08.22.2016

The WAHM Juggle – Guest Blog

Meet Bel from My Little I Designs Mum of Isla and #girlboss

#MumshelpingMums

Bel Meginley || My Little I Designs

Instagram @mylittleidesigns
facebook.com/mylittleidesigns
etsy.com/shop/MyLittleIDesigns

To View My Little I Designs new collection click here: S/S16

The WAHM Juggle

Bel Meginley || My Little I Designs

Being a mum is a BUSY job! I remember when Isla was born I thought

to myself “oh I can’t wait until she’s a bit bigger and it won’t be so

constant”. Well she’s 3 now and the intensity hasn’t changed – just

the things that we do. I can’t imagine what happens when you add

extra kiddies to that (I’ll leave that to someone else, thank you!).

Add into that a small handmade business and it gets tricky. I am the

owner of handmade girls clothing label My Little I Designs and

everything is done by me – sewing, mail runs, social media, emails,

the whole lot.

I am lucky to be in the position that we haven’t had to send Isla to

daycare – she’ll start pre-prep next year – and while I’m so thankful

for the precious time I have in these formative years with her, it can

sometimes mean I struggle to keep everything up in the air at once.

Having said that, my daughter is always my first priority. So if she

needs me I will drop everything and focus on her needs.

I want to share my top 5 tips to help small home-based mummy

businesses balance their family and work time. That’s not to say I get

it right all the time – I, like everyone make mistakes, but this should

help as a rough guide.

WORK WITH HUSTLE

o Have good business practises –because you’re a

new/small business doesn’t mean you have to behave

like one. Use a business planner, a notebook, whatever

system works for you to keep track of orders, payments,

expenses, tracking numbers etc.

BE REALISTIC

o Set realistic timeframes for yourself – don’t say you’ll

have something finished in 2 days if you won’t. Have a

buffer for when things go awry too. I find the day you

NEED to get to the post office is often the day your child

gets sick and you can’t leave the house.

ROLL WITH THE PUNCHES

o Following on from the last one, understand that life will

invariably get in the way sometimes and learn to accept

it. Sometimes your kids just want to spend the day with

you, so DO IT. They are the reason you do are working

from home, and whilst its easy to put on a Disney movie

and try to work, I find I’m far less productive anyway.

Often we go to the park on the way home from the post

office, its become a special treat to go to the post office

now too.

USE YOUR TIME WISELY

o Use a scheduler for posts to social media. I like Hootsuite

(www.hootsuite.com) because I can post to Facebook &

Instagram from the one website. I grab a cup of coffee

and schedule posts for days in advance – then they’re all

done and out of the way to focus on what you do best!

Social media is such an important part of home-based

businesses and it is easy for it to become all-consuming.

Using a scheduler is much easier in my experience.

FOCUS ON YOU EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE

o Take time to look after yourself – I find I can’t sew during

the day now that Isla doesn’t have a day sleep anymore,

which means a lot of late nights. Just under a year ago I

was up till past midnight every night sewing and I caught

a cold. I thought it was nothing and just ignored it. Turns

out it was early stages of pneumonia and I ended up

cracking ribs from the coughing and meant sitting over a

sewing was excruciating. So my advice; don’t work

yourself into the ground! You owe it to yourself and your

family to look after yourself.

I hope you find these helpful to balance being a mum and running a

business too!

Bel xx

The Photo’s above are the new S/S16 Collection called CandyLane from My Little I Designs

Photography by the lovely Sarah @my.heart.project

Beautiful Models The stunning Miss Harlow @harlow_ever_after and the cutie Miss Avalon @avalon.renegade and Miss PiperSienna

Please leave comments we would love to hear from you….

NOTE: All the information provided on www.pipersienna.com.au is for general information and entertainment purposes only, Guest bloggers and other contributors to www.pipersienna.com.au are responsible for their own submitted material on my website. The opinions expressed by any Third Parties are their own and do not always represent the position or belief of www.pipersienna.com.au

Love Kerry and Miss Piper xoxo

07.04.2016

We Have Progress – Guest Blog

We are Proud to Welcome our Guest Blogger to the Page as part of our

#MumshelpingMums

Get to Know Katrina 2masters and a miss and follows the adventures, fashion, experiences and reviews that Katrina and her children come across.

Written By: Katrina Mudie

Follow on the links below to find out more

Instagram @2masters_and_a_miss

www.2mastersandamissblog.wordpress.com

Welcome Katrina….

We Have Progress – Dex is five years old and has newly been diagnosed with ASD, which has explained so much of what he has been experiencing and struggling with for a long time. He struggles daily with sensory issues, so loud noises, textures and things that would normally make others uncomfortable, are very painful or distressing for him. I hope that this blog entry will relate to other mothers with children on the spectrum or those who struggle daily with tasks that most children see as second nature.

One of the things that distresses him the most is haircuts. Anyone only has to say the word “haircut” towards him, and he becomes anxious and a lot of the time will scream and hide. So for a while we haven’t even mentioned the word, never mind suggest he have one. I mean, it’s only hair right? Not a big deal if his hair is long.

Well, last night we were talking with Kingston about haircuts, and that he could have a surprise egg after his next one. Well, Dex overheard and told me that he wants a surprise egg and a haircut too. I took it with a grain of salt. If he wanted one, great! If not, fine with me too. So we spoke about it, with no anxiety and no concern except that he only wanted scissors to be used and no water spray. We looked on good Ol’ Pinterest and found a few cuts he liked. Something I’ve learned along the way of raising a child with anxiety is when you include them in the process, they feel much more comfortable and are able to feel more in control of the situation. This is definitely helps Dex every day. So off we went to bed with excitement and wonder.

