OUR FIRST CHRISTMAS AS FOUR

Oh this year was a bit extra-special.. our first Christmas with our Winter baby, Sylvie. Our first Christmas as a family of four! Vivienne was so excited, Sylvie didn't know what was going on, it made everything that little bit busier than last year.. and it was all completely magical.

I loved hearing Vivienne telling Sylvie about Christmas and what happens ("this is our Christmas tree and we hang things on it.. no you can't pull them off!") whilst simultaneously remembering being very, very pregnant at the same time last year..  we were lucky enough to have a few days of snow which Sylvie was excited by, we went for lots of walks down into the town centre whilst being wrapped up warm, we had a 'friendmas' and pulled crackers a few weeks early, made a Christmas cake with Vivienne well in advance of Christmas day, made our own advent calendar..

In November we had to gently intervene with Vivienne's early Christmas list draft as it contained three pairs of trainers, an iPod and a Macbook Pro.. (she's eight. I *know*) She replied by saying "I know they're a lot of money which is why I've waited to ask Santa, then you don't have to pay for them." Well played, Vivienne. We had some thinking-outside-the-box-on-the-spot to do before gently persuading her that it was, in short, a ridiculous Christmas list. Fortunately she went on to revise it to something a little bit less ambitious..

As always, Vivienne's social calendar was busier than ours as she went on Brownie trips on the Santa Express, had Christmas discos and parties to attend, and we went to her school carol concert at a local church. Their school term didn't finish until 22nd which felt really late - half the excitement is feeling it build before Christmas, isn't it? But we made the most of the weekend before prepping veg and tidying round ready to host Christmas day (even if I was slightly worse for wear on Christmas Eve.. I didn't have any Christmas nights out last year due to bump so I guess it's OK..)

Vivienne was so excited this year, so much so that she excitedly carried her stocking into our room at 4.30am asking if the day could start immediately and she could start opening presents (the answer was no.. and 'go back to sleep'..) Ringing a bell to announce that 'he's been!' is a Christmas tradition in our house and my heart felt full watching the girls come into the living room on Christmas morning (even if it was still only 6.30am..) Vivienne bounded in and brought Sylvie to her pile of things before creating chaos in her corner opening things in a frenzy.

We have a few Christmas traditions but decided to add a few more this year. Last year, heavily pregnant, I was desperately trying to 'get things going' by walking as much as possible; including walking a long stretch along the beach and to the local farm shop and back - we've decided to do this every year. Vivienne and I made an advent calendar that contained a good deed, affirmation or something like 'think of three reasons you feel lucky today' for her to open each day; she had a chocolate advent calendar too.. I'm not that mean.. We also decided to start a little tradition between the girls where we'll give them a little money each year so they can buy each other a little gift to put under the tree; Vivienne picked both gifts this year but still wrote Sylvie a 'Thank You' card for hers.

We hosted Christmas dinner with my parents, sister and grandparents.. It went well, nothing got burnt or forgotten, there were no arguments.. all in all we had a busy, perfectly normal but wonderfully special Christmas fuelled by cheese, pate, alcohol, party food and leftovers (still feeling the effects at this end, well into January..) 

I had two weddings between Christmas and New Year, and then the next stop was Sylvie's birthday on January 2nd - I think the actual chaos died down on about January 4th after Christmas, but I wouldn't want it any other way.

I hope you all had a really wonderful and special Christmas and a very happy 2018.

AN ADVENTURE WITH VIVIENNE | INTERRAILING WITH KIDS

I suspect I might not be the only one out there to admit... 'family holidays' aren't really my bag. Yes, it's easier to go somewhere with a kids' club and yes, Vivienne loves all that stuff and yes it means there is time to actually relax.. but I just find it all a bit.. well, naff. Also, Vivienne was so excited with new holiday friends that, selfishly, I feel I didn't see enough of her last time we were away. Due to being a seasonal worker where it's often a case of "well I might as well take another booking in August because I may not get another later in the year" it's made sense for us to book places that we know Vivienne will make new pen pals and we can get some Autumn sun over October half term. 

For the past few years I've been dreaming of the idea of doing trips that are going to be real experiences, and I'd bookmarked Easter 2018 off in my mind with the hope of going somewhere exciting. Originally I'd hoped for a road trip exploring West Coast America and taking Viv out of school for an extra week; but then Sylvie came along and we decided to wait until she can remember something like that and really experience it too.

Then I thought about Interrail. I've never been and the idea of hopping on and off trains crossing beautiful parts of Europe sounded a bit magical. Would doing interrail with kids be too hard? Looking at dates for David and his work and everything that is already in the diary for next year we decided that the majority of the trip would be just me and Vivienne, and then David and Sylvie can meet us for four days at the end. (And in all honesty, part of me was a bit relieved when I considered the age she'll be at and the amount of stuff she'd still need..)

