So. What d’you think of it so far?
(Rubbish!)
You like? We like. Can you see any bits not working for you? We’re not done yet, but do shout if something’s looking awkward or broken – we need your help here!
Thanks.
Read MoreGet your hands off my Dyson…
The teen was watching this on YouTube last night.
Later I caught him gazing lasciviously at my Dyson with a screwdriver in hand.
Yes really.
If he takes my vacuum apart I am holding Dyson entirely responsible…
A Quick But Important Plea.
Last year we were thrilled to be winners of the Gurgle Award for ‘Best Working Mum’s Blog‘, sponsored by ELC and Mothercare. Voting is open once again, and we would totally really love it if you could vote for us. Winning these awards is a massive achievement for us – and we can only do it if you like us enough to vote for us.
We know you love what we do, we certainly know you love the competitions we can offer – and we can only keep doing so with your help.
For us this is NOT about the physical prize.
It’s about the recognition for the long hours, the tears, the tantrums, the high-fives, the coffee-swilling-biscuit-eating tough days, and the random “Oh! Thank You!” fab days we get, running our business whilst raising our children and keeping on top of the laundry mountain. Ish (What? I iron. Sometimes.).
We are proud of LittleStuff. And were genuinely thrilled to have won last year. To win again would be… unthinkable, but brilliant.
It honestly does only take five seconds; PLEASE click the image and vote for us in the Best Working Mummy category.
This is the ONLY award we’ll be asking for you to vote for us – we really would appreciate your support and 5 seconds of your time.
Read MoreThe Great British Sunday – we know what you’re ALL doing…
It always makes me smile that this is how our ‘Most Visited Posts’ page looks most Sundays…
A nation of Sunday Comfort Food cooks, perchance?
(by the way, if you’re looking for the deliciously yummy recipes you remember from your school days, you can see them here – School Dinners Recipes)
Read MoreFabulous Bakin’ Boys – You Lazy Spellers, You.
I love the Fabulous Bakin’ Boys products. I know, I shouldn’t – but I do. I have done ever since they brought out their very first yoghurt-coated flapjacks, wa-a-a-y back when I was working in a shop.
Seriously – how can you NOT love a company which brands itself as ‘Grumpy Free Baking’?
But.
Oh dear, oh dear.
Today they made me Very Grumpy Indeed.
I nabbed a box of the mini cupcakes from my local store for school lunchbox treats (they’re currently on special in the Co op – £1 a box. Bargain!).
They are, however, victims of their own success – the problem with such fabulous and fun design is that your consumers actually want to read it. Which is of course great – if you get it right.
Apparently, however, no one in the Fabulous Bakin’ Boys Packaging Development Team (Or management team, or anyone-in-between team) knows the your / you’re rule…
Fabulous Bakin’ Boys? Here’s a tip: When YOU’RE developing YOUR packaging – get someone to check the grammar, yes?
Read More
My Anywhere Working Tips – Our Top Ten Tips on Successfully Working From Home
It’s living the dream, isn’t it? Working from home? That’s what I’m told often , anyway. Fact is, for anyone that actually DOES it, they know it is very far from living the dream. Most would call it ‘living-the-do-half-as-well-at-everything-nightmare’ a lot of the time. But, on those days that you get it right? Oh yes – it’s those times that make me realise I could never go back to working in someone else’s schedule.
The easiest thing in the world is to think “I can do that!” and presume that it’ll be easy to slot a working day into your usual home life. It won’t. But it CAN.
Here’s our tips to making it work – we know a lot of our readers run small businesses so please, feel free to add your own comments below.
- Be Organised. Top if the list. Schedule & plan your day to limit faffing… don’t sit down until you are awake and focussed and ready to do some work (getting dressed for work is often the first step of the day still). Take 20 minutes to clear the kitchen, set the dishwasher going, put the washing on, make your coffee… and ensure biscuits are within reach/out of reach (delete as appropriate). THEN sit down… It’s the equivalent of the commute, the time when your brain shifts gear and stops thinking about PE Kits and starts thinking about today’s clients.
