Mummypreneur! … Why I Decided to Get “Milk Drunk”!

Some of you may have seen that I’ve ventured out and started my own kid’s clothing line – Baby Brain Apparel. You may be wondering why? … Well I’ve always had a super creative side which I’m always bursting to use.

This has been prevalent through previous hobbies turned businesses such as Passion Froot – where one of my close friends Sav and I created beautiful (if i do say so myself!) hand carved fruit displays. We did it for several years and really enjoyed it and worked with leading caterers and venues in the industry – I still get phone calls today for enquiries! It may be something I pursue again once Arjun is a little older but the hours were anti social with a baby so we put that on pause.

I also have a huge passion for events planning as you may have guessed from Arjun’s first birthday celebrations. A few months prior to falling pregnant, I was in the early days of starting up my own events company, and then I fell pregnant and again it wasn’t something that I could pursue whilst being pregnant let alone with a baby. My pregnancy wasn’t straight forward and I knew I had to ensure I was taking care of myself. When Arjun arrived, I wanted to ensure I was able to spend as much time with my newborn as possible, and that’s exactly what I did!

You may or may not know, but my actual job is as a Finance Manager. Getting creative with Excel and a calculator has its limitations on my creative juices flowing (as much as I love Excel!) and I was reminded of that when returning to work after a year off from maternity leave.  I’m fortunate enough to have two days off with Arjun whereby I’m free to explore my creativity.  It was definitely time for me to start thinking about getting my hands stuck in a new venture – one that would enable me to exercise my creativity but also allow me to be at home with Arjun on my days off and most importantly, one that I enjoyed.

I remember that evening, I was exploring the idea with my best friend Amrit and her husband-to-be Nake. I get told often by family and friends and even work colleagues that I’m destined for other things but I often struggle with the confidence to go out there and do it. They gave me the nudge that I needed and coaxed me in to just going for it, and I did just that!

That same evening, I began doodling and exploring ideas with Preetam and my sisters and sister in law. The inspiration for my tees was easy – Arjun. His character is so prominent and his characteristics are such that many mummies can relate to through the daily antics of their own munchkins. His personality shines through so bright, so much so that we’re often stopped in public when he’s spotted and our blog followers want to meet the mini celebrity himself – so many people have commented that they feel they know him just through the blog and Instagram where his daily antics are shared.

The following day, I designed my tees on Microsoft Paint (haha!) and the rest is history!

Here’s an outline of the tees:

• #Babygains: As the son of a gym buff, Arjun is often spotted squatting, lifting and loading up on carbs prior to a little crossfit session in the lounge! This unisex tee is for the fellow spontaneous squatters, multi sippy cup lifters and for all babies growing big and strong!

• Curls for the Girls: His curls are definitely his signature stamp! This unisex tee is for the little princesses with luscious locks or for the little boys donning their curly crown who never fail to impress the girls!

• Milk Drunk: You often find Arjun slumped on the sofa after his milk – “Milk Drunk” is the only way to describe him! This tee was designed for all the milk fuelled munchkins like Arjy.

• Food Thief: Arjun often pinches our food, even if he has the same food on his own plate! His favourite item to pinch are cookies and popcorn. The unisex “Food Thief” tee is for the cheeky little hands that never fail to pinch a cookie (or two!).

• Mini Musician: He often uses his wooden spoon, whisk and large spoon to bang on pots and pans to “make music” – a common trait amongst babies! The unisex ‘Mini Musician’ tee is for all those self proclaimed percussionists!

• Sleep Fighter: No matter how tired he is, he’ll fight his sleep and he’s always been that way since a young age. The unisex ‘Sleep Fighter tee was especially created for all the fellow little night owls!

• “Not your average Christmas Tee” – Sprout Dunk: I wanted our Christmas tee to be fun and not your bog standard design.  Arjun has known to play basketball with his breakfast previously, so this was the inspiration for this tee – something a little different!

I’d also rekindled an old hobby of sewing and have been making Arjun his own leggings for a while now. I find it so therapeutic. I posted a picture of a pair I made for him once, and I received quite a few messages about whether I was selling them – that gave me food for thought and I decided to also introduce leggings to my clothing line.

 

The leggings range I’ve launched include fun and quirky designs. Our “Biscuit” leggings go perfectly with the “Food Thief” tee and come in both aqua and brown and lemon and pink.

 We’ve also just launched our super cute “Cheeky Monkey” leggings available in three colours – brown, blue and yellow and we’ll soon be introducing grey too.

 

My brand was easy to personify – quirky, fun, cute and bold! I wanted most (if not all) of my clothing to be unisex and neutral. And of course my logo had to include clouds!

We love our tees and leggings and hope you do too! I wanted it to have a very personal feel – all my tees are hand designed, and all the leggings are handmade by me between managing a toddler, a house and a part time job! It’s really hardwork but I love every single minute of it and it’s something I can call mine!  My heart swells with joy at the site of a tiny tot in our clothing – it makes me feel like the hard work has paid off! Here’s an adorable picture of the super cute Oakley rocking our “Mini Musician” tee:

This venture has enabled me to gain a sense of satisfaction which also ties in with the reward of motherhood as it’s related to and inspired by Arjy! Working Monday – Wednesday has given me the flexibility to give this a go – something that I’m very grateful for.

A special thank you to all my family, friends and blogging buddies – especially Rod at Modern Dad Pages, for their amazing support. A special thank you to my husband and sisters for their encouragement, my cousin Indy for his patience and my BFF Amrit and her fiancé Nake for pushing me to do it and also for the motivational talks and always believing in me!

The feedback on my designs has been incredible and overwhelming. I’m so thankful and feel super blessed.  Who knows how far this will go, but I’m going to enjoy the ride!

I’d love to hear your feedback on our new venture and I hope I’m able to provide you and your baby fashionistas with personal and friendly customer service if you do choose to shop with us! 🙂

As an introductory offer to all my blog followers, I’m offering a 10% discount code until 6th December 2015 as a special gift on your Christmas orders :). Code: MEMOIRS10 @ www.BabyBrainApparel.com

 

x