The last big order sold out a lot quicker than I was expecting. Whilst this is good it means I have not been able to supply people with the OshKosh Dungarees they were perhaps hoping to buy for  Christmas presents this year. My latest order from the US has arrived in the UK and is “awaiting customs clearance”. I am getting the following items:

Red Hickory Stripe Dungarees sizes 9 Months to 24 Months

Dakota Wash Dungarees sizes 9 Months to 4 Years

Hickory Denim Stripe Dungarees 6 Months to 5 Years

Fleece Denim Dungarees  12 months to 5 Years

I will also be getting some embroidered girls dungarees with hearts (as opposed to the butterfly ones)

As mentioned I can’t guarantee they’ll be here before Christman but I’ll update the site as soon as they arrive and will send out a newsletter to those signed up, however if you want to pre-order any items please let me know via the contact form

Kind regards

Anna

I also have a great selection of boys and girls pyjamas and nightware, including some PJs that glow in the dark! These are perfect for your little one to snuggling up in over the cold winter months.

Due to the amount of time it takes to import the clothes from the US and get them through customs this will be the last batch before Christmas and so unfortunately certain sizes may run out – there has already been a lot of demand. If you’re stuck for present ideas think these children’s clothes make a slightly more original gift since particularly cute and they are not readily available in the UK

Yorkshire: The boys in OshKosh Dungarees

It has been a very busy last two weekends. The weekend just gone we were visiting friends who have given up the London rat race to buy a small holding in Devon. The weekend before last we went to visit my family in North Yorkshire.

Yes despite being now being firmly rooted in the Home Counties I am in fact a ‘Yorkshire Lass’!

Don’t get me wrong I have a lovely life down here with my husband and 2 boys, but when I return to my beloved Yorkshire I realise how much I do miss it. Apart from the enormous fact my family live in Yorkshire, it is a beautiful county, rich with culture, populated with largely affable and down to earth people.

I am the only one five siblings to live in the South East. When my family speak they are instantly recognisable as Yorkshire folk; I on other hand have unintentionally lost a lot of my Yorkshire accent.

Although I do still say Glahss rather than Glarse and Bahth rather than Barth.

I went to university in Sheffield and after university I worked at the Norwich Union Call Centre in Sheffield, as do a lot of Sheffield ’s students trying to cling onto another year of student life. It was during this period I started making frequent visits to London. I some how ended up on a blind date with a guy called Russell; one of my Norwich Union customers who I had spoken to on the phone. Russell lived in London. We embarked on a relationship for a few months and I made frequent trips to London to see him.

My relationship with the Russell didn’t last, but I was seduced by London and it is a love affair that continues to this day.

London to me was huge, vibrant, exciting and full of endless possibilities. It seemed to have the biggest and best of everything. One warm summer evening standing on Waterloo Bridge looking at the view down the Thames past the Houses of Parliament and London Eye (rather fittingly listening to Waterloo Sunset by the Kinks) I made the decision; I was going to move to London.

I pulled on my backpack and got onto the National Express coach for London. A friend kindly let me stay on his sofa in Leatherhead whilst I search South London for accommodation.

My first viewing was a shared house in Tooting Broadway. Only one potential house mate Steve was there to ‘interview’ me and we got on brilliantly and he asked me to move in there and then without checking with any of his other housemates. I think I can fairly confidently say that Steve did not have to endure the chagrin of his housemates for this unilateral decision. One of the said housemates later ended up becoming my husband.

Another story but one of my best friends from school also went on to marry Steve!

Amongst friends of mine there was a bit of as post-Uni exodus to London. Of course it is never easy for new graduates to find employment and London is the place with the most job opportunities. It was more than just this though; moving to London seemed the thing to do, the next phase of life, almost an extension of university. The party continued just in a different location; the nights out slightly less frequent and slightly more sophisticated than £1 a pint at the union!

Quite a few of my friends from University of course did not make the move to London; they went back to their respective home cities and towns and found jobs. People talk about the North/South divide, however it seemed to me that the people that chose to stayed up North enjoyed a better standard of living. Within a couple of years many seemed to own houses in places like Didsbury (nice area of Manchester) and were driving brand new company cars. The people who’d move to London were still renting rooms in a house shares and transport involved the bus, tube or walking.

Fast forward 12 years and many people have move back up North or to the Midlands. People who have stayed down South are now living in the suburbs or Home Counties. I’m self-employed living in Hertfordshire with my own family a reasonably nice house in a semi-rural and low crime area, so feel I have made a good life for myself since stepping of the coach with my backpack.

