Mama Feels Good

Happy New Year guys, hope 2012 is going to rock for you.

I always find the new year is a real kick up the butt and gets me motivated for all the things i really want to do both business wise and personal things. One thing that is always on my list is to loose the pounds ie not the £ kind ! Thing is i love to eat but i have to retrain myself that you can still eat and get in shape just not doughnuts! Way back before i had my kids i had always been chunky but not so chunky i couldn’t go to the Mall (i live in Bristol and we have a shopping complex called  The Mall) and go into any shop and find something that would fit, i had Amelia my first daughter and i put weight on and 5 years later when i had my second daughter Erin i got to moosive proportions which i am at now; i don’t like it at all and i’ve been like this for about 2 years now. I am an avid tweeter and someone posted a quote on there “if you don’t like something change it, if you can’t change it then learn to live with it” i think it was made by Maya Anjelou (spelling i am sorry my spelling is pretty pants). It is totally right and i CAN change my weight and i can’t learn to live with it so it’s got to go.

How about you, are you happy with your body?

The thing is if you look at things rationally weight loss isn’t going to be a fast thing, i didn’t wake up one day and find i’d put like 5 stone on! So i can’t expect to to loose it that fast. I have downloaded an App on my iphone which is called my net diary and you basically write  down in it what you have eaten and it gives you the calories for it and it you are reaching your daily limit (you have to put your height in etc) i found it was quite good but you’ve got to be honest with what you are putting into it. What do you guys use to help you loose weight?

Anyway stepping aside form the weight thing i also thought i’d try new things with my hair and make-up. I’ve always had really long hair but never really done much with it, i’ve had it cut into slightly different styles but always end up coming back to the same one so i thought i’d try You Tube out and see how i can change my current style with clips, and curling it etc. WOW You Tube is amazing for finding tips on make-up and hairstyles etc .

I really like the 1950′s vibe and found a really cool video on YOu tube by a lady called Cherry Doll FAce, :

I like this because you don’t need lots of expensive make up – lots of what Cherry uses is make up you can find in boots. I do wonder about the eyebrow thing though and if it looks too obvious your eyebrows are painted on – but maybe i worry too much about looking like i obviously am wearing make up and should just go with the flow a bit more. I think Cherry looks really fab with her make up on (she’s is very pretty without) and there is a big difference between her when she has make up on and off. What do you think?

Hurrah after what seems like an eternity we have gotten around to getting our new website on-line, it’s taken ages basically because i haven’t got my butt into gear and there is always lots to do; plus (i won’t bore you with all the details) i’ve had so much hassle with people not doing what they are paid to do ie accountants it’s given me a proper headache! But this has all been changed now and i have found someone who is brill

I’ve also been thinking about my blog, i’m sorta fed up with just writing “and here’s our next nursing top” which seems kinda insincere and crappy; i really love Mama FeelsGood, it is totally my 3rd baby (which sometimes can be a pain because i take some things way too personally) so i wanted to write bits about the company, the clothes we produce, why we make them, my daily role in running the company and maybe basically my life. To me this seems more worthwhile rather than churning out spam ! So apologies if this isn’t what you want to hear, trust me my life is not that thrilling , i promise not to blog about going to Tesco etc!

It’s getting close to the end of 2011 and looking back on this year of working on Mama FeelsGood i feel pretty good about what we have achieved : We reached the final of the Practical Parenting awards and also the Mother & Baby awards (this is thought of as THE best awards, sorta Oscars for the nursery world) and to get in the final in both of these when competition is so strong was a real achievement for us.

After all we are a small company so to get recognition is really cool, plus it was the first year we had ever entered any competitions so all is good. Of course if we have won i would have had a party that lasted about a week, but hey you gotta take credit where its due and we got in the final so excellenti !

Also in 2011 we have introduced our new Money Penny nursing tops and breastfeeding dresses – i made sure when these were made that they we thicker fabric so they are durable for breastfeeding and not so thin you can see through them; 1 thing i found when breastfeeding was i had to wear quite a substantial nursing bra because my wongers were maoooosive and it wasn’t the type of underwear i would want everyone to see shining through my garments so ladies i have thought of this and the thicker fabric has been used for our nursing dress ! This also goes for our Money Penny nursing tops too as they are made of the same material (and work on the same breastfeeding access as the dresses).

