A Day in the Life of Koolbadges

So i know that everyone has them, be it music thats embarrassing, TV shows or food that maybe you?Ǭ†shouldn’t?Ǭ†eat. For me its TV shows, i love love love bad TV. Like Keeping up with the Kardashians, Bethenny Ever After, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. I know i know trash TV, right! I can’t get enough. I call it brain dump TV.

I relax for however long the show is on & thats hard for me as i’m not someone who takes time out or relaxes for long periods. My mind works over time and working for ourselves and from home it’s even more?Ǭ†difficult?Ǭ†to shut off from work and do nothing. These shows have been been great for 20 – 40 mins of doing nothing.

 

What are your guilty pleasure? Don’t be judging me :o)

We took 4 days off last week and headed to London to support my little brother who was running the London Marathon for the 3rd year in a row. My husband and mum came too. it was nice to spend some time away from work and the stress of my dad (who had a stroke in December).

I love visiting London and this time was no exception we had a great time & did a whole lot of eating, shopping and sight seeing.

My brother, Gary was running this year for kids with Cancer & is hoping to raise ?Ǭ£1500 he is still fundraising — despite having a knee injury he completed the Marathon in a personal best time of 3:34 mins. We are so proud of him.

We have been working like crazy this week trying to get up to date on orders, as koolbadges is taking a trip to London to cheer my brother Gary on in the London Marathon. This is his 3rd year running and was hoping to beat his BP of 3:45 But thats looking unlikely after picking up a knee injury just 2 weeks ago. He has been seeing a physio and will have his knee all strapped up for the race, so keep your fingers crossed he does well. This year he is running for kids with cancer

Wer are there from Friday till Monday. Staying at the APEX – we have stayed there before and its in a great location and the staff are super friendly. I plan on shopping up a storm i have a long list of places i want to go. If anyone has any recommendations for great shops let me know. I know i want to go to Monki, Muji, Happy Loves It also plan on doing some makeup shopping at Mac.

Hope you all have a great weekend

We tried to take a few days off over the Bank Holiday weekend, but anyone that is self employed will know thats easier said than done! We spent as much time as we could with family and ate as much choccy as we could – the weather made it difficult to do much outdoors stuff. But all in all we had a lovely but busy Easter. Although we didn’t manage to take the whole 4 days off, we had alot of express orders to make so that kept us busy in the studio.

One thing we like doing whilst we make badges is watch movies, TV shows and documentaries. It helps pass the time and keeps the old brain ticking over too. One thing we watched the other day was the James Cameron documentary on the Titanic called Titanic Final Word. National Geographic had 2 nights dedicated to Titanic programmes as its 100 years since the Titanic sailed. The James Cameron documentary was so good, he has dedicated much of the last 10 years to collecting info & footage of the wreck. He has personally been down to it on many occasions. Its fascinating to see it lying at the bottom of the ocean. So we have been watching alot of Titanic programmes in the koolbadges studio, i am really interested in it all.

This next week we will be busy getting ready for our long weekend to London for the Marathon (my brother is running) although he has hurt his knee and is seeing a physio so fingers crossed he can still run, if not he will be so gutted. I have so many things i have planned for the weekend and lots of shopping i want to do. Im really excited.

 

 

 

I woke up to snow yesterday, in fact i will go so far as to say it was a blizzard in Scotland. What a stark contrast with the weather we had just a week ago. I was sat in a beer garden reading my kindle with factor 50 on my face for protection against those pesky UV rays, so i remain wrinkle free for a few more years. I have had to dig back out the winter coat and all my winter accessories. I was soooo looking forward to wearing my new flip flops too :o(

You can tell Britain has a busy year ahead, with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee & The Olympics — we have been selling Patriotic Badges like hot cakes. Lots of Union Jack Badges & Crown themed badges. Do you have any Jubilee parties planned?

We are looking forward to the Bank Holiday here in the koolbades studio and are working very hard to get all badges out before Royal Mail goes all haywire and delivers no mail over the weekend.

 

 

How hard is it to be cooped up in your studio when people are out enjoying the sunshine, having BBQ’s and long afternoons in the beer garden. We have been busy making badges — lots of fun Custom Badges and Hen Party Badges. You have been keeping us up late at night badging away.

We have managed to soak up a few rays as we have been walking to the post office, on a few occasions we have even had an ice cream en-route. But I have heard on the grape vine that this unseasonably glorious weather is not to last. Do we expect anything less in the UK. We know that sunny days are few and far between and that our jumpers / jackets can never be put away. Either way i love the spring i get in my step when its warm and bright. I am going to try and enjoy it.

Hope you are all having a relaxing weekend.

So it’s almost last orders on Easter Badges, We have a great selection on the site. Pop over & have a wee look. All our badges are handmade and would be a sweet little extra on Easter or as something different other than a chocolate egg.

Like millions of other people, i am so excited for the Warner Bros Harry Potter Studio Tour that opens tomorrow. It looks so cool. They have recreated the Great Hall, Diagon Alley and Dumbledore?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s office and other key locations from the movies. I have always wanted to walk down Diagon Alley, it looks like so much fun. We are visiting London for the Marathon in April and are going to book some tickets. They say the tour takes 3 hours & prices are ?Ǭ£28 for adults and ?Ǭ£21 for Children. I think that’s quite reasonable.

Your allowed & encouraged to take your camera so expect LOTS of snaps. I have even heard some people are going to be in fancy dress, that sounds like a great idea. Are you planning on going?

How amazing do those sets look!

Oh my, how nice is the world when the sun is shining bright? Even Scotland has been blessed with a few days of unbroken sun. Normally Scotland watches whilst the rest of the United Kingdom basks in sunny glory. Not this time!!

At koolbadges we cannot resist a few sneaky minutes in the warmth of the sun. We make even a trip to the dreaded Post Office worth our while with an impromptu visit to the beer garden or city square to soak up some vitamin D. Let’s face it Britain we need to make the most of the nice days as we get enough gloomy ones to last a lifetime.

I hope everyone is getting the chance to enjoy even the littlest amount of glorious sunshine. It really is food for the soul.

We wanted to thank all of the lovely people who purchased St Patrick’s Day and Mothers Day Badges from us these past few weeks. You sure did keep us busy. When you buy badges from us we want you to know that they are made with British Parts by me and my hubby in Britain :o) We make each badge by hand and package them all too. So we are a small company (with big ideas). Where possible we try to buy handmade too and hope to really only buy handmade this Xmas. So that’s our goal.

Koolbadges is 100% handmade and 100% British so we thank all our customers for supporting our little business and hope you continue to do so xx

We had a couple nice days in Scotland over the weekend so we spent the days walking and drinking coffee, we also took my 3 year old niece out on her bike & had to run to keep up with her. Hope you all had a great weekend