This week we are celebrating our 1st birthday over here at Our Creative Haven! Whoop! Where on earth has that time gone! We have made 40 blog tutorials, 145 Instagram posts and around 1,376 views on the blog from 23 different countries! And to celebrate we thought we’d try something a little different! This week we will be interviewing the lovely Creator and maker of The Spotty Spaniel Company.
Now Bethan is not just an amazing entrepreneur, she also happens to be one of my closest and oldest friends! We met when our parents took us to Tumble Tots aged 3 and that was that! We have had many adventure since then!
We spent most Saturday mornings growing up in our early teens at gymnastics where we mainly talked about our sticker books!! We got up to a lot of giggling and messing around including one day when we made a shower out of a garden hose and danced around with flowers in our hair! I remember one rather dramatic falling out at year 7 camp and then an equally dramatic moment a few mins later of us running across a field towards each other hugging and making up!
Since those days we have mellowed and in between many McFly concerts and trips to IKEA and Fabric Land, we fuelled our time into planning even more exciting adventures being fortunate enough to travel to Iceland and to America together.
Some when during this time along came Eric. My first nephew! A beautiful Springer Spaniel! I’ll never forget the first time I met Eric, his long little legs and tiny face, the softest coat and the cutest little heart shaped patch on the back of his neck.
Now that’s enough reminiscing! Let’s get back to the present…
Welcome to Our Creative Haven the Spotty Spaniel Company! We hope you’re feeling right at home! Let’s start with the usual tell us a little about yourself?
Hello! Thank you for having me! I’m Bethan and I’m the creator of The Spotty Spaniel Company. I work full time as a registered veterinary nurse (so when I’m not making things for fabulous pets, I’m saving their lives!) and use my spare time to make my products and walk my dogs and catch up on the latest Grey’s Anatomy whilst drinking copious amounts of tea.
How did you get into crafting and sewing?
It was a few years ago on a trip to Rochester (with a certain owner of a certain blog …!) and I was dragged into an adorable little fabric shop with a huge array of colours and patterns. I was overwhelmed with the urge to make something and came away with a single fat quarter which I vowed to turn into a cushion. I tried to use my mother’s old hand turn Singer sewing machine but struggled, so opted to get my own and went for a mini machine from John Lewis. It was bright pink and tiny with only five stitch settings and cost me £30 and that the was the start of my sewing adventure! (And I still have the cushion I made from that first square of fabric!
Now as your followers will know you have 2 gorgeous spaniels! Eric is particularly dippy!! What are some of your favourite memories with him?
Where do I begin!? He provides entertainment on a daily basis with his goofy ears and puppy eyes and giving you a paw, high five and a roll over if he even thinks you’ve got a biscuit! I’ll never forget the time he fell in the pond in my parents garden at 10 weeks of age (it put him off water for a while, but now we can’t keep him out of it!) and I will never forget the time he got so excited when one of his favourite people turned up to see him that he bounced his way onto the kitchen table and just stood, not quite understanding how he got up there! I seem to remember guests having to turn up in wellingtons because he used to do ‘happy wees’ when his favourite people turned up!
Haha I remember having wet feet on more than one occasion! What was your inspiration behind the spotty spaniel company?
Eric and Jim are the inspirations for The Spotty Spaniel Company. I wanted unique collars for my boys and after a little trial and error, they were suited and booted and out and about in their new collars! A few people at work noticed the fab collars and asked where they were from. A few little orders later and voila! The Spotty Spaniel Company was born! Animals are my job and my life, so it seemed only fitting to carry that on with my own business!
Where are all your products created?
Everything is created in my very small one-bedroom house! I have a sewing desk in the corner of the living room (which doubles up as an IT desk and a cutting table too!) and when I go on a making spree, you can’t see the sofa or the coffee table (or the spaniels for that matter) under the reams of fabric and fixtures and packaging!
What has it been like setting up your own business?
It’s been fun and a little scary and very exciting! It’s been a challenge and hard work with a lot of research but I’m very lucky to have a wonderful friend who has created her own business (Hoodlum Fang – unique and awesome active wear!) and she has been so fabulous with advice and tips and helping me along! It’s still early days but I’m loving being a small business owner!
What can we expect to find in your Etsy shop?
Well, at the moment we have dog collars, dog bow ties and dog bandanas. We are branching out into leads at the moment and that is going to be followed by a section for cats! We’re not just about the dogs and will soon be stocking collars, bandanas and bow ties for our feline friends! We are hoping to launch into dog harnesses and dog coats by the end of the year too!
What 3 things are you most obsessed with at the mo?
Tropical Prints (we’ve just launched a lush range of tropical print bandanas and bow ties and I can’t get enough!)
Finding fabulous new fabrics and scouring fabric shops far and wide for my next batch of collars!
Grey’s Anatomy – it’s gets me through a big stack of orders or cutting all the fabric for my latest designs!
We know you have a lush Instagram page, can we find you on any other social media?
We are also on Facebook! Just search for us – The Spotty Spaniel Company and give us a like!
Amazing! We cannot wait to see what the future holds for your wonderful business! I cannot think of a better way to spend our first birthday tan with you.
I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone for your support over the last year and for continuing to read the blog! I love you all!
All my love,
God Bless,
Mim
xXx
Our Creative Haven 