Without wishing to over-cook it, this is probably the most exciting news I’ve ever posted here, with potentially huge business implications. Intrigued? You should be…
Last year we applied for a British Airways Business Opportunity Grant, with a prize including 12 business-class flights and 5 cargo shipments, across the BA network.
The grant is for small to medium-sized companies and it’s assessed on how a year’s free business travel would help to achieve specific, measurable business objectives.
Having submitted a carefully-worded application, we sat back…and waited. And last week we were told, along with 99 other businesses, that we’d been successful!
I was out when I got the news and, on my return, was greeted by the rather fetching handmade sign, above. Karen clearly has too much free time. Haha, so not true!
Karen was deliriously happy as she’s “never won anything. Not even in a raffle”. On the other hand, I was very optimistic as the grant just fits our objectives so perfectly.
It means 2010 will be a year of growth and progress, just as we’d planned. We’ll visit key territories, make retail pitches, set up US distribution and attend trade exhibitions.
This is a huge boost for our business, allowing us to accelerate our expansion plans, and even removing the worry of meeting costs for stock and equipment transportation.
True to form, we’ve already mapped out our business travel plans for the next 12 months. It’s gonna be an incredible year! I’ll keep you posted as things take shape 
Categories: marketing · news · olli & lime · partners · places · retail · travel · usa
Not strictly Olli & Lime coverage, but Beautiful Kitchens magazine just featured our kitchen; partly because it’s pretty unusual, and partly because we did it so cheaply!
The kitchen looks extremely modest alongside others in the mag, in every sense; from sheer scale to finish and function. Not to mention – as naturally follows – cost!
Five minutes of fame were gained by resident – and self-confessed camera slut – Bert (one of our three cats, if you didn’t know). Karen even enjoyed a fleeting cameo
Categories: life · media · olli & lime · our house · random
A nice little media mention worth sharing. This time in the ‘babyspace’ section of Pregnancy & Newborn’s latest issue, which has just hit news stands across the US…
Okay, so we’re not exactly dominating the page – that’s our George wallpaper in milk chocolate top-left – but it’s all good exposure and VERY welcome. More please!
Categories: marketing · media · olli & lime
Meet the second model who’ll be appearing on our 2010 product homepage this spring! This follows me unveiling beautiful Danger as the face of Charlie last week.
Another familiar face, you may recognise Isaac from a while back. In fact, you don’t have to look far…that’s him top-right, urging you to click our “customer photos” link.
So Isaac will be the face of Billie for 2010! Huge thanks for the photo go to O&L friend – and fab photographer – Jay Lindsay AKA @cosmicgirlie / mocha beanie mummy
Categories: customer photos · customers · news · olli & lime
Seattle-based store tottini was created by moms Melissa Maffei and Melissa Van Flandern, as “a fun place for families to shop while exploring art and design.”
They share our love of simple, modern design, so it’s no surprise we’re long-term admirers. And now it seems they like us too…having just placed their first order!
They’ll be stocking multiple products across George, Billie and Egg ranges. Thanks for attracting their attention goes to our sales agent Tanya at Monkey Business
Categories: olli & lime · partners · places · retail · usa
By now you probably know that we’re planning some changes to our product website. Plus, we’re about to launch our new range, Charlie. Well this post combines the two.
This adorable little girl is Danger, daughter of Loving Danger author (and O&L friend and fan) Nikki. And in the background, our soon-to-be-launched Charlie design.
This is one of four rotating images that’ll sit proudly on our new product homepage come the spring. I’ll be revealing the other images over the weeks that follow…
Categories: customer photos · customers · news · olli & lime
Regulars will know we’re preparing to launch a new design, Charlie. Plus, we’re introducing new products and making some improvements to our website.
As part of the process we’ll also be shooting new photography across all our ranges. We’ve employed cuddly toys in the past, and today we recruited a couple more…
Flanking our regular monkey and donkey, an orange horse and lime green dinosaur! I think they’ll fit right in, complementing our Charlie/Billie and George ranges perfectly.
Apologies for the brief posting interlude by the way. We’re busily working away behind the scenes and you’ll be hearing much more from us over the coming weeks.
Oh, another apology – just realised that headline might be a bit misleading – hope you weren’t disappointed with this (relatively trivial) update! More news coming soon…
Categories: news · olli & lime
A lovely surprise arrived in my inbox this week; O&L fan Jenny Buchanan emailed some gorgeous photos of her little boy, Jake after seeing our recent Epic photo post…
Jenny lives in Dallas, Texas with husband Scott, who plays drums at their church. Reason I’m mentioning this? Well, it (kind of) explains the presence of this drum…
These were all taken by photographer friend Natasha Brown – click for her website – when Jake was just four days old! This close-up of his little feet is particularly cute…
Jake is now almost six months old and Jenny also supplied a more recent photo (below). We just love his hat…and it matches our George bedding (almost) perfectly…
Jenny says “we looked for a LONG time for the perfect bedding before Jake was born …we were SO happy to have found the best looking baby/toddler bedding around!”
Thanks for the kind words Jenny, and for sharing these great photos. More please!
Categories: customer photos · customers · olli & lime · places · usa
As is customary, I’m announcing the blog’s (2nd) birthday! Another year older…and wiser. The blog itself has seen significant development during the last 12 months…
We’ve made plenty of design tweaks including new banners and sidebars. We’ve added a media area and created a whole new topic structure with clickable headers.
I’ve tried to keep content varied and fresh, helped by input from you, the readers. Not sure exactly where the blog will go over the next year but things will keep evolving.
In any case, I’m always grateful for your contribution, be it pictures, comments, suggestions or even criticism! So keep it coming and please keep coming back!
Categories: news · olli & lime
New Canadian retailer babybot agreed to stock us a while back. Happily their site is now live…and we think the result is just fantastic…
We’re big fans of the clean, crisp, modern design. I urge you to click through, if only to take a look at the wonderful opening animation.
With an ethos not dissimilar to our own, there’s a good synergy between brands. We’re thrilled to be there. Oh, and here’s a quick peek at our page…
They’ll be stocking pretty much everything Billie and George. Go check ‘em out
Categories: canada · olli & lime · partners · places · retail
