Bubble London, June 2011

Beasties print for boys - spring/summer 12

This time last week we had just finished a day of air travel, taxi rides and the setting up of our stand for Bubble trade show. Our day had begun with a 4.30am alarm call to catch the 8.10am Ryanair to Stansted. What with parking, checking in large bags, faffing about trying to balance each checked in bag to nothing over 20kg it still felt like we were rushing to the  gate with only time for a coffee to share whilst queuing to board. How and ever, on landing at Stansted airport we were met by Stephanie's husband James, who'd been in Portugal for a couple of days overseeing events with our manufacturers. Now with time to spare before our taxi transfer to Islington we regrouped and caught up on Portuguese news over lattes and croissants.

Old Rectory stand - Bubble London, June 11

With one trade show behind us, this time we were far more organised with our packing; For example, far fewer garments were brought along this time. At our first trade show we had made the assumption that interested buyers might want to take a sample garment away with them - this is not the case. We cut down on our paper(broshures, business cards etc.) and did away with our bespoke table and chairs brought by land and sea last time - an extravagant luxury.

It was great to see familiar faces again and share the anticipation of what the next two days were to bring. Overall the stands looked great; maybe a sign of the times but brands are going that extra mile to be noticed - selling children's clothing is no walk in the park right now. Green Baby who won best standout competition created a stand worthy of a Chelsea Flower show entry with a garden shed, wheelbarrow, scarecrows and a fun collection of potted flowers in baked beans tins. 

Sping/Summer 12 butterfly dress

Our Beasties wallpaper, which I have a huge soft spot for showed off our new spring/summer print for boys. Our girls butterfly print can be seen on our new girls dress above.

Not forgetting our reason for being at Bubble, which is business and potential sales it was a busy 2 days. Contact was reestablished with existing customers and new ones made. Order forms were filled out and business cards hopped from hand to hand. Second time out at these trade shows brings a new level of business acumen to Old Rectory; Delivery of our first collection is out with customers with a few teething problems experienced along the way -  nothing that can't and isn't being sorted out but enough to merit a longer forward order time on Spring Summer 12.

While the cat's away the mice will play!

Meanwhile back at Old Rectory my eldest son James was busy indoctrinating the younger boys on 'bow and arrow making'. Scary, the one above, he's getting a bit too good at the velocity - this photo was sent to me whilst at Bubble away from my brood. You can imagine my angst as to whose eye this arrow should land upon - thankfully no ones.

With a young family in tow, you're always gonna hit the ground running on return from  abroad. Since arriving home, there has been much planning for our spring/summer '12 photo shoot, unpacking, delivering stock and planning for the next two months ahead. 

Kids holidays and work - I'm looking forward to blogging about that. Lots of mini adventures.

Wolsey and first delivery of Old Rectory clothing

Whilst taking rocking chair 'timeout' with my very grouchy coldy 19 month old who along with a green snotty nose is sporting a boxer style paper stitch above his right eye - steri-strips are a fantastic invention with 5 boys, I have read, back to front this fantastic and comprehensive magazine, Angels and Urchins. This issue is offering lots of advice and tips on summertime with children, ie  - family holiday travel reviews(I'm already planning  a caravaning holiday in France on the advice of one such candid review), what's on, days out, book reviews, website reviews et al. What I really like about this magazine it that it's advertising pages are organized into categorized sections, nothing is haphazard, so much easier on the eyes and head when there's such a vast array on offer for parents. Angels and Urchins will definitely feature in our marketing plan.

A candid and comprehensive parenting magazine

Old Rectory clothing featured in Angels and Urchins magazine

A fun day out

Mum's Victoria sponge cake

Nothing like a deadline to focus the mind and get things done -  OLD RECTORY garden party 2011! After a busy week of mulching flower beds, lawn cutting, baking and generally prettifying the studio we offered up a saturday afternoon of tea, sponge cakes, sample sale and an array of children's crafts. Grown ups enjoyed mingling and shopping whilst the children delved into some some jewellery making, clay painting, stamp printing and having their faces painted. The sunshine lured us all onto the courtyard with copious cups of tea and Mum's delicious sponge cakes. This is the fun part of launching a range of children's clothing - an excuse for a party in the sunshine!

