Relocate, Relocate, relocate....

we've moved! Yes we finally did it, and have now moved to Colchester in Essex. Where we are within minutes to the massive and very popular 'Colchester Zoo', we can get to a beach within 30 minutes and even more beaches up the coast from there, our daughter can walk to school (NO MORE SCHOOL RUN yippee!), when I drive our little one to pre-school I've got to be careful not to run over any wild rabbit that frequently jump out of the fields onto the country lanes! I am sure you get the picture. Actually where we were living wasn't too urban really but over here things are a little more laid back... just a little!

Business wise, I now have to build up a whole new clientele... I still have had a couple of old clients that have placed orders, but I really need to get things moving from this end. I'm working on getting 2 adverts out into local publications that deliver to my surrounding area and luckily the costs won't break the bank. One goes to about 3,800 residents in the area, and the other goes to about 27,000 readers and is a free magazine for parents of kids age 0-16 and it has a 'Party Planners Section'. I am holding off going to Yell.com or Yellow Pages for now as I want to be more specific at targeting customers.

I've been checking out competitors and now know that I have to be very careful in not being put into the same category as the ones I've seen so far.... Target customers for me will be up-market clients who are ready to pay for the creations I make. I know it won't be easy but it's all about making the right moves and taking ONE STEP AT A TIME. I have arranged an appointment with a local BusinessLink advisor for this week, hope he gives me some useful advise or point me in the right directions. Also, my good friend Omara recommended this book to me and I strongly recommend it to any 'Small - Medium Sized Business Owners' out there. It has been a best seller for a number of years and when you read it you will understand why...... it is called GETTING BUSINESS TO COME TO YOU by Paul and Sarah Edwards (& Laura Clampitt Douglas).

Catch you later with updates as to how things are going.

Till then I pray whatever you might be facing right now, that God makes a way for you, as I know he will do for me over here....

...get me to the church on time!

"I'm getting married in the morning

Ding dong the bells are going to ring".......blah blah blah

You know that old english song don't you, anyway in my case it was more like 'get me to the wedding reception on time (or should I say before the bride arrives!)

Last weekend I had a Wedding Cake to deliver. It had been a busy week prior to the weekend, we had family members over to spend some time with us and there was that 'little matter' of keeping all the kids entertained especially as it is still the summer holidays.

The long and short of it was that I had not slept a wink on the Friday night and was still doing last minute stuff as the bride had ordered some extra bits for the wedding.

I was suppose to leave the house around 11am to get me to the reception venue for around 1pm. At 11.00am I was no where near finished, as I was still frantically working away until about 12.45pm (and this is with the help of one of my sister-in-laws). I quickly got myself ready (all at snail pace here as I was sooooooo tired). Anyway hubby has this bright idea that I should use my sister-in-laws 'Satallite Navigation system'.

I have never used one before and was a little unsure if it was a good idea. I am generally good with directions as long as it's north of the Thames, south of Thames - I get scared! And the Wedding happened to be 'south of the Thames'. So considering that the wedding reception was to start at 3pm I really didn't think I had much of a choice, so 'Sat Nav' it was. My sister-in-law took it out of her car, did a quick (and i mean quick) run through of how it worked and told me not to worry!

I don't know how you guys find it but honestly once I got to unfamiliar areas, I felt like I was driving blindfolded. I mean this 'thing' that I was relying on could be driving me up the garden path (so to speak) and I'll be obeying every command it gives me! One of the things this 'Sat Nav' does, is that once you are on the right path it does not say anything to you, so you keep going until it gives you another command. Also this 'Sat Nav' was a touch screen thingy bob, you know, where you tap on the screen to navigate around the menu. Well somewhere along the line I must have tapped on the volume unknowingly and muted the silly thing. So it wasn't saying anything to me! Hence I am assuming I'm going in the right direction and I just keep driving following the arrow on the map shown on the screen. I must have done this for ages turning left or right at will! Somehow I realised what I had done, and that the arrow I was following was actually an arrow showing me where 'I' was going. By this time it was about 3.30pm, now I was really panicking, I had no idea where I was, I had visions of the Bride and Groom turning up and no Wedding Cake at the venue...... oh how I panicked!

