Holly Bobbins loves going on holidays, she gets to live her best life running around the countryside and she's always made very welcome given the wealth of dog friendly accommodation choices you can find now,  Northumberland especially seems to delight in offering cosy cottages where you can your pooch can holiday together.  Last week we stayed in the apartment, an open plan first floor property which is part of the dog friendly Cross House Cottages in Warkworth on the Northumbrian Coast.  The best thing for me as a home educating single parent is that Looby and I can not only take trips in the quiet times of the year but we can also get a bus direct from Newcastle which only takes around 90 minutes to get to the heart of the Northumbrian coastline.

Whilst the apartment is on the upstairs of the property if you would rather hire a ground level apartment the owners also have a garden studio which is again, an open plan dog friendly garden.  A huge secure back garden is perfect for your four pawed best friend to have a run around and if you're lucky you may even get to meet the resident poodles who are a very handsome pair, there's nothing better than oodles of poodles!

If you've never been to Warkworth before prepare to be wowed on your way into the village as the imposing ruins of Warkworth castle are your first view of this small rural coastal village, owned by English Heritage you'll find it's open at weekends during winter and week round during the peak months of the year, I've been many times and it's one of the most impressive ruins you'll find on the Northeast coast although if you want a castle which is completely in tact with rooms you can still visit you're not too far from Bamburgh Castle or Alnwick castle although both are unfortunately not dog friendly where as Warkworth Castle is.

For a small village they cater well for dog friendly breaks with 3 dog friendly pubs, namely, The Masons Arms (huge portions and my favourite of the 3), The Sun Hotel and the Hermitage Inn and do treat yourself to afternoon tea at dog friendly cafe Bertrams, you're in luck if they have the courgette and lemon cake on offer.

We really didn't do very much other than relax and rest, it's the time of year for staying indoors in cosy places although we did enjoy a sunset walk along the river and a walk to Amble and back the next day to make sure we'd worked up an appetite and doggy partner in crime Holly Bobbins had quite enough fun and exercise.

A stay at Cross House Cottages really involves minimal effort, all of the pubs are a mere hundred or so footsteps away so you can treat this holiday or mini-break as a relaxing haven or if you are more hardy you are right in the midst of the most beautiful coastline in the country with walks which take you to the most beautiful villages which nestle together making up the Northumbrian coastline, the best part is that most of the villages have a dog friendly pub or tearoom and they're all full of delicious treats, so much so that you may need to plan to walk off the calories afterwards.

Holly Bobbins was made so welcome that she couldn't dream of giving Cross House Cottages an immediate entry into her dog friendly guide and 10 barks out of 10 for the big secure garden which meant she could run around doing lots of sniffs to her hearts content no matter what time of the day or night and of course as usual she delighted every one she met and had many pats, dog treats and cuddles, I couldn't ask for a best doggy ambassador for our dog friendly guide.

If you have a dog friendly cottage you'd like to be included in Holly Bobbins Dog Friendly Guide please do get in touch and thank you so much to Lara who invited us to stay for 2 nights in exchange for an honest review.

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9 Ways to Make February Lovely

After this weeks bombshell posts about having a facelift and giving up sugar, I'm pleased to say that today's is a little more gentle, actually, it's a lot more gentle and 100% lovely because it's February and we all know that for the main, February is about love.  Not only is it about love, it's also my birthday and so I've combined these two things for my monthly roundup, ways to make February more lovely.

Now you don't have to be in a relationship to have a more lovely month or even to celebrate Valentines day because love isn't just for couples, it's about loving you more, appreciating your friendships, it can be about falling in love all over again with a hobby, an aspect of your life or even a person.  Love creates infinite possibilities, it is the human condition to seek it out and when we don't feel loved, we feel desolate and empty so let's take a look around and see what love we can find around us, let's plan to make February the loveliest month of the year.

9 great things to make February the loveliest month of the year

1. Have you ever tried any of the Great British Biscotti range?  If you haven't then there's never been a more perfect month to indulge as they've just brought out a chocolate orange version, once my family had waited (im)patiently for me to photograph them it took them about 0.36 seconds to eat them so I reckon, if you can't say it with flowers, say it with chocolate orange biscotti.

