For those of you who don’t know much about me, I must tell you I LOVE CATS. I have had a cat since I was ten or eleven and got my first little black and white kitten for my birthday. I named her Kerry after a lovely girl I’d just met at a new school I started. Kerry and I went on to become best friends at school and my cat Kerry was my best friend throughout my early teens. Unfortunately she injested rat poison when she was just 5 and suffered a horrendously painful death. We were never sure which neighbour was using poison but I’ve never used it myself – I use humane rat traps.

When Kerry was quite young – we somehow aquired Katy – more of a family cat than my own. Beautiful long haired lively loving tabby. We lost her at three though as she was knocked down by some teenagers driving too fast in the lane behind our village home.

My next feline friend came into my life when I was working as a veterinary nurse in Liverpool, in my early twenties. I’d been given random wild creatures to take home, nurse and ‘learn on my feet’ so to speak. But Maddy (above with baby Tash) was the first cat I had responsibility to nurse back to health. She’d been brought in one night after being found crumpled up on the side of the road, having being hit by a car. After three weeks not eating, I managed to get her to have a meal and she never looked back. Then as no-one came to claim her, she came home with me. Maddy was a wonderful companion for 13 years and passed away in 2008.

When Maddy was about three or four – I came out of a five year relationship and moved into my own place. I saw an ad in a shop window for kittens and went to see them with a good friend Mary.

She took two home and so did I. My two were named Robbie and Macy and Rob is still with me now at the grand age of ten. Sadly, we lost Macy at three to acute kidney failure. Robbie is sitting proudly above and also pictured at the top with Natasha and Aleck.

And the newest kitten on the block is my daughter’s first cat – Gabriella (above). Natasha was very lucky to be allowed her first much wished for cat on her 8th birthday and Gabby is already 6 months old, how time flies! She’s a rescue from our local East Devon Cat’s Protection, found under a rabbit hutch in a garden in Cullompton at a day old with her two sisters and a very bedraggled tired mummy cat. She’s the first tortie – or tortoiseshell we’ve had and is such a lovely affectionate girl. Natasha and Gabriella already have a wonderful bond.

I’ll leave you with this photo (below) of me about to burst preggers with Tasha – 8 years ago. With my three cats at the time – Maddy on the left and the two boys Robbie & Macy.

Here’s some things I’ve come across this week which I thought might be useful/interesting to pass on. Please add comments at the end if you’ve found the links of interest, I’d love to hear from you and see what you think.

1. Tina (above) at Kitty Kat Cards in Maryland, USA cut her hair off and donated it to make wigs for women who have lost their hair to cancer. How cool is Tina, you go girl!

2. Age Concern and Help the Aged is calling on people to keep an eye out for older family‚ friends and neighbours during the cold weather.  The charity is concerned that the extreme temperatures will leave some older people facing difficulties getting out to buy food and essentials‚ while others will struggle to stay warm. I found a very sad story on the news today about a 90 year old woman slipping in her garden near Barnsley and dying of hypothermia – click here to read (but get the hankies ready). Poor woman.

3. More tissues needed – for the “Letter to my daughter’s other mother” article on the MumsRock blog. I often think about adopting a child (read my blog on it) so this was particularly poignant for me. I had a friend back in Sussex with an absolute angel of a daughter she’d adopted and the mother in this letter reminds me of that child’s birth mother.

4. Carrying on the sad theme with a blog about a tough few months from a twitter friend of mine Sarah of Kookylicious.

5. And let’s not stop there – might as well use the whole box of tissues up. I came across the Most/Least blog this week. Ella is mum to four boys aged 7, 5, 3 and 1. Last February, Ella’s 5 year old son William was diagnosed with FSGS and her family’s lives changed forever.

It’s our pre-school Christmas Bazaar tomorrow and I was thinking of making some little sweets to sell to raise more funds for the preschool. I remember making chocolate truffles for my Grandad when I was a teenager, and decorating used tea tea boxes to put them in for Christmas and birthdays! My Grandad kept the boxes for years afterwards, which showed how much he appreciated his lovingly made home made treats. I might try making some sweeties for preschool today and if they’re a success, perhaps give some out as Christmas presents this year too. It’s a very eco friendly green present as you can recycle old food boxes and cover with pretty paper or gingham fabric and ribbons etc. I think people really appreciate these kinds of home made gifts.

Nothing much in my cookbooks so I’ve searched google and found lots of interesting recipes:

There’s a very long list of sweets on About.com

There are some easy recipes for kids to make themselves on Mumsnet

Sugarboy.co.uk has some sweet recipes

Raspberry Jam Drops look good as do Chocolate Raisin Clusters

WOULD YOU LIKE TO WORK FROM HOME – WORK AROUND YOUR LITTLE ONES ?

CLICK ON TISH TASH TOYS FOR MORE INFO

I’m on the committee for the pre-school my little boy attends in the small village of Upottery in East Devon (about half hour out of Exeter). The pre-school is a registered charity (number 1030355) and run by a really wonderful committed group of parents. It’s a fantastic community resource in this little rural farming village and I like to help out however I can.

