In 2014 we opened our first gift shop in our home village of Eyam, Derbyshire. It started out as a working studio selling our own designs. Gradually we started to indroduce other British makers work into the space who we like to call ‘Flossy Friends’.

 

We ran our own workshops and invited other makers to run their workshops with us too. We quickly outgrew the space so the followng  year we opened another shop in Tideswell just a few villages away 

 

Alongside our small team we grew the business and learnt so much about the nitty gritty of running a small business in a retail setting. We loved the spaces and they became part of their communities. We ran ‘Make and Cake’ evenings which were not for profit nights to encourage people to get out, enjoy tea, cake and a natter as well as having a new mini workshop each month run by us. 

 

In 2016 we had our first little boy Finley. He was a dream come true after an incredibly heartbraking journey to get him. It wasn’t plain sailing as Finn was born with respiratory and digestive condition. We were constantly back and forwards to the hospital and it became clear that we weren’t able to put our full effort into keeping the shops going the way we wanted them to be any longer.   

It was the hardest descision I have ever had to make in our business journey so far to close the door on what felt like an extended member of our family. but we were parents now and Finley had to come first. 

 

Luckily that wasn’t the end of our brand, in fact looking back it was the best decision we could have made in terms of pushing our ranges further and  getting our designs out to a wider audience. I am true believer in things happen for a reason and you have to always follow your gut instinct! Finley is also improving all the time and we now have a business that works around bringing up our 3 boys.