Gosh, well it’s been a hot minute since I last made an appearance here! My apologies to you all for another lengthy absence, I hope you’ll all forgive me. When I started up my blog, I was driven by a real passion for writing, and of course talking about all of my adventures with my children, which are no longer children, they’re now all hairy teenagers, well with the exception of my daughter, I don’t think she’ll take kindly to me calling her hairy! I adored checking all with you weekly, it filled me with joy, and I loved sat with a cuppa and typing all sorts of nonsense for you. Unfortunately I think sadly, somewhere throughout the first year of this god awful pandemic, I lost that passion and drive to chat with you all, then when I became self employed with my candle business, I think I used that as a bit of an avoidance tactic! I only want to ever bring you posts that I’ve enjoyed putting together, that have come naturally, I’m not content with giving you my best, and so after my last post, I decided to take a break until I had my fire rekindled for writing again, and the really great news, is I think that fire in my belly is back! I am just testing the water, and I think I put so much pressure on myself previously to get two posts out a week, so to start with I think I’m just going to ease myself back in gently with one post a fortnight, and if all goes well, I’ll up my posting days a little, I hope you’ll allow me this, so that I can bring you the best content that I can.

Anyway, how have you all been? Have you all been busy since my last post, any life changing events happened? Despite my absence, I’ve actually been relatively busy, building up my little candle shop, trying to survive bringing up teenagers, and I’ve been working a lot on manifesting and gratitude, which I may do a whole post on in the near future, it’ really fascinating to me. But I’ve mostly been trying to manoeuvre myself back into some sort of normal life, as like many, I’ve become very used to my own company and space throughout the last two years, and is taking some used to, being surrounded by people again, getting back into the real world. But I don’t do things the easy way, and we have some very exciting events coming up this year, which I’ll be sure to blog about. The teen folk here, have pretty big birthdays this year, so we celebrating in style, with a premiership football match, and to those that know me, know this is taking some real commitment and mum love! But we’re also off to see Louis Tomlinson & Harry Styles in concert, and finally after three whole years, I’m finally going to get to see my beloved band The Script in concert again. And if that weren’t enough, I have a weekend away in London planned, and we have a pretty big holiday planned over Christmas this year, which the entire family is very excited about. So as you can see, I’m not really breaking myself in gently into ‘real life’ again, but despite the anxiety, I am super excited for the year ahead, oh and another pretty huge event is that I am finally learning to drive! I know, how on earth did I get to this grand old age without driving? Well I’m finally changing that, and I think I even have a car sorted, could life get any more exciting?! Rest assured that I will be taking you all along on this journey with me, I hope you’ll all enjoy reading about it.

Anyway, I think I’ve probably drivelled on enough for today, I hope that you’ve enjoyed this post, and I haven’t bored you all rigid. Do leave me a comment to let me know how you’ve all been, and I hope that you’ve all had a great start to the week, and also to 2022!

Much Love xx

Well hello there! It’s been a while hasn’t it? I’m so sorry for my extended absence, like everyone over the past year or so, I’ve been just moving day to day, trying to make the best of a very surreal situation, and of course trying to build a business through a pandemic has been no walk in the park! But I’m back, tentatively, but I’m dipping my toes back in the water and to say hello to you lovely people.

So how have you all been? How has the pandemic affected you? I hope that you’ve all managed to stay safe and well, and that the virus and the consuming restrictions that it brought with it, have not had a negative impact on any of you. Maybe you’ve found that you’ve quite liked being within your own four walls, or found yourself a new hobby to while away the time. However the last sixteen months has been, I’d love to hear from you.

Life for us has been up and down, it’s been a real rollercoaster! Like many we’ve had some real highs as a family, but some real lows also, with restrictions on seeing family members & friends, the children have had to adjust to so many changes at school & college, and as you know, with autism thrown in on top of that, we’ve had some interesting times! I really feel like our family have grown from this historical event, we’ve found out things about ourselves and each other, and as we start to (fingers crossed) start to come out the other side, we have a new level of respect and love for each other, but also a massive level of respect for others. This whole pandemic has on the whole, brought out the very best in so many, people have come together to help each other in times of need, but also there is a new sense of community and appreciation for our loved ones.

