Thursday 31 October 2013

Stamford Town Council


LONG POST ALERT! Please bear with us and read this post – we want everyone to know disgracefully how we’ve been treated by Stamford Town Council.

This is a slightly amended version of an official complaint we have made to Stamford Town Council, after they sold our place at this year’s Christmas Market to someone else – a place we had been promised for free following the collapse of our stall last year, causing us to lose hundreds of pounds in stock and lost earnings.

This event was to be our biggest of the year in terms of raising our profile locally and in terms of sales. That has now been taken away from us, due to the council’s unprofessionalism and terrible customer service.

If you agree with that we have been unfairly treated and would like to support us, we’d really appreciate it if you shared this post or emailed townhall@stamfordtowncouncil.gov.uk to pledge your support.

Thanks,

Jack and Laura

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We attended last year's Stamford Christmas Market. The stalls, which we believe to have been incorrectly secured and not Health and Safety-checked, blew down. We were lucky not to be injured. We lost hundreds of pounds worth of stock. We could no longer trade on the day.

We were, eventually, refunded and offered a free stall for the 2013 event as way of compensation. This offer was made, verbally, by the then event organiser, Alison Hawley-Smith.

On 11/9/13 we received an email from Patricia Stuart-Mogg, Stamford Town Clerk, inviting us to apply for a place at the 2013 market, now being organised by  Stamford Town Council.

We replied the very same day to say we had filled in the form, but wanted confirmation that Ali Hawley-Smith had told the council about our free stall.

After various emails and phone calls from us it took until 4/10/13 – 23 days! – for Patricia Stuart-Mogg to contact us again, and then it was to offer us only a half-price stall.

We rejected this offer because we were promised a free stall. If the council has enough evidence to offer us a 50% stall it surely has enough evidence to honour the free stall offer. A 50% offer is an insult. It suggests they believe us, but just don’t want to honour the offer. We asked for an explanation.

After many emails it took a further 12 days for Patricia Stuart-Mogg to reply, telling us the free stall offer would not be honoured and that Ali Hawley-Smith had “no authority” to have made the offer, despite being the organiser at the time and authorising a refund at the time.

We once more appealed this and had to chase Patricia Stuart-Mogg, Cllr Maxine Couch and Cllr Susan Sandall (members of the organising committee) to reply to our emails and phone calls , as no-one had emailed or telephoned us to let us know what was going on. By all accounts it appeared we were being ignored, as we did not hear back with an explanation as to why the process was taking so long.

In Cllr Couch’s defence, she did at least reply to our emails, but only in a factual manner and to inform us of the council meeting at which our appeal would be discussed.

Cllr Sandall did not reply to a single email.

Eventually, Patricia Stuart-Mogg phoned us on 30/10/13 (the first phone conversation we have had, despite our initial reply to her email being 49 days earlier) to tell us the council had agreed to not honour the offer of a free stall and that the 50% offer still stood, but that in the meantime the event had become fully booked.

We had asked, via email and on the phone to the town hall, if a place was being held for us while this discussion was ongoing. No-one had the decency to tell us that our place – which we had been promised for free – had been sold to someone else.

This is completely unacceptable and we would like the council to acknowledge this.

The behaviour of Patricia Stuart-Mogg in particular has been totally unhelpful and unprofessional and we are now left with the impression that Stamford Town Council is an aging, outdated, groaning bureaucracy, packed with cronies who have no grasp of customer service in the 21st century.

We are a growing business that one day hopes to trade full-time in Stamford Town Centre. We have developed partnerships with a number of local businesses and have always been supportive of the town and its events.

The way the council has batted us aside, wasted our time and all but accused us of making things up is a disgrace and you should all be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves.

Stamford is a beautiful town that deserves a council that supports small, independent businesses, rather than trying to squeeze a few more pennies out of them.

If you want our business in the future, for many, many years to come, this is a very funny way of going about it.

Wednesday 30 October 2013

Getting it Right - #5 Simple Redesign

We're big fans of Simple Redesign. Run by Julie, Simple Redesign is based in Michigan, USA and the furniture is simply brilliant.

