"I’m from Limerick originally, before moving down to Cork for college. I studied business and marketing, but for a long time I didn’t really use it.

I spent some time in Australia, came home, and when I got married we built a house back in Limerick as we have land there. It’s mad, from a little house in the country I’ve sold all over the world.

A small start

When I had my son, I was writing things in a notebook. Funny things he said or did, his vaccines, different bits and pieces like that. Then in March 2020, we were locked down and my husband was home and we were making all of these different memories. And I wanted to make better books.

You can get the baby journals, then you can get the nought-to-one or the nought-to-five, but there was nothing going forward.

And I know my kids are growing up, but it was those things that I wanted to keep note of; the normal everyday things, the weekends, the birthday parties, the random days out. There was really nothing on the market, and it all came together.

I said why not go for it and write down some prompts? Because if there’s a blank page in front of me, I’d find it hard to write all of the stories, but if there was a question asked, I’d find it a lot easier to answer it.

So that was my idea. I went for it and it has worked out, thank God.

This is You is a range of stationary and notebooks with everything from travel accessories to memory journals and wedding guest books, all available to buy online at thisisyou.ie

Family time

I loved lockdown. I loved being at home and we’re in the middle of the country so it’s different to being in a city. There was no running here, there and everywhere to soccer and football and athletics and gymnastics, everything known to man.

We were all at home. My husband was home and it was just so easy. Whereas now it’s constant. I’m trying to fit things in between a Zoom meeting and a gymnastics class. And it’s extremely different. I love it, but it’s a lot harder.

To fit work around a family, usually four of the children go to school. And then I have the one at home with me. Either in the morning or in the evening, if she’s in good humor, I might bring my daughter out to the office.

I’ve bought a container and I’ve turned it into an office because the house is just full of boxes and something has to give. So we converted a storage container into an office and storage.

I’ll bring her out and I’ll do the work in the morning, I’ll do all the packing and engraving and all that. But if she’s not in good form, I’ll just wait until she’s in bed at night and I’ll do it then.

Sometimes the kids like to do a bit of help with packing and all that but usually I’ll wait until they’re settled in the evening and the youngest are in bed, and then I’ll go out and do it.

Day-to-day

The day-to-day would be up and down to the school, and then I love baking with the kids and things like that so you’ll see a lot on my Instagram of cakes and treats and all sorts. That’s what we tend to do during the day and when they’re gone, out of my sight, I’ll do the business.

I’ve always felt that I wanted to be the boss but I never really thought I’d get there to be honest. Even when I launched the first book, I didn’t think it was going to take off like this, but I absolutely love it. It’s where I should be and want to be.

I never thought I’d get there, but I always thought I’d like to get there.

Obviously juggling kids and business is not easy, that’s a given, but on the business side of things, the biggest challenge is trying to figure out stock. You want to get the best price but then you can’t bring it up too much because God knows how much you sell.

Especially when I’m totally new to it all. So I’m learning every day what I should and shouldn’t be doing.

I love packing off the orders and seeing where they’re going and knowing that I’m packing up my own thing that I’ve created from start to finish. I just love all that. I love knowing I did this from the beginning.

I’d like to pass it down to my children. They love it, like my little girl, she’s nine and you can see she’s totally like me. She loves the office and you can see that in her head she’d love to be running this as well.”