COLOURING TIME - EASTER BUNNIES

The sun is shining, we are officially in 'summer time' and Easter is just around the corner. 'Four more sleeps' till the holidays - Yippee.

Well, it's time to hand over the spotlight to the bunnies. Sheep, horses, squirrels et al are only bit part players for the next couple of weeks. Oh bunnies, we love you but just please stay away from my vegetable garden. I was reminded of these cute creature's mischief very early this morning whilst taking up hems and sewing on name tags to my eldest son's cricket trousers and shirt - a sure sign summer.  A touch bleary eyed, needle, thread and cup of tea in hand I gradually normalised to a somewhat civil state. All the signs of a beautiful day were outside - blue sky, bird song, dew on the grass and BUNNIES hopping delightfully in and out of our vegetable garden - checking out the lay of the land; seeing what's new in the herbaceous border. The cheeky little things....and you thought I was sleeping and wouldn't see, but as you are so fluffy and adorable I shall sit and observe and enjoy...we celebrate you with our designs..

To celebrate Easter we want to introduce our first colouring sheet inspired by our graphic print range. Time to get out the pencils and put your colourful mark on our Easter bunnies at Ballard Farm design. To print out click on https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D6837710_670_779325157

COLOURING TIME  - EASTER BUNNIES AT BALLARD FARM

Enjoy colouring and if you'd like to see your finished works up on our blog please do email a photo or scanned copy of them back to us and we will post them up.

 

LUCA'S EASTER BUNNIES

EASTER PYJAMAS!

What is a fair price for a fair product?

Currently the textile industry is facing challenges at the coalface; shops are having to pare back on the amount of stock that they carry; consumers have far more choice with the advent of discount stores and websites; In general the worldwide shift away from abundant consumerism is no longer a choice for most in the west. That said I have great belief that smaller businesses and brands will fare well in the future. Mass production will catch up with the bigger cheaper brands; there is a glut of at-a-glance-bargain-priced last season's styles filling up the discount stores' rails - great for the typical shopper who doesn't care for this season's shade of canary yellow, seemingly good for our household budgets but our grandchildren will not thank us for the long term knock on effects that today's consumer society will leave as a legacy. This selling model is a testament to the fact that there is still overproduction of goods in the world - a quandary for any manufacturer as we(the consumer) all want to buy cheaper goods, or do we? Cheap production equals massive minimum production runs which is why big brands can firstly afford to sell to discount companies and secondly have so much surplus stock. It's a daunting scenario as retail has bred consumers who are addicted to shopping in sale or discount outlets. Middle and lower priced brands have fallen for the trap of short term discounting at the expense of long term viability, ie; if you cross this threshold of discounting you can never go back. Once you become a discounting brand, that price tag becomes the only relevant price that the consumer cares about - the RRP price(above the discount price) becomes only a selling gimmick in tricking the customer into assuming a big saving has just been made by making that purchase. What we want for our brand is 'a fair price for a fair product' and to spend our energy communicating this to our customers; A transparent understanding of our design and manufacturing ethos is part of what we want to share with our customer. Your feedback is important.

On a visit to a Tibetan refugee camp in India we met with fair trade weavers. Gorgeous hand made rugs can be commissioned - by no means a cheap product but priced in accordance with giving a fair living wage to workers.

Deflationary Spirals 

Nothing like the instant rush of scoring a bargain.. Recession puts choice and options into perspective; need to get somewhere- we look for the cheapest option, not the most comfortable or scenic one. I am guilty of the parody of thrift. Groupon is a buzz word -tempting! But I know that basing my life around Groupon offers is undermining the viability of those businesses. By saving money we are deflating the world; Good on the one hand - cheaper essential items and so on and so forth but eventually we will all deflate ourselves out of a job. As we say, deflation is great until it happens to us and our pay or jobs have been cut. 

So remember when you're buying something, you are buying it from a person and that someone, somewhere in the world has made it. The price that you pay needs to reflect a true cost and needs to give that person a living wage - One day you might be that person.

