A couple of months ago we teamed up with Dream Town and gave away a Rose Petal Cottage in one of our Freebie Friday giveaways. At the same time, I was asked if my girls would like to review their new pet inspired property, Puppy Lane Cottage, which we were thrilled to accept.

The perfect place for a little girl to look after all her pets, Puppy Lane Cottage comes complete with Candyfloss, a very fluffy puppy, plus a Kennel, Collar Tag and Lead, Brush, Bowl and Bone. We were also sent another accessory pack including Coco the Kitten, plus a fabric covered Sofa and pet accessories.

Further pets and accessories are available including a Kitchen Set which comes with Pip the Mouse who lives in the cooker and a fabric Garden with Nutmeg the Bunny and gardening accessories.

Asthetically the Puppy Lane Cottage is very pretty, and the attention to detail is really beautiful. A stone cottage, with thatched roof, a picket fence, flowers  creeping up the walls and even a butterfly settled on the roof, all makes for the ultimate girlie hideaway. The cottage also has a stable-style door with magnetic clasps, pretty curtains and lace edging around the roof.  So if you have a real girlie-girl as a daughter, she won’t fail to fall in love with this playhouse.

From a mum’s point of view, the cottage was simple to assemble and the instructions were very clear. The frame of the cottage is made from plastic poles, meaning the house is lightweight to move around, and when not in use can quickly be broken down and stored back in the box. But if you don’t want to disassemble the cottage, you can store one half of the cottage neatly inside the other slightly larger half, stacking the accessories inside.

My girls loved playing in the cottage, but what really made it for them were the pets. They fell in love with Coco and Candyfloss and loved playing with them and all their accessories, quickly announcing that they wanted Nutmeg the rabbit and Pip the mouse too!

So, if you’re thinking ahead to Christmas already, and have a very girlie daughter who loves animals, you won’t go far wrong by asking Father Christmas to bring her a Puppy Lane Cottage on 25th December!

For stockist details and more information on the complete Dream Town range, call 0800 389 8591 or visit www.worldsapart.com

Visit the Dream Town Club – www.dreamtown.co.uk – for exclusive games, downloads and chances to win!

Popularity: 10% [?]

There are more pregnancy and motherhood advice books on the market than you can shake a Clearblue stick at! Most of them are earnest, some of them are finger-wagging, and others seem designed to make you feel guilty every second of the day. This is not one of those books.

Written by Zoe Williams, the Guardian journalist behind the hilarious ‘Anti-natal’ column, Bring It On, Baby is a straight-talking corrective to the sea of advice that engulfs pregnant women and new mums. It considers such issues as the overbearing public guidelines on what not to eat or drink, ‘women shouldn’t be treated like three-year-olds, airily instructed in the way of things with no proper explanation,’ weighs up the relative merits of different childcare routines, ‘It doesn’t make any sodding difference. There are easy babies and difficult babies, and, before you know it, they’re no longer babies,’ and even considers the correct response to the question, ‘Who’s fatter, my sister or me?’

I am often sceptical about books like this as they promise a great deal but fail to deliver – however this had me laughing out loud in the first chapter! It really does shout out loud from the roof tops all the things that a mother (or parent) often thinks, but wouldn’t actually say – unless to a very good friend whilst under the influence.  What I think is most striking though is the balance that Zoe has achieved. She manages to be this angry, accidentally pregnant woman who looks for an argument in every comment and piece of professional advice, but then does some solid research to show up where all the myths are. She is very honest about her lack of any sort of maternal feelings and preparation for being a mother and yet happily and honestly describes her instant and over whelming love for her baby. Despite this love she can still talk candidly about the depths of the lows that parenting brings and the changes you go through and the illogical nature of all things connected to being a mum.

I would be careful about recommending this to a mum-to-be – yes it would save them some heartache and be an honest perspective – but mostly because they simply wouldn’t be able to enjoy how honest it is – and I think it is source of great humour for mums everywhere. 

To celebrate the release of Bring It On, Baby by Zoe Williams, we have 5 copies to give away.