Take a look at SR's Facebook page and you'll see why we love Julie's smooth finishes, bold use of colour and eye for design (we're a sucker for a chevron print).

What we also really admire is Julie's willingness to share her expertise. We particularly like the tutorials on using thumb tacks (drawing pins to us) to aid smooth running of drawers and how to add casters to raise the height of a piece of furniture.

Another nice feature of Simple Redesign's website is that the online shop allows customers to buy either finished, painted pieces of furniture, or unpainted pieces with their own choice of colour – something that should keep everyone happy.

We could go on, but really we think we should let Simple Redesign's photos do the talking.

Great use of colour and pattern

Love the handles

Look at that finish!

And we want the rug, too

We could have chosen so many more photos...
If you're even slightly interested in upcycling or design, do yourself a favour and like Simple Redesign's page to see more of Julie's innovative, striking work. Is she the best furniture upcycler working today? We'll let you decide...

Monday 28 October 2013

How to get started in furniture upcycling

How to upcycle and paint vintage furniture


This is a feature we wrote for a local magazine, encouraging readers to have a go at painting their own furniture


Laura Harvey, from Rutland-based Reloved Vintage, shares a few tricks of the trade to help you give old furniture a new lease of life

Upcycling – or simply putting old stuff to a new use – has gone big. TV shows, such as Kirstie’s Fill Your House for Free have brought the idea into the mainstream – and the Government recently encouraged us all to ‘make do and mend’ instead of contributing to the throwaway society.
Here’s how you can begin your own upcycling adventure.

What you’ll need
Paint. There are specialist furniture paints, but any paint will do. We prefer to use eggshell, for a smooth, matt finish.
A paint brush
A screwdriver (for removing any handles etc)
Furniture wax or varnish (if using matt paint, choose a clear matt varnish, too)
Masking tape (a professional decorators’ tape, such as Frogtape will prevent bleeding
Sandpaper – the coarser the better
A piece of wooden furniture – choose a clean, solid piece for your first attempt

Preparing the wood
If your piece of wood is varnished, you’ll need to sand it. If you try putting the paint onto a varnished surface, it’ll just chip right off when dry. (Note, some specialist paints will adhere to varnished surfaces). For tidy edges, use your masking tape to ‘mask-off’ areas just inside any drawers, doors, glass panels etc.
Unscrew any handles and put them to one side – it’s easier than painting around them.

Get painting!
Don’t just slap it on! For the best finish you’ll want several thin coats of paint – big drips and splodges are ugly! Try to brush with the grain of the wood. Once you’ve covered the whole piece, wait for it to dry and do it again. With each coat you’ll see less and less bare wood showing through.
After three coats you should be done – now you just need to let it dry (it won’t take long)

Distressing
If you want to, you can distress your furniture to give it a bit more character. For light distressing, use sandpaper, for heavy stuff, you can use a knife or wallpaper scraper. For a more natural look, focus on edges and areas that would get the most natural use, such as handles and keyholes.

Protection
If you don’t protect your furniture, your paint will scratch, chip and stain. Wax can offer a nice finish and feel, but if it’s an item that is likely to get a lot of use – or come into contact with water, varnish is a better option. Apply the varnish as you did the paint – thin coats. 
The next step
If you get the bug, you’ll want to play around with new ideas. Try using a different paint colour for the first couple of coats, which can be revealed at the distressing stage, of paint the inside of a drawer or cupboard in a bright colour for a little bit of happiness every time you open it.


Like the sound of it but don’t have the time or confidence to do it yourself? Reloved Vintage can give your furniture a whole new look.
Laura Harvey is the founder of Reloved Vintage, specialists in painted furniture and vintage accessories. Based just outside Stamford, Reloved Vintage offers free delivery in the Peterborough area.
You can find out more at relovedvintageinteriors.co.uk, follow them on Twitter: @RelovedVintage, or like them at facebook.com/RelovedVintage


Tuesday 22 October 2013

A visit to Sugden and Daughters

On Saturday we called in to see Louisa at Sugden and Daughters in their fantastic new sales space at the Red Lion pub in Yardley Hastings, Northanmptonshire.

Our paths have crossed online through their Facebook page and as a result of us both having a space at Finders Keepers at Lollyrocket in Kettering, but we'd never met in person.