Workers live and educate their families at the Tibetan centre. A communal feeling of good work ethics and sensible husbandry of the land is felt throughout. I bought into what I believe to be 'a fair price for a fair product'.

Happy Valentines Day

Hand printed cushions from Old Rectory

I'm guessing you've arrived at this blog via our new website - Really hope you like it; We are currently test running the site and we will have an official launch very soon - Maybe St. Patricks Day. Please keep revisiting and we will keep you updated.
Since Stephanie's trip to Bubble Trade show we have been as busy as bees. We launched one new product in our 'Sketch Book' print range - a baby All-In-One; A gentle complimentary piece to our 'Sketch Book' Blankets. This good quality organic piece will hit the shelves and our website in May.We are really looking forward to offering this All-in-One as part of a giftset as well as a stand alone piece.

Our new All-in-Ones available this May

So, we are well into the swing of the mid-term break. Ah, so many plans; I asked the twins to name two things they'd love to do over the holidays -  a trip to a toy shop, a cinema visit and please, please mummy, can we have breakfast in bed! Ahem, not in keeping with my idea of  embracing the fresh air, getting on top of the garden and planning this year's vegetable plot, although breakfast in bed sounds very appealing. So like many other juggling Mums, I shall have one eye on ''Un Monstre a Paris' and the other on my IPhone Mail. Enjoy the break.

Summer days

 

 Loving our sweet peas....... It took me all of about 15 minutes to plant out the seedlings on a rainy afternoon in June. They were the last 2 trays left in our local garden centre which I grabbed unashamedly. By most gardeners accounts I was late planting them - no matter this year with our delayed warm weather luck was on my side. With our new business and a very demanding thrill-seeking toddler in tow the Old Rectory garden has had to take a back step this year. I've missed the obsessional side of growing our own veg. In fact I feel like a bit of a traitor, have to apologise to the lettuces that have gone to seed and the gnarly radishes but other delights in the garden have come true and given me the botanical high that marks the summer.  We did manage to get to our strawberries before the birds; potatoes have been blight free which we are enjoying with every other evening meal; The tomato cordons are laden with fruits - I'm sure about to ripen any day and I've not seen so many plums on our trees before...but our sweet peas have won my heart this year. Right now I'm sitting amid jugs of freshly cut bunches which we are able to replenish every day and give in abundance to friends - a 15 minutes well spent back in June.

Old Rectory's Greenhouse

Mum's screen print - Chinese Medley

Looming large every August bank holiday Monday is the Tinahely agricultural show. With only a week to go, the tempo inside the Old Rectory studio goes up a few notches with the flurry of creations coming from family members - This is our mother's terrain which she oversees every year. If you are related to her and can cook, hold a pencil, grow flowers or hold a dog on the end of a lead then your 'in'. With entries from 'Best hand writing' to 'lego creations' to 'best bunch of sweet peas' to' 'best screen printed tshirts' to 'you name it...' there is something for everyone, no excuse not to enter so the boys had great fun designing and printing their own tshirts. They also get the run of the studio and experiment with 2 colour prints or foiling - lucky them! A great day out for all the family. Money prizes all around which is incentive for every child and adult to enter! Check out the show for next year www.tinahelyshow.ie.

1st and 2nd prize tshirts.

Our Italian student Corinna, wearing her basketball inspired print.

Children's print workshops were up and running during the month of July. As well as Old Rectory hosting a workshop in the Mermaid Arts centre in Bray we ran a couple of morning sessions at our studio. Children who had attended our workshops last summer came back for more this year which is a great sign, a couple of them were even wearing their tshirts which they had created last year - such a rewarding activity for children to create your own fashion and get durable wear out of it. We had a really enjoyable time welcoming Corinna, an Italian student from South Tyrol (German speaking part of Italy) into Old Rectory life during July. Corinna came on leaps and bounds with her English, joined in the summer mayhem of kids on holiday and even got to do some printing for herself and her family back home. She now has the bug and went home inspired to re-design her bedroom and maybe do some printing herself. Hopefully we will see her again next summer.