- Give yourself an ‘office’. It doesn’t need to be big – I know plenty of people who operate from a table in the space under the stairs. But it does need to be yours. Having to clear your ‘work’ off the kitchen table before dinner every night doesn’t help you stay organised, or help your family see it as ‘work’ at all. Sitting down in ‘your’ space immediately focusses the mind.
- Tell people you are working. If you are at home, family and friends will presume that you’re good for a chat, to drop in on for coffee, to ask if you want to come shopping – none of which they would do if you were ‘at work’. They will always mouth a polite “oh, don’t want to disturb if you’re busy” as they take their coat off and switch your kettle on. You will need to reinforce this one over and over again before the message gets through. NB – Mothers will never accept this point.
- Be realistic – and flexible! You’ve asked for the ‘flexible working’, so use it, and make your day work for you. Be productive when you can, and accept when you can’t. You are no longer bound to 9-5 hours – so start your day early, and do your emails before the children get up. Don’t try and work after school, but the evenings are your friend – my mails to small businesses are always replied to fastest between 10p.m. and midnight.
- Be honest on the phone, and remember that whoever you are talking to is a human. Don’t pretend to be somewhere you’re not – if you work from home, it’s half term, and you may be invaded by noisy small people any second then say so at the start of the phone call. No one minds – they’ve usually done it too.
- Technology is your (slightly cantankerous) friend. Take the time to learn it. Not only will this save you a fortune when you can figure things out yourself instead of always paying someone else, it will save you masses of oh-so-precious time too.
- Embrace social media. Working from home is a lonely thing – but Twitter is always there for a chat, a giggle, an opinion, a bit of advice or the answer to a question. And your business network will naturally grow as you learn to use it correctly. Likewise, LinkedIn and Facebook used wisely (keep your personal and business pages separate!) are cheap (aka FREE!) and massively effective marketing tools.
- Networking is powerful – and starts with a chat. Whether it’s on Twitter, in the playground or at a blogging convention make the time to chat to people. Not to pitch them, or drown them in information – just… chat. You never know who they are, who they know… or even if you just simply made a new friend.
- Read and learn and learn and read and read and learn. You can NEVER know too much, but you can always know not-enough.
- Know when to STOP. When to just step away. It’s so easy to answer just-one-more-query, to do just-one-more-task, check the mails just-one-more-time. And all the while that glorious flexible working you craved to balance your life is dribbling through your fingers. Is the sun shining? Take a two hour lunch break – sit in the garden and doze in the sun with the grass tickling your toes. Dark and Raining outside? Take half on hour with a cup of coffee and your book by the fire. Toddler bashing at your elbow (mine used to be a total ninja-master at slipping under my desk and sliding up into my lap in the space of three heartbeats)? Maybe he just wants to go bake some fairy cakes with you. Partner home for lunch? There are no children about to interrupt the noggin right now…
The work will be there when you get back. The interwebs will not stop spinning if you lift your head out of the screen and go spend the weekend with your family. You’re doing the work to create a better life – don’t miss out on your life along the way.
(we’re posting this to support Anywhere Working: an initiative aimed at getting businesses and people to think about how flexible working could benefit them. Do go have a look, and if you’re a small business, or an employee looking to move to a more flexible working life then show them some support by signing here. And just to be nice, I’ll even share the info that they even have a brilliant competition running until Friday – post your own Anywhere Working tips and you could win the Ultimate Anywhere Working kit)
Read MoreDo you ‘Pin’? Find us on Pinterest…
We’ve collated an archive of our top Spotted! items over on Pinterest, which is such a great way to mosey around the eclectic stuff we come across and ‘spot’ for you.
Next up is the Books board – all the books we’ve talked about on one quick-to-browse shelf of loveliness.
New to Pinterest? Fret not! The lovely Domestic Goddesque has just written a Beginners Guide to Pinterest, which is fantabulous and definitely worth bookmarking.
So, if you pin – you know where to find us! If you don’t, and would like an invite to try it, just leave a comment and we’ll see what we can do.
Merry Christmas!
