I can’t remember a time when travel wasn’t one of my biggest passions. My parents were adventurous souls {my mum still is} and they filled our childhood with incredible holidays, both here in the UK and across the globe. It’s not something I’ve ever taken for granted and I’m sure it had a huge influence on who I am today.

When I unexpectedly fell pregnant with Izzy at the age of 21, my grand travel plans shifted and changed. Somewhere in a parallel universe reminiscent of Sliding Doors, I probably packed a bag and jetted off to see South East Asia and Australia. Maybe I took a couple of years out, got myself a working Visa and lived like a local for a while. I watched my sister take a similar trip a few years ago, following in the footsteps of countless 20-something backpackers. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t just a little bit jealous. I know I’ll never see the world through that particular lens.

However, we’ve worked hard to ensure travel has remained a part of our lives. After my dad passed away in 2005, we used some of my inheritance to take a big trip to China, Hong Kong and Thailand. Izzy was 16 months old at the time and it was an experience I’ll never forget. Travelling with small children can be challenging, but when you start to see the world through your child’s eyes it’s immediately bigger, brighter and more exciting.

For a while, we were able to continue having big adventures as a family. If you’re wary of travelling with a baby or toddler, don’t be! It all becomes much more complicated {not to mention expensive} once they’re at school and you’re restricted by term dates.

While Izzy was still quite little, we made it back to Thailand, took a trip to Denmark, explored Turkey and visited Spain. When Jesse came along, we planned a big trip to Bali. It was there that Mr L.A. proposed, so our next holiday a few years later was actually our honeymoon!

Since then, and excluding the weekend we spent in Paris for our anniversary a few years ago, overseas travel hasn’t featured as heavily in our lives. Instead, we’ve spent the last few years making the most of the UK. I have nothing but good things to say about the holidays we’ve had here and there’s still so much of the country I want to see, but I’m ready to head a little further afield again.

Tomorrow, we’re off to Amsterdam for a week. I bought the flights on a whim months ago. I wasn’t sure we’d have enough money for everything else, but I decided to just buy the tickets anyway. After a little scrimping and saving and a lot of hard work, we’re good to go. We’ve booked an Airbnb in the Jordaan area and our I Amsterdam City Cards will be ready to collect when we arrive. Jesse has no recollection of ever setting foot on a plane, so it feels like he’s about to take his first flight.

I’m still dreaming of big adventures. If freelance work continues apace, we’d like to visit Japan next Easter. I’d love to take an extended trip with the kids one day. Maybe rent our house out and live like digital nomads for a while. Mr L.A. needs a little more persuasion though and I guess we have to consider things like GCSEs and A Levels now that Izzy’s at secondary school.

I’ve always jokingly told people we plan to live out our twenties when we’re in our forties, hopefully much to the horror of our adult children! With a bit of luck, I’ve still got my backpacking years to look forward to.

Do you love to travel? Have you taken your family on any big adventures?

Love Audrey xxx

Sunglasses: Oliver Bonas {past season} | Embroidered Top: River Island | Supertime Amsterdam Map: Herb Lester Associates

P.S. Love Audrey is 8 years old today! Thank you so much for reading and commenting on my posts here and elsewhere on the internet. I adore this space and the amazing people who frequent it.

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Love Audrey
Fulfilling Wanderlust With Kids in Tow
May in photos 🤳

1. Finally, some Franky weather. One of the best things about this month has been dusting off my summer dresses and being able to wear sandals ☀️

2+3. Coronation weekend. So many thoughts 💭 But the food was good! I made a vegan version of my mum’s famous coronation chicken and it was delicious.

4. Jesse staying upbeat during yet another trip to hospital. That steroid buzz though. IYKYK.

5. Some of the food served at the first meeting of Bristol Cook Book Club since 2020. It felt so good to get this going again. I can’t wait for our next feast!

6. Me among the cow parsley, snapped by Jesse.

7. I’ve been thinking about creativity a lot this month while working through the ‘The Artist’s Way’. 

8. Breakfast outside.

9. {Still} scrapbooking December. Fingers crossed I can finally wrap up this project in June 🤞🏻

10. Izzy’s final show at The Tobacco Factory. After tonight, she’ll be done with college {and compulsory education} forever 🤯

We packed a lot into this month. Enough to fill two carousels! This might explain why I’m so tired! I’m looking forward to June though. Everything’s better when the sun shines ✨
@_charlieswift has been raving about ‘The Artist’s Way’ by Julia Cameron for years. I finally caved, ordered the book and agreed to work through the course with her and some other artists. 

The book focuses on ‘guiding you through the process of recovering your creative self’ to ‘help you unleash your inner artist’. It’s early days {I’ve only read as far as week two and I haven’t even started my morning pages yet - IYKYK}, but I’m enjoying the process so far. 

