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2017 is over and it is exciting to fondly look back into some remarkable 2017 memories. It is also great to share the excitement of 2018 with our Joy and Joe families all around the world. Last year, we shared this blog post: https://www.joyandjoebaby.com/blog/16-interesting-facts-about-our-2016-and-17-things-to-expect-from-us-in-2017 So we thought about doing the same for 2018!  2017 was an 'interesting' year for us as brand and family! Please check out some of our highlights 1. A reweave of some of our iconic designs in a completely new scale, colours and weave. Our connected Louise storm, Connected Melissa Olive, Amaranthus Vicki Feathers were well received last year
2. New packaging! Our higher end wraps were presented to our customers with a luxury reusable magnetic box, all nicely presented as per our usual. Our regular range were presented with our new branded and reusable postal bags and this will continue in 2018  3. New bamboo stretchy wraps which included our first patterned bamboo wrap, the classic monochrome stripes  4. Our very first brick and mortar boutique style showroom named the Joy and Joe babywearing gallery was officially opened and attended by the Mayor and Mayoress of St Helens earlier this year  5. We turned six and we had our anniversary event including an online event to commemorate this milestone  6. Our founder and director Adebisi was nominated for the talk of Manchester business award and she was announced as the 2017 best female entrepreneur of the year at the award glamorous ceremony in Manchester  7. We welcomed our 2017 brand ambassadors into the Joy and Joe family earlier last year  8. We organised the official launch event for our new bamboo stretchy wraps and we all had so much fun on the day  9. Our embrace wrapping scheme for new families took off and we are happy to say that we enabled lots of new wrappers 10. We enjoyed lots of instagram takeovers facilitated by our 2017 ambassadors and it was an opportunity to get to see the behind the scenes from the perspective of diverse babywearing families 11. We also enjoyed lots of amazing facebook live videos also facilitated by our superb team of 2017 ambassadors 12. Our successful 2018 ambassadors were announced  13. We reprinted our dear new babywearer book  14. Our dear new babywearer box as announced as part of our 2017 customer support initiatives 15: We welcomed laurna, one of our 2017 ambassadors into the Joy and Joe staff team  16: We partnered with the st Helens council via a back to work scheme and we interviewed lots of potential st Helens based employees. We eventually selected lucy to work with us at the Joy and Joe gallery  17: We enjoyed your fabulous customer reviews and testimonials in 2017.
For 2018, these are some of things that we are looking forward to:
14. Our embrace wrapping scheme will be extended to stretchy wraps in 2018. Can we get a happy ‘yayyyy’ for this good news! 15. You can also anticipate some really fantastic customer incentives that will be exclusive to our chatter page members. If you’ve not joined us, today is the day to do so. We are waiting to welcome you into our friendly Joy and Joe community 16. We are planning to release a sequel to our dear new babywearer book. What sort of books are you looking forward to? 17. For our instagram followers, you can expect some super inspiring and humorous instagram posts. That is also where you will get some exclusive behind the scene gists from us 18. Conclusively, we anticipate that our brand name will be changing in 2018 haha! Can anyone guess why that is a possibility? Hint: our Joy and Joe brand name is an eponymous one!
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To celebrate our latest achievement as a brand, we are offering a whooping 45% off any slings on our website for one week. Use code ‘THETOMS’ when you get to our website checkout  oA couple of weeks ago, we got the exciting news that someone nominated our founder and director, Adebisi for the 2017 best female entrepreneur in the talk of Manchester business ward. The final winner was going to be announced during their award night which was scheduled to take place on the 30th November 2017 at the Manchester Piccadilly hotel. The talk of Manchester award is a business award that celebrates businesses in Manchester and environs. The TOMS have fast become one of the region’s most recognised business awards. Voted for by customers, they recognise leading companies from a variety of industries in the region, including marketing, recruitment, law and finance – with a special nod to entrepreneurs. If you went through the list of nominees, you will observe that tons of businesses and business owners were nominated. We had to wait until around about midnight for the two major awards of the night, the best female and male entrepreneur of the year. Adebisi’s hands were shaking when her photo suddenly appeared on the screen as the final winner. Wow, we won! Joy and Joe baby wraps won! The best female entrepreneur 2017 awarded by the talk of Manchester business award #theTOMS. This is our major win for 2017. Two years ago, we won the first prize in the university of Manchester venture further award. Many thanks to everyone who took out time to vote for Adebisi. Thanks so much for believing her and in the Joy and Joe brand. Upwards and upwards only! To celebrate our latest achievement as a brand, we are offering a whooping 45% off any slings on our website for one week. Use code ‘THETOMS’ when you get to our website checkout www.joyandjoe.co.uk Thanks for celebrating with us      The significance of our official brand ambassadors Being customer centric is a very important aspect of our ethos. We believe that the Joy and Joe experience is beyond simply ordering a sling from our website. We love communicating with our Joy and Joe families whilst simultaneously nurturing new relationships. We relate with each customer with so much attention because our strength lies in our relationships. As a family owned company, we recognize the fact that we can't exist as an island of our own. We have always pondered on innovating different ways by which we can inspire our existing and new fans. This was the reason why in 2014-2015, we created the carrymyjoy vlog series, we quickly recognized that visuals go a long way towards passing across a message compared to the written word. Late 2015, we decided to take the plunge and plan our first ambassador program, despite having never organised an ambassador program before, we were incredibly inspired by the quality of the babywearers that we now call friends here at Joy and Joe. We also love that the ambassadors have not only started new friendships, they've also made our social media platforms more human. For us, ‘people talking to people’ is a core ingredient of our social existence. We love the banter, chit-chats and action photos. Thanks to our 2016, 2017 ambassadors; we feel that we are a lot closer to our customers than ever before. This has now given us the inspiration to further this ambassador program. After a rigorous selection which wasn't easy at all because we loved majority of the applicants, we are pleased to introduce to you the faces of Joy and Joe in 2018.  