The big Tshirt Sale!

The big JANUARY SALE has begun

We’re having a sale on ALL our t-shirts, so pick some up for the whole family before the end of the month.

Just to let you know, this blog will soon be shut down as all of our posts are now available on the webiste! We would love for you to keep visiting us over there! 

www.piddleypix.com

and we have lift off!!!

Thank you everyone for your patience, I am pleased to announce that the new website is Launched!  You will also find the blog on the website but until the IT folk can add on a subscription bit, we will still be posting the posts here too!

Te new logo has been designed by artist and friend Drew Pocza, we are very grateful for his hard work, as we love what he came up with!

Please let us know what you think of the new website and the new logo!

We have a plan!

Yep, a plan of action!

We know we have been a little quiet of late, here, twitter, Facebook and event he website is silent! I bet you thought we were gone! Well we kind of had, in a physical 'see us' type way, but I am sure you will be pleased to know that in an actual way, we are still here!

We have had a silence on the public front because we are in the background, planning, working out, sorting the re-launch of Piddley Pix!

So what's the plan? Well, I can't say too much, you want a little surprise (don't you?!), but I will share that it *may* include a new fun, easier to use website, that we *may* have new products with brand spanking new designs for you to choose from and we have, i mean *may* have a brilliant new logo!

So, please do keep your eyes peeled, as over the next few weeks - you will see us back more and more, you will see the new stuff and hopefully it will mean you enjoy your shopping experience more!

Half Marathon to give people Hope!

Hubby, Brother and Brother in Law are running a half marathon to raise money for a local project! The Hope Centre will be a hub for a community that needs it, three charities will use it as a base to run services for the young, the old and those of us in the middle! 

Please sponsor if you can! £1 donation will really help get them to their target! 

Thank you in advance 

Sponsor Here:  Event information - BT MyDonate

Firepower and Darth Stark!

As promised a photo of the Darth Stark T-shirt by Firepower that I won from GeekShirt HQ, cue Hubby as the model!

My hubby loves this tshirt and i became the best wife in the world the day I won it for him.  Do check out Firepower on Redbubble to see this and more designs and GeekShirts HQ for all things tshirt!

Redbubble Feature Three

So to continue with the features of sellers on RedBubble and their Produce, now comes the turn of Firepower!

Here are the best bits (in my eyes, there are plenty more to choose from!)

Loki

"Go" with Vader 

Good against a living

Darth Stark

Civilised Age

Awesome Artist with Awesome designs! Please go and check him out!
We were lucky enough to win a tshirt, it is fab and we are very pleased with it! (This however had no bearing on this blog post, we had planned it well before and we will share a picture of a real life husband wearing it very soon!)
Here are the links you will need!

Redbubble Website

Twitter

Facebook

Redbubble Feature - Two

As promised here is the second instalment in the line of RedBubble features.  This time it is the turn of drawsgood, a 29 year old illustrator and designer from Waterloo, USA!

There are a variety of awesome designs on his store (and he is available for freelance work too - have a look at his website), if you want to chat to Michael from drawsgood you can find him on Twitter too!

So lets take a look at some picks from the drawsgood RedBubble Shop (Click Text Link to see in shop)

The Morning Routine

Una-Bomberman

Ride in a Hot Air Balloon

Magnus

Princess Time

King of Spades

Redbubble Feature One

Our artist Kev Brett is working hard on new designs for the Piddley Pix Range, but in between all that he does some of his own work and it sells on a site called Redbubble!
Redbubble showcases work from different artists, there is literally hundreds of fab designs to choose from! They sell clothing, prints, cards and even stickers!

We have decided to feature a few of the artists, starting of course with our very own Kev Brett (Click Text Link to see in shop)!

Anger Management

Sherlock

Recycle 

Clan O Worms

The Dark Knight

So, there is a quick taster of some of the designs, and don't forget you often have the choice of whether you have adult clothes, kids clothes, prints or more!

Do head over to Kev's Redbubble Account - there are more designs to look at!

Tshirts for Dads

With Father's Day coming up we thought we would share some T-shirts for Dads, well actually they are thirsts for brothers, sons, friends - anyone really!

Get them from

Top Left - Piddley Pix

Top Right - Red Bubble

Bottom Left - Red Bubble

Bottom Right - Piddley Pix

Giveaway - Win one of our Tshirts!

Time for a competition!

The prize is one of our 'Band of Brothers' t-shirts, the winner will get to choose between a M, L or XL!
It is nice and simply to enter, just follow the instructions of the Rafflecopter widget below!
Competition will end at midnight on Saturday 19th May 2012.

Band of Brothers T-shirt as worn by Kev on right meeting Theo!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Enterprise Nation Fund101

Update: The fund has closed for May (they have given their funding away this month) but it will re-open in June, so please keep your eyes out!

