I have not travelled for work in over 4 weeks. Can barely believe I’m saying that after the last two years but it’s true, and it’s been so nice being at home and driving myself to work instead of getting a taxi to and from the airport at all hours. I’ve even seen my friends! May was therefore a pretty good month, and it began with an amazing trip to the Lake District.

We stayed in the Langdale and Brimstone Estate which is near Ambleside, and after the pics I was sharing while we were there I’ve never had so many people request a blog on it. The full post on where we stayed is here, but the whole weekend was so much fun and exactly what I needed, four days in the middle of nowhere to relax. 

We had proper British pub meals, leisurely walks by the lake, wandered round the little Lakeland towns and spent time in the spa. I’m seriously trying to figure out how I can fit in another trip by the end of the year, possibly a winter getaway so fingers crossed that works out. 

Being at home has meant I’ve been able to blog a bit more locally, starting with a meal at Hinnies in Whitley Bay. I’d never been before and I went with my friend Lucy after I was invited to try the new summer menu. I had a really nice seafood paella, but I’ve also heard the Sunday dinners are good so quite want to try that sometime too. My full review can be found here.

My other Whitley Bay collaboration was with Nicholson’s butchers, who kindly gifted me one of their BBQ packs last week. I’ve shopped at Nicholsons my whole life, so knew it would be good and sure enough we had a delicious feast of burgers, sausages and kebabs. Find out more about their BBQ packs and what else is on offer here. 

I feel like I’ve been to Kith & Kin every weekend of the last month, but I finally got Kieran there and he loved it so we’ve been back a few times. It’s my favourite food place in Whitley Bay for breakfast, brunch or lunch and the best dishes have to be the french toast or the shakeshuka.

It’s been so nice to eat locally recently and I’ve got a few other places on my list to try before I’m back to travelling more frequently again.

Earlier this month I was invited to a launch event that was something totally different for me, the Fenty Beauty launch at Boots. As you all know I’m not really a beauty blogger, but believe it or not I have interests that I don’t blog about, and after seeing the Fenty collection in Copenhagen I did really want to attend.

It was an eye opening event to say the least, the most important thing was that I did really love the make up and I came away with some really nice things, and went back to buy some more a few days later. But I felt totally out of place! 

Blog events can be a bit intimidating at the best of times, and I’ve learned to just turn up even if I’m alone, speak to people regardless and get as much as I can out of it for what people might want to read about. But at 7am with a load of beautiful girls with flawless make up (what time do you people wake up?!) I was a bit thrown out my comfort zone. 

Thankfully everyone was lovely and I did enjoy it. I do have a full blog coming about some of the products hopefully later this month – at least then I’ll have been using the stuff for a month. 

As well as my own blog I’ve been doing some freelance stuff for other companies, which has really helped with all my holiday costs this year! I can’t share what I did yet but I will hopefully next month.

It all helps and meant we’ve booked an extra trip as well as Italy for the summer, heading to Palma for a long weekend in July. I reeeeally need some guaranteed sun, and I absolutely love Palma.

Pottering about Newcastle has been a common occurrence the past month too, with no trips away I’ve thoroughly enjoyed spending time at home, and we’ve had the occasional after work drink in the sun, and dinner out, my favourite being Muddler for sushi. 

One Saturday I saw the new Flannels has opened on Northumberland Street, so I had a browse in there and summarised what I thought here. The shop itself is nice, but I think I prefer the experiences of brand shops better than department stores. 

I enjoyed a night out with Lucy over the bank holiday weekend, including some tapas in Revolution de Cuba, some gin cocktails in Pleased to Meet You, and some very questionable dancing to old school Madonna in Rustys. It took me a week to recover so not sure how I’m going to cope next week at Parklife festival in Manchester…

I didn’t totally sway from travel blogs this month, despite not going anywhere myself I shared this post on things to see in Rouen, Normandy. Such a cute French city I think I said on Instagram it’s like York x1000 which is so true. A great place to stop if you’re road tripping through France this summer.

Coming up this month I’ve got Ricky Gervais this week, Parklife festival next weekend including an extra night on Friday to see Noel Gallagher, Kieran’s birthday and an afternoon tea booked in up near Morpeth. 

And finally one of the best thing this month was the arrival of and meeting the newest addition to our family – Henry George Harrison! 

Have a great June! X