Cambridge Mummy on… baking muffins

Posted on March 24, 2012 by cambridgemummy

Check me out – mother of the year alert. I have baked muffins with my boys this afternoon.

Here’s the kit before I started:

Liz Weston is a good mum.She's making muffins *with* her boys...

How much money do you think I spent in John Lewis for today's project? ;)

And here’s the final result – yes, they are star shaped pineapple, raisin, carrot and chocolate chip muffins :)

[ahem.bum.etc. can't get the image to load. will come back to this....]

But here’s what baking muffins actually means – going to John Lewis, purchasing silicone cake cakes in the shape of a star and some brightly coloured circle silicone cases. Doing all the prep for the baking muffins project myself. Weighing it all out myself. Putting it all together and then spooning it out under instruction from E and W. Then they contribute on a practical level – they put a chocolate chip on the top of each muffin. I then clean it all up whilst they go and play. And to add final insult to injury, W refuses to try one and E has one bite, rejects it and says “but I did have a go mummy and like you say, it’s good to try things, isn’t it?”

I figured that this would be a good thing to share on my blog, because I’m sure that there’s plenty of other mums out there who start with good intentions of doing lovely projects with their children that then turn into something that’s not quite the picturesque thing you’d thought of…

It’s not just me this happens to, is it?

Cambridge Mummy on Mummy’s Day

Posted on March 18, 2012 by cambridgemummy

Today is a day for Mummies. I’ve had quite a nice day really. Got to go back to bed, after getting up at 7am with littlest. But it was interspersed with littlest and biggest coming to show me the bookmarks they were making me for Mummy’s day. I think it was a *subtle* strategy on Lovely Bloke’s part… Anyway, whatever today has or hasn’t been, is what it is. It’s perfect. Because our boys are here. I’m going to the funeral of biggest’s friend tomorrow. He wasn’t even quite 5 years old yet. So it’s a big thing. He literally went to sleep one night and didn’t wake up the next day. I won’t go into it any more than that, as this is my blog, not E’s and although he’s only 5, I don’t think it’s fair somehow to write about this. Funny, as I’m happy to share pretty much anything else.

So today, even if you’ve had a box of chocolates where you can’t eat 8 of the 11 in them, like me, please try to appreciate your family and what you have. I don’t know any way to write it that’s not patronising, but wanted to put it out there. I’ll be finishing today with a couple of loads of washing, to help Lovely Bloke who is snowed under at the moment and getting an early night so I can be uber productive tomorrow morning….

Cambridge Mummy on… the irony of the last post and this post…

Posted on March 15, 2012 by cambridgemummy

I was so chuffed to get listed by Sainsbury’s and now I’m all behind with my good intentions for blogging more because I’m in San Francisco. It’s nuts but in a brilliant way – I’m working really hard for work. My brain is fried and fired up all at the same time. I’m inspired and at the same time, reassured that my instinct – my learning and my thoughts for my business for the future are all on track. But of course there’s still so much to do.

The reason I’m writing this blog post is that I want to document how thrilled I am to have met a really smart, savvy and strong group of women this last week. I don’t know what I expected of them. I’m a little younger than them (can’t say how much or I will be in trouble) but it needs noting because I wonder if it’s their additional life experience that gives them their confidence, their attitude to the businesses they run. Maybe they’ve evolved into it. As a woman in business I find it difficult to have confrontation because I don’t want to come across as being upset or upsetting anyone. But you can’t make everyone happy, all of the time. So today, when someone sent me an email, I used the things I’ve learnt this week, replying factually. And being strong in my sense of self belief, of purpose.

Here’s one photo of the fabulous women I’ve met this week :)

I really hope that when I get home I can apply this positively to my family life and to supporting Lovely Bloke who deserves all the support I can give him whilst he works hard to keep us all on track, in the right place at the right time and in clean clothes, as well as feeding us, teaching E numbers and doing writing practise, all the clubs and so much more that I’m not really aware of.

I sometimes feel that I blog schizophrenically, you know? Because I’m either on top of the world, or down in the dumps that I’m not able to be 100% wonder-woman, night and day. But this trip, even though it’s been for work, has given me a whole new sense of who I am in my world, what I want my world to be and how I can make it happen for myself and my family. Who I love more than I knew it was possible to. Who I can’t wait to see in 48 hours time x

Cambridge Mummy on… Being listed by Sainsbury’s !!!!

Posted on March 9, 2012 by cambridgemummy

So, I could pretend to be all calm and collected. But I’m so not. Just got an email from Sainsbury’s to say that I’d been picked for their Familypreneur list of bloggers to check out. And I was listed second, only to Helen Lindop – a good friend in business, who I sadly don’t know well enough socially because we are both always working ourselves silly to get work done in our businesses! Hopefully we’ll find projects to team up on in the future, so I couldn’t be more pleased that Business plus Baby is listed first :))

So, if you’ve found me through Sainsbury’s, or my unashamed promotion of our coming second in this list – HELLO and welcome. I’m just getting it all sorted out still on here, because we are working so hard for clients and this isn’t a big promotional thing for me. If you want to know about the businesses I’ve founded and own, check out my about Liz Weston page . If not, it’s just lovely that you’ve found me.

Because I’m so chuffed with this, please leave a comment with your name and what you wanted to be when you became a “grown up” below and I’ll do a random draw to send someone lots of smellies in the post as a prize. Figured it would be nice to share the love on this Freezing Friday afternoon!!

PS. Competition question picked because I wanted to be a HGV driver when I “grew up” but apparently that wasn’t a proper job, so I had to say I wanted to be an RE teacher. Ahem. Which one do you think sounds more like *me* :)