Our new ambassadors will be leading conversations synonymous with the friendly Joy and Joe community vibe both online and offline. We want new babywearers to see our ambassadors, feel a connection and say I think I'd love to give babywearing a try! Our 2018 ambassador team is composed of talented babywearers from different professional backgrounds and diverse countries. Yes, buying a sling from the Joy and Joe website is lovely and it's a necessary ingredient if we must constantly grow and exist as a British business. However, we want to be a brand that constantly seeks to do more for our families, we mean our customers. Our chatter page is undoubtedly one of the friendliest online babywearing communities around. Are you in doubt? Check our dear new babywearer book and see for yourself! Well, we believe that this bond has been enhanced by the presence of our ambassadors. We want everyone to feel loved, listened to and valued. Well, we can go on and on, but hopefully if you didn't understand the significance of our ambassadors, we hope you now get it. Please don't forget to send each of our 2018 brand ambassadors your best wishes. Consider that each of them have various responsibilities like you and I but have decided to step up to support us, support you and see that the Joy and Joe vision further advances. Without further ado, please join us as we welcome our official 2018 ambassadors and hear what each of them has to say (outlined in no particular sequence)         Let’s compare our new bamboo stretchy wrap and cotton stretchy wrap You’ve probably read our introductory post on our new bamboo stretchy wrap that we are set to launch on the 25th of November at the lighthouse venue, Eccles, Salford, Greater Manchester. Please click here to reserve your seat because our ticket booking is set to end on the 11th of this month. We thought that it will be nice to give you a comparison of both wraps because they are so different in quality yet they have some similarities!  First let’s talk about the similarities
 Time to explore the differences between these two Joy and Joe siblings
 Did you spot any other similarities or differences that you’d like us to add to the above list? Please leave us a comment below and let us know (thank you) By the way our bamboo pre-order is still open : SPECIAL OFFER. ENJOY 20% OFF WITH THE CODE JJBAMBOO Closing date for pre-order: 20th November 2017 Dispatch date: Collect from our launch event on the 25th or receive via post from 26th November 2017. Babywearing educators, sling librarians and consultants are entitled to our sling library discount, please consider joining our sling library support group to take advantage of our special offers or simply email laurna@joyandjoebaby.co.uk for more information.   You are specially invitedCome and enjoy our annual Christmas party! When: Saturday, 25th November, 2017 @ 12noon Where: 12 Centenary Park, Coronet Way, Eccles Salford, Manchester M50 1RE Greater Manchester This year, we are not just celebrating Christmas, but also the launch of our new bamboo wrap! We are so excited about this new product and we hope you love it as much as we do! What else will you be able to enjoy? - Exciting new product launch - Champagne reception - A yummy Christmas buffet, - LIVE music and karaoke - Raffles and giveaways - Stock to purchase and try - Stalls And there will be a Babywearing fashion show to showcase our beautiful wraps being worn by some of our lovely fans! Tickets will be priced as follows: * Educators and librarians £0 * General admission tickets (minus Christmas hamper) £6 * VIP Tickets (plus Christmas hamper) £16 VIP ticket holders will also be entered into our draw to win surprise prizes   6th Anniversary speech In the beginning, we were inspired by the huge benefits that a close skin to skin gave our own children especially while they were poorly and we then created our own range of stretchy wraps to fill this gap because of the added advantage of a pre-tie that stretchy wraps have. After a few years, we started getting lots of inquires from customers with older babies and toddlers so we responded by entering into the world of woven baby slings. We started with mixed blends maxi-roses and we then moved on to the highly sought after SMPs. Our biggest achievements came when we employed the services of one of the highly experienced UK textile experts and together, we created a special weave that had never been experienced before in the world of babywearing. A double layered weave that felt and wrapped like merino wool yet woven with high quality natural cotton yarns. Our fountain of love launch was huge and the feedback has been fantastic. In 2015, we entered into the prestigious business competition organised by the University of Manchester and we won the first prize. Despite our monumental growth, we are still a family business as our priority asides manufacturing beautiful and high quality British made slings is to nurture our children with all our might. We knew that with their complex special needs, they will need long term care and we wanted to be involved in the lives of children 100%, so a typical 9-5 job would never suit our type of family. Today, we have so much peace above anything else and our children are moving beautifully in the right direction. All these won't have been achievable without your continued and loyal support, here's a heartfelt thank you from us. A more comprehensive timeline of our achievements so far: Around 2010, we started making stretchy wraps from our conservatory. This was in addition to the craft items we made at the time and it included items such as bibs and washable wipes etc Around 2011, we started as subsidiary of Goodprice limited (owned by Mayor Osundeko) and our stretchy wrap fan base grew exponentially so we stopped making baby wipes and bibs. At this stage, we scored 3.5/5 in the UK bizziebaby awards. We started donating a percentage of our proceed to the down's syndrome association and several other smaller UK charities. Bisi, director of Joy and Joe trained and became a babywearing consultant. Her current areas of interest are babywearing disabled children and her future aspiration is to create more awareness for babywearing with a Yoruba kanga-like textile called 'OJA' i.e (ethnic babywearing). Her plan is to go from sling library to library to demonstrate how this has to be correctly done. Around, 2012, we moved into our own eCommerce platform and social media platforms. We won multiple awards for our stretchy wraps, we finally won bizziebaby gold awards with our score jumping to 4.7/5. These were assessed by a team of mums randomly selected and completely anonymous to us. We also received over 53 