I’m going to tell you, in the written non verbal form, about my weekend.

Would you believe a bunch of entrepreneurs attending a conference could have as much fun and silliness as this:

This was the Renegade Rockstar Roadshow.  The party was ROCK theme.  I went goth.  For those who’ve known be me a while, would know I went to great lengths to compile my costume.  That’s right, I looked in my wardrobe and pulled out something.

After making some fantastic new network connections, I’ve also been working on Hand Print Massage.  I’ve also gained a new nickname.  The Mummyseuss.  Something to do with mummies and masseuse but I like Dr Seuss (see previous post) so it seemed to fit.

After the buzz and enthusiasm of the conference, I’ve come home to realise, it’s Little Miss’s 3rd Birthday.  Yay. 

Guess what she got?

Fun times ahead.

Talk again soon.

Em

AKA The Mummyseuss.

I have a great belief in fate.  I believe you are meant to meet the people need to meet at exactly the right moments.  Why? I hear you ask.

Today, Little Miss and I, went to costco.  I usually try to avoid the place as I get a bit overwhelmed and confused.  Anyway, as I was trying to find a  car park, I passed another car with the number plate “doula”.  I decided I would head over to this car and leave a note under the wipers with my card as for the last couple of weeks I’ve been on the look out for doulas*.  (No I’m not pregnant.  My clients are.)  By the time I got a park, got little miss out and walked over to the doula car, the driver was loading up her shopping.  EVEN BETTER!  I introduced myself and asked her about her business and her details.  I briefly told her why I needed doula services and she told me she was one of the original doulas in Australia and her network was fairly vast.  Yay.

After we’d left and headed to the gigantic lift with the jumbo sized trolley, we found a pregnant mummy in the lift with us.  I asked when she was due and how her back was given she also had a toddler.  Painful.  When I gave her my card, it turns out she lives in the next suburb.  See, right person, right time.

So, into the massive warehouse we went.  Little Miss wanted everything and became very tired and grumpy.  We eventually left with the standard bulk load of loo paper and a few other essentials and Little Miss fell asleep on the way home.

Now to make myself a cuppa and eat one of the biscuits I purchased.

*What’s a doula?  A doula is a non-medical birth attendant who supports the mother through labour and new motherhood.

My name is Emma and I’m a stationery addict.  I can’t help myself.  Coloured pens, notebooks, folders, binders, you name it, I love it!

This morning I went to a business catch up, well, really a cuppa with a friend, where she discovered my obsession with stationery. 

We started by going to kiki.K which is so nice and organised (something I aspire to but not very at the moment) then we found out way to Typo which is more on the quirky side.  Last week I found myself at smiggle which is good for the funky coloured stuff.  Sometimes you will even find me in Officeworks, where Little Miss can have a little miss sized shopping trolley I fill up with notebooks, pens, clips and, well, anything else that catches my eyes.

So I was fairly good today.  I only got two things at Kiki.k.  An A3 display folder and another shopping basket.  The display folder is for all my mad ideas.  The basket is for my paper recycling.  The first basket has been absconded by Little Miss.

There was a little bit of an ulterior motive for us visiting these places.  We were, in a sense, product researching.  Looking for physical items that matched our ideas.  Some even had what we thought up but we knew we could do better or at least make them prettier.  This we managed with a toddler and Little Miss in tow.  Did it stop me falling in love with a red diary or wanting to buy the entire store, no. 

Ah well, next time, maybe?

Today I’m going to tell you about my day and my stupid printer.

Today actually started three weeks ago.  I know, I’m sounding silly but it did.  I booked a dentist appointment.  I was very lucky to get an appointment so soon.  I was thrilled, as much as you can be about getting a dental appointment.  I even manage to figure out what to do with Little Miss whilst at the appointment and I thought all was well.  Then Murphy stuck his bib in.

Then last week, my landlady calls to tell me the plumber will be coming to fix the dishwasher.  Today.  Between 12 and 5pm.  My dentist appointment was at 1pm.  ARGH!!!!!!  Ok, it’s plan b time.  So I call a friend to come and look after Little Miss and let the plumber in while I’m at the dentist.  She was able to help, YAY!, and I relaxed.  Do you think Murphy would let me?  NO.

