Spring babies

Spring has well and truly sprung in the Malverns -  we currently have the cutest pair of baby rabbits living under our store. They race up and down the drive, nibbling the weeds, and generally looking cute. I know if they appeared near my newly planted veg patch I wouldn't be quite so keen on them.
The lambs are also roaming the common. We had a bunch hanging around our gate last night - they've got to that age where they are more confident and cheeky; racing each other up and down the hills, and trying their luck at getting into our garden!

There are lots of baby calves too, all gangly legs, and completely fearless when it comes to road sense! Once again my daily trip to the Post Office has become a game of chicken. They tend to wait until you are almost driving past them, before making a bolt across the road.
Even the pigeons are at it -there was a very cute pair necking on the fence last night.
We are also on our own countdown for Baby Ochre, suddenly it's no longer a distant date, but a fast approaching reality! But sitting in my office, looking out at the blossom on the trees, and the Malvern hills, it's a pretty cool place for a baby to be brought up. 

Forward Planning

Well we survived the Country Living Spring Fair - all rather more accurately the long suffering Mr Ochre survived the fair, as I spent most of last week in hospital, proving that you don't always know what is around the corner!
He did an absolute sterling job, especially when you consider the stand was in part of the Women In Rural Enterprise (WIRE) group. A huge thank you to all the group who I know where "keeping an eye on him" through the week! Surprise sellers this year where our new Aga pads, with several orders having to be sent out after the show.

Above: Thank you to Robyn who helped out at the weekend.

With baby Ochre fast approaching, my la la la worry about it when it happens attitude has had to be a bit more focused, especially when it comes to ensuring the day to day running of Ochre And Ocre continues smoothly. Having an online business rather than bricks and mortar does mean you are more flexible, but only to the limitations of technology. So even though I had my Ipad with me, and could access emails, making phone calls and sending out orders is a bit more tricky from a hospital bed, especially with an intermittent signal. Our lovely customers were more than accommodating, and were happy to wait a few days for their orders, but it is not ideal.
Not knowing what is around the corner, has made me forward plan even more than usual; writing the bones of the monthly newsletters, (it is so hard to keep them different and not just pure marketing), planning promotions, press and our Autumn brochure, and juggling the stocks, (not too much that we are stock heavy, but enough that we can fulfill retail and wholesale orders). Once again Mr Ochre will be stepping into the breech, along with our multi skilled book keeper Amy, and I will be holding mini refresher courses on how to wrap and despatch our orders!
I've also started the long process of new designs and colourways for next Spring, knowing that the photography will need to be done early Autumn, to allow for Press and photography, it's not actually that far away.
If nothing else the past few weeks have taught me that I need to be more flexible, and dare I say it, go with the flow sometimes, a hard lesson to learn for a self confessed control freak!

Spring Has Sprung!

Loads has happened since my last post in the world of Ochre And Ocre. Our shiny new brochure was sent out last week. I was fortunate that my Mum came to visit at an opportune time, so I had an extra pair of hands to deal with the mammoth task of sticking on stamps and address labels and stuffing the brochures. It's a monotonous task, and I know there are companies you can pay to do it, but as a small company every penny counts!

The new colourways also went live online - and they have had an instant reaction which has been fab. I had expected the Isabella red to get a good response, but have been pleasantly surprised that customers have been loving the Madelaine Ochre spot as well. There are going to be some very pretty tables around this Easter, laid with our polka dot table runners and napkins.

It is especially lovely when we get notes and phone calls back from our customers saying how much they love their new deliveries - it really does give you one of those warm fuzzy feelings!
Although the NEC Spring Fair is over, the follow up work continues, and we've been busy packing up the wholesale orders, and sending them out. We are thrilled that our new ranges are going to be in so many lovely shops across the UK including, RHS Wisley, The Golden Goose in Frome, The Hen House in Southwell, Etcetera in Guernsey, Home Sweet Home in Sherbourne, Kettles in Dunkeld, Cornflower and Calico in Stroud, and Country Corner in Swanage.
We have also sent our Isabella Blue peg bags out for a promotion being run with an eco friendly washing powder  which is a great link up for Ochre And Ocre.
We are excitedly waiting for our new Melamine placemats to arrive, made in the UK, with our pretty Isabella and Madelaine designs on them, we should have just enough time to get them labelled up and packaged in time for the Country Living Spring Fair which is fast approaching.....!

Highs And Lows

If you ever want to extend your life, take a stand at a show! I find you have to exercise extreme willpower not to look at your watch during the quiet periods, otherwise you will literally find yourself counting the minutes.

