German Fair

So we are now back in the office after a week away travelling and visiting Germany for our first European retail show.

We left fairly early, 7:30am to be precise, and started our first road trip of the year! All the preparation was just about finished and the van loaded with stand and stock just hours before we left. Anyway, we did it, obviously with the help of our fantastic, JS team! Thankfully Jane and I spent the entire journey in hysterics and a whole 14 hours later we arrived! 

We got to our first B&B with still an hour and a half to go to the exhibition grounds, Das Fürstliche Gartenfest, Schloss Fasanerie. The first day was our set up day making sure the stand was complete and in pristine condition for all our customers. The show started at 10am each day and we were surrounded by such lovely people, the highlight has to be having a food stand opposite us that also sold prosecco, strawberries and cream! What a bonus! 

We love seeing our customers enjoying our products, even our little ones!

Above is the complete stand, have to say we thought it was a rather lovely, British looking stand! Who would have thought the weather would be so cold too, we ended up wearing most of Carina Hildebrandt's clothing, thank god she over packed!

Here's Carina Hildebrandt's stand. Note; very warm clothing!

So there you have it, the first road trip of the year! Stay tuned for our next adventures...

Spirit of Christmas 2015

We all know at JS that Christmas has approached once we attend the Spirit of Christmas show in Olympia, London. 

Whether you attend Spirit of Christmas for the food and wine, a social event, or to start the christmas shop, the week long fair has all of the above!

So Jane and John head off from our Somerset studio to hit the road, early should I say! It’s all go once we get to Olympia, vans pulling in from everywhere, boxes being unloaded, the odd fragile box you hear drop… We leave the stand looking like we aren’t going to be ready for the Monday and that the week is going to be an utter disaster.

Sunday is when I (Shannon) come along, I get the long straw for setting up! Pricing products and making the garland look ‘pretty’. The Sunday flies by as does everyday when we are exhibiting, but, ta dah the stand is complete, so the week commences!

On the Thursday it is late night shopping, the day still seems to fly by even when it closes at 8pm. This is the night I manage to escape from the stand and check out the show, need I say more when Lily, from Branche D’Olive and I end up sampling the upstairs which is of course, the alcohol…!

The whole show this year was a complete success, it was our second biggest year since we have been attending and that’s been quite a few years. It was such great fun, meeting repeat customers, new customers and also networking with other businesses, what more could we want. We have the lovely ‘Branche D’Olive’ opposite us, ‘Helen Moore’ to the right and ‘Carina Hildebrandt’ just around the corner, such a fun and festive atmosphere!

We hope you have a lovely Christmas from us all at Jonny’s Sister and hope to see you at next year’s Spirit of Christmas! 

-Shannon

New JS Staff

Since the last blog we posted we had the likes of, Lisa, Leanne and Martha working for us. A lot has changed since then, their choice to leave though, not ours! They have all taken the next steps in their careers, Lisa has gone into admin in a school, Leanne has gone to a college working in admin and Martha is doing a university degree. All three of them started at Jonny’s Sister doing an apprenticeship in business and administration. 

(Clockwise- Alec, Shannon (ME!), Martha, Leanne, Lisa and Lara) 

Although they are all sadly missed at JS we have employed some newbies! It started with Becky, then Emma, Katie and Rhiannon. Here’s a little bit about them;

Becky is our chief despatch person! She is in charge of despatching all items on time and making sure they are sent out in a JS standard state, poor Becky as we have such high standards!

Emma is our new admin team member! She has office experience and is a whizz at speaking to customers on the phone, she deals with the order management making sure everything is with the correct suppliers and being despatched on time.

Katie is another new admin team member! She used to work at TESCO dealing with the charity events that happened in her local store. She is a very bubbly person and was chucked in the deep end when she joined about 6 weeks before Christmas! 

Rhiannon is a new studio member! She finished her design degree in summer just gone and is super talented with her work, although she doesn’t say so herself! At JS she works on the production of orders that are done in house and new product development. 

So there you have it, a quick introduction to our new JS members. There are still the three of us from the old team, Alec, Lara and Me, oh and don’t forget Jane, John and the dogs! 

-Shannon

Easter is Coming

Move over Bunny, Easter is coming and we’re ready!

Here at Jonny’s Sister we have a new range of products just in time for the chocolate-y season; nothing says Easter like a good, old fashioned Easter Egg Hunt- bunny ears and all! We’ve come up with some essentials, including a directional sign and a bucket to fill with goodies.

We know what we’ll be doing over the Easter weekend, how about you!?

Shop the full collection over on the JS website. Have a Happy Easter everyone!

Cupid's Coming!

