Authentic.
  • Home
  • Travel
    • Europe
    • Around the UK
    • Long Haul
    • Disney
  • Life
    • Life / Work / Budgeting
    • Motherhood
    • Our home
    • Our Wedding
  • Watch our videos
  • Meet Our Family
  • Contact
    • Get in Touch
    • Work with Us
    • Privacy Policy
      • Privacy Policy
      • Cookie Policy
      • Website Terms and Conditions
Facebook Page
Featured Posts
  • Why you should never ask me if I’m going to “try for a girl”
    • byChloe
    • Posted on September 19, 2019September 25, 2019
  • Eurocamp La Croix Du Vieux Pont review
    A week at Eurocamp La Croix Du Vieux Pont – Our review
    • byChloe
    • Posted on July 25, 2019September 18, 2019
  • Why we shouldn’t romanticise motherhood
    • byChloe
    • Posted on May 15, 2019May 15, 2019
  • Meet Our Family
  • Get in Touch
Subscribe
Sorry About The Mess
  • Home
  • Travel
    • Europe
    • Around the UK
    • Long Haul
    • Disney
  • Life
    • Life / Work / Budgeting
    • Motherhood
    • Our home
    • Our Wedding
  • Watch our videos
  • Meet Our Family
  • Contact
    • Get in Touch
    • Work with Us
    • Privacy Policy
      • Privacy Policy
      • Cookie Policy
      • Website Terms and Conditions
  • Brand Collaborations
  • Our home

How to display kids artwork in a stylish way

  • Posted on October 16, 2018October 16, 2018
  • No comments
  • byChloe
Working out how to display kids artwork in a stylish way can be quite the challenge. I love having the kids artwork on display in our house. It encourages them…
View Post
Share
View Post
  • 7 min
  • Blogging
  • Travel

10 Family Travel bloggers to follow

  • Posted on September 27, 2018October 31, 2018
  • 2 comments
  • byChloe
Family travel is one of my favourite things to write about on this blog, and I adore making our family travel vlogs over on my youtube channel. Another thing I…
View Post
Share
View Post
  • 4 min
  • Life

The perfect summer?

  • Posted on September 24, 2018September 24, 2018
  • No comments
  • byChloe
Summer is without a doubt my favourite time of year. Even more so since I’ve had children. Warm weather (some of the time!), long days, a lax routine, and all…
View Post
Share
View Post
  • 4 min
  • Brand Collaborations

Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 1 review

  • Posted on September 18, 2018
  • No comments
  • byChloe
 Two things that my children really love are gaming, and constructing models / toy sets. Luckily for us, Nintendo Labo combines these two things in a really fun way.  I…
View Post
Share
f&f tesco school uniform
View Post
  • 4 min
  • Brand Collaborations

Back to School with Tesco F&F school uniform

  • Posted on August 20, 2018August 19, 2019
  • 2 comments
  • byChloe
The school summer holidays are over half way through. It can only mean one thing – time to turn our thoughts towards getting organised for the new school year ahead…
View Post
Share
Westfield stratford soft play area
View Post
  • 3 min
  • Events

Activities for children and Soft Play areas at Westfield Stratford City

  • Posted on August 18, 2018April 2, 2019
  • 2 comments
  • byChloe
Westfield Stratford is a great place to visit with children, thanks to it’s many children’s soft play areas. Usually, combining shopping with children can be quite a stressful experience. But…
View Post
Share
Sa Tuna
View Post
  • 5 min
  • Europe
  • Travel

Things to do in the Begur area of Costa Brava

  • Posted on August 13, 2018August 13, 2018
  • One comment
  • byChloe
Last summer, we had a wonderful family holiday in Begur, Costa Brava. You can check out my post all about our holiday here.  And if you are soon headed to the…
View Post
Share
View Post
  • 3 min
  • Travel

Our family travel wishlist

  • Posted on August 10, 2018August 10, 2018
  • No comments
  • byChloe
  Now that our wedding is over, and we have a COMPLETELY blank slate plans-wise for the next year or more, it’s the perfect time for us to start thinking…
View Post
Share
specasvers kylie minogue glasses
View Post
  • 3 min
  • Brand Collaborations

