Summer Special - The Best Things in Life

This 'Best Things in Life' blog post brings together both June and July's inspirations from our favourite Red Magazine. The sun is (finally!) shining, festival season is in full swing and we are feeling good!

Katie

The best things in life...

I am loving Luke Johnson’s weekly article in the Sunday Times Business Section, my recent favourite was on ‘The Anatomy of a True Leader’ which discussed elements that are crucial such as the ability to motivate, reliability in a crisis, frugality and financial literacy…to name but a few! We met Luke when Not Dogs was named by DEFRA as one of its 50 Food Stars last year and he gave us some unfailingly honest advice which actually turned out to be very true!

A 2015 summer spot this year has to be the champagne roof top terrace at Marco Pierre White in Birmingham’s The Cube – it’s a real sun trap combined with an energetic atmosphere, and the cocktails are delicious!

As the meat-eater in the Not Dogs duo, I love how Quorn helps me to go meat-free and reduce my carbon footprint. The latest test taste I carried out was the humble chicken nugget…I haven’t had a chicken nugget in years, mainly because of being conscious about eating cheap & untrustworthy meat…one word….WOW. I dare any meat-eater to give it a go!

What marks the start of summer for you?

A BBQ at my mum’s house – this year I’ll be offering up some delicious meat-free delights!

The one thing I can't travel without is...

One million bags, even though I have travelled so many times I still haven’t mastered the art of streamlining my travel essentials… and if I’m traveling by car, I’ll fill it up in no time. The other thing I always have handy is a scarf – perfect for covering up on a chilly plane journey!

My favourite summer inspired pin is...

Jane

The best things in life...

Light is the New Black book by Rebecca Campbell - I recently stumbled across a few quotes from the Hay House author on Addictive Daughter's Instagram channel and quickly pre-ordered the Kindle version of her first book. I brought it the day it came out and I've not been able to put it down since! It's positive, inspiring and written by a modern-day 'jet-setter with a gypsy spirit' (love that description!).

My morning routine - I've really made an effort to follow a morning routine of; an espresso while writing my to do list for the day, followed by meditation (just five minutes if that's all I can manage) and then ten minutes of fun yoga using the PopSugar app. While at Glastonbury and coming to terms with sleeping in a tent, I lost the routine and once I was home really saw the impact that not doing it for a few days had on me.

Sunshine - For me, waking up to blue skies and sunshine makes such a difference to my day. It instantly makes me happy and itching to get outside to start my day off right. I think I was born for sunny climates!

What marks the start of summer for you?

The first festival of the year - BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend! The start of summer used to be the summer break from school and moving to France for two months, then it turned into finishing work for a holiday when I worked 9-5 but now it's the first festival for Not Dogs! Now summer goes by in a fun blur of sausages, new cities, hotels and laughter with Katie. Oh how my life has changed but I wouldn't have it any other way!

The one thing I can't travel without is...

My pink squashy pillow, or mooshy as I like to call it (embarrassing!). It's perfect for the airplane or car and it gives me a little piece of home wherever I sleep!

My favourite summer inspired pin is...

Sir Richard Branson gets Not Dogged with the Ultimate #SausageSelfie & Happy Birthday to Us!

Last week we were invited by the lovely team at Virgin StartUp to watch the live finale of Pitch to Rich – a campaign by Virgin Media to award three businesses an amazing package of business support. Nine finalists pitched live to Sir Richard Branson and his judging panel which this year consisted of the inspirational; Jo Malone MBE, Supermodel turned business investor; David Gandy, Vegetarian CEO of the hugely successful Shutterstock; Jon Oringer and founder of Mumsnet; Justine Roberts.

Last year Not Dogs made the live final of Virgin’s Foodpreneur competition which saw us cook live in front of the judges, including Richard Branson so we really felt the nerves of the final few! Last year as the judging panel took Q&As and as we sat furiously scribbling notes on the front row, Richard gave the valuable advice that you should never be afraid to make a fool of yourself to get your brand noticed. Following that, he directed a question at me (Katie) and asked outright what we’d been doing to make fools of ourselves for Not Dogs in the past year. 