2. If you love meat like I love meat then you will be delighted to know that Meat Stack, Newcastle's best burger joint (in my opinion) is now not just resident at No 28, it's also got it's own outlet in the Grainger Market which is open for breakfast from 7.30am until 5.30pm, so potentially you could do market meat stack followed by No28 meat stack for a day full of the amazing burgers, I can honestly say that as a family we never eat burgers from anywhere else anymore, and yes, I'm deadly serious when I say that.  I also never eat burgers with meat in them anymore because the southern fried paneer burger literally rocks my world.

3. What now follows is a very chocolate heavy post so if you have just given up sugar for February you may want to go buy these, lock them up and enjoy them in March, I cannot tell you the pain of having boxes of chocolates currently sitting on my desk staring at me lovingly.  This one though has already gone to a great home as a thank you for trimming a spiky Berberis.  Jenny Wren chocolates not only taste gorgeous but look at that box, it's like a delightful piece of art and the best thing is that you can purchase this expensive glossy looking box for only £6.49 at the moment at your local Sainsbury's

4. I'm going to own up right now and say that these chocolate truffles from Booja Booja didn't even make it to February, they're vegan, they're dairy free and they taste like small dreams when inserted into the mouth gently, what's more the box from the artists collection has been hand painted by artists in Kashmir, India, they're perfect for those who love chocolate and beautiful things and I think the thing I love about them most is the fact that I now have the prettiest wooden box I can treasure.

5.  Blog favourites Guylain have done it again for Valentines day with this beautiful heart shaped box which you can give to your honey or if you're single you can give them to yourself or even your best friend, the first person to run to my desk and hug me gets them!!

6.  Now I think that we'd all agree that there's nothing quite as lovely as a good nights sleep and to help I can tell you that this Nutri Expert Pillow spray not only smells divine it's also an essential oils pillow spray which can help aid you to have a wonderful and restful nights sleep, it's the perfect present to yourself.

7.  While we are on the subject of relaxation, another blog favourite company Amphora Aromatics have released their own range of essential oils, the relax calming oil is perfect for busy mums, teens just about to sit their GCSE's and can be burnt, or mixed with a carrier oil for that perfect massage, maybe that's a great idea for Valentine's evening after dinner with your love?

8. cold hands, warm heart or so the saying goes, well I know one thing, cold head leads to hypothermia and that is never attractive so if you have a friend like me and it's their birthday during mid-winter why not pick them up a buff hat, buffs are available for men, women, children and pets, I've been a long time fan so I was pretty thrilled when they offered to send me this one which goes perfectly with my face, it's a great gift if your soulmate likes to embrace the outdoors.

9. Finally for this month, well you know, being single is something I am a particular expert in although it's always made me a little sad and don't even get me started on the tricky and often ridiculous world of dating, luckily I have Jennifer Boon's book Survive and Thrive by my side to guide me through the tricky waters, will it work better than an evening spent on Tinder, well you just never know but there's only one way to find out.

Why I've decided to have a facelift at 44

Today is my 44th Birthday and the best present I've received is the notification of my first appointment to start the treatment that will lead to a younger looking me, yes dear reader, this isn't clickbait, I am genuinely having a facelift.

A couple of weeks ago I went for a consultation at the Queensway skin clinic which is part of Queensway dental, I met with facial aesthetics specialist Doctor Uzma Olbrich and we talked about ageing, my face and what she could do to help. As part of our joint collaboration I'm going to be writing about the process and will be sharing some before and after photos too, I'm going to tell you all of the good parts, I'll chronicle the tricky bits, the bits which might hurt and I'll be as honest about this subject as I have been about the rest of my life.  Uzma told me that often patients don't talk about this subject, sometimes not even their partner is aware of what they've had done because although it is a facelift, it's non surgical and when I say non surgical, I won't be going under the knife, I'll be awake throughout and over a period of weeks and months I'll have needles filled with hyaluronic acid injected into the problem areas of my face.  When the transformation is complete I should look younger, rested and like I've just had the very best holiday albeit without any tan.