Paula from Uccelli Jewellery stringing some creations with the girls

Children painted clay moulds

Like all parties, the fun is in the planning as well as the partying. Reasons for having the party were to show our range and sell samples as discounted prices, this is the reality of thinking up a children's clothing brand - we have to move stock, sell and create space for new stock. Another reason for the party celebration was to give us a firm date on which we would start selling online - the time is nigh, we are selling at www.oldrectory.ie. We also love our studio and where we work, it's a pleasure to share it with you on a sunny afternoon in June. Planning was fun; a bit like thinking up childrens' birthday parties but for boys and girls (I have 5 sons and my 11 and 9 year old definitely don't want girls at their birthday parties right now!). Mum thinks nothing of baking for large social gatherings- years of parish fetes, children's parties and fundraisers, even my boys request 'Didi's cake' at their birthdays - so I admit I didn't worry an iota about food. Stephanie and Luca did a fair amount of gingerbread making and eating so hats off to the bakers. We managed to install a working kitchen into the studio in time for the party, which was always the plan but previously on the back burner. This has transformed the space and will make easy the cooking preparations for any future print workshops

Kitty in Old Rectory top with Coco

Paula Boyle, an NCAD college friend of Stephanie's came down from Co. Armagh with her eye catching range of jewellery. Paula, founder and designer of www.uccellijewellery.com focuses on strong colour combinations in the use of fused glass, laser cut perspex and fine wire silver to create an expressive collection of bold pieces. The combination of her talent and the sunshine converted non jewellery wearers into jewellery wearers. I am loving my necklace.

Pirates in waiting

Future Old Rectory model

Our first delivery of clothing will be going out to the shops next week - can't wait. This will be truly exciting. But we got a precursor of the enjoyment gained from seeing people wanting to buy our clothes at the Garden party. It was such a feel good factor selling face to face and getting feed back from customers. We will have to resist the temptation of stalking our stockists and interfering in the selling process. I'll take umbrage if our darlings are at the back of the shelves!

Painted butterfly

Busy at the craft table

I love the fact that children enjoy disguising themselves as butterflies, pirates, bugs, robots or what ever else takes their fancy. Our face painter Rosie was inundated with eager children lining up to be someone/thing else for just a few hours. So much fun and imagination.

'Thrash the rat'

When we were growing up our local parish always used to have it's summer fete in the most picturesque field overlooking Brittas Bay. Held during the August bank holiday weekend it would attract locals and hoards of holiday makers from the caravan parks. My favourite games at the fete were the Greasy Pole and Thrash the Rat. With such a strong memory for these games I can only guess that I was quite a tomboy during those years, or else I was at an age of which games that attracted boys where even more exciting for us girls; A bit confusing but one way or another we used to love pummeling/or be pummeled by our opponents off the Greasy Pole with old pillows and thrashing the  rats that were dropped down the drain pipe. Thrash the Rat was my Dad's game at the parish fete so we reinstated it in all it's pride and glory at the garden party and glad to say it's still as popular as ever. The Greasy Pole will just go down in history as a wonderfully risky game which we parents would have heart failure over today!

Stephanie and Luca in Old Rectory owl

Shop till you drop girls!

Notes for the next party -  Plenty of tea and cake. New stock. More interior accessories for sale. Pyjamas for the big brothers and sisters(in the pipe line). Can't wait for Paula's new collection of jewellery. Loving the mixed collection of cups and saucers, keep an eye out for more at car boot sales etc. Be a bit braver in enticing a bigger crowd through the doors now that we've cut our teeth on first party. Another sunny day please. Greasy Pole - maybe not!

