and better things in 2014.

In the meantime, we’re off to baton down the hatches, crack open the Quality Street and kick Christmas off with a mahoosive glass of mulled wine. As we say in the Westcountry… ‘appy Christmas to You and Yours! See you on the other side.

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A snap of Tudor Evans (Leader of Plymouth City Council) opening the Outset Plymouth Fair. The Young Enterprise bods can be clearly identified by the festive headwear…

 

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So many craft fairs, not enough time

So there’s a Black Friday and there’s a Super Monday… If this is the case, then the weekend of 7th & 8th should hereafter be called “The Utterly Bonker’s Craft Fair weekend”. (At least in Plymouth and the surrounding area anyway).

So this weekend, RT packed up the car again, and headed to the All Things Vintage and Festive fair at The Guildhall in Plymouth. We attended this fair last year as customers and it was packed, so we were eager to be stallholders this year. The fair was really good – loads of varied stalls, perfect location and a great atmosphere throughout the day – but chatting to the other stallholders around us, it became apparent that the footfall was a down on last year. A little Googling revealed why – that weekend, if you were a fan of handmade and unusual items, you had a choice of at least 5 fairs within a 5 mile radius of Plymouth – the Royal William Yard, Mount Edgcumbe, Tavistock and the Plymouth Plaza were all also hosting fabulous fairs this weekend! And you’d have to be a pretty committed independent retail shopper to get round to all of them over the space of 2 days…

So – on the plus side – fabulous to see there is clearly a growing market for locally made, hand crafted items. (Which is lucky, given our USP…), but perhaps it would be a good idea to spread them all out a little next year?! On a purely selfish note, that would also allow us to spend most of December touring Devon & Cornwall doing Christmas fairs and sleeping in the car. Woo-hoo!

One final thing; I met some super talented crafters over the last fortnight, so if you’re still looking for some unusual Christmas pressies, here are my top tips:-

  • Peagreen Furniture – Beautiful candles in jelly moulds and other retro pieces of crockery. And they smell divine. (The candles, not the crafters. Although I’m sure they smell lovely as well).
  • Made for Keeps – Super-cute little hanging hearts made using vintage materials and really well presented. Top stocking-filler idea.
  • Made by Messy Muppet – LOVE her crochet hair slides and alice bands. And she has a massive range as well.
  • Rosie Drake Knight Textile Design & Illustration – If you have a few bob in your pocket, Rosie’s items are simply stunning. A real statement gift – worth the investment!
  • Funkybead – Uber-pretty jewellery and really reasonable prices.

One more fair for the RT team before we put up our feet and crack open the Quality Streets for Christmas. Come and see us at the Outset Plymouth fair at the Plymouth Guildhall on Saturday 14th December!

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Stalls, shawls and baubles…

And so it begins people – December is officially here, and the month of Christmas frenzy looms large. Deep breath – we can do this. We’re all in it together.

It’s a slightly later post this week – I decided to give myself an extra day due to the completely bonkers weekend we’ve had at RT HQ. Craft fairs, Argyle, donkies (don’t ask), more craft fairs, and general Christmas madness – last night I was about ready to sleep for a week. We are now well and truly on the festive bandwagon, and actually it’s quite a nice place to be. No bah humbugs here, (at least not yet). It is, however, crazy busy with another fair next weekend, a social media campaign involving play dough robins (again, don’t ask) and Christmas orders to get out – lets just say I’m very much looking forward to a glass of mulled wine when all’s said and done on 24th December.

Anyway – that’s a long way off yet! Sunday saw the RT team head to the Christmas Producers’ Fair at Crocadon Sawmill, in East Cornwall – lots of stallholders wrapped in their thermals and grasping flasks of tea (or Lemsip) and lots of eager shoppers who’d come specifically to buy their Christmas trees (it was the 1st of Dec after all (!)) and make a start on the long, winding and sometimes painful road to Christmas shopping Nirvana – a Christmas tree surrounded by pressies, all wrapped up and ready to go. It was a fabulous fair – really well organised by the Crocadon team; even standing in a drafty barn for 6 hours couldn’t dampen our spirits.

And as it’s now December and the tidal wave of festive frivolities is gathering momentum, we had our Christmas tree decorations on sale – really cute wooden robins and doves from Lillies (crafters previously from Cornwall but now emigrated to Devon) and very sparkly holly and Christmas tree decorations from our long term crafter and friend Sue Cheney (based in Plymouth). Whilst I was talking to a friend about these, she told me about an idea she’d heard from parents who’d recently had their first baby: apparently, you buy one, individual, handmade decoration from the year your child is born, right through until they are 18. You can then present your (not so) little’un with a collection of beautiful decorations to welcome them to adulthood, and keep for their own family Christmas trees.

