Happy New Year, everyone!!  Mamma’s back!!    Did you think I’d run away and left you all?? 

I haven’t been blogging very much since the beginning of December, what with the stress of Christmas, and a very busy period at work.  Then, come the Christmas Holidays, I simply wanted to sit back, relax and enjoy some family time.

Since the New Year, I’ve been busy working on my all new website (more about that later….), and so neglecting my little ole Mamma Kerr blog!  Sorry! 

Since I didn’t participate in last week’s WMW, I’d like to include one of last week’s prompts this week.

Balancing work and family life is tough! VERY tough!!  I know for a fact that I would not be able to work my 37 hour week if I had to commute to Glasgow or Edinburgh every day!  The travelling time would just push me over the edge!!

I am so grateful to live just a two-minute stroll from my office!  I can walk the girls to school every morning and then walk to work.  Plus, I can go home for my lunch break!

I am also extremely lucky to be able to work flexi-time (no set core hours), meaning I can work around family commitments, childcare arrangements, school events, etc.  This allows me to walk the girls to school every day, as well as being able to attend school shows, assemblies, nativities, etc.  It also makes it easier for me to take my girls to hospital appointments.

Okay, so I just wanted to stress how lucky I am compared to some working mothers – NOT to gloat!! – I just wanted explain how I am able to work FULLTIME!

My “Super Mom” tips are actually pretty simple:

• Prepare packed lunches in the evening.
• Set out school uniforms before bedtime.
• Mark important dates and events on a calendar where the whole family will see it.
• Pin appointment cards, invitations, tickets and forms to the fridge using magnets.
• Always carry wipes, handgel, tissues and plasters (band aids).
• Involve the children in household chores, and try to make it fun!
• No matter how busy and stressed you are, always make time to talk to your children about their day.
• Make sure your children have a good bedtime routine, which should include some time for a bedtime story.

You can join in the Working Mommy Wednesday fun with Rachel over at Occasional Boredom.

It’s Working Mommy Wednesday! Today’s prompts are:

1. Does being a mom cause your co-workers to think of you as the “office mom”?
2. Children’s books can be, boring – have you found any that are fun to read over and over?

Have I found any fun children’s books which we can read over and over?

I sure have!!  In our house, we all love reading our huge collection of Barefoot Books together!

I joined Barefoot Books as an Ambassador in April 2008, and enjoy displaying and sharing the beautiful books at events, parties and fundraisers throughout Central Scotland.

My daughters have a whole cupboard full of beautiful Barefoot Books that they love to read alone or with Mummy. Some of the books also include an audio CD with stories, songs or rhymes! I like to give these beautiful books as gifts to friends and family, and my ‘special box’ (as the girls call it!) is a frequent source of inspiration for last-minute gifts for children’s parties!
Here’s a few of our favourites:

• The Gigantic Turnip
• The Parrot Tico Tango
• The Barefoot Book of Princesses
• Mama Panya’s Pancakes

Here’s some Halloween fun from Barefoot Books:

Read my WMW Part 1 post from earlier today: Working Mummy But Not Work Mum

Join in the WMW fun over with Rachel over at Occasional Boredom.

It’s Working Mommy Wednesday and I am packing up my things for an office move. We’re not only moving office, but we’re also moving building! Our new office is literally a two-minute stroll from my house, so I’ll be able to go home for lunch every day!    We’re moving first thing tomorrow… Now it’s time for the WMW prompts:

#1. When did you start blogging and why? (Take it a step further and talk about why you continue blogging today, if that’s different from when you started.)

I discovered blogging in 2007, after becoming a party plan consultant. I had been trawling the Internet, looking for inspiration and advice re party plan businesses, and came across Kristie T’s home business blog (now Kristie Rimelle) via Webmomz. I also started following blogs by Internet gurus, Alice Seba, Nicole Dean, Crissy Herron, Darina Loakman, Denise Wakeman, Marie Ynami and Kelly McCausey. It was those bloggers who inspired me to start my own blog. My first blog was My Party Plan Blog, a spin-off of my Party Plan Consultant UK website, which I had set up as a resource for party plan consultants. Other themed blogs were to follow, linked to my home-based businesses.