Review – Kylie Minogue Eyewear K range at Specsavers

  • Posted on June 7, 2018June 8, 2018
  • 2 comments
  • byChloe
Specsavers have been my contact lens and glasses provider for decades, and with my current pair of glasses getting on for 3 years old, it was a natural yes to…
View Post
Share

Posts navigation

Previous 1 2 3 4 5 … 82 Next
Sorry About The Mess
Hello! I'm Chloe. I live in South London with my three children and their dad. I love storytelling through film-making and photography - cameras have made me happy ever since I was a child. Click below to read more about our story:
About | Contact
SEARCH
empire state building new york

A winter trip to New York

  • Posted on April 27, 2015January 31, 2018
  • byChloe
  • 3 minute read
View Post
Sa Tuna

Things to do in the Begur area of Costa Brava

  • Posted on August 13, 2018August 13, 2018
  • byChloe
  • 5 minute read
View Post

A Cornwall Summer Holiday

  • Posted on August 4, 2016May 3, 2018
  • byChloe
  • 6 minute read
View Post

Our California Adventure – LA, Santa Monica, Encinitas

  • Posted on June 25, 2015February 5, 2018
  • byChloe
  • 4 minute read
View Post
Aldeburgh

Exploring Suffolk | A family holiday to Walberswick and Southwold

  • Posted on August 9, 2015January 31, 2018
  • byChloe
  • 3 minute read
View Post

A mini-break to France – Lot et Garonne and Aquitaine

  • Posted on May 1, 2017January 31, 2018
  • byChloe
  • 5 minute read
View Post
Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,486 other subscribers

Watch Our Videos
ARCHIVES
Twitter
avatar @MostlyChloe
Yep. First hand experience of this. https://t.co/ErBOHzQwZd
21 hours ago
  • Reply
  • Retweet
  • Favorite
"And sometimes even now, my emotions on the subject change direction as abruptly as a strong wind."… https://t.co/YKLdMx1mco
2 days ago
  • Reply
  • Retweet
  • Favorite
Follow
Instagram
  • Four months of dog ownership. If you have young children and are considering getting a puppy this is what I would ask you: Do you like constantly chasing a three year old in one direction and a puppy with poor recall who LOVES to run after other dogs and children in another direction? Do you like teeth and jumping and food stealing and having to supervise your young child around a dog 24/7 in your own home? Do you have time to dedicate to consistent training, amongst children and other life distractions? Do you love walks in the rain and cold? Do you really REALLY like dogs? Normally I’m the impulsive one and Sam is the sensible one, but on this occasion he was the one who was more into the dog idea for NOW, whereas I was happy to wait another few years. But I also knew we could make it work, despite the hard graft of the first few years, so we went for it. I’ve said before that children and dogs are a great mix, but puppies and preschoolers? Not so much. You have to really like dogs yourself (not just because the kids want a dog), and you have to be up for adding a huge new challenge into your daily routine. (I always feel a need to caveat cute puppy photos with this public service announcement 🤣) Swipe for the Lion King growing up montage.
    165 34
  • WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER ASK ME IF I’M GOING TO “TRY FOR A GIRL”. I wrote about this, you can read it via the link in my profile. I wrote this around a year ago, after a particularly bad phase of dealing with super personal comments. But as with a lot of things, I sat on it until it was less ‘in the moment’, emotionally speaking. Back then, I was thinking a lot about whether to have a fourth child or not...whereas now I’m down to a less constant amount of time thinking about it 😜 (but that’s a looooong blog post for another day). But I still get comments, and I know I will always get comments - although I’m crossing my fingers that they will become somewhat less frequent than the current ‘at least twice a week’, maybe once we are firmly out of the young children phase?? 🙏🏻 - So this post is for anyone who has ever even THOUGHT about asking that question. And it’s for any all-boy parent who has ever felt a modicum of any of the things I’ve written about in this post 💙
    119 20
  • After a stop / start week of settling in sessions, I now officially have all three children out of the house for the duration of the school day, three days per week. This is an unprecedented amount of time. I’m probably meant to feel like “YES. FINALLY. THE DAY HAS COME”. But I’m more just like “Hmmm. OK”. There’s definitely a dose of overwhelm at time moving so fast. But I’m not exactly mourning the passing of time either. I sometimes have the assumption that as parents we are meant to either be upset that a phase is coming to a close, or jumping for joy at reaching a long awaited new phase. But I suspect the reality for many parents lies somewhere along the middle of this spectrum. Don’t mind me, just bumbling on whilst quietly processing this transition in the background of life in general.
    125 6
  • We got into debt paying for our summer holiday. (We get into small amounts of debt for a lot of things all the time: our cycle seems to be getting into debt, paying debt off, getting into debt again, paying it off again). It was me that pushed to go on holiday. Sam could have taken or left it, preferring to prioritise our finances - the responsibility and stress of which weighs heavier on his shoulders than it does mine. He is the sensible one. We had license to go on holiday. We had asked for contributions to family travel instead of wedding gifts. It wouldn’t have been right to spend that money elsewhere. And yet, I still felt guilty for wanting to take my family on holiday when it wasn’t the best use of our money. But the thing is, it’s never going to be the best use of our money. But, is the odd summer holiday ever few years even though we can’t quite stretch to it going to be the best use of our time? Well, I would argue yes. I wanted time together. We are rarely together with so much quality time. I wanted that feeling that you’ve got to know your children better than you did before, because you’ve seen them in a new light, discovering new things. I wanted the sun, and a pool, because I correctly suspected that my children would be in there ALL DAY LONG despite the lure of tablets and screens. All three children learnt way more swimming skills than a term of lessons would have given them. We talk to them about money, how it works paying for the big things, and how long it takes to save up for something like this. So they understood that it was special. They were appreciative. They were happy. They took nothing for granted and I was so proud of them for that, because we all know it’s the easier option to moan, even when you have it good. There’s no real point to this ramble, except to say that holidays on Instagram are a funny thing, because you usually don’t know how they are financed and any sacrifices that have been made, you just see the fun and the highlights.
    158 35

