nobody puts baby in the corner

This is SO going to be my tagline for New Stork Times – honestly. Adam came up with it when we were walking in my favorite place in the world at the weekend as a joke but I actually love it. It captures the fun of the brand (sometimes baby related things can be a bit, well, dull) and it is certainly a reference mums of a certain age will ‘get’. I love it!

Am now booked to exhibit at the Brighton Baby Expo http://www.brightonbabyexpo.co.uk/ where I will also be representing NST as a sponsor of the 2010 awards extravaganza for whats on 4 http://www.whatson4littleones.co.uk/awards.asp and finally meeting my friend and colleague Sam who has been a great support since a random email and phone call in 2009 (I think?!) I can’t even remember why we initially got in touch but lets just say it was the beginning of a beautiful business relationship!

So if anyone is near Brighton on the 27th June – come along to the Baby Expo…

PS Still waiting for my finalised logo but it should be with me very soon – I know, who would believe people actually have the weekend off?!

Working from home

today, and have managed to burn soup, closely followed by my finger and thumb as I went to grab the metal spoon that has been sitting in it while I had been engrossed in the latest set of logo’s from the graphic designer…it hurts, and I am still eating the soup with the black bits fished out, as I have no other food in. The house is a tip (inside and out) but I figure that I am not ‘here’ as I am ‘at work’ otherwise how would i get anything done (like update my blog fgs!) and Megan is now back from pre school (she loves it – as an update to my nursery vs pre school post) and has been plonked in front of Peppa Pig. I must have heard the story of ‘Daddy Pigs Birthday’ close to a hundred times – note to self, get it Sky +’d asap and delete this one off.

I can type, so my injury isn’t too bad, and I should be OK for tomorrows trip to one of my fave clients tomorrow – her second maternity reflexology of the week and this time I have been invited to dinner – what a nice way to earn a living!

Seize This Day

Wise words, and much more poignant when made by a 31year old battling secondary breast cancer. Please help if you can, see her site at http://www.seizethisday.co.uk/ and there is a place to donate raffle prizes at http://www.whatson4littleones.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?tid=845 so if you can, help.

Post it on facebook, tweet about it and tell all your friends.

Helenx

Logo Pogo

Is branding the be all and end all of commercial sucess? Nope but it does feel that way as you look at pdf after pdf from your designer and nothing really ‘says’ what you want it to say about you.

We have given ourselves a deadline of Wednesday to get it ‘put to bed’ (I don’t think either of us actually used that cliche thankfully but I’ll use it here anyway…

So, by Wednesday there may be something to show you…

Things are getting serious

Starting to cut back on other commitments, get a childminder for one day a week to do the 12.30 – 2.30 shift after pre school to give me some more space, and started researching potential joint ventures for my little old project. It is actually becoming real. I’m even launching New Stork Times Baby Massage Classes in the next village. Gulp. The word. Is Officially Out.

My business is real, and spending real money, and making real connections and making things happen. I love it. It is my real passion, my new little baby, all mine…

In other associated news, I have to report that Megan (Ye of the nursey hating) absolut-ley LOVES pre school – I mean really, really does. Ahhh, my deepest fears have been abated and the happy little girl I drop off is so far from the shy, crying girl I was dropping off at nursery – well lets just say I can now relax and know I made the right descision. I did my ‘parent duty’ today and there were nine kids in a big parish hall with just the most caring staff and brilliant toys and games, arts and crafts. Just wish they were open all day!

As for the childminder, well it is their (Megan and Katie’s) old childminder so it is fine, and I can’t wait for Megan to go back with her – she is the best childminder a person could ever, ever want for their child (and believe me, I have been through the options!) and it was very telling when Katies little face crumpled as she realise she wouldn’t be seeing Natalie tomorrow as she would be at school – she was gutted :(!

Bless, right, off to watch CBB – is it me or is it BRILLIANT this year> I have loved it!

And….Action!…

I filmed today! Filmed my baby massage DVD – ooh it was exciting. Stressful and nerve wracking this morning (including a 20mins-to-go mad dash to Mothercare for a white changing mat (don’t underestimate the amount of polka dots, stripes, giraffes and associated pastel animals can be found on the vast array of changing mats on the market. )) but it actually went really well – my nephew Miles was a superstar and is the star of the video. He was such a sweetie. He wasn’t so happy being on his front but , but I don’t think it will show on the DVD! We did have two other babies but they were a bit older and not so compliant – funny as I thought it would have been the other way around.

