What to Expect from The Only Girl in the House | Mission Statement

When I hit the very scary “publish” button for the first time two and a half years ago, I had the intention of bringing stylish family interiors to the masses. But I found bringing my interiors day job into my hobby of writing like latching on a creative leech to the heart of my ju-ju – it sucked the life out of my writing. In addition, I was about to drop our boy number 5 into the world so my brain was addled with all the new amazing baby garb that had been invented/re-invented since 2008; we were living in a rather uninspiring, dark rented house – so taking swoonworthy interiors shots was like trying to catch the slippery soap in a lukewarm bath (impossible) and I found it piss easy to bemoan life with a brood of boys to anyone that would listen, whilst struggling for my next interiors post subject matter. Something had to change – and it did.

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Kynren Explained

If you’re anything like me a month ago, you probably haven’t heard the word Kynren, unless you’re an avid watcher of my insta-stories, in which case a couple of Thursdays ago you would’ve been bombarded with my word du jour (I’ve uploaded the stories HERE for your viewing pleasure!). So, without keeping you on the edge of your seats, what is Kynren? Kynren is an outdoor spectacular of a show, which takes place through the summer months in the beautiful, almost Teletubby Land-like, lush green hills of Bishop Auckland in County Durham; each of the 17 shows, which “start in daylight and end in starlight” crams 2000 years of British history into 90 minutes, showered with fireworks, peppered with live-stock and a cavalry of white horses to boot, all with bucket loads of nostalgia.

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Family Car Journey | Nostalgia Lane – KFIS

Day 47 (and the last day) of the summer holidays: The kids have been piled in and out of the car on six separate occasions today to head to yet another fun filled activity. Each trip undoubtedly ends with “can we go home yet?” as the excitement wears off and they suss that I’ve again stung them with a cheap-skate trip to the beach or park. But isn’t that what summer holidays are about? Filling your days with wholesome, outdoorsy activities that feed your parents’ souls, make for cracking Instagram updates and will, eventually my little cherubs, make for joyous, nostalgic memories.

When I look back on my childhood, it was a much quieter one than my children are being subjected to. I was an only child with a small, close knit family – the kind that were civilised enough to venture on a nine hour, family car journey every summer to visit my aunt and uncle in Scotland, without feeling like all sanity might be lost by the time we hit the M25. It was on one of these mammoth escapades that my tale unfolded…

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Family Travel: Toddler Must-Haves

With the summer holidays in full flow and the mass exodus from the classroom many of you lucky buggers will be jetting of to warmer climes for your hols – something we did back in the half term (you can read all about it here and even see the vid here!). At the time we were rather smug at the idea of going away before everyone else, with the optimism of summer laying before us – now we just watch on with green eyes as you holiday spam my insta-feed from gorgeous destinations. But hopefully our premature jaunt to the sun has filled me with holiday wisdom to share – to bring you the bits I couldn’t have gone that week without (and at the bottom, the bits I want to kick to bloofy Jupiter). Ok, well I probably could’ve survived a Greek, all-inclusive resort without these items, but it would have been a lot more stressful (yes, even more stressful than travelling as a family of 7!).

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10 Ways Thomson Holidays Busied Our Boys

Our family can be a logistical nightmare: ferrying the 14 year old to town to hang out with his friends whilst getting the 12 year old over to his mates house to play on the PlayStation, then herding the 8 & 9 year olds to a football match – meanwhile, poor little Casper gets dragged along on the promise of a jammy dodger. My point being, keeping all 5 boys entertained in one place is a huge ask. So when I started talking to Thomson about our latest family holiday (see more details here), my biggest challenge to them was to keep our brood so busy for a week, in the sun, that they wouldn’t pick up their iPad or whinge about not having their beloved PlayStations.

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