Where will you stick our stickers?

Hello all, well, it is with tired eyes that I frantically type this - so much has happened in the last week here at LadyUmbrella..Our stickers have arrived from the good people at Sticker Robot and we are really happy with them...like them? want one for free?...read on..


Holy Cow - A sticky treat


Fresh fruit sticker salad anyone?


How did that get stuck there?

So, there you have it, both of our stickers in all of their glory - who wants one? Leave a comment letting us know where you'd like to stick one of our stickers and we'll send you a free sticker...

Other big news here at LUHQ is that we did our photo shoot today and it went really well..a very long day but we're really pleased with it..Behind the scenes photos (hehe, some are hilarious) will be posted on this blog soon so stay tuned...Also, if you didn't know you can now pre order a LadyUmbrella t-shirt on our Facebook fanpage and we'll send you a 10% discount and free shipping code if you leave us a comment there letting us know which design of ours is your favorite (or, just leave a comment here, all good)...We're delighted to say that over 100 are already spoken for so speak now...

And thats me done..I can go on no longer...stay happy all..

Blog No. 20 about a Blog and a Discount

Hey all, well, things are hotting up here at LadyUmbrella t-shirts as we have been informed that our t-shirts should be in here about 10 days NICE!!! So, in the run up to their arrival we are now giving you a chance to pre order on our facebook fanpage by simply becoming a fan and leaving us a comment letting us know which t-shirt you'd like..then, whenever you decide to purchase we'll give you a 10% discount - simples...

But, this, blog number 20 (yep, I've made it to twenty blogs - anyone even read them hehe?) is about anther blog..We got a great shout out from Loving This Tee which I'm really delighted with..Bo, the author, gives his own views on what it would be like to have an umbrella for a head and it does make for some interesting reading...hope you enjoy it...

And, any views yourselves on what life might be like with an umbrella for a head? Get creative, get surreal and leave a comment with your thoughts and awkward umbrella scenarios..

Patriotism and Flash Mob

Here at LadyUmbrella although our designer is Spanish the remaining two thirds of the team are Irish and so this is just a real quick blog post to firstly say "COME ON IRELAND!!!!!" - for those who don't know, we are taking on the might of France in the 2nd leg of the World Cup qualifier, we are a goal down and have a date with destiny in Paris later today...

I'd also like to share this video with you guys, I think its kinda cool..A flash mob dance party extravaganza kinda thing that happened a few days ago in Cork. How can so many people get so co-ordinated so quickly?, really it is impressive. You ever take part in or see a flash mob dance party? Enjoy..

The Samples of Life

Well, this is just a quick update more or less to let all you LUFANs (LadyUmbrella fans) know what is going on with us...

We have been busy. Really. So much work has to be done to get a t-shirt company up and running but thankfully we are nearly there. In the last week we have opened up our company bank account (although it is painfully empty..really empty) and are filling out all sorts of forms for the online side of things. Also our shop section is almost finished - I might as well give you a sneaky peaky at how it is going to look - sush now though, for your eyes only...

Ah, and the sample of life...it is our Lion King moment when things have more or less gone full circle..We've received a myriad of envelopes in the last week containing all sorts of sought after jewels..and one of those sought after jewels were our samples. We are very happy with them and with a few slight modifications we're happy for them to go into production - we'll have pictures up soon...The wait, the agonizing wait, for our LadyUmbrella t-shirts to arrive is slowly coming to an end..it feels like we have been just a matter a weeks away from launching on so many occasions but now I really think that is the case...

As I mentioned earlier, another sample of life I'm happy to show you is a screen shot of how our online shop section is going to look...We are really happy with how it has turned out and have to give major thanks to Pawel Witkowski who is the gifted web designer who created our site. I really can't speak highly enough of Pawel and would recommend him to any company out there looking to get a website done. Check out more of his sites at his Web Design Info site.

So, exciting times here at LadyUmbrella. We are approaching the final hurdles for lift off now and really can't wait...until next time, stay happy..

Buttons are prickly...careful now..

Buttons are prickly..especially when they get booked for salubrious photo shoots with LadyUmbrella womens fashion and Elena wielding the camera...

In the last few days we here at LadyUmbrella HQ received our dainty buttons from the awesome guys at Pure Buttons and set about capturing them glory. I'm going to show you what I deem to be my favorite picture from the shoot, the most stylish cactus this side of Tucson..You can check out the rest of them on the LadyUmbrella Facebook Fanpage - they are pretty nifty...

Anyway, hope you like the picture and our buttons...Look at that dapper cactus..let me know what you think..

What grinds your gears? Dell rhymes with hell...

