About a week ago my mum offered me the chance to go with them to the Sainsbury’s Games Anniversary at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Stadium in Stratford, London. The chance to sit in such an amazing venue and watch a night of superb athletics, including the worlds fastest man, one year on from the incredible opening ceremony, was something that was not going to be turned down. So having said goodbye to two thirds of the British Family and left them to their boys night together I headed out with my mum, dad and sister towards Stratford. I was, I admit, rather worried that it would be hard to stick to our challenge in such a commercial environment especially when we were having dinner within the stadium. I needn’t have worried though as there was a super selection and one clearly signed van selling British burgers and sausages, so that one was for me. Sadly no British drinks even with the fantastic selection that we know is out there but my lovely dad bought me a drink so I didn’t feel left out 😀

The evening was spectacular and the athletics was amazing to watch but nothing really was going to beat the feeling of being in such a special place watching Usain Bolt disappearing down the 100m track.

A very special night and one that won’t be forgotten easily.

– Emily

Here we are with the Flying Colours flag!!!

You may be glad to know that our preparations for the British Family Fayre are hotting up. We are getting increasingly nervous that there is so much still to do but we are ultimately looking forward to it all. However, as if to make life a little more challenging for us, we also hope to raise some money for charity on the day. We have recently teamed up the The Prince’s Trust, a fantastic organisations that is celebrating 30 years this year supporting young entrepreneurs in Britain. This is obviously a charity that is very relevant to what we are doing and we are proud to be in a position to be able to support them.

One of the ideas that we had to raise funds for The Prince’s Trust was a charity auction. Through our call on twitter we already have 10 lots and some potentially very special items from one or two manufacturers. One idea that we did have was to get a Union Flag signed by some eminent business people, farmers and celebrities. The Princes Trust are even making enquiries with HRH himself to see is he will add his John Hancock… but this is a very long shot especially as he now has grandfatherly duties to deal with!

So as well as blogging, campaigning for British manufacturing,  organising an event for upwards of 5000 people, organising a charity auction and wrangling a 3 year old, we now have collecting signatures from the rich and famous.

As this point we must thank Andy at Flying Colours for his generous donation of a British made Union Flag on which we are to collect these signatures. Flying Colours are the royal warrant holders, so when you see a flag flying proudly on Buck-house, chances are that it is made by these guys. So we certainly have a good base on which to start our collecting… just one problem… we have not got a clue where to start on this one.

Besides HRH we would love to have Jamie Oliver, Mary Portas, Sir Alan Sugar, David Cameron, Boris Johnson – generally people like that come and sign our flag so that we can auction it off and raise a good amount for this great charity.

Any advice or links would be greatly appreciated. Also any further ideas of who we might get to sign would be great.

And if we do not ask enough of you: if any British manufacturers read this, we are looking for more product donations to add to our auction. Your donations will be listed on our website and be auctioned off on the 31st August to raise money for The Princes Trust. Please get in contact.

The Bradshaws

We mentioned in our last post that for Lucan’s 3rd birthday we made him a swing set. When we mentioned this we received a number of requests to see a picture of this mighty construction project. So here goes, along with an explanation of how we did it:

We perhaps could have bought Lucan a wooden British made swing set, but with prices in the high hundreds it would have been a little extravagant (especially as I am still looking for gainful employment. See here) So, being reasonably handy, and having plenty of time on my hands, I decided that I could fabricate one pretty easily… and at less than a quater the price of the of-the-shelf versions.

I sourced British seasoned posts and decking board from a local timber merchants and searched online and found Osborne Fasteners Limited for all of the main bolts. The construction itself was really easy, just cumbersome when doing it by myself. I started by digging the holes for the posts and setting them in postcrete. Then it was simply connecting the posts with 200mm 10m bolts. We had an old TP branded swing and slide and simply dismantled these and appropriated them into the new construction. I decked the platform of the main fort and finished with a couple of Union Jacks.

The result is one that Lucan loves and it means that he is outdoors more than ever.

I think in total the materials cost us about £200 and took me about 2 days to construct. The closest we could find in an similar off-the-shelf option (which you still had to postcrete and bolt together) was about £800. Not a bad saving and guaranteed British!

I have plans to build a second tier to it at some point and maybe expand it around the large oak tree but this might be next summer.

– James

It was Lucan’s 3rd Birthday on Sunday and the preparations had been on-going for a couple of weeks. The first struggle was to find him an appropriate gift. We knew that finding a toy made in the UK was going to be impossible so we decided to make him one. We bought seasoned British timber from a local merchant and built a tree-house and swing set, complete with up-cycled slide. The construction took 2 days of digging, sawing and hammering but it is fair to say that the results were worth it. He loves it.

We were a little nervous about the party preparations and to add to the pressure we decided to shop at Sainsbury’s for all of the goodies. Sainsbo’s have been making a big deal about their Britishness and sustainability policies recently. So,  while it is a supermarket that we do not frequent all that often we thought that this event would be a good test of if they were walking-the-walk or just talking-the-talk.

With all of the great weather we decided on a BBQ for family, friends and neighbours. The first thing on the shopping list was meat… and lots of it. The issue here, with Sainsbury’s, is that they do not sign up to the Red Tractor Assurance scheme. So, while their meat is labelled with the Union Jack, what you do not get  is the same level of confidence and clarity regarding animal welfare standards. However, we still bought chicken, beef, pork belly and pork sausages for the barbie.

