Harry turns six

As any regular readers know, I adore planning for Harry’s birthday and I often have to stop myself getting too carried away! This year we opted for a science theme; as anyone with a six year old boy will know, they love goo, explosions and mess!!

For the party bags, I started with personalised appliqué bags by Maddigan Mooch and filled them with other goodies from the site including badges from Edamay (pirates for the boys and cupcakes for the girls), Cocoapod’s gorgeous sweetie bags, packs of sticky critter stickers from Eggnog Greeting Cards and Junior Geo’s sparkling agate geodes.

We hired Einstein’s Entertainers for the party and the children were dazzled by their “diffraction grating glasses” (?!), they made their very own “Einstein’s Goo” and got to play with dry ice. I think all the parents wanted to join in too!

We finally got the children to calm down (after a sugar-fuelled lunch which included science-themed cup cakes from the fantastic Rachael’s Kitchen) and they sat back down for round two of Einstein’s entertainers.

I’ve had so many parents comment on how much they loved everything, I can hardly wait to start planning Harry’s seventh birthday party!

Posted by hollytucker on 27 July 2011

a soft spot for Laura Creer

Our lovely partner productions manager, Jenny, has a soft spot for one of our new sellers. Laura Creer, who joined us in January, is an extremely talented jewellery designer, and has a studio in Yorkshire where she hand-makes every piece from her beautiful collection.

Her silver and gold jewellery is handmade using a range of contemporary and traditional jewellery making techniques. The main two techniques that are used are reticulation and fusing. These are heat manipulating processes that melt the surface of the silver, creating ‘foil-like’ patterns. The results are unique to each piece, making each one truly original.

After months of admiration, Jenny recently treated herself to two items from Laura’s collection – the silver and gold petal necklace and matching ring, pictured above. She is thrilled with her purchases, and is yet to be seen without them.

View Laura’s full collection here.

Posted by jenniferbaldwin on 22 July 2011

win notonthehighstreet.com goodies with MyDaily

We’ve teamed up with women’s lifestyle website MyDaily to give you the chance to win a whole host of notonthehighstreet.com prizes! Head to the MyDaily’s facebook page and take part in their See It, Tag It, Love It competition to be in with a chance of winning.

Posted by jenniferbaldwin on 18 July 2011

our summer sale has started!

We are thrilled to announce the launch of the notonthehighstreet.com summer sale! With discounts of up to 50% across home & garden, jewellery, fashion, baby & child, gifts, weddings and more, there is something for everyone.

Click here to visit the sale department now!

Posted by jenniferbaldwin on 12 July 2011

Sophie opens the Coombe Village Fete

Our co-founder Sophie was thrilled to be asked to open this year’s Coombe Village Fete in Cornwall. The event was held to celebrate the renovation of the local chapel into a village hall for the local community – a milestone occasion for a village so small it doesn’t have a pub, shop or post office. Coombe is a home from home for Sophie, with husband Simon’s family living in the heart of the village.

Sophie spent time talking to one trader, for whom the fete was her first ever day in business selling home made cupcakes. She sold out within hours, and was thrilled with her success. Since notonthehighstreet.com was launched in 2006, Sophie has been passionately seeking out people and products that display the best of handmade care and quality, so she was delighted to see these traits on such a large, community-wide scale at the fete.

Posted by jenniferbaldwin on 12 July 2011

we've been shortlisted!

We’re thrilled to announce we’ve been shortlisted for The Oracle World Retail Awards! The awards recognise global excellence across the key areas which are essential in delivering great retail performances. We are delighted to have been selected for the Etailer of the Year award, and we are one of only two websites from the UK to have been nominated for this award.

We now move into the final round of judging, and the winners will be announced at an awards ceremony held in Berlin in September. Watch this space!

Posted by jenniferbaldwin on 04 July 2011