Notes From a Slower Week đď¸
Holiday accessories, the reading pile, and a beautiful small business!
I hope youâre enjoying and/or surviving the glorious weather at the moment. Weâre away for half-term with family, which means the usual rhythm has gone out the window. Slower mornings. Later dinners. A lot more time submerged in water.
And I'm leaning right into it.
(Love this swimwear from Scamp & Dude, more details to come on our stay at The Peligoni Club.)
Discount alert! Scamp & Dude have kindly given me a code MAMA15 for 15% off Scamp & Dude Family Swimwear â live until Sunday 31st May at 23:59. Online at scampanddude.com, excluding charity and sale products.
âď¸ Whatâs Helping This Week
A few small things making this week feel good (the holiday version):
A proper book, not a Kindle. Thereâs something about a paperback on holiday that nothing else replicates.
Letting the kids stay up later than they should. Theyâre sleeping in, the evenings are warm, and these weeks feel rare.
Eating dinner outside, every night. Even when itâs just pasta. Especially when itâs just pasta.
Not planning every day. Some have been packed. Some have been one big lazy stretch by the pool. Both have been brilliant.
A morning swim or sunrise coffee before anyone else is up. Genuinely one of the best ten minutes of the day.
A small reminder of what life can feel like when you slow it right down. And what to try to hold onto when Iâm back in the everyday chaos.
𧢠Summer Accessories
Hats and sunglasses do most of the heavy lifting.
A wide-brim straw hat, sunglasses you actually love, a good tote. Thatâs most of the wardrobe sorted before youâve even thought about clothes.
đ Summer Staples
The clothes you actually wear on holiday are the easy ones.
Linen everything. Cotton dresses over swimwear. A floaty maxi for dinners. Sandals you can walk in for hours.
If swimwear is still on the list, my full edit is here too.
đ The Holiday Reading Pile
A holiday without a proper book feels like a missed opportunity.
Read the one you're actually drawn to, not the one you think you should. A few of the ones quietly making their way around sunbeds this summer.
đ Small Business Shout Out - Hayden Hill
This weekâs small business is one for anyone who loves their clothes.
Hayden Hill is a family-run brand based in Dorset, making garment storage bags out of 100% organic cotton that are designed to protect the pieces you actually care about. The fancy dresses, the leather jacket, the handbag you want to treasure forever. Keeping moths, dust and light away from the bits worth keeping properly.
What makes it lovely is the story behind it. The founders work directly with cotton farmers and makers, and you can really feel that care in the product â beautifully made, ethically produced, and built to last. The kind of thing that quietly extends the life of what you already own.
A really lovely one for when youâve finally got a free weekend to tackle the wardrobe properly.
đď¸ Podcast Drop - Laura Anderson
This week on No Parental Guidance, Hannah and I are joined by Laura Anderson â Love Island, mum to Bonnie Rose, and someone who genuinely doesnât hold back.
Laura opens up about navigating a very public breakup while pregnant, the toll of the tabloid press, and the honest reality of co-parenting now. She also shares the actual video of the moment Bonnie Rose was born, from hypnobirthing dreams to an emergency epidural. Raw, emotional, and the kind of thing you rarely see anywhere else.
Plus our usual parenting therapy, featuring a school run gone wrong and a holiday ferry trip that went sideways over a lost set of car keys.
Whatever your week looks like, I hope there's a slow stretch of it somewhere. A long lunch, a good book, an evening with no plans.
Louise x
*Affiliated links used for some products and brand partnerships.