Maybe it was the grey, you know The grey that made me buy you so Adrift among a sea of blues A raft of overbearing hues Your slate-grey top, those golden crescents Slowly drew me to your presence Your rigid shape defied finesse A beacon of middle-agedness I swept you up, I looked both ways […]
LIFE: Two Battered Shoes – a poem for the end of term
Two battered shoes sit in the hall Bereft after a year at school The right one sighs, the left one slumps Comparing scuffs and scrapes and bumps A year of battles, playground pacts A year of daydreams, whispered chats A year of friends, a year of foes A year squeezed round ten growing toes A […]
Life: Happy Mail And Why The Postman Is Every Freelancer’s Friend
Some days, the only other human I see between the hours of 9AM and 3PM is the postman. As a freelance copywriter working from home during school hours, I don’t really need to use my voice at all during the working day, with the exception of the odd Skype meeting and a few outbursts of […]
Life: A Poem For Mother’s Day: Every Bath Interrupted
Every bath interrupted, privacy gone to shreds, Fielding intimate questions while shaving my legs. Every lie-in abandoned, every elbow to the head, THE SUN IS AWAKE! Everyone’s in my bed. Every trip to the toilet is private no more, When two sets of eyeballs appear at the door. Every meal time thwarted, the riot act […]
Life: Oi! Stop picking on the gym.
It’s January. Cue the anti-gym headlines telling us we can lose weight and get fit for free by jogging around the park. Well, I beg to differ… The gym gets a fair bit of flack in January. Deemed un-newsworthy the rest of the year, it creeps back into the headlines just after Christmas when thousands […]
Life: Shhhh, Mummy’s working. (Or how not to go freelance.)
Twelve weeks ago, I left my job of seven years. Well, seven years at the same company, anyway. I’d effectively been doing the same thing – writing and editing – for twelve years. I’d just switched from doing it for magazines, to doing it for brands. I digress. I left my job to go freelance […]
Family: DisneyLife Review – Is A Subscription Worth The Money?
If you’ve been reading the blog you’ll know that my kids watch too much TV, and I’m OK with that. So it’ll come as no surprise to learn that we’ve been testing out DisneyLife – Disney’s subscription-based streaming service – for the past couple of months. If you’re a Disney fan considering taking the plunge, […]
Family: Autumn-Inspired Children’s Jumpers From JoJo Maman Bebe
After spending last week at my desk watching the leaves blow off the trees outside our house (did I mention I jacked in my job and went freelance? No?? There’s a post on that to come…), I spent this morning sifting through the kids’ wardrobes, sorting all their summer gear into piles and digging out […]
Family: How To Get The Best From Your Children’s Photoshoot
When I first got an email from Andy Nickerson Photography asking if I’d like to try out a children’s photoshoot, I’ll admit: I was dubious. For one thing, we’re not an overly camera-ready family – one of the kids is usually snotty, the other tends to poke the camera lens every time I put it […]
Life: My IKEA Mid-Sleeper Bed Hack (Plus Major Mum Points)
I’m a big fan of buying second-hand – there’s not a single piece of new furniture in my 3-year-old’s bedroom. I’m also a big fan of IKEA, so when I spotted a chance to combine the two I was pretty chuffed. I found this IKEA mid-sleeper Kura bed for sale via one of those selling […]