The thing is you see, I'm 44 on the outside, with makeup on, on a good day, my friends tell me I can pass for mid thirties, when I see me on a morning though, with puffy skin, well let's just say that ageing is a cruel and heartless process.  On the inside I feel 35 and that's how I want to feel I look on the outside.  Wait too long and when you have the fillers you have to have so much that it doesn't look like you anymore, at my age it can be so sensitively done that all you'll see is the very best version of me.

As a feminist I believe we should have the choice to look how we want to look, if we choose not to shave our legs or arms and we want to go grey, it's our choice but conversely if we want to look like the best version of ourselves for as long as we want to, if we want to age so gracefully that we can look 60 when we're actually 80+ then that's our choice too.  For me it was an easy decision, I didn't have anyone else to consider and I'm not doing it for anyone else but me, I've lived with only my dog sleeping on the other side of the bed for the last 4 years and let me tell you, I doubt she's going to congratulate me for looking so youthful.

As women of the new millennium we have so much power than we did before, we are confident, forthright and not governed by old standards, if we look back at our parents, grandparents and how we watched them age, it's a great thing to be able to say "That's not going to happen to me, that's not how I want to do it" I've lived my whole life not conforming and I guess that's why it was easy for me to make the decision.

I'm the least vain person but I've always lived by the rule that if you are unhappy with something take action, don't just sit and whinge about it because that doesn't change anything.  That's why my sugar-free February plan starts tomorrow (starting it on my Birthday was never going to happen) I'm taking action now to change the whole of me on the inside and out because I want to live a long and happy life and because I want the body I'm in to represent the person I am inside. I am after all a confident, positive, strong and independent woman.

I'm Cutting Out Sugar For Sugar Free February

A few years ago around this time, I decided to go sugar-free to see if it would help with my health and weight loss, it was one of the best things I've ever done, I lost approximately 2lb a week, a ton of body fat (not literally but it felt like it) and my skin was amazing, I looked younger, healthier, and my hormones seemed to settle so I didn't have mood swings or 3pm tiredness, I had boundless amounts of energy and I walked the legs off Holly Bobbins.

Alas, that was 2015 and from late 2016 until late 2017 I had issues with my HRT and my Bipolar meds for various reasons and so I gained 2 stone from my thinner happiest weight and basically, I'm miserable with it all, I want to regain my health, my waistline and my good skin because with 44 just around the corner I have to stack the anti-aging odds in my favour and I'd quite like to live for another few years if I'm honest!!

I happened upon a post on Facebook announcing Cancer Research's Sugar-Free February and it piqued my interest.  Now I must state that I am not doing this for charity, I'm doing it for my own health, I've assembled a few friends and because a lot of other people are out there on the internet taking part in the initiative it seems like the best time to do it.

It's not even that hard, it's about swapping white rice, bread, potatoes and having brown rice, brown pasta, sweet potatoes, no crap (snacks, takeaways, ready-meals) and cooking as much as possible by scratch, perfect time to join a cooking box club if you're short on time and don't want to have to come up with the meals on your own.

I don't have sugar in drinks so that's not a problem and big bonus you can still have cheese and nuts something I feel particularly happy about.  All alcohol is off the table though as you have to give your body time to relearn the signals which help your brain know when you are hungry again, these signals can switch themselves off if you eat too much sugar and I want to give my body time to get to its optimum health again.  Once your body has readjusted, the odd glass of decent red wine with some dark chocolate is not going to hurt.

There are so many more resources out there on the internet now than the last time I did it but I love Davina's sugar free and you'll also find people like Joe Wicks eat in the same kind of way, oh and don't forget Doctor Michael Mosely and his blood sugar diet, they all follow similar kinds of rules.

I'm going to blog about this during February and I'll provide updates, I'd love you all to join me because there's definitely strength in numbers, let's all go into March being fit, fabulous and totally fantastic.