The world pandemic aside, a lot has changed for us personally, and I have a lot to fill you in on! The biggest change is that I am now self employed! Yes, I took the leap at the end of November and decided that Silly Old Bear Candles is where my heart is and if I wanted to grow and nurture it to it’s full potential, then I needed to give it my all, and here we are, almost six months in and almost Silly Old Bear Candles first birthday, and I’m pleased to say that it’s growing at a nice even rate, and I couldn’t feel more proud! But it’s not just me with work news, number one son is now a fully fledged member of the full time working world, in fact throughout the last seven months, he’s actually been working two jobs, he doesn’t like me telling the world, but I’m super proud of his work ethic! Number two son, is now at college, I mean how does this even happen, I’m sure it was only five minutes ago that he was starting nursery! Daughter is doing phenomenal at school, and has now entered the world of GCSE’s, again another super scary notion. And the baby of the family, well he’s now at secondary school too, this has been a real reality check, how do I know longer have any children at primary, and of course, much like his biggest brother, he has just taken it in his stride and handled it like a champ! And of course our fluff ball, yes she’s doing just grand, much like myself, she has gained some lockdown weight, we’re still waiting for the urge to loose those extra pounds to kick in, and as we’ve pushed our family back to Christmas 2022, we’re being a little too relaxed about those pesky pounds!

Gosh I’ve really gabbled on, I’m just realising how much I have missed blogging and you guys. Anyway, I will draw this to a close now, hopefully I haven’t sent you off to sleep! Do leave me a comment letting me know how you are. It’s good to be back!

Much love xx

Today’s post is just a checking in one really, seeing how everyone is doing. As we head into the last two weeks of the summer holidays (here in England), and I start to make preparations for my children to go back to school and college, my emotions have been all over the place about the impending changes to what has become normality for us. I know for many, you have been working either at home or as keyworkers, you have still had to go into your work place and put yourselves at risk, if you are one of these people, I thank you for just being awesome, and I hope that you have managed to avoid this god awful virus, and that you know how deeply appreciative we are of you. For myself and my children however, with the exception of my eldest son who has continued to work his part time job, we have all been fortunate to stay at home throughout this lockdown, it’s had it’s ups and downs, and there have tantrums and tears along the way, but throughout we have felt safe, we’ve followed the rules, we’ve kept as safe as we can, but now we are faced with a new adaption, and I cannot lie, I feel extremely anxious about it. Now I know that many are probably feeling the same, and I know that for some of you, you haven’t been able to stay at home, I also appreciate that at some point we have to start getting back to normal, but it’s scary right? We know that this is it now, this virus is going to always be around, even when a vaccination has been approved, we know that there will be people that do not agree with vaccinations, we also know that there are people that do not adhere to the rules of sanitation and wearing of masks, basically we are still just at risk of this horrid virus. There will be people that read this, and think for gods sake, just put your big girl pants on and get on with it, and I will, I am returning to work in a couple of weeks, the kids will be back to school, and the children will be back to their clubs and hobbies again, and life for us will be getting into the new normal, however, when you have watched your children have an asthma attack, when you’ve seen them pass out from the flu, you have seen them at their frailest, then yes, it does make you anxious. This said we will do what we have to, the bills still need to be paid, and the kids education has taken enough of a battering with my awful attempts at helping them with their home learning, so as soon as those doors are open we will be there taking all the precaitions we can.

