We are back with another independent business interview this week with the contagiously enthusiastic Jakob from Love Local Collective, or LLC. LLC is on a mission to support, promote, and strengthen local businesses by sharing awareness and encouraging consumers to shop locally.

So it will be interesting to hear what Jakob has to say from his experiences connecting with many, many small businesses, and what he thinks the future holds!

♥ Jakob’s Interview ♥

Describe Love Local Collective in three words: sharing the love.

How long have you been running your business? We set up as a company in June 2018.

What inspired you to start your business? And what keeps you going? I grew up in Liverpool, which has roughly over 500 independents. My family and I would often visit our local independents for coffee, brunch, lunch or dinner.

You will always get better services, quality and passions with independents. Corporate or chain places never have staff who care about what they do! Shopping locally benefits SO many more people. Spread love, shop local.

And what keeps me going? The face of people when I’ve given them access and help to our 30 thousand monthly readers. I just love helping local businesses thrive and grow!

What are a few of your fave local producers that you’ve seen since starting LLC? I’m in the fortunate position to have met many wonderful local makers. From jewellers to hairdressers. Makers to the best makers of food. A personal favourite of mine is V is for Veggies. She makes the most incredible vegan cakes ever! I'm not even vegan! :-)

What do you think the future holds for shopping? I think we have difficult times ahead, which is why I've set out to get even more businesses involved so we can get people to shop locally instead of spending their cash with the corporate giants.

What’s the best bargain you ever bought? It has to be when I  got a load of pallets from a building site! I then made our bed out of them. Long story short I bought the builders some beers for their hard work! A pallet superking bed. Winning.

What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever done? I’ve had numerous surgeries on my back. And setting up this company and going away from “normal” life!

What’s your biggest fashion faux-pas? I used to work for AllSaints when I was younger. This was before I decided to start a local revolution! We decided to wear some women’s shorts for the day at work! Brace yourselves, photographic evidence below!!

Find Love Local Collective online here and on Instagram here.

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Here’s another trip down Shh memory lane for the creepiest time of the year - Halloween…

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I used to have a thing for skull jewellery - mostly bright, colourful skull jewellery! And in the theme of Halloween I had a little poke around in my old Shh by Sadie photos and pulled out a few pix of the skull necklaces, bracelets and goodness knows what else that I used to make….!!

Skull jewellery was quite popular at the time, in around 2010 - 2011, especially the colourful howlite stone skull beads, and I sold a lot of this kind of bracelet and necklace at markets and through stockists in New Zealand like Rex Royale, Emma and The White Room Gallery (these were some of my first ever stockists).

I also made beads from polymer clay and strung them into bones necklaces - they were super best sellers, too. At one point I couldn’t make enough clay bones - pink ones, blue ones, navy ones - glitter ones!!

These clay necklaces featured in editorial and advertising campaigns for New Zealand designer Emma, NZ magazine Thread, and fashion shows. I even remember being in Brisbane and people complimenting me on my bones necklaces and shyly saying “I made it”. Aww.

Another popular skull style was the “Skull N Rope” necklace. It was a combination of rope, which I wrapped with wire, and the colourful howlite skulls I loved so much.

Absolutely GORGEOUS style blogger Noha Nabil wore my pink and yellow Skull N Rope necklace and I nearly fainted.

One other memory of these good ol’ days was being in a bar in Wellington, The Southern Cross, and a staff member was wearing one of my Skull N Rope necklaces, but I was too shy to say “hey, I made that necklace” - and afterwards I wished I had!

Anyway, that’s today’s little trip down memory lane. What do you think of the skull and bone necklaces?

As you can see, I was still very much learning to take good photos in those days! ;-) But it was an exciting time for skulls and Shh by Sadie.

Sadie xx

Explore more Shh news

• Sadie's musings 18
• as worn by 54
• bags 18
• beauty 4
• behind the scenes 41
• bridal 23
• collections 66
• competition 8
• custom orders 35
• events 32
• food 2
• independents interviews 4
• pearls 24
• press 56
• stockists 1
• style 136
• travel 16
• workshop / classes 21

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Last week I visited Tea and Bun in Plymouth for the first time.

I remember first hearing about the Asian restaurant on Cornwall Street, near Plymouth Market last year - I am not sure whether it had just launched, or people I knew had just starting talking about it…and it took me over a year to get my bottom perched on their stools and tasting their amazing food!

Tea and Bun is a small, cosy little Asian restaurant and it was just bustling with people eating in and ordering food to take away. It was Saturday lunchtime and it was so busy that I thought we were going to have to give up and go elsewhere - but just as we stepped outside we noticed somebody in the window putting their coat on so dashed back inside again. Yay, Tea and Bun was back on!

I ordered jasmine tea, mushroom and tofu ramen and fried mushroom gyoza. Chris had a selection of meaty small dishes! The food was amazing, and I already want to go back and order more gyoza.

I shared a couple of pics on my Instagram and from the reactions, I’m not the only person who loves their food! :D

It’s great to see a small, independent business in the centre of Plymouth doing so well. Small businesses often put their heart and soul into their, erm, businesses (being one myself, and being friends with so many others, I can tell you this first-hand!). And so to see Tea and Bun so busy it was exciting. I am thrilled for them and will be back eating gyoza as soon as I can get there!

Find Tea and Bun on Facebook here.
Tea and Bun, 135 Cornwall Street, Plymouth

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Explore more Shh news here

• Sadie's musings 18
• as worn by 54
• bags 18
• beauty 4
• behind the scenes 41
• bridal 23
• collections 66
• competition 8
• custom orders 35
• events 32
• food 2
• independents interviews 4
• pearls 24
• press 56
• stockists 1
• style 136
• travel 16
• workshop / classes 21

I recently created this custom order necklace for a regular Shh customer. She wanted the Chevron D’or necklace in the style of the shorter Priestess necklace. And so we shortened the chevron pattern and voila, here’s the beautiful finished product!

I think it will look gorgeous in the spring and summer weather, with a strappy top, the beads glimmering in the sunshine. Yay!

See below for photos of the custom short length necklace, and the original Chevron D’or.

Sadie x

PS. If you have a piece of jewellery that you'd like to design, redesign, or fix, you can get in touch here.

Explore more Shh news

• Sadie's musings 18
• as worn by 54
• bags 18
• beauty 4
• behind the scenes 41
• bridal 23
• collections 66
• competition 8
• custom orders 35
• events 32
• food 2
• independents interviews 4
• pearls 24
• press 56
• stockists 1
• style 136
• travel 16
• workshop / classes 21