Who's with me?

Living My Best Life

In all of the time I have been blogging, one thing has remained the same, I write best late at night or when fuelled by emotion.  So here I am, sitting at my desk, it's ten thirty and this weekend I have lived my very best life.

I think I might have enjoyed not working at weekends a little too much so my plan to keep blogging and to push to monetise it a lot more than ever before has to be a goal although I'll never sacrifice the quality of my writing so don't worry, you are safe on that count.  I just love weekends of freedom though and yes I know, I have to earn the money to have them and that's okay.  This year, my word is balance and I'd like to think that between April and December (statistically my busier period) I could plan to take more weekends off than I did last year when I only had 1 full weekend off and that was in August!

I went out for a birthday lunch today, and with friends all around me I looked at them and I was so happy in my heart that we, all from such diverse backgrounds could come together just for a couple of hours to have lunch, it made me crave to make a regular thing out of friends brunches or long lazy Sunday lunches, something I've been enjoying week upon week in January.

I'm really not sure if it's because of the fake sunshine or the Vitamin D3 but I am in love with January this year, I cannot remember a better start to the year and that's because it's been slow and glorious and I have at all times been surrounded by love and friendship.  Right here and right now, as I said to Harriet earlier, I don't need anything else in my life because I have all I've ever wanted and I hope I can carry on with this feeling because it's as close to perfection as anyone can ask for.

This weekend I've been made over courtesy of Dior, I've had dinner out at Piccolino, wonderful amazing food, slow service but it didn't matter too much. I've been surrounded by friends today at our local much beloved Northumberland Hussar and tomorrow Looby and I travel to Warkworth for a couple of days with Holly Bobbins at a lovely Northumbrian dog friendly apartment at Cross House Cottages. I can't wait to spend a few days in one of my most favourite Northumbrian villages.  I'm going to walk the legs off  Looby and Holly even if they protest!

Sometimes when you are travelling through life and the path is one of darkness, it's hard to see the light at the end of that proverbial tunnel but there's always sunshine waiting for you along the way, it's just sometimes a little obscured behind dark clouds.  I remember writing in the darkest days that all I wanted was to skip ahead, 6 months, a year because I knew that it would be better but you can't do that can you?  You have to go through every experience, bad and good, to become a better, stronger person.

I'm not especially sure what the rest of this year has in store for me, on Thursday I'll blow out some candles again I'm sure, you have to have cake on your actual birthday as well as at your birthday party.  Whatever this year has in store for me now though, I can say that I had times where my heart was full and I stood with warm sunshine on my face resting on one of the sunlit paths of life.  

Inspiring Looby

Since Looby and I started our home education journey in September last year, I've tried to come up with as many different topics as I could to inspire her to break boundaries and explore areas other than horses (the girl is mad about horses)!  As we approach what is, effectively, half way through year nine, we're now beginning to think about what she's going to study at GCSE level from September and science is at the very forefront of our learning choices, Looby loves science, it's the only subject I employ a tutor for, and the reason for that has been watching her enthusiasm, she's also a natural with tech although I'm not sure she'd admit it.  She's a natural problem solver and knows more about coding at the age of 14 than I will ever do.

Over the last 10 or so years I've been lucky enough to be part of the Thinking Digital community in Newcastle, tech and digital matters are part of who I am, being a photographer after all, is one of the oldest jobs in tech and so I've joined the #prettycurious campaign which is run by EDF and aims to help to inspire more girls into STEM careers.

Did you know that just one in four people working in core STEM roles in the UK are women?  EDF Energy has set an ambition that 30% of its STEM graduate and apprenticeship intake will be women by 2018.  They are already ahead of their targets but they still have more work to do.  

Being part of the tech community in Newcastle has proven just how male dominated it still is, don't get me wrong, there are some amazing women in tech out there but when I attend the Thinking Digital Conference yearly, there's definitely a higher men to women ratio and I believe that our daughters are the ones who can change this.  Women as a whole are the most amazing problem solvers, we can multi-task successfully and we're great at reading instructions and building things.  Looby herself is my chief Ikea furniture builder, it's all the building blocks of a brain which is made for a STEM career.