Then in 2008 I began my mummy blog – Mamma Kerr, inspired by The Domestic Diva, Heather Batts. I am currently working on re-vamping all my websites and blogs. I am modernising my original Party Plan Consultant site and My Party Plan Blog, and hope to re-launch this towards the end of this year…

I am also re-vamping this Mamma  Kerr site, which will be the blog for my new parenting resource and community website that I am quietly working on just now. I hope to launch this next month or early September… Watch this space… :)

I wish I had more time to devote to my websites, as I really enjoy tinkering with them and writing content. However, I do have a corporate job, so my time is limited to weekends and evenings.

#2. What do people most often criticize about you?

• I can be untidy at times, which I blame on being VERY busy – doing too many things at the one time!
• I am opinionated. If something or someone annoys me, I speak out! Personally, I loathe people who do NOT have opinions. I prefer people with differing opinions to boring folk with no opinions on anything! I like a healthy debate on topical issues.



Join in the Working Mommy Wednesday fun over at Work Wife Mom Life!

It’s Working Mommy Wednesday! We’re half way through the week already!  Yay!

Top 5 goals for this summer

1. Lose weight & tone up – I’m currently on a diet and looking to lose a stone and a half (21 lbs).  I go to Zumba class once a week, and top up with Zumba Fitness Wii a couple of times a week.  I’m also doing Tony Horton’s 10 Minute Workout, which is amazing!
2. Re-vamp my blogs – I am currently working away in the background re-vamping and re-branding my blogs and websites.  I hope to start going live with these next month!…
3. Declutter – Every room in my house (without exception) requires decluttering. I need to reduce, re-use and recycle.  We need to make better use of space in our modest three-bedroomed home.
4. Make over my garden – We have a large garden with little or no plants.  I want to get some plants, shrubs and flowers, and create a vegetable patch.  I’d also like to grow some fruit and herbs.  We also require some decent garden furiture to make use of the outdoor space for entertaining.  I also need to set up a compost heap at the rear of the garden.
5. Write!! – I need to allocate some time to get back on my writing course and start writing for profit!…

Join in the fun over at Work, Wife, Mom, Life!

This week I’m joining in a new blog meme – Living Well Wednesday - a fun, weekly meme, focusing on achieving our new year goals ONE WEEK AT A TIME!

Whether your goals are physical, spiritual, mental (or anything inbetween) then this is for you!

This is a great time for me to join in and share my goals!

I have just recently finished up studying for my part-time business degree, and had to take a short break from blogging and blog hopping.  Now that I have got my final exams out the way, I have renewed energy for projects that have been on the back burner:

• Re-vamping my blogs – I have been wanting to revamp this blog for a while.  I have lots of ideas to restructure and rebrand this mummy blog – www.mammakerr.com.  I also have plans for my other websites, which I am keen to see come to fruition soon…. Watch this space!….
• Getting stuck back into my home-based businesses -I’ve been neglecting my home-based businesses – Vie At Home & Barefoot Books. I don’t really have time to do parties any more, but I would like to concentrate on my e-commerce sales, and explore other opportunities for doing business locally…
• Launch my NEW business venture – I have recently signed up as a Trader for Phoenix Trading, selling beautiful greetings cards.  In fact, the host of this meme, the lovely Natalie Collinson, is my upline manager at Phoenix.  I joined at the end of March, because there was a special joining offer.  However, I have been far too busy with my studying to launch my new venture.  I am now ready to get stuck in, so…. [shameless self promotion alert]…. if you would like to learn more, please visit my Trader website or contact me for a brochure.
• Write More – I would like to devote some time to continuing with the Writers Bureau Creative Writing course, which I started before my degree.  The course can be done at my own pace, so I put it on the back burner for a while to concentrate on my degree.
• Health & Fitness – I’d like to get back into the swing of things with food optimising via Slimming World’s Extra Easy diet.  I’d really like to lose a couple of stone (over 30lbs).  I want to squeeze more exercise into my daily schedule, such as Wii Fit, exercise DVDs and Zumba.