To enter simply answer the following question:

Where does Zoe Williams live?     Hint: Look in the About the Author section in the right hand column

Email your answer with BABY as the subject to info (at) mumstheboss.co.uk. Competition closes at 7pm on Friday 30^th July and winners will be notified by email by Monday 2^nd August.

And if you aren’t lucky enough to win you can get your hands on a copy of the book now at www.guardianbooks.co.uk

Popularity: 26% [?]

For this week’s Freebie Friday we have teamed up with Little Dish who have recently launched a new range of fresh baby purees. Mum’s The Boss member Helen Lindop, owner of www.businessplusbaby.com, a website that helps mums of babies and toddlers start businesses, was sent some sample are here is her review:

“Little Dish’s fresh baby purees arrived at my door by courier in a cute baby rucksack that my toddler immediately grabbed for herself!

There were six purees, three sweet and three savoury. The sweet ones were mango and banana; strawberry and apple; and blueberries, apples and bananas. The savoury ones were butternut squash, carrots and apples; peas, pears and apples; and sweet potato, parsnips and leeks. The purees are chilled, but you can freeze them too.

Baby Tom loved all of them, but the sweet ones went down so fast they barely touched the sides! He’s ten months old, so usually eats mashed food rather than purees. This wasn’t a problem, though as I served the savoury meals up as side vegetables and the sweet purees with yogurt or custard.

My two-year-old insisted on trying some, too. She had the sweet potato, parsnip and leek puree and decided to use it as a dip for her other vegetables! When she had eaten it all, she asked for “more squirty” but sadly her little brother had already eaten it all.

I do buy baby food in jars from time to time, but I don’t like to use it too often. I’m concerned that the high temperatures used to cook jars take away some of the nutrients and that if babies get used to the bland ‘canned soup’ flavour of food in jars they won’t learn to like the taste of real food.

What was great about the Little Dish purees was that they tasted like real food. The berry purees I could have happily eaten myself with a nice pot of Greek yogurt. They really did taste that good. The savoury purees cleverly combined fruit and veg to give a mildly sweet taste and that my little ones loved.

In short, a glowing review from this mum, baby and toddler!”

Today we are giving away 3 Little Dish rucksacks, each with a set of purees in. To be in with a chance of winning, you just need to answer the following question:

Q.   What are the names of Little Dish’s 2 chief tasters?

Email your answer to info@mumstheboss.co.uk by 7pm today (9th July) to be in with a chance of winning.  Please write LITTLE DISH in the subject line of your email. Winners will be emailed directly by Monday 10th July.

For more details of the full Little Dish range and stockists please visit www.littledish.co.uk

Popularity: 30% [?]

Make It Your Business - The Ultimate Business Start-Up Guide For Women covers all aspects of starting a business, from time management, branding and PR to management, leadership and developing your business. It also includes issues specific to women, such as finding the right childcare and why women and men often have different reasons for starting a business. Plus it has an interesting chapter at the end covering the ‘Bigger Picture’  including women’s entrepreneurship around the world and what governments, banks and educators should do to encourage more women into business.

The book starts by saying ‘that the majority of self-employment books to be found on the shelves today are written by men, for men, about men and when we were looking for help and inspiration, they could easily have put us off’. This book aims to go beyond the facts and figures of starting a business and look at what it’s like to be a woman business owner, the barriers you might encounter and how to do it without sacrificing other aspects of your life.

One minor criticism of the book is that the legal and financial aspects of business were covered in one chapter, ‘Business Basics’. The authors start the chapter by saying that this, understandably, might have been the section of other business manuals that ‘put you off’. I felt they could have addressed this by giving more attention to this crucial area, rather than trying not to scare off readers. A business has to have a solid financial foundation before all of the other aspects can be built on top and this is easily overlooked by people who are new to business.

Make it your business achieves the tricky balance of talking from a woman’s point of view, but without ‘man bashing’ or being  patronising. I liked the authors’ positive and empowering yet realistic approach.

If you are a woman thinking of starting a business, this would be a great introduction as it covers everything you’d need to consider. However, it covers a huge range of subjects and so can’t cover them in depth. This could actually be an advantage, as too much information too early could be overwhelming. As Nicola Horlick says on the back cover, this is ‘a comprehensive introductory tool for any woman looking to take the first step in establishing her own business’.

