Hi, I’m Sophie Baxter.
Welcome to Big Fat Blog.
I’m French and live in the UK with my English husband and our two children.
I run Big Fat Balloons - an online shop selling helium balloons and gifts for special occasions, while juggling the demands of being a Mother, Wife, Daughter, Sister and Friend�
Here you will find an eclectic mixture of company news, product updates, gift ideas, personal reflection and tips about running a business online. Join in the conversation!
For those who want to know a bit more, here’s my story!
How it all started
I was born in 1976 in Limoges, France (I’ll let you work my age out!). At 18 I left school and headed for Bordeaux University (South of France) to study Fine Art and Photography.
I wanted to become fluent in English and travel a little so early in 1998 I packed my rucksack (mainly filled with a large collection of tight colourful trousers - don’t ask!) and left Bordeaux for Bradford (Northern England). I’d planned to stay in Bradford for 6 months as part of my University course.
I quickly settled in a shared house near the campus. One of my housemates was a Yorkshire lad called Tim… I am sure you’ve guessed - I dumped the bright tight jeans, stayed in England, married, had children and lived happily ever after!
When things go boring
In 1999 I graduated with a degree in photography and - with Tim’s support and a little perseverance, managed to pocket a First! However the euphoria was short lived as I struggled to land any decent graduate job.
After a bout of temping, I managed to land an admin job at a large chemicals company. Although it enabled me to get a mortgage and buy a house the job lacked creativity and excitement.
And when things got exiting
Tim was finishing his degree in Computer Science and came home one day with a web site to design as part of his course work. I designed graphics for his site and although we both enjoyed it we quickly forgot about it.
A few weeks later we heard a family friend say that he had difficulties getting a good professional site for his business. We told him we would design one for him. He would pay for it only if he liked it. He liked the site and we launched Stone Square - our web site design company in the summer of 2000.
The business grew steadily and after a couple of years we managed to earn a comfortable living out of it.
Three years, three new arrivals
2002 ended with the arrival of our first son (a New Year’s eve baby). Boy number 2 arrived 13 months later. After 3 chaotic years of running our web site design business and looking after babies, we both fancied a new project. We’d always thought that if we could put together our experience in business / marketing / e-commerce to set up our own online shop we might be onto a winner.
We both liked the idea of balloons in a box and decided to set up our own online shop selling helium balloons, teddy bears and chocolates - Big Fat Balloons.
Three years, two babies and a new business!