I know. It’s adroable. I can see the John Lewis advert now…

Anyway, I thought this was a fab idea, so I thought I’d share it with you. And if you’re in the market for an individual, hand crafted decoration to start your collection, I know of a good website…

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From here to maternity…

Evening all.

Sigh. It is with a heavy heart that I type this evening, as the dreaded circled date on the calendar, which I’ve been trying to ignore, is nigh; the last day of my maternity leave. The return to my day job looms large and, like most new mums, I’d quite happily stay in this lovely bubble of sitting in my PJs, eating cake and playing with the little’un, until he’s 18. Sadly, the bank manager seems to have a different opinion, so I’m re-joining the world of work (office based work that is, not Rockpool work – that’s 365 days a year, and definitely not a chore!) and my little pal is off to have wonderful times with his Grannies. Humph.

As a result, I’ve been in a bit of a reflective mood this weekend, and have been thinking of all the wonderful experiences we’ve had since January, made possible in no small part to the fabulous part of the world we live in, and all the brilliant stuff we have right on our doorstep. So here we go – 10 excellent maternity leave experiences in 11 months…

1. Giving birth in Derriford Hospital, Plymouth. OK, it was painful, and long, and exhasting and messy. But still overwealmingly brilliant.

2. A slight come down after the last one this one, but a fond memory nonetheless: attending a lovely wedding at Northcote Manor Hotel in North Devon, and having to stop at the Tesco’s in Crediton on the way home because our 4 week old baby needed changing. Urgently. Thank goodness for public changing facilities – my husband took off his suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves, and I kicked off my heels – this nappy needed some serious attention…

3. A lovely lunch at Charlies Coffee House in Charlstown, just outside St Austell. This place has cake TO DIE FOR. And when you’ve had no sleep and are feeding round the clock, wedges of cake the size of iron doorstops are not only appreciated, but necessary. Lovely place, lovely people.

4. Little’un’s first beach experience – a rather chilly walk along Port Wrinkle beach in South East Cornwall. (Obviously he didn’t walk – we did. He got carried in a rather snuggly sling). The beach is defintely going to become a big part of his life in the years to come, but unfortuantely he mostly slept through this first trip, being only 8 weeks old. Honestly.

5. A bit of tennis fever in June when we joined some mummy and baby friends to watch Wimbledon on the big screen in Plymouth City Centre. Gorgeous day, gorgeous friends, gorgeous city.

6. Sprog’s second trip too the beach: Bigbury near Kingsbridge, South Devon. At nearly 6 months old, he was a lot more interested in everything the beach has to offer. And obviously every grain of sand needed close scrutiny…

7. Enjoying the sunshine and giving mini-RT a taste of some fresh water swimming, at Plymouth Tinside Lido. A truely stunning view – can’t recommend this enough. (In summer. Wouldn’t recommend it in winter…).

8. A visit to the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth – littl’un loved the fishes and seemed completely oblivious to the sharks. What it is to be young and fearless.

9. A day trip to Mount Edgcumbe, East Cornwall for a picnic and walk along the beach with the extended RT family. Bloomin’ freezing, but lovely nonetheless, and fab views back across the Tamar to Plymouth. I was taken there lots when I was a kid, so it was lovely to keep the tradition going.

10. And so we’re up to date: last Friday afternoon, when the whole RT team went for a scrummy lunch at Ruby Burgers in Exeter. An ultra-cool diner experience, with monster milkshakes (see pic) and beautiful burgers. Mini-RT is now big enough to sit in a highchair, grab all the cutlery and throw it on the floor, but no one seemed to mind. We love.

Hey ho – I guess nothing lasts forever and so we’re on to the next phase. We’ll just have to save those wicked Westcountry days for the weekends.

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The Elusive Super-Crafter

First of all, apologies for a slightly tardy blog entry this week. Last night during the usual post mini-RT bedtime / pre-Strictly results blog slot, I was flaked on the sofa after travelling to and from Hampshire in one day to pick up a third hand Punto. Anything I would have written would have been ramblings about needing rest and / or chocolate and / or a head massage.

