Do we suit green?

Would I donate 50p for carbon off setting? I was amazed to be asked this when just buying a bathroom tap. Well no, but I have decided to go greener in the way that we live from using washable nappies to minimising the flights that we take. Besides every Mum knows that the a happy child makes for a happy holiday - and a day travelling, followed by the rigid necessity of slip, slop, slap can have its downsides. As you can see from my holiday snap, Sarita does not look too miserable on a Cornish beach in September.

I was just reading David Milliband's comments on Mumsnet on food miles: 'Seasonal, local food is good in terms of carbon. But it's not as simple as more miles = more carbon because sometimes food grown locally requires lots of carbon if grown in artificial conditions'. Which highlights my thoughts that it ain't that simple.

Mums are adept at juggling and finding a balance. Lets face it, when we were pregnant we all had preconceived ideas about our ideal parenting styles; who has not bent the rule - ultimately to the benefit of their children? Sarita loves a good party so there is no way that if her Godfather gets married I'm not going to wreck the routine to allow her to join the us. Likewise, has she had the odd biscuit or chocolate, but she has never have crisps or squash in the house.

We have a similar juggling act on the site. With my own Rockin Hoods I wanted an organic version, but as the non-organic version is better as it does not need to be tumble dried. Also, I did make the highly uncommercial decision to have them made in the UK to minimise the carbon footprint - it means that I can't afford to wholesale or discount them but, it is a price that I am prepared to pay.

We always go the extra mile to find products that have a good ethical balance, but it is a balance. Take Cheeky Wipes a great alternative to wet wipes as an example. Helen did her best to source all materials in the UK but finding locally made plastic boxes was just beyond her, so she had to source them from the far east. (As I write they have had the most amazing endoresment on The Baby Website)




As you may know I love the Baby and All Bag but would you pay £100 for it? Would you pay £75? Well, I could not afford that for a nylon change bag not matter how well made it was. By having it made in China was can sell it to you for £45. I did have long discussions with Debbie, the amazing Mum inventor of the bag, about how she sourced a factory that was up to the best possible ethical standards.

Then at the other end of the spectrum is the Storyshaping Cube number two in Green My Style's Top 10 Eco Xmas Gift Ideas A few of my friends have told me to take the Cube off the site as it make it look expensive (even tough at times we are the most cost effective retailer on certain brands) - but I really believe in the dream of this product and everything it stands for. It has been designed my artists and hand engraved by artisans in the UK. Is it so wrong to have something of this callibre selling for £45? Maybe we can't all afford it, but it does deserve to exist.

Being ethical and green should not always cost money. Besides, sack cloth and ashes have never been my style - so unflattering, but then I did find a rather diva full skirted 1950's coat in a junk shop that is much more my idea of being green with style.

Singing, Sharing and Massage

I'm delighted to launch the Gentle Hands Baby Massage set - as it is an ideal Christmas present for families with newborn babies. Not only does it explore how to massage but there is a CD with great songs and nursery rhymes - and with explanations as to how to link the songs to playful massage routines.

Have you tried baby massage? It is fantastic, Sarita used to love it and it really seemed to help with sleeping and that end crying session that seemed to happen every time DH got back from work. Speaking to Sue, who devised the Gentle Hands Baby Massage was so refreshing - she talks about setting the scene for Mums to develop their own confidence and intuition.

She says "I have been teaching baby massage for nearly 10 years, and feel that as the years creep by mums and dads seem less trusting of their intuition. I sing nursery rhymes within my classes and I am always surprised by how few mums know any nursery rhymes or even sing with their babies. My classes are designed to help with confidence, and for mums to begin to listen to their babies and their needs and not always to trust external influences. They all have their place in information gathering and help, but fundamentally, we seem to have lost our ability to go with go with our babies and do what comes naturally. Singing to me has a fundamental place, it seems only the West does not recognise this!

My kit therefore, is my way of trying to get mums, dads, carers etc to touch and love their babies appropriately, to sing and have fun, to bond instinctively and knowingly. Baby massage is a wonderful tool for to help promote closeness, gentleness and confidence. The towel is a way for toddlers to remember their babyhood, to talk about being a baby and to have as a keepsake in years to come. Baby massage can be a very special time for carers and babies, and definitely worth remembering!"

