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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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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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And the award for the best independent shopping arcade goes to…

Greetings Rockpoolers! Hope we’ve all had a good summer? Apologies for the radio silence – we’ve been holed up in the shop, making the most of the lovely tourists on Plymouth’s historic and beautiful Barbican. We’ve met and chatted to everyone from Birmingham to the Bahamas, and it reminds you how lovely folks are.

Meanwhile, BIG NEWS: the summer has been rounded off with a lovely achievement for us. Rockpool has been shortlisted in the snappily titled “best homeware, gift shop, arts and crafts, hobbies and interests retailer” category at the Plymouth Herald City and Waterfront Business awards. After only being open for 6 months, this was entirely unexpected and so amazingly appreciated. As a small business, positive feedback is just so so lovely, so to be listed among other fabulously successful independent retailers in Plymouth is, well, awesome.

It got us thinking about how many successful independent businesses have come out of The House That Jack Built since it opened it’s doors as an independent shopping archade in 1982. For over 30 years it has been the home of the individual and the artisan, the quirky and the off beat, the crafty and the unusual, and it holds a dear place in the hearts of locals and tourists alike. But aside from this, it has also given the opportunity for small businesses like ours to start out of the uber scary journey of trading, without the crippling rents and rates that can come with a prime high street spot. Case in point: 3 of the current businesses in The House That Jack Built were nominated in our business awards category alone, and 2 (ourselves and our lovely neiughbours Funky Poppy) have been shortlisted. Another shortlisted business (Eva’s World) is an alumni from the arcade, and there are at least 4 other businesses on the Barbican who started in this little rabbit warren of shops and galleries.

In short, every city should have a House That Jack Built, because without it, Plymouth might not have the fabulous range of independent shopping it has today. And we wouldn’t have the excuse to buy a posh new frock… 🙂

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None of the Above!

Greetings all!

I’m using this month’s Rockhoppers not to promote the wonderful South West, nor to update you on the shop or our product lines. No – nothing that upbeat. I’m using it to RANT*. Hope that’s OK? If you’re not up for a RANT today, no worries – come back and read the entry another day… Maybe when you’re feeling a little bit RANTY yourself.

Now, I know banks are an easy target for RANTS from, well, pretty much everyone these days, and far be it from me to jump on an easy bandwagon, but I’ve got my own particular gripe with banks and that is: their approach to businesses and how they treat their business customers. I think my bugbear is best summed up by the following scenario. I’m contemplating changing our business account (for long and boring reasons, but mainly because I’m fed up with paying oodles of fees for, y’know, just using the actual account. Apparently, doing anything other than leaving your cash in the account to snooze for years on end attracts some sort of fee…); anyhoo, I was browsing a few websites, and I came across the website of a large high street lender, let’s call them Cat Best. On Cat Best’s business banking home page there is a drop down menu titled “Choose type of business”, and the options are as follows:

  • Start Up
  • Turnover Up to £2 million
  • Turnover £2 million or over

Now, my message to Cat Best and every other frigging bank in this country is as follows:

Isn’t categorising businesses into EITHER start ups OR turnover up to £2 million OR over a little… well… broad?!?! I appreciate “Up to £2 million” covers a whole host of turnovers – £2000 per year, £20,000 per year or £200,000 per year, but it’s the insinuation that you are either a start up (and are therefore titchy tiny small at the moment but with the right nurturing from a wizzy jolly bank you’ll be well on your way to your first million before you can say “fee free banking”…) or you are already aiming towards that Holy Grail of £2 million. Well done you.

Now, I don’t think I’m giving away too much about our business finances when I say that Rockpool will not be cracking open the champagne to celebrate hitting the £2 million mark any time soon (or, indeed, ever). We are, in the most literal sense, a small business. We’ve grown since we began but we are still small and shall probably remain relatively small for the majority of our business life. That’s not negative or unambitious – it’s simply the truth. Lumping us in with the “approaching-£2-million” brigade is frustrating as we seldom seem to get deals with cater for us, and we suffer being compared to businesses so fundamentally different from ourselves. We deal with local suppliers and sell handmade pieces – nothing we sell is mass produced, so we do not benefit from economies of scale. We are a tiny fish in the very big ocean of retail.

BUT WE LOVE THAT!! We love that we’re personal, individual and unusual – we don’t deal in large numbers or big volumes. We are, in all respects, small, and we celebrate our littlness! It would just be nice if the banks realised that we’re not all start ups or millionnaires – somewhere in the middle are thousands of small independent businesses like us who are pootling along, providing great choice and service for our customers and giving the market a bit of personality.

But unfortunately you never see that in a drop down menu do you?

Anyway, RANT over. As you were.

 

*The word RANT should always be in capitals. It looks too quiet and wimpey in lower case. rant…. meh….

 

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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 times they are a-changing…

Greetings from a rainy, windy, grey, but still beautiful, Plymouth. September was, all things considered, a bit of a mixed bag for the RT team, but nevertheless we’re crashing on through life’s little ups and downs with a spring in our step, a song in our hearts and a glass of Shiraz in our hands…

Starting from the top, on a personal note, Mrs RT has been told that she is going to be made redundant after 6 years with her current employer. Which sucks. But every cloud…yada-yada-yada, and this might be the kick up the backside she needs to plough all her efforts into Rockpool full time. Starting a business is super-scary, and we overcame that hurdle 3 years ago when RT first went live. Now we’re fast galloping towards the next hurdle – running the business full time and relying on it for income. Oh ‘eck. Still – as my ol’ Dad likes to say, it’s not a challenge, it’s an opportunity in disguise. And this is one whopping big opportunity.

Anyhoo – onto more positive things. We’ve been going craft fair booking CRAZY this month, and have now secured 9 fairs in November and December. Seriously – if you’re personal friends of ours and you want to see us leading up to Christmas, come to a craft fair. (And bring mince pies). It’s going to be manic, but loads and loads of fun and we can’t wait to get started. After taking RT on the road on a regular basis in 2014, we’re now really looking forward to attending fairs with a). loads of lovely new Christmas stock and b). loads of frantic people who promised themselves they’d start shopping in June but then remembered it was sunny and there was much better stuff to be doing in June, and are now desperate for some beautiful, handmade pressies for their loved ones. Enter Rockpool.

Finally, the repercussions of being awarded the #SBS Winner tag are still rippling; look out for Rockpool in the local press soon! And what’s more, our-mate-Theo has released the date for the 2015 #SBS Winner’s shindig; I feel some major networking coming on. Must remember that networking does not mean propping up the bar and chatting to people as and when they decide to get a drink…

 

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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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