When you can’t think of a baby name – Our experience

  • byChloe
  • Posted on November 20, 2016January 31, 2018
  • 8 minute read
View Post

A Birth Story Part 1 – Being diagnosed with Obstetric Cholestasis

  • byChloe
  • Posted on July 14, 2016April 1, 2019
  • 5 minute read
View Post

The Last Baby – Will I ever be ‘done’ having children?

  • byChloe
  • Posted on June 29, 2016September 10, 2018
  • 3 minute read
View Post
OUR FAMILY STORY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzBvBnGNT7w
mumsnet bloggers network
  • Four months of dog ownership. If you have young children and are considering getting a puppy this is what I would ask you: Do you like constantly chasing a three year old in one direction and a puppy with poor recall who LOVES to run after other dogs and children in another direction? Do you like teeth and jumping and food stealing and having to supervise your young child around a dog 24/7 in your own home? Do you have time to dedicate to consistent training, amongst children and other life distractions? Do you love walks in the rain and cold? Do you really REALLY like dogs? Normally I’m the impulsive one and Sam is the sensible one, but on this occasion he was the one who was more into the dog idea for NOW, whereas I was happy to wait another few years. But I also knew we could make it work, despite the hard graft of the first few years, so we went for it. I’ve said before that children and dogs are a great mix, but puppies and preschoolers? Not so much. You have to really like dogs yourself (not just because the kids want a dog), and you have to be up for adding a huge new challenge into your daily routine. (I always feel a need to caveat cute puppy photos with this public service announcement 🤣) Swipe for the Lion King growing up montage.
    165 34
  • WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER ASK ME IF I’M GOING TO “TRY FOR A GIRL”. I wrote about this, you can read it via the link in my profile. I wrote this around a year ago, after a particularly bad phase of dealing with super personal comments. But as with a lot of things, I sat on it until it was less ‘in the moment’, emotionally speaking. Back then, I was thinking a lot about whether to have a fourth child or not...whereas now I’m down to a less constant amount of time thinking about it 😜 (but that’s a looooong blog post for another day). But I still get comments, and I know I will always get comments - although I’m crossing my fingers that they will become somewhat less frequent than the current ‘at least twice a week’, maybe once we are firmly out of the young children phase?? 🙏🏻 - So this post is for anyone who has ever even THOUGHT about asking that question. And it’s for any all-boy parent who has ever felt a modicum of any of the things I’ve written about in this post 💙
    119 20
  • After a stop / start week of settling in sessions, I now officially have all three children out of the house for the duration of the school day, three days per week. This is an unprecedented amount of time. I’m probably meant to feel like “YES. FINALLY. THE DAY HAS COME”. But I’m more just like “Hmmm. OK”. There’s definitely a dose of overwhelm at time moving so fast. But I’m not exactly mourning the passing of time either. I sometimes have the assumption that as parents we are meant to either be upset that a phase is coming to a close, or jumping for joy at reaching a long awaited new phase. But I suspect the reality for many parents lies somewhere along the middle of this spectrum. Don’t mind me, just bumbling on whilst quietly processing this transition in the background of life in general.
    125 6
