Over the last week or so I've read so many blog posts, comments on blog posts and comments on Instagram photos that have made me feel even more determined to stick to my blogging mantra. As bloggers we put so much of our lives on the internet (And mostly if we are really honest the nicer bits, the pretty bits, the dare I say it, the rose tinted bits - I know I'm guilty of that! I haven't shared the photo of the ceiling falling down in the bathroom, the mould on the window cills.) and the dreaded feeling of comparison starts to creep in. We compare how we dress our children, compare the review opportunities we get, compare the houses we live in, worry about how many times we are posting, in fact, I actually said last week, with life being so hectic I feel like a blogging failure, the blogger who hardly blogs!) But most scary of all, we can feel bad about the childhood's we are giving to our children. That our children's lives don't look as fun as someone else's. 

But this is crazy!!!!! Everyone is doing their best. The internet would be a very boring place if we all lived in the Truman Show, we all had the same holidays, we all wore the same clothes, lived in identical houses, where would the inspiration be? 

Social media can seem to be ruled by numbers. The ability to compare is right there on a screen in front of you! The number of followers, the number of likes, the number of page views, your scores and rankings. As a parent who blogs it can be easy to get swept up in this wave of comparison and forget what we are all really trying to do. So for last week's #capturingcolour theme of words I shared this and was overwhelmed with all the positive comments. 

And the gallery was also full of inspiring words and beautiful quotes to remind us all to be kinder to ourselves.

Sammy was asking me about all the different teams last week, why some people had blue signs or red signs, or purple, orange or green signs and I tried to explain a little about the different things all the teams wanted if they lived in the big house with the black door and number 10 in London. One of the things I talked about was that they all wanted to give more mummies and daddies to chance to work a little more. That more children would be allowed to stay at pre school for longer so (in our case) Mama could work some more hours to pay for things like our roads and doctors. And his answer was "Well I don't like the sound of that at all! We want the mummies to work less so they can play with us more!!!!!"

He was so forthright and it almost smacked me in the face! Sometimes we can be so busy making sure we look like we are having a good time that we miss actually having a good time! I know I've been guilty of trying to document every moment at a play park, lugging my big camera around with me, when all they really wanted was for me to push them on the swings!

So this image from Rustics UK just had to be my favourite from last week. The caption was "Love, Peace and Harmony I vote for this!" 

And it made me think about doing what we love. A year ago I went to a conference in London and had the pleasure of chatting to one of the hosts Kat at dinner afterwards. It felt like a bit of a wake up call, and gave me the confidence to believe more in myself, believe in the blog I wanted to write. That I could have a blog that was a family journal and a place to share my interests and inspiration too. That you can still be a parent blogger in the community even if you don't always post about your children. 

My family is integral to my blog, even on the days when I post about pretty flower workshops or conferences in London. In fact, on those days I reply on family even more. Because Rich has had to pick the boys up from school, cook them dinner, read their stories and put them to bed. Instead of sitting together in the evening watching a film and chatting, I'm tapping away on a laptop editing photos and uploading them. Without my little family I wouldn't have a blog! So when you get nominated for awards, really they are for all of us, for Sammy and Ollie, for inspiring hundreds of posts and being gorgeous models for photos, for Rich for (just about) putting up with a house taken over by mini photo shoots, tag teaming parenting duties so I can meet up with blog friends or speak at events, for providing never ending technical support to a slightly deranged stressed blogger when our internet crashes. 

I know I have been difficult to live with sometimes...! So this week I want to recognise just important family is to my little corner of the internet. Every week I share a new theme for the #capturingcolour hashtag on Instagram. Colours, florals, themes you can style with ribbons and spoons and pieces of white card on the floor. And in amongst the pretty pictures I post I share snippets of our family life. And do you know, every time I lose followers. I share a photo of the boys, our days out as a family and watch my numbers fall by a few. And at first it bothered me, but then I realised first and foremost I am a mother. My bio leads with Mama! And it's good those people unfollow because I'm not going to stop sharing my family snaps in fear of my numbers going down!

I wouldn't have been able to have all these amazing experiences and opportunities, to apply for brand ambassadorships without the help of my boys. I wouldn't be able to photograph all the lovely products I get to style without their little hands. Really it's Capture by Lucy and Richard and Sammy and Ollie. 

