Patches talks about Cardiff for We Are Cardiff!

How proud are we!
Check out Patches talking all about why he loves living in Cardiff for the site We Are Cardiff! This is a great site and if you're a Cardiff citizen we strongly recommend getting in touch with the lovely people there to make a contribution!

http://wearecardiff.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/there-are-so-many-great-green-spaces-in-cardiff-patches/

Slunks, Sloths and Supperclubs.

We are very pleased to announce that Patches & Co products are now available at Slunks salon, Whitchurch Road, Cardiff. Slunks opened around a year ago by the lovely Joel, also guitarist in the supercharged music outfit The Witches Drum.

We are pleased as punch about this as Joel is one of the most creative people I know and has turned the once dull salon into a space of visual delights not to mention his handy scissor-skills. Love what he's about and looking forward to selling more stuff here including the jewellery selection I'm taking there this week!

I promised in the last post to update on our Ethical Chef experience at Thé Pot last week. Two words really: Book. Now. It was a lovely evening with great service where food was continually bought to us from the pre-set five course menu. It was more of an experience than regular restaurant trip and each of my group of friends could not praise the food and service enough. My personal favourites were the cream of Jerusalem artichoke soup which was kind of an amuse bouche and a nice little way to start the evening. My ultimate favourite had to be the barely-baked-beetroot-brownie. A delightful way to end the evening and made me longing for more all the next day.

I would totally recommend a visit to one of the supperclubs so go and book now!

PS...Check out our new bags from Cardiff designers Proud Cloud!! Look at this Sloth Bag. So good I will say it again: Sloth Bag!! They are beautiful.

Cool Caerdydd with a touch of Culture.

There are a few things going on in Cardiff this week that I'm pretty excited about. The first is the Wales One World Film Festival which kicked off in Chapter on Sunday evening with the incredible Turksib - a 1929 documentary of the building of the Turkestan-Siberia railway, some 1442 kilometres long. This might not instantly sound like an engaging piece of cinema but what bought this old film to life was the stunning accompanying live performance from Bronnt Industries Kapital which really helped connect the audience with the film.

However, WOW is not all documentaries. There is a varied and exciting programme of world cinema, each of which look fantastic. WOW runs this weekend in Chapter and at various other venues beyond.

Second thing: The Ethical Chef. I've been meaning to check out one of the Ethical Chef Supperclubs for about a year now and this Sunday am very excited to finally be getting around to doing so at Thé Pot with some friends. I love the fact that Ethical Chef, Deri Read, is combining his beliefs, passion and love of food with these delightful evenings. I'll blog more about this following full and contented stomach!

Finally. I Want to Bake Free. I've been closely following their activities since a friend introduced me to their delicious honeycomb at Chapter a few months ago. Their dream has been to open a traditional tearoom in Cardiff. They recently secured fantastic premises, the beautiful West Lodge building, which is next to the entrance to Bute Park and a stone's throw from the castle. They have now announced the Pettigrew Tearooms will open on 30th March. Hurrah!

So why, prey tell, are Patches & Co writing all this stuff? We're not an events blog after all. Well, it's pretty simple really. If we want Cardiff to be a hub of creativity, individuality and avoid us all becoming a faceless plethora of mindless zombies with Everystore featuring on every corner and Everyfilm the only film featuring in the local multiplex -we must get out there and support those special somethings. We all mean to but quite often don't quite get around to it.

So, go see a Mongolian film this weekend, or whatever else takes your fancy; Eat some delicious vegetarian fayre for a bargain price and feel good about it; Ditch the mochachochahorror and get a pot of tea and slice of cake and if you have any time left for a spot of shopping Patches & Co will be here waiting too.

Enjoy!

More owls? And a small plea....

Patches & Co recently attended our first market stalls. The first was at the Riverfront Theatre in Newport for Sessions Open Mic & Boutique night. It was a great evening to attend as it also coincided with the Ffresh film festival so was buzzing with film fanatics and film students.
We then attended the Jacobs Market 'Be Kind Rewind' organised vintage-craft fair. Complete with tea and cakes for 60p a go (yay for the vintage prices!) and Lindyhop dance sessions!
One of the benefits of the stalls has been to see what the good- old-fashioned way of selling is like. It has been fun! Also it has been really nice to meet other traders and get some inside tips on what they find effective and what other events are around. We would like to do more.
I've now sold out of owl cushions! I'm actually thinking of not buying anymore.Well that's not true-I will be selling more but BETTER ones! I really want Patches & Co to be a platform for selling products with principles. So ideally I would like to exclusively sell items that are handmade in the UK or from ethical and fair trade producers. I always intended to move in this direction and now that I am building more direct contacts with designers it seems like the ideal time.I'd really appreciate some feedback on this so please get in touch or comment on here.
Looking forward to stocking more things from Finest Imaginary soon too.
Oh, and more beauties are on their way!!
If you make great owl cushions or anything you think would look good on my site and you'd like to do business with me and the pup please get in touch!

