3-2-1 and cue...!

Well hoooooorah.
The shop is now officially open.  Come on in - have a coffee!  Oh sorry, no, the urn's not heated up yet - why not buy something while you wait?  Lovely dolly sling?  Double pen wallet?  Cafe Set?
Tea-cosy you say?  Patience people, patience!  That's the next collection, but believe me, we're full steam ahead with that one.  Our starting collection is the Kids Collection, and so our 6 gorgeous products are up there and available to purchase.  Go ahead, don't be shy!

This theatre of operations has been a huge challenge, and although the paint ain't yet dry on the background scenery, we've got to take to the stage some time.  As I said to a friend yesterday - well, the curtain has been raised but some of the performers are still running around in their pants with only one eyebrow painted on.  I then got fully carried away with the whole performance analogy and was talking about cues and stagefright and lighting rigs.  To be fair, kind of forgot what I was talking about.
Me?  Tangent?  Off on one?  Surprise you?!  No, didn't think so.

Anyway, I had a thread going on here, which was what a challenge setting up this business has been.  Now let's not be over-romantic about this - sometimes a so-called 'challenge' ain't nothin but a big ole pain in the, to put it plainly, bum.  And at other times, even though you are completely treading water and don't really know what you're doing, you relish the challenge with gusto.  If one can relish with gusto; a bizarre phrase if ever I coined one.  I could EAT some relish with gusto, because one side effect of all this 'ere thinkin' I've been having to do is that I'm ravenous all the time.  But no matter - don't you be worrying about me turning into a little fatling, because I'm also freezing my wotsits off in this office.  It ain't warm in here, and with this lovely weather we're having it ain't warm out there either.
So, to summarise this paragraph - thread, bums, relish, fatness, cold weather, ok?

A...n...y...w...a...y.....I was having an online chat with one of my many lovely bloggy friends about children.  And blogs.  And business.  And sleep problems.  (The children's that is, not ours.  If for us parents such a thing as a night without the sound of little feet padding across the carpet, accompanied by a load of old cobblers about drinks or wees or monsters ever does occur, then we're talking about sleeping like logs, babies (how delightfully ironic), the dead...)
At the time of the online chat my bloggy friend was sat outside her children's rooms on guard duty in case her littlest one attempted to escape; and I had just had the pleasure of the Anti-Sleep Society President - you know her better as Hetty, pushing me quite far along my tether at bedtime.

And I made the point that no matter how tricky launching a website has been; no matter how much eye rolling my poor web developer must have been doing at my undoubtedly basic queries, no matter my head-banging over the complexities of income tax or insurance issues, or my total ignorance of html, not to mention disastrous product prototypes, sketchy product sketches, poor photography and broken sewing machines - none of it has come close to being as challenging or exasperating as the myriad challenges one's small children daily bamboozle one with.  They are absolute Masters of the Bamboozle.  Cutters to the Chase.  Takers of No Prisoners.
So, I say this to you - if we can run a household and bring up children, then starting up a business is easy peasy lemon squeezy, no?

Hester, 3, yesterday said to me, when I asked her what she thought of my website - "I don't like fabric things Mummy.  I think they're boring."
"Oh I see.  Thanks for that then.  What do you like?" I enquired.
"Shiny things."
Hm.  Well, you and every other three narf year old, I'm guessing.

Isla, 4, yesterday said to me
"Mummy can you play this shopping game with me?"
"No, I just need to, um, hang on, oh no, I've lost my train of thought, I need to just copy and paste..."
"What are you copying Mummy?  What is that?  What does paste mean?  Is that my dolly sling on there?  Can I sit on your lap?  What's that fabric thing there Mummy?"
"It's a...a...oh no, I've closed the tab, where is it..."
"What are you doing Mummy?"
"I'm trying to build a Ning network, Isla"
"Well." she said. "When you've finished building your Ning network can you ask Hetty to take the dice out of her mouth please?"