Photo shoot with Vogue photographer!

We have had some new Mamascarf lifestyle shots taken by B72 Imaging's Andy (Vogue photographer extrordinaire) and I am sure that you will agree they are pretty good! These show the lovely new fabrics for the breastfeeding scarves / covers in action.

Thank you so much to Andy and my wonderful models Sarah and baby Noah, who did a great job and of course to the Kitchen Garden Cafe in Kings Heath for letting me use their courtyard (not that anyone else wanted to in early Dec!). Don't worry though, baby was wrapped up very warmly!

My crazy week on TV

Hi, it has been a completely weird and surreal week. Last week, I woke up in the night and couldn't sleep and thoughts turned to all things Mamascarf (as they often do) and more specifically the postal strike. That's when I had my PR brainwave and thought that maybe I could use this to my advantage. I spent Monday phoning around everywhere, the first few calls made me realise that yes, people were interested in having a case study of a small business affected by the strike and I kind of gained momentum and went with it. By Tuesday I had done 2 radio interviews and had SKY News coming that afternoon. Central News were booked in for Wednesday and Thursday GMTV were going to do a live broadcast from our house!!

SKY News came and taped an interview (I decided what the hell, I would wear my Mamascarf t shirt and they let me). They got loads of footage including me trying on a Mamascarf and going into the Post Office with a pile of parcels. Of course they didn't use any of this and the bit of interview they did use I managed not to say "Mamascarf" or "breastfeeding scarf" once. Damn! My 2 year old Sam watched on the TV and was mildly amused.

Next up was Central News where they filmed/interviewed both me and Sam. This was shown yesterday twice, lunchtime news and evening. By now Sam thinks it is completely normal to be on TV but does like seeing himself on the big screen.

GMTV arrived this morning at 5.15am for the live broadcast. This was the one I was most nervous about, aside from the live factor this would be reaching more of my target audience. They are really strict about not advertising but the presenter was able to say "Keira runs her breastfeeding scarf business from home" and they homed in on the Mamascarf packaging a few times. They also let me have a mannequin wearing a scarf next to me at the kitchen table (it's always there honest!). It was all great, apart from 5 mins before we went live and I nipped to the loo, and my mic fell off my belt into the toilet. The sound man was not impressed and had a go at me. At that point I was thinking that it was all going to go wrong but the rest of the crew told me to ignore him and the show went on! Sam watched live and was completely unimpressed by now, preferring to sing over it and throw dinosaurs around the room.
Anyway, as quickly as they had arrived they packed up and left, leaving me to get back to reality after my 3 days on TV. x

My first trade show

Last weekend I exhibited at my first trade show, the BPA Show at Excel in London. It was an absolutely fantastic experience on the Launch Pad, it was great to be launching the new improved Mamascarf there (new softer fabric), new colours and gorgeous new packaging. There was some great feedback from buyers and retailers and I have made some great contacts and had some good orders as a result (both in the UK and internationally).

My mum was there to help me and it felt like a bit of a holiday as we were staying in a lovely apartment on site. We met some wonderful people, it was particularly nice to put faces to names for some of my Twitter friends (Lucy from Sleepytot, Helen from Cuddledry, Helen from Cheeky Wipes, Anna from Molliemoo, Alison from Dribblebusters, Babygenie and Lynda from Easidream) . Everyone was so generous with their advice, information and sharing contacts and I have come away with some great products for baby no 2 (a Sleepytot, Cuddledry apron towel, Sophie the Giraffe and Weeman toilet trainer).

Also an added bonus but there were some breastfeeding mums who tested out Mamascarf on the stand and then placed an order. Always good!

I can't wait to do the next one now! x

I won the PR competition and highly commended for best Start-Up business!

Had a fantastic day at the Mumpreneur Conference in Birmingham today, putting lots of faces to names I felt like I knew already from Twitter and Mumsclub. Not only was it a bit of a social event, no wine for me though :0( but there were also some great seminars and then the awards.

