A quick tip to freshen up your old umbrella.

Is this happening to your old umbrella?

When a brolly is old or well used, the fold lines can lose a bit of their waterproofing and water seeps into the fabric.

Don't worry it doesn't mean your brolly will leak onto your head, it just means that it can look a bit messy, and it will take longer to dry.

This problem is due to the edges being rubbed when you roll it up and put it in the car or into the umbrella stand.

To solve this issue get some hairspray and lightly spray the outside of your umbrella (when dry) to give it's canopy a new water resistant lease of life.

Toodle pip, for now,
Karen Lee

The Queen can teach Justin Beiber and Adam Levine a thing or 2.

In the world of having children when celebrities opt for surrogates or caesarians instead of going the traditional route they call it 'Too posh to push', and in the world of umbrellas I have invented a new title for the ever growing number of celebrities who seem to be unwilling to carry their own umbrella,

'Plenty sold, so I don't hold'.

This phenomenon seems to be occurring more often in the past couple of years, and seems to be an affliction that is spreading amongst celebrities.

Now I understand the need for actors at premieres to have 2 free hands for signing autographs whilst leaving funny messages on fan's answer phones and having photos taken all at the same time, therefore Daniel Radcliffe having this drop dead gorgeous brolly carrier is fine, but..........

and it is a BIG BUT.....

Justin Beiber

Adam Levine  & Behati Prinsloo

there is NO excuse for having your personal lackey follow you 2 steps behind whist toting a large umbrella, just because you feel you are too cool to carry your own.


Yes I am talking to you Justin Beiber, oh and whilst I'm on one could you please pull up your pants!!

And to you Adam Levine, you are old enough to know better, and maybe if you held your own brolly your fiancée could be covered too!

The Queen and her umbrellas

Now some of the most well known people on the planet are in the British Royal Family, and the head of that family is the Queen, who has a pretty large retinue (for celebrities who don't recognise that word, think posse) of ladies-in-waiting and security, but guess what.........she carries her own umbrella!

She is one of the most photographed and richest women in the world, who has impeccable manners and exudes grace and style, yet she doesn't feel the need to be followed about by a minion holding her brolly.

As you can see below the future Kings and Queen of Great Britain continue in this down-to-earth approach and don't seem to have an issue with umbrella holding. So listen up you 'celebrities', if an 87 year old lady who has been in the public eye for her entire life can carry her own umbrella, I'm pretty sure you can too!

Prince Charles, Catherine Duchess of Cambridge & Prince Harry and Prince William & Catherine.

President Barack Obama

German Chancellor Angela Merkel
&Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi

Oh and don't even get me started on politicians......at one with the people they represent, pah!

Toodle pip for now
Karen Lee

 

Reclaim the Fairy Cake!

Over the last 5 years the whole of Great Britain has been inundated with cake makers.
I am very partial to a cake or 4 so don't misunderstand me, I DO NOT have an issue with the cakes themselves. I DO however take issue with what these new batch of bakers are calling their creations .........CUPCAKES!!!!

Photo courtesy of  bakinginspiration.com

For at least the 43 years that I have been on this earth, these mini cakes, covered with icing, buttercream, hundreds & thousands and/or metallic sugar balls, have been a mainstay of every school fête, community events and kiddie parties.

They have been created by mums, grandmas, brownie troops and enthusiastic kids, and have been decorated with whatever could be found in the back of a deep kitchen cupboard, and for all this time, and probably a whole lot of years before I was born, they have been called FAIRY CAKES.

Photo courtesy of georgetowncupcake.com

So why do we now have a country full of 'cupcakes'? The ever pervasive influence from our ex-colony, the good ol' U. S. of A., is the culprit. Someone, and there are a lot of claimants to this particular title, decided that if you took the humble fairy cake, gave it an unusual name such as Red Velvet or Lava Fudge, and then covered the top with various sickly sweet concoctions piled higher than the Eiffel Tower, then you could sell them for an obscene amount of money, to people with more money than sense (I only say this because this trend took flight in Beverley Hills!). 

As mentioned earlier Great Britain is full of bakers of all ages, so when this trend crossed the pond many people saw an opportunity to jump on the bandwagon and make a living doing something that they loved, but, and this is my big BUT, they allowed the American name to stay because, to be able to charge the big prices, they couldn't be seen to be related to the humble Fairy Cake.

