Teacup tuesday, Entrepreneurial Mums

It’s Tuesday, and in our new 2013 blog format it’s the day we share what we talk about over a cuppa.

Today I share a little thought I’ve been continually having with myself since I had my babies.

Before I became a Mum I was totally unaware of all the Mummy makers, Mummy run businesses and Mumpreneurs out there! 

Then BANG...suddenly my world was filled with talented business women, wonderfully gifted makers and incredibly brave Mums. 

Don't get me wrong, every Mum deserves a BIG medal. We are great! Dads too!

But what is it that makes Mums in their busiest times of their lives, after giving birth and juggling Mummy hood and a new family structure,  suddenly go totally  MAD and decide to do it alone and start something brand new and scary.

Surely, We have no time!?

We have hardly any energy on bad days!?

We already have to multi multi task with our babies!

Our worlds have already been turned backwards and round the wrong way.

We have no spare hands.

And our brains have turned to mush.

So why? Is it really our Baby brains being scrambled that are to blame?

I have met so many talented Mummies and Daddies who have decided to go it alone.

Are we Insane to add to the mania?

Are we Crazy to add to our endless to do lists?

Do we really wish no sleep upon ourselves!?

For me it wasn’t really about juggling childcare needs or a need to be at home with my babies.

For me it was a need to do something for myself as well as for my children. I didn’t want to spend time working for someone else. I wanted to be responsible for my time and my own life.

I couldn’t spend any time that was taken from my children doing something I didn’t believe in. It was time wasted that I just couldn’t justify allocating time to if i didn't believe in it 100%. I suddenly felt sure and focused. My baby brain was most certainly mush but the other part was alive and ticking and needing satisfying. It was about my new responsibilities of becoming a Mum. And a need to nurture and look after. Looking after myself as well as my beautiful babies.

But sometimes  I do wonder why we all do it!?

For one I know I thoroughly enjoy the challenge. The responsibility of being my own boss. The need to satisfy only me and my business partner. I am lucky. I have a tremendously supportive partner and Mum and incredibly wonderful children. And Sarah and I work well together and alone. We feed each other brain food! And it seams to feed me. I Love it!

Surely with all the Mummy run , Mumpreneurs, Mummy crafters businesses I know and feel proud of knowing, we'll be taking over the world before you know it! That and all  the small independent businesses that put quality, originality and service before counting the big bucks at the end of the day!

Hurrah!

unikgifts.co.uk

*If you've done something similar,  Let me know what were your reasoning's. 

*Good luck to all Mums starting something new...it's brave and wonderful! Do it!  

Monday Mentor, Sine Fiennes

Sine makes beautifully soft cashmere pieces for unik gifts.
Cashmere for infants and little ones.
She makes with love and precision.
Her pieces are mathematically balanced to allow her designs to balance aesthetically.
Her seaming is invisible and her cashmere is sublime.
Her styles are classic and unisex to allow for them to be past from generation to generation.

Her cashmere story began when her twin girls, Francesca and Sicily were tiny. Frustrated with a lack of good quality infant cashmere pieces available to buy she decided she try and knit them herself. She sourced a second hand knitting machine and began to teach herself. Slowly her simple styles evolved. Always ensuring they were  easy to wear and wash as every new Mum knows is equally important to being warm.

Her sweaters are easy to put over babies heads. Her styles are unisex. Each piece is knitted by Sine. Each piece is made with love and made to be cherished.

Her girls are now all grown up and her pieces have grown too. She now knits her simple baby styles for grown ups too! Show cased in egg, Knightsbridge.

We are lucky enough to showcase her infant treasures on our unik website.

To read more about Sine's pieces read one of our Cashmere blog's here.

Today we celebrate Mummies who find a new skills and passion to make into a business when their little ones are born. 
Today we celebrate a  super Mumpreneur.

unikgifts.co.uk

Wordless Wednesday: One year on...

Our newest website page. Visit it here!

Work Life Balance anyone?

It's hard to be in business and be a Mum

My former work life
- the only thing that's the same is the no. of coffees!

Anna and I have a system, it's not perfect and really neither of us keeps to it but we're in the early stages so we're trying to stick to it. You see – we're supposed to work 4 days on and 4 days off. So I'm supposed to switch off for the 4 days Anna is rota'd on and visa versa. This includes Saturday as a work day. We have a pretty spreadsheet to track our days, a holiday system and an IOU days system. It's all very organised but doesn't take into account one fatal flaw. Anna and I.

Neither of us switch off on our rota'd off days, OK so we don't blog, Facebook or watch the sales inbox but we both work those days in our own separate ways... Anna will do more press work and I'll do more website stuff. Each day, every day. It comes with the territory of starting a new business, you just don't switch off.

I'm actually writing this blog at 11.30pm on a Sunday, Daddy DayCare is watching some movie by himself while I tippy tappy at the laptop. He'll come and find me every now and then to see if I need anything [aka 'have you finished yet?!'] and then he'll pop back to his movie for a while. Needless to say he's been a little neglected for a while.