All I can say is that things turned out okay in the end. I stopped the car and managed after much tapping (or should I say hitting!) on the screen to set the 'Sat Nav' to re-direct me, when I did get to the Wedding reception venue, the hall decorators were still finishing off, and best of all the Bride was 'fashionably late' hence there was loads of time for me to set up.... I tell you that Saturday added years to me. But it was all worth it in the end as the Bride and Groom loved their Wedding Cake.

...talk about missing an opportunity

Hiya all, hope you and your families are all well? We have been fine, a few coughs and colds but that is kinda normal!

What isn't so normal is me developing a really bad sore throat, that lead to me losing my voice for a few days. It was all down to the fact that business has been busy, we Thank God, I ain't complaining, far from it, but we all know how important it is to try and keep healthy. Hence the reason for my 'missed opportunity'.

Two weeks ago, I had 5 cakes to do in a week, normally this would not be a problem but as I had been tutoring a lovely lady (a crash cake decorating course!) during the times my toddler was at pre-school, that meant I had to be up at night doing the cakes! Some cakes take on average about 10 hours to do from start to finish, this includes baking, shaping, covering etc! So as you can imagine, I didn't get much sleep at night, most nights I was getting to bed at around 5am and waking up at 7 am to sort the kids out. As I wasn't able to find the time to nap during the day, this started telling on me! I felt run down and my immune system must have been quite down, voila here comes the sore throat. We mums just get on with it don't we. It then turns out that the following week I get another 5 cakes to do! (2 of them were late orders) with very little sleep I tell myself (and my hubby warns me) that I'm going to have to say no to any orders that come in for that week. I get a call on Monday saying 'is that DHG creations?', before even replying I'm thinking to myself that I'm going to have to refuse this order but lets just see what it is. Well it was only Elstree Film Studios (the studio is about 5 mins from us, great as we get to see loads of soap stars ever so often walking or driving around here). They wanted a 3 tier birthday cake for ......wait for it......the next day! I mean here I am with 5 cakes to do, one for a 1 year old's birthday party the next day which I hadn't started decorating yet! What to do, what to do, I tell you for a split second I really wanted to take it, but I remembered how terrible I had felt the week before cos of my sore throat (I was still talking with a husky voice!).

I eventually said that I couldn't possibly do it due to the short notice, but before they hung up I asked what was it for, all they said was that it was for a Channel 4 programme. Anyway later on a friend calls and I lament to her about the cake I couldn't do, she now says " I'm sure it's for BIG BROTHER......... ". "Oh nooooooooooooo" I groan. My friend says there is a birthday coming up on programme and hence maybe the reason for the need of a cake! As I'm shopping in the supermarket I bump into another friend and I mention to her the call, she looked at me with eyes wide open and said "hope you took it" , she wasn't happy when I told her I hadn't. I was trying to make myself feel better by saying that it's not as if the housemates could say on the show that this cake was made by DHG creations as such advertising isn't allowed on the show! That's when my friend made me feel even worst by saying that they could put that sort of information on the 'Big Brother website'. Even if they didn't at least I could have taken a photo of the cake before delivering it and then put the photo on my website saying 'as seen on Big Brother series 8'

Anyway it's all in the past, I didn't seize the opportunity and I pray I've learnt a lesson or two from all of it. Funny though about a day later I was flicking through a book that had been lying around the house for a while, I randomly pick a page to read and guess what it said....

The Energy to Excel

On our journey towards success it is really useful sometimes to take a step back and look at the lives of those whom you identify as successful people. What is it that really provides them with the power to succeed? Is it knowledge, is it experience, or is it a combination of things including some form of dynamic energy, something that drives them towards the achievement of their goals? Isn't it true that in most cases these people appear to be tireless? They appear to be able to stay focussed on their goals.


Well if this is true, let's take a moment to decide how we might employ this ability ourselves. It has been said that opportunity isn't necessarily a polite thing, it doesn't wear a white tie and tails and a top hat. It doesn't arrive at a mutually convenient time. It is more like a slippery streaker that you have to be quick to grab, by any available part of its anatomy, as it whooshes past you. To do this you need something magical, something special, called stamina.

(from Personal Success Tips by Brian Larcher)

I've added a couple of photos of some of the cakes that had kept me busy!

