Is it really 5 weeks till Christmas

Christmas really has come early for me this year I normally ignore xmas till december, but designing christmas card since september, and personalising designs over the last week has made me panic. I have no idea what to buy for my 3 kids. I am lucky as they do not have long lists of things they want, but just a small list would be helpful!

I am going to browse the internet for original goodies, so if I find an wonderful presents I will list them here.

My other dilemma is which christmas card to choose for mine this year, it will probably have to be a trifold christmas card as they are so original and the ones I have printed so far have been just divine.

Remember 15% off till 20th November on all xmas cards, just click on www.cococards.co.uk.

Bye for now

Helen

New beginnings

I am hoping to revamp my website over the next few months, a friend is coming over to stay next weekend who is a computer whizz kid, I have so many new ideas, and I have enlisted the help of Camille Wesser to photograph my cards she is an excellent photographer. www.camillewesser.co.uk.

Allie Pottinger is drawing some christmassy things as we speak and has just painted some dragonflies, so new cards coming very soon

On French life, well all 3 kids started school last week, the little one cries when she goes in but it gets better every day, well I hope, as it is heartbreaking as every mother knows. My oldest is excelling, his teacher is amazed by his ability to learn, he even stood up in front of his class and recited a French poem the other day. My middle one is enjoying her class and her new teacher, it is pretty easy for her as in France they do not start school until their 6th year, so she is maternelle for another year, which is the french equivalent of pre school. So she has time to learn french before she starts 'real' school.

I have to say that yep sometimes it is hard and learning french for me is hard, missing my family and friends is hard but I would still recommend it to anyone. Cheap flights to the UK do help, we went to the UK end of August and my parents are coming over here very soon, cant wait to show them our new life.

Sheer luxe awards finalist

Sheer Luxe's 1st Annual Online Shopping awards - I am nominated, not sure if it means much but would be nice to win, up against some big companies.

Voting for the winners lasts until September 20^th, and all winners will be included on a page of editorial in our upcoming magazine (running with subscriptions of InStyle, Grazia, Harper’s Bazaar, and The Times’ Style and The Telegraph’s Stella magazines).

If you have a minute please vote for me using link below

Sheerluxe shopping awards - stationery

Eh what did you say?

So learning new words every day, Birth announcements are called faire part naissance in France, El anuncio del nacimiento in Spanish, and geboortekaartjes in Dutch. Hopefully I will be designing some baptême invitations very very soon.

Some beautiful quotes

These 2 quotes I feel are so important in my life right now:

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are endless." Mother Theresa

There are always flowers for those who want to see them." Henri Matisse

So we have arrived

We arrived in France on Thursday after a tortuous journey, 3 ½ hours in traffic jams around Paris, but we got to our friends’ house at midnight and woke up to a rainy day in France, but they live on a huge farm, so we woke up to strawberries from their garden and eggs from their chickens and of course fresh baguettes.

Then on to our new house which is so French, no carpets obviously, shutters, silk wallpaper, no shower and 2 bidets!!!

The kids went on a tour of their new school on Friday and like it up till now, there are 6 English kids there already – all girls though – sorry Jacob.

Everything is so much more expensive over here, a kitchen bin is 40 Euros – ahhhhh.

I think I am going to love it here, the village is so lovely, small but has everything a French person needs, but maybe not an English person, I already have a long list of things to buy in the UK.

Content and happy but very tired, I think this is the start of something great, we have always wanted our children to be bilingual and experience life to the full and we have just made the first big step, how good does that feel.

We will have broadband tomorrow, so CocoCards as normal from tomorrow morning. Just with a french twist.

I forgot to mention in my last post, the most amazing supportive loving people in my life other than my kids and Jeremy of course, my parents. They have been so wonderful over the past few months and are such fantastic grandparents. This post is really for you, we love you and will miss you with all our hearts, that is the only down side of moving to France the fact that we will be so far away from you, as your grandchildren and I love you dearly.

Exciting new products

I have fallen in love with these gifts and cant wait to show them to everyone, they are brand new to the UK and europe, they will be launched this October.

I hope you like them, you will be able to buy them on my site very very soon.

My other blog which I actually update with Sue's help

As I now run Happy Mondays networking with Sue we have to write a blog as it is a networking group, so please take a look at http://happymondaysnetworkinggroup.blogspot.com/.

I love the group, I have met so many interesting women and mums in business are always so open and willing to help each other, the meetings have been very successful up to now.

Weight loss at last

I had to post about my weight loss. I have 3 kids 6, 4 and 2 and basically have been overweight since the birth of no.1. I have tried to lose weight, but failed miserably. So what happened in July to make me actually really tackle the weight issue at last, instead of hiding from it. I had so much to lose I just could not face it. The answer is I am not really sure, but I wish I knew, as I would bottle it and give it to all those people who feel like I did, thinking about how fat you are 10-20 x a day, your confidence dwindling with every extra ounce, hoping your kids wont notice that you are fat.

I have now lost 2 stone, one dress size down, and go to the gym 4 x a week and feel tremendous, my wardrobe is now a bit more exciting, not quite there yet as still have 3 stone to lose, but so much more choice.

I just hope I can keep on track and lose the other 3 stone and my wobbly arms as my 6 year old kindly told me yesterday, not as wobbly as grandmas but still very wobbly!!!

