Experts are stating that the major retail businesses going into administration will continue to rise and shock us, so what really is the outlook for the UK retail industry and smaller independent retailers both in the high street and online.

One answer could be that the big national retailers will continue to go out of business, leaving space for the re-emergence of small independent business as the cost of rent, competition etc. goes down. This would make way for the smaller independent retailers to take advantage. But another alternative could lie in ‘ghost towns’, boarded up shops etc. Is this really the outcome that we can all cope with? It’s depressing enough to see new retail premises empty, and old town and village pubs shutting at the speed of light, making way for more residential flats etc, let alone this speculated transition of our beautiful UK shopping towns into ‘ghost towns’.

Just this week HMV has gone bust, which is shocking as statistics state that around 25% of overall UK record sales were still via HMV, so how could a company which takes this percentage of an industry sector within the UK, have to go into administration? Over 4000 jobs could potentially be lost with the recent HMV and Blockbuster administration story.

Another factor, which is very sad, is that in this day in age shops such as Waterstones and WHSmith are now for the majority of the time, window shopping opportunities, leading customer’s to then go and shop on Amazon and similar online portals. It is pretty evident that the online retail world is taking over and having a negative effect on the major high street retailers.

With all this fresh in our minds and in our business plans and forecasts for our future, we at Illustrate My Name continue to offer a wide selection of personalised gifts for you, your home, your children, occasions in your life and your lifestyle. Regardless of the general public cutting back on expenses, and what they ‘really’ need when times are hard. We have a strong belief that customers will always buy gifts, especially on the birth of a new baby, wedding or moment in ones life they wish to celebrate, and that’s why we aim to please our customers with our unique range.

Ranging from baby gifts, wedding keepsakes, christening treasures, framed pictures and artwork, typographic prints, offering you the perfect present for any occasion.

With Valentines Day coming up we really think you should take a look at these particular print and framed artwork pieces, tell someone you admire just how much they are your GUIDING LIGHT or who is your HAPPY ENDING  and perhaps there is someone in your life that is THE REASON YOU SMILE 

We are proud to be an independent retailer and hope that our successful sales over the past 12 months are testament to our product range and our business ethos. Please enjoy the entire shopping experience with Illustrate My Name  and JG Artwork

We are delighted to be found on From Britain with Love, the gorgeous guide to buying beautiful British made products!

From Britain with Love is an online magazine directory showcasing Britain’s most talented designers, craftspeople, producers and retailers. This beautiful website offers a one-stop place to find exactly what your looking for when shopping online. It really is a great place to have a little look around, see whats new, editors picks, meet the maker features, and not to mention sharing the love for all things British!

We were thrilled to be featured on ‘From Britain with Love’s Facebook page, not to mention being Tweeted about, yesterday’s tweet went like this…. ‘Please welcome Illustrate My Name @IMN_Gifts, a treasure trove of personalised gift ideas for babies, kids & adults’

Our dedicated ‘From Britain with Love’ Illustrate My Name listing shows-off just a few of our products, for the full range check out Illustrate My Name.

After such a busy Christmas and Winter campaign here at IMN HQ, we finally have a moment to share with you some of our recent awards and accreditations. These include a BRONZE website award and being announced a TOP 100 Business Mum of 2011, both awarded by Mumpreneur UK.

December 2011 Jodie Gaul (owner of Illustrate My Name), was announced as a Top 100 Business Mum, amongst 1000’s of entries and very tight competition. Jodie was named as one of the top 100 business mums in the UK for 2011.

We were also delighted in October 2011 to receive the message that we had been awarded a BRONZE website award from Mumpreneur UK. This award is sound proof of the strength of our website and its standing within the online world. This award also recognises that there are so many mumpreneurs out there with fabulous websites! Mumpreneur UK wanted to ensure that these sites are rewarded, and that their customers can see that their high standard is being recognised. Illustrate My Name is so proud to be acknowledged with this Bronze award.

We continue to expand and develop our online shopping experience for our customers and visitors. We have recently introduced WEDDING GIFTS to Illustrate My Name, please take a look.

