January Blues - Be Gone!

January - aka birthday month for us, with Charlie turning four and Olivia turning two. Where has the time gone?! I know so many of you started following me on various social media platforms around their births and pregnancies, as you were also in the same boat.

For some reason, Charlie turning four has hit me so hard. This is the year he’ll start school and that’s just so crazy. Four, to me, is a kid, no longer a toddler. Perhaps it’s a UK thing, as that’s when our kids start reception, I don’t know…but 4. WOW.

And then there’s Olivia turning 2, my little powerhouse. She is your typical third child, strong willed, wild and free. She is so perfect and I cannot wait to see her grow up.

With January, it’s weird how it feels like a new start, doesn’t it? Tax bills paid, kids back at school, weather…well, we will get there. I cannot WAIT for spring. I am such a spring and autumn girlie. Summer I struggle with because UK houses just don’t have air con.

That said, we are debating putting it in for the summer. I know we joke that we only get two days of heat a year, but we really don’t, especially down south where I live. It feels so American of me to even think that. We would probably just do the kids’ rooms and ours.

On the house front, we’ve finally started making some major moves on the reno, at last. Sophie and Charlie’s room have been designed, so take a scroll down to the bottom of this newsletter to see a sneak peek of that. Wardrobes are going into Sophie’s room, but for that to happen we need to pull up all the hardwood flooring, skirting boards, and architrave, as the wardrobes need to be sat on the subflooring. I don’t know about you, but I am such a carpet in bedrooms kind of person, and yes, I will be layering rugs on top of the carpet. Controversial, I know.

Along with Sophie and Charlie’s bedrooms, we’ve made an opening in the office for new metal French doors to go in. This was the first major brick breaking work we’ve done and I am so excited to get them installed.

After we’ve finished the kids’ rooms, our plan is to start on the master bathroom, as our current bathroom has never really felt like ours. There’s a lot broken - the bath doesn’t even work and the toilet constantly smells. Fab.

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Reality Check: Inside Americas Next Top Model
Coming 16th February on Netflix

Wuthering Heights
Who isn’t excited to see this?! Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi look incredible in all the film promo.
In cinemas 13th February

Bridgerton, Season 4 (Part 1)
Have you seen it yet?? It only came out 2 days ago but I can’t wait to watch this. Part 2 is coming soon so don’t worry if you’ve already binged it!
Part 2 coming 26th February to Netflix

The Artful Dodger, Season 2
If you haven’t seen this yet - go watch it! It’s set 15 years after Oliver Twist and it’s got the kid in it from Love Actually (very much not a little drummer boy anymore!)
Coming 10th February to Disney +

GOAT
An animated film for the kids over half term - it’s giving Zootopia vibes.
In cinemas 13th February

How To Get To Heaven From Belfast
Definitely going to be watching this one. It’s a story of three women who attend the wake of an old classmate and they uncover a dark mystery. Light thriller with humour, perfect.
Watch now on Sky Atlantic

Missy has been eating Butternut Box meals since we moved to the UK (almost 2 years ago now!) and since we brought our new addition home, Dory has been loving them too. Tasty, high quality fresh ingredients, and most importantly nutrition that’s tailored to support both our senior dog and puppy - if only every dinner table was as fuss-free!

What makes it even better is that they come right to the front door and I don’t have to worry about if we’ve got enough treats for the pair of them. Their delivery plans are convenient and simple, you can pause, push or cancel anytime. Use my code below CAROLINEPARKER for 50% off your first 2 boxes!

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Spring is coming and that means the nice colours are back. Why do shops struggle so much to stock colour in winter?? Move over chocolate brown - I want baby pink and butter yellow! Oh, and the odd floral print. Groundbreaking, I know.

Make sure you are subscribed to my new podcast YouTube channel.

Season 2 is coming 11th February and will be available on YouTube and all places you get your podcasts from!

I cannot believe we are SOLD OUT! This is the beginning of something so exciting we have coming up for 2026. To those who bought tickets, I cannot wait to see you and to those that couldn’t make it, see you soon!

Hello, it’s Dory! I am now 3 months old and I’m biting my family less - but still keeping them on their toes. I decided to chew the whole underneath of a rug the other day which was fun. Oh! The silly family left a Joe and the Juice out for me, so I enjoyed that very much on the cream living room rug (I thought it needed some colour)! Just keep chewing, just keep chewing.

I go on two walks a day. A longer one at lunch and a short one before bed…although I’m not going to lie, I don’t want to go on that one because I’m super sleepy and cosy at night. But if I don’t go I wee on the floor, so I see why.

One thing I find funny is my family throws a ball and expect me to go and bring it back to them. Fools. I’ll keep that thank you, why would I give it back?

As we know my favourite food I thought I’d share some of the other stuff I’m enjoying recently…

Ingredients

300g pasta (we used conchiglie)
1 head of broccoli, cut into little florets
1 tbsp oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
250g ham, cut into chunks (get a nice thick slice from the deli counter)
300ml double cream
1 tbsp English mustard
140g mature cheddar, grated

Step 1

Heat a large pot of water until boiling and cook the pasta as instructed on the pack. For the last 4 minutes add the broccoli to the pasta pot. Drain and save for later.

Step 2

In the meantime, heat the oil in a large saucepan and sauté the diced onions for five minutes, or until browned. Add the garlic and heat for a further minute. Add the mustard, cream and ham and bring to the boil (add some pasta water if you like it saucy). Stir in the broccoli and pasta. Finally mix in the grated cheese until everything is covered with sauce.

Hyperfixation right now!
Cauliflower in the air fryer with spray olive oil and salt! Yum!!!

While the world feels heavy right now and the news is a constant flow of disaster, I went online to find some good things that happened in the world recently, so thought I’d share them with you.

☀️ The world’s oldest cat Flossie turned 30 in December! She was born in 1995. That is about a 136 human years!

☀️ The whole in the Antares Ozone layer is the smallest it’s been in 5 years which puts us on track for its full recovery.

☀️ The Green Turtle was recently reclassified from Endangered to Least Concern globally.

☀️ Fur farming has decreased by 85% saving 120 million animals being killed for their fur.

☀️ India doubled its Tiger population

☀️ Hand shapes have been found in an Indonesian cave and they might be the world’s oldest known rock art at least 67,800 years ago!!

I have started my journey with Millie Turner Designs to bring some fun into our house. It’s a 1960s house with absolutely no character. We love her location and size, but my goodness she is just soulless squares put together - aka the perfect blank slate.

Here is my Pinterest board that I have for the house so you can see an overview of the house vibes. Lots of colour, lots of fabric, texture etc.

Here is a sneak peak at the E Design service we used at @millieturnerdesigns. I can’t wait to show you the whole thing. They really thought of everything, who knew a lighting design was a thing?