Here at Piddley Pix we don't like to beg, but.....please, please, with cherries on top and a great big smile, can you vote for us on our application with Enterprise Nation and their Fund101.

499 Votes would mean a brand new mug press for us and would give us a little boost for the big re-launch and expansion into new products! Having our own equipment to print personalised mugs would mean we save on costs, and we would be able to pass them savings on!!

If you can help with a vote, we would appreciate it! Thank you in advance!

Please click here to go over to the Enterprise Nation Website and Vote!

SBS Showcase - Crèche on Location

Crèche on Location Catches Eye of a Dragon

#SBS 2012 Conference
30^th March 2012, Birmingham

Receiving signed certificate with husband Damian Pipe

Theo Paphitis, top businessman and of BBC's Dragons Den fame is doing his bit to support Small Businesses via his ever growing #SBS (Small Business Sunday) competition and re-tweets. Every Sunday evening between the 5pm and 730pm small businesses tweet him with details of what they do and the dragon chooses his top 6 each week.

On the 11th of December 2011 Brighton born entrepreneur, Amanda Pipe 26, was honoured to receive a coveted re-tweet of her mobile crèche company; Crèche on Location, which provides staff, toys and equipment for childcare at all size events.

Amanda who was sat at home on what started out as any other Sunday was suddenly overwhelmed with congratulatory tweets and new followers within seconds of the dragon re-tweeting her tweet of ‘winning tweet’ “It was incredible” Amanda says of her win “I couldn’t believe the impact that his support had produced in just a few short minutes, it truly was amazing!”

Crèche on Location based in West Sussex was established in 2008, after Amanda spotted a gap in the market and decided to put her wealth of childcare experience and qualifications into fulfilling her dream of running her own business. Initially, Amanda generated bookings successfully through networking & recommendations, of networking meetings she says "I feel it is important, that clients can get to know us. After all we look after what is most precious to them."

However, when Amanda was pregnant with her second child, attending networking meetings became near impossible especially with her toddler in tow, so she needed to find another way to reach her potential customers. Like all other SME's, who have to tighten their belts in this financial climate, she had to look for the best most cost effective ways of getting noticed and that is where social media stands out.  Since becoming active on Twitter in September 2011 Amanda has found it has become the companies’ lifeline and is without doubt the best marketing tool she has.

On Friday 30^th March 2012, all the prev ious winner of the #SBS of the past year were invited to the inaugural event at Edgbaston, Birmingham where they got to meet the famous Theo Paphitis and take part in a question and answer session with him, during which he said about being lucky "It's funny, the harder I worked the 'luckier' I got." This also summed up his approach to picking #SBS winners "I look for interaction, persistence and if you've done the basics, like having a website." 

Amada's Husband Damien Pipe with other SBS winners

Theo Talking at the SBS Event

To co-inside with the launch of an exclusive theopaphitissbs.com website, Crèche on Location has re-launched their own site www.crecheonlocation.co.uk highlighting the core value of clients knowing who they are by having bios and multiple lines of communication with key staff (including, of course, Twitter Accounts). "As a mum of 2 young children, I would want to know who is looking after them."

Crèche on Location headquartered in West Sussex is the most effective way to offer childcare at events. It allows the organisers the confidence to offer their guests this extra service without the responsibility of regulations, staffing, health and safety.

Check out our new website @ www.crecheonlocation.co.uk

SBS Showcase - Made With Love Designs

Each Week I am hoping to bring you a guest post from an SBS (Small Business Sunday) Winner, a showcase of small businesses! So here is the first, let me introduce Katherine from Made with Love Designs.

My name's Katherine Brookes and I run my own handmade greetings card business Made With Love Designs.  Recently my business has been recognised by one of the guys from the show Dragon's Den Theo Paphitis.

Every Sunday I enter #SBS on twitter which is run by Theo and stands for Small Business Sunday.  All you have to do is tweet @theopaphitis with a short summary of your business and add a link to your website and add #sbs.  I had entered every week for a few months with no luck as had a fellow tweeter Martina from @mycraftycandles.  On Sunday 25th March I decided that before I entered my own business I would nominate hers.  I wasn't even going to enter my business and as it happens I didn't need to because my nomination did the trick and at 21:17 he RT'd me and he also RT'd Martina too!!

Typically the one night I let my phone battery die because I couldn't be bothered to charge it I miss all the excitement and only realised I'd won when I plugged my phone in and saw all the congrats messages at around 22:00!!  I could not believe what I was seeing, hundreds of messages of congratulations!  An amazing, overwhelming sense of achievement and surprise!
  