July print workshop

A quiet couple of weeks on the manufacturing front gives us time to finalise the details to our new website. The nitty-gritty of developing a comprehensive website is huge. Postage and packaging is tricky from Ireland due to our geographical position. All do-able but trying to find the best price has been slow. Anyway, we are very excited about launching the new site and doing a small advertising campaign for Autum '11.  James's photography is gorgeous, it really reflects the ideals of Old Rectory brand. Another couple of weeks and it'll be up and running....

Joanna printing with her twins

Wosley clutching our first bunch of Old Rectory grown carrots

Flee to the country

Helping with the sheep dipping at Ballard Farm

We are incredibly lucky to be living and working in 'the Garden County of Ireland'. On one side we have the sea, on the another side we have the Wicklow hills and within an hours drive north we're in the metropolitan buzz of Dublin city centre - It really is an incredibly beautiful county. Anyone thinking of holidaying here with or without children will not be disappointed.
Last Sunday we spent the afternoon at Glendalough; we wanted to show our Italian student some sites that the tourist guide books would recommend. Glendalough is a peaceful and beautiful valley that houses an early Christian Monastic site; a million visitors per year visit the great round tower along with enjoying the walks around it's two famous lakes. I have visited Glendalough countless times as a child and adult, and with each visit I learn something more about our Irish heritage. Nestled in the valley stands the ruin of St Kevin's chapel, named after St Kevin who was reported to have sailed into Brittas Bay and walked the route to Glendalough past our house. We assume he was well looked after by the clans of Dunganstown nearly one thousand years ago, as we now have a St Kevin's lane leading down to St Kevin's church (was attached to our Old Rectory during it's former ecclesiastical days). Strategically situated at the edge of the Old Rectory land and looking down over the valley towards St Kevin's church lies a very large granite rock, stories retold over the years have said that this is St Kevin's rock, maybe a place where he sat and contemplated the peaceful countryside of Dunganstown and took a breather before continuing his long walk towards Glendalough.

Stable management class at Pony Camp

10 Things to do in the country with your children

1 - If you are thinking of holidaying in the country-side and you'd like a more hands-on experience with rural life, try and book a stay on a working farm where children can be included in daily farm activities. - collecting eggs, picking vegetables or fruit, feeding pet lambs, horse-riding and generally mucking in with the husbandry of the land. Children learn so much about the natural sciences and love the practical side of doing jobs in the outdoors.

2 - Pony-camps and pony treks . Many of the stable yards now offer summer camps. Growing up in Wicklow our local pony camp was THE highlight of my year. Lots of fun, very social and gives children confidence around a large animal but do be sure that your child is equipped for the level of the ride that they are put into - nothing worse than loosing confidence instead of gaining. Pony trekking can be geared towards real beginners and is a wonderful way to view the countryside.

3  - Beach combing. We have just embellished a mirror and a couple of IKEA photo frames with drift wood,  shells and other interesting finds. Need to allow a bit of mayhem on the kitchen table but worth the customized mirror or photo-frame in the end. Without the crafts-side it's just fun collection stones and storing them for a rainy day.

4 -Unplug the television - we try and do this for a month every year. Just have to make sure Wimbledon is over and a few other essential viewings. The children know it's not a punishment as we replace arguments over watching the television with time spent planning a camping night, whittling with wood, completing an outdoor pet project, playing tennis- things that they really enjoy but that we don't seem to have time to do during the rest of the year.

5 - Paddling in streams. Gather up a simple picnic and seek out a shallow stream. If the sun is shining spread out a rug under the natural awning of a tree and enjoy the simple fun your children will get from stone hopping, racing sticks and looking for stream insects.

Old Rectory boys playing at the stream

6 - Visit an agricultural show - every county generally has one over the summer. They are great fun. Good old fashioned competitions to watch or get involved in! Our children have been designing their prints for the 'printed tshirt' competition at the Tinahely Agricultural show.