By September 2014, just three months since our first event, there was a growing list of things I could mention! We’d named vegetarian hotdogs after ourselves, decorated a food truck in bright purple zig zags and driven it into Middleton Hall (as in physically into the wall of the hall!), only narrowly missing the lake. We had been so busy organising the delivery of 1,500 hotdogs to Coventry, that we’d forgotten where we were going to store them – a shout out here to Bob the freezer man who kindly let us borrow all the freezers in his shop last summer! We’d even bought (wait for this) purple and orange slippers each as a crazy IKEA purchase (this should not have been a priority) and, this one is Jane's favourite - I once pushed the trailer so hard I fell down face first in chicken poo. It was safe to say we left our pride at the door of our little food truck as we embarked on our Not Dogs journey!

Apart from these happenings, we hadn’t actually chosen to go out of our comfort zone to truly make a fool of ourselves and at the prospect of bumping into Sir Richard himself again at another Virgin event, we thought maybe we’d take him up on his advice. We decided we were going to make a fool of ourselves to get our brand noticed with the aim of getting the ultimate #sausageselfie to celebrate our 1st Birthday!

Yep... it took every piece of confidence we had but we dressed up as walking Not Dogs making people laugh all the way from Euston Station to the event in Shoreditch and taking lots of Sausage Selfies with all kinds of people! Our first was Paul O'Grady after Jane spotted him at the station!

The Pitch to Rich event was fantastic and we heard from some great businesses and entrepreneurs. We, as ever, were inspired by Jo Malone who spoke very poignantly about being relentless as an entrepreneur, every single time you want to quit, keep going, because tomorrow the whole landscape can change in just a day – so very true. 

We really enjoyed speaking to vegetarian Jon Oringer who's creation Shutterstock has been going from strength-to-strength since 2003. More standout advice came from stylish investor David Gandy who said when pitching, many investors want to know about the people behind the business and the human elements of the brand rather than simply the figures - something Jane and I have been building within the Not Dogs brand.

Of course Richard wasn’t going anywhere until we’d captured the ultimate #sausageselfie – a lifetime goal for both of us!

This week marked the 1st birthday of Not Dogs… wow what a year. We've grown quicker than we could have ever dreamed of, met some very inspirational people and are building a brand we are so proud of. We can’t tell you how exciting the journey has been so far and how thankful we are to our customers who support us from all over the UK. We couldn’t and wouldn’t be doing this without you all!

We've very excited to be continuing our second summer tour this weekend with our return to Godiva Festival in Coventry, followed by Lovebox and Citadel in London. We hope to meet many more of you over the summer - you can view the full line up at www.notdogs.co.uk

Keep up to date with us on Twitter, Instagram & Facebook too!

Here's to a successful year two with tonnes more #sausageselfie photos... Wonder who

can beat the ultimate one with Sir Branson!?

Eat. Sleep. Not Dogs

Katie & Jane x

Our Best Things in Life in May

With all the Not Dogs activity going on recently, we're a little behind on our Best Things in Life but here's the lowdown on all the best things in May!

Katie

Best Things in Life...

French’s Mustard… before Not Dogs I hadn’t had French’s Mustard for years and now it’s a staple in my cupboard at home, even after a weekend of serving up lots of Plain Jane Not Dogs & Original Franks! We recently met the brand team who seemed to really like how we use their products and with their recent tweet we are very excited to be working more with them in the future!

City breaks… I recently spent a weekend in Amsterdam with my lovely friends and we laughed the whole time, bike rides, delicious food, gorgeous drinks and well-needed catch ups in a beautiful and diverse setting was perfect. The next city I am going to see is Manchester for a lovely night out soon and in September we are taking Not Dogs to the Manchester Food & Drink Festival too!

I have read a lot of interviews with Ultimo founder; Michelle Mone recently, and I am always left feeling so inspired by her grit and determination to succeed. UTan is her latest innovation, billed as the first scentless fake tan, she has launched a selection of radiant tanning products that create a natural-looking, streak-free tan…I can’t wait to try it in time for the Summer.