Catch you later

...can't believe I was away for so long

You know when I really started to get into this 'blogging thing' I could be on the computer for ages, even if I didn't have something to post, I'd get carried away reading other peoples blogs. I remember thinking to myself that I was becoming a bit of a computer addict.... I'd even try and stop myself for a couple of days but that didn't last long. Anyway here I am, with my last post being over 2 months ago - 8 whole weeks! There were a number of reasons that led to this but I won't bore you with the details. Instead I have enclosed a few photos of some of the cakes I've been working on. Taken with a lovely Digital camera I got anonymously in the post - I later found out who sent it to me, my lovely friend Olive who realised I was having a hard time with the camera I was using at the time....

Anyway folks I hope you are all well, I have had a quick look at some of your blogs and will be getting back to them real soon to have a proper read... ahhhh it's good to be back.

"Swiss you..."

My little two year old has really started saying words and putting 2 to 3 words together. It is always so sweet, funny and heartwarming when you hear toddlers learning to speak. "Swiss you" is actually my son's way of saying BLESS YOU, after he hears someone sneeze! And this is quite an achievement because before this, if he hears someone sneeze he cracks up laughing....seriously, uncontrollable laughter which ends up with him getting hic-cups! The other day, we were shopping in our local supermarket and this lady let out a loud sneeze, oh boy, that was it oh! My son couldn't stop himself! the poor lady had to stop dead in her tracks and look at my son - (the hic-cups had started by this time) and said "are you laughing at me" (she was pretending to look very shocked! at least I hope so!)...His big sister, when she was his age was such a shy little thing, but oh no not him!

Anyway, remember in one of my earlier posts 'From the Heart....' I had mentioned that our landline was down due to us not having enough money to pay the bill! and I was sooooooo upset as I felt I would lose a lot of business! Well, landline is still down (should be up and running soon God willing) but I tell you I haven't had some much business come in at one time as it has over the last 2 weeks! PRAISE GOD.

Infact as we were waiting for my hubby's payday - by this time food was nearly non exsistant in the house etc, payday came and hubby calls me up on my mobile sounding very 'cheesed off' with the fact that 'there was no money in his account'. New policy in his hospital is for everyone to fill in timesheets - this is despite the fact that they are permanent staff!

Most of the staff had been ignoring it as it seemed so ludicrous! but payroll decided to get tough! I tell you, when even the things you rely on without even thinking, are suddenly not there for you, what do you do? You look up to God and say 'It is only you God that can get us through this' and he did. The clients that came through, didn't need my landline, they found other ways of getting in contact with me as they were either friends of friends or people that I was recommended to through others that knew of my cakes!

So I want to say a big thank you to all who sent me encouraging comments and a very big 'God Swiss You'... I mean 'God Bless You'

p.s: Sorry, no photo's of my cakes yet. The digital camara I've been using is really messing up, and to top that, right now it cannot be found, it's lerking around the house somewhere. So I've been using my daughter's snazzy mobile phone to take photos (hand me down from an Aunt of hers!) hoping to e-mail the images to our computer, but it's all been proving rather difficult... so until this picture taking saga has been sorted out, please have a browse of previous cakes from 'shop I'm very proud of' on top right hand side of this blog :-)

oh to find peace and tranquility

...my 10 year old daughter was sitting outside our bedroom, I had just got her little brother to sleep and was coming out to say my good nights and prayers with her. What was she doing out there - she has this massive phobia of spiders. There was one on the ceiling of her bedroom which she had tried to get rid of but couldn't. One way of confronting her fear is trying to get closer to them, but she just couldn't do it, so she had been sat outside the door for ages! I got rid of the spider for her (with a massive amount of tissue between me and the spider, not liking spiders myself thank you!) but she still looked miserable, I asked her what was wrong, after much coaxing (by now tears were falling down her face) she told me that she really really tried to get rid of the spider by herself, but couldn't and she thought I'd get cross with her for not doing so as sometimes I (the Mummy) get upset with her for not being able to do it herself!

Oh my gosh! I felt terrible, why, because yes I have in the past been upset with her, but not for her phobia, which I know is a massive one, but because sometimes I'm just soooo tired and being asked to chase after an 'incy wincy tiny spider' when all I want to do is just put my feet up after a long day seemed to get on my nerves a bit - and I guess my frustration at this showed greatly on my face!

