Monday 9 August 2010

Guilty

Guilty

I am guilty, I hold my hands up and confess because I am guilty of alot of things. This does sound a little like confessional but I promise that there will be nothing here that I wouldnt say to my mother, so it is safe to continue reading (although in saying that, you dont know my mother).

I am guilty of being a working mom and part of the job description is guilt. Its not a great emotion and over compensation does kick in most weekends, where you will find me trying to fit everything into the two days we should actually all be relaxing and enjoying each others company! A reality check every once in a while means that some weekends a complete PJ day takes over! My daughter loves this and this has become very apparent over the summer holidays. She has lots of beautiful toys but never seems to have the time to play with them because we are dashing here or going there, so we are also now guilty of a little self indulgence.

I am guilty of being a perfectionist, of wanting everything right, right now! I am guilty right this minute, trying to make this blog entertaining and interesting to read! (How am I doing so far?)

Mothering Magazine asked last week how to make life simpler and my honest answer to this was to stop trying to be everything for everyone. Be yourself and enjoy doing it, but again I am the main culprit for trying to be mother, wifey, daughter, grandaughter, friend, sister, colleague, cook, cleaner and entertainements manager ..... simple would be nice but who wants it any other way??

But the thing I am most guilty of today is being a year older!! It is my birthday, so please feel free to hop onto the Little Lilypad and wish me a happy birthday or share a funny birthday story.

And for the record, I am actually not older ......merely wiser!!

Sunday 1 August 2010

From the Man on the Pad

From the Man on the Pad

To blog or not to blog? That is the question..well I thought it was time to say hello. My name's Andy and i'm the other half of the LittleLilypad! Now despite being the silent half of the partnership it is actually a fact that I am the brains and the creative driving force behind the whole business...ah who am I kidding? Id like to say that was true but it is infact my lovely lady that is responsible for the delightful website so many people are now visiting to find the gifts they need.

This is infact a whole new world to me. With the introduction of the 'mumpreneur' phenom to my life, a woman posessed and a house full of lovely baby and children's gifts I find myself now mainly needed to carry the numerous (heavy) boxes of stock around and cast my eye over the stock and the site (im sure purely to make me feel included!) before things go live on there.

Well apparently these things are meant to be short so I had better go and inspect some fantastic, quirky and handmade little treats and then watch some sport to address the balance!

Thursday 29 July 2010

Being a working mom

Being a working mom:

"'Mummy' why do you have lines on your head?

When I heard the words 'mummy, why do you have lines on your forehead', I could have quite easily buried my head under the Lilypad! Instead, I smiled sweetly and told my darling daughter that they were laughter lines from the happy and fun life I lead.

I suspect however that those lines on my head are more to do with being a busy working mom, frowning .... and maybe more than a little laughter.

I do frown, I frown when I am confused, cross, perplexed and even when I am happy - I think it maybe a habit passed down from my mother but it is one I cant shift!

I did momentarily wonder whether we should therefore be stocking anti wrinkle creams or collagen fillers in our 'gifts for grown up's' and began scouring the country for suppliers but this is not what our customers really want (although the smooth, line free skin is appealing).

Our website has been designed by a parent for parents and we all know that children do lovingly place a few additional lines and grey hairs to our collection but beauty products are not our forte!

I think that despite my initial horror of my daughter comments, they were sugar coated a little, when she followed it up with 'mummy, how do I get those lines because I want to be just like you'

Maybe those lines aren't all that bad after all!"