  • We got into debt paying for our summer holiday. (We get into small amounts of debt for a lot of things all the time: our cycle seems to be getting into debt, paying debt off, getting into debt again, paying it off again). It was me that pushed to go on holiday. Sam could have taken or left it, preferring to prioritise our finances - the responsibility and stress of which weighs heavier on his shoulders than it does mine. He is the sensible one. We had license to go on holiday. We had asked for contributions to family travel instead of wedding gifts. It wouldn’t have been right to spend that money elsewhere. And yet, I still felt guilty for wanting to take my family on holiday when it wasn’t the best use of our money. But the thing is, it’s never going to be the best use of our money. But, is the odd summer holiday ever few years even though we can’t quite stretch to it going to be the best use of our time? Well, I would argue yes. I wanted time together. We are rarely together with so much quality time. I wanted that feeling that you’ve got to know your children better than you did before, because you’ve seen them in a new light, discovering new things. I wanted the sun, and a pool, because I correctly suspected that my children would be in there ALL DAY LONG despite the lure of tablets and screens. All three children learnt way more swimming skills than a term of lessons would have given them. We talk to them about money, how it works paying for the big things, and how long it takes to save up for something like this. So they understood that it was special. They were appreciative. They were happy. They took nothing for granted and I was so proud of them for that, because we all know it’s the easier option to moan, even when you have it good. There’s no real point to this ramble, except to say that holidays on Instagram are a funny thing, because you usually don’t know how they are financed and any sacrifices that have been made, you just see the fun and the highlights.
    158 35
  • My new favourite wedding guest dress ❤️ This slip dress was so light and comfortable to wear and move in, and only £20!
    165 17
  • Sam has been on some wilderness camping stag do in the Lake District, whilst I travelled to the West Country for the beautiful wedding of a friend from uni. Meaning I’ve had two blissful nights sleep in a hotel room totally alone (Isn’t that THE best? Even when it is just a Premier Inn with broken air con. I’ll take it!) Now back to the kids and the dawning realisation that I have no idea what shoe size anyone needs for the start of the school year, or which items from their PE kits they’ve grown out of. Can’t believe it’s almost the end of the summer holidays! 😭
    244 31
Watch Our Videos
Navigation
  • Home
  • Travel
  • Lifestyle
    • Motherhood
    • Life / Work / Budgeting
    • Brand Collaborations
  • Watch our videos
  • Meet Our Family
  • Work with Us
    • Get in Touch
Categories
TOTS100 - UK Parent Blogs
TOTS100
Recent Articles
  • Why you should never ask me if I’m going to “try for a girl”
    • byChloe
    • Posted on September 19, 2019September 25, 2019
    • 7 comments
  • Eurocamp La Croix Du Vieux Pont review
    A week at Eurocamp La Croix Du Vieux Pont – Our review
    • byChloe
    • Posted on July 25, 2019September 18, 2019
    • 2 comments
  • Why we shouldn’t romanticise motherhood
    • byChloe
    • Posted on May 15, 2019May 15, 2019
    • One comment
  • Saving money with paperless wedding invitations and creating our wedding website
    • byChloe
    • Posted on May 7, 2019
    • 2 comments
Sorry About The Mess
  • Travel
  • Motherhood
  • Life
  • Watch our videos
A family lifestyle and family blog

Input your search keywords and press Enter.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Necessary Always Enabled