My biggest objection to the cupcake name is that it's influence doesn't stop just at the fancy shops. Nowadays at the local fairs or the school fêtes the Fairy Cake has been usurped, and a whole generation of children think that the swirly topped, sponge creations, made to fit perfectly into a small hand are called Cupcakes. NO!!!!

Please, I beg of you all, can we keep our British names, don't let foreign invaders take over, and if you are from the land of the free, we like you, we really do, but please can you keep your Americanisms of our great language to yourselves.

To make up for your corruptions of our words, dear Americans it's time we gave you one back, so here it is. You can call an umbrella an umbrella if you wish, but over here it's called a Brolly. Enough said!
Toodle pip
Karen Lee

450 umbrellas & 128 plastic bottles create beautiful art!

In October 2012 I blogged about a project that had Kickstarter funding for the creation of a beautiful dome sculpture 'Harvest Dome 2.0' to be made out of discarded pop bottles and broken umbrellas in New York, well.......

they did it!

The amazing 24 x 18 foot structure was crafted by husband and wife duo Amanda Schachter and Alexander Levi who used a total of 450 umbrellas and 128 bottles to assemble the orb.

The project, which asked for $7500, and actually received $7596, aims to raise awareness of the debris that clogs New York’s waterways, threatening fish and other forms of wildlife. The project is the brainchild of husband and wife Alex Levi and Amanda Schachter.

The 24 foot diameter sphere, that is 18 foot tall at it's highest point, has an array of light-emitting-diodes, inserted into each of the bottles and powered by tiny photovoltaic cells to create a glowing effect that looks amazing if you head out after dark.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
All photos courtesy Andreas Symietz.

Did you ever have a shocking moment of 'Ta-Dah!' that you just weren't expecting?

This blog is dedicated to all the innocent or naive people in the world.

I sit here writing this in a shocked state.

Did you ever have a moment of 'Ta-Dah!' that you just weren't expecting? I have just had one whilst listening to Radio 2 whilst they played Gene Pitney's 24 hours from Tulsa.

Now, I am 43 years old, so I know the song and have sung along with the chorus many of times, but I have never really 'listened' to the song. I have always thought it was a sweet song about a bloke on his way home to his wife, just calling to let her know he was close.

How wrong was I !!!

If you are like me and haven't ever connected the dots, I'll tell you what it is really about:

It's about a bloke on his way home who stops off somewhere a day away from home, meets another woman, does the dirty and is basically telling his current girlfriend/wife that he's not coming back!!!

SHOCKED!

I feel like Emma Pillsbury, Jayma Mays' character in Glee Season 3, when she found out what Afternoon Delight was really about (and no I didn't know what this song was about either! I am soooooo naive).

Jayma said in an interview with E! 
"I didn't know it was so dirty, I don't know if I thought it was about pie, but I can remember singing that song with my parents when I was growing up. That's so creepy now."

"My mom and dad wrote me an email the next morning [after the episode] and were like, 'We had no idea what that meant!" Mays laughed. "We're like the most innocent family ever."


And I'm going to give you another example... 

Michael Bublé has just had a really happy sounding song out called It's a Beautiful Day, but take a moment to really listen to the words, and you'll find it's about a guy whose girlfriend wants to take a break, and instead of being upset he's really, REALLY happy about it. I'm going to guess that many of his Bublettes may not have listened too closely.

It's a Beautiful Day's chorus:

Hey hey hey
It's a beautiful day and I can't stop myself from smiling
If we're drinking, then I'm buying
And I know there's no denying
It's a beautiful day, the sun is up, the music's playing
And even if it started raining
You won't hear this boy complaining
'Cause I'm glad that you're the one who got away
It's a beautiful day


So, if like me you are a bit naive (only in some things *wink*) I hope I didn't shock you too much, and if you are worldly wise please be kind to us innocents, we need looking after.

Thanks for reading
Karen Lee

Cheeky Umbrellas - Serendipity in Canada

serendipity |ˌserənˈdipitē|nounthe occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. 

Just over 2 years ago I went to Canada to visit relatives. I took my computer to keep in touch with  home, and one morning when I was up earlier than everyone else, I was surfing the net, and had a rootie-toot on twitter. Just by chance I came across a tweet from a umbrella company based in Vancouver, Cheeky Umbrellas. At this time I was on Vancouver Island, but a few days later I would be staying in Vancouver, so I thought that it would be worth a chance to see if I could set up a meeting with the owner/designer Jen.

