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

We are pleased to say that we have had some recent success at getting more support from British manufacturers and producers for our British Family Fayre (http://britishfamilyfayre.co.uk/). Most recently we have large high street chain Lush Cosmetics, luxury underwear brand Cahoonas and Shepherd Neame brewery all signed up to give workshops at our event on 31st August. We are also in discussions with a number of other businesses also considering attending. In addition, we are pleased to have the National Farmers Union (NFU) fully supporting our message and they intend on bringing something quite special to the day. Watch this space for more info.

With only 9 weeks to go to the big day it finally feels like we are gathering steam. Better late than never! I have to admit to the organisation of this event to have been about the most stressful thing we have ever undertaken as a family. There have been many occasions were we felt like throwing in the towel but, mostly through pig-headedness, we seem to actually be pulling it off. Thank you to those that have supported us throughout.

The British Family Fayre will be FREE TO ATTEND

Another important announcement that we are pleased to make is that the fayre will be free for all visitors. This was something that we were hoping to be able to achieve, dependant on overheads. It was always our ambition to get as many people to join us to celebrate British manufacturing, farming and production as possible. Offering a great family day out for free will hopefully allow us to exceed our 5000 expected attendees.

Opportunities for smaller businesses:

Another recent addition to our event is The Market Place (http://www.britishfamilyfayre.co.uk/market-place/). Based on feedback, we were finding smaller businesses that wanted to get involved were struggling with the £300 cost of a workshop, so we have put together a smaller, sales only, package for just £150. This allows smaller businesses to benefit from the day and to sell and promote there goods with less of the outlay. These spaces are strictly limited to 20 places, and since our quiet launch of this late last week 3 spaces have already been taken. These opportunities will go fast, so get in early to avoid disappointment.

It is also worth re-stating here that the event is entirely not-for-profit. Non of the organisers, including the professional events company Lincoln West, are not making a penny from it. Any funds raised are being solely used to cover the logistical costs of the event itself.

Let me entertain you:

We are also looking for entertainment on the day. Specifically, we are searching for anything with a British theme or that celebrates the cultural diversity we have in the UK. We welcome ideas, and offers of support, both leading up to the event and on the day itself. We are also looking for talented individuals and groups to come an entertain our crowds. It would be great to find traditional and modern dance troupes, choirs and musical ensembles or indeed anything else that you feel would add something uniquely British. Emily would personally like a  colliery band and, as the 31st August is her Birthday, we are going to do what we can to accommodate this.

We do have a limited budget available to cover some costs and expenses with regard to entertainment but due to the nature of the event we would also welcome offers of support of a more charitable nature.

Please get in touch here>>>

We sent out a rallying call to action over 6 weeks ago. We asked British manufactures and farmers to help us help them. This was in response to many of these businesses (and, indeed, consumers) telling us that something needed to be done to promote a buy British message.

We rose to this challenge by organising an event for which we have used our contacts to secure national TV, Radio and newspaper presence. Our, admittedly grandiose, aim was a to celebrate British production in such a way that its echo’s are heard across the UK. We do this without any prior experience in organising events like this, in our spare time and for zero profit.

Our original call to action was met with enthusiasm from over 200 great British businesses, who said that that if we were to arrange such an event then they would come. Buoyed by this initial enthusiasm we proceeded to secure a great venue capable of hosting such an event, hire a professional events company (who are working for free) and spend our evenings and weekends putting it all together. We then went back to those 200 businesses but have since struggled to get them to commit.

Changes to the fayre:

In light of this we have made some changes to the event, based on feedback we have received:
– We have reduced the event down to one day.
While this logistically has the same overheads we hope that this will reduce staffing costs for attendee businesses.

– We have added the British Family Market.
Which features smaller stands at a reduced price of £150 (a workshop space is just £300). We hope that this will encourage smaller businesses to make the effort to attend.

The current situation

The current status of things is that we have set a minimum for the number of businesses that we need to achieve for the event to be viable. We have also set ourselves a 2 week deadline to achieve this. We are some way off it but it is still do-able.

I would like to thank personally those businesses that have shown their faith in us and responded quickly to our original call the action. You will forever now be an important part of our story… we hope that we can do you proud!  Please take the time to visit our list of those glorious manufactures because they a all fantastic businesses that are very proud to produce in the UK. See here>>>

For those that have yet to sign up… expect a phone call from me in the next couple of days!!!

