Should I close my Shops for the Summer Holidays?

School holidays started here yesterday and my two little munchkins are very happy to have 6 weeks off:

Yesterday we ran some errands in Gloucester (and had Slush Puppy treats) and went to the local open air swimming pool:

Both of which were fun and lovely, but it did mean that there was very little 'work time'

What I wonder is whether it would be better to close up shop(s) completely over the summer holidays and just concentrate on being a Mummy and enjoy the time off, or whether, like most self employed parents, to struggle through and do as much work as possible in moments, like now, when the little darlings are otherwise occupied (mine usually in front of the telly!)

What do you do?

Last summer, I put all my shops on vacation for a month before doing the Harrogate Home & Gift Fair

So after that had ended, which coincided with the school holidays I felt I needed to re-open my shops and get going with some work. I don't remember struggling too much last summer, which is good. I do remember spending a good portion of the holidays in the swimming pool with my two little fish!!

This year though, we will be going away for 2 weeks over the holidays, so I will have to make a decision.

I hate the idea of all the hard work I do during the rest of the year, building up followings on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Blogger, Google+, etc all dwindling down to nothing if I go on radio silence for 6 weeks and then having to really work hard again in the run up to Christmas, typically my busiest time, to build up interest again.

BUT.... I don't want to end up stressed out completely because the kids want to do stuff and I'm trying to manically keep up with everything. That leads to  A LOT of Mummy Shouting (we've learned the hard way!)

I think for this summer break I'm going to take it as it comes and if I'm struggling too much then put my shops into 'vacation mode' for a couple of weeks.

Maybe I'll just concentrate on getting some more patterns in the shops and then deactivate everything but those (as they don't require any input from me)

Decisions Decisions!

I'll let you know when I decide on anything!!

In the mean time - enjoy the sunshine!

Headscarves for little girls

You might remember that I've posted before about going into Seren's class at school to help when they're having arty crafty days...

Well, I was asked to do something a little different a couple of weeks ago. Seren's teacher asked me if I'd make a handful of headscarves for some of the girls in Reception as one of the little girls had been off school unwell and one of the results of her condition was that some of her hair had fallen out. This little one was coming back to school, but in order for her not to feel left out, the teacher asked me to make a special headscarf for the little girl who'd been ill and also some for the other girls to wear.

I was so touched to be asked to make these headscarves, so I made a really pretty one with flowers and the little girl's name.

Here's my favourite of the plain ones:

And here's a photo of Seren & her friend at their school sports day:

I had actually googled to see if this sort of thing existed quite a while ago, when I thought about making myself one after I sunburned my parting one very hot day (don't ask!) but there wasn't anything very pretty or fun at the time and certainly not for kids, so I really liked the challenge of making these.

Not only did I need to design them (without pinning the material to Seren's head this was a bit of a challenge at times!) but also as it was working with cotton, not felt.... most of you will know that one of the main reasons I like working with felt is that it doesn't fray!!

I think it's quite good to come out of your comfort zone every now and then.... it makes you so proud of what you can achieve!

What have you done recently that was out of your comfort zone? And if you haven't... what could you try? You might just surprise yourself!!