"So when Lisa asked me to do a guest for her blog post all about Spots & Stripes (and things OH so nice) and how I manage working from home AND looking after a 3 year old and a 1 year old it got me thinking. Actually, How DO I manage it? Well its easy really…organisation! Well that and pure LUCK! Some weeks I get nothing done and I mean nothing. I may reply to a few emails but that’s about it. Other weeks I sew more than I usually manage in some months!
On a normal day we get up around 6.30am and whilst my
hubby sorts the kids breakfast I get dressed, make beds, get clothes needed for
the day, pack any bags if we are off out anywhere, take any washing down and
generally leave the upstairs of our house lovely & tidy. For all of five minutes, until the kids decide to venture back upstairs.
I then head
downstairs and get the kids dressed, have my breakfast, sort any washing that’s
dry and take that up and put it away. I will hoover if needed and empty the
dishwasher if that’s been on. That’s then my ‘chores’ done for the day! By
9.30am Harry is usually whining for his nap so off he goes and if he is a good
boy he will sleep for 2 hours and this is my sewing time! It’s amazing how much
I get done in this time (even more if Olivia is at pre-school). Once he is up I
just check emails whilst we play etc and then 6pm comes round and its bed time
and I start all over again – sewing, emails, sewing, prep. I have an organised
order process which helps.
Oh and I also get my shopping delivered and pay my mum to
do my ironing. It saves loooooads of time.
I do love working from home (and doing what I do) and
it’s great being able to work around the kids but there are times I feel guilty
for the kids when I occassional have to work whilst they play. I also sometimes feel guilty for my hubby for
working in the evenings but once the Christmas rush is over, I plan to take from
Friday lunchtime to Sunday lunchtime off every weekend! Well that’s the plan. I'm supposed to be off now but here I am on my laptop. I guess one of my overall
tips on how I manage it is to make the most of every minute. And I mean every
minute! Ive been known to whip up a bag in the 25 minutes before the pre-school run. That’s 25 minutes less
I have to find later that evening.
If you want to see what I do check out www.facebook.com/handmadebyspotsandstripes
Here are some of my biggest sellers…
The Leanne Bag – starts at £22.50
The Emma Bag – starts at £40
It also helps to have supportive customers, often mums
themselves who understand why their email may have been missed (baby brain) or
why I haven’t found fabric ideas for them yet (clingy whiny children not
allowing me to wee let alone surf the web) or why I didn’t make it to the post
office with their order (thought of going out of the house was too much to handle!).
A few days after Lisa asked me to do the guest post I got this from one of my
customers…it made all the hours I work worth it: ‘You are seriously like Wonder Woman, there's no harm in saying no
sometimes and giving yourself a bit of down time! Us women are too demanding of
you, and I'm the first to admit that! Facebook makes it easy to forget you're a
human being with LOTS of orders/ enquiries to deal with as well as a gorgeous
family to look after!!! Xx’
Oh and one last thing…. In order to get things done I
usually allow my 3 year old to help. She often ends up looking like this though.
She
likes Art Attack so often creates her own out of ribbons.
Remember if you like what you see, please head over to her page and check out her full range. www.facebook.com/handmadebyspotsandstripes
Love these bags - will go and have a look at Facebook page xx
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