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.

Managing Steptoe’s Yard

“You know normal people don’t live like this, right?”

This is not the first time these words have left my mouth. On this occasion, I have just moved a chest of drawers from in front of the fridge, in order to get some milk out, having side-stepped a writing bureau en-route.

Sometimes, the workshop space in our house gets full up and the kitchen is the fall guy.

It’s tough balancing a full-time job with a second job, but Laura does it incredibly well, so it’s hard to get annoyed (long-term, at least. I have my moments) about living in a glorified warehouse.

 

Me and Laura, yesterday

At the moment, our house is not only home to our own furniture, but also four other people’s. One of these commissions was finished last night, another should be done by Saturday, a third by Sunday and then the last piece some time next week (lots of delivery driving for me, then).

After that, apart from two commissions that aren’t pressing and a long-term search for a perfect piece for Strattons, Laura is going to focus on preparing a showcase of her work for the Stamford GeorgianFestival, which should be a well-attended event in the centre of Stamford.

On top of all this, Laura will be keeping on top of her stall at Lollyrocket and trying to add new items to her online shop.

All this while juggling a 9-5.30, Monday to Friday, ‘regular’ job (though, fingers crossed, that situation may soon change).  I don’t know how she does it, and she’ll be embarrassed by this blog entry, but she deserves a huge amount of credit for turning Reloved Vintage into such a success in such a short space of time.

Just imagine how successful she’ll be when she’s doing it full-time. And how many coffee tables I’ll have to sleep under…

Laura's idol, Mr Trebus

Vintage gems in Leicestershire

Never let it be said that we don't get around... The day after getting back from a vintage-hunting (and sea-swimming, chip-eating, bird-watching) break in Somerset and Dorset, during which we covered more than 1,000 miles, we were on the road again, but this time just to our neighbouring counties of Northamptonshire, to top up the stock at our stall in Finders Keepers at Lollyrocket and then over to Leicestershire to collect some pieces we're painting as a commission for a lovely lady named Gill. Of course, we had to pay a visit to Market Harborough, having just read about Amy's Vintage.

Too much loveliness at Amy's Vintage

Amy and Laura

Amy's Vintage is tucked away in Joules' Yard, round the back of Joules, at 55 High Street. Amy sells a great selection of vintage clothes and accessories and gave us a few tips for places to pick up good furniture. It was lovely to meet her and admire her beautiful shop. She has some of the best quality vintage clothes we've ever seen and you really should pay a visit when you're in the area.

The Vintage Experience, Blaby Road, South Wigston

Sewing room at the back...

Our final stop was to see Mel and co at The Vintage Experience in South Wigston. Mel's shop was a little hive of activity when we went in, with plenty of dressmaking going on. Mel's a self-taught dressmaker, which is hard to believe when you see the quality of her work. As well as making and selling vintage-inspired clothes, The Vintage Experience offers classes in dressmaking, silver-working and more and also sells handmade crafts by other local sellers. Mel's been really generous with her support and advice for us over the last few months so it was good to finally meet her face-to-face.

Lovely handmade clothes at The Vintage Experience

Handmade jewellery at The Vintage Experience

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have been invaluable to us in the three(ish) years since Reloved Vintage was born and we've been able to connect with some really amazing people, but sometimes it's nice to actually get out there in the real world and meet our fellow small business owners. Both Amy and Mel are an inspiration to us - they've both taken the plunge and turned their passion into a full-time job. We wish them both continued success.