Reviews by Helen Lindop of www.businessplusbaby.com - a website dedicated to getting started as a mumpreneur

Popularity: 5% [?]

No – you haven’t misread the title – it really is Working 5 to 9 – How to Start a Business in your spare time by Emma Jones, founder of the home business website Enterprise Nation and author of the very successful book Spare Room Start-up.

From the Facts and Figures in Chapter 1 last year 5 million people were building a business at night and weekends in addition to their day job – that is a staggering 20% of the population. The reasons for this are many; people fear redundancy, people are looking to move away from employment and towards the flexibility of being their own boss and for others it is the extra money that drives them.

Section 2 of the books gives 50 examples of businesses that you can start in your own time, and this includes 60 profiles of people who have already successfully started and are running their own businesses in these areas. As well as hearing how ‘real people’ have achieved this each example has a great list of links, websites and places to go to find out more and even Twitter lists of people to follow in certain sectors.

Having found inspiration and ideas from this section, Next Steps in part 3 is the main advice and guidance section and contains some valuable advice about how to make the leap from idea to business.  It gives a great overview of all the essentials like a business plan, some of the legal and tax requirements marketing yourself and managing your business around a day job. It also has a section on web presence and all things related to on-line business. The book finishes with over 10 pages of Useful links.

This book is great for people just thinking about starting up their own business, either as an extra to work, or to build up whilst at home looking after small children. There are many people who know they want to do something different but don’t know what the next step is; this would be a great place to start. 

Emma Jones is hosting an event in London on 23^rd June all about the book – details of which can be found here.  And we will be giving away 3 copies of this book in our June newsletter – subscribe now to be in with chance to win one.

Visit www.working5to9.co.uk to learn more about ‘Working 5 to 9 – how to start a successful business in your spare time’

Popularity: 11% [?]

The Virtual Assistant Handbook by Nadine Hill is the only guide for Virtual Assistants (VAs) in the UK. I’m not just saying that as a compliment, it really is the only one! Fortunately, it’s an excellent book.

If you’re not sure what a VA is, here’s a quick introduction. A VA works remotely on tasks like administration, bookkeeping, event organisation, telephone answering and personal assistance. Small businesses who need admin support but don’t want an employee can hire a VA by the hour. VAs usually work from their own home and many never meet their clients face-to-face.

Being a VA appeals to lots of mums because many have administration experience, but self employment is far more flexible than being employed. Sounds great so far? Not surprisingly, there are a few snags along the way, but this book deals with all of them in turn.

First of all, Nadine explains that being a VA is not for you if you want to be handed work and to then quietly get on with it. A client will be looking for a self-starter, someone with their own ideas who isn’t afraid to ‘manage’ them. You will also need to get out there and look for work (not always easy if you’re used to getting things done behind-the-scenes). The VA handbook gives you plenty of useful advice on how to do this, even if you know nothing about marketing.

Nadine talks about her own experience of starting a VA business throughout and shares the challenges she encountered and the lessons she has learned. Finding clients (online, networking, PR and more), getting started, setting a price, selling extra services and future development are all covered in a clear, honest and practical way.

If you’re thinking of starting out as a virtual assistant in the UK, this is essential reading.

Reviewed by our guest reviewer Helen Lindop of Business Plus Baby, her blog about Getting Started as a Mumpreneur

Popularity: 6% [?]

Footprint Bags are an ingenious product range created by two environmentally-aware young mums, Hanny and Claire. When Hepden Bridge in Yorkshire, near where they lived, decided to become a plastic bag free town this sparked an idea, and 3 years later a fabulous and practical product – the reusable shopping bag pack.

I still get excited at the anticipation that comes with expecting a parcel – especially a product for review. However, this time when the postman knocked with my parcel – a sleek and shiny black jiffy envelope – even my husband was intrigued. Inside the lovely packaging continued – wrapped in black tissue was my new 4 bag footprint bag pack.

Smaller than I had anticipated, the  pouch is secured with Velcro and contains 4 reusable bags – and the really clever part – a trolley coin attached to the handle so when you are shopping it hangs discreetly off the back of the trolley. The reason for getting the smaller of the 2 was I was thinking about ‘going in to town’ trip, or to keep in the glove box of the car so when I stop to pick up some essentials on the way home I always have bags.