Mum, and entrepreneur, Jodie Gaul, has earned herself a place in the final lineup of The Mumpreneur Awards, an annual ceremony aimed at celebrating parents throughout the UK who manage the difficult task of juggling business with family life.

The mother of 2 from West Oxfordshire, runs Illustrate My Name, a comprehensive online gift store catering for all things personalised; promotiong a wealth of personalised gifts from her own designed signature artwork range; which she also supplies to John Lewis; to a range of gifts such as keepsake boxes, cushions, bunting, wooden keepsakes, the gifts found at Illustrate My Name are endless.

Jodie has been shortlisted for the Best Online Business Award, sponsored by Create, which is open to businesses who operate through a website. They’ll prove that getting online is a great investment for any business. Having launched Illustrate My Name in 2009, and bringing this personalised gift store to life, Jodie hopes she has what it takes to walk away with the prize.

As well as being shortlisted for this category, Jodie is also in with a chance of winning the title of The Inspirational Business Mum 2011, sponsored by Intuit, which will be awarded to the mum who is an inspiration to all women in business, and could walk away with a fantastic prize package including a family holiday at Haulfryn’s Devon Hills.

Having reached the finals of The Mumpreneur Awards, Jodie said “I am delighted to have been recognised for my achievements in creating a successful website. I’m very excited to share the excitement of this recognition at the forthcoming awards in September, amongst some equally inspirational individuals and guests”

Judging Jodie’s entry will be a panel of top entrepreneurs including BBC Dragon, Duncan Bannatyne, but she’ll have to wait until 25th September, when the winners will be announced at The Mumpreneur Conference, sponsored by Yell and DHL Express, being held at the Heart of England Conference Centre in Warwickshire.

Loved By Parents is a great online website offering a fresh approach to parenting and everything parents love from product reviews to fantastic blogs and their ultimate Awards.

We are very proud Jodie Gaul is sitting alongside 9 inspirational women in business who have been shortlisted. The voting has now closed as we sit patiently at Illustrate My Name to find out if Jodie Gaul has been one of the 5 to go forward to be judged by Laura Tenison.

As you can imagine, anyone who has a 6 year old going on 12 year old in their house, birthday/party time can be a very indecisive time. First it was a Lego Batman Party on the cards, not just Lego, yes Lego Batman, very specific request! Then came the idea of a home cinema party, which seemed a reasonable idea; a handful of 6 year olds watching a movie with buckets of popcorn = a lot of mess and not much movie watching! He he. So I was thrilled to be able to book my little dude Theo a party at the recently opened Crocodiles of the World Conservation and Education Centre in Witney, Oxfordshire.

And what a super centre it is, pretty exciting too that the first and only crocodile conservation and education centre in the UK has opened on our doorstep here in West Oxfordshire. The centre is home to over 30 crocs, which represent 11 of the 23 existent crocodilian species, also making it the largest collection of crocs in the UK! Founded and run by crocodile specialist Shaun Foggett, this centre is a result of his lifetime dedication to the care and breeding of crocodiles and exotic pets and reptiles.

This centre is such a huge achievement for Shaun, and he has had some great press and media coverage, you may well have seen Shaun on TV recently (CROC MAN)! Well done Shaun and the best of luck for the future of Crocodiles of the World. Not to forget a huge thank you for Theo’s birthday party, he and his friends had a wonderful time! Theo is still talking about feeding the crocodile in the enclosure! Max still wants to put his googles on for a swim with them too (he he).

Check out the website for the forthcoming open days to the public (tickets must be ordered in advance). It is definitely worth a trip especially if you have any crocodile fans in the family!

Shaun brings out a selection of reptiles for the children to handle. Theo enjoyed feeding the crocodile with Shaun!

Theo and Max holding a baby crocodile, I must say they were cute, both my boys and the baby crocs!

The children enjoyed watching ‘Croc Man’ feed a larger more aggressive crocodile! And they all enjoyed the crocodile cupcakes, courtesy of Mummy!

Since beginning the journey of supplying to such a major retailer as John Lewis, back in February 2010, our capacity and ability to maintain the highest fine art quality, and in-house production of our framed artwork, allows us to move into other retail avenues as we continue to grow here at Illustrate My Name under the division of JG Artwork.