Also our new boat neck nursing tops are in store, these are SO soft it’s untrue; also the underlayer of the tops is the same colour as the top layer, our previous style nursing tops were mostly white underlayers and different top layer colours  so we’ve changed things up and all new shirts have same colour top & bottoms . For example our Tattooo owl nursing top

So who knows what 2012 will bring ? Hopefully more new designs and maybe a few surprises ?

I had one of THE best tweets this weekend a lady breastfeed for her first time in public and wore one of our Mama Feelsgood nursing tees when she did it. She felt it gave her the extra confidence to go ahead a feed in public. It was so cool she took the time out to tweet us (not at the same as breastfeeding ..well i don;t think so!) and it all kinda makes things good for us as thats the whole reason i started MFG.

I admit i do get lonely here, it’s just me at the moment that runs the whole shabang so when i get customer feedback it;s really nice to know there are people out there! Oh no that sounds sad but i pack loads of tees and just to get a little of communication back is really nice. I recently have had meetings with other companies and they all work in groups or there are more than 1 person who works with them i i gotta admit i was sorta envious. I think i bore Matt (my husband) when i start talking about T-shirts (i love T-shirts, they don’t have to be breastfeeding T-shirts any type will do) so when i spot one that i think is awesome it would be lush to have someone i could share this with, someone who  really gets me. I’ve decided my long term goal is to kick serious ass in the Maternity & nursing clothing market and get some staff; then i can have someone to talk to and not just the postman who is always thinking “is that crazy lady gonna hold me hostage again talking about random stuff” .

SO if you live in the Bristol area and are seriously into T-shirts, and into babies and clothing then maybe i have an ideal job waiting for you, just gotta be patient, then it will be yours!!

As a small company it can kinda get quite frustrating that we can’t bring our as many variations and products as we would want. If i had my way there would be funky new breastfeeding designs flying into the store every month but in reality i can’t do this, basically due to costs.

I am so chuffed we have our new money penny breastfeeding dress and nursing tops they really are lovely clothes to breastfeed in and are made from really nice fabric etc, but the thing about being on-line is you can’t see the goods before you buy and this is a shame with our clothes as i do put a lot of emphasis onto using the better fabrics so they feel really good. So i am looking for other independent stores to stock our breastfeeding clothes but it’s so difficult finding them; the big chains really have swamped the market, here in Bristol there is 1 independent maternity & baby store and they only stock organic clothes (which our nursing clothes are not). We did have a lovely shop called Venus maternity in Clifton but that closed down approx a year and a half ago ( a bigger chain store moved not too far away ) so it;s such a shame.

Sorry getting off topic here!

SO we are working hard to extend our range of breastfeeding T-shirts and would like to add some more funky colours to them, in the running is red and green but which shades? I like pillar box red, Matt likes a darker shade, ladies of our facebook page have suggested cherry red which i think sounds nice but the thing is everyone likes different things! So if you have any preferences let us know below in the comments page.

Also if you have any rockin maternity stores near you which you think Mama Feelsgood would fit in then let us know

Have a great weekend, Liz

I am SO chuffed to say that we are featuring in this months GreenParent Magazine.

Mama Feelsgood Breastfeeding Tops in Green PArent Magazine

It was a really nice article we were featured in basically showing that there are quite a few options open if you want to breastfeed in public without flashing your wongers or baby belly at everyone!

Everyone is different and some women are more comfortable at feeding in public, and it is something that take s a bit of getting use to. But hey you shouldn;t ever feel that you can’t go out when you are breastfeeding , Ok i know in the beginning if you are anything like me it took me ages just to get myself and my girls up and dressed to go out and when i did they would fill their nappy and i would have to start all over again! But it’s really cool to get your butt out of the house and enjoy some outdoors time with your baby. With Amelia i think Starbucks was my first destination, so nice just to try and chill out (OK maybe chilling out is an over estimation because i was a little highly strung at first about her screaming the place down, which she didn’t!) . So where was the first place you went out solo with your new little baby?

So what methods do you use to make breastfeeding in public that bit easier for you? I’ll be honest and say the whole idea of using a cover wasn’t for me, Erin i know would just pull at it like and probably pull it up but i haven’t ever used one so i might have gotten it totally wrong. How have you guys gotten on with them?

I also heard that baby slings are good at covering your bits when breastfeeding plus it takes some of the strain off of your back and arms because you can let the sling do some of the supporting. ?