Normally dreading the supermarket I had a lighter than usual step as I set out to road test the bags. Firstly – massively less bulky to carry than the hessian/cotton/plastic bag for life ensemble I usually cart in with me – and just hang neatly off trolley or sit discreetly in corner.

Then came the real test – would they hold enough? In fact they are a great size – larger than a carrier bag – but not so large you can’t then lift them up! The shape is great and very flexible, and the handles are wide and strong. Even the checkout commented on what a great idea and how neat they were.

Carrying the bags from the car up the garden path revealed another advantage –the material the bags are made of means that the handles don’t cut into your flesh – even when heavily laden – result!

One of the best and most practical products I have used this year – real thumbs up.  I just need an 8 pack one now for the weekly shop – 4 just aren’t enough.

Footprint bags are available to buy online from www.footprintbag.com

Popularity: 10% [?]

One of the great pleasures and perks of having a blog is being sent products to review. A couple of weeks ago a large box arrived at my house and generated a great deal of excitement with the boys; it was new set of Meccano.

21^st century Meccano has some similarities with that of my childhood, in that it is still a system of coloured plastic pieces held together by plastic nuts and bolts; however the variety of pieces and the sophistication of the models that can be built has moved on significantly.

We were trialling the new Tipper Truck set; a large box with many pieces and instructions to build 5 different models. We chose the tipper truck to start. The instructions are detailed and easy to follow, but are quite complex. My son is just 6 and would not have been able to complete by himself, however he and his younger brother (4 ¾) enjoyed collecting the pieces and helping to bolt it all together. The Meccano has a built in ‘helping hand’ which allows the bolt to be held still whilst little fingers tighten the screw with either the spanner or the screwdriver. 

I am a big fan of construction toys and kits for young children – I think they really help develop fine motor control skills and instruction following. This kit is recommended for 5 – 8 year olds, and I do think that the lower age bracket is optimistic – and it is necessary to help a child of that age if they wanted to build a set model, but I also see this as a positive point as I like things that challenge.  But best of all it was a great excuse for me to have some fun building something with the boys, and of course there are limitless possibilities they can build of their own creation.

The end result models are robust and practical, and unlike many construction based kits, can withstand some heavy duty play without falling apart as we tested to the full! So – would I recommend this? Yes definitely.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Every business has to sell – whether it is themselves, their products or their services….and this is where some people really struggle. It is one of the hardest parts of being in business, but to be successful you have to be proactive in this area and learn the skills of being a good sales person. Originally written a few years ago and recently updated Successful Sales: Get Brilliant Results Fast by Pauline Rowson is a great book to read. If you want a book to be clear, direct and motivate you to action – this is it.

The book is clearly laid out, and as with all good ‘how to…’ books starts right at the beginning by looking in depth at the various elements of planning for a sale. Without understanding the process that buyers go through, or without having sufficient market knowledge you will be wasting vital time and effort.

The main section devotes 3 sections to The Sales Approach, but also chapters on key skills of Body Language, Listening Skills, Handling Objections, Closing the sale and Selling to different personalities. Pauline is very good at demonstrating that good sales is not ‘natural ability’ or ‘gift of the gab’ but a question of learning the keys skills in the selling process, being prepared and practising.

The book finishes with a great Part 3, which has a brief summary of all the chapters which is a great refresher and reference point. There is also a chapter on Troubleshooting which covers some of the main FAQ regarding common selling problems, and finally a checklist section.

 Whether you are just starting out in business, or have been doing it for a few years this is a great book to refer to help boost your sales knowledge and technique. It is easy to read and is packed with action points, Top Tips and examples to illustrate all the key points.

Pauline Rowson has many other titles available as audio and eBooks at www.rowmark.co.uk  or to find out more about her, and her successful crime writing career visit her blog at www.paulinerowson.com

Popularity: 4% [?]

What is a Mum Ultrapreneur? After reading this book, I know that she’s someone who wants an alternative to the corporate life. To embrace the strength, determination and creativity that mothers have always had and build a business with it. Inspiring, eh?

