Crap, it's Christmas

Oh, bugger.
Once again I am faced with the prospect of having to get gifts for friends and family on a budget.............well that's a bit of a steaming pile of crap to start with- I have no budget, because a budget suggests you have an amount of money to spend on x people. I have fuck all to spend on everyone.

Ok, no money and some people to buy for, including an excitable nearly 5 year old.
Now, I don't feel the need to spend 100s but I do want to get something good for my little one at least, which brings me back to my 1st thought- what do I get him?
I mean, I do try not to spoil him, but he has so much it is crazy. In fact, I reckon he has as much now as my 2 siblings and I had in our entire childhoods.

He certainly doesn't need anything, but need has long since ceased to have anything major to do with Christmas in this country, and I doubt it will become important in the near future- recession or not.

I think I'll just get him a set of snakes and ladders, and, actually, I think he'll love it. Great!
Now, what do I say to those who spend 100s on their babies (I kid you not, I was at a toddler group where every child was under 3, and the average cost for each was over £150. That was just presents from the parents. One woman bought a TV ffs) they would be horrified that I couldn't find something more expensive to buy him.

Ah, well, I'll just lie.

xxx

Back to work!

We have just had a lovely week touring the midland visiting friends and family, and are now back to work with a vengeance!
I have a whole load of tasty extras to add to the site over this week, which is quite exciting. I am very happy to be retailing the Hippychick range.
An especially happy addition is the phenomenally popular wheelybug, which is fast becoming the must have walkabout toy for your toddler.
Togz wet weather gear is another welcome addition, and I have heard many stories of holidays saved by the ability to bundle darling little ones up in reliable one-piece, two-piece, and even fleece lined waterproofing. This allows a top to toe cover up, and there is even waterproof bootees for bubs too small for wellies!
Right, well, I guess I'd better get on with it- before I have to pick my bub up from nursery!

Back to school... and off again!

My wee lad started back at nursery school today. There's going to be a bit of adjusting as he's now there in the morning session, so lazy mornings are out of the question. Just as well really, it'll give us both a chance to get used to it before the stricter big school start times.
He went in after a big hug without a backwards glance, which is an improvement from before when I had to walk him in.
However, I just found out that there's a strike tomorrow, so after all the build up he's off again.
I understand why the strike, but it's so last minute. If I had a proper job to go to I'd find it hard to sort out something else at this stage.
....
I wrote the 1st bit yesterday, which means that today is strike day. We are having a good day, really, although this morning I decided to go to my ECDL course in the local library (they have a creche) only to find they are closed too.
Of course they are, they work for the council.
Idiot.

It's also started raining again so I may be forced into cracking out the paints and make and do stuff again. Don't know what we'll make though, the Tardis is finished, but Davros still needs his switches and levers so we'll maybe get that done.

It's not a bad life. :)

E-mail confusion

I have a few e-mail accounts, and over time they all end up filled with offers to enlage my manhood and cheap knock off watches ("no one'll know you didn't spend 1,000's!"- except, of course everyone who knows me...)
It's not just irritating, I have even missed a couple of orders from ebay (not altogether but it took a few hours for me to find them) and that is unacceptable.
So I've shifted my notifications to a new google mail account, and as it only gets ebay notifications so orders shouldn't get lost anymore. At least that's the plan. Unfortunately getting into my account is a hit or miss affair. I have bookmarked it twice and the 1st time it took me to a blank page, whereas the 2nd loads then stops, loads then stops ad infinitum, or loads so you are tantalised with the inbox then goes to a blank page.
Pain in the A as I have to get to it through the google home page, I mean google rule the www world and they cant sort out letting my bookmark my own email account!!
Harrumph

Off to the beach

Today is a fine day here in sunny Dundee, so we are forming a convoy to the beach!
It'll either be a fantastic afternoon, with preschoolers and babies enjoying the sun, sea, sand and the blustery wind, or a rotten time with sand in eyes, screaming babies and our shoes filling up with sand that'll be discovered in dribs and drabs over the next week or so.
It really could go either way.

Now to think of a snack that won't mind being washed in salt water to get rid of the sand...

Fluffles are discontinued...Oh woe is me!

It happened a couple of months ago but I only just found out when I tried to order some. It looks as though they've been squeezed out by the new product in the Tots Bots stable.
I'm kind of stunned, as they are by far the most popular product from the range as far as orders from Daft On Nappies go.
And I like them! That opinion alone should have ensured their inclusion, but the world is upside down and my declarations are not being heeded!
Absolutely gutted.

Revamp

Not one to do anything by halves I have been busy coming up with a new design to go with my new name. I'm using grass and sunshine yellow in an effort to evoke memories of fresh air and summer meadows, the idea being it highlights the environmental/natural aspects of real nappies. Some of the coolours don't quite work, so it's definitely a work in progress.

Whilst bonnie-babies.com still points to the site I will henceforth be daftonnappies.co.uk, and am enjoying calling myself a daftie. I am also looking for fellow dafties to join me in selling the products, so if you know anyone that loves their nappies and could persuade others on how easy they are to use and care for then please send them my way!