We'd watched the transformation of the barn in Yardley Hastings as Louisa and husband Mark turned it from unloved shell to rustic showroom,so it was great to see it in person.


The showroom at the Red Lion

We love the rustic pieces

Sugden and Daughters sell a great range of antiques, painted furniture, candles and other vintage splendidness as well as being a stockist of Little Greene paint. Until now they had been concentrating on antiques fairs - and these will still be a key part of the Sugden and Daughters business - but when the opportunity to establish a permanent sale space came up, it was too good to turn down.

Want!

Close-up of the sales desk - soon to be sold!

Laura would have been in this photo,
but she hadn't done her hair...

It's a set-up that works well for both parties - Sugden and Daughters bring in new customers for the pub and the pub opens up a whole new audience to Sugden and Daughters. We'd love to see more of this going on across the country. We're always hearing about how many pubs are closing in the UK every week - it's a staggering number and a real shame, so we have to take our hats off to The Red Lion and Sugden and Daughters for this initiative.

We were only there for an hour or so, but saw just how impressed the customers were with the showroom. Louisa says the customers have been a mixture of villagers and people who have been following them on social media, so the system obviously works.

It was only their second weekend of trading and things are going well, with plenty of sales and a whole bunch of new customers. Louisa and Mark have been working so hard on getting this right that it can only be a success and we wish them all the best for the future.

Go along and take a look for yourself - and buy yourself something so you can say you owned a Sugden and Daughters piece before they were famous...



Wednesday 16 October 2013

Thank you!

Thank you.

Yes, you. Thanks for being great. Thanks for liking us, following us, retweeting us, sharing us and generally supporting us. Even when you're had a really awful day because of that pillock at work and you just want to put your feet up and drown in wine. Thank you.

Without you, we simply couldn’t carry on – and that’s not just empty words, it’s true.

As a small business with no bricks-and-mortar presence on the high street, no huge advertising budget and not even a full-time member of staff, our greatest promotional tool is word of mouth.

That has probably always been the case for small businesses, but, unlike our parents and grandparents, we have the wonders of social media to help us. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest all allow us, and other small businesses, to reach our target audience with just a few clicks.

A wink's as good as a nod. Whatever that means.


So many of our new customers tell us “Our friend bought a dresser from you” or “I saw you on my friend’s page”. Your clicks, likes, comments and purchases really do make a huge difference to small businesses like ours and we really appreciate it.

Every time you retweet, tag a friend on Instagram or like, comment or share one of our status updates or photos on Facebook, your friends see it and you open up our fledgling business to a whole new bunch of people who might just become valued customers.

So here’s the deal, we’ll do it if you do too: everytime you see a photo or status you like, from a small business, click ‘like’, or, better still, leave a comment. Even if it’s just to say “Love it” or “Well done”, it means that small business’s post will be seen by many, many more people than it would otherwise. It's a few seconds of your time that can help to literally change the lives of small business owners by giving them the momentum to grow the business into a full-time career.

And isn't that a lovely thing to be able to do while sitting in your pyjamas, drinking tea and thinking about Ryan Gosling?


Tuesday 8 October 2013

Getting It Right - #4 Lollyrocket

If you’ve paid any attention at all to our Facebook page, you’ll know all about Lollyrocket.
Lollyrocket is a shop. And a tea room. And a craft and vintage centre. And a record shop. And a bit of a social media monster. The strings to Lollyrocket’s bow are added to constantly. We wouldn’t be surprised if next time we visited they’d opened their own international helipad on the roof.

Tea and cake. Stop drooling!




Lollyrocket – run by Michelle and Hayleigh – started up as a hobby and was essentially just a couple of friends selling homemade candles in their living room. But these girls just don’t know when to quit and within a matter of months have created an under-one-roof empire on Kettering’s Gold Street.
Downstairs is Lollyrocket the shop, stocking a well-chosen selection of gifts that happily straddle cool, kitsch and cute. Sharing the ground floor is the vintage tea-room, which also hosts craft sessions and appears to have been a roaring success.

