Our story begins nearly five years ago now, of how this mother and daughter duo began to work together, and sit here today running two crafting businesses. Having taken on the fabulous and joyful Joe’s Toes this year! Well, it’s been a roller coaster of a ride, but not one we plan on getting off! So, if you fancy hearing our origin story (with some behind the scenes photos) about these two, ever so slightly batty, women, who send out your parcels of felty goodness, then grab yourself a cuppa and keep on reading…
Chapter One: Finding our feet
We are Daisy (daughter) and Loulou (Mother), and we’ve been a mother-daughter duo for 35 years. Now I’m sure when Loulou gave birth to me back in 1991, she never dreamed of us working together in her 60’s. But life is funny that way.
At the end of 2021, we were approached by a dear friend to come and join her on her business venture - and this is not Joe’s Toes (not yet, that comes later in the story). Claire Vines - an unstoppable force of a woman! In the wake of losing her daughter to an 8-year long brain tumour battle, Claire set up “Claire’s Crafts Create” a multi-craft supply business. Going on to later open a bricks and mortar shop, where many a workshop was held!
I (Daisy) had recently moved from London to rural Lincolnshire (oh boy, what a culture shock for a born and raised city girl) and I was struggling to find my feet – and that really is an understatement. I had left my career of hairdressing, which after fighting tooth and nail during covid to keep had felt bittersweet. I tried to pivot careers in this new location only to abruptly drop out of the teaching degree I had thought was the answer.
Claire’s offer for me to come and join her business came at the perfect time, and seemed an opportunity too good to miss, especially having Mum join the ranks too. Loulou and Claire had been friends for a few years having bonded over a love chocolate and chatter. Our initiation into behind the scenes of how the business worked, soon turned into discussions about taking over the business. Claire was ready to take on more of a backstage-design role, to spend more time with her family.
[Here we are after our first wool wrapping session back in 2021!]Chapter Two: The first loop-de-loop in our rollercoaster
We took over Claire’s Crafts Create in March 2022, and to everyone’s shock and dismay, Claire passed away from bowel cancer, less than two weeks after the official handover. It’s hard to do justice with words how hard that period was. It was devastating on so many levels. Both professionally, as there was so much we still didn’t know, but also personally. Especially for Mum. The business struggles were all compounded by the fact that the day we took home the stock, was the same day Claire found out she had terminal cancer – and so understandably there was a lot of gaps in our knowledge during the handover. The stock had been hurriedly moved and then dumped throughout the house, and I really do mean dumped. It was left in hallways, piled up in spare rooms, with no real thought to the order and eventual unpacking. I can only describe it as we wandered about like ghosts, trying to make sense of this news, whilst trying to keep this business going. To look back and know that Claire was still sending emails, trying to pass over as much information as possible in her last days is tricky to think about, but as I mentioned, she was an unstoppable force of a woman!
So, there we were with Claire’s business, but no Claire. I still cannot thank her husband Steve enough for those first few months. He, somehow, managed to know exactly what each bag looked like for whatever stock it was that we were seemingly always hunting for. He would come over to help us put together orders and try to find our way through the mess and maze of postage. He allowed us to use Claire’s laptop to find photos and instructions for kits. All the while dealing with his own grief, and his family’s. I don’t know what we would have done without his help and encouragement!
[A selection of photos from the first days of chaos!]
Chapter Three: Love at first sight
Claire had signed up to attend a number of craft shows that same year, as well as host a number of workshops – now that was a real baptism by fire! We didn’t want to let down or drop out of any of these events! (I wonder if she hadn’t set up these events if we would have felt brave enough to put ourselves out there in the first place.) These workshops pushed me to really learn all about needle felting. A craft I had only done on workshops Claire led. But it is funny how all these things work out, because it is at this very first craft show that we were introduced to what is now our newest love and business venture – but of course we had no idea back then! In fact, we wouldn’t have dreamed of the possibility!
We were understandably very nervous about tackling our first show! If you have never been a stall holder, then let me tell you, it is a real experience! Setting up a temporary shop in a 2m x 4m space is no small feat! Thinking about where to keep your stock, and how to display your items to make them shine. How you are going to interact with the customers and where they will finish up and pay. It is a true marvel seeing how everyone goes about this process!