Before I go one final small plea to friends! I need your support! I can't do all of this without a few more sales. So if you would like to support a small business who is trying to do something interesting and with sound principles please buy something from my site! Prices range from just £3-£18. So they won't break the bank but they will put a smile on someones face :)
Thank you!
Xxx

Fantastic Mr Fox

New Year and some adventures in the world of Patches & Co. We've been shopping. A lot! A trip to London for the design-led home and gift trade exhibition Top Drawer  for starters where I viewed many hundreds of beautiful items from niche designers. Beyond this many tens of hours have been spent trawling the internet to find that perfect item I'd like to stock. I really want Patches & Co to ultimately represent niche & kitsch design, but not any old thing. It's got to be pretty special.
I'm pleased to say we've had success! I'm so pleased with the new stock. I love the kitsch 50's/vintage style aprons we have found. They look particularly good with my red suede peep toe 4 inchers! Not that I'm exactly a domestic goddess. But every household should have an apron like this (and definitely appropriate footwear to match). I've also added a little reminder of home (Wales!) with mini slate wall hangings.  For the future I'd really like to stock more Welsh products. Wales has a great kitsch design aesthetic going on so it could be a match made in heaven. Top Drawer showed how the vintage look and cutesy home style are still very much on trend.
But! I wanted to begin to go beyond the home accessories. I've decided to add some jewellery to the site. After all, accessorising the home is fun but, well, so is accessorising ourselves!

Foxes and Badgers. This is where it's at! Oh yes. Look out Owl, my friend, we still love you but you have competition. So I'm very pleased to announce that we are stocking some of the stunning items designed by Finest Imaginary. They describe themselves as having 'an obsession with stories, monsters and make-believe'. Love what they're about and so happy to be stocking some of their stunning, cutting-edge jewellery. They are certainly one to watch.
More stuff like this is on it's way. Like I said, many hours have been spent looking for those perfect somethings. ...but we do have our eyes on some special things <3.  If you think you know the kind of thing that would look great on Patches & Co let us know! We do love getting messages!
Speak soon
Julie and the Executive Director himself....Patches.

X

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Zen Trifles.

Christmas is just under a week away and it's time I started wrapping. Scrap that. It's time I started buying! Seriously, the only presents I have bought so far are for Patches and my parents' cat Katy. I know I'm leaving it very late but I actually quite enjoy this. I like going shopping armed with a concise list and making prompt decisions about what to buy. It definitely requires having a firm head and taking a spy-like approach to Christmas-shopper hell.  Double 0 Jones. JJ's Zen guide to Queen St.
I cannot wait to give Patches this one present: It's a wooden puzzle where you hide treats inside and they have to figure out how to get them out. I think he will love this.
I'm also really looking forward to Christmas Day. For the first time in our entire relationship Kai and me are going to be having a Christmas alone. This is harder for Kai as his family are normally visiting from Greece but sadly are not able to be here this year. Plus my parents decided to have a quiet one. So we've been left pondering on what exactly we're going to do to fill the day. So far, beyond the usual, it's going to consist of trifle and cocktails. Could be interesting.
Time to reflect. Patches & Co. We've been open for just over three weeks now and with days until Christmas it seems like a good time to consider how things are going, what we've learnt and what happens next.
It's been a fantastic couple of weeks. We've had so much support, encouragement and positive feedback. I did not consider quite how much interest would be taken in what we're doing so thank you!! It means so much.
The one constructive question we've had a few times is stock and when are we getting more? The amount of products we have had on the site have been low and this has actually been quite purposeful. I have never done anything like this before, didn't know what to expect plus had to continue to maintain my regular job. My plan initially has been to promote the site to people I know and immediate social networks. This has been in order to allow me to dip my feet in, try things out, see what people think and ensure that I am able to manage the process of running an ecommerce site effectively.
It is a continual learning curve really but one which so far has been FUN!! In the last blog I made a comment about the process of setting up a business as being fulfilling for the soul. This is definitely still the case. It's just a tiny thing really, Patches & Co. But it's my tiny thing; it's Patches and Kai's tiny thing too. So, more stock is definitely coming. Gradually but on it's way!
I'm really looking forward to going to this amazing trade event in London in January. I went to the last one in September and it was fantastic research into the products becoming available, the artistic integrity and passion around from smaller traders and inspiration for where I want the site to progress to.
I would really appreciate feedback and ideas about what YOU would like to see! It all means nothing without you! Please drop us a line about anything at all at julie@patchesandco.com
Until then, have a fabulous Christmas and New Year.
Love and puppy cuddles
Julie
..and, of course, Patches XXX