I know, I know..... I was on holiday, and in the normal world I wouldn't recommend doing business on your hols, but I'm not normal (never a truer word was written!), and couldn't pass up this opportunity after I found out how cool the brollies were, there just wasn't an equivalent brand available in Britain.





I tweeted back and a couple of emails later I was all set up to meet Jen at Lonsdale Quay (this is the first  and only time I've gone to a business meeting by ferry).

Jen turned up toting a rather large bag, designed for skis I think, filled with loads of gorgeous, stylish, quality umbrellas with quirky secret messages on the underside. I loved all the brollies, the quality of the fabric, the mechanism, even the soft feel handle was a delight. 

I loved 'em, wanted 'em, needed to get them in my web shop. So 2 years and 1 whole month from the date of our meeting, these Cheeky umbrellas are finally available on our Hello Brolly website.

There are 4 designs which are available in both long stick and folding styles.

These are the secret messages that can only be seen by the person under the umbrella.

Cheeky not only do these secret message brollies, they also do some very stylish ladies golf umbrellas that have vented windproof canopies. My mum and dad are lifelong golfers (I've dabbled but never seriously), and I have seen many boring golf brollies, or worse still, golf company branded brollies (eeeeek!), but in all this time, I have never seen such gorgeous golf brollies as these Cheeky ones.

Cheeky's gorgeous Golf Umbrellas.

So be one of the first people in the UK to have a Cheeky umbrella experience, just click here to go to the Cheeky page on the Hello Brolly website.

Thanks for reading
Karen Lee

We have a lot in common with Josh Groban!

I was watching Josh Groban in concert in Manchester the other day (a birthday pressie from my hubby), and for some reason it popped into my head that we have a lot in common.

OK this may seem a bit weird but just go with me here.....

Josh Groban has lots of great fans, but he isn't exactly mainstream (yet).
Hello Brolly has lots of great fans too, but we could always do with more, so please tell your friends.


Josh's fans are discerning, and appreciate that he hasn't changed his unique style to chase a more mainstream audience (he still sings songs in a variety of languages on each album).
Hello Brolly customers are also very sophisticated, and appreciate that here at HB we could buy in all sorts of umbrellas, and aim for a mass market, but our ethos is 'Why buy the ordinary, and bland when you can find beautiful umbrellas that are different and unusual'.

Josh believes in creating great music, and goes to great lengths to get amazing musicians from all around the world to play with him (his band consisted of musicians from Russia, Cameroon, America and his choir was from good ol' Manchester).
Here at Hello Brolly we also go to great lengths to source stunning umbrellas from all over the world, we have umbrellas from America, Canada, UK and China.

You only have to see Josh on programmes like Never Mind the Buzzcocks (which he's been guest host a few times) to know that he likes to have fun, and doesn't take himself too seriously.

At one point in the concert, when Josh was chatting to the audience he uttered this line...
"I've just realised that I'm strange.......... but that's OK 'cos I sing pretty."

Well I've always known I was strange, and I definitely don't take myself seriously, which is probably not a revelation to you if you've ever read one of my umbrella descriptions (check out the descriptions on Palm Tree umbrella or It's Raining Cats & Dogs if you want proof).

Like Josh my being strange is OK, because it let me create the entire Hello Brolly world, everything you see encompasses my strangeness and hopefully shows how much fun I have doing it.


Lastly Josh may not be to everyone's taste, but the people who love his music will be his fans forever.
Hello Brolly has a selective clientele, and we hope that you will also be our fans forever.
Thanks for reading
Karen Lee

It's Recycle Week - 5 cool things to do with your old umbrellas

1. MAKE A BAT COSTUME

Old umbrellas can make great bat wings, and even the ears are made from umbrella parts!
Find out how to make this masterpiece, step by step, here: http://www.evilmadscientist.com/2006/how-to-build-a-better-bat-costume

2. MAKE A DECORATIVE FLOWER DISPLAY

Use some decorative ribbon to tie a nice bow part way up the umbrella so that the flowers can sit in at the required height. Buy a nice bouquet of flowers (or you can use plastic flowers) and create a nice arrangement. Only use half of the umbrella if you plan on a door hanging or use flowers all the way round if you plan on standing the umbrella in a pot.
Idea & Picture courtesy of http://greenparadisehomes.com

3. CREATE A CHANDELIER

If your long stick umbrella has a torn canopy, but the frame is still intact have a go at this new take on the classic Crystal Chandelier.

4. CREATE A NEW WORK OF ART

Art has no limitations. Check out this dress made out of a broken umbrella, bubble wrap, and buttons for an art installation in Chicago.

