This article was kindly provided by Michelle Wright from ColourWheel Creative
Some days my life feels a little bit like being in a Mr Benn episode! Do you remember that programme – or am I just showing my age? Lol!
Mr Benn was a character on a televison series who wore a black suit and bowler hat. Every day he left his house at 52 Festive Road and visited a fancy-dress shop, where he was invited by the shopkeeper to try on a different outfit. Once the outfit was on, Mr Benn left the shop through a magic door at the back of the changing room and enters a world fitting to his costume… and this is where his adventure began.
For me though, I don’t have to go to a fancy dress shop and through a magic door – like most mums who run businesses my role seems to change throughout the day!!
7.30 am – a mum dashing around at trying to find that missing school sock and discovering that my daughters only school uniform in the wardrobe is covered in paint from where she seems to have been painting with her elbow! Oh to be nearly 5 years old!
9am – taxi driver mum, battling to get my daughter to school before 9am so she doesn’t get a black mark against her name, whilst trying to get her to eat a little more breakfast on the way to school, finding her vitamin tablet and then pulling out the ever so valuable wet wipe to give a quick swish around her face and look respectable for the day – well the start of the day anyway! When she comes home, her hair is so messy that I swear she has been an extra in Harry Potter, her coat slung on and her t-shirt not tucked in – and lets not forget the scuffed black school shoes from when my ‘delicate little princess’ has been climbing trees in the play ground!
9.30am – I’m me for about 5 mins – back home for a brew to start the day.
9.35am – a graphic designer/ business lady – I hear the familiar yet comforting sound when I boot up my mac and check my emails to see what I need to add to my ‘to do’ list! I then spend blissful hours off in my own little design world, singing away to the radio, stopping occasionally for a cuppa or 2! I love my design bubble – it’s a happy place where things look pretty and everything sits well with everything else… I ‘m boss and nothing can back chat or moan!
11am – cleaner/house wife…. My design bubble has just burst when I remember my daughters painted school uniform and have to put the washing on, tidy her room, wash the pots etc etc…
It’s 1pm – how did that happen?! Better stop for some lunch and a bit of loose women! So I sit down, finish my soup, stare aimlessly at the tv whilst my mind is thinking about all the things I should be doing!! What’s the point – might as well go and do them!!
2pm – time to be an account, so I create some invoices – always useful when you have completed the work and wonder why your bank balance hasn’t changed! Whilst emailing the invoices off I get side tracked onto Facebook! It’s an addiction… ‘hello my name’s Michelle and I’m a Facebookolic’… I comment on a few posts (convincing myself that I am actually networking, you know, ‘maintaining my colourwheel creative presence on todays modern social networking platforms’ when in fact I am wishing my cousin happy birthday, looking through someone else’s photo albums (how do I get there?!) whilst thinking of something amusing to say! Suddenly I see a link to a You Tube clip – fatal… if I follow that I will also get lost in the world of You Tube and before I know it will be 5pm!! Note to self: ‘must not go there!
3.30pm – Back to my design bubble again – it’s lovely here… I do love working for myself… I love being a designer as I get to work with lots of different people, different businesses each and every day – I never know what will come into my inbox at any moment! Engrossed in newsletters, flyers and logos,… it’s suddenly dark… I look around me and the only light is from my mac – no wonder my eyes are hurting! I realize that it’s 5.45pm – blimey, how did that happen!
5.45pm – I am now a mad, frantic woman, running around the house tidying up, putting the washing out, feeding the cat, putting lights on and generally doing all the housework in 15mins!!!
6pm – I dash to the childminders to collect my daughter (my childminder lives literally in the house on the opposite side of the street – so how come I am always rushing to get there?). My daughter comes sidling out proudly holding a cardboard box covered in paint and glitter (apparently a princess castle). ‘Wow, that’s fantastic” I say with a big smile on my face (– when all the time I am thinking ‘Blimey, where am I going to put that?!’) We chat about her day – well I chat about her day receiving the usual answers:
Me: ‘what did you do today?’ Her: ‘nothing’.
Me: Who did you play with?” Her: ‘nobody!’
I smile and think how I wish I was nearly 5 years old again!
7pm – Mummy role of bath time stories and bed… we read about the BEST things….dancing polar bears, pirates, monkeys with blue bottoms and aliens who steal underpants off washing lines; and of course beautiful ladies who live in big castles who meet the man of their dreams and always live happily ever after! When she closes her eyes and I close the door to her bedroom a sense of calm and tranquility fills the air… how I wish I was nearly 5 – have I mentioned that?!
8.10 – just check my email and respond to facebook messages – oh, must also just check all the other forums that I post on.. I could really do with a brew but it is almost 9pm now…
9pm – downstairs, making lunch boxes up for tomorrow and making sure my daughters uniform is clean, dry and respectable… all ready for another days adventures!!!
Bed time –wow what a busy day… in an episode, just as exciting as a Mr Benn one, I have been a mother, housewife, cleaner, business lady, accountant, designer… oh and me, for 5 mins at lunch time!
Night all…..wonder what will be in my inbox tomorrow? X
Colourwheel creative – graphic design for your business and family
info@colourwheelcreative.co.uk
Over to the creater of Mums Baby Magazine Rachel to say a little about the website and her inspiration for creating it;