Before we left for the supermarket we had to call Premier Foods to see if their Harleys jelly is made in the UK. Thankfully they confirmed it was. After all, what is a 3rd birthday without jelly and ice cream?? I had an interesting chat with the customer service guy who was able to confirm that most of the Premier Foods brands are made in the UK, including Sharwoods, Oxo and Batchelors brand names. Handy information for us!

Ultimately we struggled, in Sainsbury’s, with some of the things not made in Britain that we knew that we could find in Waitrose. For example we know that there is a very good chance that anything own brand in Waitrose will be made in the UK. Not so with Sainsbury’s. However, we did have a couple of surprises. For instance; we managed to buy paper plates and plastic cups all made in Britain. What is more is that they were the cheap essentials range, so again we were able to make some savings buying British.

The day was balmy to say the least and with neighbours, friends and family I think that the lack of balloons and anything themed couldn’t have been further from people’s minds. As the day warmed up the adults (well most of them) crowded around the TV to watch the phenomenal Andy Murrey become the Wimbledon champion. The kids stripped off and splashed in the paddling pool. A fantastic afternoon was had by all and what is even better to know is that the British economy profited from Lucan being a year older. Hopefully we can continue, as the years go by, to avoid the commercialism and dare I say plastic element of birthdays and just give Lucan so cracking days to remember like this one.

It perhaps would not be unfair to say that while crafts and crafting is going through somewhat of a small renaissance, with the likes of Kirsty Allsop’s promotion, it is still not really something for the masses. Most people would prefer something easily bought and easily thrown away. This is something that we have had to face head on this year as the disposable end of the market is not that which is produced in the UK. We were not particularly thrifty before we started this year and while I think we could say that we valued the things we bought we would naturally go for the lowest price over the best quality.

Crafting in the UK is a tradition that goes back ages, and in these rather poor economic times people are turning back to crafting to help support incomes and sometimes just to give them something to do. James is a classic example of this having started to learn the art of leather working when he was made redundant just over a month ago. There are some great websites for those who would rather not sit for most of every weekend at craft fairs like folksy.co.uk where you buy directly from the sellers and the likes of giftwrappedandgorgeous.co.uk where you buy from a central seller. Both are fantastic ways of getting real handmade items and really support the grass roots of the economy.

We have had some super contact with Giftwrapped and Gorgeous as well as some of their brilliant sellers like; Aye Do Gifts and Claire Troughton who both make superb jewellery items, Sean Aherne Art whose brilliantly comical prints are perfect for any British wall and Suzanne Lake’s wooden gifts and The Radical Tea Towel Company both of which are perfect for adorning any British kitchen. For more details on all of these suppliers as well as GWaG and Folksy please see our directory.

There are a wealth of sites just like Gift Wrapped and Gorgeous out there selling on the crafts of the British public. Make sure, however, that you look for where things are being made and if in doubt ask, there are plenty of places who are happy to call things British just because they are distributed here. I suppose what I am trying to say here is that yes there are some High Streets that are lucky to have an element of craft and independence to them, if this is yours please please use it, if not try thinking ahead for your gifts and treats and look for something British made through and through. I can’t tell you what a difference it has made for James having something to develop and learn while he is looking for his next employer and there are millions of households up and down the country who are the same. Crafting may not be for everyone but for those who make a living from it, however big or small, need supporting and shouting about beyond the walls of the local village hall. There is plenty out there to choose from so next time you need a gift don’t think disposable, think crafty!

– Emily

We have been blogging for a while about our hunt for British made clothes. There are now some great British manufacturers of children’s clothes, Fieldlife, Unique Kids and Grubbies to name just a few. There are also super manufacturers for menswear like Cahoonas, Private White VC and Marko Johns.

Where I come unstuck is on women’s wear. Now please don’t get me wrong there are some super manufacturers out there if you want knits, tweeds and traditional wear or if you want something a bit wacky and retro. All this said when I have looked in the past for a smart dress for dinners or now as I start to look for the dress for the British Family Fayre and big birthday combo there is little out there that is off the peg ready British. This is quite a sorry state of affairs especially as we are trying so hard to show that living British is a viable option.

I am now considering making something myself from my Grandma’s old patterns and buying some more British printed fabric to do so. It’s not ideal however, so I would love anyone who can help me out with a British made party dress even if it’s just pointing me in a good direction to come forward. Please help to make the fayre day as fabulously British as possible 🙂

A first for Lucan last week, he had mail! Not mail via me or James but his very own letter addressed to him. This caused untold excitement, and we nearly lost the contents of the envelope in his haste to get it open. After a bit of a battle to get the contents out (and out of Lucan’s hands) we were faced with another first, his very first party invitation. The excitement grew with the picture on the front being a Gruffalo and with a quick email the party was booked.

Next, as a parent, came the big decision of what to give. Being a teacher I like to give presents with a mildly educational theme (sorry), and for this particular birthday-boy, who is exceptionally clever, I thought a lovely picture book that could be shared at bedtime would be appreciated. As I started to trawl through the front and back covers of the multiple beautiful pictures books something struck me. Not a single one was printed in the UK! Now we have said already that what we do well, toy wise, in the UK is cardboard. We are great at puzzles and board games and all things printed so why are there no printers creating children’s books?

I did however strike lucky with a family favourite, Dick King-Smith’s Jungle Jingles. This to my relief was printed in the UK, and not just that but up the road in Croydon. So now we have a present and the same shop gave be a super selection of British printed cards so that was sorted too.

I can’t see why the UK is not printing more children’s books, we have the facility and the technology, so come on UK printers and publishers we mums want to buy British books from our great British authors!

– Emily