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Spring into Summer…

Yay! The sun is streaming through our window, the heater behind the counter is well and truly back in it’s box and the shop has been Eastered to within an inch of it’s life…

April is here folks! And with it came our first family afternoon at the beach – check it out:

We even had to put a sun hat on the baby! OK so we were shivering by the time we got back to the car, but that doesn’t matter. We’d had a dose of vitamin D and it’s amazing what a difference that can make.

I was in such a summery move, I’ve restocked the gorgeous Bella bags from My Sister Mabel in Teignmouth. One of our longest standing products, we’ve sold these bags for years because we just think they’re awesome. Perfect for shoving in everything you need for a day out mooching around the shops, or a picnic in the park… hell, you could even grab a baby sun hat and head off to the beach…

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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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Gazing at the sun…

Afternoon from a bright and breezy Barbican, and welcome to our first blog of 2016! (On 21st February… shameful).

We’re now happily set up in our new home at the front of The House that Jack Built, and have spent the last 6 weeks enjoying THE WINDOW. We love THE WINDOW. We can wave at passers by, scowl at overly loud motorbikes screaming down Southside Street, survey (and often tut at) the weather and generally be part of the rest of the window-owning community. We loved our first shop, but having access to natural daylight really is a game-changer. Yesterday a lovely lady came running in to buy a bag we had in our window display, which she had seen the night before whilst out on the Barbican for dinner. All hail the power of THE WINDOW.

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If I had one criticism of the beloved window it is that it desperately needs a clean – there’s a point around 3.30pm when the sun begins to set and peaks through the lane opposite and the shop is bathed in beautiful sunlight (when the clouds allow). However, its on occasions like this that I realise the window looks like it hasn’t seen the mercy of a squeegee since Mr Drake himself was wondering round looking for a nice flat patch of grass and wondering why everyone else is getting so het up. If only there was someone you could pay to do this kind of thing for you…

Anyway, we’re very happy in our new home and have had lovely feedback on the new shop. And the move isn’t the only new change for 2016; we now have the lovely Louise working in the shop on Mondays, meaning we’re now open 6 days a week. Louise is the mastermind behind Everyday Wonders, one of our very popular crafty suppliers, so she loves chatting about all things handmade.

We also have a couple of new stockists in the pipeline which should be hitting our shelves in March – keep your eyes on our social media for further info!

Right, I’m off in search of a sponge and bucket. 🙂

 

 

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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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The tale of two cities…

So, I was at a training course today – a local course, for local people, if you will – and the course leader made a comment, when discussing the two largest cities in the South West, that “Plymouth is the poor relation of Exeter”. Now, as some of you will know, the whole Rockpool team is Plymouth born and bred and we’re super proud of our city; however, I’d arrived late to this course and didn’t really know anyone, so I did what most “it isn’t polite to make a fuss” people do: I huffed passive-aggressively and rolled my eyes.

But it’s been bothering me ever since: why on earth is this myth still being peddled? Before I start, I must stress this isn’t a “my city’s better than your city” rant: I really like Exeter and (aside from their football team…) I think the city has bucket-fulls of brilliant things to offer the South West as a whole: the shopping, the uni, the architecture, all a big thumbs up. I don’t really subscribe to this local rivalry thing: I like Exeter. There, I said it.

However, what does irk me ever so slightly is the constant comparison between Exeter and Plymouth. It’s completely baffling, as historically, geographically, demographically, in every way they’re so completely different. And what irks me even more is that Plymouth seems to come off, well, as “the poor relation”. Poor?!? Plymouth is well over twice the size of Exeter, and has the range of shops, restaurants, bars and facilities you’d expect to meet the needs of one of the UK’s top 20 biggest cities. (Admittedly, a Jamie Oliver Italian Restaurant wouldn’t go amiss, but it’s OK, apparently another nearby city is getting one soon…). We have (nearly) 3 universities, the National Marine Aquarium, the largest Naval Base in Western Europe and a jolly fine lighthouse. And whilst it’s not to everyone’s taste, we have the highest number of post-war listed buildings in the UK, outside of London, after the city was largely decimated during the Blitz. It’s a city of spirit, humour and stonking amounts of history. Like proper history: going off to discover new lands-type history.

So, if you’ll indulge me, this is what I wish I’d said to this misguided woman:

“Excuse me Cynthia* – I think you’ll find that’s a load of outdated twaddle, peddled by out of touch people like your good self, who no doubt live in Exeter and want to boost the value of their postcodes. Plymouth is a diverse, interesting, buzzing and beautiful city with more history in 3 cobbled streets on the Barbican than the entirety of some British cities. Now, I can see why you might be brainwashed – it’s the easiest thing in the world to poke fun at Plymouth: it’s working class roots, it’s marmite architecture and frankly, the funny sounding accent, could make it a figure of fun to other, more middle-class cities. But I would strongly suggest you take another look, for these are the things which make Plymouth great, and certainly no one’s poor relation. And if this still hasn’t convinced you: Plymouth produced Tom Daley; I doubt Exeter could boast producing anything as beautiful”.