I am a self-confessed perfectionist! I was determined to titivate with our stand until I had exhausted all options for displaying Claire’s kits, meanwhile Loulou decided to head off and have a nosey at our fellow stall holder’s layouts. She came back beaming! She excitedly told me that I MUST go and have a look at one stand in particular. She said it was colourful and fun, and she loved absolutely everything she saw. This stand was of course Joe’s Toes – a make and mend your own slipper business. With so many brightly coloured, fabulous and crafty pieces of felt. When I went to look for myself, I completely agreed! It was love at first sight! What a creation! I similarly came back gushing about how clever I thought it was, what a unique idea and just how joyful. Little did we know what was to come…
[Our first ever stand as "Claire's Crafts Create" in 2022!
I am so glad I took this photo, we've come a long way since!]
Chapter Four: Our second rollercoaster drop
We survived our first year of business! Which was no small feat given that 5 months into our journey, my partner Chris had a nasty motorbike accident, which required him to be flown by helicopter to hospital. The car that pulled out in front of him left him with some horrible injuries, including two severely broken wrists – for those of you with an imagination, I shall let you consider all the things you can’t do for yourself without working hands – which meant he needed a particularly accommodating girlfriend to assist. Thankfully Chris’s recovery means he is back to being independent!
[Chris with a pen in his mouth, signing the surgery consent form
& the two of us with our needle felted birds]
In the meantime, we decided to slim down the business to focus on needle felting supplies and rebranded to Felt Wildly. We gradually sorted all the stock, with a proper functioning stock room. The hallways and living room were cleared of the drawers of wool and bags of bits, and Mum got her home back. After some long term guests had moved out, we were able to move into what was once Gran’s annex and which is still our workshop to this day.
We continued to go to shows, we ran workshops and we grew in confidence. Loulou ever the show woman, made for the most fantastic social media inspiration. There was not a single silly idea that she wasn’t willing to try (if you are looking for something to make you smile, I thoroughly encourage you to peruse the Felt Wildly Instagram history). Mum, you have always been such a good sport and truly embody that you should give everything a go at least once (or twice), and never take yourself too seriously.
It was at a show in Newcastle where I first really met Amanda. We had continued to admire their work and wears. But in 2024 Amanda asked for a little help with a post for social media. She kindly gifted me some felty gingerbread men for my assistance, which I gladly turned into Christmas gifts. Truthfully. I thought no more of our interaction. Little did I know that this collaboration had set in works some hatchling ideas. We continued to bump into one another at craft fairs up and down the country, and I continued to occasionally help with content or answer questions about social media. It was always a joy to see both Amanda and Dave and I always marvelled their beautiful business!
Chapter Five: Nerves and Joy
The next stage to this story still makes me giggle with nerves and joy. When we were first asked if we were interested in taking over Joe’s Toes, I think Amanda was as shocked that she asked it, as I was to hear it! I couldn’t imagine a world where anyone would want to handover such a collection of work! And, I couldn’t believe she was asking me! I can remember getting in the car after that event and it felt like Mum and I were practically vibrating with giddiness! Did that just happen? Could we? Could you imagine? Don’t be silly. No but really… what if?
[The three of us after that infamous moment]
That what if carried us through many conversations and months. Will we? Won’t we? Can we? After a lot of discussion, and number crunching, on both sides, it was agreed. We were going to take over Joe’s Toes! And that is exactly what happened. Although this time, our handover was lengthy! Amanda and Dave were very reassuring and incredibly generous with their time and experience.
A particularly special highlight during this time was going on a girls knit and natter trip to Derbyshire. Having only knitted a handful of times, and only crocheted the once before, it felt rather imperative that we learn both these crafts given how much of our soon to be new stock overlapped with these crafts! I felt incredibly clumsy holding my crochet hook at the start of that weekend, however by the end, I had made my very first pair of crochet slippers!
To accommodate all the new stock and machinery, we transformed our little garden cottage as we called it into a our “Shed Quarters”. This is now Loulou’s little heaven, where she is regularly found beavering away! We feel incredibly lucky to have been gifted the opportunity to love and continue Joe’s Toes. And despite a few teething errors (anyone who runs a business can hopefully relate) we are loving our new day to day work life.
Chapter Six: The rollercoaster continues...
To finish this post on our latest loop-de-loop in the roller coaster, the week of our official handover, I found out I was pregnant! (You didn’t think this was all going to be that straight forward given the rest of our tale, did you?) This will be my first baby, and Loulou’s first grandchild. Moving Joe’s Toes into its new location and learning how the business would fit into our working day during my first trimester had its challenges. But there lies the beauty of working from your mother’s house, there were beds for me to go and nap in! Writing this, I find myself now almost at the halfway point of pregnancy, back to feeling full of energy! However, of course, our newest member of the Joe’s Toes team is due in November, during our busiest time of year! So, stay tuned as there is still yet more to come in our story as we navigate that upcoming chapter.