I know many of you who read my blog have daughters around the same age as Looby (and Abigail who is just about to sit her triple science GCSE's) and I wonder as parents what we can do to inspire our daughters and our daughters daughters to take the world of STEM careers by storm.

Now there's a chance you are sitting there wondering what the heck STEM is so let me tell you -

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and if you want to know more about that you can check out the following resources with your teens - 

• The #PrettyCurious website - a great resource for teens and parents
• The Future Me avatar and quiz for teens – encourage your child to take the quiz to find out which STEM careers suit their interests. They can also create a shareable and personalized Future Me avatar https://www.edfenergy.com/prettycurious/futureme/quiz
• The Parent's Quiz, what's your view on the right career for them?
• https://www.edfenergy.com/prettycurious/parent-quiz
• Experience a day in the life of an architect at The Shard in a virtual reality film
• https://www.edfenergy.com/prettycurious/futureme/virtualreality

Of course I do not know what the future truly holds for Looby, as parents we can advise and help but ultimately it's up to our teens to navigate their own path, I do know though that over the last couple of days since receiving a Little Bits droid kit she's been so enthusiastic about building her droid and making it do all kinds of things, including chasing Holly Bobbins around the lounge, much to Looby's amusement (not so much Holly Bobbins).  At one point her droid came up to me and shouted "Hello Mammy" I'm not even sure where I would begin to try and teach a robot to talk and carry messages.

Whatever path she takes though I can at least say I helped enrich her life with science and technology, our world isn't standing still and by 2023 it's expected that the job rate in STEM will double over other traditional careers.

I’m working with EDF Energy and BritMums to promote the #PrettyCurious programme. Visit Pretty Curious  for more information and advice.”

I started a Facebook group, Come Join us...

I'm sitting here, practically falling asleep at my desk and it's Wednesday afternoon, a spell of sunshine and fresh air down at the coast this afternoon has pretty much finished me off, Holly is currently at the bottom of my bed covered by a duvet snoring, completely unaware that the cat is sitting right next to her.

All is calm, all is quiet!

Every week lately I've thought to myself, this is the week I'm going to write a blogpost every day and I've still not managed it.  I am trying to write more often but I just don't think there's enough going on to write about currently, well that is until I write things down
A consultation with a specialist in Facial Aesthetics at Queensway Dental

A meeting with my accountant

Saturday night out for dinner at Piccolino

Birthday lunch with friends at The Northumberland Hussar

Press Launch for The Meat Stack

Review Stay at Cross House Cottages

2 Photo shoots on the beach at Tynemouth Longsands

Oh and it's my Birthday, my actual birthday on February the first, I'll be 8 in a roundabout kind of a way, you do the math on that one!!

I started a Facebook Group

One thing I have done this week and I'm trying to put my all into it is I've started my own Facebook group, it's for friends, clients, people who read my blog, people who've supported me over the years in life, work, everything and the chances are that if you are sitting there reading this then you should probably come and join my Facebook group

As an introduction I'm doing regular giveaways of chocolates and all kinds of goodies, I figured I'm never going to win with Facebook constantly changing it's algorithm and you know, I have no problem at all with Facebook running as a business but the way they've made ads an even playing field whether your business is big or small, is essentially brilliant if you are a big assed company and bad if you are small one, I can't exactly compete with Coca-Colas advertising budget so after spending approximately £20k with them in ads since 2011 I'm using this year to build an engaged community of the loveliest people I know, it will help me to keep clients in the loop, it will help me to find an easy way to let my audience know about new projects, events and of course blog posts and I hope I can find a way to make it give back and help others who have businesses thrive.  Within 2 days we've grown to just over 200 people, my goal is that by the end of the year I can grow that to 10,000 people.  It's a big bodacious plan but having a positive mindset and a goal to fulfil is exactly the kind of thing I thrive on.

You can find my Facebook group easily here

https://www.facebook.com/groups/MandyCharltonPhotography/