What about you?  What are your goals?

Join in. It’s easy.

• Write a post on your blog with an update on your goals this week
• Add the Living Well Wednesday button to your post and link to our host, Natalie, at http://nataliecollinson.com
• Link up each week using the linky tool on Natalie’s site.
• Visit other participants and enjoy the fun of working on our goals TOGETHER
• It’s never too late to join… hop on in, you can be sure of a warm welcome!

This week’s Girl’s Talk has another Shopaholic theme, and this time it’s all about housewares / homewares.  What items of homeaware do I like to browse and buy?

Last week, when the shopaholic question was about health and beauty items, I told you that, as a Vie At Home consultant, I tend to purchase the bulk of my health and beauty products from there. Well, Vie At Home also do a homeware range, so I like to purchase bedding, cushions, throws and table linen from there.

I am a cushion junkie!! I *heart* cushions soooooooooooooo much!! I have LOTS of cushions (8) on my bed (too much, according to Hubby!) and several cushions on my sofas in the livingroom!

I also love throws, and have three (yes, THREE) for our bed, plus a spare couple for the sofas, which I tend to only use as blankets for cuddling up on the couch in the winter!  In the summer, I only use two light throws over our duvet, and it’s more for decoration than warmth.  However, in the winter, I bring out a huge kingsize throw which completely covers the bed, and makes it feel sooooo cosy!!

While I’m talking about my bedroom, I’ll fess up to having three changes of bedlinen for our bed, and I’m thinking of buying another set!

What I really need to stock up on are crockery and glasses.  Over the years, we’ve had a lot of breakages and so we’re due for a replenishment!…  This is so apparent when we have guests over for dinner and/or drinks.

What about you?  What homewares do you enjoy browsing and/or buying?

You can join in the Girls Talk fun over at The Beauty Queen Gene.

______________________________________________

Now it’s time for a shameless plug…

November Bedding Offers

Tuesday 2 November – Wednesday 1 December 2010 (whilst stocks last)

We’ve got a fab bedding offer to keep you snuggled up inside this winter, with 50% off and a free Elegance Throw this is sure to be a hit so get in quick!

SINGLE OFFER

Buy the La Belle VIE Single Duvet, Single Fitted Sheet and Single Standard Pillowcase and get 50% off AND a free Elegance Throw! Offer price just £40.75/€51.00. Save £105.75/€132.20. RRP £146.50/€183.20

To order please quote: LBVSINGLE

DOUBLE OFFER

Buy the La Belle VIE Double Duvet, Double Fitted Sheet and 2 Double Standard Pillowcases and get 50% off AND a free Elegance Throw! Offer price just £57.75/€72.20. Save £122.75/€153.50. RRP £180.50/€225.70

You can order online here.

To order please quote: LBVDOUBLE

Guidelines

1.    Items are whilst stocks last and are subject to change.

2.    Offer includes La Belle VIE Single and Double bedding only.

3.    Offer available between Tuesday 2 November – Wednesday 1 December

4.    This offer is not part of the Hostess Gift Programme.

Spend £25 and choose from the following items for £5.00:

1. Out of the Shadows
2. Correct & Perfect
3. One Step Face Base
4. Blush Gloss
5. Necker Gel
6. Vitamin C Skin Fix Day Cream
7. Skin Dew
8. Lip Plumping Treatment
9. Arlene Phillips Dancing With Colour
10. Honey Bath Treat

Another week, another Mama Guilt Monday, courtesy of Cop Mama.  See the MckLinky at the bottom of this post to link up.

* * * * * *

Here’s today’s optional prompt:

Tell us about a time you did something absent minded as a Mom!

