Why I Created The Lantern Room. 🥰 People often ask me why grief feels so important to me. I think it’s important that I tell some of my story for context 🥰🌱🏮 The truth is, grief has been woven through my life from a very young age. On my thirteenth birthday, my mum married her second husband. Just a month later, he died. None of us knew that years of alcoholism had caused so much damage to his body. Within weeks of their wedding, he was in hospital. His leg had to be amputated, but it was too late. A blood clot travelled to his heart, and he died. Overnight, my mum became a widow. I was just thirteen. What followed shaped me in ways I wouldn’t understand for many years. I found myself carrying responsibilities no child should ever have to carry. I helped organise the funeral and was expected to be the strong one, supporting the adults around me while trying to make sense of my own grief. I was taken to view his body because I was told I was needed. It was an experience that stayed with me long after everyone else had moved on. Just over a year later, my mum remarried and moved to Spain, shortly before my sixteenth birthday. It was another profound loss, and one that left me navigating much of my teenage life on my own. By the time I was sixteen, I was already working in care. Not long afterwards, I was offered a role on a palliative care unit. Looking back now, it feels as though all those difficult experiences had quietly prepared me to sit beside people during the hardest moments of their lives. It became work that I loved deeply. Grief, however, continued to find me. My sister died at just thirty-six from alcoholism, leaving behind her teenage daughter. The grandfather who had always made me feel loved passed away, and I wasn’t told until after he had been cremated. Then, years later, my mum’s third husband died suddenly while they were living in Spain. At eighteen years old, six months pregnant, I flew to another country to organise another funeral. It felt as though I had stepped back into the same role I had been given as a child.

This week is shaping up to be a very exciting one! 🎨✨ Tomorrow Holly and I are heading up to London for one of our favourite annual traditions… the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Every year we wander the galleries together, but this year is extra special because we’re finally going to buy a piece of art while we’re there. I can’t tell you how excited I am. 🥳🥳🥳 We’re also off to see Beetlejuice the Musical (its first run here in the UK!) and we’ll also be visiting the Frida Carlo exhibition too ! 🥰😍 It’s going to be a wonderfully full few days of art, theatre and inspiration. 🎨🎭 I can’t wait to soak it all in… and, of course, bring you along with me. If all goes to plan, there’ll be plenty of photos, videos and little moments to share along the way. Here’s to filling our creative cups. 💜

This little fella landed right next to me yesterday and stayed long enough for me to grab a few photos. What a beautiful creature. 🐉✨ Dragonflies always feel a little bit magical to me, like tiny prehistoric helicopters with stained-glass wings. The detail on them is incredible when you stop and really look. 👀 A gentle reminder that sometimes the most extraordinary moments arrive when we simply slow down enough to notice them. ❤️💚🌱 What beautiful things have you spotted lately? 👀🌿

Yesterday I took Reggie for a walk around the woods. I grabbed a few videos while we were out, although I now have a mountain of editing waiting for me! 🤦🏻‍♀️ What I did manage to do was capture some lovely still shots. Photography is such a wonderful creative outlet. These days, with the cameras we carry around in our pockets, it’s so much easier than lugging a big camera everywhere.📷🎥📽️ The walk itself was exactly what I needed. The birds were in full chorus, the woodland was full of little details to notice, and for a while everything else seemed to quieten down. Sorry I’ve been a little quiet this week. I’ve got a lot going on behind the scenes at the moment, but moments like this remind me to slow down, look around, and stay grounded. Sometimes a smidgen of calm can be found beneath the trees. 🌿🐾

I won’t pretend life feels light at the moment. Sometimes life arrives all at once and suddenly you’re carrying more than you ever expected to. 🤦🏻‍♀️🫠 What I’ve been learning is that creativity doesn’t always have to be about making something amazing. Sometimes it’s simply about giving your mind somewhere gentle to rest for a while.🥰 A sketch. A photograph. A few lines in a journal. Sitting in the garden with a cup of tea and listening to the birds.🦚🪶 These little pockets of creativity have been keeping me sane lately. Not because they solve anything, but because they remind me that even on difficult days there is still beauty to notice and small moments of peace to be found. I think we need to normalise this a bit more. Life isn’t always sunshine and productivity. Sometimes it’s messy, exhausting and overwhelming. And sometimes making a tiny bit of space for yourself is more than enough. 🙌🏻 So if you’re carrying a lot right now, perhaps today you can find your own little pocket of calm. ❤️