positive reviews and mentions from notable UK mummy bloggers including a 5 star rating by geeky mama. We then added woven wraps to our collection of baby slings. We wanted sturdier slings for people whose babies have outgrown our stretchy wraps. The maxi-roses, blackberry ripple and SMP was born. We started weaving with one of the UK most talented artisan weavers run by a father and son team. In 2014, we took on our own company accountant and lawyer. We became a UK limited liability company and our brand name Joy and Joe baby became a registered trademark. We then took on another weaving house to boost our production and our SMP noir was born. We also launched a vlog series called #carrymyjoy chronicles. We also stepped our tailoring up further by employing the service of a highly experienced tailoring house based in Rochdale, UK. We were invited to the Manchester children's hospital to present our slings to the staff and parents in the NICU and we donated some of our stretches to the NICU ward. In 2015, we then won the first prize venture further awards and moved into our own office premises. We were also featured in the highly sought after documentary. We launched our high end fountain of love wraps and our quirky wooden keepsake boxes were introduced. Around December 2015, we launched our very first ambassador program for 2016 and we are so proud of the the family relationship that we all share. We have so many aspirations for the future and putting this together has given us the re-assurance that we have indeed come a long way considering our very humble beginnings. This year, we welcomed our 2017 ambassadors. We moved into our new ultra-modern HQ that we named ‘ The Joy and Joe babywearing gallery ’ and our official launch event was officiated by the Mayor and Mayoress of ST Helens. Products wise, we have branched into blankets / throws, bamboo stretchy wraps and our soft structured carrier (soon to be released). Joy and Joe founder, Adebisi was also nominated for ' the talk of Manchester' business awards under the ‘Female entrepreneur of the year’ category. We couldn’t have achieved all of the above without your loyal support and patronage. We also appreciate our fantastic team of admins and ambassadors. Our admin and ambassadors play a huge role in maintaining the fun and loving relationship that we have within the Joy and Joe wrap family. If you are completely new to Joy and Joe, why not join our chatter page so that we can get to know you. Our admins and ambassadors will certainly make you feel very welcome. To ensure that you stay in the loop, why not sign up to our newsletters as well. We are also always searching for talents, if you have any suggestions on how we can collaborate, please get in touch. In a few months time, we will be opening our doors to our 2018 ambassadors. How exciting! For the future, we are working on some really fun projects that we will be announcing on our chatter page from time to time. Thank you all so much and keep on carrying your joy with love. Cheers, Bisi Osundeko      Hello Joy and Joe families, hope all is well over at your end. It's almost as if we took a two months hiatus starting from the summer holiday period. We've been so busy working on some new projects (our new bamboo stretchy wrap and our upcoming soft structured carrier). We had our admin and ambassador exclusive woven wraps on our loom at the time so we had to pause the releases of our woven wraps. Plus, we went to Disneyland over the holiday and it probably took us way longer to recover from the playful Disney excitement haha! We also planned and executed a beautiful 10th birthday party for our daughter Joy so this kept us occupied. You can find photos and videos from Joy's party on our Joy and Joe family Instagram page. Anyway, we are glad to be back to work and what better way it is to mark our return than with a woven wrap release! We also received news about my (Adebisi) 'talk of Manchester' business award nomination, so this is such an exciting time. Without further ado, meet our latest woven wrap releases  If you were at the sling show Scotland, there's a likelihood that you must have spotted or tried on some of these new wraps. You will find a videos on our Facebook page. Do let us know what you think and which of these beautiful wraps are you are going to snap up?  Haydock SMP woven wrapOriginal SMP design Original double weave Limited edition Part of our artisan Yorkshire collection Blend: 50% cotton, 10% ethically sourced luxurious wool, 15% tencel, 15% linen Quad Pricing: RS: £175, Medium : £215, Large: £235, XL: £245, XXL: £255 Thick, super supportive and your perfect workhorse for heavier babies/ toddlers. We selected the perfect textile picks to ensure that the contrast of the black and white comes out distinctively. The last time we wove a black and white SMP in this exact weave structure was in 2013 so you’ll all agree that we are kind of overdue for a re-weave. This time, we are giving you a quad blend version! Crafted with a high end British weaving artistry and distinction. The shiver me paisleys design is a strikingly beautiful cornucopia of paisleys and skulls, ornamented with some artistic fine details, all intricately woven together. Loomstate and initially slightly stiff at first but your wrap will break in nicely with constant use and good washing over time. Please be careful not to over wash your wrap though. Many detergents reduce the longevity of any iuuwrap fabric if over used. Although we advise hand washing to ensure the longevity of your wrap, if you use the gentle setting of your washing machine, your wrap can withstand that.      A remainder of our 2017 admin and ambassador exclusives The colour way and blend was chosen by our fantastic team of admins and ambassadors. Original SMP design Original double weave Limited edition Part of our artisan Yorkshire collection Blend: 60% cotton, 15% tencel, 15% linen Triblend: Snood: £35, RS: £135, Medium : £155, Large: £175, XL: £185, XXL: 195 Thick, super supportive and your perfect workhorse for heavier babies/ toddlers.  The purple warp here is the same as that of the admin/ambaadoe exclusive but the weft her is a mix of golden yellow and torquoise Original SMP design Original double weave Limited edition Part of our artisan Yorkshire collection Blend: 60% cotton, 15% tencel, 15% linen Triblend: Snood: £35, RS: £135, Medium : £155, Large: £175, XL: £185, XXL: 195 Thick, super supportive and your perfect workhorse for heavier babies/ toddlers. Crafted with a high end British weaving artistry and distinction. The shiver me paisleys design is a strikingly beautiful cornucopia of paisleys and skulls, ornamented with some artistic fine details, all intricately woven together. Loomstate and initially slightly crunchy at first but your wrap will break in nicely with constant use and good washing over time. Please be careful not to over wash your wrap though. Many detergents reduce the longevity of wrap fabric if over used. Although we advise hand washing to ensure the longevity of your wrap, if you use the gentle setting of your washing machine, your wrap can withstand that setting.  