There's a first time for everything!

Well, where to start!? This is the first blog I have ever written so you will have to bear with me. I'm sure as I go along I will find the whole process a lot easier. I shan't tell you how many hours it has taken me just to get the page how I liked it, but after a lot of discussions with my very patient boyfriend Mark, we are finally here! Hurrah!!

I guess the first thing to do is tell you a little about Lillies and who we are. My name is Michelle and my boyfriend is Mark. We run 'Lillies' alongside our full-time jobs, and have done for the last two and a half years.

We make all the products from our home near the very beautiful St Michaels Mount in Cornwall.

Our spare room and garage are the make-shift work rooms - and sometimes the sitting room can resemble something similar when things get a little frantic!!!

We design and make everything from pretty hearts, spotty stars, garlands, mini sailing boats to magnets, bookmarks and stripey fish.

The idea behind Lillies came in 2008 when we were planning to take a four month honeymoon in 2009 and desperately needed some extra money. We attended some local craft events and after being approached by a number of shops, we realised our designs were proving very popular.

A few months later our website http://www.designsbylillies.co.uk/ was born and I found myself at midnight much to Mark's horror declaring I had signed us up to the Country Living Christmas Show in Glasgow!!! When we arrived and I saw some of the many names I had only read about in magazines, I started to wonder if we had made a mistake. The days were very long and we spent most nights painting and finishing products that we hadn't had time to finish, but despite all of this the show was a roaring success.

Move forward a few more years and we are still not married, but we have been on our four month trip and had a fabulous time!! We've attended another Country Living Christmas and Spring Show and supplied a few more shops.

One of them being the wonderful 'Stargazey' shop in Mousehole, nr Penzance, Cornwall.

I was going to disband Lillies this year to allow myself time to work on a new venture (which I will tell you more about soon) and to allow Mark a break, bless him; he does a lot of the cutting and painting for me. It is difficult running a small business whilst working full-time as well, however, the orders are still rolling in and I can't stop myself coming up with new ideas.

So here we are still. I thought it was time I got into the social networking game; it seems a vital tool for small businesses to get their name known and to receive invaluable feedback from their customers and other friendly designer makers alike.

So I hope you enjoy the blog and follow our ongoing adventures with 'Lillies'.