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

www.colourwheelcreative.co.uk

info@colourwheelcreative.co.uk



This article was kindly provided by Gemma Johnson Co-founder of

Half Term on a Budget

Half term is here, and the kids are looking forward to lots of action packed and exciting days out. But how do you balance the budget when it is nearly the end of the month and Christmas is approaching too? In this article you can get some tips for low cost and no cost activities which will keep all the family happy.

Start by making a plan. Write down the days of the week, and make a list of things that the kids have asked to do, appointments you have to attend and ideas that you have.

Free activities include

• Dressing up
• A walk to the park
• Exploring the local woods
• Visiting local attractions with no entry fee. Look in the local paper, local parenting magazine and on the local council website for ideas
• Visiting the library: ask in advance about free half term activities
• Getting the children to put on a play. This could be based on their own ideas or a book from the library visit.

Low cost activities

• Giving each child £1 and exploring the local charity shops to see who can get the best toy, book or game
• Baking. Offer the kids the chance to make their own sandwiches, create an indoor picnic or even bake a cake. This need cost no more than your mealwould have cost anyway, or you can spend a little extra on some treats
• You could look at special half term activities put on by local attractions as well as Hallowe’en and fireworks events

More activities

If your children have great ides about visiting theme parks, buying new DVDs and computer games and lots of meals out, work out in your head how much you have to spend on half term activities. Look for discounts of 10-45% on days out and theme parks offered by cards like BaBeeCard. This card also offers savings on the London Dungeon, paintball and activity camps.

Booking tickets in advance can save you money too: don’t forget to ask if there are good deals for family tickets. If your kids are old enough, givethem an idea of the budget for half term activities. This can help them weigh up what they really want to do. It might also cut down on requests for you to buy them things if they know that the ‘half term fun’ money is being saved for a great day out thatthe whole family can look forward to.

About the Author:
Gemma Johnson
Co-founder of Bebee Card
Winner of Mumpreneur of the year 2009 sponsored by WBMN
BaBeeCard Winner of Best Gift Card Award 2009 by Prepaid365.com

Mums Baby Magazine : A Great Website With Lots Of Useful Information!

Over to the creater of Mums Baby Magazine Rachel to say a little about the website and her inspiration for creating it;

After having my son Joshua in May 2009 I found parenting to be the most challenging yet rewarding experience I had ever encountered. Each day is a learning curve for both Joshua and myself.

Whilst I have been spending time getting to know my son I have come across and wide range of issues, solutions to problems, well meaning advice, products for children and general Mothers essentials. So often I have found myself asking others for advice and suggestions, whenever I have found a really beneficial product or solution to a problem I have made a mental note of it and rather than just storing it in my grey matter I decided to make the information available for Mothers Worldwide by starting a website.  

Mumsbabymagazine.com is inspired entirely by becoming a Mother myself and realising that we all need a helping hand once in a while. It is also great to take some time out and read up on the subject relevant to our hearts, our children.

Mums Baby Magazine is a website which features articles, product reviews, polls, real life stories, competitions and much more. To help our readers get to know each other Mums Baby Magazine has created an online community for Mums to get together. Visit us at www.mumsbabymagazine.com and become part of the MBM community.