PookySnail

Welcome to PooKySnail organic kids and baby clothing and gifts. PookySnail was launched in June 2017 through the hard work of me, Edel!
There are some people behind my eventual launch and i suppose I'll explain it with a story.

I grew up on a farm in the Irish countryside in Co. Laois . My childhood was filled with outside and playing and fresh air and chocolate spread sandwiches and fishing and fun!
My mother is an extraordinary woman who worked hard at everything. She was good at a lot of things; baking, cooking, building, landscaping but especially sewing! She made everything; her dolls clothes, her skirts, her sisters clothes, her wedding dress, her bridesmaid dresses, all her children's clothes, our debs dresses, her grand kids clothes, everything!
Now while I will never be a patch on her 60+ years experience , I am inspired by her.
This appreciation was a slow burner. I never acknowledged all the work and hours my mother put into making our clothes as children. As a teenager I would turn my nose up at handmade items, opting for mass produced samey clothes from high street shops!
My interest in creating has always existed. I attempted to scramble a portfolio for art college (in a week!). I did manage to get to get accepted into some colleges but in the end I opted against art college as my drawing skills left a lot to be desired.
As I got older I started to realise my mothers ingenuity was incredible. I watched how she upholstered chairs with no training, how she made curtains and cushions for her house and I wanted in on that action so I asked her to show me how to sew. It started off rocky, she was quick and I was slow and I`m a terrible student so I did a few sewing classes and kept coming back to show my mother my projects, who would give me very direct criticism, constructive criticism which drove me to produce good quality sewing projects. So here I am , able to sew!
The organic side of my clothing has arisen from another aspect of my childhood.
My father was a farmer, in the 90's there wasn't much knowledge or information on organic produce/farming but the environmental movement was beginning, people were becoming more environmentally aware and were becoming more concerned with the impact we as humans were having on our planet.
My father strove to create an environmentally friendly farm , which he proved by winning an Environmentalist Award in 1993.
My brother has since taken over the farm and has taken my father`s ethos to the next level, organic. My brother produces only organic milk. Over the last two years I have listened to my brother speak with passion about the (over) use of pesticides within the farming industry.
While researching into the cotton I was purchasing for my little projects I learned that the cotton industry is the largest user of pesticides out of all the farming industries, 2.4% of the world’s crop land is planted with cotton and yet it accounts for 24% and 11% of the global sales of insecticide and pesticides respectively. For every nine ounces of cotton (that`s the amount in an average T-shirt) growers use an average of 17 teaspoons of chemical fertilizers and nearly a teaspoon of active ingredients, including pesticides, herbicides, insecticides and defoliants.The pesticides used in the cotton industry are not only damaging us personally but also our planet.
So I suppose I would like to do my (small) bit for my family, myself, my customers and our environment by only using organic certified cotton (GOTS-Global Organic Textile Standard) in all the clothes I am creating.
I hope your little one enjoys wearing the clothes as much as I`ve enjoyed making them!