I think definitely for me, lockdown has made me more of an anxious person, and I have never been a particularly anxious person before, and I know from experience that very often, just getting started on something you’re nervous about, whilst super scary at the beginning, the thoughts of doing it, are very often worse than the actual event. So it’s only natural after being at home for almost six months, the thought of being out of the house, around people again is quite nerve wracking, but the rational part of me knows that once the first day is over with, it will feel like we’ve never been away. As well as returning to work, I will be learning to juggle being at work and building my business, as well as my family and housework, and when I type that out, it makes me wonder whether I will even have time to be nervous about the new normal! I am excited for the next few months too though, as we are coming up to my favourite time of the year, if you’ve followed me for a while, you’ll know just how much I love Autumn and Christmas. I know it will be slightly different to years gone by, but knowing we have the excitement of the seasonal change coming up, just fills me with joy, and I think that will make the ease into school/college/work a lot easier. One of the other ways to help ease my anxiety, is making plans for the coming months, knowing that you have things to look forward to always make life seem a little brighter, so as I’m purchasing new uniform, I’m also looking at things the children and I can safely do too. I’m also looking forward to being more active again, I know that in my last post I talked about weight, and how that affected mindset, and I truly believe this, and that where I have gone from being super active to doing vitually nothing, my weight has ballooned, and I know that once next month hits, along with a healthier approach to life, being more active will help reduce my weight once more, and this excites me too. 

I’ve harped on long enough now, so I’d love to know how you guys are doing, how are you feeling about another change to this new normal, are you feeling anxious too? Or have you been working throughout? However you’re feeling, whatever is coming up for you, I hope that you’re all well and safe and predominantly happy.

Much love. xx

Back last year, I touched on this topic, and as I stated in that post, my mindset changes frequently, after all, we are all human, and our emotions change by the minute much less the day, week & month, and right now, I feel this is very relevant to not only myself, but many others. Of course, I’m talking weight, I try not to get involved in this subject often as it is such a sensitive, personal & responsible topic. However this is real life, and for me and many others that I’ve spoken too, being in lockdown has seen weight gain in abundance, and for many, it doesn’t make you feel great. But I’m going to put this out there, I cannot remember a time that I have been happy with my body shape, and I have been substantially bigger than I am now, and to the extreme, I’ve also been substantially slimmer, but at all stages, I have disliked the shape of my body, pretty much forever. I do believe that it is inbuilt in us all to find and obsess about the imperfections we have, it’s human nature, but I do also believe that the media and marketing companies have a huge part to play in why we feel so negatively about ourselves, you only have to look in any magazine you pick up, and they are filled with super slim, toned women or muscular & toned men, yes they are starting to add more realistic body shapes into campaigns now, but for every one ‘plus sized’ model they use you’ll see twenty+ unrealistic body shapes. Now if you add those sort of images to the fact that most of the world has had their head stuck in the fridge for the past six months, and that relaxing glass of wine has become an evening ritual, especially if you’ve kids at home, even more so if you’ve got special needs within the house, it makes for your average person to feel pretty crappy about how they look.

As I say 18 years ago I was the biggest I have ever been, which as you’d expect, was down to the life I had back then, if you read my last post you’ll know that I was in a very toxic relationship, I had just had my eldest son and my weight just suffered at that time. Two years ago, I was the slimmest I had ever been, I was borderline a size 4 (UK) in clothes and I loved being able to pick whatever I wanted off of the clothes rail, however due to having a c section with one of the children, and weight fluctuation, my body, to look at, still made me miserable, and over time I came to realise that this was because I was, and still do at times, compare myself to those photoshopped, unrealistic images you see in magazines, shop internet sites, and well anyone that I came across that had what I thought, the perfect body. I was also miserable from a restrictive diet, and limiting everything I had, it certainly wasn’t much of a life when you’re missing out on meals out or drinks with the girls so as not to put on 2lb, and I also came to realise that I wasn’t setting a healthy example for my children. Of course, being single too (for more years than I care to admit now), you start to get into a mindset that if you don’t have that ‘perfect’ look, you won’t be found attractive. Obviously I know that being with a person is more than just what they look like, and if someone wants to be with you, it should be largely because of the kind of person that you are, but when you have been on dating sites, yes I’m single, I have been on my fair share, predominantly you are seeing the photos of people first and that’s what first sparks an interest. For the record, please never ever judge yourself on what people write about on these sites, whilst dating sites have worked for many of my friends, they are also full of shallow people, I actually read a bio once where a guy said “Life is too short for fat chicks” I kid you not! So please take words with a pinch of salt on these sites, some very well known ones, bring out the absolute dregs of society! Anyway, I will admit that there have been times over the years, where I have deliberately kept my weight down as I thought that is what men found attractive, and I have also actively thought I was just not attractive to men because of my weight. I should also point out, and I am the biggest advocate of this, you do not need to be in a relationship to validate you as a person, even if you’re in a relationship, you are your own person, and should never let what someone thinks dictate how you live your life!