5. CREATE A POOCH PONCHO.

This lovely pink jacket was created by Recycling Zychal  out of old umbrella canopies, but if you are handy with a sewing machine why not have a go yourself.

Brolly good show Ma'am - The secret of the Queen's umbrella style!

To celebrate Her Majesty's Official Birthday I'll let you in on the secret of the Queen's umbrella style.

Have you ever wondered about the Queen's umbrellas, and how they always seem to match her outfits?

Well the secret is that the Queen commissions her umbrellas from, Royal warranted umbrella maker, Fulton. The East End umbrella maker, founded in 1956 by engineer Arnold Fulton, has long been the Queen's choice for brollies.

The royal dress designers come up with the outfit, and then they confer with Fulton who trim the umbrellas with the appropriate colours so that they match her outfits exactly.

Her Majesty likes to use the transparent Birdcage umbrella so that her public can still see her from all angles.

The next generation seem to be following the Queen's lead and opting for the Fulton Birdcage umbrellas too.

The Duchess of Cambridge has been spotted with a totally clear Birdcage, and ordered a black-trimmed Birdcage to match her Temperley dress at the London War Horse premiere last year, at which William gallantly held it over his wife's head.


Nigel Fulton said of his royal commissions "We are immensely proud of our Royal connections and hope to build upon our relationship for generations to come."

Want to see which Fulton Birdcage Hello Brolly stocks? Click Here

The sun is shining, time to get out the umbrella. It could save your life!!

"Are you mad, the sun is finally shining and you're banging on about umbrellas?" I hear you say.

No, I've not lost a few (more) of my marbles, I'm going to tell you why it IS good to have an umbrella in this glorious summer weather. According to a US study published in JAMA Dermatology, any umbrella can block more than three-quarters of ultraviolet (UV) light on a sunny day.

But why should we want to block UV rays?

Silver Heart Umbrella

Exposure to UV rays can disrupt the replication of DNA leading to harmful mutations that turn into skin cancer. I know this better than most as my husband has had quite a few skin cancer patches pop up on his back and chest (his first was when he was only 35!), and when we've gone to have them removed (frozen off & cut out), the consultant has been very adamant in telling us that there is no such thing as healthy tan, and to try to block the skin's exposure to UVA and UVB rays wherever possible.
My hubby puts his cancer down to the poor knowledge of the effects of UV when he was growing up, when during many a hot summer day he would be out all day in the sun with only a splodge of plain old Nivea moisturising lotion on.

So back to why a brolly is a great UV blocker.

Windproof Square Golf Umbrella

Researchers at Emory University, in Atlanta,  collected 23 umbrellas from people at their medical school. The brollies were checked for no fabric tears, and then on a sunny morning they used UV devices to measure radiation levels just under each umbrella's fabric, and by the nose of the person using it, and then compared this to radiation readings taken with no umbrella.

All but one of the umbrellas was a standard, handheld rain umbrella. The other was a travel sun umbrella. The standard umbrellas blocked approximately 77 percent of the UV radiation (up to 90% if the umbrella was dark colour), and the sun umbrella blocked more than 99 percent of the UV rays. 

Does everything in your wardrobe show your style?

If you dress to impress, don't forget to make a style statement with the little things.

We fill our wardrobes with beautiful, stylish clothes, and match them with great accessories. A nice pair of Louboutin or L.K. Bennett shoes, teamed with a Gucci bag and some delicious jewellery, can give you that subtle inner confidence to face the day and anything that comes your way.

But there is one item in many women's style ensemble that is sadly overlooked.....
their umbrella.

As an accessory that people hope not to use it has been sidelined to a category of 'functional, but not necessarily stylish'. In years gone by handbags were necessary items that suffered in that same category until someone discovered that they could be both.

I have seen successful business women holding pitiful looking umbrellas, that wouldn't stand up to a strong breath from a hamster, or sporting bland, black brollies that blend you into the boring, bland background (name me a successful entrepreneurial woman who wants to blend into the background!). The only conclusion that I can come to is that these women haven't had the experience of a good umbrella............YET.

I will now admit to, at one time in my life, being one of these women. I like nice clothes and accessories, but umbrellas were something that I would spend as little as possible on. I thought that they always break easily, and they are easy to lose, so what's the point spending good money on one.