The next day, we went to our local shopping centre and again, inviting him into the decision making, let him choose which salon we would go to. At first he was nervous, so we sat down in their waiting area and I told him we would just sit and look around, because he takes time to warm up to new surroundings. After about 10 minutes, the hairdresser came and spoke to us and asked Dex if he was ready for his haircut. He told her “maybe just one more minute and I’ll be ready!” I loved that he was able to verbalise his feelings and again feel as though he had control over the whole process. If he in the end decided he was too scare for one, we would’ve left and waited for another time. But after thirty seconds had passed, he decided he was ready to get into the chair! This was a HUGE deal in itself because I don’t even remember the last time he sat in a hairdresser’s chair. By now my nerves and excitement had kicked in. As they put the cape on him my heart started pounding for him. Would he start to get anxious? Would he meltdown because his little body and mind doesn’t handle these types of things well? Dex looked over at the little trolley with all their equipment and I could see in his face he was unsure. He told the hairdresser, Jess, “only scissors, OK?” And she promised him, only scissors. I could see his shoulders drop as though he could relax now.

Dex was a champion. He sat there with a smile on his face literally the whole time. He even told Jess “I need you to cut more around my ears, I want to see my ears, oh and my eyes cut more there too.” I watched in amazement and had a giggle to myself as he stated to her, quite calmly and almost like an adult, exactly what he wanted. He used his manners, he kept telling her how good it looked and when she had finished he was SO excited. He high fived Jess the hairdresser who told him how proud she was of him. I think almost everyone he told about his haircut told him how proud they were of him! And so they should be.

This little boy, who has had a massive fear of even the word “haircut” or being asked if he wanted a haircut overcame huge anxiety and sensory complications and took control of the situation. For any five year old I think that’s pretty freaking amazing. But for Dex, for who he is, this is a HUGE deal.

For him and for those who love him. I couldn’t have been prouder for the way he dealt with today.

We’ve overcame a hurdle today and we have many more to come.

But one step at a time, and this was a big one.

Please leave comments we would love to hear from you….

03.29.2016

I’m Sorry for the advice I gave before becoming a parent – Guest Blog

We are Proud to Welcome our First Guest Blogger to the Page as part of our

#MumshelpingMums

Written By: Amie Jane Hankinson

Amie is a first time mum to a little girl Mackenzie, she has a background in Kindergarten teaching in QLD. Amie has a passion for education and care for young children, and am currently setting up sensory, music, movement and AUSLAN classes for babies and young children in my area. The company is called Soundsations.

Follow Amie on the links below

Instagram @teachingmumma

Facebook Amie-Jane Hankinson

Let’s get the point of this straight away: IM SORRY!!!

I am sorry for any little or large piece of advice that I offered to you at any stage about parenting before I actually became a parent!! And I really do mean it, I’m sorry!

You see I considered myself a little bit of an expert when it came to children; I’d been babysitting since I was roughly 7 years old; I’d been working with children since I left high school; and I studied a 4 year full time degree on educating and caring for children from birth to 8years; not to mention the hundreds of hours I’d spent at seminars, workshops and researching on my own. So I had lots of knowledge and was in a position to offer friends and family advice, right? WRONG

Then I became a mum….

Let’s just say the first 6 weeks contained some of the hardest days of my life. I knew it would be hard, everyone told me it would be hard. But do you realize how hard it actually is until you’ve lived it? Definitely NOT

Nothing can quite prepare you. For me (and every bodies experience will be different) it wasn’t the sleepless nights, it wasn’t the crying from your roller coaster of hormones, it WAS the anxiety and ‘mummy guilt’. The anxiety over the unknown: is my baby feeling ok, have I taked to her enough today, have I talked too much, have I cuddled her enough, have I cuddled too much, have I offered enough stimulation, could she have reflux, could this rash be deadly, why’s she pulling at her ears, is this a tired or hungry cue? Let’s not even get into the breast feeding struggles, that’s an article on its own (if anyone ever tells you it comes naturally- laugh! Laugh very hard).

I went into the newborn stage with a plan- we were never going to bed share; I was going to get lots of study done while the baby slept; my partner was going to come home to cooked dinners and prepared lunches; my partner was going to offer a bottle of pumped milk every night from 6 weeks so I could have me time, we were going to go back to work and it was going to be simple, I was going to have an awesome body from all the exercise I’d do. And the list goes on…

WELL, that expensive bassinet and cot= useless, those twenty-million bottles and expensive sterilizer= never used, and all that time I was meant to have while the baby slept= what on earth was I thinking!!!!

I am now almost 6 months into motherhood and I don’t think I’ve had a single day that ‘goes to plan’. I’ve quickly learnt that no matter what you think you know, you know NOTHING until you have children of your own. And even still I feel I know nothing! We are learning more and more together EVERY single day!! And even after the rough days, long nights, missed meals and cold coffees, I can easily say that my life is PERFECT and my family is PERFECT!!

Please leave comments we would love to hear from you….

NOTE: All the information provided on www.pipersienna.com is for general information and entertainment purposes only, Guest bloggers and other contributors to www.pipersienna.com are responsible for their own submitted material on my website. The opinions expressed by any Third Parties are their own and do not always represent the position or belief of www.pipersienna.com.