I have long looked at myself and wondered where the sweet happy go lucky me went to - and I've realised that I chased that person away with all the extra pressure I put on myself. I am aware that a lot of times when parents get a bit short with their kids is because they themselves are stressed out and tired!

When I had my Pharmaceutical Sales Representative job, yes there was all the glamour of snazzy company cars and trips aboard BUT there was the dreaded DEADLINES and TARGETS, getting out of the house at ridiculus times to meet doctors. I once had to stand outside a GP's surgery at 6.30am on a very icy cold wintery day to get to see 2 target doctors!...and gosh what some reps would stoop to to get sales was weighing me down, and it showed in my home life - don't want to go back there again.

So I am going to do all that is humanly possible to make my business a success, and I pray when it gets to the stage of employing people, I'm damn well going make my company a seriously family friendly place to work! If there's no peace at work, it tends to find a way of spilling over into family doesn't it!

I love flowers, Daffodils are one of my favourites

... this may seem like a long read, but it is really worth it.

It is for all of you out there trying really hard to achieve one thing or the other in your lives or in the lives of others! It was sent to me as part of a newsletter I get giving me information on Social Enterprises (a business trading with a social or community interest)


The Daffodil Principle
by Jaroldeen Asplund Edwards

Several times my daughter, Julie, had telephoned to say, "Mom, you must come see the daffodils before they are over." I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from my place by the beach to her
lakeside mountain home.

"I will come next Tuesday," I promised, a little reluctantly, on her third call. The next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and so I got in the car and began the long, tedious drive.

When I finally walked into Julie's house and hugged and greeted my grandchildren, I said, "Forget the daffodils, Julie! The road is invisible in the clouds
and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and the children that I want to see bad enough to drive another inch!"

My daughter smiled calmly, "We drive in this all the time, Mom."

"Well, you won't get me back on the road until it clears and then I'm heading straight for home!" I said, rather emphatically.

"Gee, Mom, I was hoping you'd take me over to the garage to pick up my car," Julie said with a forlorn look in her eyes.

"How far will we have to drive?" Smiling she answered, "Just a few blocks, I'll
drive ...I'm used to this."

After several minutes on the cold, foggy road, I had to ask "Where are we going? This isn't the way to the garage!"

"We're going to the garage the long way," Julie smiled, "by way of the daffodils."

"Julie," I said sternly, "please turn around."

"It's all right, Mom, I promise, you will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience."

After about twenty minutes we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church I saw a hand-lettered sign ...

"Daffodil Garden"

We got out of the car and each took a child's hand, and I followed Julie down the path. As we turned a corner of the path, and I looked up and gasped.

Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it down over the mountain peak and slopes. The flowers
were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, white, lemon yellow, salmon pink,
saffron, and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted as a group so that it swirled and flowed like
its own river with its own unique hue.

Five acres of the most beautiful flowers I had ever seen!

"Who planted all these?" I asked Julie.

"It's just one woman," Julie answered, "She lives on the property. That's her home," and she pointed to a well-kept
A-frame house that looked small and modest in the midst of all that glory.

We walked up to the house and on the little patio we saw a poster ...

Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking

50,000 bulbs
one at a time
by one woman
2 hands, 2 feet
and very little brain
Began in 1958

There it was ... "The Daffodil Principle"

For me that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than thirty-five
years before, had begun - one bulb at a time - to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountain top.

Still, this unknown, old woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. She had created something of magnificent
beauty, and inspiration.

The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration:

- learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time,(often just one baby-step at a time)
- learning to love the doing,
- learning to use the accumulation of time
- When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of
daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things.

We can change the world!

"It makes me sad in a way," I admitted to Julie, "What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five
years ago and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those years. Just think what I might have been able to achieve!"

My daughter summed up the message of the day in her direct way, "Start tomorrow, Mom," she said, "It's so pointless to think of the lost hours of our yesterdays. The way to make learning a lesson a celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask ... "

"How can I put this to use today?"

For a virtual visit and information for a real visit see ~ The Bauer's Daffodil Garden ~
http://www.geocities.com/thedaffodilgarden/