My definition of beauty is... laughing – nobody looks better than when they are laughing & to quote an all-time favourite “You’re never fully dressed without a smile”

The pin I am feeling at the moment is...

Jane

Best Things in Life...

Having my own business - This is a bit of a large statement but it really is one of the best things in life and our first Not Dogs festival in May has made me appreciate it. Spending 12 hours in the food truck serving tonnes of delicious Not Dogs to the BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend Norwich crowds was damn hard work but looking back, there's no other 'normal' job that comes close to the highs you get from having your own business. The highest-high of the weekend came when we were on our way home and Radio 1 DJ Greg James mentioned Not Dogs on the radio! So proud!

Actually finishing a book! It's tough for me to actually finish a book (see above!) but I managed it in May - How to Love by Katie Cotugno was an addictive easy-read on the trials and tribulations of teenage love. It's the perfect summer book to make you smile.

Living in the country... after our stint in London, the bright lights and loudness of the big city makes me immensely happy to come home to my little village in the country. Growing up, there was nothing I wanted more than to move to town where I didn't have to depend on lifts from my parents to go out but now, coming home, visiting the local pub and walking the dog is my idea of perfection!

My definition of beauty is... confidence - as simple as that. It doesn't matter what you look like, how you do your make-up or what clothes you choose to wear, if you have confidence you are one of the most beautiful people in the room. I wish I listened to this advice years ago as I wouldn't have spent time worrying about what I looked like, or what people thought. When I'm feeling confident and happy in my own skin, I feel truly beautiful.

The pin I am feeling at the moment is...

The Best Things in Life in April

Keeping up our Best Things in Life is very important to us as it makes us happy to look back on how far we've come and also our feelings each month so despite not having time to breathe sometimes at Not Dogs London here's April's blog post...

Katie

Best Things in Life

I used Easter to finally visit the National Space Centre which I can honestly say was absolutely brilliant. Along with the other children I had lots of fun crawling through space tunnels and learning about how heavy a can of baked beans would be on each of the different planets. The best bit was the fantastic show at The Planetarium, narrated by Rupert Grint. ‘We are Aliens’ was a stunningly produced short film exploring the possibility of life on other planets, I would urge anyone to go & get your mind blown!

Seeing how much my mum uses Countdown Keeper! I know she is totally biased, but she uses the app how we envisioned and hoped people would use it, and she loves using it every day to keep track of her very busy social life – it definitely makes me smile!

Creating a new Not Dog!  On our travels in Bali we enjoyed a delicious breakfast which has now inspired a brand new Not Dog topping, we will be trialing it at a private event later this month, but it has already past the Katie & Jane test, so watch this space!

How would you describe your personal style?

I have a simple rule I live by when it comes to personal style – stick to what I feel comfortable in. This ensures that whatever trend or style is in season, I wear my version of it. My mum has always said it’s not what you wear, it’s how you wear it. Although saying this; my personal style has took somewhat of a downturn lately as all I’ve been wearing is my ‘Kickin’ Katie’ Not Dogs uniform!

What's your favourite thing about London?

At the moment it has to be The Shard, I get to walk past it every day and look at it from afar before I go to bed at night and it really is magnificent! My friends will always be my true favourite thing about London, it’s always a great excuse to visit and enjoy the capital.

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

Jane

Best Things in Life

Easter - well actually, the whole Easter weekend... a lovely break to catch-up with friends and family and also the perfect excuse to eat chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner! I brought some beautiful Easter treats from Daylesford - the real hens eggs with praline chocolate inside were out of this world!

Wedding fever! Although I'm not one to have dreamed of a fairytale wedding I'm getting very excited about one of my oldest and best friends big day in May. I was over-the-moon when Lucy asked me to be her bridesmaid and cannot wait for a full-filled day spent with our closest family and friends in our little village.

The Botanist, Birmingham - We had a wonderful lunch on the opening day of The Botanist in central Birmingham. There's six restaurants around the UK all serving an amazing selection of botanical drinks and inspired food. Herbs are everywhere in this unique place, not only in the food and drinks but as decorations too which makes you feel like you're in a homely greenhouse. The service was excellent and our lunch of perfectly baked camembert, beef BBQ skewer with rosemary seasoned chips and scampi in a basket with homemade tartar sauce in a mini watering can was a lovely escape from Easter chocolate!