Sunday night I receive and email from a new client.  Yay!  The only time she’s available is Today.  At 10am.  So I get on the phone again and ask, no, beg my friend to come extra early today.  She agreed, but only if I paid her in massages and chocky teddy biscuits.  I agree to these terms. 

This morning.  Murphy got up before me.  Little Miss woke up extra early, just when I was going to have a shower.  Sort her out with a drink and breakfast and move onto more imp0rtant things, like printing my client intake form.  Murphy is now laughing at me.

My printer decided now would be the right time to run out of black ink.  It’s the type of printer that doesn’t work if a colour has run out.  Do I have time to get another cartridge?  No!  Mild panic, then realise there’s another printer in the house in Hubby’s office.  So head up to hubby’s office and attempt to print with his computer.  Nope, didn’t work.  Turns out it’s not plugged into anything.  So I decide it would be quicker to just take the printer to my computer.  Good in theory.  Sadly, Murphy was rolling on the floor laughing at me.

Whilst friend arrives to care for Little Miss, I’m cursing my computer, the printer and Murphy with just enough time to get ready for my client.    Client arrives early, still no intake forms.  Manage to convince ink less printer to print, just.  Little Miss and friend head off to the park.  I relax.  Client is wonderful.  Little Miss and friend return, complete with wet pants from sliding down the wet slide.  I’m finishing with my client when I realised I couldn’t print her invoice.  Ready to throw printers into the path of a passing truck.  Thankfully, client agrees to have invoice emailed to her.  Yay. 

Client departs, lunch is made, pants are changed and I head off to the dentist.  I drive in, planning to park in the multi story car park next door to the dentist.  Traffic was good but Murphy had other ideas.  I get there to find my car is too tall and won’t fit.  Panic.  I have ten minutes to get to the dentist.  After a big trip round the block I find a spot and a short cut through a lane to the dentist.  Yay.

Dentist gave me good news in a way and sends me home with a follow appointment.

Arrive home to find Little Miss asleep on the couch and my friend stuck underneath her.  Once she was extracted, we then attempt to convince big printer to talk to my computer.  Not working.  Tried all the internet downloads and installations.  No go.

Plumber arrives just after friend heads home and fixes the dishwasher.  Yay.  Manages to spill manky water all over the floor.  Grrr.  

Printer still not working.

Eventually, Hubby, who’s in IT support and is the person people call to fix this kind of thing, gets home.  He tries to install the printer.  No go.  Three hours later, still not working.  Murphy was still lurking.

So, I’m here now, without a working printer or cartridge.

Well, tomorrow’s another day.  Let’s see what happens then.

As we went through the suggestions and likes and hates, I started thinking about how music does affect you.  Some of the music we were listening to raised my blood pressure as I remembered being a stressed and nervous oboist about to sit exams or made me smile as I remembered something I was doing when I’d heard that song. 

So after much listening, we found a diverse range  of music with featuring songs from favourite movies, songs from favourite music artists and even something randomly heard late one night on the radio.  Granted, it’s not to every one’s taste and it’s no where near traditional, but it’s special and has meaning to both of them.  It’s they’re way of sharing what’s special to them.

I know I’ve been MIA for a little bit.  It’s because I’ve been busy.

Between clients, planning for a big thing coming up and family, I lost track of time.

So I’ll tell you about what I’ve done this morning.  I made soup.  According to Little Miss, soup fixes everything.

So here’s today’s soup recipe.

Thai inspired sweet potato and pumpkin soup.

1 large sweet potato

500gms of Butternut pumpkin

1 stick of lemongrass

1 medium onion

1 bunch of coriander

1 knob of ginger

2 cups of stock

1 small can of coconut milk

Spray of cooking oil.

Chop up the onion, lemon grass, ginger and the roots and stems of the coriander finely.

Cube the sweet potato and pumpkin.

Spray pot with the cooking oil.  Fry off the onion, lemon grass, ginger, coriander roots.  Add the pumpkin and potato and cook until slightly coloured.

Add stock plus a little extra water.  Simmer until pumpkin and potato are soft.  Add coconut milk and blitz with a stick blender until really smooth.

Add the coriander leaves and serve.

Very tasty.  You can also add in some chili if you wish.

Enjoy.

Between footy (all three teams won but another batch of crap injuries) and Mother’s Day, I’ve been run off my feet.