So I mocked up plans and itineraries and worked out a route that would be possible, with travel times that wouldn't be too much for Vivienne too. Quickly I realised that I'd have to stop myself from wanting to do all the places I wanted to visit in one trip.. I'd have to prioritise for this trip and do another stretch of Europe another time.

I wanted to mix cities with some more 'outdoorsy' experiences.. I went to different areas of Switzerland a lot growing up and I really wanted Vivienne to see how beautiful it was, it then made sense to do a sleeper train somewhere, spend a few days there and then go on to somewhere else. After a bit of moving ideas and places around on a time line, this is what I came up with..

We begin by waving off Dav and Sylv and flying to Geneva, staying for just one night. From Geneva we'll get the train around the lake to Montreux, again for one day and one night; from here we get the train to Zermatt for two nights, which will give us time to cable car up to the Matterhorn and do the Glacier Experience and hopefully have an afternoon on the beginners' slopes taking Vivienne skiing for the first time (fingers crossed!). On the morning after our last night in Zermatt, we'll travel up to Zurich and spend the day exploring there before getting the overnight train to Vienna. We'll stay two nights in Vienna - I've booked us a hostel room with a huge glass ceiling (mainly so we can smash it.. feminist joke there..) overlooking the city, and then we'll get the train to Budapest from there to meet David and Sylvie, and have three nights there as the four of us before flying home.

I've created a travel diary/book with our itinerary, costs so far, payments that still need to be settled and labelled pages with each destination. I've also bought a European travel guide and asked Vivienne to do her own research for what she'd like to see or do in each place. So far we only really have in what we're looking to do in Zermatt, and I read about some amazing spa pools that look like they're worth a day trip in Budapest.. I'm going to lend Vivienne one of my small cameras for the week and see what she comes up with. 

Mainly, sight-seeing and exploring aside, I'm *so* excited to spend some quality time with Vivienne. Often Sylvie needs more immediate attention at home and Vivienne is so good at understanding, but I do think it'll do her so much good to be a bit more free and for it to be just the two of us for a week or so. I'm optimistically hoping we can get away with hand luggage in the name of 'travelling light' so I think the next challenge is working out a real capsule packing list that will last us the entire trip! If you've travelled or Interrail-ed with little ones I would really love to hear any tips you've got or travel essentials; or if you have any recommendations for where we're going I'd love to hear!

'SELF CARE' OVER 'TREAT YOURSELF'

I feel that I pretty much hid throughout my pregnancy. I didn't really 'announce' that we were expecting, friends and family knew, and I only told clients that I would be shooting their weddings pregnant when I was getting bigger and my bump was too obvious to hide. I think I just felt very self conscious and really didn't like not 'feeling myself', plus I found out I was pregnant when wedding season kicks off and I was genuinely too busy during the Summer to do too much else anyway. In short, I much preferred lying around the house in my maternity PJs growing by the week feeling sorry for myself that I was so worn out all the time..

Fast forward to now, and Sylvie is over 9 months old. I've reached the end of a really hectic few months from pretty much getting straight back into shooting a month or so after I had her.. it's been a busy old year. I've started making a conscious effort to take time for myself and time to reflect too, as well as more seeing friends and getting out of the house again. Even going to the gym feels like real time off these days, and I've been really trying to restart a routine now we have full childcare some days. (And I have to admit, at the moment it still hurts every time.. but I'll get there.)

It feels like such a cliche these days to talk about 'self care' but that's exactly what it I'm trying to do.. And it's not about 'Treat Yourself' things and throwing cash at candles and bath products promising to make you feel pampered, for me it's just been about slowing down a little more and taking some time out for myself here and there. I've been going out for tea with friends much more than I did last year, arranging to see people I haven't in a while, spending quality time out with the girls and also asking David to take them out for a few hours sometimes too, not even so I can do work necessarily, but just to have a few hours to myself.

At times in the past I've been so busy that I've wondered what it's all for, and I try and remember what my interests used to be before family life came along. With this in mind I've decided to make an effort to take pictures and offer myself up for some projects out of my comfort zone, and I've also been to a few different art classes locally, a watercolour class by KLB Design House, and a few of the Sunday Art School classes run by A Still Life Workshops. I'm hoping to cook more as it gets colder and darker outside, and make time for us to all sit and eat as a family some nights. And I want to get out walking in the hills before it gets that little bit too cold to be out in the elements for too long. I've found that anything that makes you forget about the time or to check your phone is absolutely wonderful for headspace. 

I thought I'd make a little list of more 'calm living' things I'd like to do before the end of the year, mainly so I have something to refer to..