Wrapped in soft organic Old Rectory blanket

Printastic!

And So to Print..

Here is a sneak preview of photo shoot by Leanne Lim-Walker featuring Old Rectory pyjamas, which will be featured in Rock Paper Scissors Magazine - a brand new British childrenswear magazine, which celebrates Nostalgia, childhood and design/culture. The June issue will be out very shortly and we are

 delighted to have our night time range showcased in it. 

Old Rectory pyjamas - Rock Paper Scissors Magazine

Meanwhile we are eagerly waiting the arrival of our first production run of Old Rectory clothing from Portugal - any day now! We will be hotfooting it to Avoca, Pearl, Hide and Seek and many others to savour the atmosphere of selling on the high streets. Meanwhile the kids at Old Rectory are wearing the clothes. Don't forget if you'd like to visit the print studio and buy some samples come along on June 4th for tea, cakes and garden entertainment.

Farmland print top on Wolsey

.....showing elbow patches.

New school term well on the way

Children are all back to school. As usual there was the last minute rush the night before of finding a wayward school tie, HB pencils and the frantic sewing of name tags onto aertex shirts - a cool relief from the schools' ubiquitous polycotton, yippee the Summer! Speaking of cotton, we are on the look out (talking global, not local) for a type of liberty lawn cotton for boys shirts and girls summer dresses. With the internet awash with leads and informative cotton specialists, there is a tendency to become paralysed into inertia with regards to with whom and where to begin this search. Our mother will be making a trip to India in September to visit a school near Darjeeling that she is currently involved with. It would be great to link up with a community based project in that areal that farmed and produced fair trade cotton as we really believe in supporting sustainable farming where ever possible - Mum might be encouraged to oversee some Old Rectory business during this year's trip. If makes sense to find the right Indian cotton with our family links to the country

Comfortable kids wear by Old Rectory

I'm sure I heard on the radio that April was one of warmest months since records began or something to that tune. True or not, Old Rectory kids were thrilled to be outdoors, mostly heading off on Bear Grylling garden expiditions which I have to say generally involve some homemade catapults, bows and arrows and rucksacks full of my missing kitchen utensils With the older boys in full charge they build small fire pits, set up traps and tight rope walks with the attitude and gait of men real troopers. Cooking up bacon butties is really a decoy for playing with flints and fire- I have tasted these butties and all I can say is they are smokey and warm - not hot and succulent! To 'Bear Gryll' in our house is a serious and all consuming passion for the boys. I found a party planner website called georgeandshaky.co.uk that now offer Bear Gryll style parties for kids. They are based in UK and seem to be doing very well for them selves judging by their testimonials and fun web site. In saying that we did manage to get through our party season (4 kids birthdays within 6 weeks) feeling less like we'd been steam rolled by a bus than in previous years. We kept things very simple - pass the parcel, musical statues and a treasure hunt for the younger ones. For the older ones - football, a more cryptic treasure hunt, game of flags, ninja improvisations, lots of chocolate cake and not TOO much 'free fall' for the last half hour before pick up time.

Wearing Owl print top.

The good weather was a great incentive to get out into the garden and plant out seedlings. The potatoes have come through are being continually earthed up. A large bed of carrots and marigolds was prepared. Hugo is taking a keen interest in the green house tomato plants and the new Lupin plant, chosen and planted by him.  Sweet peas are waiting for a home made tipi to climb up which I thought would be a great project to do with the older boys if i could get my hands on some willow

Clay modeling at Ballard Farm

With time away from busy school schedules the Old Rectory studio was used by some of the children who conjured up dragons and rockets - printed onto Tshirts. Do check out our special offer on printing workshops - Book a friend/family member  on with you and get 50% off cost of 2nd place. We think this is a great opportunity to learn how to screen print with your child. We still have 2 places available on our workshop on June 11th and are hoping to put up a couple of more dates over the summer.