Well, that’s it. No more Gift Ideas from us; we are done, you’re on your own. You can of course see the whole of this years Gift Guide right here.
But now the children are home from school, and we are calling the Christmas Holidays finally HERE.
The Advent Calendar will continue until Christmas Eve, of course – but we’ll not be here to talk to. We are closing our LittleStuff doors to fill our days with mince-pie-baking, sausageroll-making, cheesy movie watching, paperchain creating, sitting by the fire and walks in the snow (ple-e-e-e-ease let it snow…).
We just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all for joining us during this most bonkers and wonderful year, and we look forward to seeing you all again in 2012.
See you on the other side… Toot toot!
Laura & Katy
xxx
Read MoreThe Comet Complaint saga – an update.
Many thanks for your messages about the farce of Comet’s Repair Service (you can read the first tale of woe here in an open letter to Mr Darke). As a number of people have asked what’s happened next, I’ll fill you in:
I mailed the letter to Mr Darke’s office, and received a reply the same day :
“I have sent a copy of your email to my office for them to complete a full investigation into the matter, of which we will endeavour to respond no later than 3 working days. If we are unable to give a complete response within this time we will contact you direct with an update on the situation.”
On the same day, Adam Spencer from Comet’s Social Media team picked up on the blog post and responded themselves:
“Just to let you know I’ve received your e-mail, and am investigating. I have requested an explanation from the service centre manager, and I will update you as soon as possible. “
So – it’s all good. Action will soon be achieved. And yay for the power of the blog.
On Saturday I received another message from Adam Spencer (the ONE person Comet have employed who takes a pro-active approach and keeps communicating – he’s not in the Directors office, nor a manager, just staff on the online service team from what I gather):
To keep you updated; I have spoken to our inventory team, and they have advised that the part did not arrive on the 25th, they expect it to arrive mid-week, but have been unable to provide me with a concrete ETA. As such, I have escalated your complaint to the service centre manager to see if we are able to offer an alternative resolution. I will update you again as soon as I have a reply.
So we waited some more.
Nothing on Monday.
On Tuesday I received another mail from Adam
As I am investigating your complaint received via Twitter and you blog post, I have also been assigned the letter addressed to Mr Darke.
Your complaint has been escalated to the regional service manager, and I anticipate having a full response for you this afternoon.
I do appreciate the inconvenience the delay is causing, and I will look to resolve the issue with minimum further delay.
And then at the end of the day, after me prodding for the promised manager’s response I received another
I’m still waiting to hear from the regional manager, I have left him a voicemail as well as forwarding the details by e-mail, but am aware he has been in meetings for most of the day. I will update you as soon as he get’s back to me.
I am sorry for the delay.
This morning, feeling sorry for the poor Adam who has me trying not to get sweary in one ear and a non-responsive manager ignoring him on the other, I have called Mr Darke’s office. I spoke (very politely, contrary to popular opinion) to a real live person, who looked up the case, agreed it needed resolving and assured me that a manager will call today to resolve the issue.
Seriously, Comet, is it so hard?
I bought an expensive TV, and paid extra for you to look after it for me.
It broke.
You can’t repair it.
You have a replacement policy in your warranty documents.
Replace the bloody thing with one of the many thousands you have sitting in your stores around the country.
As a gesture of goodwill for the whole mess of a saga, you can also refund the £300 we’ve since spent with Comet on a never-should-have-been-necessary small replacement TV in the meantime.
It’s really not rocket science, or a matter that should take 5 weeks and countless ‘managers’ to solve.
Read More
The Bestest Christmas Gift Guide… here we go!
So – December approaches, the advent calendars are out of the loft (you HAVE got yours out already, yes?) and there’s no more escaping it.
Christmas Shopping looms.
Sometimes you know just what to get – but often you don’t. Sometimes you just want a small something extra, a little something different, quirky, unique – and that’s where we come in. For the next four weeks we’ll be firing off ideas at you, a mix of products we’ve seen and reviewed and totally recommend – and other stuff we’ve just spotted and instantly LOVE.