I wish I said all that. But I didn’t: I sat and inwardly drafted a blog post.

*Names have been changed to protect the ignorant.

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What I was doing when I should have been blogging…

A month. Shocking. But in my defense, I was out revelling in all the joys Devon and Cornwall (and…ahem…Scotland) has to offer. It is the summer after all – and as the Hurricane-formally-known-as-Bertha hoolies it’s way towards the South West, I thought I’d reflect on a fabulous 4 weeks in the Westcountry sunshine…

Week 1 – Watching the inimitable Elbow at the Eden Sessions. An unlikely Mother’s Day pressie from my 1 year old (he knows his Mother well), Mr RT and I were lucky enough to catch the boys from Bury in surely one of the most picturesque venues in the country. If you’ve never seen a gig at Eden, make it a priority – it’s breathtaking (if not a long walk back to your car). And speaking of breathtaking views, the following night we pitched up, with 20,000 others, to MTV Crashes Plymouth. (Yup – Elbow one night, Example the next – who says we’re not eclectic??). The event was certainly loud and proud, and while I’ll save my rant about the lack of bars for another post (and in any event I vented my spleen in a strongly worded complaint to Plymouth City Council to which, incidentally, I’m yet to receive a response), you can’t say this kind of massive event isn’t fantastic for Plymouth, and the wider Westcountry. Plus, on a scorching evening on the Hoe, it’s hard to be grumpy. (Even if you’ve queued for 3 hours for a beer).

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Week 2 – Saw Rockpool attend The Wild Tribe Children’s Festival; the first children’s festival to be held in Plymouth. As new parents we were probably a bit biased, but we thought it was fantastic. Theatre performances, puppets, storytelling, marshmallow toasting, all sorts of messy crafty type things, bands, stalls, amazing food (including Yum and Stuff and Thorough Bread – check them out) and, of course, your local, friendly online retailers. Fab day – can’t wait for it to come back next year.

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Week 3 – Did Accounts. De-fleed the dog. Packed for…

Week 4 – Holidays in Scotland! Too much to cram in – amazing evenings at Hampden watching the athletics at the Commonwealth Games, shows at the Edinburgh Festival suitable for 1 year olds, fabulous fun with much-missed family and more wine than is probably healthy when we all have to get up at 5.30am for the little ones. Even though it’s a long way from the Westcountry, Scotland feels very much like home – can’t wait to be back there again soon.

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So home we are, and back to the lovely day job. More fairs coming up in the next few weeks, and who knows, maybe even the odd new product line. Keep your eyes on the skies Rockhoppers…

 

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Oooops – There Goes May

Oh my God I haven’t blogged in nearly a month. That is disgraceful! Rest assured I feel suitably ashamed… And on a completely unrelated note, the RT team are off on hols to Spain soon, so next week’s entry might be affected as well… Normal service will resume shortly, I promise.

Anyway – aside from my poor blogging over the last month, life in Rockpool Trading-land has been pretty swell. The news in brief is as follows…

New lines have been added to the website, the sun has been (mostly) shining (aside from the odd clap of thunder), have attended fairs in Devon & Cornwall and had a lovely time nattering to lovely people, attempted (and failed) to find a dog groomer to sort out our walking bush of a labradoodle, continued the ongoing quest to teach myself to crochet, carried out more research new suppliers who might join our happy RT family, realised mini-RT can now turn the gas hob on, banished mini-RT from the kitchen until he’s 10 and old enough to make Mummy breakfast in bed on her birthday, successfully got tickets for MTV Crashes Plymouth, watched in horror as some Polish lass in the in the Eurovision Song Contest did something unspeakable with a butter urn, got mini-RT his first mini-passport for his upcoming travels, went to the cinema twice in one month and felt momentarily young and extravagant, voted (and then ranted at anyone who would listen about the results), and had a mini-pedicure.

All in all, May has gone off without a hitch.

Finally, had a quick semi-business, semi-pleasure trip to Liskeard last weekend, and Mr RT was highly amused by a sign he saw in the window of the local Boots. Only in Cornwall people, only in Cornwall…

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Dogs, pinnies and Gruffalos…

Evening All.

OK, so tonight’s Rockhoppers blog-writing tipple of choice is a well known brand of alcoholic Ginger Beer. (“You don’t have to have a drink to write a blog, but it helps…”). Scrum.

Anyway – like bin day, the blog is a day late this week due to the Bank Holiday. (Insert your own joke about rubbish here). This Bank Holiday weekend saw the RT team revelling in our gorgeous Westcountry surroundings, including a sponsored walk on Dartmoor to raise money for pooches with epilepsy (who knew eh?), enjoying a rather splendid meal at River Cottage in the Royal William Yard (fabulous food from Mr Hugh F-W) and finally a trek through Cardinham Woods in search of a Gruffalo (No joke. You really can go and hunt a Gruffalo…).