– James

A few weeks ago we put up a post about 10 fantastic and fabulous truly British items that we have discovered in the last 6 months. To keep the world a balanced place we thought that we would now list our top 10 things we either miss and cannot find, or are really disappointed that aren’t made in the UK. So here goes, the top 10 things we just can’t get;

Black peppercorns – This was something that we found out pretty early on that we were going to have to just do without. That said it doesn’t stop us missing the taste and wishing that there was a way to grow it or buy it made in the UK. While we’ve had some super weather this week, we’d need more weeks like this than like the one that is on it’s way to grow peppercorns so this one will just have to go on the New Year shopping list.

Lemons – This is not something that we thought would really be much of an issue. However as we approach summer and want to make zingy dressings for our lovely home grown salad the absence of lemon is quite obvious and sad. Limes and oranges are not such an issue and are something that we could be forced to live without but lemons are one that summer will not be quite the same without.

Toys – We have posted before about the death of the British toy manufacturing industry so we won’t put too much in here other than to say that since we posted that blog we have had some super news that Hornby are returning from China and India to make new model kits and railways on UK soil. Well done Hornby and we look forward to more news like this!

Power tools – This is James’ department and I’m not sure what power tools we do not already own that he has been looking for, but it is still an area that we have all the skills to make. Yet to our knowledge nothing in this area is made in the UK. If you are a manufacturer James would love to hear from you to increase his shed full 😉

Bed linen – While we had expected that the cheaper end of the linen scale would not be there for us this year we had expected that we might be able to find something somewhere. Despite looking for the last 6 months we have yet to find any sheets of any kind either for us or for Lucan that are made in the UK. I can only assume that there is little weaving left in the country especially when it comes to cotton and this is why there in no British made fabric available either. I will however put a caveat in here that there are still fabulous weavers of tweeds etc but not so much weavers of everyday cottons and linens. I will also put towels into this category as we have not found anyone producing these at an accessible price point either.

Light bulbs– Again this was fully fledged post from a month or so ago so I won’t add more than is there. It is sad that a whole industry has left the country forever but hopefully there is someone somewhere who might bring it back one day.

Canned foods – This one is not something that we really thought about when we started this challenge. We would buy tomatoes, pulses and beans to put into other dishes easily and cheaply. When we started looking at just how far the canned food had come we were really quite surprised. Dried pulses were off the menu as well as these are only packed in the UK which for us being strict this year is not enough. There is one supplier of dried fava beans (broad beans) and peas, Hodmedods but these still need to be soaked and boiled before ready to use.

Batteries – When we started we knew fairly quickly that batteries would have to be rationed. It would be fair to say that every British household will consume a certain amount of battery power each year and we are no different. We are however finding that with a bit of fore planning it is quite possible to run on rechargeables instead, far greener 🙂

Women’s clothes – If we had unlimited money and time this would not be a problem, but having very definite limits on both this is a whole category that is missing from almost all British High Streets. What we have found so far has all been bought online and while there are a good number of people providing for the alternative market in many ways there is almost no British made clothes for everyday wear at a reasonable cost. Under-wire bras are a particular need at the moment and again while there are companies making skimpy just cover you up bras there is nothing in the more substantial end. We had heard at the start of the year that River Island and Topshop among others were bringing more British made clothes to their stores but nothing substantial as of yet.

Mobile phone – Earlier on this month James’ mobile phone started to die and this is worrying as the only British manufacturer of mobile phones is Vertu. Their phones are gorgeous with a capital G but are also well out of our price range starting at around £5500. We clearly have the skills to make mobile phones and very glamorous and gorgeous ones too so where is the more accessible British phone?

Something we need to finish with is that this list has taken us quite a while to put together. It is strange that when you have accepted that you can’t buy something you don’t seem to miss it much. We hope that this is not read in a negative way as we really are all about celebrating what we do make and not lamenting what we don’t, however we also felt that in order for there to be balance we should share the downsides of our year along with the upsides.

If there is anything you can help us find we would love to hear from you and help us to tick off the things that are missing 😀

– Emily

Farrington’s Mellow Yellow have offered our followers a pair of tickets to this years BBC Good Food Summer Show at the NEC Birmingham, commencing 12th June.  The Farrington’s team will be showing their full range of award winning cold pressed rapeseed oil products so you will get an opportunity to try their products for yourself as well as some other great British produce. 

The winner will receive a pair of tickets, each ticket admits one person, to a day at the show (with the exception of Saturday). We only wish we were going too!

www.bbcgoodfoodshowsummer.com

To be in with a chance of winning simply complete the form below…

This competition is now closed. The winner will be notified by email on Monday and you tickets mailed to you.

Good luck!

Here is a link to those pesky terms and conditions: http://www.farrington-oils.co.uk/latest-news/shows-and-tastings/upcoming-shows-and-tastings/british-family