In the Studio // When Things Go Wrong

This is my first post of 2015 and it's not a positive one I'm afraid but sometimes it's best to be realistic and share the bad times along with the good. Jilly thought a dark 'moody' photo suited this post rather than her usual bright pastel photography! This is me trying to fix our sublimation printer...

A few weeks ago it seemed like all our equipment was broken or on the verge of breaking, the printer had just given up, the mug press was being unpredictable and then our pocket mirror maker decided to not work either. Plus, we had supplier problems on top of all that! It's annoying but the worst thing is when you get caught up in it and let it stress you out when things go wrong. Especially when you know it isn't the end of the world and that these are pretty silly problems in the grand scheme of things.

The main problem when we have days like those (spending almost a whole day trying to fix something to then find out it's completely unfixable and that you wasted all that time) is trying to resist giving up. It's far too easy to decide to go back to bed or have a sofa day (or two) with Netflix and comfort food! It's easy then to fall behind with daily tasks or fall out of the work routine so we've had to work on coping methods whether it's just going out for a walk, accepting that you need a break or agreeing to take a half day off when you can. After all that's the fun of being your own boss! It's so important to keep calm and remember all the positive things in life to stay motivated and remind ourselves that so much else is going well. Being self employed is great, and we're not complaining, but the fact is you have to take responsibility during the bad times and work through them to be able to enjoy all the good times.

One thing we've learnt is that there is no point in beating ourselves up about it. So what if we miss some social media posts, don't stick to our weekly planner or forget to schedule a blog, it's not the end of the world - we can work harder next week or just learn to let it go and get on with what's next.

At the end of the day, I think that it is the little things that keep you going when times are trickier; like happy customer emails and surprise blog features. That's enough of that rant and hopefully next time we'll be back to normal!

Collection Spotlight - If Mothers Were Flowers I'd Pick You

If Mothers were flowers I'd Pick You Illustration Card £3.50

Pastel Floral Patterned Mug £9

 Illustrated Flower Badge Set £3.50

Floral Mum Pocket Mirror £3.50

If Mothers Were Flowers I'd Pick You Quote Mug £9

Pink Polkadot Glitter Daisy Stud Earrings £7

We've been doing a lot of blog planning recently; looking at our more popular posts and thinking about what we like writing about most to try and help encourage us to blog more regularly. We've come up with a few new regular features including this which is the Collection Spotlight - a little look at our latest collections where we'll share our favourite new products and the inspiration behind them. As well as that David will get back to writing his In the Studio posts which had great feedback last year and we'll be designing more cute free downloads for you guys.

Our latest collection is the flowery goodness that is 'If Mother's Were Flowers I'd Pick You'. We wanted to come up with something simple and pretty in time for Mother's Day but also something really fresh and Spring feeling. The Spring vibe was a big part of it and pastels seemed the perfect choice! I think at this time of year we're all getting a bit sick of the colder weather and just want some warmth and colour back in our lives. You definitely get a sense of this with all the photos of snowdrops popping up on Instagram shared with excitement along with captions such as "Spring is nearly here!". Another reason for florals was that I've always wanted to design a floral print so this seemed like the right opportunity, I doodled lots of flower styles before going with a bit of a mix but couldn't resist adding a definite daffodil. These designs are available on most of our products including mugs, prints, cards, badges, mirrors and earrings. For Mother's day the pocket mirrors are such a cute little gift, especially for posting along with a card as a little keepsake. My favourites from the new collection have to be the floral pattern mug and the pink daisy stud earrings, they certainly make Spring feel that little bit closer. You can see the full collection here.

I hope you've liked this first Collection Spotlight post! Let me know what you think of the new designs in the comments.

Getting Organised Part 3 - 6 Tips for an Organised Studio

This post is a lot later than planned which isn't very organised of us but we've been spending a lot of time on behind the scenes work which hasn't left much time for blogging and social media. Better late than never though! Today we're sharing our top 6 tips for a cute and organised studio. I could have written a lot more than 6 tips and I know that these could be equally useful for a home office, craft room, study or whatever you like to call it - we call ours a studio so that's what it'll be in this blog post. 