That said we had a really good time at the Spring Fair in Birmingham last week. We had a record number of wholesale orders, and some really positive enquiries from retailers ranging from London department stores to Garden Centres and some lovely independent shops. I already know from last year that some of the enquiries can be real slow burners, taking months to come to fruition, but it gives us chance to manage our stock levels, as cotton prices have risen yet again, and it is getting harder to get hold of Organic Cotton yarn.
It was really nice to hear so many positive comments about our ranges from trade professionals, and it was really gratifying that so many could see the quality difference immediately.
After such a high, our week at the show ended on a sad low, with the loss of Gertrude, our gorgeous bulldog. We have had her from 8 weeks until nearly her 14th Birthday, so we are very aware how lucky we've been, and anyone who has met her will know what a character she was, always making her presence known. If you had called the office you are very likely to have had loud snoring in the background - I promise you that was Gert not me! Since I gave up my "proper job" to run Ochre And Ocre, Gert and I have spent most days together in the Ochre And Ocre office, so I have to admit to finding it a very quiet space this week. Luckily there is much to do following up from the show, catching up on office work, and sorting out stock and displays for our next big retail show, Country Living Spring Fair, keeping me occupied and my mind busy.

February Already!

Is it me or is this year flying by already! Our big wholesale trade show (The Spring Fair)is fast approaching, closely followed in March by Country Living!
 I met up with the super talented Rachel Spivey this week, at her rather lovely Leamington studio, to get the last few shots done for our brochure and online. As usual though, half our time was spent gassing about business and assorted stuff, before getting down to the actual business of photographing our new placemat range. (Check out her website by the way - she's updated it with some lovely new wedding pics).
We had to use our ingenuity when it came to finding a suitable "table" to shoot the mats on - and ended up with a coffee table balanced on top of a dressing table! Hopefully you will be none the wiser from the pictures!!

The brilliant and very patient  Lindsey has tidied up our brochure and it's winging it's way to the printers - even after several proof readings, I still spotted a major error this morning on my final read through - sometimes you just read what you want to read rather than what is actually in front of you. It's a relief to have that sent, as next week all our focus will be on the wholesale side of Ochre And Ocre. We've already had some positive responses from our mailing to the independent shops, so I'm hoping the new colourways will get a good reaction from our lovely retail customers.
I'm really pleased with how our new placemats have turned out - printed here in the UK, they have a really nice finish, and the fabric texture effect has worked in printing.
Now we just have to wait for our new Organic Cotton stock to arrive later on this month, and hopefully start selling!

January Blues..and Red's, Greens and Ochres

Our first ever January sale is over, and now it's onwards and upwards with 2011. There is a lot of forward planning this month; we have our Wholesale show in two weeks time at the NEC, where we will be showing our new colourways in the British Collection. Followed a few weeks later by the Country Living Spring Fair; a lovely show where it is hard not to spend all your takings!
I always get excited about new additions to the range, and I can't wait to see the first reaction to the Isabella Red and Madelaine Ochre. The Country Living Fair will be the first time I get a face to face real punter reaction, as the trade show buyers tend to be planning ahead, for the Autumn season.
We have been putting the finishing touches to our new brochure, with help from the very talented Lindsey Joyce. I tend to put together a very rough mock up of how I want each page to look, along with the text and pics, and Lindsey somehow manages to turn it into a professional looking brochure.
In preparation for the launch of the new colourways, I've also started to make Lavender Hearts in the new colourways. As boredom tends to set in quite quickly, I try to batch the tasks - spending a few hours one day cutting them out, sewing on the brand label another day, and so on, until it's time for the final stuff and stitch. A lovely fragrant job, which I tend to do sat in front of the tv at night, aided and abetted by Mr Ochre!
Right - it's swatch cards next, a night ahead of me of double sided sticky tape and piles of swatched fabric. 

New Year - January Sale!

We have had a great initial reaction to our first ever sale at Ochre And Ocre. I was determined that it should be a "proper" sale, with genuine reductions. As an ex buyer I know all about special "sale buys", and I hate getting conned by the not so real savings. Another bug bear of mine is when you purchase something in a sale, then two weeks later it is reduced even more. It does make you feel like you should have held off a bit longer, to save those extra pounds - everything in the Ochre sale is only being marked down once, so as to avoid upsetting those customers who have purchased already.
Some of the lines in the original Chateau collection will remain marked down to clear, but all the print ranges, Organic Cotton table cloths and napkins will have new pricing for 2011.
Since we originally launched Ochre And Ocre in 2008 all the prices have been held. But in order to run a profitable business, (a sensible goal I think!!), we have to increase our pricing for two reasons. When we first bought the range the sterling to euro exchange rate was strongly in our favour, but this has declined hugely over the past two years. Another more recent issue is the price of Cotton. There are major cotton shortages worldwide, and Organic Cotton is even more scarce. I read on the BBC Website this morning that Next are increasing their prices by up to 8% due to the cotton prices. As a "small" company, we are at the back of the queue against the bigger retailers in trying to grab some of the remaining Cotton stocks.
Allowing for all the above factors, because we are only "small" we are fortunate to have small overheads, and more flexibility than some of the larger firms, so our price increases are modest, and still allow us to be competitive. It will be interesting to see how 2011 will pan out, but I am optimistic of a good response to our new additions to the ranges this year,  and am grateful to have a loyal and growing band of customers.