The Sunday I won my #SBS was the last chance to get tickets to the #SBS Winner's event which was held on the 30th March at Edgbaston Cricket Ground in Birmingham.  We arrived for around noon and had some time to meet other winners before being seated for Theo's presentation.  He was great and such an inspirational guy.  During the presentation the brand new SBS winners website was launched by the fabulous Chris Wheeler of Metalfrog Studios.  The website holds the profile of every SBS winner and because I was one of the last 6 winners I had the opportunity to add my profile ahead of the launch.  It was a great feeling to have my company logo up there on the big screen.  After the presentation every winner then had the opporunity to have an official photograph taken with Theo and we were given our winners certificate.  This was a fabulous ending to the event and I felt very honoured and proud to be there.

Following my win my business has picked up and I have had few more orders.  Website hits have increased and I generally feel more inspired and creative and I now want to push my business to the next level.  Made With Love Designs is currently run part time as I still have a full time day job.  One day I hope my business will enable me to become self employed and live my dream.

Check out the Made With Love Designs

Website

Twitter

Facebook

Or email Katherine on mwlcards@googlemail.com

Small Business Sunday - We're in!

Time to tell a story, a story of an invitation we couldn't turn down, a story of a Dragon and a story of a stepping stone to the future!

This story is of last Friday, when we headed over to Edgbaston Cricket Ground for the Small Business Sunday (#SBS) Event hosted by BBC Dragon, Theo Paphitis and Ryman Stationary!

Once upon a time, well last year on 31st July, Piddley Pix was chosen as one of Theo's Small Business Sunday Retweets on Twitter.  Each week the BBC Dragon picks 6 small businesses to tell his twitter followers about. This year on 30th March Theo invited all of his SBS Winners to an event to meet each other and of course him!

With Dean (DaddyNatal) + Damian (Creche on Location)

On arrival at the venue, we were showed into an impressive room overlooking the cricket pitch, and with the offer of a drink, it was the perfect start, a chance to say hello in person to people we had been chatting to for a while on twitter, meet new people and network!

We were able to finally say hello to Sarah from Silver Birch Crafts in real life, we spent time chatting to Dean from DaddyNatal and met the lovely Amanda (and her husband Damian) from Creche on Location - to name but a few!

So, what happened next, well we were all taken into 'An audience with.....' The event was introduced by Kyros Kyprianou, the Chief Executive of Ryman Stationary (sponsors of the event). What a lovely man, the passion for business and the want to support us small folk shone through!

Next up was the main man, he took to the stage and talked to us about business, Small Business Sunday and more. He was so down to earth, so easy to listen too, and he really knows his stuff, oh and he has been on Telly!!

It's amazing that something Theo started for fun on a Sunday evening has come to hundreds of people meeting together and a brand new website being launched!  Theo introduced Chris from Metalfrog Studios (the guys behind the website) who wowed us with the new site and what it can do.  There's a profile for each business, opportunities to link up with other winners and a showcase of some of the best UK Small Businesses for you to browse through (check it out!!)

Theo then took questions from the floor, people asked how to break into the UK market, what Theo thought of the high street and how does he pick his #SBS winners (nope I am not telling!). Theo then even asked questions to us!

We had a great day, ending with a drink and some more networking, we had chance to catch up with Neil and Jane from Kidz outdoors and Ellie from Baby Duck Shop and Theo then had a photo with each business, what a nice guy (he even managed to keep the smilie going until the end)! There was so much talent in one room, so what did we really get out of it, well, we learnt more about what we knew, gained a new motto '3 Ps - passion, planning and perseverance', a kick up the bum for our re-launch (coming VERY soon) and a chance to mix with some fantastic people!

As we left we met another Theo, he was slightly greener but just as lovely and definitely worth a mention, so meet Theo from Harrogate Motorhomes!

Small Business Sunday Event!

There will be a bigger post coming soon about the Small Business Sunday (SBS) event we attended, but we just wanted to share a little peak at a picture of us with the Lovely Theo Paphitis!

This is our official photo from the day, receiving our certificate to confirm we have been an SBS winner! Look out for a post about the day coming soon!

New product!

We have our first adult tshirts for sale!

Head over and get yours fast! The first ten purchases get a free keyring too! A bargain at £15.00 including shipping (to the UK)

Budgeting for Christmas: How to Prioritise Your Spending

The holiday season is a time for giving — and for most of us, this means that it’s a crucial time for setting budgetary priorities as well. If there’s a toy, video game or special item that your child wants, chances are that it’s probably going to be expensive. Make sure you can afford the absolute essentials — such as that cherished toy, or the beautiful jumper you want for your sister, or the long-desired, high tech tablet for your spouse — by saving money on other items. Buy gift-wrap, tape and ribbon at discount stores; likewise save on seasonal foods by clipping vouchers and looking at weekly sales updates.

The same holds true with decorations; resist the temptation to buy that brilliant-but-expensive mechanical Father Christmas or that utterly scrummy gourmet Christmas cake and put the money towards a special gift on someone’s list. By using this approach, you’ll be able to save money for the important things; your children and loved ones will get the gifts they really want, and you’ll have the supreme satisfaction of being able to afford to give them.