A busy week

Happy Mondays is taking shape gradually, all very exciting. We are going to have organise a showcase evening for local businesses, have lots of local experts giving informal chats on SEO. marketing, how they set up their business etc and an xmas do.

I think Sue and I are going to be very very busy, but it will be worth it.

On a more personal point, at last I am losing weight, I could not blame Jemima anymore for my huge bodyshape, she is 2 now! So joined the tytherington club and absolutely love it, even if my pulse while exercising is through the roof. I have lost a stone so far - yipppeee.

I am also now exhibiting at the Baby Show Earls Court, in the baby boutique section, I can't wait, we are going to sell some new exciting products from Canada. I hope I get as good a response from this show as the excel show.

Off to the Dordogne next week for a well earned rest, well sort of rest as I will be taking my mac of course, got my mum and friends organising CocoCards from the UK end. Thats the problem with your own business never without it (quite like that actually).

Oh and Happy Mondays is now on twitter - HappyMondaysUK

Back soon

Squidoo - am I the last to hear about it!!

I have just joined squidoo and I am trying to create a few lenses, while doing so found this great lens on childrens birthday present ideas for 1-2 year olds, have a look: http://www.squidoo.com/1st_birthday#module10916733

Once I have squidoo cracked might look at digg this, bebo etc!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New printers - P81

I have changed my printers and I am now working with the lovely Nicky from P81 print in Macclesfield, the printers are great, Nicky is great.

We have already expanded the range to include canvas prints, and I will be adding the option of printing all my cards onto canvas.

New ideas are baby books, photo albums, bookmarks - all coming very soon.

Also the print quality is so much better, the photos look just great, very clear and crisp.

A new mums website called mumsjustlove.com

I was searching the web as I do very frequently the other day and found this wonderful website, funnily enough they had just found my website and featured my mummy cards.

So what do they do - Mumsjustlove find the best products, retailers and offers online for mums and their little ones. everything promoted on mumsjustlove is hand-picked by their editorial team, no listings are paid for which means they are really showcasing the best! their product directory features the best products from literally 100's of retailers and CoCoCards is one of them!

You can link to the article and the website here

http://www.mumsjustlove.com/images/recommended3.jpg  -recommendation

http://mumsjustlove.com/talk/?p=304  - article

Busy busy busy

I am getting busier all the time now, my hubbie made me do an excel chart to show my sales and it is a steep upward curve, so that is great news, I hope it keeps on improving.

I keep getting lots of fantastic feedback which is always lovely and puts a big smile on my face. I have posted some on my testimonial page.

I have designed a couple of wedding invites lately, thought I might dabble in this area, thinking about doing a wedding show to see what the reaction to my cards is, as I know there is a lot of competition. Will put these on my website soon.

It was my sons birthday party last weekend so we did a treasure hunt, luckily it was fantastic weather so 12 lively boys had a great time outside, while mums sipped champers indoors (well sparkly plonk actually!).

I loved making his pirate invitations and treasure hunt clues, that is the bonus of doing this job you are able to treat your children to really special stationery, he just loves his thank you cards, we just need to write them now!.

I'm pregnant magazine - Cococards is listed under the webwise section

I am in the Spring edition of I'm pregnant magazine page 126, I am very very happy about this, they took a shot of my home page and reviewed the website.

The only negative with the article,  is when I tell people I am in I'm pregnant magazine, all they hear is I'm pregnant and think I am having a fourth - do they think I'm crazy, well maybe!!!

Happy New Year

A happy new year to all from CocoCards, I hope this year will be very exciting for CocoCards even when we are surrounded by doom and gloom - maybe beautiful stationery can help us through it!

My exciting plans are to expand my selection of cards and designers, moving into civil ceremonies and weddings and I will be exhibiting at the biggest baby show in the UK at the end of February, they expect 29000 visitors over 3 days, daunting but a fantastic challenge.

I will be adding more birthday party invitations and thank you cards over the next few weeks, I hope you like them.

It is my oldest daughters birthday party this weekend so I am very busy buying jewels, face paints, balloons and making my own party bags with personalised tags and matching thank you cards.

On the subject of thank you cards, my children loved (well OK loved a bit!) writing their cards this year as they had their own personalised thank you cards which made them very special. I will be adding more designs to this section of my website as I think it is lovely for children to have their own stationery.

Speak soon

Helen

Is it really 5 weeks till Christmas

Christmas really has come early for me this year I normally ignore xmas till december, but designing christmas card since september, and personalising designs over the last week has made me panic. I have no idea what to buy for my 3 kids. I am lucky as they do not have long lists of things they want, but just a small list would be helpful!

I am going to browse the internet for original goodies, so if I find an wonderful presents I will list them here.

My other dilemma is which christmas card to choose for mine this year, it will probably have to be a trifold christmas card as they are so original and the ones I have printed so far have been just divine.

Remember 15% off till 20th November on all xmas cards, just click on www.cococards.co.uk.

Bye for now

Helen

Christmas fairs

About to do my first christmas fairs in a couple of weeks and I am going to show my christmas card collection, personalised christmas tags, thank you cards, kids jewellery (pictures to follow) - very exciting, my friend is a jewellery designer and we have made the most beautiful jewellery with scrabble tiles, pearls and silver name beads.

Hello

Hi there, this is my first ever blog, so all very exciting.

I will use this blog to update you on new trends in stationery, ideas and any tips I think are worth sharing.

As soon as my children are back in school and pre school I will start sharing.