* * * * * *

Here’s mine:

As a very busy working mum with far too much on her plate, I am prone to absent-mindedness. Two incidents spring to mind here:

Last year, when the girls were still at nursery school, they were in different groups and so had two different teachers. I was asked to schedule two appointments to meet with each teacher to discuss my daughters’ progress. I arranged for two back-to-back appointments for first thing in the morning, so that I could meet the teachers before heading to my work (which was just across the carpark from the nursery). However, on the day of the appointment, one of my daughter’s teacher was off sick, so I had to reschedule another appointment.  This is where the Mama Guilt comes in…… I completely forgot all about this rescheduled appointment! I had been so busy and stressed out at work, working to very tight deadlines, that the appointment had went right out my head! I turned up to nursery to drop the girls off the next morning and the teacher in question apprehended me. I was sooooooo embarrassed – absolutely mortified!! Thankfully no one had mentioned this memory lapse to my inlaws, who picked the gitls up from nursery every afternoon. That would just have compounded my Mama Guilt! Anyway, fortunately the teacher was okay about being stood up and I got a very good report from her re my daughters progress at the (Third Time Lucky!) appointment.

• Another absent-minded Mamma Guilt episode was last summer.  While we were on holiday in sunny Florida, I received a text message, inviting my daughters to the birthday party of a boy from their nursery.  I made a mental note of it and subsequently forgot about it until my own daughters’ birthday party a few days after our return to the UK.  The boy’s mother mentioned it to me at the party and I confirmed that the girls would be there.  However, I stupidly got the dates mixed up, and didn’t realise my mistake until the actual day of the party!  I had checked back through my text messages to confirm the time of the party (which I thought was the following weekend) with Hubby.  I nearly fell off my chair when I realised that the party was on at that precise moment and we had missed it!!  D’oh!!  Here’s more Mama Guilt for you – I kept quiet and didn’t mention it to the girls!!    They eventually brought it up a few weeks later and I fobbed them off with it being cancelled!  (They were never going to see the wee boy again anyway, as he was going to a different school to them!!  (I know, I know!  I’m bad!)

Well, what about YOU?  Do you have any Mama Guilt you’d care to share?  If so, join the blog hop or leave a comment below.

]]> http://www.mammakerr.com/2010/03/mama-guilt-monday-im-an-absent-minded-mamma/feed/ 2 http://www.mammakerr.com/2009/02/get-19530-new-twitter-followers-in-30-days/ http://www.mammakerr.com/2009/02/get-19530-new-twitter-followers-in-30-days/#comments Wed, 11 Feb 2009 23:02:36 +0000 Annette http://wahmbiz.wordpress.com/?p=121 ]]> Hi everyone!

I just found this site that shows you a way of getting 1000′s of new followers on twitter, I just started using it myself and its starting to work already.

http://tweetergetter.com/annttkerr

I thought it might interest you.

I’d like to remind you, though, that Twitter should be all about interaction.  It is not a popularity contest, where you collect followers like trophies.  It’s great to get lots of followers, but you should be prepared to follow many of them back, to allow for proper interaction.

If you haven’t signed up to Twitter yet, you can do so here.  Please then follow me @annttkerr.

Thanks for visiting!




Posted in Social Networking Tagged: followers, Twitter, Twittergetter ]]> http://www.mammakerr.com/2009/02/get-19530-new-twitter-followers-in-30-days/feed/ 0 http://www.mammakerr.com/2009/02/how-to-achieve-power-publicity/ http://www.mammakerr.com/2009/02/how-to-achieve-power-publicity/#comments Wed, 11 Feb 2009 22:37:11 +0000 Annette http://wahmbiz.wordpress.com/?p=111 ]]>

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Posted in eBooks, PR & Advertising Tagged: ebook, Indiebizchicks, marketing, Power Publicity and Marketing, PR, special offer ]]> http://www.mammakerr.com/2009/02/how-to-achieve-power-publicity/feed/ 0