To all my avid readers out there who have been checking daily for a new blog post I do apologise - I've been hampered and lagging behind with a nasty dose of the flu (no oinking sounds thus far though thankfully) which has hindered my blogging about all things LadyUmbrella and in this post I'm going to take a moment to vent...brace yourselves...

Anyone out there have a Dell computer? - laptop or otherwise? Had any problems with them? Well, I have had my fair share of problems with this hunk of junk..it recently celebrated its 3rd birthday - I got a call of sorts to remind me about it, more on that later.

Well, my laptop has become my life. All of my documents relating to LadyUmbrella t-shirts are contained on this cumbersome unit. All of my online work (this very blog) is done via this solid lump of Inspiron 1300 and it has failed for me catastrophically so many times I've lost count.

Last January it well and truly gave up the ghost. It was around this time that I had most of the pieces of the LadyUmbrella puzzle in place (or lined up to be put in place) when for no valid reason my laptop decided not to turn on. The only remedy was to reinstall Windows and I lost everything - not only my work stuff but also all my music/pictures/etc that I hadn't backed up..it was truly sickening. Once I reinstalled Windows I thought it would be plain sailing as the hard drive would be clean etc...what an erroneous assumption..

The next problem encountered was a complete failure of the power cable which I had to replace for like 70euro. My laptop is also prone to "overheating" even if I'm doing nothing with it - it will just power down and it will take a while before I am able to turn it on again. I'm then greeted with a BEEP "Your computer overheated press F1 to start" screen..needless to say whenever these ad-hoc over-heatings occurs whatever I'm working on is lost. Also, my laptop doesn't work unless its plugged in, the battery life is zilch, nada, zip, zero..

And so, onto the 3 year birthday wishes phone call I received from a phone number about 20 digits long. I was informed that my warranty had just expired. To be honest I didn't know I had a 3 year warranty but getting a call the day after my warranty expired to try sell me a new one irked me no end. As did the "sales pitch".

I was asked if I had any problems with my battery. To which I said yes, it is non existent and I was given a spiel that that was because it was a 4 cell battery and I could get a new 6 cell for 130euro. I told her I didn't have that sort of money to spend on a piece of junk computer. She then inquired if I had any other problems with the laptop and then she tried to act surprised when I listed off all of the above. Dell computers are far from reliable and as a Dell sales staff I'm sure she is well aware of that fact. The thing that really got my back up was that if she had have called me 2 days earlier, when my computer was in warranty, I may have been able to get a new computer/the issues resolved. Of course, the fault lies with me for not getting in touch with Dell and inquiring about my warranty - I tend to shy away from these big organizations, I just don't really like them, and their "squeeze every last cent out of the customer" attitude, which was epitomized in firstly the timing of the call and the repetitive sales pitch in the call really sickened me.

Like, I'm starting a business now and genuinely want to add value to our customers at every turn, not take them for a ride and leave them disgruntled and feeling shafted. If Dell wanted to make me a happy customer why not give me a call 2 days before my warranty expires to see if everything is ok - surely they have confidence in their product that it can last for the period of the warranty? although, clearly, they build them to backfire to keep the sales machine ticking over and instead of adding value by aiding customers add anger and frustration.

This is the last Dell I will ever buy. And, akin to the scene in "Office Space" (what a great movie) I look forward to the day when I can get a new laptop and well and truly lay waste to this nighmare...

So what grinds your gears? Any laptop issues similar to mine? Any bee in your bonnet that you want to get off your chest? Go on, let it out...it feels good...and watching this clip most definitely will...

And the results are in...

Wow, the LadyUmbrella compe-tee-tion has come to an end and it has been an absolute marathon...Genuine thanks to those who took part and voted and now...without further ado I'd like to give you our winners....

First place, with 32% of the votes, Dorothy Cotter
"Warning: LadyUmbrella may not keep you dry but will brighten your day in the blink of an eye"
Second place, with 28% of the votes, Catherine Miller
"Warning: LadyUmbrella may not keep you dry but will mean you become irresistible to all other forces of nature"
Third Place, with 18% of the votes, Susan Kramer
"Warning: LadyUmbrella may not keep you dry but will not melt"

And here is a screen shot...luvly jubbly...

In true competition fashion though we have yet another prize to award for the one entry that we all just loved and that made us all chuckle...Stand up Elizabeth Perring and take a bow - some t-shirts are heading your way as well for your entry of
"Warning: LadyUmbrella may not keep you dry but will stop a storm in a D Cup"..

Ok so, thats it, thats a wrap..I'll be in touch with all the lucky winners to sort out the prizes and stuff...on a personal level though I'd just like to say once again thanks to all those who took part and told their friends about our competition - we're just a little t-shirt company from Ireland and were really blown away by the number of entries...watch this space for more competitions, yes yes, there will be more...