My monster has more money than your monsters

Wow! What a few days! On Friday I receive an email from the Intellectual Property Office about my recent trademark application notifying me of an 'intention of threatened opposition' from Monster Energy Company based in the United States! Now, I'm no technical bod but my limited understanding of trademarks is that you can't have jurisdiction on a word unless there is evidence that basically I'm working in the same market as them doing the same sort of stuff and maybe my logo is a rip off of their or my products could be mistaken for theirs.

Ok, for one, they are in the beverages market. I make children's bedding and nightwear and occasionally pyjamas bottoms for mummy's too.  Call me stupid but in this situation, I can't really think that any of my products could ever be mistaken for their products. Ever. Like, not even in the slightest.

On another note, our logos are completely different. My logo (not my already tradmarked monster image) is totally aimed at children in a friendly way. Their logo is an 'M' slashed through like it was done by a monster. Again, you couldn't ever mistake one for the other.

It's going to be an interesting time nonetheless.  I'm slap bang in the middle of a house move, it's end of term for my day job as a teacher and my hectic boys are running around 13 hours a day!  On the plus side, I have been doing some research and found out that Rehab London also faced the same problems with Monster Energy Company and so I plan to have a chat with Lisa Hilton who, with Hackett and Tiger, successfully managed to run the #fightthemonster campaign to highlight the unnecessary bullying tactics that Monster Energy Company like to operate to and managed to get them to drop their lawsuit.

Fingers crossed for good news, but something tells me this is not going to be an easy ride!

(The Great British) Sewing Bee good for you!

Well, I'm a true believer of being in the right place at the right time and it sure is true!

I've offered to help out at Totton College's Textile class as a volunteer and from there have now agreed to set up a basic Introduction to Sewing class in October!  Then this evening May Martin from The Great British Sewing Bee popped along to visit the class and she's kindly given me her email address should I need to pick her brains. What a lovely lady! Really happy to first and foremost be a teacher and help her students, and clearly people she's just met. She told up all about what it was like filming The Great British Sewing Bee and working with Patrick and Claudia Winkleman and her story about how she got picked to be one of the judges.  She took time out to pose for photos and gave autographs for a donation of £2 towards a charity close to her heart, the Alzheimer's Society.  All in all a really useful meeting and I hope she doesn't mind when I take her up on the offer of picking her brains about sewing...

Mother's day's ideas

What better way to celebrate than to treat yourself! Check for Monsters is now offering mummy pj bottoms - and you can get a matching pj set for your little ones! Currently on offer for Mother's day, you can get mummy pj bottoms for just £20 (normally £25) when you order a matching set for your own little monster ;-)

Putting it all into action!

Well after my business masterclass last month I've already got my business email sorted and been thinking about taking my products to the bespoke level. I've been sourcing material and spending lots of pennies I don't have!! I've got lots and lots of ideas but know it's all going to take quite some time but I'm prepared for it and taking it all one step at a time. I'm working on an idea for mummy and little girl sets at the moment which I reckon will be a good seller!!

Watch this space for more news and developments but just be warned: it's not all going to happen at once! It's going to be a slow grower but it'll pay dividends in the end...you mark my words ;-)

What a Monster Christmas!!

Well, Friday was an eventful day: off on the train to London to meet Gemma Johnson from Myfamilyclub and Madeline, for lunch at Lutyens. It was really interesting and good to hear that I'm not too far off the mark with my ideas on the future for the business. They also suggested I get my butt in gear and get a proper email so I've just set it up - you can now contact me at sam@checkformonsters.com. Additionally this week, Myfabrics.co.uk finally refunded my money for the overcharge they made to my credit card. I really don't want to stop using them as they have some amazing fabrics but their customer service and delivery has left a little bit of a sour taste. I do have a good contact there though so I'm hoping that helps in the future. We also got out offer accepted on a new house...so fingers crossed it goes through ok!! We've been pretty lucky with selling our house within a few days of it being on the market and I'm truly grateful for that. However, all of this have meant that I'm a touch behind with the orders and had to sneak in a few last minute orders to send off and now just have five more pairs of new pyjamas to make in time for Christmas Eve...it's lucky they're all for friends of mine so it's an excuse to have a good ol' catch up when I make a special delivery with them! Happy Christmas everyone!!

Going global! (well, almost!)

Yesterday I set up and got accepted for my first business account (go me!) but it wasn't my intention but merely circumstances needing me to as a payment received was made payable to the business and I didn't want to ask the lovely seller, based in Ireland, to have to resend it in my own name. I don't really know much about business accounts but I suppose it's something else I can learn.

Business is going well. Very busy until Christmas and then hopefully when things calm down I can work on lots of exciting new products!!

So much to do!

Well these past three months have been great! I've made lots and lots of things - unpicked a fair bit and have a whole head full of ideas that I can get sewn quick enough!

Thus far I think that the main focus for 'Check for Monsters' will be the bedding as this allows me to be far more creative and I just love seeing the end product. I've been in contact with a lot of suppliers for material and am getting together a pretty good list of suppliers. For anyone who's interested in UK fabric/material suppliers for the home crafter here's my list:

www.fabricland.co.uk - their website is, to put it politely, SHOCKING! However, they are really helpful over the phone and if you're lucky enough to live near a store then you can't really beat their prices. You cannot go and pick up from their Ringwood depot though - boo! (but it's understandable really). 

www.remnanthouse.co.uk - quick delivery and a good range of fairly priced materials. Can't say more than that except the search function on the website is poor and you have to look through a lot of pages to find what you're looking for e.g. brushed cotton brings up ALL the cottons.

www.myfabrics.co.uk - website is pretty poor to enable you to search but considering how many countries they ship to you can understand why BUT they can take FOREVER to ship and they may charge you wrong :/ not particularly impressed with these guys but I do now have a contact. It doesn't help that much though as they still seem to have messed up my orders from day 1. I did get a free pair of scissors and a credit voucher though. Their fabrics are lovely I must admit!

www.ecleticmaker.co.uk - lovely, lovely stuff and quick to send stuff out. I've only bought one thing so far though so will update more when I order again.

www.elephantinmyhandbag.co.uk - tons of beautiful fabric!!

I'll add and update as and when...feel free to add any other websites and I'll check them out; I'm always on the lookout for more suppliers.