family business

11 October 2015

I'm starting to get in to the autumnal swing of things lately. Summer seemed to have disappeared into a thick fog of morning sickness, so I struggle to remember anything we did! 
Work has to go on though as we do need to earn our crust whatever else is going on in our lives...and sometimes that can mean working late ours with a toddler in tow. Luckily she has adapted to our lives pretty well, and enjoys her trips to London and eating take-away curry in the shop when we're working. Perhaps its because she has known no different? 
She seems to be understanding what we do for a living, it involves sparkly jewellery and people come into our shop and buy them...thats as much as she 'gets' and that pretty much sums it up! 
I think it is REALLY important that children are taught about being self-employed or starting their own enterprises as young as possible. I don't remember ever being taught this at school, yet it is vital that some children will grow up to work for themselves and possibly employ others too. I'm already thinking of little projects to inspire our littlun where she can raise money herself and feel the confidence that it can give her for when she is older. 
Anyways, back to the subject ; )  Our tot loves to 'help' in the shop and copy what me and my mister do. It usually takes three times longer this way, but I see it as an investment!






I ended up with a lot of necklaces to untangle! But I try not to laugh (too much!) because she gets upset because she wanted to help : (


She really likes trying on the jewellery, and the way she handles it so delicately, she seems to know that it is very expensive! She calls it 'treasure'.


These are all our new collection, with a few older ones mixed in. As you can probably tell, it's a bit woodlandy inspired. Those mushroom are made of paper, amazing! the only real things are the logs, of which about thirty woodlice feel out when I went to put it in the window!
I have used real moss and leaves and branches in previous displays, but found that it really didn't look very good after about one week. I love those artificial chestnut branches, they look so natural I reckon.









As the Isle of Wight slowly sinks into hibernation mode, we have been reducing our shop days...I think we will be open just weekends during winter until about Easter time. Then we will have to figure out how to organise work with TWO nippers to deal with ; )

11 comments

  1. Anonymous11.10.15

    That's so nice she can be involved in your daily work life. Your shop is beautiful! When I was about 10 or 11 I set up a pet minding business that I ran for a few years - minding all the neighbourhood pets when the owners were on holiday. It taught me a lot! (I dunno where I got the idea of starting a business though - both my parents are professors!) :)

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  2. Beautiful. Just love the beauty and simplicity of your style and blog, whatever the topic.

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  3. Can I ask where you bought the mushrooms and bits from? We are hoping to do an autumn display in our shop and that looks amazing. Very timely post really, we are on school holidays right now and my usual carer (I am a single parent of a 6 year old), has got herself a new job starting next Monday, the second week of the school holidays. All I could think of was Oscar being bored with me in the shop. I opened a fabric and yarn shop earlier this year (when my husband walked out on us), in Scotland. I guess I never really though of the aspect you discussed here, of teaching him about self employment. I guess he could learn a lot about 'real' life and responsibilities if I let him actually help. Thank you, Val xxx

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  4. Lovely autumny display for your beautiful collection.
    Pehr seems to be taking it all in with total dedication!

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  5. I was luck enough to go to a school which offered the Young Enterprise scheme as an extra-curricular option. It was a great opportunity to learn, experiment and gain valuable experiences about setting up your own business and entrepreneurship!
    www.young-enterprise.org.uk

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    1. That's great! But why was is it extra curricular? When learning about careers within companies and job interviews is part of national curricular. it's obvious the uk needs the next generation to produce more jobs, not fill jobs that there arent lenough of. I reckon it's daft! 😅

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  6. This is just the sweetest post - I love how you talk about growing female entrepreneurs and seeing snippets of your autumnal displays. Those mushrooms are amazing!

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  7. Beautiful window displays in a lovely shop! So fun that Pehr gets to help and learn along the way. Participating in her parents' work will go a long way in preparing her for her adult life, I think. Introducing it at such a young age will make it all seem natural - hard work, rewards and time off!

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  8. Anonymous13.10.15

    I can't agree more about learning about the possibility of working for yourself and starting up your own venture. My boys are sixteen and eighteen and it seems as if their whole education has been about passing exams in order to get a good job that will pay the bills. Nothing about the joy of learning and doing something that you love with passion. Fortunately they are both musicians and fully intend to continue doing what they love - I have always told them to follow their heart and to do what they love and everything else will work out. And at the age of forty five I think I am finally finding what I love to do - working for myself, and whilst it is not always easy it feels honest and right and true. I think earning a living from making things that you love is such a joy. I'll stop rambling now!

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  9. What a beautiful shop. Best of luck with it and congratulations re your baby news. What a lucky baby to be born into your talented and lovely family. All the best Ruth in Dublin.

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  10. I admire so much the things you do! I know that your life is not perfect, but I think there are lots of perfect moments! :)

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