You can get a head start by checking last years Gift Guide – they may be ‘so last year’, but they’re still gorgeous (and do shout if you find something that no longer exists!)
Oh, and don’t forget the Advent calendar of comps starts on Wednesday. You do NOT want to miss it – a brand new comp every day in the run up to Christmas, and some of the prizes are spec-tac-u-lar. We’re SO excited for you!
In the mean time – stick with us.
It’s going to be FUN.
(those fab letter blocks are available from Etsy for just under £24!)
Read MoreMake Sure you’re not about to miss the Good Stuff…
We have SO MUCH exciting stuff going on over the next few weeks.
Tomorrow we’re kick starting with a brilliant ’12 Days Of Christmas’ Giveaway over on Facebook, sponsored by the Early Learning Centre. That’s a brand new prize, every day for the next 12 days, each one guaranteed to arrive before Christmas for you to wrap and pop under the tree.
And on the 1st of December we’re starting our truly incredible ‘Marvellous Christmas Competitions Advent Calendar’ – a new competition starting every single day in the run up to Christmas. From Bath Robes for you to a Holiday for the family (yes, really!) it’s going to be really something special.
So, in order not to miss out on all this – and of course our ever-popular Bestest Christmas Gift Guide (click here to see last years and get a jump start on the inspired present shopping) – we were thinking you might just want to sign up to make sure you don’t miss out!
If you fill in your details below we’ll send you a daily update with all our latest goings-on, meaning you’ll not miss a competition or special offer ever again…
Of Course, you can always follow us on facebook – everything we do here goes on over there as well. And there’s more chat over there too…
And of course, if you’re THAT way inclined, you can ALWAYS find us over on Twitter…
Cripes…
It’s half term.
And we’re… erm… Half-Term-ing.
Which we should probably apologise for… but actually, it’s a holiday, and we’re spending it with the children, having fun and doing STUFF.
We’ve been blown off a windy hill fort, played cricket on a hill top as the sun went down, explored a castle, got fabulously soaked on a blustery beach, gone bug hunting in hedgerows, been ten pin bowling…
So – s’all Good.
Normal service shall resume next week.
Honest.
*big sticky kiss on cheek by way of apology*
When LittleStuff went to @BabyShow_Trade…
So yesterday Katy and I schlepped into London for the Baby Trade show at Olympia (thanks to the incredibly talented, and just plain gorgeously lovely people at AzariaPR who footed our train bill. Was that nice enough, d’you think? They are genuinely brilliant people to work with, actually). This isn’t an open-to-the-public event – this is where all the businesses in the nursery industry go to talk to each other.
It also happened to be the first time in three years Katy and I managed to actually meet – she’s always 100 miles away from me (we run LittleStuff via iChat y’see), so meet ups are rare and exciting things. After a noisy squealy-huggy-I-forgot-how-tall/short-you-are meet under the clock at Waterloo, we headed off to Olympia.
We spent the day wandering the halls, talking to some truly fabulous people, and seeing some really exciting products coming out in 2012.
Top insider secrets of the day? Read on…
Coverdry – Just a small basic web site at the moment, but this product is fab, needs to be seen really. Softier than soft snuggle rug – which is entirely waterproof. Loved it – and LOVED Tracey more, she’s gorgeous. Though we did rather disconcert Katy by shrieking “I Kill YOU!” at each other and sniggering for more than a few minutes…
Liz and Brenda from Ruby and Ginger were just lovely – and we rather enjoyed their stand too (and no, not just for the fudge). Danni Minogue LOVES their nappy purse, we LOVED their fabric (*swoon*) and we just know we’ll be talking a lot more about them soon.
Katie at Mama Jeanius (totally Katy’s fave brand name at the show) seriously knew her stuff – we learned a LOT about maternity jeans in a short time, and were both nodding furiously with “YES! That was always an issue when I was pregnant!”. Go – look at her jeans. They’re lush – and properly designed too.
