A year ago we gave birth. It was unexpected, joyful and messy. Nine months after the last child was born. No, not like that. Not least because I required seven rounds of IVF to have our two babies. I am talking about the birth of our family colouring book company, Colour Your Streets.
The seed of an idea was planted after walking our then-five-year-old son around our local park for the millionth time as we tried to explain the local landmarks to him. What if he could colour in a picture of the big clock he always asked about? Or the falling-down stately home in the centre of the park? Or the front of the local station where we had spent so very many hours with him just screaming the word ‘TRAIN!’ at the top of his lungs. (I still see trains and shudder at the memory. But lucky me, our now 20-month-old daughter is doing the same).
We looked locally and online for colouring books based on Brixton and Herne Hill, our South London neighbourhoods. But they didn’t exist so we found ourselves creating them over the long summer holidays – firstly as a project for our son and his pals. And then others asked about having one or two for their kids and we thought about making them properly. That is how one of the most surprising adventures of our working lives began. That is how two books turned into 110 –making us the largest local colouring book company in the UK – and my baby girl’s bedroom became a semi-storage depot. And how we are now mapping the whole country and the rest of the world via colouring books and, crucially, working with my husband, Jeremy.
Weirdly, I recommend working with your partner – especially at this particularly frenetic junction in our lives with two demanding jobs and two small children. Perhaps it’s just our personalities, but there's something to be said for having a joint creative project which is something we can work towards in the hours where we are effectively locked down with sleeping or napping children. Don’t get me wrong – we are very, very tired. That hasn’t improved with my new radio job starting at 3.30 am a few days a week at the BBC’s Today Programme. And we still love flopping down onto the sofa to watch TV as much as we can.
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But all that time we used to spend clubbing, going to the films or a gallery, or just lazing about with our pals or travelling? We use it differently. We're in the trenches of young family life, with all the joys and frustrations that brings. Having a cool initiative that allows us to work (from home) with many communities, institutions, charities, and creative outlets has been invigorating. Like a decent face scrub. It has made our world bigger at a time when it can feel smaller and smaller. And the joy people get from colouring in streets they know and love and then sharing their images with us? Infectious.
It has also made that transition to double parenthood weirdly a bit gentler as we can still feel like us, as we try to snatch moments that do just that. Finding those times is a journey, especially if you have grown up together, as we have, having met at university when we were 21 and are now about to hit 40. We are still figuring out what our new leisure time – the little that we get of it – looks like. Answers on a postcard, please!
We make Colour Your Streets happen around our day jobs, which has meant lots of envelope packing in the early evenings on the living room floor with our son making piles of books as our daughter sleeps or squawks as she crawls through the organised chaos, making it worse. This process was before we grew big enough to use a warehouse.
The books also fit in with our weekend lives. We don’t take all of the photographs ourselves anymore but still snap a fair few as I am the endless tourist much to the love and annoyance of our family. I love me a cemetery, a local caff and a new neighbourhood. As a Mancunian in London, I am still, nearly 20 years in, still very excited to discover a new area, drag everyone there just see a random bit of street art and a market I’ve caught a sniff of on the 'gram, clocking up thousands of steps – as we drag the pram, scooter and all of our kit. This behaviour continues wherever I am and as we have now mapped Aberdeen to Cornwall – I have a lot of places now on my hit list I am dying to see with my own eyes. We do our own research for each book, but locals, historical societies, and our customers really help us out too.
Because can still reap the mental health benefits of running with kids in tow.
Finally, I feel there is a use to this part of my personality that earned me the dubious school nickname: Commitment Carol. (Love to all Carols everywhere) – as I raced off to another club or activity.
We are also lucky to have complimentary skillsets. Jeremy in design, product and pricing, and e-commerce and me in business development, sales and press.
But don’t get me wrong, we've also learned, as we try to shout updates about the business across two loud children at kids’ supper time, that we need to better separate family and work time. Sometimes, it’s not possible - as something is time-sensitive. But so is wiping someone’s face and sticky hands.
We are also learning to create boundaries in our relationships. For instance we have set up a separate WhatsApp chat just for company chat, which is incredibly helpful – even if occasionally an urgent family job strays into there.
We also try to meet once a week just on Colour Your Streets – and catch up on what’s next and what’s still in play. We also try to have a separate chat about our family, plans we have made and need to make and the rest of our life admin.
Once a week, we try to commit to a date night. It’s crucial – not just because we're now running a family business but because we have to still be us. We grab those moments and ring-fence them as much as we can.
COVID-19 has already blurred the lines between home and work life. And I suppose we have blurred them further. But by working on something that brought us all together and inspired us by our experience of being creative with children, it somehow works. Really well.
Find your area to colour in at www.colouryourstreets.co.uk and if we haven’t mapped it yet – please get in touch over @colouryourstreets
We would love to hear from you and learn about your streets.
Fuss-free bedtimes are here.
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