The book takes an original approach by being made up of several sections that you can use in any way that works for you. The sections include interviews with mumpreneurs, an action plan to help you get your own business idea and Gemma’s story, a fictional account of a mum who starts her own business.

The acronym ‘SPARKLES’ is used to explain the qualities you need as a mumpreneur. ‘SPARKLES’ is the theme that weaves the different sections of the book together. (But I’d be giving too much away if I revealed what the letters stand for!)

The interviews with mumpreneurs are excellent. They show these Mum Ultrapreneurs are ordinary mums who went out there and just did it. That the difference between thinking about starting a business and being a successful business mum is really just about taking action.

Gemma’s story didn’t really click with me – I think I’d have preferred a more straightforward, non-fiction explanation of the SPARKLES concept. Having said that, parts of her story were very similar to my own, especially having bursts of creativity when I was pregnant and totally shattered, then collapsing and achieving very little once the baby was born. Plus, I admire the authors for using this original way of getting their message across.

This book is good for inspiration and for boosting your self-belief. With many mums saying that they would start a business if only they knew how*, it’s great that there’s a book out there that tackles the vital first step in the process.  However, Mum Ultrapreneur doesn’t cover the nuts and bolts of starting a business (and doesn’t claim to), so I’d suggest reading it alongside Antonia Chitty’s ‘The Mumpreneur Guide’ or Anita Naik’s ‘Kitchen Table Tycoon’.

Reviewed by Helen Lindop, founder of www.businessplusbaby.com

*Source: http://www.familyfriendlyworking.co.uk/2010/03/24/power-woman-or-caring-mother/

Popularity: 6% [?]

Networking is a hot topic in business and I think that the 2 key parts to successful networking are firstly finding the right group, and secondly being effective in building your network relationships. Making Connections: How to network effectively to build better business relationships by Gail Gibson is a pocket size guide which takes you through all the key aspects of successfully building up your network relationships, and ensuring that you get the maximum benefits for your business.

‘Networking is a process, not to be strictly followed like a recipe; however, being prepared is a key’.  The first few chapters talk about the key practical approaches to networking; how to present yourself, how to establish yourself as an expert within a group, how to built trust with others and how that then translates in to referrals.

As the book progresses it moves from establishing yourself  to what you as a business person gain from the relationships you make; ’This support circle promotes improved productivity and effectiveness for you to take your business forward’.   The final 3 chapters Inspiration, Nurture and Growth focus more on what those relationships you have established can contribute to your personal and business growth. All business owners have times when they are not sure which direction to go, or want to ‘try out’ an idea with someone they trust will give a sensible and reasoned feedback and this is the other main benefit of successful networking.  As with all aspects of networking the reverse is also true; you more you give, the more you get back.

A great mini guide packed with useful and direct advice. It is small and concise, and can be kept in a pocket or bag and referred back to time and again.

Popularity: 5% [?]

A month ago, if you had asked me what my dream job would be, I would probably have replied with something flippant like Johnny Depp’s personal secretary or a chocolate taste tester. Well, my friends, be careful what you wish for, because sometimes dreams do come true!

Thanks to the magic of Twitter and the British Mummy Blogger community I heard that Green and Blacks were looking for blogging taste testers. Without hesitation I volunteered my services and several weeks later, quite unannounced, a large jiffy bag arrived in the post, bursting at the seams with scrumptious chocolate! Since then I have been on a culinary chocolate journey, using my Green & Blacks bars to nibble, suck, scoff, melt and bake.

My surprise parcel contained 11 bars of chocolate – 8 to eat, and 3 bars of cooking chocolate. First off I ate the ‘flavoured’ bars – Butterscotch, Cherry and Almond.  Now I am a firm fan of Milk Chocolate so found both the Butterscotch and the Almond bars quite divine – both creamy and sweet with the perfect amount of burnt toffee flavour crunch in the Butterscotch and whole almonds in the other. Last up I tried the Cherry bar. I normally find dark chocolate too bitter for my taste, but the bittersweet tang of the whole cherry pieces made this bar really enjoyable, and not harsh in the way I normally find dark chocolate – in fact it’s definitely a combination I could get used to!

