Initialled flannel in pink floral

I cannot believe that the flannel is on its way out. I nearly choked over my breakfast when I read in The Telegraph that this unglamorous but useful cloth is about to be consigned to history.

It drives me mad that we are cutting down swathes of trees for the ‘must have’ wipes for every surface and orifice. We are clogging up landfill sites and sending a terrible message to our children.

The flannel can be a thing of beauty. You can have your initial lovingly sewn on to an Egyptian cotton flannel by Jane Hamerton Ltd in any fabric of your choice. If you have more than one person in your family they can each have one!!

It can be washed again and again and when it looks a bit grey you can use it to clean the floors.

Nick with his camera

It was serendipity I met Nick Wainwright through Dales Bookkeeping. A successful photographer he has branched out in to film making. Nick wanted a challenge and he got one! Capturing the personalised towels on film is difficult and to make them look appealing and sexy was interesting task!

Claudia & Jasper

We needed a venue and I am so grateful to Steve at The Crown in Woodbridge, a great  setting and they just let us get on with it.

On the morning of filming Cutsie Cutsie rang to say little Jasper was ill. I put out desperate tweets for a baby! Later she rang to say the Calpol had kicked in so it was all on again.

Cutsie Cutsie with her baby

Claudia Gannon (my photographer) made a glamorous model and although the day was exhausting I think you’ll agree Nick made a fantastic film which really captures my business.

Claudia with the personalised towels

Here is the result, I hope you like it.

Thank you to Nick, Steve, Claudia, Rachael and little Jasper

Do have a read and enter the competition at the bottom to win a personalised towel or child’s dressing gown.

I have added soft, organic hooded baby towels and fluffy dressing gowns to my choice of personalised items – and they needed to be photographed for the website.

Sally Ball kindly lent us a room at her beautiful boutique bed and breakfast The Old Rectory in Campsea Ashe.

The Oak Room

Claudia Gannon and I carefully prepared all the shots we were going to take with 2 year old Ethan. Best laid plans!!!

I knew the day was going to be a challenge when our little boy model flung off the dressing gown and hooded towel the minute we starting shooting.

I remembered the game I played with my son 15 years when we were trying to have a family photo taken. He jumped on my back & leapt on to the bed forgetting the wretched dressing gown was on him.

Wayhay... this is a good game!

Catch...

Things did not improve in the bathroom either.

Oi, this isn't my bath time...

Ahh but this is fun drying Mum’s hair

Massive thanks to Sally and Claudia

Vogue front cover

A nice lady from Vogue googled personalised towels and found me! They are doing some advertising on companies they like for Christmas presents.  I agreed to oblige and here is the result. Hope it works!!

Now look closely!!  Clue it’s Number 12

Years ago when the children were little we gave the name ‘Stanley’ to the enormous long legged spiders that scurried across the bathroom floor.

We just thought it would make them less likely to be arachnophobic. It worked with one child but not the other.

The thought came to me if you wanted to help Stan out of the bath (as there seem to be so many about at the moment) you could always drape a Jane Hamerton personalised towel over the bath!

Hooded, organic hooded personalised baby towel

I was very happy to learn there is a photo of the organic, hooded baby towel in this month’s Prima Baby magazine on Page 20.

I would like to thank Rachel for lending me her baby Jasper to be my model. Her website is cutsiecutsie.com

Prima Baby cover

Towel for kindergarten

The internet has made reaching a wider audience much easier for titchy businesses like mine. Google translation helped this week when a lady and I spent a day emailing each other for a specific towel order for her little boy.

He needed specific towel sizes and a 10 cm loop requested by his Spanish kindergarten. I wasn’t sure if it would ever be possible. It was thanks to the digital camera as well.

This was the result which was posted yesterday. Fingers crossed the towels reach her.

Blue & white towels

I felt some initials were needed to make it more personal. I found an old dress of my daughter’s and cut that up! Here is the result. Some girls from Uppingham saw it and loved it! Hmmm now that’s a good idea.

Haileybury School swim towel

Blue bathrobe

I had a lovely Greek lady who is going to a wedding in Greece this weekend enquire about a really special wedding present for the bride and groom who are lawyers.

After lots of emails flying to each other over dressing gown colours and materials I could applique on, this was the result. They were all gift wrapped ready for her to pop in her suitacase.

I am happy to say she emailed me to say ‘Thank you, they look great’!

Cream bathrobe