My birthday:
This actually happened in June, so I'm a little late with this but it was SO nice to be able to go out for a meal again! We went to the Ivy in Leeds for some amazing food and it was just delicious and a real treat to have food out without the children too! We put Charlotte into nursery for an extra hour so that we had time to get back to Ilkley after lunch in Leeds. There are a few more photos of this on my post on my instagram page if you're interested.
Semi Permanent powder brows (to be continued!)
Earlier on in the year I had my first session of semi permanent makeup on my eyebrows for a powder brow/ombre brow. My eyebrows are naturally fair and sparse and usually I fill them in every day so I had saved up to have this done so that I didn't have to do this every morning! The first session was positive and I have filmed a healing journey video for my youtube channel which I will be publishing soon (pop over and subscribe if you're interested in that!) Unfortunately my top up session which happened almost 2 weeks ago now was not a positive outcome and I have since had to pay for emergency tattoo removal to try to minmize the final, healed result. I have posted a full blog post and video about what happened which you can read here: Emergency eyebrow tattoo removal and healing journey. I will also be doing another post to show how the removal process worked after the 8 weeks healing time - you can subscribe below to be alerted when this post goes live.
Catch up with old teaching colleagues
One of my old teaching colleagues handed in her notice after a very long time and so lots of us (past and present co-workers) trotted off to Baildon last Saturday to celebrate with her. It was so nice to catch up with so many amazing, like minded women who I once used to share the majority of my time with whilst Teaching! The picture below is of me with my 2 Teaching Assistants who are just the funniest, most amazing people to work with - every day was such a giggle with these two and I really miss our daily laughs, chats and silliness since I left my teaching job. Now that I work for myself it is nice not to have to put up with last minute deadlines and increased pressure from senior leadership teams who don't always understand what you're trying to achieve...but the flip side is that you don't get to spend countless moments a day passing jokes or bouncing ideas off people who 'get it'.
Femme Luxe gifted summer dress
Disclosure: paid partnership with Femme Luxe - Femme luxe have loads of affordable items on their website such as grey loungewear, co-ord sets, bodycon mini dresses and milkmaid tops. They recently sent me this bodycon mini summer dress to try which against all odds, did actually fit me (size 12). Alas, I don't have a strapless bra since having children so a normal one had to do! I do feel this is a little short for me now though, but a few years ago I'd have worn it to death.
Gyrotonic
If you follow me on instagram you may have noticed this short little video clip I shared from my Gyrotonic instructor's account. I have been attending these classes for over a year now to help with diastasis rectii and strengthen my core. I am hoping that Liz will be able to write a guest post for me at some point all about what the gyrotonic method is so that I can give you a bit more detail! If you're local to Ilkley and fancy giving this a try, feel free to DM me and I can put you in touch with Liz who teaches this in a studio at her home.
Putting our house on the market
We saw a house nearby which we fell in love with, but we were told we couldn't bid on it unless our own house was on the market with viewings booked and ideally an offer on the table!! I had a very frantic and stressful 24 hours of transforming our house from cluttered hell hole into buyer viewing worthy abode! I almost killed myself in the process and it took days for me to recover from the exhaustion of it. We now have a load of stuff in a storage unit, in the loft and yes...in the car...ha!
Unfortunately after all of that we didn't even get the house!
We've since had an offer on our house and were given 6 weeks, 2 weeks ago to find somewhere! We tried to buy a house which ended up going for 25k over the asking price which we couldn't afford. We have bid the asking price on another but the sellers want to complete a further 26 viewings before either accepting or rejecting our offer and potentially going to sealed bids. I'm not sure we will get this one either...please keep your fingers crossed!
Of course I will be really sad to leave our playroom if we do move. It was my dream to have one and we made it come true by having it built and it will be hard to let it go, but we really need more space - especially since I started my shop last year I have stock filling every spare corner of our house!
New product launches
I am always thinking of new creative ideas for my shop - www.childledplay.co.uk - and these are my latest two gluten free playdough kits! Wizard of Oz with 'ruby slippers' playdough, a Dorothy peg doll, charm bracelet, emerald city loose parts and a yellow brick road ribbon. Also a Lion play set which includes caramel and white playdough, non-stick playdough mat flash cards, large hand carved wooden lion stamp and lots of loose parts!
You can find both of these playdough sets here.
I am really hoping that we have some positive house news soon, and that I have a positive ending as far as my eyebrows are concerned! Don't forget to subscribe to my blog (below) to stay updated with that and also my youtube channel to see my brow journey.
