Made With Love In The News some missed features from last year

Here are some extra press snippets from last years 2011 press features that we missed & just found. Thank you so much to everyone who has featured our work in your magazine, blog, websites – we really love to see our work in print. Thank you xox

Gift Focus Magazine March 2011

Hitched Magazine Issue 4 featured our Alice in Wonderland Invites

Homes & Bargains Website Summer 2011

English Wedding thanks Claire for featuring our English Rose Invites you’re a doll

Our Union Jack chair on Leonia & Vonk Blog

2 page spread in Your Kentish Wedding Magazine Summer 2011

Ideal Bride Magazine – Thank you for featuring our Tiffany invites in your Hollywood Theme & Prohibition Era Theme pages – we love you you guys!

Thanks everyone!

The Celebrity Bottom on our Union Jack Chair is: Mark Ronson. Olympic photo shoot for The Mail on Sunday

On Wednesday, Simon & Clare headed down to London to the infamous Holborn Studio’s to loan one of their Union Jack chairs for an Olympic special cover shoot with Mark Ronson for The Live Magazine in The Mail on Sunday paper.

They set off at 4am in the morning to beat the traffic and when they arrived at the studio’s they were met by Dixie who showed them to the set.

Above: Simon & ‘the chair’

The corridors were filled with hundreds of classic pictures taken over the years of celebrities. From the Beatles to Take That, James Cordon to Margaret Thatcher. Some classics below:

David Bowie from the Alladin Sane album cover shot by Brian Duffy 1973

Winking Kate Moss by Tony Briggs

Another amazing Duffy print: John Lennon

Lot’s of studio’s are rented out daily to different photographers, magazines, newspapers etc. It’s easier to list the publications, photographers & celebrities who haven’t used these studios. Walking through the corridors, it seemed that everybody had been shot in these studios at some point. The set for our shoot was still being built but looked super cool. Lot’s of cool Britannia, Union Jacks & vintage paraphernalia ready to be styled.

Sadly Simon & Clare didn’t get to stay on set and see the man himself park his bottom on their chair. Mark’s agents had strict instructions for a closed shoot but we think the pictures will look something like this:

No real Mark Ronson’s were hurt during our photo shoot. Amazing photography & photoshopping by Kelly. Pah!

Keep your eyes peeled for the pictures in the special edition. Of course we’ll blog about these if our lovely chair gets it’s first celeb bum parked on it and shown in a National weekly! Oo-er cheeky….sorry!

Our Rainbow Queen by Vogue

We love our Queen. Vogue followed the Queen on one years progression through the colour spectrum. She’s a snappy dresser alright and her most worn colour is blue. Read the full article in The Daily Mail here

What we did this weekend – DIY Art. As easy as abc

This week me & Lilly made an alphabet wall art. Lilly is loving her abc’s at the moment and I’d searched the internet for some cool posters / wall art ideas to buy and frame but nothing quite grabbed us. So we got creative and made our very own abc alphabet wall art.

This is really easy project for any crafter at any level to do. You will need:

A Ribba IKEA deep frame

1 Piece of Square White Card

A pack of wooden alphabet letters (from any craft shop) which cost around £1.50

Paints assorted colours – we used 5 vibrant acrylic paints

Glue Gun

And it really is as simple as painting the alphabet letters. Let them dry. When dry layout on the card in your own pattern. You can have fun here choosing the correct letters with your little helper letting them choose the correct letter. Glue gun the back of each letter and stick. Frame. That’s it.

This will go in Lilly’s room alongside her other 2 wall art pieces (see blog post).

Press Day: Behind the scenes working on Samples for Conde Nast @Bridesmagazine

This week we worked on a press request for the fabulous Conde Nast Brides Magazine @Bridesmagazine for their upcoming pink story feature.

We love press days. Especially because this type of request is usually on a deadline and we just love the pressure! Especially when the No.1 Brides Magazine in the UK asks! And especially when it’s pink! We couldn’t say no really could we? …and why would we!

From concept to design, photography to packing here’s a typical press day in the studio:

The ribbons for the samples we shortlisted

Lovely Katie (above) working on the samples for Brides magazine

Above: the brief – Shades of pink Ombre style. Oooh yeh!

Pretty in pink (above) our final cut of ombre pink samples ready to shoot before packing for Brides magazine

Clare shooting the samples before they leave. Photography is a major part of any day – we probably photograph around 10 samples/pieces per day so we have a constant supply of fresh and inspiring images for Bridal magazines to use.

Fly my pretties fly. The finished samples on their way to Vogue House, London. And hopefully you will get to see some of the samples above in a future issue of Brides Magazine once the guys and gals have weaved their styling magic. Watch this space!

God we love our job.

Have an ace week y’all xox

Being your own boss

The best thing about being the boss is the freedom it gives you. You have the flexibility to work your own hours: though we often work longer than the standard 36hr week, time can be made up in the evenings and early mornings, meaning that you don’t have to cancel for a last minute friend visiting or feel guilty about taking time out of the office if your little one is unwell.

We can choose who we work with / offer our services to. We are a really nice bunch. And generally our clients are really fantastic to work with. We feel lucky to work with them on such a personal event in their lives and they love working with us. But make no mistake, we do not work with rude customers, after all, manners cost nothing. And this flexibility that we are afforded, means that whilst clients browse the market and can choose to work with us and have our stationery for their wedding day, we also choose who we work with and who can have our lovely wares. We are not forced to grit our teeth, grin and bear it, be polite, the customer is ALWAYS right. Good customers get good customer service and that’s how we roll.

But mostly, and by far the best thing for me about being the boss is the flexibility to be able to work ‘work’ around your family and bring  Lilly into the office if I’m required to be there urgently on days off. In our office we have a little area set out for Lilly where she can play, colour & read whilst we work. Lilly loves her ‘office days’ and when I have a day off with her at home, she grumbles if we’re not making a trip to the office to see Daddy & Katie. Now don’t get me wrong, I do not advocate bringing children into the office as a permanent solution, but being your own boss is a lifestyle choice which affords flexibilities and luxury’s that are out of bounds for most 9-5 er’s in our British work culture.

This luxury comes with a price tag. That’s normally some new felt tips, crafty bits or book. This week it was a new colouring book

This amazing colouring book is called the colour-play colouring book by Moma and is an oversized colouring book which explores colour palates and mixing. Lilly loves!

The New Saguaro Hotel Palm Springs

Would love to be jetting off to the New Saguaro Hotel, Plam Springs this summer.

Taking color cues from the indigenous flowers of the desert region, the new Saguaro Hotel. Opening in Palm Springs in February. My kinda place!