Hugo screen printing in the studio

Prints in progress and a Royal ceremony

Lilac in bloom at the Old Rectory

There is so much to be inspired by at this time of year. The garden is bursting with blossom, rhododendron flowers and trumpeting tulips. The azaleas are zinging; bees are buzzing around the scented lilac and and the stately beech trees offer gentle green canopies under our glorious April sunshine. The children are enjoying just simply playing and being in the garden; collecting worms for the terrapins, building moats around the herbaceous border and acquainting themselves with the world of bugs and garden beasties - Childhood bliss and plenty of fun - inspiration for our next collection of prints which will be shown at Bubble this June. Although, time is of the essence - I think we have about 6 weeks until Bubble which will fly in. There is much to get through over the weekend if we are to get our sample prints over to Portugal in time to sign off on lab dips and new garment styles - summer t-shirts for girls and boys and a fun and versatile ribbed cotton dress.

What better time than now to design for  Spring/Summer 2012 as summer fever is everywhere  - it gives an energy and vigour to our design process, albeit a little bit frantic. Gardens in bloom are sometimes psychologically hard to enjoy as you know they're going to be over all too soon - thoughts like 'next time I see that bloom we'll all be a year older, things might be different then, all is well with the world now  - live in the moment etc.' push their way in. The only answer is to take a photo on the iphone and sally forth with the jobs in hand - romantic gardens do that to you as you get a bit older!

Prints in progress

Without wishing to directly use my children as product research tools, I briefly described to them today what Stephanie and I plan to put on our next prints. I have to be very subtle in asking what they think as one of my children in particular doesn't like to see disappointment in my face(which he is very quick to pick up oneven if I'm trying my best to hide it!) So I wait for the opportune moment when no one's picking an argument and I casually throw out the question that if they were to design a cool top to sell to the shops what would it be like. This kind of market research on one's own kids is a bit biased and warped as the answers that I get back are very predictable to their individual personalities. Themes range from Butterflies to Guns but I am glad to say that Beetles and Dragonflies did get a mention which is where we're at right now!

Wedding bells sing!

On a fashion note - I thought Kate Middleton's wedding dress was incredibly beautiful. I don't think there was a single detail in it that jarred with her presence and the essence of the day. My favourite image of the day was of Kate and Prince William leaving the Abbey in their 1902 carriage flanked by red and gold cavalry. The colours and sheer sensory elegance were all but too much. Raise a toast to the Happy Couple!
As for the Mother of the Bride, equally as elegant as her daughter. Do check out Carole Middleton's company www.partypieces.co.uk, which has had quite a bit of media coverage since the announcement of her daughter's engagement.  It's full of useful tips on throwing children's parties and has some very insightful parenting blogs.

Old Rectory Garden party - June 4th (Save the date!)

Come to our party

Launch of new Irish children’s clothing line – Old Rectory
 
The launch of Old Rectory, an Irish children’s organic clothing line will take place on Saturday June 4th, 2011 from 2- 6pm at the Old Rectory, Dunganstown, Co Wicklow.
 
The collection is designed by sisters Joanna and Stephanie Sloan, who will host a garden party and sample sale at their Wicklow print studio. Tea, cakes, children’s entertainment and print demos will take place over the afternoon. This event will benefit the Jack and Jill Foundation.
(Please see website www.oldrectory.ie for further details and directions)
 

Bird house pyjamas in sizes from 6months to 7 years.

With Spring in our step and the garden coming into bloom, we have been inspired to host a garden party to celebrate the launch of our online children's clothing shop. So come June our online shop will be live! Our afternoon garden party will include a sample sale of Old Rectory children's wear, quick demo's of How to Screen Print, demos of Willow Weaving, Drawing and some Gardening Tips along side servings of home made cakes, tea, fresh juices and some good old fashioned fete-style games for the children. Our clothes are 100% organic and we have chosen a ribbed cotton that is luxuriously soft as well as durable. Our samples have a few minor differences to our actual production run due to hit the shelves in June; thus is the nature of designing and developing clothes - we are always seeking to improve and experiment a little further. So don't forget, when you become a loyal customer of ours do give us lots of feed back - we want to make sure these clothes work on a practical front as well as looking gorgeous.