So this week I want to celebrate just how much we all treasure our families. Come and share your photos of what parenthood means to you over on Instagram. This week is all about FAMILY. You can share your family photos, those pieces of "abstract art" that those cubby fingers bring home from nursery, the little things you love like tiny toes or those sleepy heads in their beds. Anything goes! 

We should celebrate our differences, the things that make our family units unique. If we are lucky enough to raise a family the best thing we can spoil them with is love and attention. Rich once said it's a funny feeling when you touch someone you love. When you really love them. That there's that overwhelming sense of belonging and protection. That complete instinct that you are connected to each other in a unique way. 

Let's inspire each other, let's support each other, give ourselves a break more! We should be proud of what we achieve every day, even if some days that's just getting the children to school in clean uniform! I am so proud of this blog, for what it means I can do with my family, places we can visit, experiences the boys wouldn't have had without all the people who read it. And I'm so proud to have been nominated in the Brilliance in Blogging awards this year. Really, the Heath men are the outstanding ones! 

Only if you want to, you can vote for your favourites on the shortlist here. Voting closes on 15th May 2015.

#capturingcolour is a weekly theme on Instagram. Tag your FAMILY photos this week. Favourites will be featured next Monday :)

Forget baby lambs, sweet fluffy little chicks, the best kind of farm has to be a flower farm! I was lucky enough to discover that one of Britain's leading flower farmers lives just down the road from me! Georgie Newbury is a floral force of nature. She has lovingly tended to her 7 acre flower farm in Somerset for over 10 years and the results are simply spectacular. Her knowledge and experience, her passion and her determination just shines through every bed. 

Common Farm Flowers is a haven for flower lovers, a thriving floristry business and on Tuesday the barn was buzzing with ooh's and aah's and squeals from 6 excited ladies attending the posie and silver jewellery making workshop. 

Common Farm is situated down a country lane in a little village outside Wincanton. The house that Georgie shares with her husband and 2 children is the perfect welcome to the farmyard car park, and the country grey painted barn doors give a hint of Georgie's effortless styling. Georgie uses the barn to arrange, pack orders and host workshops for enthusiasts, hobby and aspiring flower farmers. The back wall of the barn is filled from floor to ceiling with antique vases and vessels, collections of jam jars and contemporary vases, interspersed with urns and ceramics. 

The workshop started with general loveliness, homemade sugar sprinkled biscuits, coffee in sweet china cups and an introduction from Georgie to the types of flowers we would have the chance to pick and a run through of the day. My knowledge of flowers (quite embarrassingly) stops at their colours and the varieties in my garden, but it was wonderful to be surrounded by passionate garden growers and aspiring flower farmers, and a couple of self confessed flower nerds!

We set off for the fields, following Georgie and one of her trusty wagons, with our flower buckets slopping water everywhere, as the wagon made it's way through the arches of hedgerow. 

We foraged, we fought over the first of the sweet peas, (Only kidding we shared the sweet pea stems of course!) and we formed new friendships. It's always a complete joy to be amongst people who share your loves. Who don't bat an eyelid when you gather together some "Just for today" tulips so you can photograph them by your feet. Everyone was happy, pleased to be there and it was so interesting to see how we all chose slightly different flowers for our posies. 

We went about collecting 35 or so stems, including some foliage (eek I forgot that part, I was too busy lusting after some poppies in full bloom). And the wagon got a little fuller each time we turned a corner around the fields. 

As we walked Georgie talked about how she's cultivated this incredible corner of England over 10 years, the different species that will appear, the brides she walks through the tulips and the bouquets that get sent out, straight from the field. I loved every minute of our ramble. Snapping away, up to my knees in floppy tulips, switching from phone to camera amongst the apple tree blossom and no one batted an eyelid when I snipped the heads off some open tulips, and lay them on a wooden crate, to snap a few photos for Instagram at my feet!

Georgie gathered us all together with a cheer and we headed back to the barn, cocooned in it's bare brick walls and raised rustic beams, with excited fingers ready to create our bouquets.

You could spot my bucket a mile off. Loud, bursting with the last hurrah. A posie for today. Everyone else had chosen stems that would last, mature in a jam jar, but I was completely drawn the the blowsiest, brightest heads in full bloom. 