Onto the plain bars – Milk, Cream Milk, White, Dark 70% and Dark 85%. Now I could have just eaten these – no problem – but I thought I’d be a bit more creative and use some to bake with (although I’m ashamed to say the Cream Milk did disappear in a single sitting!). The Dark 70% was lovingly turned into Valentines Molten Chocolate Pots (see right) by being melted down and mixed with butter, ground almonds, 1 egg, 1 yolk, caster sugar and Baileys liqueur. Once melted the 70% Dark was like pure, black silk and the resulting pudding was incredibly rich but not in a sickly sweet way. Needless to say, my ‘Valentine’ was very impressed!

The Dark 85% was both eaten and baked. I felt I had to try the 85% because I don’t think I have ever eaten chocolate with that high cocoa content before. However the 85% Dark is ’softened with Madagascen Vanilla’ which you could really taste and did take any bitter edge away from the chocolate. The rest of the bar, along with a bar of G&B cooking chocolate, was melted down and turned into Best Ever Brownies (see left). When I make Brownies I normally use cocoa powder so I needed a recipe that used real chocolate  – and boy could I tell the difference! When I got them out of the oven I was too impatient to wait for them to cool down completely so cut them up while they were still warm. The insides of the Brownies were still gooey but they cooled to an absolutely perfect velvety chocolate consistency which was met with lots of appreciative “ooohs” and “aahs” when I took them along to one of our Mum’s The Boss meetings for some of our members to sample. And to make them even better they also contained chunks of the Milk Chocolate and White Chocolate bars for good measure – chocolate cake heaven personified!!

Which just leaves me with 2 bars of cooking chocolate left. One of these is earmarked to make some chocolate cornflake cakes with the girls and the other will be used to make our signature cake at meetings, and the most popular search phrase that leads people to our blog – Chocolate Fridge Cake!

When I excitedly posted on Facebook that I would be taste testing for Green and Blacks one of my friends replied “What’s to review? It’s chocolate. ‘Nuff said!”  Turns out though, that there’s more to this chocolate lark than meets the eye - and I’m more than willing to learn!

Popularity: 25% [?]

“It’s all about Attitude” states the back cover boldly of Making it – Women entrepreneurs reveal the secrets of their success. This book has been written to examine why and how some women have managed to create very successful businesses, whilst juggling their family and home lives, but also, more importantly how you can join them in being a success too.

Attitude is the acronym that has been used for the chapter titles, Accentuate the Positive, Total belief, Trust, Innovate, To aim high, Unstoppable, Determined and Enthusiasm, and is very much the dominant theme running throughout the book. It is all about how YOU are in control, and YOUR attitude can determine whether or not your business is a success or a failure. If you are lacking motivation, or feeling a lack of focus or direction then this is certainly a good book to pick up.

 Each chapter is made up of Mentoring moments, Entrepreneurs experience and an in-depth section where the authors meet and discuss business with a range of successful businesswomen.  Whilst that in itself is interesting, it is really the last section of each chapter which is most useful. It is all very well reading about successful people, but that can leave you feeling even more flat and confused about what to do next. The final part of each chapter takes what has been achieved  and breaks it down into a few simple bullet points and demonstrates you how you too can model that success. You then have to complete an ‘attitude exercise’ to see where you score, and finally you are given 3 steps to help improve your performance in this area.

This book has been co-written by Lou Gimson and Allison Mitchell. Alison is an inspirational coach and trainer and an NLP Practitioner. Lou is an experienced and accredited business trainer and coach and is a founder member of the charity foundation ‘Dream Buddies’ which helps individuals realise their potential. They have a wealth of experience which they have bought to this book and offer both professional advice and personal insights.

Popularity: 6% [?]

As the list of business books we receive, read and review grows, what I am always keen to find is something a little bit different or something written from an original angle.

The main focus of this book – Secrets of Successful Women Entrepreneurs: How Ten Leading Business Women Turned a Good Idea into a Fortune - is, of course, the 10 successful female entrepreneurs in the title. However the book does not use a traditional ‘biographical’ approach to their stories. Sue has set out ‘Seven Steps to Success’ which start with ‘The defining Moment’ and finishes with ‘Maintain fitness and focus’ and ‘Reach your goal – what next?’.