My husband and I lived all over London. The South – Streatham, Clapham, Battersea and Balham, the North – Islington and the East – Bow, before making the move out to the Home Counties. My husband works in Harrow and since we’d migrated north of the Thames some years previously we opted for Hertfordshire. We had one eye on bringing up a family and wanted to live somewhere safe for children; one of the less positive aspects of London-life for me was being mugged twice, once at knife-point.

The places we’d consider moving to in London were small or out of our price range. The schools were hit and miss and we couldn’t afford private school fees. We initially searched fruitlessly in St Albans, and then made the decision to move to Chorleywood; 25 minutes out of London. Although a satellite village of London it still has rural country feel with easy access to the M25 and M1.

Would I consider moving back up North?

I would be lying if I said I didn’t have a longing to return to Yorkshire, but I have laid down a lot of roots here now. All the clients of my main business (I also run a small Recruitment firm) are London based so it would effectively mean the end of my business or at least make continuing to run it very difficult. My husband works in IT and so it would not be as easy for him to find work away from London. William has got into a very good school but since he is only 4 I guess he could probably be moved with minimal disruption. I do still love London, but as a parent I’m not out clubbing and pubbing in the West End any more. Even trips to the theatre and one of the many fantastic restaurants London has to offer are a rarity. We still have lots of friends in London but many are the other side of London and meeting up with them is less frequent now most of us have families.

One consideration also has to be the standard of living. If my husband could get a job outside of London he would undoubtedly be paid less and employment would be harder to find. The cost of living is still cheaper though. Council Tax and Stamp Duty are based on the value of the property not its size; £250k may buy you a nice house in Teesside but it won’t get you a family house on the outskirts of London. Income tax rates make no allowance for the regional cost of living, but supermarkets are the same price in Stoke as they are in Kensington. It is not clear cut.

There is of course the third option, to copy our friends in Devon and buy a homestead in a rural location. Like Tom and Barbara from the Good Life become self-sufficient, maybe keep chickens, rent out yurts to holiday makers and focus on my true passion – Cool Kidswear.

The beauty of Cool Kidswear is it can be run from anywhere in the UK, we just need to let more people know about it!

With this in mind I am expanding my range. Of course I am replenishing existing stocks of OshKosh Dungarees, however I’ve also ordered lots of ‘shortalls’. These are dungaree shorts. In the US they call dungarees ‘overalls’ and those with short legs are ‘shortalls’. These are perfect for the summer.

I have noticed sales of Carters items are picking up a lot, so I have ordered lots more Carter’s pyjamas in various sizes and style for boys and girls. There will be loads of gorgeous styles. Generally I’m going for more summery items and hoping that the weather picks up! I still have lots of Ralph Lauren Polo Shirts.

My husband’s holiday entitlement re-starts in April which means we can start thinking about spring and summer holidays. He is very fortunate as far as his holiday allowance is concerned; 30 days plus the Christmas period but it still always seems to run out come January. This means the 1^st April and the re-start of his holiday allowance is always very welcome.

Unfortunately the days of cheap holidays are now very nearly over for us. William our eldest is in the Nursery year of his school and starts at Reception in September. As most parents with school age children know this means he cannot be taken out of school under any circumstances. To demonstrate the difference in price, last year in the first week of April we went to La Tranche Sur Mer in France about 40 minutes outside of La Rochelle and stayed in a lovely big villa with some friends. It was a beautiful place with a private heated pool and the price £900 in total so a very reasonable £450 per family. This same property in the height of summer was £4000 last year probably more this year and so way out of our budget!

This year it is camping all the way! Eurocamp style camping mostly though with pre-pitched tents or chalets. We’re currently looking at France and Italy and I don’t fancy taking a tent on Ryanair. With their baggage allowance I don’t think we have much room for other essentials such as clothes, toiletries etc. EasyJet is marginally better.

We’re fortunately enough to live only about 1½ hours from the New Forest and a host of lovely camp-sites (plus Paultons Park and Peppa Pig World). The last time we went camping in the New Forest however we had to contend with one of the worst storms for years. We knew it was coming but were so determined we wanted to go camping this weekend, we ignored all common sense and pursued our end regardless. This was our second mistake. Our first mistake was a few weeks before when we thought it was a good idea to purchase a 12 man tent from Argos, the logic being there was plenty of room to walk around in if it rained.

The 12 man tent was a step too far, it was colossal like a bungalow made of canvas. There was plenty of room when it rained, the living areas was about twice the size of our lounge. Trying to put it up in the pouring rain with two children was too much. After an hour or so my husband and I were getting very wet and the children very unhappy at being stuck in a stationary car. My husband dropped us off at the Lymington Waitrose Cafe then drove back to the camp-site on his own to finish the putting up the tent. About 2 hours later he appeared looking like he just step out of a (very muddy) bath fully clothed and suggested we stay in a hotel. I’d not come this far to stay in a hotel, we were going to camp if it was the last thing we did.

