Help with Sizes please

Hi, I need some help please. I have a small business called Sugar Cubes, for girls who love ponies. I need help with the sizes, we have been going five years now and we’re definitely getting closer to the right size for the age, but it’s very difficult.

When I started I thought it would be easy, I bought things from big companies, M&S, C&A, BHS etc to follow the sizing, but they were so different it was obvious there wasn’t a right way to do it.

We buy in T’s and tops to print on, from manufacturer’s ready made collections, and we have to convert their neck label sizes  to the ages we found works. So our size L which fits an 11-12 year old is a ladies size 8.  This has an S in the back of the neck ( Small adult) but  is our size L, so it’s very confusing (confused already right!) when the customer orders an L and then gets an S.

We have found we are going bigger than the manufacturers recommended size in the label, but we only ever get things back because they are too small!

What I would like to do is start a SIZES campaign and get as many mum’s as possible to measure their daughters ages 2-16 years and send me the numbers. I want age, height, chest, waist and hips in cm or inches.

Let’s see if we can make some sense of it.

Thank you for your help.

Best wishes Hazel

 eg- Zoe 14 years, cm – height 169cm, chest 84, waist 68, hips 92 and email to 

sizes@sugar-cubes-ponies.com

Pink for girls?

There is an article published on the Telegraph site today about Pink toys creating a generation of pushy princesses. Well from my experience it's been the other way round and this is definately not a new thing. Both my daughters went through a completely pink phase before the age of 4 and that's 14 years ago. 

When we first started Sugar Cubes it wasn't very pink, and people said how nice it was not to be pink. But, all we sold was pink, so if I wanted to survive I had to do pink. We offer other colours as much as possible but we can't afford to stock many, we just wouldn't sell them. Look at My little pony it's been amazing for the last 25 years, I don't have a pink pony, looks like it's about time I got one. 

Here's a nice green hoodie for a change make my day go and buy it.xxx

so cold

Just when it started to get a bit warmer it's freezing again, my pony doesn't usually come in at night but she has been very happy to come in recently. It's like a game none of them want to be last in it's quite funny. The ponies which are already in look out over their stable doors very smuggly as the later one walk in. I'm often the last depending on kids and school collections and of course work ( not a good time to ring Sugar Cubes - school pick up time) so Diamond is out waiting at the gate to her field in the dark, when she sees me coming she neighs and then walks off in the opposite direction. I wait for her to do a big circle and decide she really does want to come in for her tea! food is all they think about, right! Then she hurries in checks out her food looks over her door ( which she can only just reach and you see the whites of her eyes as she stretches to look over) at the others and goes back to her tea. I love her she's very cool. 

I'm busy working on new designs but don't forget to check out the old one's as there are some good deals on the site at the moment.

WINTER SALE

Hi

There are some great deals on the site at the moment, we're clearing out some of the Autumn stock before we get in the new designs. The Water baby hoodies are a must have at only £13.99 down from £19.99 they're a really lovely good quality top with a great print of a Camargue horse running through the sea marshes, there's just navy and fuscia left both have the print on the front in pale pink. 

The rugby shirts are going well from £18 down to £10.30 there are 3 choices of colour ways left, they're a slim fit so go up a size if you don't want it to be too fitted.

Get a  great deal on the "canter bags"" and what's left of the rather be.."  print.

You can now get 2 of the pony check polo necks for £4.99 one of each colour of the same size.

These lovely tops are very useful in this freezing weather !

Wishes is pony of the month

Wishes is a little Shetland from the Sugar Cubes stable, she is very popular with all the new riders and she loves attention. Her favourite thing is to be brushed, she could be brushed all day, and treats of course, but not too many or she will get poorly. Find out more on the web site.

Winter walk

On Saturday when all our visitors had left we went for a lovely crisp cold walk up Clee Hill which is our favourite local dog walk. The sky was blue and the ground was frosty, the view from the top was great, and to top it all we saw the wild ponies and I had my camera with me.

I feel inspired to start my next pony print see it soon on the site!

Back to Sugar Cubes

Hi, I'm really happy to be back at my desk. It's been a great Christmas and very busy with lots of family around, but now I just want to get back to work. We have so much to do and I'm very excited about 2009. I need to design new prints, new diamante and new reflective so want to get stuck in, I'm not quite free yet as still 2 children to get back to school 1 gone today, 1 tomorrow and last goes back on Wednesday, then I can really get my head around things. The Wishes dreaming of ponies diamante turned out to be our best yet so I hope there are a lot of happy girls out there. 

Happy New Year to everybody