We *may* have initially stopped at the Charlotte Keating stand purely because there happened to be a 3 week old baby there snoozing… But we stayed to talk with his oh-so-lovely mum Charlotte, and were so incredibly impressed with her clothes. Designed by an experienced designer who was also an experienced breastfeeding mum, these clothes are stylish – and they work. Beautiful quality, Charlotte Keating’s breastfeeding tops will be in stores near you very very soon, we’re certain of it.
Talking to the bigger brands, two really stood out for us - Silver Cross have a FABULOUS launch coming in 2012 – we’re really excited about working with them.
And Chicco (pronounced Keeko – who knew?!) have totally turned their look around, and we seriously like what they have done. We seriously liked the Chicco Mime Artist too. Another really exciting partnership for us, and we can’t wait to tell you AAaalllll about it :)
A couple of the stands got it very wrong (one of the big brand ones too), with all the employees sitting around a table talking to each other, making themselves unapproachable.
Big big *tut* at them.
But on the whole we had a fabulous day, talking to passionate & inspiring people – we can’t possibly list them all here, and we’re really looking forward to working with many of them, and showing you what they do.
Read More
When LittleStuff went to the MADS… with Nursery Value
So – last Friday I jollied off to London for the MADS Awards Ceremony.
A great night was had, but sadly… we didn’t win.
Never mind – the ‘Best Small Business Blog’ was a really tough category… who am I kidding – just making the finals was an achievement, every single category was filled with star quality blogs. We are INCREDIBLY proud just to have made the final five.
On top of which the other finalists turned out to be the nicest, loveliest bunch of women I have ever had the pleasure of spending three surreal noisy, giggly, gossippy hours with.
Massive Congratulations to the totally gorgeous Lisa From The Mummy Whisperer for winning - but a totally mahoosive ‘well done’ to the other finalists too; Karen from All About the Boys, Lyndsey from The Queen of Easy Green and Becky from Baby Budgeting.
I was able to jolly off up to Soho and back purely because the fantabulous people at Nursery Value paid for my train ticket. So a big fat kiss on the cheek to them too…
Read More
The Dress and The Shoes
THIS is my dress. I’ll just pause there for you to admire. Gorgeous, isn’t it?
When Long Tall Sally offered to clothe me for the awards, I was SO thrilled – I am the first to admit I’m a hideously awkward shape, and certainly no fashionista – so I left the choices up to them, and just hoped for the best.
I was pretty confidant – I love their clothes, after all, and it is the one place that my husband can buy me clothes unaided, safe in the knowledge that they will actually fit my 5’11″ (very round) frame.
They couldn’t have got it more right if they tried. I would never have picked this dress myself – but I love love LOVE it.
The fit is amazingly flattering, the colours gorgeous, the length, of course, is perfect, and it just feels wonderful on.
They also thought I might need shoes (quite handy) so plopped these in the parcel too…
Again – NOT my usual choice; I couldn’t tell you the last time I wore heels. But they’re stunning and I love them. And I managed to walk in them without falling off the heels.
Finally, just in case the journey home gets a little chilly, I even have this beautiful beaded shrug at my disposal.
Which is the first shrug I’ve ever owned, as they never ever do anything other than sit on my boobs. Not so with my Long Tall Sally version. It actually fits my exaggeratedly long back. Hooray Hoorah Hooroo!
Now – that’s the outfit sorted. WHAT do I do with the hair?
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It’s Friday. It’s MADs day! *woot* #MADBlogAwards
So today we will be taking The Shoes and The Dress back up to London – this time for the MAD blog awards.
It’s going to be FANTASTIC.
We’re finalists in the ‘Best Small Business Blog’ category and tonight we get to join a roomful of bloggers, sans children, for the grand Awards Ceremony in Soho to find out who won.
*excited*
Meanwhile, in other news, Katy is packing her cases and sadly heading in the opposite direction. Because tomorrow just happens to be her birthday. Her FORTIETH birthday. And she’s being whisked away by the husband to Posh Places for a little lavish spoiling. She’ll have a nice time, I’m sure – but the MADS are where it’s really at ;).
So, if it is okay with you, I shall be wearing my official Awards outfit which the gorgeous people at Long Tall Sally sent me (They did send me another, but I LOVE this one besty best of all bests), and heading off for the train station later this afternoon.