1. Start a 'Focus Board'

At the end of last year I found Leonie Dawson and her wonderful Life + Biz workbook. After completing this we went on to make our dream board and wanted a place to keep all of our plans and goals to remind us to stay focussed each day. We started with a giant noticeboard and painted it white so it was a lovely big blank canvas then got pinning! The top left is where a monthly focus goes, at the moment this is a big mind map of ideas for 2015 but it's soon to be a mood board for our next collection launch. Beneath we have a top 3 tasks of the day post-it space, business cards from our favourite fellow indie businesses, then our weekly planner (which you can download here). In the middle we have our social media planner, customer information and monthly goals. Finally on the right we have our dream board of what we want 2015 to look like for JillyJilly to keep us inspired. We finished this space in the studio with fun fairy lights and cute JillyJilly patterned bunting (made by Barbara from RockingStitch, fabric from Spoonflower). This space is really important for keeping our goals organised plus it's super motivational to walk into the studio and see this first thing in the morning!

2. Choose Cute Storage

This might seem a bit obvious to be a tip but what I mean is, there are lots of cute storage options that might not be meant for the office and sometimes they can be cheaper too! One of the items I get asked about most often is this trolley which we use for our stationery and craft supplies, it's from Ikea and actually meant for the kitchen. I also love using this basket cake stand for packaging extras; we keep business cards in the top, chocolates in the middle and deco tapes in the bottom - perfect! Most of the furniture in our studio is second hand but with new pastel paint, the lilac desk was my Dad's old office desk and the pink shelves on the right used to be a CD shelf in my parent's living room.

3. Make a Desktop Organiser

This makes such a huge difference when you spend a lot of time on the computer, files are much easier to find and it can help keep personal and work stuff separate too. We split ours into business sections on the left and personal on the right, finished with a motivational quote and some JillyJilly pattern!

4.Labels are your friend

Last month I went a bit label mad after having our big New Year clear out. We kept losing things and bickering over where stuff belonged but now thanks to the magic of labels, everything has a place and there's no doubt over what goes where... apart from Misc. which is just another word for mess really. We got new folders too for keeping documents separate and easy to find, they fit perfectly along with our ready made stock tubs into this pastel pink Ikea Kallax unit. 

5. Filing Cabinets can be Fun

Well, they can look fun at least! You can see the DIY tutorial here because who doesn't want a pink floral filing cabinet? Although a traditionally boring but necessary office accessory I find it much easier to stay motivated to keep our accounts organised when the storage is this cute. Plain filing cabinet from Ikea. Biscuit cushion from Nikki McWilliams.

6. Keep a Daily Desk Planner

I don't know about you but I find myself easily distracted when I'm in the middle of working on one task then remember about something else which I then worry I'll forget so stop what I'm doing and so on. Keeping a daily desk planner means I can add last minute 'to dos' to the list, with sections for things to buy (whether it's envelopes for orders or milk for tea!), emails, social media and personal. I fill this out at the start of the day with my most important tasks then add other bits I might forget later on. You can download our planner here or below if you think it might be useful!

So there you have it, 6 of our tips for a cute and organised studio! I hope they've been some help. What are your top tips for getting organised?

Getting Organised Part 2

This week our Getting Organised series looks at home organisers. I'm sure lots of you are like us and come January want to get back into eating better. I find my worst habit is waiting until I'm hungry then deciding what to eat - usually something lazy and unhealthy so meal planning is a must for me! This rainbow planner features our new fruit and veg print in the background and has boxes for 3 meals a day 7 days a week and you can download it for free here or below - yay! Planning every meal every day might be a bit over the top but it's nice to have the option for when you want to with this planner. You may have also noticed the cute matching magnets in the photo above, these are brand new to our web shop and available here (also available in 'what's for tea?' and 'what's for supper?').

