Does your pasta have a sexual orientation?

ItalPasta has released a picture in Social Media supporting all sexual relationships, I think the ad is cute and comforting. They did so in retaliation of another brand's CEO who reportedly stated he would rather Homosexuals eat a different pasta brand and not his.

While it's nice to see people, people of influence defending those who are seen as minorities... but when does picking sides as a brand get to much?

Should we care if Pasta companies, Diaper brands, Alcohol brands have opinions about anything that happens in our own homes. I would prefer to think NO! When you go into a store and are using your hard earn money you hold all the cards in the transaction. As a mom, I know my money plays a huge role in how companies thrive, I have 5 mouths to feed... I have 5 bodies to dress, that means my spending and all other families spending play a huge role in how certain brands do.

So now, I get CEOs are people and they have opinions. But as a business owner myself what does my opinion have to do with my product, truly NOTHING! I don't want someone coming into my house and having an opinion on how I live my life. As a business owner, I also have to watch my Ps and Qs; I do so as a mom... I wouldn't say or do something that would offend my children or to cause them any hostility in the playground.

Isn't your business your child, should businesses not be fostering a happy healthy growth. I am not saying we shouldn't advocate something or stand up for a cause we feel passionate about... but under the same cloud of if you have nothing nice to say don't say anything at all, shouldn't we take stances were we will be doing some good, if nothing good can come from making a statement or social commentary why make it at all?

I will not support brands who advocate hate, but I'd wish they would just shut up and make a good product. But as I wish they would mind their own business... I guess so will I.

Fall Bucket Lists... and finding time.

Cute bucket list found on facebook- no source

 

It's late at night and I am finding myself refilling the laundry machine for the 3rd time tonight... hey they say you waste less energy if you do your loads pass midnight. So here I am awaiting the last load, sifting through the items to add to my Fall Bucket List.

Fall is a huge time for any family, it's a monster time of year for a business owner. Fall season preps all of next year for the business owner in me, the mom in me is trying to balance getting the girls to all their programs and add all the school items to my calendar.  School pictures, signing up for ballet and Greek classes added to the to do list... Curriculum night, lunch box options, new shoes, new jackets as well.

I await the next season with excitement, like New Year's eve, it allows me the opportunity to do better, to get more done, to accomplish more and offer my girls more. I tend to disappoint myself because I never get half as much done as I would like in my head. But it gets so exciting about the idea of what can get done this time around, this season's full of possibilities.

Fall has a specific smell, a crispness that can only be found when you drive across the city and you see the abundance of North American trees changing into vivid colours. And while living in such a remarkably beautiful city during this season all I can imagine is the smell of cinnamon on everything, baked goods adding warmth into our home, faux fur throws on the couch, the perfect pair of lined jogging pants from Roots, the sounds of apples crunching, apple butters on my pork chops, the girls jumping through leaf piles and of course a warm beverage from Starbucks (bye my beloved Frappucino.)

In a constant attempt to be a Super mommy, I put together a bucket list. Better than a to-do list, because there is no shame in not accomplishing it, but gratification if I could throw it into place to get an item marked with a big fat checkmark. A little moment of bliss, a little needed mommy accomplishment.

Counting your successes!

 

I decided to get pregnant with my eldest in 2006, my mom had been extremely sick and it was a decision I didn't take lightly. I had given up a really great job opportunity for a paid internship in NYC to be by my mom's side and the jarring ideas of it could have been her last conversations with her, I was compelled to have my first child.
 

2 children later, I was consumed with being a mom and anything and everything career wise had taken a huge backseat. It ate at my soul, I wasn't good at being a stay at home mom, actually I'd even say my husband could have been a better stay at home parent. I was unsatisfied, unhappy and feeling generally unsuccessful.

My first day as a mom

But there is something that having children and wanting to raise them to follow their dreams does to a mom... It makes you a success seeker. I kid you not! I have had many conversations with various moms who all attest to being propelled into finding a passion and being more in their community, their business or their personal entrepreneurial journeys than they could have ever imagined previously to child bearing.

There is a measure to success moms' feel when their kid comes home with good grades, trophy after a game, speaking a second language fluently... but deep in your heart you know that success is your child's. But I forgot how awesome the feeling it was to measure personal career goals... like the highs you felt in High School when you received a perfect mark, when you hit a milestone with your girlfriends (first to get their driver's license, first to get their ID to drink.) You hit your 20s and forget how those personal successes feel... But then you become a mom and it's as if your sense of heightened awareness kicks in.

You want to push harder when you are doing reps at the gym...

You want to create your own business and mold it and fold it to grow...

You want to hit more sales, more leads, more income...

You might even want to accomplish decorating a cake, cooking like Julia Child...

But you enjoy counting your successes.

You understand how hard it is to push yourself and you appreciate yourself more. Why because not only did you do it, did you give 120% of yourself to get it done (because you genuinely enjoy giving it your all, all of a sudden) but you can pat yourself on the back that you got it done while balancing a household. You did while trying to be a kickass mom. You did while being tugged in 10 different directions. Sure you could have done all these items equally well single, childless but it would have been easy and you wouldn't have given it much thought.



Me working back stage after our first runway show.

But now you get to relish in every detail of it all. You get to sit back and your coffee tastes a bit better, that glass of wine is far enjoyable... because you earned it. You are a success. Tomorrow you might wake up frustrated with something, anything, everything... but today you are awesome.

Count it, relish in it... it's important to count your successes! 

To blog, not to blog...

It's been eons since I posted and here is the nitty-gritty of it all...

After my 3rd baby was born, I had established a new career path for myself, I started my jewellery business. I am very proud of Niki & Lola as it has filled a void of accomplishment I couldn't have had working 9-5 for someone else. The successes have been many in such a short period of time.... 

BUT...

I miss writing, I miss sharing and I miss exploring who I am as a mother. Blogging was always cathartic for me. It was an honest portrayal of who I am as a mom balancing being a downtown mom who works and breathes fashion, while being the mom who wants to bake and get dirty in the sand with my kids.

So to this I am revisiting Mommy Doings, and many changes are coming up; many exciting changes that I can't wait to tell you about.

*and my 3rd is running not walking around.