Guest post – my birth story: Triley Clifford, mumpreneur – owner of customblackoutblinds.co.uk
With our resident writer Jules, our founder, away on maternity leave with baby Sacha, we’ve invited a selection of working parents to write guest post for us.
Introducing Triley Clifford, through her own experience as a new parent, she discovered that a good night’s sleep is everything we crave! Inventor of the ‘customblackoutblind.co.uk‘ Triley tells us how the business started, and is giving Amoralia customers the chance to win on of her bespoke black out blinds for your own family bedroom. (see below for details)
Triley writes:
At the tender age of 33, I had a baby son…Then I realised he didn’t EVER understand what time it really was – and wondered why did he fight sleep when he was clearly so tired?!
After three months passed I realised that I had had very little sleep and was tired and grumpy. “There must be a way?”, I cried.
And then, after reading hundreds of books on how to get babies to sleep through the night (even Gina Ford!), I discovered that it needed to be dark, very dark and they needed to be well-fed and contented. A ‘routine’ was soon set into place.
At the same time, we moved into a basement flat with Victorian pine shutters in the bedroom. Darkness, from 7pm to 7am…. Wow, what a revelation.. I finally managed to breastfeed my son to sleep in a dark, peaceful, quiet room.
Then we ran out of space and decided to buy a nice house, with lovely big windows, and a garden.
“Oh cripes, windows! Windows, big ones!”
I hung some towels over the curtain rail – they fell down.
I pegged some towels to the curtain rail – they let in chinks of light.
So I hung up some blackout material – which fell down.
I stuck the blackout material up with tape – it fell down.
then.
I discovered sew-on Velcro…
however, I didn’t like the fabric design – so I covered it with some nice fabric…. “ooh it looks smart and stays up and is nice and dark – and Wow – it worked!”
At coffee mornings, it seems all new parents talk about is sleep, the luxury of sleep and how much we WANT some sleep; as well as how much are our babies are eating/drinking and how to feed in peace without all the distractions of dogs barking, phones ringing and TVs blaring etc.
My friends loved the style of blind I’d put up in my baby son’s room so I started to make some for them too. Creating a peaceful haven for feeding and daytime sleeps.
And well, the rest is history.
A very dear friend built me a website, and designed a beautiful logo, and I joined twitter…and the contacts, and orders started flooding in!
I never, ever thought I would have my own business. But here we are, and life is good… All hail to the technical revolution of mummy-bloggers and social media!
For a chance to win one of Triley’s bespoke blinds, send us your details here, telling us the best advice you ever received as a new parent – good luck!
You can also tell us on Facebook at facebook.com/AmoraliaLondon and to do your bit to support new brands, go and give Triley a ‘like’ on facebook.com/Customblackoutblinds – tell her Amoralia sent you!
Tags: guest post, labour story