Stores generally continue to offer their best sale prices right up until the big day, because they need to get their inventory down before the New Year. Take advantage of these sale prices and shop around until you get the best deal. Likewise, if you’re shopping online with a certain retailer, do an Internet search to see if that retailer has any discount promotional codes; these codes often aren’t advertised on the retailer’s website, and sometimes they offer really substantial savings. Shopping on auction sites such as eBay is also a great way to find bargains, particularly on popular toys of the season. Quite often these toys are offered at a “buy it now” price, and even with shipping costs, you can save as much as half of what the toy would cost in a retail store.

If you’re out shopping, take a detour from the shopping centres and check out your local charity shops. While it might take some searching, these shops can yield everything from still-tagged, unworn designer clothing to new-in-the-box, unused toys. Likewise, consignment shops can sometimes be a good source for brand new clothing and accessories.

If you’ve got a talent for knitting or crocheting, then stock up on good quality yarn when it’s on sale and choose a few simple shawl or afghan patterns that you can make up quickly and economically with just a few skeins of yarn. It’s a lovely — and money saving — way to show someone that you cared enough to make something especially for them. Likewise, if cooking is your forte, bake up batches of Christmas cakes, festive biscuits, or anything else you’re good at, and fill holiday tins with these treats. At Christmastime, food is always appreciated, especially when it’s homemade — and you’ll be able to make these goodies at a fraction of the cost of buying them.

Gift baskets are also a welcome gift, whether filled with food, bath salts and soaps or linens and kitchenware. Shop sales and clearances to stock up on appealing and trendy items, then parcel them out into inexpensive-yet-attractive baskets — thrift stores and charity shops always have plenty of these — and cover the whole with clear or coloured cellophane topped off with a huge bow—and voila! You have an expensive-looking luxury gift basket at a budget price.

By using some of these tips — and coming up with a few of your own — you’re sure to be able to shave a bit off of your Christmas spending. This way, you’ll be able to better afford that expensive toy your child is longing for this year. And, if you save enough on the non-essentials, you might even be able to treat yourself to that scrummy gourmet Christmas cake after all.

This post was written as a guest blog post by mum’s mall - a specialist price comparison site for maternity products, toys, kids & baby clothes featuring over 50 online stores. Find mum’s mall on Facebook and Follow mum’s mall on Twitter.

Threadless T Shirt Design

We love supporting the creative folk and Artists and even more happy to do so when it is one of our artists!
Kev has submitted a design to Threadless and it is available to be voted on! Please take a look and tick the as a tee box, Click on the big 5 and of course leave a comment of support - Especially if you are a fan of Tin Tin!!

Check it out on Threadless!

CROCS ENTERS THE BLUE MANIA AND GETS SMURFED

To support the launch of The Smurfs movie on Blu-Ray™, Blu-Ray™ 3D and DVD format, Crocs will be holding an online and offline competition specially dedicated to the little ones. With a European outreach this campaign promises to turn Europe blue... again! 

In the website www.crocs.eu/smurfs the challenge is to answer a quiz about the Smurfs adventure and in stores a labyrinth will test the more audacious. On Facebook a downloadable colouring form will be available and can be uploaded when filled.

The prizes are tempting! There are 33 Blue Sony Walkman® Video MP3 players available for the first places and for the second ones several goodie bags with smurfs key rings, pens and card games will be distributed. The campaign will run from 15th November – 31st December, so make sure not to miss it!

The lovely Smurfs characters are available as Crocs Jibbitz™ charms. Perfect to light up the coldest winter days the collection of Crocs Jibbitz™ charms features all the main characters – brainy smurf, gutsy smurf, smurfette, clumsy smurf and grouchy smurf. All of them available both in Crocs stores, authorized dealers and online at www.crocs.co.uk

Crocs for Christmas!

Crocs have so much in store for us this Christmas, I thought I would share it with you all!

Crocs Gust Boot: is the perfect boot for the upcoming season. A Croslite material sole and water resistant upper make these practical as well as stylish. These cute boots will keep there feet warm and toasty when playing in the snow. Available in Hello Kitty prints as well - they're sure to keep smiles on those little faces.

Crocband Mammoth Kids: now kids can keep the Crocs classic look that they love, straight through the chilly season. The Crocband Mammoth, adds a plush fleecy lining to the original style shoe. Available in a mix of colours, Hello Kitty & Cars 2 theres bound to be something for everyone.



Crocs hold Smurfs Competition: Crocs is celebrating again another great partnership, this time with the beloved cartoon characters The Smurfs. To support the launch of The Smurfs movie - coming out on DVD & Blue-Ray in early December, Crocs will be holding online and offline competitions specially dedicated to the little ones.  We will let you know more about this in a few days!