The purple warp here is the same as that of the admin/ambassador exclusive but the weft here is a mix of golden yellow and turquoise Newer SMP design. We tweaked our original SMP here with the initial purpose of replacing the older smp design with the new. However, we have now decided to keep the two designs so that there’s something for our customers who love our original smp design and this new design for those wanting something different. Original double weave Limited edition Part of our artisan Yorkshire collection Blend: 60% cotton, 15% tencel, 15% linen Triblend: Snood: £35, RS: £135, Medium : £155, Large: £175, XL: £185, XXL: £195 Thick, super supportive and your perfect workhorse for heavier babies/ toddlers. Crafted with a high end British weaving artistry and distinction.      Nero and Bianca Kente The N&B kente was woven as part of our admin/ambassador exclusive. We have only 3 wraps and 1 ring sling left in this colorway and design Original double weave Limited edition Loomstate Part of our artisan Yorkshire collection Blend: 60% cotton, 15% tencel, 15% linen Triblend: Snood: £35, RS: £135, Medium : £155, Large: £175, XL: £185, XXL: 195 Thick, super supportive and your perfect workhorse for heavier babies/ toddlers. The pattern in our geometric N&B collection is our first black and white kente and the second kente for 2017 to be woven. This is a gorgeous fusion of geometric patterns. black derives its significance from the notion that new things get darker as they mature and physical aging comes with spiritual maturity  Crystalline gold kente Black and goldish yellow smp The geometric gold kente was woven as part of our admin/ambassador exclusive. Original double weave Limited edition Loomstate Part of our artisan Yorkshire collection Blend: 60% cotton, 15% tencel, 15% linen Triblend: Snood: £35, RS: £135, Medium : £155, Large: £175, XL: £185, XXL: 195 Thick, super supportive and your perfect workhorse for heavier babies/ toddlers.  Benevolence Benevolence is our newest 2017 design. Benevolence woven wrap is the softest of our current new releases. This design was inspired by the highly skilled doctors and benevolent heart surgeons who mend fragile hearts on a daily basis around the word and then give them a unique opportunity to grow and flourish. In this design, you will see little hearts clustered around larger hearts. Joy was born with a hole in her heart but that hole was mended many thanks to the heart surgeons who took on this brave and complex surgery. We will be donating a significant percentage of our proceeds from the sale of this particular release to either downs heart charity, glenfied hospital or great ormond street hospital. Both hospitals have contributed to the well-being of our darling daughter Joy. This current release is a prototype run so we are hoping to further reweave this beautiful design next year. This is a design that we believe you will all embrace and love. Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.. Quote by Baruch Spinoza The exercise of benevolence is joy to loving hearts- Quote by Charles Spurgeon Every act, every deed of justice and mercy and benevolence, makes heavenly music in Heaven. Quote by Ellen G. White Deets Traditional double weave Prototype weaving run Part of our artisan Yorkshire collection Multicolor weft The odd side has a distinct goldish yellowish colour so this is the wrap you need to slay your fancy passes. The odd side is like a surprise waiting to be unraveled. It beautifully pops under a natural light and the benevolence wrap is like having two wraps in one. The benevolence is also significant in the sense that it has the lowest cotton content compared to most of our woven wraps so it is very fluffy due to its wool content, super soft and beautifully mouldable. Blend: 30% cotton, 30% ethically sourced luxurious wool, 15% tencel, 15% linen Quad, Snood: £55, RS: £175, Medium : £215, Large: £235, XL: £245, XXL: £255 Thick, super supportive and your perfect workhorse for heavier babies/ toddlers     Joy and Joe blankets A luxuriously crafted and artisan woven blanket crafted. The reversible two-tone design and chic fringing makes this throw ideal for layering up on your bed, keeping yourself cosy or draping over the sofa. Woven with our signature original double weave, woven on a more modern hattersley loom weaving loom. The edges have been fringed by hand by Yorkshire based artisans. This blanket should cover a standard double bed or you can simply use as a throw. The designs we’ve used in our current prototypes are that of our neoteric SMP. Our blanket is not so heavy hence very easy to store. We recommend that you wash using the gentle settings of your washing machine for the cotton/bamboo blend and hand washing for the wool blend Blend: Two options are available Option A: Brushed cotton and bamboo Option B: 50% brushed cotton and 50% ethically sourced luxurious merino wool Current prototype is Black and gold. However, you can pre-order other colours / designs ahead of Christmas You can pre-order your own blanket via this link Release date for the SMPs is Tuesday 10 /10/17 (A day before our 6th year brand anniversary event)
Release date for benevolence and the kentes is Saturday 14/10/17 Pre-order for our new blankets is now open. Click here to preorder yours. Closing date for blanket pre-order is Saturday, 22/10/17  Hello! So it’s getting to that time in the year where we sadly have to say goodbye to this years Ambassadors. But that also means we get to welcome new ones in to the Joy and Joe family! If you are in our chatter group and follow our main page, you will see that our ambassadors are quite active and very passionate about our brand. They do Live videos and get to takeover our Instagram, as well as chatting to you, the neighbour and their granny about Joy and Joe baby wraps! Are you willing to take up a lead role in advocating for Joy&Joe? Are you very vocal in the social media sphere and offline about babywearing? Do you love taking photos/videos of you and your little one enjoying your slings? Are you very friendly, polite and willing to chat with other parents online/offline? Do you love our wraps? Fan for years or new to wrapping? Then why don’t you apply?  Below are some things that you will benefit from being an Ambassador:
So now, here is a wee list to see if you tick all the boxes before applying:
Now what do we expect from you?:
We are always available to chat and help in any way. At the start of your ambassadorship we will offer guidance, tutorials and mentor ship if needed. Being an Ambassador has been an amazing opportunity. A chance to network with some amazing people and make friends and family along the way. I have learnt so much about myself, skills to use in my home and work life. Now, the question is how on earth do you apply?
