Wednesday 24 August 2011

My Neglected Funky Sprogs and a Teensy Weensy Bit of Sewing!

So here we are, with only a week and a half to go until the end of the school summer holidays and my two sprogs, Dominic and Kaira have been fantastic if somewhat neglected in the attention department so this entry is for them...not that they can read it but it makes me feel better!

What can I tell you about my sprogs? Dominic is 6 and has the cheekiest grin in the world, he also has the most amazing memory, describing things from when he was two in amazing detail and remembering everything in day to day life...right now it can be annoying but I think once I use my skills to utilise this talent (like for shopping I need) it won't annoy me so much! When Dominic was 3 we found out he had something called Selective Mutism...the simplest way (for me personally) to describe it to someone I first meet is to say imagine asking a person with a phobia of heights to do a bungee jump, that's what it's like for Dominic to speak in front of people.

Fortunately, we caught it early (thanks to my friend Jemma in NZ), my doctor had never heard of it but that wasn't going to stop me fighting to get it recognised, I wrote to magazines, passed on leaflets to my doctor and Dominic's teachers from the SMIRA website. I also set up Selective Mutism New Zealand on facebook which, even after moving back to the UK, has provided us with a huge amount of support.

We have taught Dominic the skills to cope with his fear of  talking in public and he has taken what we have taught him and literally run with it. He has moments of completely reverting but they are fewer and shorter lived. If you see the pictures of him modelling for me on my website (or look to your right for the DaWanda shop pictures) you will see that he wears sunglasses, he thinks that no one can see him when he has them on!

The most useful thing about having a 6 year old son is that he is fabulous at choosing boys fabrics for me, namely Michael Miller's Skate Park in Black (above), and it looks fantastic...he's also picked out a number of other fabrics for me and in return I have made him a tooth fairy cushion.
I am quite impressed with myself! Now up until this point I have discouraged the ritual morning wiggling session that I am forced to witness every morning, now I am positively encouraging it!!!

Now Kaira is 3 and was born in  New Zealand (Dominic became Dom the Pom, she became Kiwi Kaira), although bizarrely her name originates from Denmark. Long Suffering Husband wanted Keira but I refused to name our daughter after someone he quite fancies!

Kaira does not have Selective Mutism...in fact Kaira is the polar opposite to her brother. She is confident, articulate, kind and puts up with me constantly trying out new designs on her...so basically the patience of a saint! She continually watches me sew, and when I get frustrated  (something that happens more than I would care to admit!) she tells me that I am doing a great job. She brings out the best in her brother, and adores him to the point that she plunges into depression when he is at school and only recovers from the depths of her despair by Barbie, The Fairy Secret, every day...for those not in the know this is a film that lasts for one and a half hours...yes you did read that right!

Kaira is also extremely good at mimicking...this concerns me because I find myself listening to my phrases and watching my mannerisms to an alarming degree. Even more alarming is that it takes me a few minutes to work out where the phrase has come from, or the rolling of the eyes, or the look.  At which point I stare at her horrified!

Really though it should be LSH who is more horrified, now he has two of us doing 'the look'!





Friday 12 August 2011

Computer versus Sewing Machine

Hello again!

Once again it has been a frantic two weeks which will account for my tardiness in not writing last week, made even more frantic by the fact that it is the joyous time of school summer holidays, two children home all day with only me to provide entertainment...no problem. Throw into the mix my long suffering husband (LSH)  who has turned the tables and got his own back by taking two weeks off work to install our new bathroom, all I can say on the matter is aaaggghhhhh!

Anyway back to the title of this blog.

When I set up Funky Sprogs I had this vision of being at my sewing machine...a lot.
I wondered how the logistics of this would work alongside two small children, a house that needs renovating and a 150ft jungle of a garden.

I had no idea really did I? I knew I would need to do a bit of promoting...a facebook page for Funky Sprogs, maybe a twitter page (Funky Sprogs Twitter). It makes me laugh now. The internet is such a huge resource for businesses that you would be foolhardy not to take full advantage of what is out there and so I discovered that I had to grow a few more arms and create a few more hours in to the day in order to become the internet wizard that I have now become (without driving myself ever so slightly demented!)

My efforts have paid off, my webhost for Funky Sprogs is Moonfruit, they have a Facebook page and everyday ask for you to submit your website for Site of the Day. To be honest I was full of good intentions but kept forgetting to log on, then I remembered and submitted my site and won it, which was great, a bit of free promotion. Then they featured me on their main website...hooray!

Then Yummy Mummy - Business Mums (another great facebook page that allows you to promote your website as much as you would like) has a competition, I thought I would enter because the prize was more promotion and won....hooray! Check out http://www.jill-morethanmummies.com/p/feature-on-funky-sprogs.html,  also follow Jill's blog which is great.

Next my t-shirt supplier put out a casting call for children to be in their next catalogue, I emailed them pictures of my sprogs (pics from the website of course!) and they were picked. So off we went to London on Wednesday, nearly cancelled because of the riots but then everything seemed to have settled down and off we went...fantastic day and I can't wait to see the pictures. It's going to seem a little strange seeing their faces in the catalogue as I am putting in my orders!

Finally, I use Shop Integrator on my website, it is a fantastic service that enables e-commerce sites to have the ability to provide international delivery, adjustable postage options according to the weight of products and also stock control as well as so much more. They had developed a new format that would be more compatible with Moonfruit and had emailed me with the details. I spent hours changing over all of my HTML snippets (yawn) and grumbling at my LSH who handed me another glass of wine! My efforts paid off though because Shop Integrator came back to me to say could they use me as a featured shop on their website....ooh let me think about that...hhhmmmm....thinking....thinking...ooh go on then!

So now after typing this blog I do believe that my next shift is the sewing machine, that is if my children don't get in first!