My last journal post started by saying it has been sometime since my last update… and here I am again needing to say the same thing. It has been a bit over 3 months since we welcomed our darling little cub, Hugo, into our world. And what an incredible few months they have been…

Adjusting to motherhood and getting to know our baby boy has been a delight. We are absolutely smitten and just adore him – he is without a doubt my greatest achievement, and Andrew’s and my best collaboration!

Amongst newborn cuddles, nappy changes, and a tight feeding schedule, there hasn’t been a lot of time for business lately… and that’s totally ok! These early times with Hugo are precious and important, and he is my main priority (and will always remain so – alongside any future siblings of course).

However, saying all that, things have been progressing. At only two weeks of age, Hugo participated in his first video conference call to Italy. An added benefit of being up at all hours with a newborn is that it makes it easier when needing to communicate in European business hours! Affectionately calling him ‘Hugo the Boss’, our contacts can’t wait to meet him and have already said they expect to see him running the business in Italy one day. We’ll see what he has to say about that when he is older (if you read this Hugo, you are free to chase your own dreams!).

You may recall my previous post was my due date, and we had just sent off my buckle prototype to Italy to be included in the next shoe sample – so that video conference was the first time I would see it all come together as one, shoe and buckle combined.

After discussions and adjustments, it finally arrived in the post a few weeks later… and it just so happened to be the same afternoon we were having a family newborn shoot (with the incredible Ciaran from Creo Collective). It was pretty special to be able to capture opening the parcel with Andrew, Hugo and of course Reuben all watching on – it kinda felt like Christmas and I’m pretty sure Reuben thought it was for him!

Can you sense the suspense? I hope you didn’t think I was going to show you what was in the box now… I still can’t just yet, but I’m pleased to say that the shoe itself, with the buckle prototype attached, looks incredible (am I allowed to say that??), and we are getting closer to the final thing!!!

A week after it arrived, when Hugo was only five weeks old, I did manage to leave him with my parents for a few hours to attend another meeting with our patent attorney. With the designs very near finalised, we are almost ready to take the next step around registering my design and protecting my IP.

On that note, I’m pleased to say my trademark has been approved for registration… which means (drumroll please), I’ll soon be able to share my brand name, and logo, with you!

Stay tuned for the next update when all will start to be revealed.

Zan xo

P.S Thanks to all who have done my survey – I’ve had heaps of responses. If you haven’t yet done so, or wouldn’t mind sharing it with your friends and colleagues, I would be very grateful. You can find it here.

P.P.S I’ll soon be looking for some lovely ladies who may be interested in participating in a small focus group. If you are interested, please let me know here.