Well one day I saw a brolly that mesmerized me, it was 3 or 4 times the amount I would normally pay, but I just had to have it. The quality was so much better than the cheap brollies that I'd usually have bought. It just looked good, and was a bit quirky.

It started my love of umbrellas, and my change in career to becoming the owner of Hello Brolly. Since starting my business I have, as you would expect, collected quite a number of umbrellas for my personal use. I have big'uns, little'uns, odd-shaped, colourful, plain, frilly, fashionable, long and short, but my one criteria that must be filled is that it has to be a good quality umbrella, and that is also my one true criteria for all the brollies that I sell.

Please, I'm begging you.....

don't think of an umbrella as just something functional to keep the pesky rain off. Think of it in the same way as you do your shoes and handbags. It should make you feel good, compliment your style and show off your personality. A good umbrella won't break on it's first encounter with the wind, a good brolly is something you just wouldn't even dream of leave lying around because you like it so much and, best of all, a good umbrella will make you feel terrific even on the most miserable of days.

So please, if you've only ever bought cheap umbrellas, just try going up a level (or two), it will be a revelation to you how much better they are.

A good umbrella. Why? Because you're definitely worth it!


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It's Raining Cats & Dogs................no really!

Where does the saying 'Raining cats & dogs' come from?

There are quite a few ideas to where this saying comes from, but the one that crops up quite frequently (and the one I like the best) is that in medieval Great Britain cats and dogs would sleep in the sun on the top of thatched roofs.

When it rained, and the thatch got wet, the straw became slippery therefore the cats and dogs would go sliding off. Hence it's 'raining cats and dogs'.

Galleria Raining Cats & Dogs Umbrella available in folding & long stick styles.

What do you get if you put a pumpkin, an umbrella & a Marvin Gaye record in a room?

Meet the gorgeous undulating Pumpkin Umbrella. This stunning design is by Japan based, Canadian designer DiCesare, and when it was released in Japan it became a fashionista must have, and now for the first time in the UK Hello Brolly gives you the opportunity to own this beautiful work of art.

DiCesare's Pumpkin Lottie Umbrella

DiCesare's Pumpkin Sweetie Umbrella

It's Earth Day so I thought I should do something.......

It's Earth Day 2013, and I'm wondering what I could do to improve my carbon footprint.

I, like most people, already do little bits and pieces:

• Home waste recycling (helped by the council's recycling schemes)
• I have a food composter in my yard
• I've a water butt that collects water from my outhouse's roof, which I use to water plants & clean stuff outside
• Turning off taps whilst teeth cleaning (if you want to know how much water this saves, try putting the plug in the sink before you start, you'll be surprised).
• There's a jug in my fridge for tap water, because I like it really cold and if I waited for the cold stuff whilst running the taps, I think I would empty my local reservoir within a week.
• I've got a couple of steel drink bottles that I use whilst out and about instead of buying 'over-priced' drinks in plastic packaging.
• Make my own lunch, either soup or sandwiches, and package it in reusable boxes.
• I found some really cool veg shaped boxes (bell peppers & onions) so that I can put part used veg back in the fridge without using tonnes of cling film (saran wrap if you are from the USA), and although they are made of plastic I figure that they will save a lot (money & the world's resources) in the long run.

So what can be done?

I know that we in the West create a shed load of the problems that blight the world, but unfortunately we aren't likely to go back to the horse & cart world of old, so how about we all improve just one thing so we can start a big ball rolling, and you never know where it'll stop.

So what is my ONE THING that I'm going to do.......

I am going to do my best to change Hello Brolly's packaging (when I next have to order it) to a more earth happy alternative.

So what's your one thing going to be?

If you have a 'THING' why not write it in the comments, and let others know about it.

Toodles,

Karen Lee

Have a sneaky peek at Pixar's new short film.

Monsters, Inc., currently showing in 3D, has spawned a prequel/sequel called Monsters University which should arrive in cinemas on June 21st. At this point you're probably wondering what's this got to do with umbrellas, well, in their usual style, Pixar is releasing a new 6 minute short film to show before the main feature which will be called The Blue Umbrella.

The Blue Umbrella's description:

“It's just another evening commute until the rain starts to fall, and the city comes alive to the sound of dripping rain pipes, whistling awnings and gurgling gutters, and in the midst, two umbrellas, one blue, one not, fall eternally in love”

The film was directed by Saschka Unseld and produced by Marc Greenberg. Pixar is well known for touching short films, and The Blue Umbrella appears to be no exception. It looks so cute, I can't wait.

Have a sneaky peek below.