Mamascarf won the PR competition, scoring over 400 points from TV coverage, radio, newspapers, magazines, blogs and websites! The prizes are the cover of Business Mums journal (pictured), editorial in Prima Baby and on BabyExpert.com as well as a PR consultation with ACPR (among others). I am really, really pleased as have worked hard on my PR over the last 9 months or so. As well as this I got a highly commended in the award category for Best Business Start Up. Congratulations to all of the other award winners! I hope you enjoyed your cakes as much as I did (we won cupcakes too!). I am exhausted but it has been a great day.

Bambino Goodies review

Bambino Goodies is a lovely site that reviews lovely stuff for mums and little ones. So I am really pleased that Natalie chose to review Mamascarf, used it herself to breastfeed her 5 month old baby Nia and that she really liked it. I believe in my product (well I would wouldn't I?) but I must say, I do always feel a little bit nervous when someone asks/agrees to do an independent review. What if they hate it? What if they write horrible things? They never have (touch wood). Anyway I digress, you can read the review for yourself here. Take a look at the site to.

http://www.bambinogoodies.co.uk/review-mamascarf/

Another celebrity fan, in the paper and a toddler review

I have been a bit slack on the old blog front but I am back!

My first bit of exciting news is that I have another confirmed celeb fan. I happen to know there are several more too but unfortunately without a quote I can't mention them!! Anyway, Leah Wood (daughter of Rolling Stone Ronnie, actress and model) and mum to Maggie has said "I love my Mamascarf, it's great! I use it virtually all of the time". Thanks Leah, I love you too!!

My other news is that I was featured in the Sun newspaper, in an article following the supposed "expert" claims that the benefits of breastfeeding were overhyped. The link to the article is below. I was asked to comment on my views on public breastfeeding and the support that women receive from health professionals.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/parenting/2549653/Have-the-benefits-of-breast-milk-been-overhyped.html?offset=4

And finally I am delighted to share that Mamascarf received a fantastic independent review for feeding a toddler. Now it is probably no surprise that most of my customers are either pregnant women or women with young babies who are concerned about breastfeeding in public. So when I was contacted by a lovely lady (via Twitter) who wanted to review it on her toddler I was surprised... pleasantly surprised as Natalie and Sophie gave Mamascarf a big thumbs up after giving it a thorough road test. You can see the review on her blog here and there is a picture of her using her breastfeeding cover in a cafe above.

http://soph4soph.blogspot.com/2009/08/mamascarf-toddler-review.html

Birmingham stressful for breastfeeding in public and celebs who breastfeed!

This one links into my last post, as it has received a huge amount of press in the last week or so. As part of the same survey, it seems that the two "most stressful places to breastfeed" are the West Midlands (where I live, in sunny Birmingham) and the North West (where I am from!!). So was I destined to be someone who was stressed about breastfeeding in public?

Another big thing to come from the research (in my opinion!) was that two thirds of the women surveyed thought that celebrities should be breastfeeding in public to act as positive role models. I completely agree with this and think that it would have a great impact. However, when I think about how I felt breastfeeding in public and imagine if my every move was being snapped to be displayed to the world and his dog, maybe I would stay indoors to. Unless of course I had a Mamascarf! :0) Come to think of it, I don't think I have seen many pictures of celebrities breastfeeding in public. I have just done a search and seen a picture of Billie Piper breastfeeding her baby on a beach. Go Billie!!

It seems that most celebrity mums are breastfeeding, some are more open about it than others. Various celebs have been used to front breastfeeding camapigns, Charlotte Church and Jenny Frost are two that spring to mind. Obviously we know Melanie C is breastfeeding, Holly Willoughby and Tess Daly too. I'm wondering whether Coleen will be breastfeeding. I noticed that she has said she is going to all of her ante natal appointments at an NHS hospital. Proving she is just like us ....!