Second Helpings :-)

Last night my sister and I headed off to a secret venue in St Ives for our second visit to the Clandestine Cake Club. I do love spending time with my big sis so I cherish this event as it's two of my favourite things!

This months theme is 'work of art', with sunflowers being one of my favourite garden blooms I created my homage to Monet 'Bouquet of Sunflowers' and our place of clandestine meeting took place at the very welcoming Queens Hotel in St Ives



Fortunately this picture was taken before what I will simply refer to as the 'boob' incident! My masterpiece made it safely in the car, lovingly held firm on my sisters lap on the hours trip down west, however whilst walking from the car to the Venue my damn boob managed to lean on one side of the cake flattening the piped frame - GASP, horror and hilarity as my cake was presented to the club and my bustline now covered in icing! But I would add that due to not being able to see the underneath of my chest it took us a good 5 mins to work out how the 'flattening' had actually taken place! Of the encumbrance's of those FF's!

Anyway moving swiftly on..... Some great artwork was laid out before us all on cakes! A very tasty 'Matisse' a chocolate 'Jackson Pollock' and 'Giant Sunflower' to name but a few graced another calorie laden table, oh I am sooooo sorry Slimming World, may not be a loss at weigh in tomorrow!

We ordered our usual pot of tea for two and settled down to again some great cake and conversation. Again we have made some new friendships, swapped details and talked about our love of cake, our businesses and hobbies. We discovered that those sat on our table were in fact living just down the round! You have to love fate and providence in bringing people together :-)

Being single!

After realizing that hoovering today is useless until I have emptied it and cleaned the filter, it inspired me to write a post about being single in all aspects of my life! Valentines day to me is my friends birthday :-) I love her to bits so quite fitting really as being with loved ones is not always about it being your partner, however as a singleton it is not high up on my list of things to remember! In fact it has been 7 years since I spent Valentines day with someone who was special in my life.

As a single mum in business my daily life is never too easy, as well as cooking, cleaning, washing, making cups of tea, running a business, school runs, shopping, breathing, I then take care of a team of consultants which requires motivating, meeting planning, emailing, phone calls and more. And yes I love it!

But sometimes it would just be so nice to come in and find that the washing up fairy has been round, and I do believe in fairies I do! I do!

However as single parent you are often judged by circumstances that have been beyond your control! I, in no way chose to be a single parent. That decision was made for me when the father, who with full knowledge of consequence actively engaged in the fun part of baby making, decided he did not want to be part of his son's life. I cant make him, nor would I want to.

Today I want to tell you about the army of single mums out there that not only successfully run their household, they also run a business! We are not all benefit scrounging baby factories that society has labelled us.

Many are hard working, and I mean really hard working mums who successfully juggle the daily household chores with that of running a business. As an example, this morning I have loaded the dishwasher, sorted breakfast, booked parties into my business, emailed hosts and customers, attempted to hoover and sorted the washing, exercised the dogs AND built some lego men! And my day has only just begun!

Would I change things? Nope, not at all. I have tried the 9 - 5 and have found it very hard to balance with family life, whilst my childminder is a super special person I hated the fact that she saw my boys more than me, that I only had breakfast and bedtime. Working for myself changed that, and whilst it has added a little extra pressure into my life, I am happy to offset that with having the option to take a 'family' day whenever I choose. This week we have been ice skating and geocaching, enjoyed loads of cuddles during the day, snuggled up to watch a dvd, and have a meal with our best friends (on valentines days as well) as well as do my job of being a Jamie at Home Senior Team Leader.

So next time you hear reports that single mums are a strain on the finances of the country, spare a thought that an enormous amount of them are in fact 'mumpreneurs' working from home and making it happen for themselves and their family.

Right where's my screwdriver and fix it hat!