Keep an eye out on Twitter – @littlestuff is me, and #MADBlogAwards is the hashtag to watch – I’ll be updating during the day / evening. And wish us luck!
Read More
Just in case you had a spare two minutes…
*flutters eyelashes in charmingly wooing manner*
Read MoreWear It Pink… Please.
One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime.
One in EIGHT.
Katy and I have a friend who is undergoing chemo right now, having had a mastectomy last month. She has two daughters the same age as our children. She is the same age as us.
We have another friend who was diagnosed with breast cancer some years ago – she fought it (and won) as a single parent, struggling to work and keep her son fed and with a roof over his head.
The Breast Cancer Campaign currently funds 97 projects worth almost £16.7 million in 31 research centres throughout the UK and Ireland. They have awarded £35 million of grants over the past 14 years. They need your help.
Wear It Pink is Breast Cancer Campaign’s flagship fundraising event and always takes place on the last Friday of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This year’s event will be held on 28 October and hundreds of thousands of people from across the nation will be donating money to wear it pink at work, in school, at home, anywhere! The event raises around £2.5m each year to help fund vital breast cancer research.
We’re proud to say that LittleStuff will be Wearing Pink on 28th October: but how many other bloggers will join us? Go pink on your blog (you can make your whole site pink, or just post a pic of yourself in a pink t-shirt, it’s up to you) and come add your link on the day. We’ll offer a prize for the best Pink Blog linked – and hopefully collect some donations along the way. We were thinking about making a tiny donation a condition of entry… what do you think?
Of course, if you want to do something yourself then just visit Wear It Pink, sign up for the event and find out more great fundraising tips, recipes and fun ways to wear it pink.
Breast Cancer Campaign Wear It Pink is 28th October this year.
Read MoreA plea from us.
I intended to sit here this morning, and craft a strong, heartfelt, impassioned message, explaining why you really MUST go and sign the petition for Save The Children HERE.
But just sometimes, I sit here, and the words won’t come.
I have something important to say – and yet can’t find the words to say it the way I want to.
So while I dithered, I did what any normal person does, and hit Google Reader. The first post I read?
Serious Sunday from Kate Takes Five.
And there it was. The post I wanted to write. Only written more simply, more perfectly than I would ever have managed it.
If you read nothing else today – including the rest of this, you must go and read it.
Please.
Go read her post. Go sign the petition. Go tell all your family and friends to sign the petition. Go help make a difference. Because it really can.
“Best Working Mum Blog 2011″ WE won! WewonwewonweWON! #gurgles2011
So the shoes, the dress and I (and the Husband) set off on the train to London...
It may have been a slightly sniggery journey (we don't get out much...)
We had the route carefully planned – Salisbury to Waterloo, Northern Line, 4 stops to Tottenham court road, walk to the Soho Hotel.
Except the Northern Line won’t be stopping at TCR till November.
*sigh*
So we had to change course to Oxford Circus, and walk down Oxford Street instead. My feet didn’t like me very much for that.
We arrived, we found the room, were greeted royally by the very lovely gurgle team, and entered the fray. Within five minutes of being in the room, I had selected a teeny tiny canapé from a proffered tray. Thought I would do the polite thing, not pop the whole (tiny) morsel in my mouth in one go, so bit it in half. Naturally, the pastry crumpled, the tomato refused to be bitten in half and I squirted the juice down the front of my dress. Yes, it was going to be one of THOSE nights.
There was an increasingly noisy amount of chatting going on (thats @daddacool and @iamwitwitwoo btw)
I only had one glass of wine honest. But these dastardly charming ninja-waiters, when they weren't handing round bite sized ice creams, just kept silently appearing and topping up the one glass. What's a girl to do?
Finally we were ushered into the screening room. It Was Time...
and the winner was... US!
*BEAM* (she was uber lovely, by the way. Real proper lovely.)
There MAY have been a bit of Showing Off on the train home...
Ta DAAAAAA. (note - clear glass awards are HARD to photograph...)
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