Today I took myself on my first Artist Date - ‘a block of time… especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist’. I decided to treat myself to a solo cinema trip to see ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.’ The film was brilliant and taking time out midweek to do something just for me felt… kind of naughty? And fun! It definitely filled my creative well {again, IYKYK}.

Have you read ‘The Artist’s Way?’ Where would you go on a date with your inner artist?!
Franky weather ☀️🌅🔆🌻✨

That’s it, that’s the caption.
April in photos 🤳

1. Our trip to London over Easter was a definite highlight this month. Here’s the obligatory ‘flowers outside Liberty’ shot.

2. Finally! Some sunshine! More of the same please, Mr. Weatherman ☀️

3. Dressed for a day of sightseeing in my new favourite pink jacket. It’s Boden and I bought it in the sale 💖

4 + 5. Scenes from a trip to the big Waterstones in Piccadilly. This poem by @charlycox1 floored me. Crying in a bookshop. Not awkward at all.

6. I was proud of these steps, so I’m posting them here for posterity 🚶🏼‍♀️🥄

7. The Easter holidays also featured lots of lazy days 🎮😴

8. We bought a nutribullet and I’m officially in my smoothie era.

9 + 10. Dinner and drinks at @thecoconuttreeuk with our IzzyBee. Taking your daughter out for cocktails is a season of parenting I’m very much enjoying.

Not pictured: a family funeral and the chest infection I’m still getting over 🤒 How was April for you?
Easter weekend in my hometown 💃🏼

No trip to London is long enough for me to see all the people and do all the things I want to do while I’m there, but we always manage to pack a lot in. It’s 17 years since I moved away, but somehow it still feels like coming home. Here’s some of what we got up to…

1. Being tourists.

2. Shopping at Westfield.

3 + 4. Hanging out and eating at Southbank.

5. Refuelling in Chinatown.

6. Enjoying the big Waterstones in Piccadilly.

7. Admiring the spring flowers outside Liberty.

8. Visiting the Imperial War Museum for the first time since I was a child.

9 + 10. Seeing Elton John at the O2 with my mama 👓🎹🎤🪩✨

I hope you’ve managed to enjoy the long weekend, whatever you’ve been up to! That sunshine though!☀️🤩
March in Photos 🤳

1. How it’s going…

2. How it started.

3. My in-laws were involved in a terrible car crash earlier this month. They’re very, very lucky to be alive. It was a horrible time, so I’m grateful there was a happy ending.

4. My husband sent me this photo of a photo from our wedding day while he was visiting his parents. Turns out his mum carries it in her purse ❤️

5. While I was waiting for news from Derby, I took myself out on a walk and ended up in @thesmallcitybookshop. It was like my feet knew books would bring me comfort.

6 + 7. Just spring things.

8. Vegan lemon and almond loaf and a green smoothie from @theorchardcoffeeco 🍰🌱

9. I bought it 🌸

10. Other music? I don’t know her. 

How’s March been treating you? Personally, I’m ready for April and spring PROPER!
There is a past version of me who cannot believe I get to do this every day 💭📝💻

She’s around 12yrs old, working on her first novel in a little ring-bound notebook, dreaming up stories, devouring books and trying to imagine a life filled with words. Everything that makes my business possible now barely existed then, so even she’d struggle to conjure up  an image of what my life looks like now.

I’m grateful that I get to do this, for the clients who trust me to find the right words, and I’m grateful to that past version of me too. Without her, I wouldn’t be here now. Sure, she’d probably want me to hurry up and get back to that novel, but I think she’d be proud of the business I’ve built and the way I’ve managed to create a life filled with words.

What did you want to be when you grew up?
Lockdown memories, three years on 🦠⏳

Very little of my life made it on to the grid in 2020, so this is the first time I’ve shared these images. They’re all from the first lockdown and most were taken between March and May. I think the arrival of spring will always remind me of this strange time.

When Boris made his announcement on the 23rd, our children had already been out of school for a week. Jesse, who was initially deemed clinically vulnerable, spent the next 6m shielding. He left primary school one day not realising he’d never go back. He did not see another child his age until the summer. Like many kids and adults in the same situation, the experience had a deep impact on his mental health. 

Izzy was in Year 10. As the pandemic raged on, she did most of her GCSEs online, celebrated her 16th birthday via Netflix Party, finished secondary school with minimal fanfare and missed out on prom completely. When she finally had a normal night out with friends in the winter of 2021, I cried quietly in the kitchen when she got home. Seeing her so happy and animated after a simple ‘cheeky Nando’s’ only highlighted everything she’d missed out on in the previous 18 months.

It’s easy to forget how little we knew about the virus in the beginning and how frightening that was for everyone involved. We had it easy in comparison to some, but I still marvel at the way we coped with it all. The way we isolated, home schooled and kept our businesses ticking over. My goodness it was hard! As my children often joke, I hope we’re done living through major historical events for a while.