Now available for £22.99 on our site where you can read about the details of everything included in the kit.

Reviews that Rock!

Lets start by two lovely bits of feedback on the site in general:

This is a fabulous website selling fabulous products that are both funky and functional!
They're the kinds of products that you don't realise you need, but then once you've used them you wonder how you survived without them !


Not sure I have seen a site targeted to so many positive things at once, organic, fair trade, recycle...

But we have had some great feedback on my Rockin Hoods.






Read what they say at Madhouse Reviews before giving the Rockin Hood a star rating: 5/5

One of my lovely customers in Scotland writes:
I have to say they come in really handy my oldest daughter who is 2 and 1/2 won't wear a jacket in the car and it saves an argument in the morning my other daughter who is 13 1/2 months likes to roam about with it on like a Jedi knight!! They also came in very handy when my car got stuck in a ditch near my house last week they both had them on and when I finally got them out the car they were still cosy in their hoods!!

I can genuinely say that we used our Rockin Hood every day for over a year and loved it. I only made it in response to a plea from DH who was fed up of the great coat saga, but it lived up to all expectations.

Here is the link to the site:
www.MOIxx.com/rockinhood


You can also read a lovely review of our Toddler Dictionary too.

(Have you noticed that this post is shorter than normal? I have been told to stick to the point)

Thanks it was a success!

Thanks for help - the speech was a great success. I delivered it to 200 ladies, who are either just setting up or planning to set up in business, and it was perfect. Leaving the hall I was almost mobbed by people wanting to find out more about that Antonia Chitty Mumpreneur Guide that I had been recommended.

The only problem was that our allocated 10 minutes was reduced to 8. That sounds trivial but suddenly I was about half way through what I had prepared and I had two minutes to go. Your comments really helped as I cut out anything that you had not mentioned and I romped home to applause.

Yes, the biggest laugh I got was from giving the plug to Bath Baby Cakes! Please leave comments if you have ever got something unexpected just by asking, I'd love to do an update on this.

I took along a tiny selection of samples just to illustrate what we are all about. I was delighted by the response to both the Sock Ons (for being total ingenious and affordable) and by my own Rockin Hoods (what can I say, they are just GREAT and at just under £20 including P&P an ideal present).



Did you notice that those links open in a new page? Well, thank Nigel Morgan of Morgan PR who was amazing, spending his Sunday morning to telling me h0w to access the HTML code to do that.

What have I learnt?
1.If you want to write simple HTML the W3 Schools helped us
2. If you want me to contribute to a blog or an event - I'd be delighted to help as I have all the best advisers (you!).

Thanks xx

Inspiring Mumpreneurs

am giving a speech next week, and I thought that I would try it out on you first to see if you have any feedback. It is a concise history of Mothers of Innovation and why fellow female entrepreneurs should take the plunge.

The first thing to examine is the word entrepreneur, the definition is: One who starts a business or other venture that promises economic gain but that also entails risks. Yes, setting up does involve risk, as if it was easy to set up a successful business everyone would have done it! Not only does it take risk but also a huge amount of hard work - as a friend recently said - working as if the hounds of hell are pursuing you.

The other thing about entrepreneur is that it seems to conjure up the image of Richard Branson, or a dragon straight from the den. Well, I resemble neither, and I view my customers more as intelligent individuals that I want to share ideas with. The first draft of the site has been all about sharing information - and I talked about the Mums, the products and the marketing. As you can see from this picture we have useful things, products that are unique to the site and prices as low as £2.99.The first critical thing was getting the name right; from that we moved onto the branding. While I have a background in design and have at least some experience of logo design I thought that I should employ a professional. Being a modern girl I thought that I would develop a very sleek look, but somehow when we started to play a very different style started to emerge. I am so delighted that I kept an open mind. You may be amused to look at some of the over 20 drafts that were considered - none of these passed muster. (While I listen and act upon most of your comments, it is too late to change this element now.)

