Wishing you all a fabulous day today. Have fun visiting a Pumpkin Patch to pick your own. Get dressed up and go on a Pumpkin Hunt. Watch Coco, Room on the broom, or even The Witches on TV with the family. Get creative with a Pumpkin Carving activity. Make a delicious Pumpkin Soup or Pumpkin Pie if you’d got a sweet tooth.
Not really a crafty person or going to be at work? Make a pitstop at your local coffee shop and pick up a Pumpkin Spiced Latte to get you in the mood…
Greenwich Dance has been awarded £192,820 as part of the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) to help face the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and to ensure they have a sustainable future, the Culture Secretary announced on Saturday 17 October.
Greenwich Dance is one of 588 cultural and creative organisations across the country receiving urgently needed support – with £76 million of investment announced over the weekend. This follows £257 million awarded earlier last week to 1,385 organisations, also from the Culture Recovery Fund grants programme being administered by Arts Council England on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Further rounds of funding in the cultural and heritage sector are due to be announced over the coming weeks.
Throughout the pandemic Greenwich Dance, already operating peripatetically, has reinvented itself as a dance organisation ‘without walls’, building a dynamic online home for itself and the artists it works with. Within this the team will create a revolutionary new creation space which has the potential to transform the way dance is created and presented. Using this model Greenwich Dance will restart the creation of original work safely with 70% of the grant amount going directly to artists and freelancers.
Melanie Precious, Chief Executive Officer of Greenwich Dance said “This grant will be transformational for us as well as for the artists we work with. In applying for this grant our concern extended beyond our own future to that of the independent freelance workforce, without whom Greenwich Dance would have no purpose or mandate. Whist we recognised that this fund was not being offered for experimentation we also felt certain that without new ideas the sector could not survive. We are thrilled and relieved to be in receipt of this funding so that we can work to keep artists creating.”
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said: “This is more vital funding to protect cultural gems across the country, save jobs and prepare the arts to bounce back. Through Arts Council England we are delivering the biggest ever investment in the arts in record time. Hundreds of millions of pounds are already making their way to thousands of organisations. These awards build on our commitment to be here for culture in every part of the country.”
“Culture is an essential part of life across the country, helping to support people’s wellbeing through creativity and self-expression, bringing communities together, and fuelling our world class creative industries.”
Sir Nicholas Serota, Chair of Arts Council England
Sir Nicholas also stated: “This latest set of awards from the Culture Recovery Fund builds on those announced recently and will help hundreds of organisations to survive the next few months, ensuring that the cultural sector can bounce back after the crisis. We will continue doing everything we can to support artists and cultural and creative organisations, with further funding to be announced in the coming weeks.”
You can read the original press release on the Greenwich Dance blog here
This financial injection will be the lifeline booster our local arts and cultural businesses need to stay afloat during the ongoing pandemic, which continues to cripple other businesses and sectors around the world.
Looking for dance classes online? Greenwich Dance have a wide range class styles online from African Fusion, Ballroom, and Latin to family dance and kids hip hop. Click below for more info.
Being a new mum can be a challenge especially in the first twelve months of a baby’s life. Despite this being my second birth I still felt and faced the same things I did when I was a first-time mum; anxiety, newborn worries and challenges (reflux, colic, breastfeeding issues), postpartum problems and body hang-ups, baby blues and generally feeling overwhelmed with everything.
It’s totally common for new mums to find that they get the “baby blues” at some stage in their post-pregnancy life which is completely normal. The majority of the time it will just go away by itself. However, sometimes a little bit of extra support is needed for us mums. I had the baby blues in both pregnancies but this time round found it a little more difficult to cope. Baby Girl was constantly crying and Daddy P was away most of the time. I felt like I was being left alone to defend for myself then having an active toddler on top of that made it even more challenging. Continue reading “The Real World Parenting Awards: Recognising people who go the extra mile”
For this month, beauty subscription box company Birchbox have teamed up with the beautiful style icon, Millie Mackintosh. Millie posted on her Instagram a sneaky peek of the campaign and got her readers to join in and vote on which box should be used for the final design. The public chose the lovely purple one; it kind of reminds me of the lovely summer sunsets we’ve been having. Well picked everyone! 🙂
Continue reading “Beauty News: Birchbox teams up Millie Mackintosh for July’s box”
I took this photo from the inside of my July Look Fantastic beauty box.
The quote is kind of cool 🙂
Just a little post (mini-rant) about public transport – buses in particular – and why I hate it using it sometimes. Unfortunately I don’t drive so usually have no choice but to use the buses. Don’t get me wrong, most days I love it but then there’s those days that I can’t stand it.
