Not Dogs Receives a Very Exciting Invitation from the Government!

We are thrilled that we have been invited by the Secretary of State for DEFRA (Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) Elizabeth Truss to be named as a UK Food Star in recognition that Not Dogs is an 'exceptional, innovative break-through business that is forging an exciting future in food and drink'!

We couldn't be more shocked or excited at the thought of how well-received Not Dogs has been since we took our 'Meaty Dogs Without the Meat' to our first event at the end of June 2014... so much has happened since then!

We will first attend a prestigious event in London where we will be able to showcase a few of our favourites such as The Original Frank, Kickin’ Katie Nacho Dog and of course the Plain Jane to lots of inspirational industry insiders before collaborating on lots of exciting projects with DEFRA in 2015 which are yet to be announced!

We’d like to say a huge thank you to every single person who has helped us to get this far, it’s been a huge learning curve and we couldn’t have done it without the amazing support from people we know, people we were yet to meet and of course our growing community of customers and social media fans!

Keep in touch with us on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest and we’ll be updating everyone very soon on the events and projects we have lined up for Not Dogs for the rest of the year.

Eat. Sleep. Not Dogs

Katie & Jane

A Sunny Southwold New Year Celebration!

It's been a year since I wrote my 'A Perfect New Year in the Seaside Town of Southwold' blog post where I introduced Southwold and picked my must-dos, and, as our trip is an annual celebration, here's 2014's travel review!

We arrived on the evening two days before New Year's Eve to get back into the swing of the seaside style of life and where else could we go first but The Lord Nelson - Southwold's favourite pub which stocks Southwold's famous Adnams beer. We had a lovely catch-up with friends and family who had arrived before and of course sampled their simple, homemade meals including fish and chips, veggie chilli and burgers!

There's lots of walking to be had in Southwold; on the beach, the pier, down the little streets but my favourite is the blustery Southwold to Walberwick walk which we do every year with the dogs. The walk takes you along the beach, through the harbour and across the River Blyth ending up in the pretty little village of Walberswick which contains one of my favourite pubs, The Bell where, I only discovered this year, they do the most amazing hot chocolate - perfect on a wintery day.

New Year's Eve came upon us and because we have three energetic dogs there was no relaxing before partying the night away but instead a very long walk from Southwold to Dunwich. I say very long, it was 8 miles but really enjoyable with ever-changing scenery from beaches, to woods, villages to fields filled with windmills. There were lots of photo opportunities on the way to The Ship - a lovely little pub in Dunwich. Getting a table was a struggle in this popular place but we managed to find the perfect place to sit all eight of us (and the dogs!). Here, we had planned on a light lunch ready for the journey back but the fresh-fish menu was too tempting so we stuffed ourselves and got a taxi ride back to Southwold!

It wouldn't be the same if we didn't see in the New Year with drinks at The Lord Nelson - Adnams Fizz all 'round, followed by fireworks on the beach. There's such a lovely atmosphere in Southwold on New Year's Eve... everyone meets at the beach, brings fireworks and the display starts before the countdown begins and Auld Lang Syne is sung by all. We returned to the house for a little party of our own before venturing down to the beach in the early hours with some wine and music... the perfect New Year's Eve!

After a morning walk to the pier, we decided to do something we had never done before in Southwold to celebrate the 1st day of 2015 - afternoon tea at The Swan - how very sophisticated! Some of the group were a little too jaded to come for delicious sandwiches, cakes and the most enormous scones I've ever seen so we had extra portions which no-one complained about! Despite it being 'afternoon tea', it's great in Southwold as everything is very laid-back and wellies, scarves and thick jackets are always acceptable!

A final run along the stunning shoreline next to the famous, brightly-coloured beach huts saw the end of another absolutely perfect stay in Southwold. I urge anyone who hasn't been to go, even for the day, although a day will leave you wanting to return as we're lucky enough to do every year.

This year's highlights (see others in my previous post!)...

• ·         The Lord Nelson every time - the best pub in Southwold!
• ·         Despite the moans the 8 mile walk from Southwold to Dunwich was a healthy highlight

This year's must dos...

• ·         Afternoon tea at The Swan - arrive hungry!
• ·         The walk from Southwold to Walberswick's The Bell for a gorgeous hot chocolate

Jane x

The Best Things in Life in January

2015 is upon us, a new year, fresh start and a time where we love to plan out our goals and dreams for the next year. 2014 was a fun and successful year for Katie & Jane and we look forward to all that 2015 has to bring!

