Who am I?

I am mum to two lovely (most of the time) girls, RoRo (7) and LaLa (4) – (they are now known by nicknames at the request of the eldest). I’m married to Chris, with whom I run a business, providing services to educational publishers. We work from home and split everything, roughly equally – work, domestic stuff and childcare.

This blog started life purely as a parenting (or ‘Mummy’) blog, but over time has become a bit more general, with books and writing and cooking and recipes becoming a much bigger feature. Now and then I also talk about the struggles (and benefits) of working from home. I also write the odd (honest) review, though not very many these days. And every now and then I feel the urge to comment on politics or society or some such. (I also make some money from sponsored posts – this is my ‘me’ money, most of which I use to buy paints or pay for design courses, and now and then some really expensive boots.)

I am liberal, left-wing, Guardian-reading, reasonably open-minded, agnostic verging on outright atheist. Oh and I’m a lifelong vegetarian. I am never knowingly mean or rude, but I will tell you if I disagree with you – and am very happy for you to do the same. In parenting terms, I’m an extended breastfeeder (up to 2 years 3 months with the eldest and just beyond that with the youngest), baby-led weaning advocate who will co-sleep when it helps, but is also happy to put babies in cribs and cots if they’re happy to go in there. I also became a total sling convert with my second daughter and wish I’d discovered them with my first. I am strongly against using any form of physical discipline and will not stand up for anyone who chooses to hit their children. Other than that, I’m happy to let other people make their own parenting decisions and to let me make mine, without arguing about it.

I am not hugely sociable in real life, though I will talk your ear off if I’ve had a couple of beers. My alcoholic beverages of choice are Kir Royal, Cava, red wine and real ale. I love chocolate, especially luxurious boxes of chocolates. I need to get back into exercise and love taking the dog for a walk in the evening, so should do so more often.

I love drawing and painting and making patterns and am really pushing forward with that at the moment. These days, I start to feel very stressed and fidgety if I haven’t done some kind of art or design for a couple of days. Please come and visit my illustration blog: www.tag-illustration.co.uk.

The regularity of my blogs varies widely, and recently the balance has been veering very much toward the sponsored posts as I have not felt especially inspired. Hopefully that will change.

I love comments – whether you’re another blogger or one of those mysterious regular readers who I don’t know, please do leave a comment if you have something to say about a post. I’d really love to know if you try any of my recipes – whether you enjoy them or hate them!

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