In that time, we’ve gone from a spare room side hustle to a warehouse jammed full of stock, employing three people (Ellie, Steph and my sister Elise) as well as me (Marianne) and James. It’s been a wild ride at times, with a lot of ups and downs, and if you had told me back when we started in 2007 that we would make it to this point I’m not sure I would have believed you.

We’ve gone from spending our days car boot bargain hunting to having a long list of great suppliers (though we still love the car boot bargain hunting 😍). Online, we’ve gone from from having just a MySpace page (showing our age) and an eBay shop, to having an all singing, all dancing website. And above all, we’ve gone from not having a clue what we were doing to… er… still not really having a clue what we are doing! Running a business is a never ending learning curve.

In 2021 we also opened our little shop at Red Brick Market in Digbeth, which has been great fun - it’s so lovely to be a part of such a creative community.

We’ve met so many wonderful people throughout the years we’ve been doing this: suppliers, event organisers, people who have worked for us, fellow business owners; many of whom have become great friends ❤️

The last two years have probably been the hardest of all, as pretty much anyone who runs a small business will tell you, the pandemic threw a real spanner in the works and meant we had to adapt quickly! We went from having a jam packed calendar of events lined up to having none at all, it was scary but somehow we coped. Since 2020 things have still been very up and down, but we’re grateful to have got this far and are being quietly hopeful that 2022 might be a little brighter! Fingers crossed 🤞

At a time when there is still a huge amount of uncertainty about the future, It’s been nice to have a little look at how far we’ve come. I have been going back through the archives and have dug out some photos, looking back all the way to 2007. Here are some pics from the early days, finding our feet, learning and making lots of mistakes, getting into the vintage fair scene as it really took off, and experimenting with different ideas. This was the era when we couldn’t keep up with the demand for Scrabble necklaces and rings, and one of our photoshoot images was featured on the cover of a magazine about vintage fashion.

We have also done a lot of photoshoots over the years, working with some fantastic photographers and models. Looking back some of the outfits do have us asking ‘what were we thinking?!’ but I guess that’s all part of the fun. Hopefully it’s something we can get back into once Covid settles down a little more.

Over the years we have traded at a huge variety of events, from being knee deep in mud in assorted fields across the country, to trading at big events in shiny exhibition centres, like Clothes Show Live and MCM Comic Con, and all sorts in between. We’ve traded in every weather known to man, battles gale force winds and had our van towed off fields by tractors, baked to a crisp in the sun, seen so much live music and met so many crazy characters, it’s hard work but never, ever boring!

So after that little walk down memory lane, I just want to end by saying to thank to you everyone who has been a part of this little journey of ours. Here’s to many more years of this creative, sometimes silly, sometimes scary, but ultimately very rewarding adventure of ours.

We hope that we can continue to bring you clothes that make you happy and things that make you smile, for many years to come!

Thank you so much ❤️

Marianne, Team Mouse 🐭