Top Weekend at Top Drawer

WOW! What a wonderfully inspirational, jam-packed, fun-filled, panic inducing weekend we have had visiting Top Drawer at Earls Court in London. With only 4 months to go until we have to set up our very first trade show stand at PG LIVE, we thought a research trip to see how the professionals do it was very much in order.

Mixing business with pleasure the night before the show

We were both overwhelmed by the size of the show and by the enormous amount of talent and competition that was there. It quite frankly scared us half to death, and we soon started to regret the second bottle of Lebanese wine we had quaffed the night before when we realised how much work we had to do! Here is a short run down of Team Rosie and Radish's show highlights ...

As far as fun, quirky, colourful and interesting stands go, it doesn't get much better than this from the very talented Laura Skilbeck. If our stand looks anywhere near as good as this at PG LIVE we will be very happy! It looked totally fab...

and we loved this little dude!

Someone we were looking forward to meeting was the lovely Ilona, the lady behind I Drew This (one of our favourite greeting card publishers!) With such bright, cute illustration it is hard not to be drawn to her gorgeous card ranges.

We both fell in love with the beautiful simplicity of the pencil sharpen range by Ruth Jackson. It was great to see her hard at work at her stand, hand finishing her cards with pencil sharpens. AMAZING!

Other highlights included the trusty Rifle Paper Company delighting our eyes with the ultimate in floral stationery ...

the gorgeous Darling Clementine looking as delicious as ever ...

and this beautiful range by Becky Baur.

Away from the Greeting Card section the highlight for us were these animal rugs by Sew Heart Felt. They were a proper show stopper, and definitely too good to stand on!

After looking around we used our time wisely and spent a few hours brainstorming and finalising the plan of action for our trade show in May. We have 3 new ranges to illustrate, catalogues and sales materials to design and 4 metres of wall space to fill. AHHHHH its going to be a busy few months!

Amy Xx

Established in 2013

This time last year Rosie and Radish didn't even exist. It wasn't until June of this year that the little guys came into our lives, and now we couldn't imagine life without them. It just goes to show what a difference a year can make. With 2013 drawing to a close, what better time to reflect on the first 6 months of life in Rosie and Radish Land ...

Rosie and Radish were born 6 months ago on the 29th June 2013. 

In 6 months (184 days) we have created 4 little characters,

and designed loads of greeting cards and prints,

as well as some super cute paper dolls.

We have built and designed a website 

and sold our wares at a Christmas Fair.

We have had 25 weekly Thursday meetings during which we have consumed 

25 Fish Finger sandwiches, 25 tomato and mozzarella ciabattas, 50 pints of lime 

and soda and 50 mugs of hot chocolate.

We have each put on an average of 2.5lbs in weight.

In October I took a trip to the Ladder Club in Southend to learn 

all about greeting card publishing.

This pushed us into booking a stand at the PG LIVE trade show for May 2014.

As business partners we have kept in constant contact and have 

sent each other 500,245 meaningful and professional Whatsapp messages.

Being attached to our smartphones hasn't gone un noticed by our friends and 

family and we have tried hard not to let work interfere with our social lives.

We have built up 500 LIKES on Facebook, 710 followers on Twitter

 and 109 followers on Instagram which has resulted in lots of lovely 

feedback and comments. 

We even had a tweet from the legend that is Tony the Fridge. My life is complete.

And on top of all of that we have managed to fit in a wedding, 

a blossoming relationship with a dog,

and a very important business meeting with Orville the duck.

We have had a tremendous amount of fun, and with so many exciting plans for 2014 I hope that the next 6 months will be as much fun as the first. 

Thank you to everyone who has supported us this year. Here's to a very happy, fun filled and prosperous 2014. HAPPY NEW YEAR YEAR EVERYONE!!! 

Amy Xx

Feeling Festive!

We are feeling very festive here at Rosie and Radish HQ ... Christmas tunes have been playing, our Christmas jumpers have been donned and our Christmas cards have been written!

With lots of lovely retailers to send cards to this festive season we wanted to make them extra special by drawing cute little Radish's in each one ...

And then we packed them all up and gave them the Radish seal of approval!

If you haven't thought about Christmas cards yet this year there is still time! You can buy a pack of 4 cards for £3.50 or 2 packs for £6 from our shop. There is one of each of these adorable designs in each pack.

Buy a pack by clicking here and join in with our festive fun! 

Amy Xx

Rosie and Radish's First Outing!

Yesterday morning my alarm went off at 5.45am. It was Sunday. It was illegally early. It was pitch black. And it was sub zero temperatures outside my duvet. BUT, it was the day of Rosie and Radish's first ever Christmas Fair! So I eagerly jumped out of bed, skipped in the shower and dashed out the house without even a hint of the early morning blues - for I had Rosie and Radish goodies to sell!!!

OK, so I may have have told a little white lie. I was very tired. And when I met Helen at Beamish Hall she looked equally as bleary eyed. Team Rosie and Radish were in desperate need of a caffeine and croissant fix. But we were soon pumped up and ready to get the show on the road. We had 2 hours to turn our 12ft stall into Rosie and Radish Winter Wonderland!

We had spent weeks illustrating, designing, cutting things out, gluing things together, packing up cards, mounting up prints and deciding what to put on our Rosie and Radish stall. Thankfully it all came together nicely and we managed to turn this ...

Into this ...

We were super proud of ourselves. We were just putting the final touches to our stall when the doors opened and the Christmas shoppers came flooding in.

Our pack of 4 Christmas Cards proved to be the biggest hit of the day. It seems the lovely folk that came to our stall couldn't resist our Christmas Angels!

We also had lots of interest in our personalised prints, with lots of customers wanting to buy them for Christmas, New baby and Christening gifts. Who could blame them? They obviously have very good taste!

Our lovely little stocking fillers also went down a treat. Our Paper Dolls stole the show centre stage in their cute little outfits!

As did Helen's genius inventions ... her fab 'Pretty up your Present' packs, which contain ribbons, paper flowers, stickers and a gorgeous Rosie and Radish gift tag. Fun, quirky, Christmas wrapping at its finest!

It was a wonderful day all round and it certainly got us into the Christmas spirit! It was lovely to introduce Rosie and Radish to the public and to see them smile and engage with our products. We got so many lovely comments and loads of positive feedback ... we hope it was a taste of good things to come in Rosie and Radish Land in 2014!

By 5pm we were all packed up and ready to go home for a well deserved rest. Needless to say my alarm will not be going off at 5.45am again in a hurry. This lack of sleep is making us a bit delirious! 

Amy Xx