- Walking in the hills with Sylvie wrapped to me
- Taking pictures purely for myself and *actually* getting around to processing and printing them
- Cook a *full* Sunday dinner, and more week day family dinners
- Teach Vivienne to cook a few dishes
- Make some proper hot chocolates with Vivienne after school
- Cycle with Viv on the tandem, and go for our annual conker-hunting bike ride
- Book a sports massage to sort my shoulders out
- Email out small companies I'd like to work with to expand my commercial portfolio
- Get much more of an eating and gym routine going. Drink more water.
- Read, and stop working on my phone when I'm in the bath
- Do some Autumn crafts and paint with Vivienne
- Do another Sunday Art School
- Hopefully take a weekend to see friends in London

I saw this picture below on Instagram recently and it rang so true. I'm definitely going to try and draw on that thought over the next few months. If you have any calming, self-caring and 'feeling yourself' activities too I'd love to know. 

BOHO WOLF, MIDDLESBROUGH | LUNCH AT BOHO ONE

I was invited recently to try some new dishes at Boho Wolf, in the Boho One building in Middlesbrough by Julie, who owns it as well as Chilli Cake in Hartlepool. I'd worked with Chilli Cake a few years ago and the food was amazing, and I was so, SO excited to go back and see what Boho Wolf had to offer.

I met up with Carli from The Teahouse in Middlesbrough for brunch and to chat about work, blogging (you can see hers here) , her house move and various other exciting projects and ideas in pipelines.. It was so good to remove myself from the confines of my office and have a real-life chat about our various work and life updates.. And any meet up which also includes food and photography is absolutely fine by me.

I've really enjoyed getting ideas and memories down here but I don't want it to just be another 'Mum Blog', and I would like it to cover much wider topics; it just so happens that my head is pretty full of routines, shopping lists and family admin these days.. Carli is so inspiring to talk to and always has a million ideas. I came away feeling like this is something I'd like to really pursue and do more of, so fingers crossed this blog carries on fitting in and I can find the time to properly keep it up.

I've also wanted to do more small business photography and I have, what I hope will be, quite an exciting idea brewing behind the scenes (watch this space.. a few of you may already know what's going on...); so visiting Boho Wolf came at exactly the right time to get my out of heavy-wedding-editing and back out into the real world and find some space for a few hours. And it was so, so worth it..

The highlights for me were the Teesside Fries, made with cheddar and béchamel (see what they did there? If you're not a Teessider, maybe not.. you either know or you don't!) and The Korean baguette, which had buttermilk fried chicken, kimchi, sriracha mayo and friend noodles. Honestly, to die for. The Hangry cheese toastie was very, very close behind.. Also anywhere that takes their coffee seriously and does a mean flat white is two-thumbs-up in my books.

It was starting to get busy as we left for Carli to show me around her new digs - it was the perfect spot for lunch and a catch up. If you're around in Middlesbrough it's well worth a visit.. I'm not ruling out heading back just for the halloumi fries I saw on the specials board..

FESTIVAL OF THRIFT, KIRKLEATHAM | DAY TRIPPER

I first came across the Festival of Thrift last year when I thought I'd give it a go one September Saturday after seeing flyers in the Post Office, and ended up visiting *both* days of the weekend that it was on. It's *amazing*. It's a family and earth-friendly local festival held in Kirkleatham near Redcar, promoting sustainability and full of fab things to do for all ages. There are bric-a-brac and handmade produce stalls, bars in double decker buses, farmers market stalls, live performances, craft activites, amazing street food.. the weather for both visits over the two years has been that perfect early-Autumn September sun.

Vivienne packed a fair bit in during the day we visited; she did chocolate decorating, made a purse out of a recycled tetrapack with Friends of the Earth, a seedbomb with Manor Garden Flowers; and we all sat and watched the dancing and performances that were on throughout the day with food and drinks too. The weekend has such a lovely and relaxed atmosphere, it's almost like a small and relaxed Glastonbury, like you're casually wandering through the Craft Field or Green Futures.

Obviously Sylvie didn't get up to that much but enjoyed the busy-ness and music that was going on. It was a very accessible festival for us with the buggy so it was a relaxing way to spend the day with a baby in tow. You could spend anything from a few hours there or could make a full day of exploring everything on offer there.

All in all it was £5 for a car parking voucher, so it costs nothing if you make your own way there without driving. A lot of the activities are free, including things like den-building where tools and materials are left out for you to use as you wish. We actually decided against den-building this year after a bit of a family fall out last year.. zero teamwork or planning ended up with a few strops along the way about committee decisions..

Anyway, if you're local-ish to Teesside (or not?) it's so worth visiting and having a colourful, crafty and chilled out weekend. It's cheap as chips, accessible, and if you're a fan of festivals, farmers markets, arts, crafts, vintage shopping, thrifting, and shopping independent/local then this is the weekend to look out for next year and scribble it in the calendar. It seemed bigger this year than last year which only bodes well for next year. We bloody love it.