The other Waitrose customers looked at my husband horrified.

Back at the camp-site my husband had managed to get the tent up but it was sat in a gargantuan puddle about 6 inches deep, if there were ducks swimming around the tent they wouldn’t have looked out of place, except you might wonder what a tent was doing in the middle of a pond. In one of the rooms it was like walking on a water bed (with a bit of a leak). Unfortunately you get what you pay for and Argos tents whilst cheap and probably fine for camping in the mildest of summer nights are not set up to to deal with torrential rain. There was no sown-in groundsheet and the water had flooded in the main living area. Utilising all of our towels I managed to get the living area fairly dry and dammed up the edge of the tent to stop the water coming in. We eventually managed to get the kids to sleep despite the howling wind and had a few round of cards before going to bed ourselves.

The next morning watched by some ponies and cow we had sausages cooked on a camping stove for breakfast. Incidentally you have to be very careful with the ponies in the New Forest, they have been know to enter and demolish open tents in search of food and the more intelligent donkeys can actually open the tent zipper with their mouths (or so the park ranger said).  Later that day we have a very enjoyable day at Peppa Pig World, we stayed the following night which was reasonably mild but with more bad weather forecast we decided we’d had enough camping for one weekend and decided to head home. We have learnt from the experience. Firstly get a good tent that is not too difficult to put up especially if you have kids, secondly don’t go camping in the UK unless your know the weather is going to be good.

I think this summer long weekends of camping will be at short notice once we have a good weather forecast!

The website has undergone some quite major changes. There is now the ability to enter discount vouchers (Enter ‘FREEPOSTAGE’ for free postage on orders over £40 for instance). The checkout is much improved as there has been issues connecting with PayPal and Google Checkout. It should be fully robust now. I’m looking at getting Sage Pay as well but it take ages to sort out as they want a documented life history to make sure I’m not a money launderer. The site can do EU Postage and has proper stock control. This saves me loads of admin and gives you the reassure that if you order something I definitely have it in stock. Something not always guaranteed with my admin!

Stock wise I have lots more OshKosh Dungarees including lots of different styles. I have some Ralph Lauren items some of which is up on the website but not all of it. You’ll find the prices on here are cheaper than anywhere else in the UK, just check out the Ralph Lauren UK website! I also have some Calvin Klein items which at the time of typing I haven’t yet put on the website yet. These are coming soon though I promise!

Thanks to our old friend Piers for helping out with the stock photos.

William and me sledding on the Common

The unseasonably warm January is well and truly over and the big February freeze began! There is something about the snow the brings out the community in people, those who would otherwise walk past each other silently now stop and chat merrily. Children and adults were laughing and chatting like old friends as they ploughed down the snowy slopes of Chorleywood Common on their sledges. It reminded me of the romanticised vision of Britain in the 1950s as related to me by my grandparents and others of this generation, when there was community spirit (and you could leave your door unlocked!).

As I discovered to my chagrin, little boys soon get very cold in the snow and perhaps the walk in the village was a bit too far for William and Sammy both quite upset as we raced through the snow to get back home and warm. I had to raid some of my own stock and pinched a pair of Fleeced Denim OshKosh Dungarees/Overalls which he has now been living in since the snow started; subject to the occasional wash!

I am expecting some new stock in the new week or two, I guess I need to start thinking about Summer wear soon; in a few week it will be March and the official start of Spring. In this order will the usual favourite style; Dakota, Brooklyn and Hickory Denim Wash and they will be arriving in plentiful supply. I will get a few other new styles of OshKosh Dungarees too. I’ve also got some Ralph Lauren polo shirts and other children’s clothes by Ralph Lauren winding their way over from the US. I only bought limited supply of Ralph Lauren to test the water before splashing out lot of cash on stock and so you’ll need to be quick if you want to guarantee your order. Why not sign up to the Newsletter to receive the latest stock updates and other news of offers (I’m looking at having a sale for a limited time soon).

The website will be undergoing some improvements over the next few weeks. This will allow me to offer discount codes, offers on shipping and generally put a stop to issues with PayPal and Google Checkout you may have experienced. Hopefully a much better customer experience!

Christmas was never quite the same when I found out Father Christmas wasn’t real, aged 7. Dominic Elphick the little boy who broke the news to me has a lot to answer for!

With Christmas now gone so has a useful tool to evoke good behaviour; the promise that Father Christmas only comes for good boys and girls. We’ll have to think of something else now for the next 11 months. For the adults Christmas was enjoyable and spent with my in-laws who are always very generous with the food, wine and vintage port, so much so I immediately signed up to Weight Watchers in the New Year.