Katie

Best things in life?

My new Happiness Tin! After reading my friend George’s new blog, I was so inspired by her thoughts on happiness I decided to create my very own happiness tin which she says will help to... 

“Consciously appreciate the little things in life that can so easily pass you by, not just so they can bring a smile to your face at the end of the year, but so you get into the habit of noticing the happiness and humour that happens all the time…if you choose to notice it.” 

This really reminded me of how much we like Happier, and as well as my tin I hope to start using the app a little more too! You can read our review of Happier here.

One way to avoid the January blues is to think about all the events and exciting things 2015 has in store! (although biased) I love using Countdown Keeper to collect all the things I have to be excited about, and being as organised as I am I love that I can keep them in custom categories that I’ve created myself too. To find out more about Countdown Keeper head to the App Store.

Who doesn’t love a Happy Birthday cake? To celebrate our second birthday we were treated to a lovely cake with our Katie & Jane dots on – it was so lovely to see those dots connecting and reflect on how far we’ve come in the last two years. We wrote our 2014 annual business review last week, you can find out about our highlights, challenges and memorable moments of last year here.

My New Year's resolution is...

I don’t usually make resolutions, as it’s inevitable I’ll break them after January! However this year I do intend to take better care of myself. It’s easy to get into bad habits when you are focused on everything else but yourself and building up a business during the last two years has meant that I have put myself and wellbeing at the bottom of the list, so I’m trying to eat better, work out more, stress less, let go of worries easier and be more mindful in 2015.

What I'm most looking forward to in 2015 is...

Seeing more of the world! I first visited Bali in 2010, and I’m so excited to be taking a trip back there this year, there is so much more to see of this beautiful country and the islands surrounding it. I am also happy that when I come home I won’t be dreading going back to work at all, Katie & Jane is definitely more of a lifestyle i.e. non-stop! I wouldn’t have it any other way though…

The pin that sums me up at the moment is...

Jane

Best things in life?

New stationery! I'm a stationery geek so was over-the-moon to receive a big parcel all the way from Australia containing tonnes of gorgeous Kikki.K stationery for Christmas. I've filled out my new 2015 diary using my new pens and my iPad is looking pretty with its new berry pink cover on! Literally in stationery heaven!

Daylesford herbal teas. On a recent visit to Daylesford Farm Shop in Kingham, Gloucestershire, I brought two boxes of their tea; green and peppermint. I love green tea so have tried a few different types but theirs is just perfect... not too 'green tea-y' (if you've tried green tea before you'll know what I mean) and the peppermint is so smooth and has been delicious to calm my tummy after stuffing myself at Christmas!

Breezy walks along the Suffolk coast... I've just got back from celebrating New Year in the lovely seaside town of Southwold with my friends and family and my most favourite thing that we did every day was walk along the beautiful beach. Southwold's beach is perfect in Winter... a long stretch of sand with beach huts one end and a pier the other. Along with it's amazing shops, cafes, restaurants and bakeries it's just the best place in the UK to see in the New Year.

My New Year's resolution is...

To meditate daily even if it's for five minutes! Before the Christmas period I completed a morning routine of yoga, skin brushing and meditation which I really found improved my day even after a week or so of doing it. Unfortunately with all the Christmas and New Year celebrations, the routine went AWOL. Meditation reduces stress, helps concentration, increases self-awareness and happiness and slows aging (!) so I plan to do it every day in 2015!

What I'm most looking forward to in 2015 is...

I do want to say Bali but actually I am most looking forward to all the exciting business opportunities in 2015 for Katie & Jane! I love that we don't have a clue where our business will take us next and every day is an adventure! Anything with '5' in is lucky for me so I know 2015 is going to be amazing in so many ways. After a few weeks off for Christmas and New Year I'm raring to get back to work!

The pin that sums me up at the moment is...

Katie & Jane Annual Review: The Year that was 2014… Our Second Year in Business!

Happy New Year and Happy Birthday to us! 

We are now officially two years old and into our third year of business. We have decided to make our annual review a recurring habit and so, as with last year, this blog post looks back over the last 12 months, selecting our highlights, the moments that mattered, what we have learnt, the favourite bits and the challenges we had to overcome.