Anyway, it wasn’t just the Sunday jaunt up the M5 which floored me; on Saturday Rockpool started its Christmas craft fair campaign at the “Crikey! It’s Vintage” fair at the Thistle Hotel in Exeter. It was a veritable vintage extravaganza with more than victory rolls, full skirts and red lipstick than you could shake a stick at. The whole event was a roaring success and was a blast for customers and stallholders alike. On the RT front, we kicked off the Christmas season in style, and had a whale of a time nattering to customers as well as helping some particularly well organised folk start their Xmas shopping. (Always happy to help).

One thing which always surprises me when we take RT on the road is the number of people who ask me “Ooooh, did you make all this yourself?”. Now, bear in mind that on the RT stall we have ceramics, jewellery, glassware, appliqué cushions, oilcloth handbags, crotched cafetierre cosies and wooden Christmas tree decorations, to name but a few. Even after hunting the South West for the best suppliers for the site, I’ve yet to meet the talented individual who could cover all of these disciplines, especially to a standard good enough to be let lose on the public…! Hey ho – one day I might find this super-crafter, proficient in everything from weaving to whittling, and when I do I’ll be sure to blog about them.

Still, in the meantime – here’s a picture (hopefully – if I’ve worked out how to post a picture correctly) from Saturday’s event. Looking forward to the next fair at Crocadon in Cornwall on 1st December. Hopefully by then I would have worked out how to fit all the stock in the back of a Punto…

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How to lose customers and irritate people…

Before I started up RT, I attended a free local “Introduction to Business” type course, and learned the sales mantra – people buy from people. (My husband who had worked in sales all his life apparently already knew this, but as someone who was new to the sales world, this phrase stuck with me). If this is indeed the case, the numpty who cold-called me this week to try to get me interested in making money through the Government’s new green energy scheme, but who somehow lost his way  and ended up insulting me and then hanging up, would need a personality transplant if he hoped to meet his targets.

I was minding my own business on Thursday morning, getting on with my day with tiny-RT, when the phone goes. The thought briefly flitted through my mind – “no good can come from answering the landline during the day” but I never could resist a ringing telephone, so I answered. He immediately leapt into his diatribe about the scheme, barely pausing for breath even after his opening line of “Good morning, how are you today?”; therefore I was unable to interject and let him know I was not now, nor would I ever be, interested in any offer a stranger makes to me completely out of the blue on the phone, until a good 60 seconds after the phone call started. Eventually, the time did come when he decided to include me in the conversation (“this IS something you’d be interested in doing isn’t it?!”), at which point I thanked him but said I wasn’t interested. (Mini-RT was getting grizzly and I was missing Homes Under the Hammer). However, rather than accepting this, he asked incredulously “you’re not interested in getting free electricity???”. His tone immediately got my back up; it was right up there with the charity muggers who accost you on the street and say “have you got 2 minutes to spare for the children / animals / rainforests?” – the insinuation being that if for any reason you don’t, you’re a heartless human being with no soul, regardless of any existing charity involvement you may have. But anyway, he was affronted by my apparent rejection of a freebie, so I responded (still politely), “no thank you, I’m not interested and I don’t have to justify to you why I’m not interested”. To which he responded with… “Well, you’re not very bright then are you?”. And hung up.

Needless to say what followed from my end (after 10 seconds of staring at the receiver, mouth open) was a swift phone call back to the company (thank you 1471) with a few choice words which left the manager in no doubt of my feelings on the call I’d just received. The manager (who I’m not convinced wasn’t the same gentleman who’d called me in the first place but anyway) said he would investigate and call me back within 24 hours to let me know the outcome. Predictably, I’ve not heard anything further, but that’s by the by.

The reason I bring it up is it made me think about the whole sales culture. As I’ve mentioned, by hubby has worked in sales his whole life, but when we met, I was surprised as he doesn’t come across as pushy / aggressive / smarmy or any of the other adjectives I previously linked to the sales industry. Yet he’s successful in his job and made me see that you can be involved in sales and not be a complete… pain. So when we started RT, I was conscious to be as gentle and sensitive as I could be when it came to the dreaded world of “selling”. This isn’t to say I don’t want to shout from the rooftops about our products or our sellers or the South West in general, but there is a big difference in giving people all the information they need and leaving them to make their decision at their own pace, and beating them into submission with sales patter.

So thank you Mr Hard-Sell. You’ve reminded me, before we embark on the season of Christmas fairs which we start next week in Exeter, of the importance of responsible selling. We can’t wait to meet lots of customers at all the upcoming fairs, but we’ll never be pushy. Or rude. Or call you thick.