As well as planning meals we've gone and made ourselves a chore list. I know this sounds incredibly dull but for me having it pinned to the kitchen noticeboard makes trying to remember to clean one less thing to think about. It helps that it's in pastel colours with a touch of polkadot! I found lots of these on Pinterest with plenty designed to involve children but none right for us. It's a bit different since it's a pre-filled organiser but hopefully it will be useful as a starting point if anyone else is interested. You can download this here or below.

Next week is the last in our Getting Organised series (for now) and will look at organisation in the studio!

Getting Organised Part 1

Happy new year! Ironically, this post is later than planned due to disorganisation for the first week or so of January... but hopefully we'll keep on top of things now thanks to our Getting Organised series this month. Before reopening the online shop after our Christmas break we went into full planning mode including a studio clear out, new stock take method, home organisation, a labelling frenzy and designing pretty, yet practical, printables.

This is our new weekly planner - it's perfect for us as some days are full lists and we want a blank column and other days we can add doodles and note bubbles as there are no restricting lines or time slots. The reason we chose not to include the weekend is that this planner goes up on the studio wall where we're trying to keep away from at weekends to make sure we get time off (which was an issue we had in 2014). Plus weekends are a time for relaxing and taking a break from lists!

If you'd like a copy of this planner you can download it for free as a pdf here. It's A4 size and perfect for printing off for busier weeks! We'd love to hear if you find it useful. Next week we'll be sharing some home organisers.

In the Studio: A Catch up before the Madness Begins

Hey guys, you're probably wondering where we have been for the last while as we haven't written a blog for nearly a month. Well, it's been a busy month, not just making orders etc., but we had a little holiday, a market in Edinburgh last week and also a whole load of planning work for Christmas so we never ended up having enough time to write our blogs. 

Firstly, we really enjoyed our holiday in Nice because It gave us some time to relax and get away from work. It was only a weekend away but that was enough time off to enjoy some relaxing time together, it was a little bit too hot though! Jilly has a Nice blog coming soon.

Anyway, after getting back from our holiday we realised that we needed to figure out a solid weekly routine so that we worked definite hours everyday and actually get some time off too. This started off great but then Jilly got a really bad cold which meant that she needed to rest and I ended not sticking to the plan but there isn't much you can do when you aren't feeling well. Now we're feeling better and hopefully we can stick to the routine for the coming months.

If you follow us on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram you'll have noticed the new collections being released with lots of exciting seasonal designs now available. The madness is beginning! We're getting very busy with orders, stock for stockists, upcoming events and all the seasonal promotions, and that's before the Christmas shopping really kicks in. Finally I thought I should mention that we are starting a 'Trick or Treat' offer tomorrow with lots of free treats being given away up until Halloween, exciting stuff!

Thanks for reading and hopefully we will get back into writing all our blogs :)

Our Home: Studio Tour

rainbow clouds bunting: Nyla Rose

teapot: charity shop // cloud cushion: Oh No Rachio // heart garland: Fayre Earth

hanging birds: Cloudy Blue

pink cube shelves: Ikea // pink heart chair: Argos // pink desk lamp: B&Q

dream big: Stacie Swift // purple heart tree: Snappy Crocodile // purple make today marvellous & rainbow heart tree: Holmes Made // she believed canvas: Kim Anderson // purple stag: By Charlie's Hand // Storm in a Teacup: Lazylinepainterbelle

trolley: Ikea // pink painted drawers: Peapod

scalloped shelves: B&M // cat plate: Winnie Shek

ceramic welly boot: Sarah Coonan

biscuit cushion: Pebble by Nikki McWilliams // polkadot wall stickers: Wall Dressed Up // paper circles garland: Scout & Acadia  

Welcome to the JillyJilly studio! This is where we design, print, make and package all of our products. I really wanted it to be a light and colourful space with fun details and lots of organisation. I think we managed to achieve this, especially thanks to the built in cupboard which hides a multitude of sins. You'll notice some bulky black sublimation equipment lurking on David's desk (unfortunately they don't make this in pink...), this is one of his main jobs and now that we have separate working areas it makes it much easier.