7 -Picnicking - on a beach, in a field, by a forest (beware of the midges) so many choices.

8 - Biking - This does depend on where you are but if you're near any forestry trails and have older children, this is just the ticket to wear out energetic legs.
9 - Learn how to start a camp fire and build a shelter. Goes without saying that adult supervision is essential on this one but children will love the preparation involved of finding kindling and wood; organizing what to cook with and what to eat. If you don't fancy the palava and damage limitation of this one, I have just heard about camps that are run by EcoadventureIreland, www.ecoadventureireland.ie, involving camping and survival skills for 9 - 14 year olds.
10 - Book your children into a screen printing workshop, grab a good book and go and lie in a hammock under a tree for a whole three hours - Ah bliss!

Oh, we do like to be beside the seaside.

Crafts Day at The Mermaid Theatre

Last Saturday  Old Rectory participated in the Mermaid Theater's Craft day. In the morning I ran a 2 hour workshop - DIY; Print your own fashion, for 7-11 year olds. With my very able assistant Corinna, we got through 9 original paper cut-out designs (all created by the children) and had a wonderfully energetic time screen printing the designs . The children were great and couldn't wait to wear their own designed t-shirts.

The majority of schools do not have access to screen-printing facilities that would cater for today's class sizes so children can feel a bit daunted when trying out a new medium that they've never heard of before. Even as they are drawing and doodling their design's I can sense they're not totally convinced that this isn't any other generic art class; It's a tricky end-result to grasp before getting to the actual screen printing stage. For children who've never screen printed before it's good to push ahead with one student's design quickly and therefore have him/her demonstrate the print to the rest of the class. Once the children see what they can achieve with their drawing or cut-outs a wave of excitement and focus prevails. Children love the physical aspect of printing and it's great for instilling confidence in children who might not feel overly confident in drawing or painting. The most effective prints are sometimes the most simple drawings - Dots, squiggles, abstract shapes, anything goes.

Children making bunting........

The whole day made for a great family day out. The theater space provided a cornucopia of local crafts and designers displaying their products and trade. Visitors could try their hand at beginners millinery, felting, weaving, crocheting, edible necklace making, bunting making,  there was even a knit-a-thon taking place all afternoon under the warm sunshine. We offered up rubber stamp printing on small tote bags. This simple but careful skill sat nicely alongside our printed clothing which we had on display. Lots of flyers were taken away so hopefully this will drive potential customers to our website and stockists.

......to be used by the Bray community for local festivals,

It was very encouraging to be amongst other like minded designers from the Wicklow area. I shall be checking out the Yarn Room workshops in August with my children. I still think knitted cardigans and booties would sell very well alongside our printed baby clothes. I've kept all of my children's knitted booties that they had as babies - they are completely delicious.

Felting workshops run by Joanna Kidney

Tomorrow we are doing the photo shoot of our spring summer '12 collection - very exciting. Our location couldn't be more local seeing as we live in the most gorgeous rolling countryside. Keep a check on our website for exciting updates and our new site layout.

Surviving Ryanair with kids - not so eco friendly

Biding time in the airport with a travel trunkie

After experiencing one of those horribly hostile Ryanair journeys en route to our manufacturing partners in Portugal, I decided the time was nigh to purchase a new wheelie suitcase which would abide by Ryanair's strict carry-on luggage requirements, after all - Ryanair are not going to go away - they are omnipresent; 'If you can't beat them join them', as they say. Recession of not, they fly us at Old Rectory to Porto direct from Dublin and this is where we print hundreds of metres or fabric and have our children's clothing made. So with the bitter taste still fresh from paying an on-the-spot €30 fine for a carry-on-bag which I could have wedged in the metal box given half the chance, but at first hesitation was growled at to 'PAY FINE NOW, PLEASE'; and still wallowing in extreme annoyance of being told my liquids bag was bigger than the regulation one which I then had to purchase, without further adieu I decided to discard my old trustee bulging red case for a slimline Samsonite - gosh this trip was costing more that I'd bargained for. Check list for the future; tick 'no' to pretty much everything when booking online; add one of those very useful hand held luggage scales to this years Christmas list if there's a fiver to spare on each trip - pay for priority boarding and enjoy the ride - wishful thinking I'm sure but no harm in dreaming.