With January over, that means one thing... Valentine’s Day! 

Here at Jonny's Sister we love an excuse to embrace all things fluffy and romantic (plus the odd box of chocolates or two!), so we thought that we'd share the love. People everywhere dread the thought of finding that special someone something ‘unique’; but fear not, we have put together our top picks of Valentines prezzies that are bound to blow your socks off!

Top Left: Jonny's Sister Personalised Cake Tin

http://www.jonnyssister.co.uk/personalised-cake-tin-p-740.html?page=all

Top Right: Sparks Clothing Personalised Hot Water Bottle

http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/sparksclothing/product/personalised-together-since-hot-water-bottle-cover

Bottom Left: Sparks Clothing 'Put Your Feet Up' Socks

http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/sparksclothing/product/personalised-put-your-feet-up-socks

Bottom Right: Jonny's Sister Pride & Prejudice Print

http://www.jonnyssister.co.uk/pride-prejudice-gift-valentine-print-p-914.html

Happy New Year!

We can’t believe it’s that time again- we want to take a moment to say a great big happy new year to everybody and we hope that you all had a fabulous Christmas!

Here at JS we all love the festive season; full shelves, the constant hustle and bustle of people singing ‘jingle bells’ and the chocolates on the office table! Despite the feeling of relief when it’s all over, Christmas 2014 was a good one for everybody. This year we had the most temps to date, we feel like we packed hundreds of ‘BAKED BY KATE’ cake tins, and sold over 1500 Rudolf Christmas sacks- who knew there were that many lucky children in the world!?

To celebrate the success of 2014 we felt that nothing would do the trick better than nibbles and some champers. Here are some pictures to show what we got up to!

 

Although January always brings some relief from the Christmas mania, it is still sad to say goodbye to our Christmas elves and to tidy away the tinsel and baubles for another year. But forget the January blues as during 2015 you will be seeing lots of new and exciting things from Jonny’s Sister….so watch this space!

Happy National Dessert Day!

Although it seems that every day is a ‘national’ something or other, we felt that National Dessert Day was a fabulous day to celebrate! Here at Jonny’s Sister HQ we have all been shopping (too busy for baking!) and filled the office with treats. Cakes, cookies, tarts and swirls everywhere, it looks like it’s going to be a happy Tuesday for everyone!

Christmas: 83 days to go

83 days ‘til Christmas. Let the games begin! If we’ve learnt anything over the past 9 years, it’s that Christmas starts in October here at Jonny’s Sister. Although it comes at the same time each year and no matter how much we like to try and prepare ourselves, we’re never ready!

With 20 days and counting, we’re soon to be moving our studio to a new location (blog post on the way- keep your eyes peeled!). At Christmas we have our lovely little handmade gifts coming out of our ears and are sick of the sound of jingle bells by December 1^st. But this year we will be ready. Although October has only just begun we have already started preparing; finalising our exclusive Christmas range, mass producing gift cards and gathering the troops!

Here are a few shots from last year- look at poor old postie trying to squeeze those all prezzies in!

Take a trip down memory lane

The sun is shining down on Jonny’s Sister HQ and it has definitely got us all inspired! 

So we’ve come up with these gorgeous personalised deckchairs which will be perfect for lounging around the garden in, and will no doubt, make a fantastic gift for Father’s Day!

We all think that these chairs are great, but let us know what you think by emailing us at: 
customerservices@jonnyssister.co.uk

You can find our new personalised deckchairs and other great gifts for Father’s day on: 
http://www.jonnyssister.co.uk/home-gifts-gifts-for-him-c-77_79.html

Fig is a mother!!

As most of you that follow us on any social media page will know, our Jonny's Sister HQ dog Fig was pregnant. We are proud to announce that she has popped and is a Mother to 4 girls & 4 boys!!! Yippee... She is doing very well and is back to her normal size! (Lucky ey!) 

A before picture, this made us all chuckle in the office

& wait for it... an after picture.

We are all coming up with names for the 8 puppies, let us know what you think they should be called on customerservices@jonnyssister.co.uk the best named puppies will get a prize their way!

H e l l o !

Ooh hello there! Welcome to our very first blog post (hopefully the first of many)! We just thought that we should introduce ourselves so that you can get to know us a little better. We are an online company based in Somerset, specialising in luxury, bespoke, personalised gifts. If you're looking for something a little different or are trying to find an extra special gift without breaking the bank then you've come to the right place! Our products are handmade here in the South West by our very talented team of local crafts men and women. 

Why not come and check us out at www.jonnyssister.co.uk ?

Jonny's Sister HQ, Closworth, Somerset