How would you describe your personal style?

I love to dress for the occasion - you'll regularly see me in a 'themed' outfit - Easter pinks and yellows, Christmas tartan and reindeers and summer pineapples! But, in this fast-paced digital age, I love how trends are so personal now, no longer do you pick up Vogue to see the latest season's fashions but head to Pinterest and Instagram and get inspired by other people's personal styles. I'd say my personal style is a mix of what I feel amazing in, the trends and a touch of online inspiration but overall I simply pick clothes based on my mood whether that's carefree in the Summer or glammed-up for a night out!

What's your favourite thing about London?

I love that there's so many amazing things to keep you entertained in London. Katie and I have a 'London List' filled with things we'd like to do while living there part-time... we've already managed to tick off a few including pushing ourselves to the limit at the Skinny Bitch Collective, enjoying Spanish tapas at Jose on Bermondsey Street and picking up an amazing coffee at TheWatch House. Next on the list is take a class at Frame and go to Richard Branson's favourite Greek restaurant!

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

Social Media Toolkit Reblog

We're pleased to launch our new project... Social Media Toolkits - an online hub of social media guidance and toolkits used by some of the best-loved brands.

If you would like to browse our collection of social media toolkits head to: www.socialmediatoolkits.co.uk

We’ve been blogging about social media for two years, and this is our new home to make it more easy, accessible and simple for you to pick up social media tips, knowledge and advice from the team.

The aim of our new online hub is to bring you the very best toolkits to help you create, develop and manage a successful social media presence for a company, brand or offering.

Click here to browse the collection and choose from the following toolkits....

Awareness Day Calendar

Packed with more than 600 events including national awareness days, sporting events, album releases and holidays. This 2015 calendar is designed to inspire your social media content. Each event has been researched to find the relevant social media links and hashtags for 2015.

Social Media Content Calendar

If you know you need to plan your social media content, but not sure where to start this content calendar template is there to ensure your content is inspired and planned effectively. Inside you’ll find examples and tips on how best to fill your calendar too.

Social Media Strategy Template

Let’s face it, without a plan, you plan to fail! This strategy template is designed to help you plan your social media activity for a long period of time, including all the elements you need to consider and examples and tips throughout to help you create your very own bespoke strategy.

Social Media Evaluation Template

Evaluating your social media activity is so important in letting you know what’s working and what needs to be improved. This evaluation template includes all the activity that can be evaluated, using online tools for free, including how to evaluate your social media platforms with helpful tips and examples throughout.

Social Media Audit Template

If you want to regularly audit your social media activity in a simple but effective way, this toolkit will enable you to give yourself an overview of stats. It’s also helpful in making quick comparisons against competitors too.

Social Media Recipe for Success eBook

This jam-packed eBook gives you the insider knowledge of how to create a successful social media presence. It contains hints, tips and real-life examples so you can fully understand what sets an ordinary social media presence apart from an outstanding one.

We hope you find our toolkits helpful and inspiring, and rest assured we have lots more to come your way too including a Social Media Policy Toolkit which will be available to download in March.

If you have any questions please email us at smile@katieandjane.com and remember to keep up to date with us on Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ where we will post regular social media advice and tips too.

SMT team

The Best Things in Life... in March

Spring has sprung; the sun is shining and the lambs are bouncing around the fields but we've moved out of the country and into London to open our first Not Dogs pop-up shop! In our 'Best Things in Life' this month we talk feeling inspired, veggie chilli, new coffee love and exploring new areas.

Katie

Best things in life?

Being inspired daily by Sam Baker, ex-editor at Red Magazine & now very successful author. Each day she tweets a quote from somebody she admires with the hashtag #todayimchannelling – I always find it such a positive and happy start to the day. You can find Sam tweeting @SamBaker

Launching our very first Not Dogs pop-up shop in London and meeting all our new customers – the feedback across Twitter & Instagram has been so exciting to see! Our most popular dog so far has been The Original Frank, and we’ve been having fun collecting lots of #SausageSelfies. We’re very busy creating lots of new recipe ideas, so those looking for a lighter or vegan option – watch this space!