Birthday shenanigans

My little one is not quite so very little any more- he's 4! For the 1st time he's really getting the idea of a special day for him, and he's really enjoying himself. He woke up to a pile of presents this morning and did the "Oooo, what's this...yay its a xxx!" chucked it aside and started on the next parcel :) I am chuffed to bits that the big pressie from me has gone down so well. It's a r/c Roary Racing Car and he's pretty much played with it since I managed to wrestle it out of the packaging.

It's funny, but I came to terms with the idea of plastic character toys now, but when J was tiny I was all "it's organic food, and wood toys from sustainable forests". Plastic tat would not be tolerated, and he wouldn't watch telly til he's at school.

Yeah, right.

I'm still resisting sausages that are mostly lips and hooves... but not if they are in a sausage roll.

It's over!

Not life as we knw it, or anything so melodramatic, but 2 very important events have passed...
1: My 1st online self assessment tax return is in! And
2: My 1st ever sale is over!

I promise, in front of millions of blog readers (well, all 2 of you anyway :) ) that I will never again leave it till the last week. I'm not promising to get it in early, or even in plenty of time, but I will leave enough time to have a few problems, get answers, try them out, get more answers, try them out, get more answers, try them out, and then figure it out myself without developing an ulcer. I certainly do not want to be sitting in front of my computer at 23:15, 45 minutes before the extended deadline screaming "why won't you go through! Go though, or don't go through, just don't show me a white screen and a busy sign for forty minutes when I don't have forty minutes! Arrrggghhh! Please, please, pease..." pause for sobbing.... thankfully I didn't wake up J, or he may have been perplexed to find his mummy sobbing and hugging the monitor.

And the sale was quite a success, I was mildly pleased with it. Here's to people coming back without the sale prices tempting them in! The lesson I learned through the sale was to work out the numbers for every product, as I managed to sell quite a bit of one product that barely scraped even after all the postages were factored in. Also, not to assume things will sell just because they are at a good price. It seems counter-intuitive, but I am coming to the conclusion that there's just some products that I cannot give away.

I blame ebay.

And I love ebay.

It depends on whether I'm buying or selling, really.

Taxes, taxes, damned taxes!

I have now got a week to finish it off (thank goodness for online forms!) and am getting stressed out about it.

When I was at uni and working hard (yes it is possible for an arts student to work!) I always found that, when I was stressed about whatever I was working on, I'd put the book onto my head and I would feel better. I didn't believe I was absorbing the info, or anything crazy like that, it was like a relief valve and it did calm me. Then, 5 minutes later, I'd have relaxed enough to take said book from my head and get back to work. With the additional benefit of a little light relief for the others in the library.

I can't do that with a computer- at least not with my desktop computer, hence my need for a laptop.

Then everything would be fine, taxes wouldn't stress me, and chocolate would have no calorific value.

You see a flaw in my logic?

The end is here!

I have finally shipped off my last bogof bumGenius! nappies, and so it is with some regret I end the sale <:(>
Not the whole sale, I will keep the Mother-Ease and Tots Bots sale going (check out my website for further details!) but the version 2 bumGenius!, which were offered as a bogof have ended... and the new and improved version 3 has arrived!
Don't worry if you have the v2, they are still fantastic nappies, but the v3 is a formal roll out of a few tweaks and improvements on the design.

It's a shame as I quite liked doing the sale... but one lesson I have learned is to do my sums properly and make sure I can make something on a sale... I'm not doing it just to break even after all! (mind you it is still more of an expensive hobby at the mo, but I don't set out to loose money on each sale!)

I am such a great business woman lol

Dundee Baby Fair

Well, the Baby Fair is this Saturday, and I do not feel ready! I think the problem is that I have quite high expectations for my stand, but no idea how to make it happen!

I have no display boards and can't put up posters, or anything on the walls ("It cost over £3000 to repaint this room last year, you knw, s no blu tack!") so all I have is a table. Perhaps I'll make a skirt for it made out of pictures of babies/nappies etc...

I do have a horror of embarrassing myself by looking a bit crap, tbh. Last summer someone had set up a healthy living fair in the City Square with loads of stalls for all the various groups but they were bare tables with a couple of leaflets scattered about on them, and it just left a very bad impression. I know one shouldn't judge the service on the display, but we are a sophisticated audience when it comes to things like image. I don't mind people knowing I work out of my house, and that I'm not a multi national organisation, but I'd like to think I look like I know what I'm talking about. It's not enough to just know what your talking about, you have to look like it to!

Then there's the big Baby Show in Glasgow... but that's a fret for another day!
lol

Winter blues... and pinks

Tis indeed the season of sickness and we are no exception- colds abound in the Ivory Tower and we are now locked into that fantastic re-infection loop. It's my turn to splutter and splatter, but now J has returned to the germ fest they call nursery school, I'm sure he'll come home with something more interesting some time soon :)

It's a good nursery, don't get me wrong, but it's the way these things go!

And the pinks? Well, that would be my brand new pink bike! My lovely, beautiful friend only went and bought me a bike for my Christmas!

I feel like a 10 year old :)

Fully equipped with a child seat for J I am now mobile(ish). I live on a hill so I'm trying to build up stamina a bit at a time. It's hard enough going up a 45% slope but with a 3 stone backseat driver I do tend to get off and push!

Hope new year finds you all healthy, happy, and hearty!