OMNOMNOM





Upstairs, on the middle floor, is Finders Keepers – where our main showroom can be found. This is a hand-picked selection of craft, vintage and handmade items from local sellers, including vintage clothes, cushions, jewellery, kitchenalia, photography and, of course, furniture.
Upstairs again is newest venture Rocket Records – a vinyl lover’s dream.

Our little slice of Finder Keepers


Not content with working six days a week, making tea, running up and downstairs, ordering stock, looking after their sellers’ pieces and a million other things we haven’t thought of, Michelle and Hayleigh are seemingly online 24/7 (we don’t think they sleep) promoting not only their own enterprises, but working hard on behalf of the sellers in Finders Keepers - updating their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts with the latest items and arranging sales with people all over the country.
As a customer, you couldn’t ask for better service. And neither could you as a seller. Nothing has ever been too much trouble for Michelle, Hayleigh and the rest of the LR team. They’ve offered support and advice, been generous with their time and promoted our business to their growing army of followers.
It’s hard to see anything but success for Lollyrocket – it’s very rare to come across such a winning combination of hard work, taste, ambition, customer service and all-round-bloody-loveliness.
Even if you’re not near Kettering, make the effort – pay them a visit. You won’t be disappointed.

Thursday 3 October 2013

Taking the plunge



If you didn't know already, here's the set-up at Reloved Vintage.
Laura paints, I lift. That’s about it. Okay, she also sands, varnishes, buys, sells, does all the photography and design, runs the website and looks after the money side of things while I play around on Facebook. But I think you’ll agree, it’s a pretty fair partnership.
We also both have full-time day jobs.
This gets in the way a bit, but that’s the way it has always been. We work together for a magazine publishing company (we actually sit next to each other in the office) all day, then go home and get cracking on Reloved Vintage stuff for the evening/weekend.
It doesn’t leave a lot of time for much else. I have a 10-year-old daughter from a previous relationship – she stays with us every other weekend and every Monday (5 nights out of every 14, if you’re counting), so that’s another commitment that holds up work on the RV side of things.

 
That's a plate-spinner. It's an analogy. Keep up.


It’s to Laura’s credit that her hard work and perfectionism have made so many people think we’re bigger than we are. Her work is of such a high standard and her self-designed website so professional looking that we get emails from students wanting to do work experience with us (we actually were able to offer a virtual placement to one student) and people saying they’ll drop into our shop next time they’re passing.
I’m obviously very biased, but Laura’s painted furniture is among the highest standard of any I’ve seen. It is certainly of a much better finish and with far more quality control than that of some furniture sold in some well-established shops. But, I digress…
We know we’re not alone in having two jobs – there are plenty of people who work in our office who go off and earn money in other places when 5.30pm comes around – and we know that a lot of the Facebook pages we really love are run by people who paint furniture in their spare time.
There are also lots of people who paint furniture full-time. These people have either taken a big risk in giving up a reliable source of income (good for you), or have found themselves out of work for one reason or another (good for you), or perhaps don’t actually need to work, but enjoy the painting as a hobby and a few extra quid (want to swap?).
Our day jobs aren’t particularly well-paid, we don’t own our own home and neither of us has any money to fall back on. If Laura gave up her job and had a very quiet month on the furniture front, we’d really struggle to get by on my wage alone.
If we both gave up our jobs the rent probably wouldn’t get paid and we’d have to start hunting squirrels for dinner.

Squirrel: probably tastes quite nutty


These scenarios can be seen two ways – as motivation to do well, or as a sign that the risk is too big.
If one of us is to go full-time on RV, it will be Laura (she does all the work, so it makes sense) that way I’ll still have a steady income (though I wish someone had told me, 25 years ago, that there’s no money in journalism, so pay attention in your maths lessons instead) and I can still offer my delivery/selling services for evenings and weekend events.
I’m certain Laura could, given all week to source, paint and sell furniture, make a good living. Probably good enough for me to give up work and join her a few months/years down the line, so we can grow the business.
So why not do it? Why not just take the plunge?
Because it’s scary. Very scary.
The thought of having no money is an unpleasant one – we’ve both been there before, in different ways, and it’s not fun.
Have you been in this position? What did you do? Should we just man up and go for it? We’d love to hear your advice and experiences.