The Pool UK is a very exciting, but secretive new concept launched by Lauren Laverne this month, and all we know so far is that it aims to give opportunities to women. Lauren has been quoted as saying “There’s loads of us out there; I wanna claim our half of the world!” I guess we’ll just have to be patient for the time being… www.the-pool.com

What's your favourite Not Dog?

I’ve chosen from our Winter menu as I want to highlight how much I love vegetarian chilli! The Cha-Cha Chilli Dog is packed with our home-made chilli con carne, with a layer of tortilla chips and finished off with a sprinkle of birds eye chilli flakes – it’s a spicy dog that’s for sure! To me, there is nothing lost in substituting meat in a chilli to Quorn, in fact I find it tastier & far more lighter, but still very meaty too!

The pin of the moment for me is...

 Jane

Best things in life?

The Watch House, Bermondsey - Katie and I are living in Bermondsey while we're running the Not Dogs pop-up shop and it seems like a really distinctive, funky area to be in. We stumbled upon The Watch House on Bermondsey Street one morning - an artisan coffee shop located within a unique 19th Century building with housed guards who protected the churchyard graves. There's loads more amazing restaurants and bars that I can't wait to try.

The new Starbucks Maple Macchiato - there's a big marketing push on Starbucks' new drink and, of course, I've been sucked in by all the amazing branding so my usual Skinny Caramel Cappuccino has been relegated and the Maple Macchiato is in!

The Skinny Bitch Collective - SBC is loved by many of the amazing, inspirational women I follow on Instagram so I had to find out more about this wellness and lifestyle project created by Russell Bateman. The collective promotes lean, strong, empowering women and is loved by Millie Mackintosh and Ellie Goulding to name a few. While Katie and I are in London I really hope we can attend the 'illusive class designed to throw you as far away from your comfort zone as possible'!

What's your favourite Not Dog?

I should say the Plain Jane as it's obviously 'my dog' but I'll have to go with Hello Houmous as although I love houmous I really didn't think it would go well on our Not Dogs but that's the surprising thing... it so does! Quorn Bratwurst, Houmous, Roasted Red Peppers and Smoked Paprika make for a pretty perfect Not Dog!

The pin of the moment for me is...

Not Dogs is… London bound!

After a fantastic time at the DEFRA Food Stars event at Downing Street last week we are beyond excited to announce that we will be opening our very first pop-up shop in London SE1 from Tuesday 10 March!

On a windy day in Oxford last year we were approached by the team at The Moveable Feast and invited to join their new veggie food emporium located in London SE1. Fearlessly, we said Yes!

We can’t wait to welcome festival-going Not Dog regulars as well as new customers to our first pop-up venture and serve up our tasty NotDog creations as well as try out some exciting new ideas too!

Our bestsellers will take pride of place in the window and the menu will include our favourite ‘Meaty Dogs without the Meat’ including the Plain Jane, Kickin’ Katie Nacho Dog, The Original Frank, Cha-Cha Chilli Dog & many more tantalising delights that will amaze and excite our customers every day!

Initially we'll be open from Monday-Saturday at:

The Moveable Feast

2, 21/27 St Thomas Street

London

SE1 9RY

Check out our social media channels for all the details and opening times and we’ll see you there very soon for a #SausageSelfie!

We’ll be recruiting for people to join our Not Dogs team in London soon, to register your interest send us an email at smile@katieandjane.com

We have lots of festivals to embark on in our little purple food truck this year too, so don’t worry if London is too far a stretch for a Not Dog, we’ll hopefully catch you in a sunny festival field from June onwards.

We do want to say a huge thank you to the Secretary of State for DEFRA Elizabeth Truss & her team for the Government's 'Food Stars' initiative and reception at Downing Street last week. We had a truly brilliant day and met and heard from a host of inspirational, motivational and well-connected influencers and press within the food industry. With their feedback on Not Dogs and DEFRA’S support for 2015 we are confident in embracing our next phase of growth…watch this space! (eek!)

Eat. Sleep. Not Dogs

Katie x