Anyways take a good read of our article and let me know what you think; Green PArent magazine is SO cool for ideas and tips for parents so it;s SO luch to be featured in it. I have bought the magazine and am going to laminate the page this afternoon!! I know i am a sad case!!

Happy weekend guys, Liz

It’s been a crazy week for us, i’ve had the Flu from hell which just won’t shift so it’s made things really hard for me as we have totally moved into our new offices this week so i was really feeble and couldn’t do any of the lifting ( which some people might say was a blessing!). So Matt my husband and 2 of his friends moved all our nursing shirts today. I thought it was gojng to take ages as there are a lot of boxes but i gotta say the chaps are fit and it didn’t take too long.

So now we are geared up to take delivery of our new breastfeeding dresses that will be delivered in a few months. They are being made at the moment, we had our final samples through of our new nursing tops too as well as the nursing dress and they are REALLY lush. nice heavy fabric that will keep you warm enough in the winter when paired with a thick cozy pair of tights and not too clammy for the summer. I will try and arrange the photo shoot for January so should be on sale not too long after. Very exciting as it’s out first ever breastfeeding dress, and it;s taken SO much longer than i had expected. I wasn’t happy with some of the features of the dress so they had to be changed and then this had a big knock on effect to production time as i missed my slot of manufacture so had to re-book.; But it does mean that they will be the way i want them.

2011 we hope will be a big year for us as we want to expand the range of nursing clothing and offer you guys more variation.

Right gotta zoom lots of orders to pack- happy days

So you want to win one of our nursing tops?

We have a Mama Feelsgood facebook page and it’s feeling a little lonely, currently we have 84 followers and we are trying to get it up over the 100, so when we do get over the 100 our competition to win one of our breastfeeding tops starts!

Facebook is a great way to communicate and we regularly put up offers or freebies so come on in and be a friend

It’s been a crazy time since we started Mama Feelsgood , starting a business like this from scratch has been a real experience and i have learnt a lot over the couple of years we have been trading. One of which has been you never really know how somethings gonna go until you get out there and try it, and this goes for what you guys want from nursing & maternity clothes.

So we have made the decision to stop manufacturing our maternity Tees , this has been a really hard decision because honestly our maternity tees are SO lush, and like everything we make we have never gone for the cheap option, we’ve  used really thick lovely cotton which won;t go see through when you pull it over your humungous baby bump, they are longer in length and keep your covered even when you are at your biggest, plus they have bloomin funky prints, not these crappy “baby on board” slogans (sorry my personal opinion there, i can’t stand them!).

But our support for our breastfeeding range has been phenomenal , so it’s this we are putting our focus into now solely, as a small independent retail company we have to compete with the bigger brands and this on our tinnnyyy budget is just not possible so we are hoping that our quality product will out shine them . Seriously we use really lovely fabrics that other companies wouldn’t use because they are expensive to manufacture and they go for the cheaper option (this is a massive issue i have, you get a item of clothing and it;s so thin you can see through it or it wouldn’t keep a knat warm!) .

We don’t buy our shirts already made from other companies and just change the tag ( some companies do this) everything has been made by us , to our specifications and we use quality goods and quality manufacturers.

SO rant over, i’m just a bit gutted we have to put our maternity clothes on hold for now, but when we get a bigger company we will bring them back so no worries they are just on a brief holiday and in the words of Arnie”  i”ll be back! “

All our maternity shirts are available to buy from our Ebay Clearance store

OH no my eldest daughter who is approaching 6 spotted an advert for Disney Land Paris (Darn cable TV, they need to stop all those adverts!) so she has been going on for ages about it.

I would take her but 1 = It’s SO expensive and 2= i have baby Erin who is nearly 6 months old so not too sure if it would be a good place to take a baby.

We wouldn’t be going until next year ( i’ve got to save some serious cash, eating baked beans for the next 6 months!), just wondered if anyone else has been and if you would recommend it?

Ok so sometimes it’s easy to get distracted from work and start browsing the internet, if i’m not spending too much time on twitter ( anyone with an iphone knows time can bomb past when you should be off doing something else instead) i’m on You tube looking at music videos. So thats where i came across this little bit of Funk:

If you put Mama Feelsgood into google lots of different things come up apart from our company and this band was one of them and i’ve never really taken a look at it, but man i’m glad i did because it’s super fly!

Lovin the 70′s clothes, maybe i should do a nursing top with funky fly away collars of something ha ha.

Whats you fav music  video on You Tube?