So back to current day, pandemic lockdown life, and I am definitely not happy with how I look right now, but more importantly, with how I feel right now, being the size I currently am, whilst is not shocking, I can definitely feel it impacting on tasks that I do, walking into town, walking the dog, running up the stairs etc. But I am also being realistic in knowing that life is not normal at the moment, I have gone from being a super active person, walking to work and home everyday, being at work all day, running around for clubs/activities that the children have commitments for, even just being able to go out for days out to places that the children and I love, cannot happen at the moment. So I know this is temporary and as life starts to return to normal and I can start doing the things I once loved to do again, my weight will also return to normal, for now I’m just embracing where I am, remember we are in the middle of a pandemic, life isn’t normal right now, and we are just trying to get through each day. My body image, well that’s a different story, I see influencers every day talking about loving their bodies, and it is such an important message to put out there, but I’m here to say, that doesn’t come overnight, and I am still working on this at the grand old age of fourty, this isn’t to say I don’t love me, I’m just saying that loving yourself and loving your body shape are different, and it takes time to perfect loving both,  but what is really really important, and I hope is the one thing that you take from this post, always be kind to yourself, you are the person you listen to the most, make sure that voice is a kind one.

As always, I hope that you’re safe and well.

Much love. xx

If you had the chance to go back, 10, 15 or even 20 years ago to visit your younger self, what would you say? I’ve seen a few posts like these recently, I guess most of us have had a fair amount of time to think about it. And to be honest, I was surprised by some of the people that said they would advise their younger self to not do something, and try and change the path that led them to now. I’ve always lived by the ethos, live with no regrets, now this is just my opinion and so obviously isn’t for everyone, but I don’t see the point in regret, you cannot change what has happened, and I believe everything happens for a reason, it’s not always clear what that reason is, but things good and bad bring some sort of clarity to your life. 

14 years ago, I was in a very miserable situation, I was in a very toxic marriage, I suffered at the hands of domestic abuse, I didn’t see a way out and my little family was desperately unhappy. I would go onto have two more children before I saw light at the end of the tunnel, and with the love and support of our families, both myself and the childrens dad, after quite a few years and quite a bit of a battle, we both made it to happier, separate lives. I will forever be grateful to my mum for the support that she gave to myself and my children over the breakdown of my marriage and the years that followed, we may not have reached the happy place we’re in now had it not been for her. And of course, amidst the car crash that was the aftermath of my marriage, I was also fighting for support for my autistic young man, anyone that has been through this process will know just how hard of a battle this is, to get any kind of diagnosis and the support that follows that, wow, it’s not until you stop and look back at how far you’ve come, do you realise just how tough you had to be! And I think this is really important, to stop and take stock of your journey, it really makes you appreciate where you are now.