Swallow blanket and baby grow

Stephanie and I have been ruminating on the design of our gift boxes - the final look is there in our mind's eye.....it's just putting all the design elements together and carefully choosing a colour, size, final material.....gosh lots of stuff....on that note, back to work...

March round up.

March daffodils

Along side preparations for the launch of our online web site and getting press releases out - oh yeh and battling with technology, what I would do for a young techie geek! I'm know I would do what I am doing right now in a fraction of the time if only the computer would do as I say...does that ring familiar to anyone out there? Growing a business with the necessary reliance on today's technology is a huge learning curve and very time consuming.

However, after what feels like a wasted morning trying to burn a screen printing tutorial onto a DVD and sending out group emails, neither of which my vintage desktop is liking, hopefully I'll successfully post this blog, get outdoors and clear my head of file sizes, attachments,  et al.

Hello blue skies

For me March is always a bit hectic as we are in the middle of a run of birthday parties for the boys. Also, suddenly the garden needs digging and preparing for it's own spring/summer collection of fruits and vegetables. We planted 2 more plum trees in the orchard (just because I love plums!), more raspberries and 50 strawberry plants(plenty of strawberrry and ice cream eaters here). I'm not sure if the strawberries will fruit heavily this year but I am going to give them a bit of extra encouragement  with some of Prince Charles's Highgrove organic potion which my mother was talking about.  The snowdrops were stupendous at Ballard farm and we, at the Old Rectory have enjoyed hosts of golden daffodils fluttering and dancing under Wordsworth's lonely clouds.

The last of the snow drops at Ballard Farm

Half of our chitted potatoes were planted. The rest are sitting in the garden shed - I can't decide as to whether to plant the rest in the old pig paddock or give over that space entirely to sweet corn as it is sunny and sheltered on 3 sides- what better place to try our hand at producing heaps of those succulent cobs.

Little helpers getting the potato patch ready

Potatoes planted

At the studio we ran a workshop for Enable Ireland in March. The students were great and went home with printed t-shirts to show to their parents and friends. There was comaraderie and rivalry amongst the students as their true passions for premier league football teams and an infamous vampire became apparent in their screen print designs!

A visit from Transylvania

Is Chelsea the best or...

Man U?

Emma Tamplin, a professional life couch and founder of www.attractinlove.com, took the studio space for a weekend and gave a much in demand workshop in the Law of Attraction and How To Find Love. This workshop helps men and women understand how to use their intuition alongside Life Coaching and N. L. P. in order to draw them to what they want and need in life and love. Emma, a great friend of mine, also lives in Brittas Bay and we hope to welcome her back to the studio in the near future.

Emma Tamplin at the Old Rectory Studio

March workshop


Our 1 day workshops are a great way of sharing our skills as print designers with students who want to develop ideas and interpret them onto textiles. As well as tutoring and meeting new people we also get to show our new clothing collection to fresh eyes and beg for their honest opinion! So far, reactions have been really positive and encouraging which is a wonderful boost for Stephanie and I. On tho the next thing - our minds are buzzing with ideas for 3 new prints for Spring/Summer 2012. Just walking around the garden and country side is giving endless inspiration which, with time, discipline and an artistic hand will hopefully lead to our next collection.

Student's work - a beautiful tote bag

Drying the prints

Pulling a print

Over the next couple of months you should see some refreshing changes and updates to our studio web site. We want to make it a bit more lively so we are going to add a short movie clip showing a quick Step by Step guide to screen printing. Our little sister Louisa is Director of this project and I look forward to seeing what her choice of music is for the sound track!

Lifting off the screen