Apps…

April 2014 saw the launch of our first app Countdown Keeper in the App Store. We developed Countdown Keeper as a simple app to allow us to learn everything we possibly could about the journey of app development and app marketing. We had spent most of 2013 evaluating trends in the App Store and felt that the countdown apps that were available could do with a makeover plus we could see lots of simple features that could improve the experience for consumers of this type of app.

One thing we did do was underestimate the time it would take to test the app – especially for two perfectionists like us, but, in April, we felt it was ready to launch the first version of the app. It was the first time we coined a term we now use frequently in the business; ‘minimum loveable product’ – as long as we know our target consumer is going to love it in its minimum form, we will get it out there and make improvements as we go along.

The most surprising thing of all is that 50,000 people have downloaded Countdown Keeper (something we never, ever thought would happen!) and the authentic app reviews and emails we get from our users are so supportive and exciting to read.

You can find Countdown Keeper in the App Store here, free to download, but to unlock access to all of the features you can upgrade the app for £0.69/$0.99. Our first major improvement and update will be completed by the end of this month.  You can see how our growing community of users love Countdown Keeper and join in with all the fun we have on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter & Google+ too. www.countdownkeeper.com

Social Media…

2014 saw us further establish Katie & Jane as a social media training offering. We had a whole lot of fun working with the team at Virgin Trains in 2014, helping them to further their expertise in social media – they really do have one of the best customer relations team we have ever worked with. Working so closely with the team we have realised how valuable social media toolkits are and so, for 2015, we have some exciting changes on the horizon resulting in lots more toolkits and an online hub especially created just for them! Watch this space…

We also spent a lot of effort on our own social media channels in 2014. We know how effective they are as a marketing tool, and more importantly an amazing way to hear from customers and people in the network. We currently juggle 11 separate social media channels for our business all with their own strategies and target audience. We are enjoying watching them grow organically and testing which are working best for us too – you can’t go too wrong with social media if you are learning from it all the time! 

You can find all our social media channels on our relevant websites throughout this blog post, and to see Katie & Jane across social head to the hashtag #katieandjane on Twitter, click here for Facebook and follow all our inspiring images across the whole of the business on Instagram and Pinterest.

Our ‘By Katie and Jane’ blog is still going strong and we truly love documenting our journey. We can’t wait to look back on our posts ten years from now and we hope you enjoy reading them, but mostly we hope they are helpful and inspiring – as simple as that!

Food…

The greatest, scariest and challenging step forward in 2014 came about this time last year when we decided to start taking the idea of a vegetarian hot dog truck seriously… and there was no turning back once we’d decided our new venture would be called Not Dogs!

Not Dogs was created because we struggled to find mouth-watering veggie food and trustworthy meaty meals while out and about at festivals and outdoor events. Ever since we created the idea, we have put the consumer and our brand values at the forefront of the many daily decisions we make, most of which we had absolutely no experience in at the beginning.

What a difference a year makes, from concept to us making it happen; our highlights have been Lovebox, Festival No6 and ending the year at the Oxford Christmas Market. We were runners up in Virgin’s search for the 'Tastiest Start Up', just missing out on the title but finalists as Virgin Food Entrepreneurs. You can see our pitch to Richard Branson, Paul Lindley, Hemsley & Hemsley, Michela Chiappa and Mina Holland in the video below (we're at 5 mins 47 seconds in!) Write ups in Stylist Magazine, making the final 30 in most inspiring women and praise from Elle Magazine, then finishing with wonderful review in the Oxford Times Business Section ended the year on an incredible high.

It’s been the hardest work of our lives, Katie has chef fingers now and Jane has endured many guacamole and French’s mustard explosions, but we have had the best fun, met so many amazing and supportive people who already love Not Dogs and of course some of the funniest characters who have had us in tears laughing. For 2015 we have lots of plans yet to be finalised but could involve a London pop-up venture, Summer festivals, European adventures and much, much more! Keep up to date with us on Twitter, Instagram and find out more here www.notdogs.co.uk

2015…

Who knows what this year has in store, but we are already working on lots of changes to Katie & Jane – all good we promise! We have an exciting new online project which we will be launching by Spring, a new app to start developing, Not Dogs events, social media projects and lots of fun! As always, you’ll find out about it first here.

Have a positive and motivating January, here’s to the next 12 months!

Katie & Jane x