A day in the life for me is quite different from what it used to be a few years ago. I used to live in Yorkshire and worked long hours as a HR Business Partner. When I got married my husband and I decided that life wasn’t quite ticking all of the boxes for us.
Some years before he had taken part in an exchange program at University and spent some time in Norway. We’d both been over many times since and fallen in love with the beautiful scenery, how family friendly it was, and the work to live philosophy compared to the live to work culture we had grown used to in the UK. So, we handed our notices in, bought tickets to sail from Newcastle to Stavanger and decided we would give it 12 months and if it didn’t work out we could always come back. That was nearly 5 years ago, we now have 2 gorgeous (and hard work!) little boys, own a house, 8 chickens and are working towards living the small holders dream.
So, an average day for me usually begins at around 6:30 – 7:00am when I am woken by the morning mantra of my 2 year old saying “Mummy …. Mummy …. Mummy …” until I eventually give in and go and greet him with as cheerful a ‘good morning’ as I can muster! A cup of tea for me and sippy cup of milk for him later we are both feeling happier and we are soon joined by my 3 year old for some cartoon watching and breakfast. Three days a week they both go to nursery or barnehage as they call it over here. I drive the boys to nursery at around 8:30am, around the beautiful lake we live next to, it’s about a 15 minute drive there. Very different from the manic hour’s drive I had back in the UK down the A1 to work!
I relish the days the boys are at nursery as one of the downsides of moving abroad is we have no family over here to help out with the child care. So I try to make the most I can out of the three days a week. Once home my first point of call is to make a cup of tea before sitting down and checking my emails, twitter, facebook etc. As I am still in the early stages of my business my main focus is developing my websites visibility, adding new content to my site, networking with other lovely business mummies online, and trying to maintain the self belief that I can be one of the successful WAHMs!
I first came up with the idea of Photo Fairy Designs about 4 years ago when I was pregnant with my first son. I had been editing photos and creating photo DVDs as a hobby for years for family and friends and had lost count of the number of times I had been told I should start doing it as a business. Being in Norway meant I had to put my HR career on hold as my Norwegian was not good enough to work for a Norwegian firm. Initially I taught English to adults as an evening class, and also for some local businesses which I enjoyed. Then I was lucky enough to be able to be a full time SAHM for about 2 years, this was great but I began to yearn for more mental stimulation and my ideas for Photo Fairy Designs were growing. Once both my sons started nursery 3 days a week I felt like I had been given a new lease of life and I set to work putting my website together. I finally got my website up and running in March this year, which felt like a massive achievement! I’m hoping with hard work, and the support of fellow business mummies I can make a success of it so I can carry on doing a job I love and be able to make the most of the time I have with my children while they are little.
I do miss the UK, particularly friends and family … and the important things like Cadburys chocolate, fish and chips, pork pies, wensley dale cheese, …. I could go on but you get the idea! In an ideal world I would combine the two countries and have a bit of everything, but for now Norway is the place for us and a wonderful place for my children to spend their childhood.
My average day ends with picking the boys up from nursery, getting them home and having dinner together with my husband and catching up on everyone’s day. Then, its bath time, story time and bed time for my boys, followed by some more work for me before relaxing for a while with my husband and then off to bed to recharge before the following day!
Liz Beavan
Photo Fairy Designs
www.photofairydesigns.com
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comment on Facebook – Joanne, thank you sooo much for telling us about Photo Fairy Designs. Liz is an absolute gem and your posting was perfectly timed. I’d just finished my blog and was looking for a suitable photo to go with it when you posted your feature. I checked it out and was amazed. Liz got to work yesterday as soon as she got my mail and has already sent me a sample of her work which is truly stunning. She’s a treasure. Thanks for sharing – Diana Dorset Civil Celebrant