A quick note about branding - a logo is only part of your brand. You need to sort out the whole identity, of what font to use, how to use it and your strap line and message hierarchy etc.

The first hurdle was to find Mums to share my vision and to want to stock the site. A designer I knew was very dismissive and just asked my how I thought that I was going to find stock. I had been hoping that this would be the least of my problems (having managed a gallery, this was more than just a hunch). I was delighted when before my holding page was even live I got a call from a lovely lady called Sarita to say how much she loved the concept of the site, and could she stock us. Not only is Sarita my daughters name (so it seemed like a particularly good omen) but her multi-sensory Splodge box is all that I could hope for - it is original, ethical, fun and kids just LOVE it! After 'recruiting' Sarita others followed in quick succession.



Working on your own it can be easy to take things to heart, you end up working 24 hour days and can loose sight of the overall picture. It can be very difficult to step back and accept helpful advice, as your natural reaction could be to defend your project first and listen second. There are so many sources of advice - I have tried to list the most useful on the links section of the site, from Business Link to your local council. One lady who is very worth tracking down is Antonia Chitty, recently voted Inspirational Mumpreneur of the Year. I would really recommend your site, Family Friendly Working, as it has a great free e-course to help you consider the options for setting up on your own. She has also written a few books which are excellent - they offer tangible advice either on being a Mumpreneur or her step by step guide to promoting your business.

The most useful thing I can say is just DO it! I spent about a month reading endless documents about everything you need to consider, legal frameworks etc. In the end I just found a lawyer through the Lawyers for Business scheme and had a free consultation that would have saved me hours of reading. The other great quick win was joining they FSB. As a member I have access to a legal helpline and they give me access to some great training and free banking. The best training session I went to was run by Nigel Morgan of Morgan PR on Organic PR . This opened my eyes to the potential of new media marketing.

All I can say that if you are not familiar with Twitter, Facebook and forum sites you should be. I won't repeat myself as you can read my earlier posting about Twitter. It suffice to say that I have even found some great suppliers from Twitter including BPA award nominee Cheeky Wipes and the amazing gift sets from Molliemoo in addition to all the other lovely contacts that I have made.

The highs have all been on-line from camaraderie of the fora to the access to training and information. Obviously you have to be very careful about what and who you trust on-line. I have saved hundreds of pounds by finding Opensource software on-line (and avoided the temptation of using illegal pirated software). I use Open office, I am a whiz with Inkscape and Gimp (the photo and graphics programmes) and recently I am publishing a charity fund-raising book using an Opensource DTP programme. When I get stuck there are tutorials, fora and help sites to help. The lows are while you may get the most expert advise the answers are only as good as your questions. I thought that by engaging a fabulous web designer and a SEO specialist my site you be user friendly and perfectly fit for purpose without being tied into a rigid structure of an off the peg e-shop - but there was a still a missing link between their specialisms (belatedly I am working with another specialist). Likewise when working with a solicitor to set up the company we discussed engaging the accountant later - big mistake, there are huge potential tax implications that I have overlooked.

Be critical about what your skills really are - I have been delighted and shocked in equal measure by my skills set, when removed from the comfort of a team setting. Having done an MA in Arts Criticism and written booklets, education packs and reviews I thought that I could write while the world of computer code was beyond me. I now realise that I can think like a computer (believe me that is a HUGE compliment from a computer programmers) and that my unproofed text looks like dodgy GCSE homework. This would only be a problem if I did not appreciate the issues and opportunities that this presented!

Another of the highs of setting up on your own is that you can do it! I have learnt so much. My single biggest lesson has been how to accept advice / criticism. I was so proud of the first draft of the site but much to my surprise customers found alternative ways to navigate the site - making it seem farm less user friendly than I had envisaged. Rather than getting defensive I got active and started the second draft of the site. It is amazing that as much as you can plan for one thing, customers may not see things that way at all. Find a mystery shopper who can offer constructive but honest advice.

