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A new start for 2017!

Oh gosh, I haven’t blogged in 9 months. That. Is. SHAMEFUL. I have committed the cardinal Bloggers Sin, hammered home by every “Writing a Blog for Dummies” article EVER: I’ve not kept it up.

Oh ********.

In my defence, I have had a baby and spent most of the last 9 months trying to keep him alive / healthy / germ free (failing) and happy. Does that get me off the hook m’Lord?! No??

Oh well, I’ll just skip over the excuses then and jump straight to repentance. I pledge to hence forth, forthwith, forever hereafter BLOG MORE. Preferably once a week. (Certainly one a month. Depending on how germ free I manage to keep the little one…).

Anyway, since returning to work I’ve set myself a New Year’s Resolution to record little video postcards of new and exciting product ranges when they arrive in the stop. I’m not what you’d call a particularly natural presenter, and I do have the tendancy to repeat myself and OVER ENUNCIATE. But still, we’re all lumps of clay aren’t we? (Some of us are just a little lumpier than others…).

So here are the first two. Enjoy.

New We Started With Buttons Range!

Carol Hicks Creative’s Glass Puffins – I LOVE…

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To Did and To Do…

Seasons Greetings Rockhoppers! I trust this post finds you well, if not a little stressed (if you’re lucky) or downright desperate (if you’re anything like me and have only bought a pathetic smattering of gifts so far). Still – fractiousness, desperation, staying up until 3am wrapping gifts or making the cake – its all part of the Christmas tradition, right? RIGHT?!

Anyway – as the sun sets on 2015, I thought it would be nice to reflect on what, I think we can all agree, has been a pretty bonkers year for Rockpool. But no one wants to read a blog post about “these are all our achievements in the last 12 months, aren’t we great??,  so in order to keep it brief, I’ve done what I always do; I’ve made a list. (One can never go wrong with a list).

“To Did List in 2015”:

1. Said goodbye to a job which wasn’t really my cup of tea, despite the lovely people I worked with.

2. Realised I no longer had an income and that, for some pinickity people (like the bank manager), this might be a problem, so agreed a lease on a small shop on The Barbican in Plymouth.

3. Turned said shop into a cosy little home for Rockpool Trading.

4. Grew.

5. Grew some more.

6. Ended up with double the number of stockists we had when we first opened, covering a broader range of products from candles to cushions, bags to bunting, spoon fish mobiles to fairy doors and everything in between, all of which are lovingly handcrafted in Devon & Cornwall.

7. Had a lovely summer chatting to folk from all over the planet who were visiting Plymouth, as well as broadening our customer base in the city.

8. Got nominated for a Plymouth Herald City & Waterfront Business award for Rockpool. Terribly exciting – never been nominated for anything before. Celebrated with a piece of red velvet cake.

9. Got shortlisted for a Plymouth Herald City & Waterfront Business award for Rockpool. Even more exciting. Bought a posh frock and attended our first ever awards ceremony where were were Commended in the category of “Best homeware, gift shop, arts and crafts, hobbies and interests retailer”. Celebrated with lots of bubbly.

10. Attended the Plymouth Christmas Market and met lots of lovely local folk and publicised our cosy Rockpool home on The Barbican. Also ate a LOT to keep warm. Nearly lost Christmas cheer, having to listen to Christmas hits solidly for 11 days.

11. Rediscovered Christmas cheer, and made the most of the festive season by selling at fairs in Plymouth, Tavistock and Edinburgh, bookending the country with our handmade wares, as well as online and of course in the shop.

12. Waved a sad goodbye to our buddies at Funky Poppy who are moving out of the House that Jack Built at the end of the year after 5 happy years in the wonderful independent shopping arcade.

“To do lists for 2016”:

1. Move Rockpool into the front shop at the House that Jack Built, and make it as cosy and comfy as our first shop was. (Squeeeeeeeeeee! SO excited!!!).

2. Sleep more.

See you in our new pad in 2016 folks!

This one!

 

 

 

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Oh dear oh dear oh dear

What can I say? We’re closing in on three months since the last blog… *hangs head in shame*. There’s no point in messing around with the whys, wherefores and where-the-hell-have-you-beens about why I haven’t kept you up to speed since 8th October – there really is no more impressive excuse than Christmas arrived on our doorstep on 9th October and I’ve only just woken up from the Manic Festive Dream, a little like Dorothy after her adventures in Oz, with only hazy recollections of what the last few weeks have entailed. So, here we go, lets try and summarise some of the highs, lows, lessons, experiences and anecdotes from the last 84 days…

First off, 10 fairs in 2 and a half months is a mammouth undertaking, when you factor 2 jobs and 1 toddler in to the equation as well. There’s no beating around the bush – despite all the fun and frolics (and Quality Street) we had along the way, I was so ridiculously relieved to pack away the last box on 15th December and know that I didn’t have to open it again until the new year. There – I’ve said it. Bad small business owner! However, despite this relief it was also really sad to say goodbye to our gorgeous Christmas products until October 2015 – they’re far to beautiful to sit in a box for the best part of 10 months. Humph.

And whilst I’m prattling on about it – I’ve heard enough Christmas compilation CDs to last me 10 lifetimes and then some. I’m all for creating an atmosphere, but event organisers: spare a thought for your stallholders who are probably, like me, on a massive Christmas fair marathon and therefore have to endure Maria-bloody-Carey and Cliff-blinkin-Richard literally dozens of times. Nevertheless, we are professionals – not a smile faltered, not a swear word was uttered and not a chair was thrown through a window in a Shakin’-Stevens-induced rage. Having said that, indoor fairs, even with their musical challenges, are a breeze compared to outdoor fairs; outdoor fairs are fraught with risk – wind and rain being the first thoughts that spring to mind, but there are less obvious hazards to keep an eye out for as well: dogs peeing against your table leg for example…

Despite all this, Christmas for Rockpool was the best we’ve ever had. Increasing our presence on the craft fair scene, coupled with an unexpected Plymouth Magazine cover story and other press interest has meant we’ve had oodles of lovely, local crafters contact us asking to join our merry band, as well as lots more online orders. Our only problem was selling out of some particularly popular lines, and big apologies to those makers who I had to contact 2 or 3 times to restock during the last few weeks. Next year the matra will definitely be: Christmas comes but once a year, so order early and order big…

In other news, I’ve now officially been served with my notice of redundancy from the day job, so in 2015 we’ll be saying Bye Bye nine to five rat race and Hello unpredictable and exhilarating world of self-employment. Whilst it’s been tempting to adopt the tried, tested and entirely healthy head-buried-in-sand procedure for the last few weeks, as New Year is looming I know I need to come up with a post 31st March 2015 Plan. Seeds have already been sown and research has already been done to ring the changes for Rockpool next year, so hopefully when the spring comes, my little, loved, green shoots of a business will be well on its way to becoming, well, a bit less little and green shooty…

 

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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…