If you’re a city mum then chances are you will probably be able to relate to one, if not all, of the things below: Continue reading “5 things I hate about London public transport buses”
Last weekend we decided to go on to a day trip to Westgate-on-Sea (West Bay Beach) and what a fabulous choice it was! We had sun, sand, and lots of fun. I think it was the best Sunday weather we had this month so it was a pretty good choice to go as the weather’s not been too great this week.
The weather was balmy (around 25 degree Celsius) and the wind was warm which I think is the ideal weather for young children. Any hotter and they’ll probably feel uncomfortable and any cooler, they probably would’ve felt cold. It was perfect. We got to Westgate-on-sea by car which took roughly 1.5 hrs as there was a little bit of slow-moving traffic on the way there. LO was pretty good in the car and slept for about half of the journey which made life a little easier, especially when he and his little friend kept fighting over some toy cars.
I hadn’t even heard of this place, it was my friend that told me about it. I knew where Margate was and this little gem is just a short drive away from there. There’s no amusement park here just a little town with a local pub and a sandy beach – that’s all I wanted anyway so it was perfect for us. I think if you have older children or teenagers Margate may be a better choice so the kids don’t get bored.
The children had so much fun… Even us mummies had fun too! I highly recommend Westgate-on-sea to any families with young children.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Nails Inc. polish in Festival
#ManicureMonday
Flying over the French Alps to Barcelona
#TakeMeBackTuesdays
According to Interesting Things, in Vietnam you can order a special wine beverage called “Cobra Wine”. However it is not a wine for the faint-hearted or the animal-lovers.
This extreme beverage is essentially rice-wine, covered with snake’s blood that is killed on the spot. You can even ask the waiter to add the snake’s heart to the mix as well! Not come to think of it, I think I do remember seing a home-made bottle of this at my friend’s house when I was younger. It belonged to their parents and was stashed away in their bedroom. (Exploring hidden items was my specialty when I was younger!)
… Apparently, the snake’s blood is supposed to give the drinker more strength!
Masquerade 2000 has just revealed its theme for this year’s Notting Hill Carnival which is REVOLVE 3015
About a month ago I was invited to the private launch party and managed to get a sneak preview of what was in store for Carnival 2015. I posted up a sneaky peek of the costumes in my previous blog post (which you can see here) but was told I couldn’t give away too much yet as the official M2K’s carnival theme release date was set for 12/04/15.
… Now I can finally reveal some of the beautiful and colourful costumes that you can expect to see on the front-runners this summer!
What is ‘Revolve 3015’?
Well, my interpretation is that the People from the future (3015) have managed to develop time-travelling technology that allows them to return to the present (2015) to try to change our ways to prevent us from destroying the world and bringing humanity to an end. In a bid to save the world and all of humanity, the time-travellers need to change the moments that triggered the great disasters
“Masquerade 2K’s REVOLVE 3015 is a new fantasy theme merging the past, present day and future” – MAS2K
Click here for the company’s full explanation of the chosen theme.
It’s not a really far-fetched idea in my opinion. I wouldn’t be surprised if humanity causes its own extinction earlier than that. When you look around, you can see that technology is really ‘taking over’; people are no longer interacting with each other unless it involves their mobile phones, or think about all those increasing number of oil rigs in our oceans affecting all the natural life down there. Don’t get me wrong – I love technology but when is enough really enough?
Anyway, let’s stop all of this deep talk, it’s making me feel depressive – let’s look at something more beautiful! 🙂
The head lady, Margaret Hamilton who is Masquerade 2000’s band leader (really lovely lady!) mentioned that Mas2K wanted to try a different approach to the types of materials and mediums to use this year. Last year’s carnival they went all out with feathers but due to the horrible downpour, the costumes didn’t look half as amazing as they should have done so in hindsight, Masquerade 2000 have incorporated use of different attention-grabbing materials like sequins and tassels instead. Feathers will always be a part of carnival and Margaret has said they will still be keeping feathers in the designs but they won’t be a significant feature to the costumes like last year. However she has assured us that this will not affect the beauty or attention-grabbing qualities of their designs.
I am really keen to see what else Masquerade 2000 has to offer at the Notting Hill Carnival this year – it’s going to be a good one with good weather too (fingers crossed!). If you would like to know more about Masquerade or interesting in taking part with Masquerade 2000 in the Notting Hill Carnival 2015, please click on the following link: http://m2kmas.com/about/2015-theme-revolve/
NB. I was kindly invited to attend this event for my blog. All words, photos and opinions are mine. Please do not use my images without permission.
I miss my “modelling” days – the photo shoots and fashion shows were so much fun!
This was the Croydon Eco Expo Fashion Show, 2008
#TakeMeBackTuesday
Wandering.Mother 