I’m still away on my little adventures, now in Manchester staying with @Treena Gooding and her lovely family 🥰 Our family reunion went so much better than I could have imagined. It was one of those weekends that leaves your heart feeling very full. So many stories, photographs, conversations and connections that I know I’ll carry with me for a long time. I’ll write a proper post when I’m home and have had time to gather my thoughts a little more, but for now I just wanted to say it really was something very special ❤️

Today me and the kids are heading off on a kind of pilgrimage to Lincoln, where our family originally came from 💜 There’s a big family reunion happening and although it’s on my mum’s side, I’ve only actually met two of them before 🙈 But my mum is 67 now and living with Alzheimer’s, so it feels really important that we go and represent our little branch of the family tree for her. It’s quite a trek up country from where we are, so we’re stopping overnight just over halfway and turning it into a little adventure along the way. There’s something quite special about retracing footsteps, hearing old stories and connecting dots that maybe would have been lost otherwise. I think sometimes we carry pieces of people before we even know where they came from. That’s our weekend plans 💜 How is your weekend looking? I’d love to hear what little adventures, quiet moments or chaos you’re all getting up to ✨

I had to show you my sketchbook page from today because I absolutely love how this one turned out 🙈 I’d been wrapping presents earlier and had all these leftover scraps of paper sitting on my desk. Normally they’d probably end up in a pile “for later” 😂 but today I started playing around with them instead. I’ve also been saving this beautiful cut out from one of my art magazines for ages because there was just something about her face that I couldn’t let go of. So I started layering everything together… strips of paper, colours, shapes, patterns and somehow it just worked. Like the page already knew where everything belonged before I did. I think creativity can be a bit like that sometimes. It’s less about forcing an idea and more about noticing what wants to come together ❤️

Lately I’ve been trying really hard to notice the parts of myself that keep me small.The overthinking.The emotional reacting.The fear of getting things wrong.The waiting until I feel “ready”. 🫠🫠🫠 And honestly? I still struggle with all of it. 🙈 But I’m starting to realise that growth rarely feels comfortable while it’s happening.It’s a bit like shedding old skin. Old habits. Old beliefs about who we are and what we deserve.💜 Sometimes we think everyone else has it figured out, but I reckon most of us are quietly trying to unlearn things while learning new ways to be at the very same time.🙈 Maybe progress isn’t becoming somebody completely different.Maybe it’s gently returning to ourselves underneath all the noise. So if you’re in a season of feeling uncomfortable, stretched, emotional or uncertain… maybe that doesn’t mean you’re failing.Maybe it means something inside you is shifting. 🌿 And we’re all doing it together in one way or another.Small steps. Small noticing. Small brave moments.A smidgen at a time. 🤎 You guys are Awesome by the way ! 😍🙏🏼

Grab your hat and gloves my creative explorers… 🧤this week Around the World in 80 Sketches is taking us somewhere a little bit chilly 🥶 We’re heading up into Arctic Alaska 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻 where the roads feel endless, the skies are huge and everything has this beautiful quietness about it. I think places like this are fascinating creatively because there’s so much atmosphere in the subtle things… muted colours, icy textures, tiny buildings against giant landscapes. 💙 And in hilarious Smidgen style the road we landed on is called Cakeatter Rd 🎂🙈😂 https://maps.apple/p/UCfXnb00bLeZcj I can already feel the watercolours calling my name for this one but maybe I need to change it up somehow 🧐 As always you can join in however you like. Sketch, paint, collage, write a poem, doodle for five minutes or simply tell us how the place makes you feel. 🙌🏻 No pressure. No perfection. Just a little creative wander together 🤍💙