Blogs by Sarah R

A Spring in my Step

Tuesday 16th March 2010

Despite the less-than-encouraging temperatures, I'm rather doggedly channeling Spring at the moment and relegating anything in a wintry palette to the back of my wardrobe - and with daffodils just about to appear (so full of promise!) I'm paying homage with a bit of peppy yellow. I'm not kidding myself that it's time...

Two Thousand and Zen

Wednesday 27th January 2010

Almost impossible to believe that 12 months ago, I was expressing my intention to dub the year ‘Two Thousand and Wine’. Things didn’t exactly work out that way (hello, baby Leon!) but this year, I’m determined that nothing – not even a new baby - will stand in the way of having a...

A Very Cashmere Christmas

Tuesday 22nd December 2009

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat. As a vegetarian, I’m not much bothered about the goose – but let me tell you about some things that are getting thin: 1. Me. Well, relatively speaking. Compared to my 9-months-pregnant self of a few months ago, anyway. Oh, leave me alone. I’m...

The Trickiest Dinner Guests

Friday 27th November 2009

It Girl. Socialite. Party Girl. Truth is, none of these epithets can be applied to me, much as I might sometimes wish that I had a designer wardrobe and function-crammed Smythson that begs to differ. Nonetheless, I do rather love a party, regardless of whether it’s my own or someone else’s...

Heels Away

Wednesday 28th October 2009

So now I am a mother of three! Just two months after my first turned three, and just two months before my second turns two, Leon Magnus was born at home weighing a healthy 8lb1. He’s heaven. It’s hectic, but heaven. And if two children weren’t enough to make me feel...

Preparing the Nest

Wednesday 23rd September 2009

With less than 2 weeks left until my due date, preparations for the arrival of baby number 3 are well under way here – but the poor wee thing has barely merited a purchase in my spending efforts. Phoenix and Cassian both scored beautiful new moses baskets when they were born but since...

Having My Cake & Eating It

Monday 17th August 2009

With just 6 or so weeks of pregnancy left, I tipped the scales this morning at babblecoughsplutterahem. What do you mean you didn't catch that? Not my problem. Pay more attention next time. Anyway, following this discovery, I have made an executive decision. I am no longer going to weigh myself. Until, say,...

Little Princesses...

Monday 13th July 2009

Much as I love just about everything to do with clothing, I still wouldn't call myself an overtly ‘girly’ girl. I like camping, am not that bothered about manicures and certainly don't mind getting dirty, whether at Glastonbury nor in the line of my mothering duties (I'm on quite friendly terms with things...

Clothing Karma

Monday 15th June 2009

Karma is a funny old thing. It’s all very well sending out positive energy into the universe in the belief that it’ll be sent back to you, preferably in the form of something shiny in a pale blue box with the word Tiffany on it – but surely doing good in the expectation...

My Return to Glory...

Wednesday 20th May 2009

I’ve always had a bit of a love-hate relationship with beauty salons. It’s just the dimmed lights, the plinky-plonk piped music, the inevitably hushed tones of the beauty therapist. And yet, on the other hand, I love the end result: the buffed, polished version of me that leaves water feature and oil-burner behind...

The Burgeoning Belly

Friday 1st May 2009

A little piece of advice for first-time mums, as well as those with their first time still ahead of them: enjoy and relish every single moment of your pregnancy. Lap up all the attention that’s lavished on you, go to antenatal yoga classes, and lie, for hours on end, rubbing stretch-mark oil into...

The Calm Before the Storm...

Friday 10th April 2009

I don’t think I quite realised just how tough having two babies within 16 months of each other was until it started to get easier. And I know for a fact that we’ve turned a corner because I’ve just finished a book for the first time since the end of 2007, when Cassian...

E-tail Therapy

Thursday 26th March 2009

I think it’s fair to say that last weekend was fairly appalling. Take a stressed-out mother, add a heartbroken sister, throw in a distraught best friend and top it all with a visit from the in-laws which ended unceremoniously when they reacted outrageously to an imagined slight, and by Sunday night I was...

Another Year, Another Present

Wednesday 11th March 2009

I’m not a massive fan of tradition – for instance, my dad didn’t give me away when I got married, since I objected to the idea of being passed, like a parcel, from one bloke to another – but some, like the idea of gifts made from specific materials for each wedding anniversary,...

Wake Up & Smell the Coffee...

Monday 23rd February 2009

For various reasons, it’s already become apparent that this year is going to be a manic one. All of which is good, and exciting, and fun – and I’m all for rising to a challenge and working under pressure and all of that (or so I justified my tendency to start Uni essays...

The 'Journey'

Wednesday 4th February 2009

I can hardly believe it myself, but I think I’ve discovered the fly in the ointment of online shopping. It’s so beautifully simple, so time-efficient, so pleasurable that, in short, it makes all of the things that can’t be done online seem almost intolerable. This revelation came to me last weekend when I...

Two Thousand & Wine

Wednesday 14th January 2009

With the ever-looming threat of environmental meltdown constantly upon us, most of us are making steps to get greener, but, at the risk of sounding my own trumpet, I’d like to modestly assert that few are greener than me. After spending one of our last Australian weekends (for this half of the year,...

Survival Skills

Tuesday 30th December 2008

Two weeks into my annual Sydney sojourn, I’ve realised that the culture of online shopping is far less developed here than it is in the UK. I’m not entirely sure whether it’s because the smaller population means that the shops are less crowded and that retail therapy is therefore less traumatic, or whether...

Crunch? What Crunch?

Friday 5th December 2008

Try not to hate me too much, but by the time this blog goes live, I will have departed these grey days and icy winds for the sun-stroked beaches of Sydney. And not just for a flying visit – for two whole months. Two. Whole. Months. I could weep for joy. Here’s...

Baby Boom

Wednesday 19th November 2008

In the last few weeks, barely a day has gone past without a text message or Facebook status update announcing that yet another friend has just had a baby. All of which is very exciting, albeit polarising. There’s nothing like a newborn to make me feel, on the one hand,...

The Rain in Spain...

Tuesday 4th November 2008

“Bored of London, bored of life.” Oh, how I grind my teeth when people (usually earnest arty types with vaguely ludicrous dress sense) throw that one my way. How about “Bored of London, bored of crowds, bored of traffic, bored of lousy weather”? Granted, much of the time I enjoy London almost...

Hyde and Seek

Wednesday 15th October 2008

It might be an odd thing for someone who doesn't eat meat to say, but I LOVE skin. Love it. I vividly remember buying a pair of leather trousers, back when I was 23. I thought I looked fabulous (photographic evidence, however, suggests otherwise). “Do I look okay?” I used to ask my...

You've Got Mail

Thursday 2nd October 2008

Broadly speaking, there are two types of people in the world: those who get annoyed by things (sluggish broadband connections, slow-moving traffic, flat-pack furniture) and those who get annoyed by people (gum-chewing sales assistants, in-laws, flaky friends). While my husband falls squarely into the former category, I undoubtedly have two Louboutin-clad size 42s...

Bad Coffee & Blouses...

Saturday 20th September 2008

Few things can sour my ordinarily sweet (no, really) disposition like a bad coffee. And in my neck of the woods, a decent shot of caffeine can be a hit and miss affair. Life, I say, is too short for bad coffee. And until they figure out a way for me to buy...

Net-Less In Northumberland...

Thursday 4th September 2008

No matter how many times I stay with my in-laws in Northumberland, I always manage to pack clothing that doesn’t see the light of day. I put it down to the fact that I’m Australian and eternally optimistic – you say beach, I say strappy dresses and tank tops - but every trip...

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