Awards for some fab Mumpreneurs

Over my time with Piddley Pix I have met various mums (and dads) who run their own businesses, are parents and more often that not fill their time helping others, sitting on committees and doing more stuff than I can imagine they have time for!

Out of these many of them deserve awards, but I would like to show you these two and ask for you to vote for them!

The lovely Louise from Baby Signing Mummy has recently won the Best New Business Venture 2011 Award from Hampshire Winning Women Business Awards! She is so fabulous that she has now been nominated for the Mum and working awards in the Business Parent of the Year categry. Louise is passionate about what she does and about children and their development!

Baby Signing Mummy is going from strength to strength, Louise puts in her all to it, she is also mum to a gorgeous little girl, on the local pre-school committe, wife, Baby Signing mentor and more! She really deserves to be awarded so pop along and click 'like' Business Parent of the Year category

Di invented the BuggyTug. The BuggyTug is a pram wrist strap that stops your pram rolling away.  It may be something you haven't thought about, but actually this really simple invention is a fantastic piece of equipment! If you are stopped for any reason and let go of the pram (e.g. to do your coat up, get your purse out, push a pedestrian crossing button) then the BuggyTug can stop your pram rolling away!

This awesome lady has been shortlisted for a Loved by Parents award for Best Travel Product! Di is a mum, business woman, inventor and a lovely person (I first met Di as she offered to be my Cybermummy sponsor)!   So please go along to Loved by Parents and tick the "BuggyTug" box on the Best Travel Product category.


Two fantastic ladies, two very deserving businesses! Please support parents in business!!

Baby Signing Mummy Mascot

If you are on Twitter you may have seen Baby Signing Mummy make an announcement last night of her new Mascot!

We have been lucky to work with Louise on this project and have really enjoyed developing her 'lightbulb moment' into reality.  We are sure that the children and parents going through classes with Baby Signing Mummy will love Baby Signing Bella as much as we do!

It is been hard keeping it a secret from the masses, especially when Booties by Dannie got involved and created a fabulous doll of Bella too, who wouldn't want to show her off!!  

Here is a small teaser of her, but to see her in full you will have to pop over to Louise's blog and don't forget to enter the competition while you are there - there is a wonderful prize to be won!

Baby Signing the Piddley Pix way!

As you are aware Piddley Pix sells pictures for Children's spaces, the kind you put on the wall of your children's bedrooms or play rooms to give it that little extra something.  What you may not know is that we have also entered the world of corporate illustration, so this post is to tell you a bit more about what we can do and about one of the projects we are currently undertaking!

Corporate illustration is an area with such variety, it's hard to give you all the information you may want on it, but if you need something illustrating please get in touch and we can talk about your needs! We can illustrate your stories, books, training documents and more! 

To demonstrate a little more, let me introduce you to a project we are working on - Baby Signing Mummy; we were contacted by Louise from Baby Signing Mummy through the amazing world of Twitter asking if we did corporate/bespoke work and of course our answer was yes! Baby Signing Mummy is developing by the week and Louise needed some artwork for the company to show the signs she teaches - so the Signing Stars were born:

 

So, if we can help you in anyway - get in touch info@piddleypix.com or if you are interested in Baby Signing for your little one check out the website!

Christmas Is Coming!

 

As you have seen this week we have introduced our Christmas cards to the Piddley Pix site, yes, yes we know it is only October and we should be getting bonfire night out the way first but it seems a lot of people are trying to spread the cost this year, and are starting to prepare for Christmas early!

Now I have to make a confession, we started our Christmas shopping in August, we saw a bargain that we just had to have it and the idea to spread the cost was far too tempting to resist! Where are we now? Well for our children (2.5 yr old and a 6 month old) we have nearly finished, but for the rest of the family well that's another story, let's just say some are more fussy than others!

So now for a little plug; if you are starting your Christmas shopping check out Piddley Pix we have perfect pressies for children of any age, you can buy a 'friend in a frame' straight from the site or you could get something a little bit more special by talking to us about a commission (more info about these coming tomorrow on the blog!)

You can also find us on Kiddiebase along with many other awesome products for families with Bump - 12 years old. Here you will find our one-off prints, these are unique and you would be the only owner of the picture (with a certificate of authenticity).

So, to finish off we would like to give a small shout out to some other places you may find perfect Christmas gifts for the family.

Baby Signing Mummy - A place to start your little ones journey with Baby Signing, we particularly like the Old Lady Complete set - It is on our daughter's Christmas list!

Poppy Sparkles - Check out their facebook page for their Handcrafted Charm Jewellery- really beautiful dainty pieces!