So with giving you a basic picture of how life was for me for a few years, you’d probably think I would advise myself to run and change the course of my life! But this may come as a surprise, I 100% would not change the events of my past, well I may advise myself not to be an idiot and try harder at school and college, because, well, I just know I could have done better, but other than that, I wouldn’t change a thing. What I would say to my younger self is, I know it seems tough, I know life is hard and it’s not great, but you are going to end up with four of the most amazing kids that are going to make you the proudest person in all the world, and this is building you up to be the toughest, take no shit, stronger, but at the same time, empathetic, compassionate, kind person. Keep going, whilst it feels like a pretty low point right now, believe me, it’s leading you to living the most independent, happiest life and all of this will seem like a distant memory. You’re going to create some of the very best memories for your children, you’ll do things that you can only dream of, and rest easy because your children will grow up to be four of the greatest humans. I’d probably give myself a hug, and say, you’re a survivor and you have the most wonderful, supportive friends and family who will see you through your dark days and you are never alone. And lastly I would say, remember that eye cream because eye wrinkles hit you like aninja in the night, and don’t stress it about grey hairs, you won’t see your first one until you’re fourty! 

I mean it’s a nice notion to be able to advise your younger self, but if nothing else, at least we can now be wise enough to know that everything in life leads us to being the people we are now, nothing (again in my opinion) is unnecessary. If I have learnt anything over the years, it’s definitely to live your life with no regrets, be proud of all of your achievements, even the little day to day things, because it means you’re at the steering wheel of your own life, and you can accomplish anything that you put your mind to, but also that everyone is fighting their own battles, so to never judge anyone on anothers words, because you do not know what battle people are having with themselves.

As always, I hope that you’re safe and well.

Much love. xx

I thought I’d do just a light hearted post on this rainy Saturday afternoon. Whether you’re young or old, we all love music don’t we? Different songs hold different memories for everyone, and whether they’re good or bad, most songs will evoke memories from one time or another in our lives! A song can flip your mood wihin the first few seconds, it may remind you of a holiday, a day out, a group of friends or your first love, but there is no escaping the fact that music is powerful. 

And one of the things most of us have, either on our phones, or on some other device is a playlist of our favourite songs. So I thought I would share with you, one of my playlists, yes one, I have multiple! Most songs hold a memory for me, but I will admit that this particular playlist is just made up of songs that I liked at the time of making it, remember that music is personal, and what I like, you may not, so be respectful. So here goes, the actual playlist is just named ‘new favs’, clearly I was not feeling overly imaginative on the day I created it! 

Sweet but Psycho – Ava Max

You Don’t Own Me – SAYGRACE

You Don’t Own Me – Lesley Gore (I obviously really like this song!)

These Days – Rudimental & Jess Glynne

Don’t Let Me Get Me – Pink

Rewrite The Stars – Zac Efron & Zendaya

Tightrope – Michelle Williams

Never Enough – Loren Allred (Clearly The Greatest Showman had just been released)

Never Be the Same – Camila Cabello

Bad Things – Machine Gun Kelly & Camilla Cabello

Love Me Like You Do – Ellie Goulding

Secret Love Song – Little mix & Jason Derulo

Just Give Me a Reason – Pink (I’m starting to see a pattern forming here)

Cheerleader – OMI

Take On Me – Aha

I Think We’re Alone Now – Tiffany

Heaven Is a Place on Earth – Belinda Carlisle (Not even guilty about my love for 80’s music)

Say You Do – Sigala & Imani Williams (pattern broken!)

Titanium – David Guetta

As you can see, my taste is extrememly varied, I mean I am not exaggerating when I say, I literally have thousands of songs stored over multiple playlists! You can also see that I love old and new music too, I have music from the 50’s right through to the most recent of songs stored on both my Spotify and Apple playlists. I genuinely love nothing more than just sticking my earphones in and going on a long walk and getting lost in the music. So tell me, I’d love to know, what have you got on your playlist?

As always, I hope that you’re all safe and well.

Much love. xx

 

I thought I’d do something a little different with this post, I always try to keep my posts about relateable topics, however this is quite a niche subject but as it’s something I am experiencing, I thought it might be useful and interesting to some. Yes, I’m talking about starting up your own small business. Now I’ve only been up and running for a couple of months, so I can only talk about the initial starting up period, but if this post is interesting to some, then maybe I’ll do another after Christmas, when hopefully my shop will be rather more established.