All of this was rather splendid, but also rather outdoorsey, so it was lovely to spend Bank Holiday Monday in the serene surroundings of the Moorland Garden Hotel, manning the RT stall at the Moor Things Vintage and Lovely Summer Fete, organised by the always reliable Miss Ivy Events. As always, the day was well organised with bags of character and atmosphere, and from a personal point of view, we had a stonkingly good day with loads of interest in our products (especially our beautiful range of handmade pinnies from What Jess Did Next – after all you can’t get much more vintage than a frilly pinny…). The only dampener was the fact the hog roast pretty much sold out before I got to it (humph – too busy having such a lovely time with the bloomin’ customers, honestly…). But my empty stomach aside, the day was a big success – it’s great to see the vintage and handmade scene is alive and well in the outskirts of Plymouth.

Therefore it’s with a twinge of sadness that we wave goodbye to the May bank holiday. Oh hang on, another bank holiday on the horizon, you say…?! Why, splendid – don’t mind if we do…

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Rockpool on the road…

Evening Rockhoppers!

Tonight’s blog will be short, sweet, and a little bit all over the place, but hell – lets see if we can pull it together by the end…

So I’ve spent most of the last week back on the craft fair trail for 2014. We maxed out on fairs in the run up to Christmas, and had a splendid time, but now we need to get over the winter blues and get back out there for the spring. I’ve already booked in fairs for April, May and (randomly) November, but our aim is to do at least one per month, across the length and breadth of this fair region of ours. Now – here in lies part of the problem; when you’re new to the scene as we are, booking a craft fair is a bit like walking up to a prospective partner in a bar; they may look good on the outside (snappy dresser, nice hair, not wearing white socks), but delve a little deeper and before you know it, you’re sitting in a freezing church hall next to some ol’ dear who crochets her own toilet paper.

(OK, so my metaphor may be a little muddled, but hopefully you get the gist).

And don’t think it doesn’t happen! Luckily the RT team have so far managed to side step most land mines when it comes to disastrous fairs, but even we experienced one occasion when we travelled over 60 miles only to sit in a venue for 8 hours with just a handful of customers. And this was a fair that, on the outside, seemed like the George Clooney of fairs – nothing to suggest the Baldrick of an event which lurked underneath…

Anyway – punts have been taken, caution has (to some degree) been thrown to the wind, and we’ve booked some more dates and venues in the calendar. Keep an eye on our home page for more details, but needless to say we’re hitting the road big style in 2014. And hey – it’s a numbers game: you kiss enough craft fairs, you’re bound to find your prince… (or something like that).

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Message from the Westcountry to the Mainland…

Can you read me…Over…?

Message reads:

FOR GOODNESS SAKE INVEST IN OUR INFRASTRUCTURE (stop) – IT’S AWFULLY QUIET DOWN HERE (stop).

On this cold, rainy miserable evening, this rather chilly Plymothian is sat listening to the Proclaimers and drinking a glass of wine, wondering if I could indeed walk 500 miles (and then 500 more) to reach the heady heights of “up north” (aka Bristol and beyond…).

You would have had to have lived in a cave with earmuffs on this last week to not know what I’m talking about – the devastating storms that have hit the UK have been all over the media, particularly the pictures of the beautiful coastal train line running through Dawlish, or at least where the beautiful train line used to be – half of it is now hanging precariously a few feet above the water. Whilst it’s a blessing that no one (as far as I know) has been seriously injured (or worse) by the damage, the focus has now shifted and the devastating effect the complete lack of transport infrastructure into the Westcountry is going to have on local businesses is becoming apparent. Plymouth and Cornwall have, quite literally, been cut off from the rest of the UK in terms of rail links, which leaves us 2 options: road (the lack of a motorway west of Exeter leaves us at the mercy of the rather optimistically named “Devon Expressway”) and air (which has been significantly affected by the closure of Plymouth airport – now we rely on the reduced service at Newquay, or, the extremely expensive flights from Exeter – and in any event, that’s now only any good if you have a car…).

And devastating really isn’t too strong a word – tourism really is the life blood of the Westcountry. The head bod at the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce has estimated a loss of over ÂŁ500 million to the South West’s economy as a result of the newly amphibious train line. Which begs the question: why has no one ever considered the implications of this before, or if they have, why weren’t they taken seriously? As anyone who has tried to catch a train heading for Penzance on the Friday before a Bank Holiday weekend and ended up sitting in the loo in order to get a seat can attest – they come in their tens of thousands to the region. Business, pleasure, relaxation, stimulation, culture, kicking back or zoning out – they come and they spend. I shudder to think what will happen if the train line is not up and running by the Easter weekend.

And getting out of Devon & Cornwall is proving almost as difficult. I was due to attend a meeting in Reading in March, and it has now become apparent that my best option is to drive from Plymouth to Newquay, fly from Newquay to Gatwick and get the train from Gatwick to Reading. (Quite literally, Trains, Planes and Automobiles).

So – to sum up. I dare say that one of the reasons so many of us love the South West is it’s remoteness, it’s quiet, laid back pace of life. But whilst we may occasionally tut at the tourists when we can’t get a seat in our Local on a Saturday night, we need them like a cream tea needs jam, like a pasty needs a pint and 2 indigestion tablets. Lets hope the Grockles don’t stay away too long – we miss them when they’re gone.