Little Silver Touches - Bespoke Fingerprint Jewellery ; check out the 'perfect for dads' cufflinks

Silver Birch Crafts - Many gifts suitable for the whole family - we love the Soft Baby Books

All About The Boys - If you are looking for that fab new outfit for your Children (girls and boys) to wear for Christmas this is the place, have a look at this Ralph Lauren outfit!

There are so many other places to check out, so keep your eyes peeled for more guest posts, reviews and more on this blog for ideas, also pop back tomorrow for our giveaway!

Guest Post - Baby Signing Mummy

I would like you to meet another great twitter friend of mine, Louise from Baby Signing Mummy talks a bit about something that may affect many Mumpreneurs!

I love being asked to write articles or guest blog posts so I was thrilled when the lovely Kelly from PiddleyPix asked me to write for her fab new business blog. So what to write about? Well seeing as I am usually always talking about the benefits of baby sign language I thought I might do something a little different - how about a little bit about me  and the mammoth decision to quit my regular day job and become a full time mummy at home running my business Baby Signing Mummy?

I do not think I have ever had such a tough decision to make, and it took months to reach the final decision, that in the meantime made my beloved Baby Signing Daddy (@kjlloydie) despair of me whenever I would mention the subject. Mainly because my ‘decision’ would change every few seconds.

 

Louise's Daughter Isabella on her 3rd Birthday!

My ‘regular day job’ was as a paediatric nurse - which had always been my dream job, from the tender age of 3 I was given my first nurses uniform dress up set and from that moment on I told everyone I was going to be a nurse. I qualified in 2000 as a paediatric nurse and could not have been prouder, graduating from the University of Surrey I thought I knew it all, I had reached that goal! Then I started my first job and realized I wanted more...I was the lowly newly qualified and I wanted to be a senior nurse! As my career progressed I realized I was always going to want to achieve more and each time I broke that goal a new one was set. In 2008 I reached my ultimate goal I was a Sister. I had worked in paediatric intensive care for 4 years and passed the university course that went with it, I had moved on and specialized in Children’s Allergy and was then promoted to clinical nurse specialist. Whilst very happy in this role for a couple of years (balancing this role full time whilst my beautiful daughter travelled with me daily to London to go to the hospital nursery) it soon became apparent to me that I again wanted a new challenge.

So I took on a Masters course in Advanced Practice - yes that would do it, I wanted to be an advanced practitioner now that would complete my career. So I undertook the advanced assessment skills course and passed - leading me into running my own nurse led clinic with my own patient load. I loved working closely with the families and diagnosing their child’s allergies and producing management plans. But still something was missing. So I undertook the non-medical prescribing course. This is known as the ‘hardest’ post qualification nursing course there is. I loved it, it made my brain think and extend my knowledge even further. I passed with flying colours! I can now prescribe medications.

This last part, I only found out the Monday after my last day at my job. Am I sad? A little bit I guess - but was I happy? No. Forever putting a new goal on my nursing career it suddenly occurred to me when I was deciding whether to hand in my notice or not that I wasn’t sure what my end goal was.  I am not sure what my end goal is now actually! - I want to be successful in my business - I am going to put in as much drive and determination into my business as I have done my whole education and nursing career. I can only hope that will help me to succeed. I love being my own boss and running my business around my daughter and being able to be there to take her and pick her up from preschool. I love the fact that I am involved in her life more. I also know how lucky I am that I have been able to make this move.

Making that final decision was a risk, we need the business to be successful as I do need to earn some money for the family, but I couldn’t give the business my whole whilst I was nursing three days a week in London. I really felt split down the middle and to be honest even with my resignation letter in my hand it was touch and go as to whether I was going to actually hand it to the Matron. I have taken a huge leap of faith and left behind a part of me that I always felt was innate in me. I thought I would feel like I was missing a part of me, but so far I have been adjusting well. I think passing that final exam and getting the prescribing role added to my registration has made me realize that perhaps nursing is a way of life for me. Maybe I will end up going back to it one day, but when I am ready. Right now I have a new goal and focus in my life, I want to be the best mummy I can be to our beautiful daughter and I want to prove to myself that I am more than just a nurse. I can be a successful businesses woman and learn a whole new world, whilst still keeping within my passion of working with children and families.

My advice to anyone else who is wondering whether to give up their ‘regular day job’ is to think long and hard about why it is that you are doing it. For a long time for me it was because I loved what I did and there was always something I wanted to achieve. But I had reached my peak and I couldn’t see a new goal.  Until Baby Signing Mummy was born.

Have a browse of the Baby Signing Mummy Website or Find Louise on Twitter at  http://twitter.com/babysigningmum