Obviously if you’ve been fortunate enough to be at home over lockdown, you’ll have noticed that a lot of people starting up little businesses as they’ve had more time to be creative, so just to be clear, my experience will not be the same for everyone, some people may find similarities, and others may think ‘wow, I do not resonate with that’, so bare in mind that everyones journey on setting up a business is different. 

So I’ve been candle making for a while, and the idea of starting my shop came to me around Febuary time, however life had different plans for me, and mid Feb I hurt my back and left me out of action for quite a while. So frustratingly (that is a word you’ll see quite a lot in this post), I had most of the equipment but was unable to do anything to get things moving. Fast forward to the end of March, and my back was recovered and we were in lockdown! Now was the perfect time to get things prepared and the wheels in motion to get my shop open. Now the initial step for me was getting enough stock built up so that I had an ample amount ready for lauch day. Here I can give you two bits of useful advice, firstly, starting up is expensive, but I really recommend, if you have the means to do so, fund this yourself, the last thing you want to do is end up paying off debt before you’ve even started, also for quite some time after you’ve launched, you will still be using your own money to buy supplies, unless you’re super lucky and you have a continuous flow of customers from day one, so be prepared to be out of pocket for a while, this is a labour of love, which is why you need to be passionate about you do. Secondly, do not make too much stock, it’s always a good idea to have a bit ready to go, but again, unless you know that you’re going to have a steady flow of customers from the get go, you will only be disappointed by the amount you haven’t sold.

Right, you’re ready to go, launch day is here, and believe you and me, it will always be one of the highlights of your life, I mean opening up a business, whether it be big or small, is a big deal by anyones standards. I know, I had a lot of people view my products on launch day, and I had a good amount of sales too, but do not let this lull you into a false sense of security, come day 2, 3, 4 & 5, I had no sales, and boy was I disappointed, and also frustrated, I mean, I had worked so hard, making the stock, promoting, getting on top of the admin stuff, why weren’t people wanting to buy my candles, I was frustrated and worried too, was it always going to be like this, would sales ever pick up. So here is another piece of advice, be patient (this is something I am still working on), sales will happen, it my not be as frequent as you’d like, but you have to take any sale as a massive win, and it is a slow process, again this is something I am still learning. You’re going to rely heavily on the help of friends and family to spread the word, don’t be scared to ask people to leave a review when they’ve purchased something you’ve made, your products are made with love and care, be proud of what you’re selling and ask people to share their feedback. Like I say, I’m two months in, and I can go days, even a week without a sale, and it is so frustrating, but use your time wisely, promote, promote, promote! I’m not ashamed to admit that I have paid to advertise my candles on Facebook and Instagram. Also use social media to your benefit, there is a great community for small businesses on Instagram, it’s full of people to keep you going when things seem slow, and sharing products and advice is there in abundance. So just be patient and take the wins where you can, this is also a difficult time for small businesses, whilst we have time, people are reluctant to spend as they’re facing uncertainty, and times are hard as well, also there are no craft sales, summer fayres happening, so that also makes it a little harder, but better times are coming so be persistant, and it will pay off eventually. 

My experience is still just at the beginning stages, so a lot of the advice I am offering, is still stuff I am having to remind myself of almost daily. But I wouldn’t change this journey, I am super proud of starting up my own business, and my candles, I am very proud to say that I happily burn my candles in my own home and love them as much as a leading brand candle, I’ve even had feedback that they are better than some of the leading brands, so I must be doing something right. If you’re thinking of starting up your own business, I would highly recommend it, just know you must be passionate about it, it isn’t the money spinner you think it will be, and be prepared for hard work, nothing good comes easily, but boy is it worth it!

I hope you’re keeping safe and well.