The reason for this Sue explains in the introduction;

These steps focus more upon the softer issues related to motivation and mindset ………..There are already many good business books which offer advice on how to write a business plan or create a marketing strategy – but not many that actually model people making a difference

By applying the same set of criteria to each woman’s business journey you get a consistency which allows for comparisons and a contrast of approaches and key situations in a range of businesses. Not surprisingly there are some consistencies throughout the different women; how hard work it is, the sacrifice of personal time, the need to persevere in all circumstance, and the central role of money, and in particular cash flow in business.

Each woman gives some tips at the end of their chapter, and these are usually very reflective of their own personal journey and key things they have learnt along the way. The final chapter takes you through the Seven steps, and how to apply them to your own business.

An interesting book, and despite being relatively short, an informative one which does not leave you feeling inadequate by virtue of being ‘in awe’ of what these women have achieved, just a little wiser as to how they got there.

Popularity: 5% [?]

In August this year Mum’s The Boss member Helen Lindop, owner of Business Plus Baby, gave birth to her second baby. Helen was at our very first networking meeting in September 2008 and we lived her second pregnancy with her, watching her bump grow monthly at each meeting!

To celebrate the birth of our first “Mum’s the Boss baby” we ordered a personalised print from business mum & artist Carla Daly.  The print is from one of Carla’s original designs and contained a whole host of personalised information, including the name of baby, mum, dad and his sister, as well as the time he was born, the name of the hospital he was born at, and his weight. But the whole thing is done in a wonderfully quirky way which is perfect if you aren’t a fan of the more traditional pastel shades and teddies.

Carla specialises in art for your baby’s nursery or your child’s bedroom, and her main theme is jungle animals, with the odd octopus or farm animal thrown in for good measure! The colours used are bold and vibrant and the pictures have lots of detail so children will delight in discovering new elements within them all the time. Carla also produces alphabet wall stickers, growth charts, personalised door signs and maps, all of which would brighten up any childs room and make an unusual and thoughtful gift.

For a full range of Carla’s work visit her websites www.carladaly.com or www.carladaly.co.uk

Popularity: 12% [?]

If the title didn’t grab your attention then the bright pink & orange colour scheme on the cover certainly would!  Every mum I know would love to be given an extra hour in the day – either for all the things they haven’t done – or just for themselves. This book just may have the answer…..

One of my first thoughts was – if I was manic how would I find time to read this book?  Well the answer comes in the Introduction where that very point is addressed; Allison offers several suggestions, including a technique to speed up your reading.  The book has been organised to be read in a variety of ways, including sequentially with ‘homework tasks’, however it is also possible to dip in and out of the specific chapters that take you fancy.

So what qualifies Allison to write this? The answer is a long one, but top of the list comes mother of 3 and successful businesswoman (founder of a parent coaching company www.mumsanddads.biz), as well as a masters degree and an NLP (neuro linguistic programming) Master Practitioner. 

Despite this frightening sounding array Allison writes in a very friendly, down to earth and direct way. Every chapter starts with ‘An ode to……….  my favourite one being ‘An Ode to Plans’ which begins;

I’ve got snot on my skirt, and sick on my shirt,
Everything’s covered in kiddie dessert,

….something only a mother could write and understand! In addition to these hilarious poems are a series of ‘Tips’ and quotes from both  Mum’s  and Kids which add some lightness.

However, as well as the humour there is a real message and methodology here about gaining control of your life again. At the core of that is valuing your time, evaluating where you currently are and reigniting your dreams, which most mums lose in the life after children. Allison guides you through using some ‘tools’ including the ‘Eye of Time’ (very similar to the Wheel of Life model)  which is used to focus on 8 specific aspects of your life, and The Shopping Basket of Life which helps you to prioritise tasks.

This book is great for making you find time to identify old habits that have led you to the current chaos and taking you gently but firmly by the hand and guiding you back to a more orderly and calm way of life. Any book that has a Wine bottle Theory of Time Management and a weekly task that involves buying and eating a box of chocolates can’t be bad – just don’t forget all the other bits!

Popularity: 7% [?]