To be approached by the extremely talented Lisa Long, who has established a beautiful unique product and website More Than Words, has bought with it another great collaboration outcome. This is an exciting venture for us here, and allows our creative talents to be showcased through More Than Words.

More Than Words is offering our Illustrated Artwork Range, and as you can see our designs are sitting within a collection of adorable artwork pieces for many other occasions, our absolute favourite piece has to be this bespoke wedding artwork, I am sure you would agree, a beautiful piece! ……We are so pleased to be working together with Lisa from More Than Words.

If you are a retailer interested in stocking any of our artwork designs; please do not hesitate to contact us to request a product sample and full trade details - ARTWORK RANGE available for trade.

JG Artwork is a division of Illustrate My Name and our NEW JG ARTWORK website, specifically for trade will be launching very soon, so please keep an eye out for this!

The customer request for a heron has been incorporated within the artwork

Jenna Crossley from London, came to us requesting a piece of artwork for her Godson. She wanted her own image (a heron) to be incorporated into one of our artwork designs, this symbolic image stood for the loss of the child’s uncle, Freddie, who sadly passed away at only 24 years old, and who was nicknamed Heron. With this beautiful, touching story and a complete bespoke request, we set about designing a piece of artwork which Jenna could give to Alexander as a gift he could cherish forever x

Within a few hours of this request we took the time here at Illustrate My Name to come up with an original design, and sent the customer a proof of this, to make sure she was completely satisfied with the end result.

“Jodie at Illustrate My Name was so accomodating when I wanted something bespoke and personal onto my godsons gift. I am absolutely thrilled that i have found a company who can accomodate my requests happily, she went through the artwork until we were happy, and the quick turnaround was unbelievable! Absolutely incredible…. i cant thank you enough.” Jenna Crossley, London

Bespoke artwork prepared, mounted and framed, all ready for next day courier!

It is at times like these that the creative flare and design skills of Jodie Gaul, our in-house designer and Illustrate My Name business owner are truly revealed! It is a great achievement for us to have such delighted customers….and Jenna has already commissioned a further 2 pieces of artwork!

CHILDREN | HOME | WEDDING……..If you have a particular occasion, design theme, colour scheme or image you would like incorporated, we are willing to create your personalised artwork around any specific requirements.

Remember these are not just for children, something personalised and special for your Home or perhaps a forthcoming Wedding gift! For prices and details of our bespoke artwork, please either email us or call us to discuss.

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It is always nice when the leaves turn to those gorgeous autumn colours and the nights draw in to get a little spooky and add some halloween magic to the house, obviously for the boys, not at all for mummy!

We got spooky by carving pumpkins, making halloween cupcakes, oh and some yummy homemade sausage rolls (which rather reminded me of Christmas!), and then of course the boys got dressed up and we had a halloween supper! They loved it, chasing one another around the house, my little count dracula Max and my glow in the dark skeleton Theo! Love them so much x

Pictured at the top of this post are some adorable fabric hanging halloween treats which were made by a talented individual who supplies personalised fabric hangers to us here at Illustrate My Name. Check out her other products, rabbit and owl door hangers – adorable little christmas gifts or stocking fillers!

Why not  take a look at the wonderful Personalised Christmas Gifts we have on offer, including hand made stockings,  santa sacks, christmas hearts and stars, wooden christmas gifts and much much more.

The artwork ranges available to buy from IMN are our Personalised Intricate Themed Artwork and our Personalised Silhouette Artwork. Take a look at the design choices we have to offer. We are also very excited to be launching our new range of Vintage Personalised Artwork in the next few days! Our in-house artwork designs continue to be our best sellers through IMN, and we pride ourselves in creating such beautiful bespoke artwork for the special little people in your lives.

SPECIAL OFFER: Please take advantage of buying one piece of our artwork and receiving the 2nd Half Price by emailing us at enquiries@illustratemyname.com with ARTWORK OFFER in the subject line, we will then forward you a one off coupon code to use during checkout. This offer is available for one week only!