CLOSING DATE IS THE 20TH OCTOBER (Announcements will be made within a week or two, depending on the amount of applicants) Laurna xx I've loved being an ambassador. It's an amazing experience and you really feel part of this wonderful family. It's very easy to be passionate about this brand, my enthusiasm for their beautiful products is genuine and will last long after my role has ended.   Adebisi, Founder / director of Joy and Joe Ltd needs your vote to scoop #theTOMS-The Talk of Manchester Business Awards 2017 It is a great honor for Adebisi Osundeko, founder and director of Joy and Joe Ltd to be shortlisted in the 'female entrepreneur of the year 2017' category at the prestigious Talk of Manchester Business Awards 2017. Voting for the awards has now opened and this a prestigious award we’d really love Adebisi to win ! Adebisi is up against some great business owners, so for her to scoop the final prize, we needs as many votes and support we can get. When you click the voting button below, scroll down the page to category 31. 'Adebisi Osundeko-Joy and Joe limited' is number 3 on the list of nominees for the 'female entrepreneur of the year 2017    If you’ve ever patronized us at Joy and Joe Ltd, or even simply admire what we do, we’d appreciate any votes you and your friends or family members would be willing to give Adebisi. Voting takes approximately less than one minute, please click the link below and complete the short form on the voting page Thanks in advance of your vote! The Talk of Manchester awards aka #the TOMS is a really prestigious award ceremony that takes place in Manchester annually and the event attracts top entrepreneurs from across Manchetser, greater Manchester and environs. Hosted at the Mercure Manchester Piccadilly Hotel, Manchester. Congratulations to all the nominees!.   About Adebisi: Adebisi is an astute entrepreneur, public speaker, disability rights advocate and babywearing consultant (SoB CIC.). She is a mother of two. An OFSTED registered childminder and governor in two special needs primary schools. She has been involved in several charity works as well. She started and ran a support group for parents of disabled children in Wigan. She also took part in many SCOPE activities such as meeting at the UK House of Common with MPs and Speaker of the House of Parliament. She also took part in a Charity event with music mogul Simon Cowell. In 2012, she won the prestigious Mumsclubs award as one of the top 100 business mums in the UK. She was awarded “Mum of the Year” in 2013 by Women for Africa Organization, London. In addition to that, she has undertaken business courses during her MSc study at the University of Nottingham and she's also the leader for Bolton Women unlimited. Alongside her partner, Dr. Mayor, Adebisi scooped the first prize for the highly prestigious venture further business award organised by the University of Manchester business school. Adebisi believes hardwork and in going the extra mile when it comes to delivering a customer centric service to her Joy and Joe customers.     The Twitter hashtag for this event is #theTOMs You can follow the Awards on Twitter here . Voting will close on Wednesday 11th October at 5.00pm.Winners will be announced at a Gala Dinner on Thursday 30th November at the Manchester Mercure Piccadilly Hotel. Have you voted for Joy and Joe founder, Adebisi Osundeko? Please click here to vote Tickets can be purchased by completing the form on #theToms website. Charity This year #theTOMs is delighted to be raising funds for a special charity: KIDS CAN CHARITY Location Mercure Manchester Piccadilly Hotel Portland Street Manchester M1 4PH Duration Thursday November 30, 2017 7:00 pm to 1:00 am  Now that the warmer weather is here and the long winter is officially gone. Some people worry about overheating during the summer so they consider sending their woven wrap into hibernation. Well, we've got good news for your today! The good news is that you can still 100% enjoy your woven wrap in the summer. Here are some useful tips..  Lighter clothing in terms of thickness: Wearing clothes with very light thickness is a good way of ensuring that you and your baby are well ventilated while babywearing in the summer. Short sleeve or sleeve tops or dresses will ensure a good air flow too  Photo Credit: Tsvetomira Angelova Gather your wrap panels! Tying your wrap in a gathered way ensures that you’re not too swaddled and your baby is still well supported.  Minimal layering: Wearing less layers under your wrap is also a great way of ensuring that you and your baby remain cool throughout the warm season  Photo Credit: Tsvetomira Angelova Good hydration: As you and baby are likely to lose more body fluids like sweat more, it is good practice to ensure that you drink adequate water and baby is well hydrated as well  Sun cream or another skin protection you’d normally use  Sun hat/head support: As well as the option of gently tucking baby’s head under the right or left panel, you can opt for a little sun hat for your little one to give additional sun protection. Mum/Dad shouldn’t be left out as well, rock that sun hat too! You can also support your little one's head by ensuring that your wrap's upper selvage reaches the nape of your little one's neck.  Photo Credit: Tsvetomira Angelova Single layer carries like a simple rucksack carry are a good choice for your back carries. The weave of all our wraps are strong enough to support your little one even in a single layer carry. Ring slings are a good example of a one layer carrier and we now have some in stock on our website  Conclusively, our light weight and mid-weight woven wraps are very breathable and they will make great summer wraps especially when you incorporate all our above useful tips   Remember that we promised that this year will birth a beautiful array of new designs for our woven wrap slings. Earlier this year, we introduced our new winged dream design and we also released our spring/summer catapult collection. In addition to these beautiful designs, we are very excited to present to you our spanking new designs. Starburst Moore Design A new Joy and Joe design adapted from our previous design: The traditional Moorish wrap. We wanted to reweave the Moorish design but we also wanted to add a more simplistic, minimalistic and modern edge to it, afterall this is 2017! We wanted to modernize the ‘traditional ‘ in the previous moorish design so you can call this a makeover. The geometric star design is very striking as a result of the triangular shapes merging together to form a neat artistic geometry. We worked on this design alongside our weaver and this is a design that any geometric design loving person will love. Anyone from any background, culture or design inclination will love this starburst Moore design. The starburst design defines minimalism. The starburst will be released next week Wednesday to celebrate the 'Natural parenting show ' coming up in Scotland next weekend. Deets: Triblend 70% Combed cotton 15% Irish linen 15% Tencel Weight: Mid-weight Weave: Airy double weave Sizes: Size 3, Size 7 Release date: 14/06/17 Click here to order your 'Starburst Moore' 0% combed cotton 15%   Multi-Abundance Multi-Abundance is our first ever multicolour geometric Kente design. We’ve had several requests to reweave our stunning kente design in different colourway. So we’ve had it in mind to weave red kente, orange kente, yellow kente, green kente etc the list is endless, taking advantage of the colourful array of yarns that stared at me one day at the weaving house, my playful creative energy took over and i thought, why don’t we create a multicolour kente that will wow and turn heads just the way many Joy and Joe wraps does. The multi abundance is a playful experimentation. You can tell that we at Joy and Joe are seriously playful, we are not afraid to mix and match and create beautiful cornucopia of geometric patterns, colours and yarns. Yes, this is an abundance of colours for that confident babywearer who isn’t afraid to get heads turning! Yes, who says you can’t have it all? With this wrap, you get an abundance of most the colours that you’ve ever dreamt of ! Deets: Triblend 70% Combed cotton 15% Irish linen 15% Tencel Weight: Mid-weight Weave: Airy double weave Sizes: Size 7, Size 4, Ring sling Release date: 21/06/17  Polymorphic SMP Polymorphism is a scientific term which denotes the discontinuous genetic variation resulting in the occurrence of several different forms or types of individuals among the members of a single species. We have created a couple of multicolour SMPs in the past but we’ve never used a purple warp for a multicolour weft so this is also a first in the Joy and Joe history. Meet the polymorphic SMP! A bold and stunning sequel to the previous multicolour SMPs, yet so distinctive and different. If you’re a lover of art, you will completely understand this