Mummy Moo's Blog

I was lucky enough to be sent complimentary tickets for the Crafts for Chritsmas Exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham last week.

I've never been to anything like this before so it was a bit of an eye opener.  My book "Crafting a successful small business" (working title) will be out early 2012 and this type of event is going to be top of my list of places to be next year promoting the book.  So my trip was very much from a market research point of view.

Here are a few snaps of me trying out some paper crafts - origarmi and card making - 

So what did I think .... 

• there are an ENORMOUS amount of magazine publications on the market for craft hobbies!!!!  
• there is an incredible amount of paper crafting materials ... I could almost hear the rainforests crying!!!
• I was shocked about the very poor visual merchanidising of some of these exhibitors.  They were poorly laid out, too many products crammed into small areas, and there were lots that didn't 'invite' me in to have a look around.  

However I do feel I want to go to more now .. see how others do it. See if this is the norm!! 

I'd be interested to hear what other people think of these events?? Especially if you went to Crafts for Christmas last week.

Guest Blog from - Nikki Gomez

www.boywondergifts.co.uk
Gifts, Partyware & Keepsakes, just for boys!
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The record for my youngest, now 12, beginning to plan a birthday party before the event was about 3 months! Her birthday is in June and we began discussing party ideas at Easter! I know, my fault!

Children’s parties can be stressful to plan and the stress doesn’t really begin to fade until your child begins to filter home feedback about your party! (Be honest!)

But planning your child’s birthday can be fun too!

Firstly, find out what kind of party they would like and what their expectations are. Say you will have a think and get back to them. When you get back to them, be clear from the start about what you can/can’t offer and afford.

Be prepared to negotiate if possible. Older children especially, will appreciate you meeting them half way.

If you are feeling pressured to match other friend’s parties, have some ideas up your sleeve that will make their party ‘special and unique’. A tried and tested technique by Moi! Hopefully, they will forget about comparing parties and be excited by new ideas. Some ideas to make your child’s party special & unique could include…

Having a party at ‘night time’. It doesn’t need to be very late to be exciting for younger children.

A themed party is a great way to personalise a party. It can be as simple as age or colour themed for younger children and it’s fun to plan. At 6, my daughter had a ‘Pink Party’. It was so much fun shopping for everything pink! For an age themed party, let’s say age 7, have 6 guests, making 7. (Keeping guest numbers down!) Create ‘7’ themed games to play with your child. Continue the ‘7’ theme by having 7 items in the party bags. Items can be inexpensive just as long as there are 7!

For older children, it depends on what they like and seeing if you can link this into their party, a favourite TV show/celebrity/ hobby… How about an ‘X Factor’ sleepover! You could borrow/hire a karoake machine or buy/rent a kaoraoke game for a console if you have one and set up your own auditions with judges. Then throw an ‘After Party’!

Once party plans are agreed, it’s helpful to have them written down so they are easy to stick to.

Hopefully, both of you can now have fun with the preparations!