This week has been a bit of a funny mix.
Half toddler chaos, half laptop hermit, finished off with a glass of fizz and a glam night out.
Honestly? My favourite kind of week.
It kicked off with a trip to a place called Crafty Kids in Chelmsford and oh my goodness, where has this been all my life?
If you have never heard of it, picture every single mess you actively avoid in your own house… and then put it all in one room.
On purpose.
For your child to enjoy.
Sticky play. Painting. Slime. Sand. Foam. Glitter (yes, glitter, the devil's craft supply).
Everything I usually hide on the top shelf was suddenly fair game.
And Indie?
My beautiful little terror was in absolute heaven.
She went in like a tiny tornado and didn't stop for breath.
One minute she was elbow-deep in paint, the next she was covered head to toe in something sticky I couldn't quite identify, grinning at me like she'd just won the lottery.
There is something so magical about watching your child completely lose themselves in play.
No phones. No distractions. No "please don't touch that."
Just pure, messy, unfiltered joy.
I left feeling like the best mum in the world.
Indie left looking like she'd been through a car wash full of poster paint.
Worth every single wet wipe.
After that, I'm not going to lie to you, the rest of the week was a bit… beige.
Podcast, podcast, podcast.
Editing, scheduling, planning, replying to messages, second-guessing thumbnails, changing my mind, changing it back.
You know the drill by now.
There is a very glamorous version of "running a podcast" that lives on Instagram.
And then there's the real version.
Which is me, in joggers, with my hair scraped up, eating toast at 3pm while staring at a waveform on my laptop wondering if anyone will notice I said "like" 47 times in one sentence.
Spoiler: they probably will. And that's okay.
But by Saturday I was very, very ready to put on something that wasn't covered in toddler handprints.
I filmed a brand new episode on Saturday afternoon which I am SO excited about.
I won't say too much yet because I want you to wait for it… but it's a good one.
The kind where you finish recording, look at each other and go "oh wow, people are going to feel that one."
Then straight from filming, it was a quick outfit change, a fresh coat of mascara, and off to the opening of Kat's brand new salon.
Now, if you've been following along, you'll know Kat from episode 4 of Storme Diaries.
She is honestly one of the most driven, hard-working women I've had the pleasure of sitting down with.
So watching her stand in her own beautiful new space, hosting her own opening night, surrounded by people who love and support her?
I welled up. Obviously.
I'm basically a leaky tap these days.
Her new space is a body sculpting clinic and it is gorgeous.
Calm, clean, expensive-feeling but somehow still warm and welcoming.
She offers so many different treatments — sculpting, toning, skin, the lot — and I was very kindly invited to try a few.
Reader, I said yes.
Of course I said yes.
I'd be mad not to.
I won't bore you with every detail just yet because I genuinely want to write about it properly once I've had a few more sessions, but my first impressions?
Wow.
I felt looked after from the second I walked in.
She knows her stuff, she's passionate, and you can feel how much she actually cares about her clients.
Which honestly, in this industry, is rare.
I left buzzing. For her. For the brand. For what she's building.
There is something really special about watching a guest from the podcast step into their next chapter.
Like the conversations we had weren't just words, they were the start of something.
And now here she is, doing it.
Building it.
Owning it.
I am so proud of her, I could cry. (See: leaky tap.)
So that was my week.
Sticky toddler hands on Monday.
Laptop and lukewarm coffee mid-week.
Heels, fizz and friendship by Saturday night.
Motherhood, work and life all squashed into seven days that somehow felt long and short at the same time.
But this is exactly why I started Storme Diaries in the first place.
Because life isn't one thing.
It's messy play AND meetings.
It's joggers AND going-out dresses.
It's tantrums in the kitchen AND celebrating your friends across town.
And I wouldn't have it any other way. 🤍