work of art in form of a woven wrap. Our SMP design is currently undergoing a makeover and we will tell you more about the reasons behind our decision when we are about to introduce the modified SMP design. The current polymorphic SMP was woven in response to one of our customers who missed out on owning her dream SMP during our spring/summer catapult slings draw. We promised her a re-weave of the multicolored SMP and we are pleased that our stunning purple warp lived up to all expectations. Deets: Triblend 70% Combed cotton 15% Irish linen 15% Tencel Weight: Mid-weight Weave: Airy double weave Sizes: Release date: 28/06/17  The Headmasters office and Aurora We’ve saved the best for the last. The Headmaster's Office" was created in loving memory of the greatest wizard who ever lived. This small collection of memorabilia is but a tiny tribute to his years of service to the wizarding world. The golden lights illuminating the purple field remind us to step into the night and raise our wands to his memory as we dwell on the power of love and the magic of literature  The headmasters office and the Aurora was designed by American artist and babywearing mum, Miranda In her words, here's why i created these designs: As far as WHY I created The Headmaster's Office goes, I guess there are a few reasons. I started the aurora design before the wrap market shifted and when the SPEW Facebook group was brand new. It was formed around April of 2015 and I joined day 2 and started the process of learning how to produce digital art. The group was throwing around ideas and I liked my idea and the best way to bring it to life to my own satisfaction was to do the work myself. I poured hundreds of hours into each piece. After I completed a couple designs I really felt like my work wasn't finished as all of the other Harry Potter inspired designs were of an entirely different aesthetic. I like for the pieces to first be visually appealing with a less overt HP connection so that someone who is not a fan could still appreciate the art just for its own merit. I was in a phase of really enjoying producing and had the image of the Phoenix completed from the previous piece and so I started to brainstorm a wrap just to showcase the Phoenix image and it is related to Dumbledore so other things that make you think of him were compiled and the arrangement was made. It's been sitting finished for over a year. I also liked that the Phoenix design is more nondirectional as all of the elements are rotating through space. I tried to make the aurora design nondirectional but it made the mockup look disorganized even though I think it would have panned out well in reality on a full scale wrap. Deets: Triblend 70% Combed cotton 15% Irish linen 15% Tencel Weight: Mid-weight Weave: Airy double weave Sizes: (To be updated later) Release date: 05/07/17    Pricing for triblends (Exclusive of shipping fees) Snood: £35, Ring sling: £135, Size 4: £155, Size 5: £175, Size 6: £185, Size 7: £195   You are welcome to the 'draw to purchase' form for our new 2017 spring summer or catapult collection. This special limited edition collection was woven to celebrate the grand opening of our first brick and mortar showroom/retail space known as 'the Joy and Joe babywearing gallery'. For more information on each of the slings, please click any of the photos below To enter our draw to purchase form, please scroll down to complete the form. We aim to get back to you within 36 hours (excluding weekends)
P. S: Videos can be found further down this blog postThe new Joy and Joe babywearing gallery is a modern showroom for all things babywearing. A creative space where parents enthusiastic about babywearing, natural and attachment parenting can visit to try out a beautiful array of stretchy wraps, woven wraps, ring slings and accessories. His worshipful, the Mayor of St Helens, Councillor David Banks and the Mayoress, Councillor Jeanette Banks joined the founders and babywearing families as they officially opened the new gallery which seeks to promote babywearing and further encourage parents to bond with their little ones in St Helens and environs. The former art gallery now a babywearing retail space was created by Joy and Joe Baby, a multi-award winning babywearing brand and first prize winner of the prestigious venture further award by the University of Manchester. The new Joy and Joe babywearing gallery currently stock different blends of Lancashire and Yorkshire woven slings including all cotton blends, triblends, and quad blends. The Joy and Joe baby brand is also a recipient of the gold nursery trader award and the bizziebaby award. In addition to this, the new Joy and Joe babywearing gallery is hoping to become the hub of modern babywearing related activities in the Merseyside and beyond. Dr and Mrs Osundeko, founders of Joy and Joe Ltd said “We are really excited to present a new space where customers get to experience the beauty of babywearing or baby/toddler carrying, something which our online website can’t fully deliver. We are pleased that we are finally open and we can’t wait for more families to come here to experience the modern, fun ambiance here at our new babywearing gallery. Many thanks to the families who joined us as we marked another memorable milestone in history of our eponymous British brand. For more information, please visit our website: www.joyandjoe.co.uk. Further details can be found on our Facebook and twitter platforms. Please scroll down to enjoy photos and videos from the grand opening day. Many thanks to the talented Si Moore photography for the stunning photos below.                        The new sherbet cartostyle Lauren and Tanja woven wrap #catapultcollection Blend composition: 70% fine mako cotton 20% Irish linen 10% Tencel Specifically woven to celebrate our first brick and mortar showroom, a cute creative space that we have christened the Joy and Joe babywearing gallery! The new sherbet cartostyle Lauren and Tanja as well as the rest of the collection will be available for sale on our event day and subsequently via a draw. About our cartography design Cartostyle is our cartography inspired design. We wanted to bring in unique and quirky designs from our nostalgic experiences in scientific studies which included geographical sciences. Geography isn't complete without the use of maps and we found the abstract and fluid look of contours very intriguing that you can stare at it for hours in wonder. You can even liken them to naturally occurring pattern in our palms etc. Contour lines are used in different aspects of cartography and you can see them on our weather maps and maps depicting topographical landscapes. We stretched the contours further to create this amazingly mesmerizing fluidity that impresses every artistic mind. Sherbet Cartostyle Lauren Sherbet Cartostyle Tanja  The new SMP Te and Anne Woven Wrap #catapultcollection Blend composition: 70% fine mako cotton 20% Irish linen 10% Tencel Specifically woven to celebrate our first brick and mortar showroom, a cute creative space that we have christened the Joy and Joe babywearing gallery! SMP Anne and Te as well as the rest of the collection will be available for sale on our event day and subsequently via a draw. About our Shiver me paisleys (SMP) design: Our shiver me paisieys design is a strikingly beautiful cornucopia of paisleys and sugar skulls ornamented with some artistic fine details all intricately woven together in vibrant medley of beautiful colours Shiver me paisleys Anne  SMP Te     About our Trillusion design: (Culled from our 2015 Trillusion release) Revealing our Tri-illusion is a thrilling moment for us, this design took us back to our love of mathematical theorems like the Pythagoras. We have been asked several times to release designs based on our scientific backgrounds and we are so pleased to be able to work with our talented textile designer on this particular design. The design takes the simple triangle and transforms it into a complex visual object with the repetition of the triangles across the wrap to generate an interesting moving illusion. The symmetrical relationship between the self-replicating triangles echoes the beauty of mathematical measurements that allow for the triangles to be recreated with such accuracy on the wrap. Most importantly, we hope this design will lead to educative conversations in your home surrounding shape and the elegance of mathematics.  Blend composition: 70% fine mako cotton 20% Irish linen 10% Tencel Specifically woven to celebrate our first brick and mortar showroom, a cute creative space that we have christened the Joy and Joe babywearing gallery! The new 'Trillusion Jae'  The new 'Trillusion Vicky'  Trillusion Jae and Vicky as well as the rest of the catapult collection will be available for sale on our event day and subsequently via a draw form that will be publicized after our grand opening.
