Jamie was off nursery last week for the Easter holiday. I thought he went back today, and I'd get a chance to do work in the daylight hours again. All dressed, fed and watered, down we trundled to the nursery. It's closed. Bugger. Texted the childminder: 'Could this be so? Is it closed all week?!' Her response: 'Yes, and I am on holiday too.' Double bugger. A whole other week, without a minute away from the kids. Six patterns to send out today, just to catch up with the weekend orders.
But the biggest source of my angst? It's twenty three days until my first big summer fair. By the time the kids are back in childcare, it'll be sixteen days. It's a three day fair called 'Parents Like Us', and they're expecting 30,000 people over the three days. I did a similar sized fair last summer and sold more than three hundred items, and that was just a normal fair, not one specifically for people with young children. And how much inventory have I managed to prepare so far? About 150 things. Rubbish. I don't know what I'm going to do.
Added angst? I need to buy things for the fair. I need to buy lots of things, I need to buy things from the States. It's not just the money required that's giving me palpatations, it's the fact that our new postman is stealing everything that's coming to the house. Five DVDs, two magazines, and my special paper from the printer. Two weeks ago I arranged for the printing company to send me the special paper to trace my patterns on so I could get them printed and not have to hand trace anymore. It takes up so much of my time. The paper never arrived; I'm still hand tracing. And I can't order anything I need for the fair, lest it goes missing. I have phoned Royal Mail repeatedly, but can't speak to anyone. I press hundreds of buttons to navigate the automated system, and then it disconnects. They haven't yet responded to my email. I'm buggered.
300 items!?!?!! That's amazing.
ReplyDeleteWow - I can see why you NEED To sew right now......
....BOO to the lack of childcare
and BOOOOOOO to the theiving postie.
Have you a friend who could take them for an afternoon so you can get something done?
Fingers crossed it all works out. About the royal mail, I temped in a main delivery office for the District Manager down here and I would suggest you take yourself down to the delivery office (with children, trust me) fairly early in the morning. Say you want to speak to the relevant District Manager for your postal area. Refuse to leave. Have noisy children, and be annoying yourself, until the manager appears. Explain to the manager. Tell him you are giving him 2 days to sort it out or you will be back, but this time your children will have been dosed with tartrazine or similar... As if by magic, your post will arrive...
ReplyDeletei sympathise......but i also really enjoyed the photo - i love dire straits!
ReplyDeletecan you leave him with a friend, even for a short time? and as for the thieving postie - grrrrrrrrrrr!
ReplyDeletePants. What Louiz said about going to the delivery office - and maybe threaten to get the local press involved as well if they don't sort things out.
ReplyDeleteMaybe let Jamie have a creme egg before you go :)
I'm gonna 3rd the advice about getting you kids all hopped up espresso (or child equivalent) and taking them to see the Man in Charge. After all, one of the perks of having small children is irritate people that you are too grown up to irritate.
ReplyDeleteYou are lucky that you don't have a real job as well! Between looking after my kids (full time) and a cashier job (part time) I have no time left to craft. Can you provide any tips on how you fit it in? (financially (you got them in daycare???), physically and emotionally!!.
ReplyDeleteThank you everyone for sympathy and advice! I've been hassling the DVD company to complain to Royal Mail on my behalf (they obviously have more clout than little ol'me) and -shock- a DVD arrived today! Hopefully this is a sign that the situation has been remedied! If not, guess I'll have to take Louiz's advice and lug the kids cross town on the bus to the delivery office, although the stress would probably kill me...
ReplyDelete@Anon: Yes, I am lucky that I don't have a 'real' job too, although I work on my business probably 50 to 60 hours a week! As far as tips for fitting it all in...
Financially: I'm not sure where you are from, but in the UK when your child turns three you get a free nursery place. It's two and a half hours a day during the school year (summers and holidays closed) so it's not a huge amount of time but it helps! I'm fortunate that the business is doing well enough that I can also afford a childminder some of the time that Jamie is at nursery so I normally have ten hours a week to work during the day.
Physically? I don't sleep much. Because I mostly work on the business at night, it is unusual for me to go to bed before 1AM.
Emotionally? It can be hard, perhaps even harder than physically. Sometimes I don't feel like doing it, I miss sleeping, and it would be nice to be able to relax in the evening and at weekends. But sewing (and the business that followed) brought me out of a pretty dark place so it's too important to me to give up.
That's a strange question by ANON (who isn't brave enough to identify themselves). I'm a craftsperson and a full time stay at home mother. DOes this mean it's not a proper job???? Oh yes it is, it is my business and like Kitschy, spend many long dark hours working on my business because we have to fit it around our children. But, we are lucky that we enjoy what we do. The opportunity of success is what keeps me going.
ReplyDeleteOMgoodness Amanda, I don't know how you manage to fit it all in. Do you not have a friend that can help you out with the kids? Or a friend that can help you out with the business?
ReplyDeleteI hope you sort your Postman out, thats not on!
Good luck with the craft fair.
"Don't have a REAL job"?!?!?!
ReplyDeleteWTF?!?!?
I nearly snorted my tea out my nose?!
What's not "real" about running your own business ... which means, financial accounts, purchasing, marketing, telesales, customer care, time management ... etc, etc...
"Don't have a real job" mutter, mutter, grr, grrr
Oh yes, and the real comment I wanted to make, before I read *THAT* comment was, good luck with the fair ... I have the opposite. I only need take samples to a fair (majority is personalised and made to order) it's only when I get home and think "aaahhhh"
ReplyDeleteI don't do many fairs these days!
;oP
I know this is an extremely old post but that comment about a 'real' job just made my blood boil! Ah, they joys of being self-employed, working from home and raising children... not one of those things is a 'real' job apparently. And yep, I usually work till the wee small hours too, so I identify! You are awesome, and very real ;)
ReplyDelete