Before we moved into the cottage our studio was a corner of the living room with storage spread across the house - sublimation equipment was in my Mum's office and packaging stored under the bed! Because of this, storage was such an important factor when working out how to use the space. We have places for ready made stock, printing materials, jewellery findings, glitter (we have over 30 colours!), illustration supplies, gift wrapping, product packaging, postal packaging, printers, paperwork, event stuff and equipment. Phew! I'll admit we do have a small shed and another cube unit in the hallway as there was just no way to fit everything in one room!

One of my favourite things about the studio is having a gift wrapping station. It's so great having it ready at all times to wrap up orders all pretty and makes one of my favourite jobs even more fun. I also love my desk which is surrounded by inspirational artworks with beautiful colours, patterns and words to brighten up my day. Hope you enjoyed the tour!

In the Studio: Planning for Events

Hey guys, I thought I should focus this blog on events as it's the time of year where everything gets a bit crazy. With all the fairs and markets you need to have an eye-catching stall to get noticed. We've had lots of displays over the years but this is our favourite with lots of props and height, soft colours and branded details including a custom printed table cloth from Print Me Pretty. We also decided that we should get a card machine as lots of people used to ask if we took card. We use iZettle which customers seem to love, the ipad app for it is great too. You just need to make sure the venue has wifi (or signal for phone internet as you can get the app on there too!)

Our top tips for fairs are:

• Make the most of your space, try Pinterest for stall ideas and be creative. 
• Make sure everything is clearly priced - people don't always like to ask.
• Bring along lots of business cards (we get ours from printed.com you can get 20% off with our link here) and other promotional freebies - we give out a different discount code for the website at each event so we can track if customers become online buyers. Logo badges and sweets are always popular too!
• Make a check list so you don't forget anything important. You can see ours below.
• Smile! Don't be afraid to chat to customers about your goodies, most people love to hear about your ideas and how you make things. That's what makes you different to the big shops!

Jilly made an events checklist which we thought you might like to see, it's designed for us though so not relevant to everyone but it might help if you're making your own. We tend to visualise the stall from base to signage in the order we set up when packing so that's why it's split into sections like this. Of course this list doesn't have stock in it but that's because it often changes!

Hopefully this has been helpful for anyone starting out with fairs. Thanks for reading and see you next week.

In the Studio: An Introduction

Hello! This is a brand new regular feature on the JillyJilly blog which is going to be posted every Monday but the difference is that it will be written by me... David. I'm Jilly's partner and we've been together for nearly 6 years, I've been helping Jilly with her business since the start but only recently has it become more of a joint effort. I've been taking over more jobs such as aspects of social networking including managing the Twitter account on top of making some of the illustrated products. This means Jilly has more time to focus on designing and creating the new products. We've been working together on ideas for the blog and decided that we could add a new regular post each week: In the Studio!

This feature will be a peek behind the scenes showing the ups and downs of our creative business, our weekly goings ons and our business journey. The main aim for this post is to share a helpful insight into running a business, but from my point of view which can be a lot different from Jilly's!

So I should start the first post with a round up of the last week – We started the week doing a lot of planning and this is an issue we have all the time; I prefer to type things up on the computer because you can come back, edit and save whereas Jilly prefers the old fashioned pen and paper method which leads to problems when she loses her notebooks with important lists and mind maps in them... After lots of planning we decided that we should spend a lot more time on social media, getting in touch with other designers and bloggers so I have been online speaking to people and trying to use the social networking sites more efficiently. We also booked an online accounting course so I can learn how to do our taxes for next year in a less stressful fashion than we usually do. Along with new designs and Christmas plans we organised and promoted our stationery sale which took place last weekend and went great (thank you to everyone who placed an order!). Anyway, I should stop now or this will turn into an essay. Hope you enjoyed the first blog of the new regular weekly edition. See you next Monday!