uBlend composition: 70% fine mako cotton 20% Irish linen 10% Tencel Specifically woven to celebrate our first brick and mortar showroom, a cute creative space that we have christened the Joy and Joe babywearing gallery! Winged dream dusk and dusk, as well the rest of the collection will be available for sale on our event day. Enjoy Winged dream dawn  Winged dream dusk  Photography of our action shots by Si Moore, Wales  The inspiration for this design came from a day when I got lost in thought about the beauty of transformation. I was at the reception area in Joy's school and a quote on school wall got me thinking and I can remember that feeling of elation whenever I look into the future knowing that our children especially those who have had very difficult beginnings will one day outgrow their difficulties no matter how long it takes. Metamorphism can be slow but the beauty therein needs to celebrated. In this design, you will see a rose flower metamorphosing into a butterfly in a very gentle, quirky, and impressive artistic interpretation of this well known scientific concept of metamorphosis. ~Bc Osundeko (Founder, Joy and Joe limited ) ~Bc Osundeko   . To celebrate our first brick and mortar store where customers can pop in to touch and feel our slings, we have woven a multicolour LE spring/summer collection. Some of the designs in this collection like the geometric trillusion and the cartostyle have never been woven in these multi-color wefts before, so this is new and really special. For now, these LE slings will only be available for sale on our event day, in store. However, we are also considering a draw for those who are not going to be able to make it to our store. Enjoy a preview of our new catapult spring summer collection. Proper action photos will follow  Blend composition: 70% fine mako cotton 20% Irish linen 10% Tencel Further details will be released later via our official event page     Our subscription service is another brilliant addition to our customer incentives. You subscribe to receiving slings for each season: spring, summer, autumn and winter. You then complete a questionnaire where we collect information about your favorite design of all the Joy and Joe designs. You also tell us the range of colours you like. You pay for the service for the entire year and then leave the rest to us. We will tailor the blends and colourways to each season, so for the summer, the wrap you receive will be a linen+cotton blend and for the winter, we will weave a wool blend just for you Shipping dates Spring: 15 March Summer: 15th June Autumn: 15th September Winter: 10th December With each fee, you will receive a ring sling per season. Our fees are exclusive of your shipping fees so we will charge based on your address. This way, you can request that we ship to your holiday destination or wherever you choose Ring sling: £320 per year (4 ring slings in total) Medium: £399 per year (4 medium sized wraps in total) Large: £435 per year (4 large sized wraps in total) XL: £499 per year (4 XL sized wraps in total) XXL: £555 (4 XXL sized wraps in total) Please note that the annual subscription has to be paid in full for you to access this service. However, your shipping fee for each of your 4 wraps can be paid right before we ship your sling. After your annual subscription fee has been paid, we will provide a form where you can complete to let us know your actual preferences and your postal address which will be sued to calculate your shipping fees. Enjoy x      Last year, when we were drawing towards the end of the year.
We announced a couple of customer incentives that we were looking to launch in 2017. Now this year, we have been very busy with the planning of our grand opening and weaving so we haven’t had a chance to launch this service until now. So, we present to you, our dear new babywearer gift box. In each box, you will receive a brand new stretchy wrap, a ring sling, a copy of our dear new babywear book, a USB or CD with relevant tutorial videos, 3 glossy postcards and an aviation style babywearing key fob We chose to include stretchy wraps because they are such beginner friendly wraps. You can simply wear your wrap and then pop your baby into your wrap when you like. With ring slings, you get the benefit of wearing your baby using an easy to use sling designed from our specially woven wrap fabrics. With our dear new babywearer book, you get to enjoy a fun, funny and engaging compendium of words of wisdom written by babywearing parents for new babywearing parents. So this box is specially curated to offer you a beautiful entry into babywearing. This is a perfect gift box for new mums or mums looking to get into babywearing without stress. Each box cost £135 with contents of the entire worth approximately £195 The ring sling to be added to the box will be chosen by us but we will ask you to state a range of colours and patterns you like. We are now accepting orders for our dear new babywearer boxes and dispatch will start from the 15th June, 2017 Remember that last year we announced some of the customer incentives that we will be working on this year. As a continuation of our commitments to providing excellent customer service, we are now providing a custom woven wrap service. This service is great for anyone who has always dreamt of a particular colour combination or blend in his or her favorite Joy and Joe design or even in his or her own hand drawn design. You’ve commented on a couple of threads within the Joy and Joe chatter page where Becca or anyone else has asked for what your dream Joy and Joe wrap looks like. We have assured you that we are listening to what you say because we never ever deliberately ignore our customers’ views. Sometimes, it just takes a little bit time to actualize dreams. Well, rejoice, because your wait is now over. We are now pleased to introduce our custom weaving service. For the ease of administering this service, we have categorised this service into two: Semi-custom Full custom  For the semi-custom, you get to modify an existing Joy and Joe design into a colourway that you like. You also get to choose the blend as well. During this process, after you’ve placed your semi-custom order, we will work with you via emails to ensure that we carry you along. There are some colour combinations that might not blend together so we will discuss this with you. We have a couple of wefts that you can choose from via the button below. When we start weaving, we will also send you a video as well to let you enjoy the entire custom service. This in our opinion is all about the unique experience and we are set to impress you! Our semi-custom service is priced at £250! Super affordable considering the amount of work required to achieve the masterpiece you stand to you get.  So now to the full custom weaving, here you can get to decide the colour, blend and guess what, you even choose the design to be woven and this has to be your very own design. Now practically some designs are complex than the others so we will advise you as to whether your design falls into the complex category. Complex designs will realistically attract extra fees but we are determined to keep this reasonable because we want you to have this once in a lifetime experience of seeing your artwork transformed into a functional woven sling. You will also need to send us a signed statement via email stating that the design submitted is indeed your intellectual property or whether you have permission from the artist to reproduce their work in the form of woven sling. As with our semi-custom service, we will send you photos and videos to carry you along and in cases where we envisage delays, we will endeavor to give you enough notice. This is an experience that you will remember for a long and we know that it will be challenging for us but trust us, we don’t take the easy route. We love creative challenges! Any Size from 5 to 7 is priced at £500 (Exclusive of shipping) Please note that this is a custom order and returns are not acceptable for custom orders  So what are going to design?