A penultimate thought, since setting up Mothers of Innovation I have been surprised and delighted by how supportive seemingly random strangers are. My biggest tip is ASK and you will be amazed by how often people will take the time and effort to help you. Before I even had a working site over 200 lovely people (mostly strangers) had completed an on-line survey giving me hints on what would make a good site. Obviously this works both ways - recently I was approached by a Bath Baby Cakes who asked me to write about her in my blog. Readers of this blog may know I never randomly plug businesses, but I can use Hannah as a great example of pluck - if you are going to set up in business you can't afford to be shy! Just look at her site - they look good enough to eat :)

Finally, you may be aware that there are two types of marketing: profile building and the call to arms i.e. selling! The first draft of my site was so much about 'adding value' that it was hard to discover what the purpose of the site. You could read tips, recipes and help for Mumpreneurs - all great for differentiating me from the mainstream competition - but nothing to encourage visitors to shop. Well, I met up with the wonderful Julia from Storyshapes today and she told her audience that I was an innovator who helped Mumpreneurs across the country - well, Julia I can do that best if I sell your products to delighted customers. So, with that, I must conclude with my final tip: if you want great products for babies, toddlers or the family - long onto our site, browse then buy. Enjoy, leave lovely feedback, recommend then buy some more! xx

Click Refresh

Time to step off the roller coaster to tell you what has been happening! I was all set for a London launch of Mothers of Innovation when the PR that I was working with had a series of calamities and head to pull out.

Panic! But as every knock back is an opportunity I have trebled my budget and recruited a new PR who should be in the top league. Let's just see what she can deliver.

The first thing that she said was how annoying my site is. A year ago I would have been upset and staged a military defensive. But, one year older and feeling many years wiser, this was fascinating to hear!

I had assumed that everyone would navigate the site in one way by looking at the six main pictures and using this as a starting point. Instead the standard route into the site seems to be along a top navigation bar.

Okay, so far, so dull as blog entries go. However, what IS pertinent is that sometimes you get so close to things that you loose all perspective. I had a niggle that the search on the site was not really working but it took someone saying it quite forcibly to make me overhaul it.

I have now set up new categories based on what I really stock - as oppose to what I thought I would ahead of launch. I have also had to recognise that, while many of the products are useful, most visitors seem to be looking for gifts. I have set up a whole new column along the navigation bar for gifts for different age groups, so it is easy now to search for gifts sets / gifts for babies / gifts for Mums etc.

My mantra for the day - I must always put myself in my customer's shoes and remember that the site is about them!

So if you have a business - get someone to be really critical as a mystery shopper and remember to listen first, and fight the urge to defend your baby. If you are a customer - I hope that I am getting it right for you; if not let me know and I will try harder. As for Mums - we all know that we need ME time, but so often our needs loose out to family priorities; lets all try to take time out and being a Mum will seem even more fun again! xx

But is it worth it?

What is value for money? Is it the cheapest? Or is it something that is really going to work for you? I am asking this question as I know that how I spend money had radically changed over the past ten years.

Initially, for example, Mark One was my student grant saviour (that shows my age) then in later years we would all pop into Primark for a fashion top up. Retail therapy seemed so easy. Then a few years back we were asked to question what we were buying on two fronts. How could a £1 t-shirt be sustainable? After a limited life span that t-shirt was not even good enough for the charity shop and landfill sites became clogged up by what was called the 'Primark effect'. At the same time scandals seemed to erupt around Nike, Gap and many others over the use of child labour and appalling standards in factories across Asia.

Since becoming a mother I have become yet more precious. Since learning that up to a cup of chemicals could be on every adult T-shirt, I was horrified by what effect pesticides and other nasties could be having on my newborn's skin. The obvious answer to me seemed that pre-loved clothes and organic vests had to be the way forward.

My way of feeling thrifty with organics was to buy one gorgeously soft organic double sheet from Gossypium and cutting it down and sewing it into a moses basket liner and both flat and fitted sheets for the crib and moses basket. (They now even do sheeting by the meter making it better value.) Another good thrifty tip is washable nappies (yes, I know we all know that) but did you know that many local councils will give you a contribution towards the cost of buying the nappies. We got a very welcome cheque for £30.