One of the ways the pre-school raises funds at Christmas is by doing a Christmas Hamper. They collect food items to make up the hamper then sell raffle tickets and raise money which goes towards the running of the school. They raised about £500 doing this last year. This went towards a new playground surface which is now in place and is a huge improvement to the worn away, potholed playground the kids used to have!

I’m on a mission to collect some foodie goodies from fellow businesses this year, so please either add a comment if you can donate something or email me direct on sharon@tishtashtoys.com

We would be more than happy to pass on your company flyers etc to all the parents there too. There are currently about 30 children attending Upottery pre-school.

I could also add a blog article about your business on here – just send me over some words & I’ll add links etc. This blog has been going for years now and all the articles get well ranked on google so great free ad for you.

Thank you for reading

Sharon

www.tishtashtoys.com

Photo of the hamper comes from Judith Glue Hampers – see http://www.judithglue.com/hampers/Christmashamperslinkpage.htm

I bought Elle magazine (USA edition) today and couldn’t believe there were not one but several advertisements for fur. So I’ve complained – using the form on this link – click here to complain http://www.elle.com/Contact-Us

It is NOT what I want to see in the magazines I read. Do you?

That’s number ONE complaint – PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE join me in doing the same, then add a comment on this blog to tell us which number you are. Let’s try and send 100 complaints to Elle magazine.

This is the complaint email I sent – short, sweet and to the point. Please feel free to copy this message, or adapt it.

I bought Elle (USA edition) today and was absolutely appalled to see several adverts for fur!!! For example The Fur Vault at Macy’s, Pologeorgis and Sorbara Fur. I thought the fashion world had moved on but obviously not. This is absolutely disgusting and I will not be buying Elle magazine again. I will also be blogging and twittering to others urging them to boycott your unethical immoral business.

Regards

Sharon Pavey
UK

For further information on how you can support the ANTI-FUR CAMPAIGN see The Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade website.

This is the link http://www.elle.com/Contact-Us

Click above to tell Elle USA what you think of them advertising FUR !

Thank you x

Saw a link for this on twitter – the seven most inappropriate toys for children, you would not believe what they make for kids! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/14/the-7-most-inappropriate_n_286223.html?slidenumber=0#slide_image

Also, read this about Tesco selling some dodgy pole dancing toy! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-412195/Tesco-condemned-selling-pole-dancing-toy.html

Received an email today from Letterbox announcing they are back! I enthusiastically clicked on the link to order a new letterbox catalogue but the link didn’t work! Will have to try again later, as I’d love to see what has happened since they stopped trading back in the spring then were bought by high street toy giants Hawkins Bazzar.

Lots of people compare Tish Tash Toys to Letterbox which is certainly a compliment as Letterbox always had a great range. The business was actually sold to a larger company (Findel) three years ago or so and ceased being a family business. The Times reported back in April that: Letterbox, a mail-order firm specialising in “imaginative traditional products for children”, was founded in Truro in 1987 by Deborah Kilmartin and John Williams. They collected £7 million when they sold out to Findel in June 2006.

Mulberry Bush, who like us sell a lovely range of interesting traditional children’s toys commented about Letterbox on their blog: Three or four years back Letterbox was an excellent toy retailer with a great range of wooden toys and traditional games, run by really nice people.

Toy News Mag adds that In a statement to customers on its website, Hawkin’s Bazaar said: “With over 35 years of experience of mail order and retail we are ideally placed to restore Letterbox to its former glory and to bring you the range that you know and love, along with unrivalled customer service.

Anyway – I’m off to try and order a Letterbox catalogue – don’t forget to order a Tish Tash Toys catalogue while you’re here. If you like the letterbox style – you are sure to like us too. Click here to order your catalogue.

If you are really into traditional toys – you can join us and earn extra selling them to friends & family. We’re always on the lookout for new agents – see the Tish Tash Toys website today!

I started a new business this month selling antiques. Bonne Vintage is a pure personal indulgence and has yet to make me my millions! I have a Bonne Vintage store on etsy and I’m renting a few shelves in an antique centre in town – Honiton, Devon.

One of my vintage 'finds' on Bonne Vintage

Being a busy multi-tasking mumpreneur isn’t easy though, constantly having to leave my desk to do the shopping, school runs, walk the dog, feed and clean out the chickens etc. So I thought it was about time I invested in an i-phone to help me keep up to date with everything when I’m out of the office.

Something old, something new!

This is my long lusted after beautiful black i-phone next to what was once a lovely little phone!! This is a real antique isn’t it ! I used to love the now scratched and mottled flowery cover on my siemens CL75 which hubby ’sold’ to me about 5 or 6 years ago because it has a little button you can press to turn a mirror function on….not that I’m vain or anything, but well, we all like to know if we’ve left the restaurant with food in between our teeth don’t we!

So it’s goodbye, farewell, auf weidersehn, adieu….to my little faithful siemens…