Life ebbs and flows and after last week’s busy week this has been much calmer. If I can get to bed by 10.30pm having done all my tasks, I take it as a win. With birthdays and Mother’s Day this week I am thankful to organised me who sorted all the presents and cards at half term and simply had to pop the parcels in the post this week.

I was so pleased to get my nails done this week, the staff of my lovely little nail salon went away to celebrate the lunar new year so it was a while since my last appointment and I was definitely needing their tlc on my nails and a nice spring colour. Pretty nails has become my treat. I’m not a ‘pretty’ person I would love to be but it’s not quite my personality but nails is something I can do.

I’m reading a lot around style this year, and have a few inspired Pinterest boards which I’m contributing to regularly. My latest read which was referenced in a previous read is a chapter book called The Thoughtful Dresser. I’m really enjoying with chapters on shopping, fabrics, shoes etc.. It is thought provoking and is inspiring more of an interest in my clothes and accessories.

Sadly this week I have been a frustrated runner. I’ve had a dull pain in my leg for a few weeks and I’ve been sensible in not doing treadmill running at the gym and last week I park walked instead of parkrun. At work I accidentally made it worse simply by stepping backwards off a minibus and my leg gave away. I was able to get an appointment with a physio at the gym and have a strained soleus diagnosed. It’s a muscle I didn’t really know but I do now! I had treatment and have exercises so fingers crossed I can be patient and restart running soon(ish) I don’t know if I’ll be able to run the half I’ve been training for but it’s actually more important to me to get out a few times a week and enjoy my weekly parkrun than ruin my leg by insisting on doing the half. I will be disappointed as I have trained well but I’m being sensible. As I wasn’t able to run and even walking the hills would be uncomfortable, I volunteered as a marshal at Saturday’s parkrun. It should have been my 200th but again I chose sense over number chasing. This may seem very mature but the pain this week has been so much that as it has now subdued I don’t want to reignite it. The parkrun morning was gorgeous, beautiful warm sunshine and the first time this year having breakfast on an outside table. It was such a lovely morning, my son is also volunteering at the moment for his DofE so breakfast was with him and our neighbours who are also parkrunners. It was a perfect way to start the weekend.

Whist we were at parkrun, Mr S was at home painting the kitchen. I love the new colour, a deep green to complement our pale green cupboards and neutral stone floor. The pop of colour is gorgeous. My contribution to the project has been shopping for new kitchen accessories and I love the new cream colourway I have chosen. The paint smell has been overpowering so my son and I have been out a lot over the weekend. I have visited a number of sports shops but also managed to negotiate with my son for a quick visit to John Lewis. We were going to the cafe but it was closed ☹️ but I managed to pick up the Neom calm rollerball. I do like these as an alternative to perfume and being able to sometimes just breathe in a little calm when things get messy.

After our disappointment in not having a John Lewis cafe break, I stopped by a drive in for a Costa to get a drink for the football training session. We have no Costa shops in our town which is full of independent coffee shops so I was surprised to see that I had a free coffee waiting for me. The only time I tend to use Costa is in hospitals or at a service station. I think my freebie was partly courtesy of our epic trip to Newcastle. The rain on the window screen in the picture is a big contrast to the sunny skies of Saturday morning. I think everyone is so ready for spring. We need the sunshine on our faces.