So exciting now I am half way to having an actual product, and will be able to use the stills from the video for my ‘book’. In fact I’m thinking of printing it as a proper book, rather than an ebook or some nicely formatted notes, but I have no idea how to actually go about this. I suppose there must be a way to self publish or do you think HarperCollins might be interested?

So now we move forward into post production, branding and web design. A meeting with the web designers beckons, after I had done ‘the rounds’ of the design agencies and realised that it wasn’t what I needed – the big companies (one wanted £1,999 plus VAT for logo design and another justified their £3K design fee as it included Google Analytics Code being embedded into the site – erm, that is a free tool that involves cutting and pasting) and the smaller agencies just didn’t ‘get’ me and what I was trying to do – or they did but wanted to charge the earth. I initially thought I wanted to hand it over and let someone else do the bulk of it but I now realise I am such a control freak I need to learn and do most of it myself with help from outside agencies and freelancers as and when required. I am also obsessed with supporting local small businesses (as I am one) so I am pulling in a team around me of recommended small businesses and freelancers and friends of friends and that way I retain a lot of the control over the finished product .

Oooh oooh trying not to get over excited but it is strange as a dream comes into reality. You kind of want to savour every moment, yet move on to the next stage. My mind races with possibilities yet needs to remain focussed on the (real) task in hand.

Oh and I have a house to keep clean, laundry to do and two girls to look after, including a 3rd birthday just gone and a 5th coming up.

kids parties…

Megans birthday was yesterday and it was fab. A good old fashioned house party for 10 kids and associated parents, lots of baked snak crisps and white bread ham sandwiches, cake, baloons and not a party bag in sight. Think I managed to keep costs under £50 and am grateful that she is 3 and relatively untouched by the social requirements for birthday partys. Of course the soon-to-be 5 year old will not be fobbed off with such an event and is demanding local play centres finest array of party games, organic foodstuff and the obligatory party bags. Is it just me that has issues with party bags? They cost a fortune and are usually stuffed full of tiny toys and a bit of cake (and therefore you have to supply pudding) or a really nice gift like a book or pencil case in which case I fret about how much the other parent has spent! My kids love them so I should stop being so grumpy!

Still not 100% so am on another round of stronger antibiotics but am supposed to be ‘taking it easy’ and ‘resting’ – ha bloomingha.

If you know anyone with a business…

…check out our new funky little marketing tool – so simple, so effective – buy one from us at www.thecardguard.co.uk

Seriously – how many times do you go past a van and think – ooh I need one of those (builders, over cleaners, dog groomers etc) if only I had a pen! Well that problem is a thing of the past because the CargGuard keeps your business cards to hand for any passing customer 24 hours a day! It was one of those a-ha moments when you think – I want one for my business – and then (if you are me) think lets track down the UK sole distributor from the US and do a deal!!!

I’m handing this little business over to my husband to deal with  but expect to see a CardGuard on a van near you soon!

x

Ill

I really am ill, as in have-to-lie-still-while-everyone-plays-in-the-snow-ill. Not happy and after 3 days of lying on the bed or the sofa am incredibly, overwhelmingly BORED. It doesn’t help that no one can get to me to bring me goodies and keep me company, or that Adam can’t go to work and earn anything, and neither can I. I have had to cancel clients (a cardinal sin in my book), dont know if I will be well enough to go to an important seminar on Friday, and have exhausted all the ‘books I have been meaning to get to’ and am averaging three magazines a day – a mix of Psychologies, Heat and Marie Claire!

I have pleurisy, probably brought on by being ill for weeks, probably months and not going to the doctors. Well it is sometimes like getting crack cocaine getting antibiotics so I usually err on the side of ‘I’ll get better soon’, but that was a mistake this time and I am now in perpeptual agony on my right side on breathing, coughing and (ouch) sneezing. Weirdly it is eased only by lying on the bad side.

Also the Christmas pounds were supposed to have being shifted this week and instead I’m lying whale like breathing as shallowly as possible, rather than sweating it out in the gym. Not good.

Moan, moan, moan

Fresh New Beginnings

Happy New Year. A nice crisp new day and a nice crisp new year. I love new things. New houses, new jobs, new businesses(!), new babies, new bedding, new haircuts, love it. I love change, it is exciting, challenging (maybe not the haircut but you know what I mean) it is, well, new.

New is Good. Happy New Year.