I’d hoped to get my OshKosh Dungarees order from the US in time for Christmas, I knew this was optimistic but I didn’t realise quite how optimistic I was being. They arrived today, nearly a month after they were sent! They normally take just over a week, so apologies to all those who wanted to send these as Christmas presents. I won’t make the same mistake next year.

Although Christmas has now passed, the new dungarees are up on the website and I have a lot more variety and quantity than ever before. Enjoy!

William in his Dungarees

Please be assured another order was dispatched last Tuesday. Under normal circumstances it would be here by now, but I imagine at this time of year the volume of gifts flowing between our continents will slow down the delivery. The order I’m expecting is the largest delivery I have ordered so far and will include lots of variety, style that have not featured before in a variety of sizes including Camouflage, Red Hickory Stripe, Fleece Lined, NY Patch as well as the old favourites Hickory Denim Stripe, Brooklyn Wash and Dakato Wash.

If you want to keep up to date with the orders that are coming in please sign up to the newsletter and feel free to ask via the contact form if you have any special requests that you would like adding to my next order. It may take a few weeks to turn around but I’m happy to include additional items for you – Carters or OshKosh.

I hope you have a good Christmas and to all those who have made orders for Christmas I hope your friends, family and their children love the clothes, how could they not!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Anna
xx

The ‘Cool Kidswear’ website is of course still in the early days and the main problem seems to be getting enough stock. I’m starting to realise that I need to make a very large outlay to get enough stock in to cover all the different sizes and variations that people want. It is no good just having one off lovely items, you need all the different sizes and colours or people won’t come back. Whilst items are selling well, it will still be a long time before I get back what I’ve spent, just because of the amount of capital one needs tied up in stock.

My Sister in Law’s family tell me that in the US they call the Friday following Thanks Giving ‘Black Friday’ as it the supposedly the day retailers finally start turning a profit (as in out of the red and into the black). This is the end of November so nearly 11 months are spent just trying to break even. It must be because they have to sell 10 items to make enough money to cover the cost of a single item in stock.

Anyway I am frantically getting more stock in and much is now on the website. I am getting even more Carters and OshKosh stuff soon and should have another order by the end of November just in time for Christmas gifts.

If there are any sizes you can’t see that you want then TELL ME NOW!! and I will order them, but this baby clothes business is still a baby-size business and I need all the help, guidance and prodding in the right direction that you guys as my customers can give me.

As they say in the good old USA Happy Holidays!

After 4 days of packing and lugging boxes and furniture we finally moved house. The bulk of the stuff was moved on Saturday with a lot of help from my in-laws (both in their late 60s but looking good for it!) and Farraz our kindly neighbour. The remaining 3 days was just my husband Andy and I. Perhaps I should rephrase that; ‘the remaining 3 days was my husband Andy or I’, since at any one time one of us had to entertain Sammy. Any attempt to put him down was met by tears and a vigorous tugging of the trouser leg.

Other than this the boys love the new house. I was expecting some sentimentality, but quite the contrary. After the keys on Thursday we went to have another look. William (aged 3) was terribly upset when we left to go back to our old house. I tried to explain we couldn’t stay the night as we didn’t have any furniture, including beds. I think he understood where I was coming from but he was still not happy about it.

Since we’ve moved in they have both been glowing with joy. Sammy obviously finds it harder to express himself but William has repeatedly told us “I love my new house”. The additional space to run around seemingly making up for any sentimentality. I have some very fond memories of our old house and after-all it was the place we brought our two wonderful boys back to, but I’m inclined to agree.

The move we thought, was the perfect opportunity to get the boys to share a bedroom. The new house has 4 bedrooms; a master bedroom, a study room and two decent sized bedrooms. At our old house the boys had a room each, but with me frequently working from home and many of our friends now living quite far away I wanted to the turn the small room into an office and have a spare room for guests. Obviously this meant the boys having to share.

We were filled with foreboding about this and the first night initially seemed to confirm our worst fears. The problem is that before bed William likes lot of stories and lots of running around and jumping on the bed etc. This does not go down well with Sammy who likes quiet to wind down. After lot Sam’s hysterical screaming, we cracked it. We took him into another darkened room give him some milk and 15 minutes of peace and tranquillity. When we returned him to the room William was in bed ready to go to sleep.

The solution; one of us gets William ready, whilst the other takes Sam into an alternative room. Just as William finally calms down and gets into bed, we bring a now relaxed Sammy in and put him into his cot. The timing needs to be perfect and it may be too early so say it has worked, but it worked last night and as I type they are both fast asleep.

On the shop front, I’ve started getting some sales and traffic to the website. There seems to be a lot of demand for the OshKosh Dungarees, so will be ordering some more. If you see anything on the site that isn’t the right size for your little one please do give me a shout via the contact form and I will do my best to order them in your chosen size.