There seems to be a careful balance - obviously in an ideal world we would only buy beautiful fairtrade or local, organic produce. However, the world is not that simple! I know that Hannah set up the hugely successful Piccalilly as she was fed up of the limited range of Fairtrade, organic clothes for her kids - that seemed only to be selling by virtue of their ethics as they were very limited on the style front. (Here is a pic of one of her sets available on my website).Similarly, Tammy of Green Cheeky Monkey and Dinorah or Gizmoroo also bemoaned the lack of funky organic t-shirts for their little boys, so again, rather than getting mad they got busy!
Sarita is a very lucky little girl, she has been bought some lovely outfits. So far, top of the list was a Kenzo t-shirt that was such good quality that it lasted two years and countless washes and still looks good enough for best; in fact I can even take back the scorn that I doled out on anyone being foolish enough to buy designer gear for a one year old. An even more clever solution would have been to have bought a designer dress from Soph4Soph that is not only reversible but also designed to last from 3 to 18months, 9months to 3 years, or 4 to 7 years.

So why are designer goods so expensive? Are they worth it? It ranges from a bottle of designer perfume that costs around £1 to make some products that have valid reasons for higher prices (albeit out of my price range). When, many years ago, I worked supplying a range of high street stores it would be standard practice to be 'inspired' by designer goods. The first move was to find affordable fabrics (sometimes this was to the customers' benefit, as who wants dry clean only materials for kids' clothes?) then we looked at other elements of construction and detail. You could make things cheaper by making details smaller or compromising on fit (so a scarf, for example, could be shorter and less voluptuous as well as been made from a cheaper wool blend). Then we would look at the manufacturing process, you would examine how you could cut corners, or just make it neater and more practical for mass production. Once you worked out how to make things for a price you would spend sometimes months going through loops to ensure that it was not a 'dog' and refuse to sell - either this meant that it had to resemble last year's top seller or it should be as commercial as possible (sometimes that meant that the final product selection was a little dull).


I saw the final attempt of UK and European manufacturers trying to compete with cheaper factories in Eastern Europe and the Far East. I saw old family firms go bankrupt or sell up - you may have read about the devastation in a Welsh community when Burberry pulled out of their factory their recently. This is part of the reason why when it came to my own Rockin Hoods line I decided to work with an amazing manufacturing unit in London and compromise only my own margins; I could check their quality, see that it was not a sweat shop and generally feel sure that I could offer my customers a great product.



This leaves us with the critical issue of affordability, which realistically governs most of our buying decisions. We are faced with so many 'essential' items that we need to buy - but what do we really need? Deborah Jackson writes eloquently about this in her book Baby Wisdom when she compares the dramatically expanding list of baby 'essentials' across the centuries.

A 'Mummy' friend once came around to our house and was amazed at how well our girls played together. She said, approvingly, it must have been because we did not put all toys out. Surprise, surprise, we had every toy out - but I never felt the need to buy the latest toy/gadget/whatever that all the Mums rushed out to buy. We tried a Bumbo, a tricycle and an Activity Centre from the toy library and saw how quickly Sarita bored of them. Since then we have inherited a tricycle from a friend (a bit knackered but she loves it now that she is old enough).

The other huge variable is our lifestyles. A case in point would be the pushchair we bought before Sarita was born. When one of the Mums from the antenatal group went into labour early we panicked and rushed out to buy a travel system - we dashed between three of the main kiddy stores in town to compare what was on offer. We spent, what we thought was, a fortune on a Mothercare system with a pushchair, car seat and carry cot. Little did we realise we had bought the Lada of all pushchairs; it was large, heavy and cumbersome (and by comparison to some cheap). Within weeks it had turned me into a confirmed baby carrier. Later I went on to buy an umbrella fold Jane pushchair that I could comfortably carry onto tubes and trains in one hand while I carried my daughter with the other.

This is a bit of a long winded way of saying that no matter how cheap something is (and our Monster travel system was) it is incredibly bad value to buy something if you then never use it! Conversely some more expensive things may be worth saving up for as long term they can save you a packet. Besides the things that make parenting rewarding are all free: love, sleep and the sound of your child's first giggle!