Much love. xx

Here in the England, we’re into our final week of the academic year, I know many countries have already broken up, but we’re only two more days away from six long weeks of no school work. I know this school year has been quite different to what we’ve seen to any other in our lifetime, but the vast majorty of kids (and their parents) have been doing their work at home, and I know how stressful this has been for a lot of families, so I know that the summer break is welcomed  for many. However I know, there are many that are struggling with the idea of another six weeks at home, it could be for any number of reasons, you may have very small children, and find it difficult to get out with them, you might feel anxious about leaving the house in the current situation, it maybe that you have someone with special needs in your house, whatever the reason you may find the summer break difficult, I hope that the next six weeks passes easily for you.

So what are you planning to do in the summer holidays, it’s not our conventional six week break is it?  I mean, I know that the restrictions have been lifted a bit, but I know I for one, don’t feel happy about being surrounded by hoards of people. Which begs the question, how do we entertain our families through a six week period, when there is a worldwide pandemic happening? Fortunately we love to bake in our house, so we will fill some of our days with that, and we do have another birthday in August, so that’s always eagerly looked forward too. We do like movie days too, as we are all big movie buffs. But ordinarily we would have several days out planned, meet ups with other friends and families, I do realise that this is to some extent allowed now, but I still feel slightly anxious about it. I am hoping to hire a projector and have a movie evening in the garden, with toasted marshmallows and popcorn, it’s currently just an idea, but I would really love to make this happen. We will be taking our fluffball out on some long walks, and there will inevitably be lots of BBQ’s, although my children will be the first to tell you, I always burn the sausages! We will try to do some of the things we normally do, if social distancing can be adhered too, one of the things I love is fruit picking. I do have to keep reminding myself  now though, is that all of my children are older, it has always been a challenge to find activites that all four of them enjoy, however in previous years, with some negotiation, we have managed it, but sadly, my 18 year old doesn’t (understandably) want to join in any more, and the other three, sadly are just too old for the activities of years gone by. So this year I am going to have to be creative with entertainment, I’m not yet ready to admit that doing things as a family, is a thing of the past, Covid-19 reatrictions, may make it a little harder, but I am determined to get a couple more family spent summer holidays in, plus the idea of six weeks of hearing shouting at a console, just isn’t going to happen!

How are you planning to spend your summer break? Are you looking forward to the welcome break from whichever method of education has been happening for you, or are you slightly apprehensive about what the next six weeks will bring? I think we are all in agreement though, that at the end of summer holidays of 2020, that things are continuing to return to normal, and we are able to enjoy the activities we love safely.

I hope that you’re all safe and well.

Much love. xx

Wouldn’t that be nice, seeing what the future holds for you? Actually, I’m not sure it would, where’s the fun in knowing what your journey holds? Isn’t half the fun of life in experiencing things first hand, or spontaneity, imagine knowing what will happen and trying to change your path because it’s a bit risky! No, I’d rather remain in the dark and wait for the things to just happen, but then I am a firm believer in everything happens for a reason, so whether it be good or bad, everything has led me to where I am meant to be right now. That said, I like having a loose plan, and I like to think about where I see myself in, say a year, five years time, whilst I do believe that tomorrow is never promised, it is nice to envision where you might be.

So where do I see myself in five years time? Well, I’m glad that you asked! In five years time my children will be 23, 21, 18 & 16 and our little fluffball will be the ripe old age of 11! Now I am not naive enough to believe that any of my little crew will have flown the nest by then, and although I would love to say what their futures hold, they are afterall, their own people and I have no idea what their choices will be, but I would like to think at that point, we might have a rough idea about whether they might be looking at getting their own place, going onto uni, or just continuing on with their education at school or college, hopefully we will have survived the teenage years in tact, I’ll come back to you on that! But either way, it is a high probability that they will all still be here with me. I would like to think though, that in five years time, I would be in a position to move house, as much as I have loved making memories in our current house, it holds a very mixed bag of memories, and I have always said that this isn’t my forever home, so yes, I think that by 2025, I will be looking at new homes. Workwise…I absolutely love the idea of my candle shop having taken off and potentially not only selling them online, but also owning an actaul physical shop too, that is the dream, but the realistic part of me knows that for a long time yet I will continue in my current day job, which for the record, I also love, and work with a fantastic team of people, and I genuinely (most days), feel like I’ve really made a difference and love being there. but the dream is, and I would like to think in five years time, I will be in the stages of making my little candle empire, a reality. All work and no play makes for an exhausting life though, so as my children will all be old enough, I plan on weekend breaks with the kids, my friends & my mamma being more of a common thing too! I’ve made no secret of my desire to see the world, so I will have definitey started checking different places off by 2025!

