How it all started

Our story is really one of the accidental business.  I never really set out with a master plan.  It wasn’t my mission to change the world or do something really innovative or exciting.  It is a business born out of a love of creating, painting and designing.  And luckily our customers seem to love my designs too!

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In my mid twenties, whilst working as a visitor services manager in the heritage and tourism industry, one of my responsibilities was managing the gift shop, and it was here that my love of retail began! In 2010, at the height of the financial crash I opened an independent home and gift shop in the market town of Bedale with my Mum and business partner Jill.  We loved that shop and loved our loyal customers who popped in every week to see what we had that was new.  During this time I got married and fell pregnant with my daughter and my priorities shifted.  It was important to me to be home with her in those early days and with huge regret we decided to close the shop. I was really torn at the time as I wanted to give all my time and attention to being a new mum, but felt like I was losing my own identity by closing something we had worked so hard on for the past few years.

It was absolutely the right decision, it was amazing to be able to give her all my time and attention in those early weeks, but I soon found I needed something to channel my creative energy into and started looking into candle making as a hobby / side hustle.  The first few candles I made were really not very good!  But I kept experimenting, researching different waxes, wicks, methods and eventually got some saleable products which I took to craft fairs.  I was amazed by how popular they were, and over the next couple of years the business grew until I was working in it full time and even attending trade fairs and selling the candles to other retailers too.

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Not one to sit still, in my quieter months of January/February 2017 I started doing a bit of painting.  I loved art at school but hadn’t done much since sitting my A levels back in 2002.  I bought myself a basic tin of watercolours (which I still use to this day!) and started playing around with a few ideas.  I just wanted to paint things that I love, so I worked on quick illustrations of dogs, rural life, retro cars and flowers.  Soon I had a range of greetings cards to add to our product line!

Greetings Cards

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Ever since we had the gift shop, Jill and I have attended shopping fairs and country events to sell our wares and this is something we still love doing now.  We have sold at charity events, country shows, magazine shopping fairs and trade shows, and have taught ourselves how to build the stand and put up shelves all by ourselves – even using a spirit level now which is the height of perfectionism!

However, in 2020 this all came to an abrupt stop! Stuck at home with the pressures of home schooling and a new baby, getting creative again gave me a little bit of ‘me’ time and I started designing our home and kitchenware ranges.  It has always been important to me to manufacture in the UK – not only from an environmental point of view, but I believe that if we have the skills here,  we should use them and prevent our traditional industries from dying out.

I try to design products that I would like to have in my own house. I love New England design, but bring to it my own English country twist, with lots of florals and animals taking centre stage.  Everything is produced with great attention to detail and quality, meaning our products can be collected, loved, used and ultimately stand the test of time.

In the future you can expect to see more gorgeous, country inspired homewares, sustainably produced with our excellent manufacturing partners as I continue to grow the business organically and with love.