Category: Family fun

What is the difference between an entrepreneur and a mumpreneur?

Well, kids mainly, it has to be said!

Mumpreneurs work their business around their family, or sometimes their family around their business, dealing with the regular housework stuff of shopping, cleaning, cooking and laundry, the school runs, the “I’ve not got any socks” and “there’s a hole in my trousers” last minute panics, as well as the bed time stories, homework and “Can I have Giles for tea?”

 

 

Needless to say this mumpreneur has been busy on all the above, as well as turning a national on-line retail business into an event management company and an international wholesaler!  Which means it’s left very little time for blogging, and I’m sorry, but blogging comes AFTER ‘preneuring and AFTER family!!

 However… I thought it would be fun to pop up on my blog something entirely non-work related for a change.  As this week, for the first week of our school holidays I took three days off and organised a teddy wedding!

I say now… this wasn’t my idea.  My youngest was given another soft toy dog for his birthday and declared his regular night time dog (of the missing fame, for those who’ve been following me a while) needed to get married before he could sleep in the same bed as “Fluffy” the latest addition.  Living in sin wasn’t an option.  Believe me, I did ask…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, after a whirlwind romance and an incredibly short engagement, this week saw the conclusion of several weeks of planning (and some last minute panics as I suddenly found 3 bridesmaids had been added into the wedding party, not to mention 2 ushers and 2 pageboys, and of course a 3 tiered cake complete with gravy bones as pillars).

 

And so… July 22nd 2014 – I oversaw the marriage of 2 soft toys, complete with vicar-elephant and buffet reception, wedding photos and the throwing of the brides bouquet (and I apologize now to the poor mother affected by that!)

 

 

However I can confirm, success was achieved, as after a day of wedding activities, Fluffy finally made it into bed with Dog that night!  My son spent all morning designing them a honey moon retreat in our loft, only to find at bed time he couldn’t be parted with Dog!  So he joined the honeymooning couple!

 

The next challenge is to find a few soft toy dogs small enough to be a litter of puppies, as apparently that’s next!

 

 

We had an interesting if frantic half an hour this evening when my daughter (nearly 7) realised she’d left her precious bed-time bunny at Rainbows by mistake.

I haven’t seen her so distraught for some time and it got me thinking… did I have anything I attached that much importance to any more?

After all, this rabbit isn’t very much to look at.  It’s threadbare, the stuffing has clumped where it’s been through the washer so many times, it’s ears have been munched to tatters and, in truth, it was never a very handsome bunny when new.  She has lots of other toys, all of them in better condition – and yet, it’s this bunny that is the most precious item in her small life.

On the walk home I thought long and hard about her bunny.  Did I have anything in my life I would distress myself over, jump through hoops for?  And then I remembered… she doesn’t “own” her rabbit.  She loves it.

So yes… in spite of the fact that my own husband is showing a bit of wear these days, his stuffing is not in all the right places, and he isn’t quite up to David Tennant standards – I still wouldn’t be without him.  I’d walk back to Rainbows to collect him, and I wouldn’t go to bed with anything else.  🙂

And it’s raining here in Grimsby. A fact which didn’t escape the MET office who on the radio this morning said (and I quote):

“It’s been raining throughout the night, so this morning sees a very wet start…” Yes… well… I could have told them that! Puddles everywhere… not least in the kitchen which means the shower is once again leaking.

Still, I digress… I was going to talk about dogs. In particular OUR dog who informed me today by his look of total contempt that it is FAR too wet for him to even set foot outside the back door.

Oh yes. There he is, first thing in the morning skidding accross the laminate flooring doggy legs spinning, desperate to visit the garden, bark at anything of note and wee on the plants.

I just can’t open the door fast enough for him. The keys rattle in the lock – doggy whining, the bolts clatter back, a whimper of excitement, door bangs open (it get’s stiff in the wet, you have to pull it HARD) and the dog, rather than burst into the garden in his usual fit of vibrant morning energy just takes one look at the huge drops falling from the sky and then fixes me with those big contempting eyes as if it’s all my fault.

Dogs do not go out in the rain Jo. What were you thinking?

Well, I was thinking that he has a nice warm fur coat, freshly shed all over the carpet so that it is maximumly waterproof. But no. Regal dogs do not get their paws wet.

Couldn’t leave the doggy “tail” where it was. So decided a follow up was in order.

Tristan removed the bandages this morning so I took a look at the scar tissue. There is the expected amount of puckering, but no inflammations or redness so it seems my indoctrination from all those years reading “Twinkle” paid off.

Scar Tissue:

So – with the bandages off, Dog is feeling and looking a lot more like himself and ready to get up to new tricks. Let’s just hope none of them involve lightbulbs…

Of course, like all dogs, this one needs a bath. He smells. There will be no line-pinning this time though, instead he’ll get all fluffed up in the tumble drier. I’m sure he’ll like that. It’s certainly less painful on the ears…

Spring Cleaning 2009

(Did I hear someone say I was barking?…)

Oh dear. Poor Dog. He really does suffer. Back in May 2009 he was lost for nearly 48 hours (found after 2 days of searching) and before that he lost one eye (it was bitten off by his owner – hence his eye patch), and just yesterday he underwent major surgery following a 4th degree burn to his back leg.

Needless to say the poor little thing is in recovery now, and “nurse Tristan” is doing his best to make up for the fact he left him hanging over the light bulb in his bedside lamp.

This is of course Tristan’s bedtime pal – which is why the toy is so moth eaten and has been surgically assisted instead of just simply thrown away.

I must admit, I feel a little like “Nurse Nancy” right now. Did anyone else get “Twinkle” as a child?

Tristan had his 3 year check on Monday. He passed. How could he not when he was bright enough for this:

Health visitor hands him a box of brick style toys. “What can you make with this?”

Tristan tips out the box at his feet. “A mess.”

Kids!