My parents visited this weekend which is nice.  Shame I was working the whole time.  Still they got to spend some quality time with Little Miss.

I had a wonderful client yesterday who was telling me about her customs, traditions and rituals.  I love this sort of information.  Not surprisingly, much of it revolved around food and family.

So today is a rest day for my hands and I’m back working again tomorrow.

Mum’s Night Out is on Friday night and tickets are still available.  Would really love to see you there.  I’ll be massaging away.

Em.

Friday’s are my day off.  For today I had planned on going out for lunch and then going to a park and letting Little Miss go nuts.  Didn’t happen.  Instead she just wanted mummy cuddles and to watch “Ye Ha!”  A free half hour massage for the first person to guess correctly what she wanted to watch.

Anyway, in the mix, I did manage to get some washing done and managed to fall asleep while her movie of choice was on.  I’d also managed to forget to turn the phone off silent and just discovered three messages.  Nothing urgent and made me think about those strapped to their blackberries and the like as if they’re life support.  Hubby calls them crackberries.

I keep hearing how people have to read every email, answer every call and respond really quickly even if its not really important.  They tell me every thing’s important.  These are the same people who can’t relax, have a day off, drive their cars or, in one case I know of, give birth without phone calls/emails from work.  They tell me they have no time.

Let me help you out here.  There’s a little button on the device.  It has a circle with a line in it.  It makes the device turn off.  Magic isn’t it.  That’s right, you can do it.  This next step is important.  Leave it off for at least an hour and at night.  The world will not explode and here’s something really interesting, if you wait and not respond to every little email/message/call, it gives you a chance to look at them all in one hit.  You can then decide what needs doing straight away, find out it’s been sorted/done by someone else or not needed at all.  You can prioritise and delegate.  Your boss will learn how to put paper in the photocopier when you’re not there, your partner will find whatever they can’t find right under their nose, your friends will call you back or leave a message about whatever and the best, you won’t get the really time wasting cold calling sales people.  Sounds great doesn’t it.  If a client really wants to talk to you, they will leave a message or call you back.  Another bonus, eliminates tyre kickers and time wasters!

When you come for a massage, I insist you turn your mobile devices off.  I find the ring tones and buzzes annoying and distracting whilst I’m working and you’ll be wondering who was calling and if it was important.  You can’t relax and will get little benefit from the massage.  Besides, I like to give you my undivided attention.  That’s the least I can give you.

Give it a shot.  See what happens.

Emma

Reformed gadget addict.

Yesterday evening, on the way to pick up hubby from the airport, Little Miss and I were in a car accident.  Not too bad, no injuries but enough to rattle me and do some damage to the other car.  (Our car is a FWD with a bull bar.)  Still, didn’t stop me from feeling like a complete idiot and getting angry with myself.  Told hubby what happened,  apologised for the big bill that’s coming our way and went home to curl up on the couch and give Missy cuddles.  I have now declared I’m not going to the airport unless I’m actually going to fly somewhere.

I opened my diary this morning to discover Sunday is the big photo shoot here.  Hoping to get some really fantastic action shots of me massaging pregnant women.  Can’t wait.  Partially because I’ll be catching up with two friends I haven’t seen in ages, but also because I’m so excited about both of them being pregnant!  You have no idea how happy I am!  I was seriously cheering and dancing around the place when they told me.  So here’s to good light and great hair days.

Em

PS.  Only 10 sleeps to Mother’s Day.  The price is going up May 10, get in now to make you mum very happy!

I’ve decided to let you in on my wish list.  It’s not very long but it’s still impressive.  (Especially as Mother’s Day is only 12 sleeps away).

Wish 1:  Sleep.

Wish 2: New flash massage table that goes up and down.

Wish 3: New wedding ring.  (Lost my wedding ring)

Wish 4: Someone to clean my house.

Wish 5: A Gardener.

Wish 6: Lots of clients.

If you could spread the word about these that would be great.

Once again Little Miss got artistic with my business plan.  Not as impressive as last time though.  Daddy took her to the park yesterday where she made a new friend and didn’t want to come home.  Apparently she didn’t like the low slide, had to climb up the big one.

In work news, I have two spots for in-home massages on the 4Th of may in the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne.  They are 11am and 12:30pm.  Let me know if you want one of them.

Em.