About Us
Do you believe in fate? Do things happen for a reason? We believe so… had we not had our firstborns at around the same time, dragged ourselves out of the house on a Wednesday morning to go to baby group, our paths would never have crossed. Cow and Giraffe would never have been born and you wouldn’t be reading this. So, thank you to Jo at Kirkburton Baby Group circa 2013 - without you none of this would have been possible.
Claire moved to Yorkshire from the flatlands of the fens to study some 24 years ago and never went back, married a Yorkshire chap and bred two little Yorkshire people, and is now known in the area as a ‘comer inner’!
After studying Interior Design she has had a varied career working in several relevant fields in the commercial sector from supermarket planning and remodelling, Bank relocations and design, Office design and build, and managing space for an educational establishment in West Yorkshire.
Whilst doing the latter she feels that it has most definitely quelled her passion for all things design, so it was time that creative Claire made a return, her creative eye for mixing patterns, colours and forecasting trends should be a huge help towards the business. As yet she can’t even sew more than a button – but is working hard on that. And yes, it is Claire who has the passion for Cows!
The Giraffe side of things takes us to Michelle. She inherited her love of Giraffes – and sewing – from her Grandma and Mum. Grandma was a milliner, and Mum has sewn clothes and soft furnishings for the whole family, moving to patchwork, quilting and general creative sewing as time went on. Helping her Mum search for just the right fabric lay the seed of Michelle’s passion for building her own fabric stash.
Michelle has been interested in all kinds of crafts from the moment she could hold a crayon, and has fond memories of sitting at her toy sewing machine next to her mum as they both whipped up a masterpiece (or not!). Her other passion is ancient history – if it’s not Roman then it’s just too new… However, her working life led her down a completely different route and she became Strategic Relationship Director for a national financial services firm. Despite being a role she loved, when her two boys came along, the travel and hours were more than she was prepared to give. Michelle happily became a stay-at-home mum and loves almost every minute of it.
With a busy career and three young children, Michelle has rarely had time to do more than gaze longingly at her ever-growing pile of delicious cottons for many years. But now times are changing! The creation of Cow and Giraffe is allowing her to call her passion ‘work’, and legitimately spend all day surrounded by fabric and her sewing machine – so bring it on!
We can't wait to help you find the right additions to your own fabric collections!
Love Claire and Michelle xx
