Santa Express

Insomnia got the better of me again last night...well this morning actually, 3am. I've no idea why it has made a nasty return - just typical that as soon as Little K starts being a super sleeper mummy turns into an insomniac! It gives me peace and quiet to reflect on everything though so I don't mind.

At 3am this morning I got over my itchy feet and wanting to go on holiday. We'll get away in March/April as previously planned. Instead, I decided we should treat Little K to a super special winter and do lots of nice, wintery, festive family things...so I booked the Santa Express for 22nd Dec.
For those of you who don't know, this is an old steam train which departs from the north of Scotland and travels through the highlands for a couple of hours. It's usually snowing so will make a nice festive setting, parents are treated to a mince pie and drinks and kiddies get a visit from santa and a present. To say I'm excited is an understatement!

This Christmas we're all about the family photo on the cards (which we shot a few weeks ago with a local award winning photographer), matching pyjamas to open on Christmas Eve, wear to bed and stay in all day when we wake up on Christmas morning, sprinkling reindeer food in the snow and looking into the sky for santa before bedtime as well as lots of homemade goodies such as cranberry and chocolate cookies....for santa of course!

All this drama from my side of the family and Mr L's side of the family has brought us so much closer as a little family unit...just me, Mr L, Little K and Cody.

Love and Kisses,
TM <3

Change of scenery

After all the family hassle we've had recently, Mr L and I really wanted to take Little K away for a weekend, somewhere not too far where she can play in new surroundings, maybe go swimming, visit a zoo...anything, just somewhere away from here.

I've spend ages searching online and I just can't find what I'm looking for. We'd need to take Cody too as have no-one to look after him but I can't find anything suitable. It's either too far away, doesn't accept pets, is stupidly expensive, doesn't have nice accommodation, not enough for Little K to do...so it looks like we'll be staying at home once again! That will be two years we've not been out the country on holiday.

All we want is a change of scenery and to get out of our same old daily routine...but somethings telling us we're not meant to go.

Love and kisses,
TM <3

New Hair

 

 

After uploading an old picture of Little K and I yesterday I realised how much weight I'd lost since then and how much I've physically changed. My blonde hair has been my trademark for the past 9 years but now I feel more mature, more grown up and motherly I decided to ditch the blonde and go back to my natural colour, which as it turns out, is pretty much the same colour as Little K's hair.

I was nervous as I was getting it done but now I love it, I have that feeling that nothing can stop me. Taking risks can be good every now and again.

 

I also got an interesting email yesterday from a potential bride and her soon to be husband...and as it turns out the couple have now booked me as their wedding planner! Delighted! Lots of work to do over the next 12 months for them but I'm more than excited!

 

Love and kisses,

TM <3

Baby Names

Thinking of Little K's name was one of the most difficult things I've ever done. Mr L and I were agonising over it for weeks. The only reason we finally came to an agreement on her name was because we were driving down to Sheffield for our first wedding anniversary and I read out pretty much every name from a baby name book on the 5hour drive! Mr L wasn't amused! Finally we decided on her name which is a perfect blend of both of our initials although we double barrelled it with another name I love, we chose Angel for her middle name after my late dad which we thought was a nice touch.

Even though I have so much going on right now I was procrastinating beyond belief the other day and we came up with the perfect boys name and the perfect girls name. We're sticking with the K and C names...my name begins with a K, Mr L is a C, Little K is obviously a K, the dog is a C...and our next two favourite names are also K names. This will make signing our Christmas cards just lovely!

And back to making the most of every opportunity...instead of puting Little K into the creche at the leisure centre and me trotting off to the gym..I'm sitting on the cafe working while she is playing. I must admit, it is nice to have an hour to myself to get on with some work without a little monkey battering on the keyboard!

Love and kisses,
TM <3

Making the most of every opportunity

I have so much going on at the moment I can't seem to find enough hours in the day to fit it all in. At the moment I'm sitting in my driveway in my car with my laptop as Little K is snoozing in the back - I must make the most of her naps and try and get through my 15mile long to do list. Being a busy mumpreneur isn't easy and it also means my free time is zero but I'm not complaining.

On a Friday and Saturday night I see loads of facebook status updates about friends going on nights out, tottering off to parties etc but you know what...I might have only had a couple of nights out since Little K has been born but I love it. My nights are spent working at home while Little K sleeps and my husband watches the millionth episode of swamp people or whatever it's called. Sure, I may not get to sit and chill in the evenings or go out and party the weekend away but I'm building an empire instead and I get to spend my days with Little K. I still get time with my friends and we still have a fantastic social life, we just involve the little ones too.

Fingers crossed, but we're hopefully going to get a little holiday before Christmas comes around. We usually go abroad at least once a year but the girl who usually looks after Cody is in Australia until January so looks like the hairy pooch is coming too. Hopefully we can get a nice lodge somewhere and have some awesome family time. No doubt I'll take thousands of photo's, memories are far too precious to forget.

Anyway..enought rambling...

Love and kisses,
TM <3

The Simple Things

As a working mum...or more importantly a mumpreneur...my mind never seems to stop. No matter what I'm doing or what time of day it is my mind is always on what I have to do next. I used to think this was great as it meant I was always so organised.

While giving Little K her bottle of bedtime milk tonight I was thinking about my new business idea (which is **way** down the line yet) . I was thinking about when I could do it, how it would work etc, totally oblivious to the fact I had my beautiful little daughter lying in my arms, eyelids getting heavy, just about to enter dreamland. When I snapped out of my business mind I felt guilty. How many precious moments like this had I wasted because I was so caught up in my business world?

These moments are so few and far between, Little K is growing up so fast.
My lesson for today is to appreciate the simple things in life.

Love and kisses,
TM <3

Friends

Friend (n.) - a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard

I have spent the afternoon relaxing at home with two lovely friends, S and J and their 5 month old son Little M. Little K just loves him and even learned how to give him a peck on the lips today! Have to watch that one when she's older!

I've been so stressed out recently with everything that's been going on around me that I've never taken time to step back and look at the bigger picture. Well, today I did just that and I realised that yes, its a pretty shitty situation at the moment but I have lovely friends, a fantastic husband and a daughter I love the bones of <3 ...not forgetting the bratface of a dog who I do love deep down...somewhere!

This afternoon was spent catching up, sharing the latest gossip, talking about movies, music, cake, drugs and pregnancy amongst other things and sharing my latest business ideas (which I have 2 of). I won't share these with you just yet, it's something for the future, possibly branching from this blog but we'll see.

Little K had a lovely time playing with Little M, even teaching him how to play with her toys and trying to give him his bottle when he got a little grouchy. I love watching Little K play with babies and children, she's just fascinated and that fascinates me.

Business wise...I've just drawn the winner for a competition I've been running all month for free wedding planning. Yes, I understand it is a lot to give away and it will seem like a lot of hard work for no financial gain but I'm hoping to gain in other ways - pictures for my portfolio, experience, contacts and promotion. In life it's not all about what you can do to gain money, sometimes some great things have come from giving something away. Market it properly and you could be onto a winner. Thankfully, marketing is my strong point.

Feelings with mum are very strained at the moment although she gives the impression she is oblivious to it all....hmm....thats a post for another day. Lets end this post on a positive as I've had a super happy day with those I love the most.

Love and kisses,
TM <3