So when my husband and I decided to book a last minute flight to Spain and decamp by a pool for one week with our 5 children, it was with fear and trepidation that I agreed to fly with Ryanair - the first time ever for us to travel Ryanair en masse. I was breaking my secret cardinal rule that I'd never travel Ryanair with the children....

First off, with two hours to spare we checked our one bag in successfully; air hostess was very cordial and friendly; no hidden surprises, bag was under 20 kilos.

Next up, get through the scanners - not too bad; requisite de-belting, buggy folding, body frisking, older boys already impatient at my lagging behind as I must put back on belt, shoes, watch, hair slides, bangles etc.

Quick trip to the pharmacy to get a pack of nappies for the toddler. Shoot, no nappies in boarding area. They have a tight-fit pack of no. 3 nappies on other side of scanner but can't go through that palava again. No bother, we've already decided that we'll ask an unsuspecting parent very sincerely if they have a spare nappy that they might give us; with that idea settled on we relax and make our way to the food lounge.

Feeling the first 'travel high' we get slightly carried away and treat ourselves to the waiter-sevice-restaurant - just like the good old days, 'even thought we could do a bit of plane spotting from a comfortable looking corner booth but this we realise is an optical illusion on our behalf - we're looking onto a roof and storage area.

I announce gleefully that the Eggs Benedict look delicious (can't see them anywhere, only on the menu and in my mind's eye), which prompts the twins to order these also. Kind of know they might be disappointed after my building them up but feel the boys need to make small choices for themselves etc. 

After half an hour of hauling the toddler off the middle of the table and deciding that the kids should avoid the piles of hollandaise sauce smothering the eggs (thinking travel motion and heavy sauce might not be the best combination) I finally admit that I wish we'd found a McDonalds - my 11 year old thinks I'm bonkers and cool at the same time. 

En route to gate 107 I get diverted and admire/try on sunglasses, promising to meet others at the gate in a few minutes; I have to admit here that I embark on a purchase; a half price pair, guaranteed to protect sensitive eyes and reduce hay-fever symtons; a practical pair my husband would be proud of - he might even borrow them so I have every good reason to purchase. At this stage, my phone's buzzing, visa machine being sniffy with my debit card; shall I bottle out now and say I don't want to take them; card goes through; I have to leg it unashamedly all the way to 107 without stopping; the new wheelie is suddenly aerodynamic. 

Greeted at 107 by inconsolable 5 yr old who is convinced we will be separated on the plane as we have missed the priority boarding slot - don't like to tell him that he's probably right but we put on our best weary-parent faces and don't encourage him to stop crying.  Well here's the happy part of the story, with out any prompting from us, a really friendly air hostess confidently inquires as to how many of us there are and endeavors with success to seat us all together.

Truly Scrumptious is packed to the rafters with sweets.

Rewind to the not-so-long-ago days of halcyon travel when all was calm and convivial up in the skies, I would have brought books, colouring pencils, games and snacks galore for the children on board but now a sharp nibbed pencil could cause you mortification at the gates. Sure this time, we hadn't even a spare nappy for the toddler, I think we knew we'd never ask a stranger for one but twas worth pretending we would just to enjoy our meal. No, all I really had to hand for the boys were 2 Michael Morpugo books for the older lads and some sweets from Truly Scrumptious - an amazing nostalgic sweet shop in Wicklow, that's packed to the rafters with jars of every type of sweet - old favourites and new flavours - a regular haunt for every young dweller and visitor in town.

Truly Scrumptious Lollypops

Our sweets tasted all the more better for their clandestine journey on board. Scrolling through at least a years worth of photos and videos on my iPhone with our sticky fingered toddler, who only wanted to see about five photos of the same thing repeatedly we managed to stay sane and I decided that Ryanair wasn't that bad after all.