   

And what about this, my blog? This is a huge passion of mine, I am definitely a ‘wordy’ person, and I love blogging, it is definitely proving to be a slow grower, and that can be frustrating at times, but equally I know that I have not always been consistent with getting my blogs out. But in all honesty, I do 100% see myself blogging in five years time. Despite every bit of advice you read about blogging, telling you to stick to one genre for your blog, I have always tried to keep mine very varied, I don’t like this idea of only being able to write about one thing, and there are plenty of make-up, fashion, animal, planet, book bloggers out there, which do a much better, more detailed piece of writing than I do, but I have always done blogging my way, and that’s why I enjoy it so much. And so yes, whether it still be small time, or if I am lucky enough to make it big, or well as big as you can do in the blogging world, I will absolutely be continuing with blogging. 

So where do you see yourself in five years time? Do you have any big plans, I’d love to know?

I hope that you’re all safe and well.

Much love. xx

Let’s talk theatre! I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I think when you’ve got the bug for it, there is no going back. I haven’t been anywhere near as much as I would have liked to have, and there are some definites on my list when the government give the go ahead to reopen. The first time I went, was to see panto, when I was really little, and in all honesty, I don’t remember a huge amount about it, but I do know that every time I got the opportunity to go, no matter the size of the theatre, I was there with bells on. I will admit, that I am more a fan of the musicals, that’s not to say that I don’t like anything else, it’s just that musicals tend to be more upbeat and leave me feeling happy, and who doesn’t want a piece of that!

I have seen some amazing shows over the years, but what was my favourite? I have been extremely lucky to see Grease three times, the first time being with Shane Ritchie as Danny Zuko in the West End, that was a hilarious performance, lots of mishaps that really added to the show. Everyone loves Grease right, and for that reason, I think it makes my top 5, but not my absolute favourite. Last year, I was absolutely blessed to see Chicago actually on Broadway, oh my gosh, to see an actual show, on actual Broadway, it was like a dream come true. The show was amazing and the actors were fatantastic with stunning voices, and I feel for the sheer reason that it was on Broadway in real life New York, makes it my number 2. Another amazing show was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I had wanted to see this since I was in Primary School when Jason Donovan played Joseph. Finally I got to see it in my twenties, sadly I was really ill that day, and I had desperately wanted to see Lee Mead as Joseph but instead we saw his understudy (for the record, he was amazing too), but sadly all of this led to me not enjoying it as I should have, but I will see it again, and enjoy it fully next time.

Some of the others I have seen are: Mowtown, Dirty Dancing, An Inspector Calls, West Side Story and I loved all of them, ok maybe maybe not an inspector calls, I was there for my GCSE’s and it was for an educational aspect, but it was still an experience! But this next one is my stand out favourite! And it is….Hairspray! Oh my gosh, my mum and I went to see this in London and it had Micheal Ball and Mel Smith as Tracy’s mum and dad. It was hilarious from start to finish, and all of the actors voices were just phenominal. I loved the original film of this production, and I loved the Zac Efron version as well, but without a shadow of a doubt, the show version is the best I’ve ever seen, and I’d see it again in a heartbeat! 

There are many, many more shows that I would like to see, Aladdin being number one on my list, followed by Frozen, Mary Poppins, The Lion King, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Wicked. So what are shows have you seen at the theatre and which were your favourite perfomances?

I hope that you’re all safe and well.

Much love. xx