 The new Joy and Joe babywearing gallery! Our background story A saying by Abraham Lincoln goes thus ‘the best way to predict your future is to create it’. Approximately 7 years ago, when I started my business from our family home conservatory, if anyone told me then that one day, we will be in a nice building where customers can pop in to try our products before they buy, I would have given the person another look. When I started my business, I mainly wanted to create a work life balance where I can run a small business and still be involved in the care of my children fully. I was young mum, quite bewildered with all that was going on with my children’s multiple special needs diagnosis. It was quite overwhelming and I couldn’t see myself in a typical 9 to 5 standard job because I didn’t want to miss the children’s therapy appointments and all. So, working from home was absolutely great for us until we began to expand and we saw that the slings were taking more space in our home than we anticipated. We also wanted to separate the business and family environment. Working from home can be isolating and having to work from a professional business environment gave me a chance to enjoy that functional working environment that I felt that I missed out on when I worked from home. I have this flair for house hold chores so working from home meant that I was often distracted by the need to engage in one domestic work or the other. So, the transition started. Our first office was situated in a regenerated textile mill in Bolton and it was a breath of fresh air. Moving to our first office massively improved how we worked, we had access to a receptionist who was able to receive our parcels from the courier companies on our behalf. We also had a professional working environment where we were able to meet with our contractors in a professional space without invading our own privacy. Plus, as a special family, we needed space in our family home for Joy and Joseph’s disability equipments. We particularly don’t want our home cluttered with baby sling stock so that the children can have an ample space to play and grow.  Not forgetting that the highly sought after documentary happened during that time so our office was an answer to our prayers, expansion wise. During that period, we noticed that we occasionally had customers phone up and ask if they could pick up their parcels from our premises rather us post to them. That way, they were able to save on shipping fees, that was the light bulb moment for our first brick and mortar store. However, we didn’t feel prepared enough to take this leap. Fast-forward, when we bought our family home in St Helens, we later found a business premises in the bold business centre and it was just around the corner from where we lived so managing the business was a breeze. After we started trading from our bold business centre office, we noticed that some customers pop around to ask to see Joy and Joe slings and there was an occasion where we not in the office. I can remember saying to Mayor that it will be great to have a place where anyone looking to try before they buy, can actually come around to touch and feel the products before making a decision. We also organised our first St Helens event and that was xmas party! The event was great and we are very grateful to everyone who traveled form far and near to grace our occasion. Something struck us that day and this informed our decision to relocate our office. The internet was really slow at our previous office and no matter how we tried to rectify the internet speed, there were many times that we resorted to working from home so the office just become a storage space at the time and we didn’t want that. Dr. Mayor who is the technical backbone of Joy and Joe just bravely made a phone call one day and I can remember him looking at me with his eyes brightened up and he said, I think I’ve found the perfect space for the Joy and Joe HQ. The space is bigger than where we are currently and also, we get to have two offices instead of one. So, from the moment we booked a tour of our proposed office space, I sensed that it was going to be a waste of creative space if we simply put desks, chairs and shelves within the two offices. So, we decided to convert one of the spaces to our new shop/boutique or gallery and then the other space will be our work space. The beauty of this arrangement is that the bigger space is our work space so we are not under any pressure because we have a massive, comfortable space to work from. With our gallery, we love that we have a presentable space that customers can come into, roll around inside our world of woven and stretchy slings goodies, decide to buy instore if they chose or buy online or simply come over to feast their eyes on some colourful British woven slings. This is our story about how we arrived here! The above is certainly a summary but I hope you still get the gist. Mayor recently reminded me that when we wrote down our goals for 2017, I actually put down that I will like to have a shop space where people will be welcomed to come into, to touch and try on our slings. I suddenly remembered that indeed this is an answer to our prayers. It is only the first quarter of the year and our dreams for 2017 are already coming true. Can you remember that we stated that the makeover of our stretchy wrap was also something that we also wanted to achieve? No point having a great product that cannot excite your customers when they set their eyes on it. We at Joy and Joe are the complete package and we always strive to deliver a friendly world class customer service. I felt emotional seeing the final result of our handiwork. If like me you’ve suffered massive setbacks to your self-esteem, you will understand why this is such a big deal to us and the Joy and Joe family. So, if you are local to St Helens/Warrington/Liverpool/Manchester, please note that you are highly welcome to pop over to see and feel any of our products in store after our opening ceremony scheduled for the Saturday, 22nd April, 12noon to 3pm. The future is here! Or should we say near ;) This new space can't be our final stop! We are still aiming to go higher. We can’t wait to welcome you to the new Joy and Joe babywearing gallery situated in the Catapult centre for creative industries. Thank you, Bisi 
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June 2020
AuthorHello, my name is Bisi, babywearing consultant (SoB CIC), mother to two cheeky & very special kids (Joy and Joseph). Our 3rd baby has been christened Joy&Joe baby wrap slings! and we loveeee babywearing :) 
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