He's not the only one. While I still keep 100% of my attention on my daughter, I do find myself watching my iPhone far too often – sorry to say at least once a week I'll look up and she'll have her head cocked to once side and will have emitted a 'eee?' noise. Heartbreaking. I'm more than happy to put the phone down, if the laptop is on and I can hear the email 'bing' for those all important sales emails.

All weather gear

Just to quantify things a little for those that don't know me, I am very much a Mummy. My Daughter and I spend hours a day playing, we spend time gardening, reading, playing ball, swimming and being outside. Both of us have waterproof trousers and jackets so that we can play in all weathers and we often do! But we have our indoors moments as well, which is when I fall into the temptation of working and turn to the technology.

So I'm trying to keep a life work balance, it's hard but it'll be worth it, as long as I have managed the balance just right! 

The result of all this hard work is the website http://www.unikgifts.co.uk and the lovely products you find there.

[Please note DangerBaby and I are meeting Anna & The Naughty later today to walk around RHS Wisley - the kind of work life balance I like!]

A day in the life of Sarah and unik IT HQ

Typical day here at u-ni-k IT HQ, minus some of the really crazy bits!

0530 – Look at Daddy DayCare blearily – wave as he leaves for work.

0700 - Go and get DangerBaby who is shouting 'Da DA!!' from her cotbed. Explain that DaDeee is at work. Let baby run around upstairs looking for him and take her downstairs once she realises that he really has gone to work.

0730 – First cup of coffee of the day, phone on and laptop on

0740 – Breakfast. Cheerios / Toast / Piece of fruit

0745 – Quick check of emails, rescue Bunny Bunny from being stuck together with Cheerios.

0800 – Take first sip of coffee having left it somewhere while making the baby breakfast!

0805 – Plug in laptop whose battery is at 3% after late night working. Turn on Cbeebies / Milkshake for the little one who has been pointing and shouting at the turned off TV

0830 – Consider Mummy having some breakfast but start second cup of coffee instead. Then have breakfast. Check emails again!

0835 – Notice that greenhouse has been open all night as I worked too late and forgot I was supposed to tidy up garden before going to bed!

0900 – Finish cleaning up the last dropped Cheerio that I can see and turn off the TV that's not being watched as baby has moved into the soft room to play the piano. Quick check of the emails and open up Dreamweaver knowing that I can't do much until baby nap time

0930 – Garden time! Where it's a little chilly for us still in our PJs

0940 – Washing machine playtime [help Mummy unload and load back up]

0945 – Find second cup of coffee for first sip! Shower time.

1100 – Back downstairs, put first wash on, check emails, open up work not completed last night. Cbeebies back on. Milk for the little one and start searching for blog ideas for me!

1115 – Start preparing lunch for the little one. I cook everything from scratch and usually forage in the garden for some of the ingredients so prep starts a good 45mins before eating.

1200 – It's time for lunch.

1230 – Nap time for her. I knit while she settles – about 15mins. Then work time for me. Blog, Webpages, Emails to makers and press friends.

1400 – DaDA! Time to go and get the humanbean-fullofbeans up from her nap.

1401 – Garden time! Kick the ball, climb & slide down the slide, swing, pick up bird poo and give it to Mummy. Pick some flower buds off the plants. Move soil around in pots. Look for strawberries, look for cucumbers. Consume anything we find that looks ready to eat. Play push a plastic bike that is too big for us around. Make a den with our blanket. Remember about Mummy's water butt, turn the tap on and splash about in the water that is collected in the bucket that now lives under the water butt tap. Get soaked!

1430 – Upload blog! Tweet blog, FB Blog link. Water stop for baby as we do this. Back outside for more garden funtime.

1530 – Snack time and perhaps a visit out to the shops for 'essentials' . Check emails, respond to emails, tweets and FB posts.

1600 - Shop or garden centre or friends house visit for 30mins of being somewhere other than home.

1700 – Milk time again. Check emails, respond to emails, tweets and FB posts. Retweet blog link for our US readers. Indoor play time, soft balls, noisy things, tents with our blanket, help Mummy peg out some washing.

1730 – Tidy up time! Henry Hoover out, washa washa washa (dust) everything in site. Put some toys away (take toys back out). Finish cleaning up yet more discovered Cheerios from the morning. Detangle DangerBaby from the hoover, put hoover away. Start supper preparations. Check emails, send updates, review 30+ emails from Anna and prioritise which ones to read first.

1800 – Bedtime hour on Cbeebies. Calm reigns in the house.

1830 – Supper time for little one.

1920 – Daddy DayCare home – Go mad for 15mins! Mummy tackles the work she stopped doing at 1400hrs to play with baby.

2000 – Bath, Brush teeth, and Book for the little one.

2020 – Bedtime so Mummy knits until she sleeps.

2035 – Sleep for baby

2040 – Supper time for tired parents. Sometimes we even manage a glass of wine with supper.

2100 – Work for Mummy – TV or games for Daddy!

0000 – Sleeeeeep. Need to do it all over again tomorrow.