Georgie explained with effortless ease and charm the technique for tying a posie, and within a few minutes we all were creating (albeit on my part unknowingly) that illusive spiral in our stems. Georgie has a natural talent for finding your confidence and encouraging it. She guides you, doesn't snigger at your sweaty palms, crushing the tender wild flower stems (again just me), she bonded the group together and I couldn't believe what a treat a morning at her flower farm could be. 

I adored my posie. I wanted to take a hundred photos in 5 minutes. I think I managed 99. I learnt about how to create beautiful displays at home, I've come home and been staggered at all the wild flowers I have mistaken for weeds and which will now adorn the window ledges and fireplace. 

I was so proud of my creation. It had none of the understated charm of the others, it was far too tight, my stems barely fit in the jar but I loved it. It danced above the water. Go big or go home is what I said to Georgie!

It was such  treat to be with other people who felt the same feeling of pride for what they had made. We all chose from the same patches, from the same fields, but we all had different visions. We all had 2 pairs of hands but created totally different displays.

If you are looking to learn, looking to spend time with new friends, that will feel like old friends, I recommend one of Georgie's workshops. I was so sorry to miss the second half of the day with Emma from Silver Pebble, making floral inspired silver jewellery, but I was very happy to have spent some time getting to know her better, rather than over Twitter! 

I went home feeling elated. A wonderful few hours, chatting blogging, flowers and photography. Heaven. And full. Just look at the beautiful lunch. All local, handmade and even a drop of wine from my favourite local wine merchant Divine Wines. 

A big thank you to Georgie and Emma for hosting a fantastic workshop. People travel for hundreds of miles to Common Farm and I can see why. I feel so lucky to love just 10 minutes away from Georgie's wonderful flower farm and I am sure I will be back very soon! 

You can peek at all of the workshops at Common Farm here. I would love to attend the workshop with the renowned photographer Jason Ingram! 

A wonderful way to spend a day.

A little while ago I spotted an event at the Anthropologie store in Bath that I just couldn't not go to! One of my favourite authors Emily Henson was promoting her new book Bohemian Modern and the store was hosting a macramé workshop to celebrate.

Emily is a critically acclaimed stylist and interiors author whose first book, Modern Rustic, completely encapsulated my dream interior style. I love that Emily's own personal style appears to come across in the book in amongst all the beautiful photography. 

Understated, elegant and rustic. Every room looks actually lived in. Real homes, from real people all with a common bohemian theme tying them together. The book shows how different people take elements of the 1970's trends and use them in contemporary and creative settings. I've never thought of myself as a fan of 70's interiors but when I run my fingers over the glossy pages I am drawn to the principle of displaying collections, mixing patterns and textures and bringing nature into the home. 

It was a pleasure to spend time with the other enthusiastic people who had booked a place on the workshop. To connect with some new faces and meet a fellow Instagram fan who joins in with the same galleries. We chatted with Emily about the process behind the book, how she finds the houses she features and it makes your eyes pop open when you start to understand the mountain of work that goes into writing a book.

I was intrigued as to whether anyone she approached ever said no and how you cope with coordinating international locations. We spent the next hour discussing the lovely people she visited and how the rooms are photographed. I always wondered how staged homes that are featured are, whether they are "styled" and then get put back to normal after a photo shoot. But it was refreshing to know that the odd chair here and there may get moved and placed but generally, it's the authenticity you want to capture and share. 

Bohemian Modern is a perfect compliment to Emily's first book. It felt more full of colour and I loved how it included rooms from family houses as well as aspirational grown up interiors! There's a feeling of whimsy to this book, a playfulness amongst the pops of colour and pattern. 

You see how collections grow over time. I have a vision for each room in our house but it can't be rushed. You can't produce that curated interior style overnight. Each piece has a story and finds a place. There's a line in the book where Emily says "Your home is not a showroom and styling should be fun, simply another way to display your favourite things artfully." I love this sentiment, that a home is an opportunity to create vignettes, showcasing your precious things, that can be moved and changed over time. It gives you the opportunity to use all the spaces in your home, to look for those less obvious places that, in Emily's words, "are crying out for a little collection of small treasures, curated and styled by you". 

Bohemian Modern is a real escape into the homes of those whose creativity reaches every corner. How their individual personalities hit you from the second you walk through the door. It's tempting with busy lives to buy the perfect room, to pick your style out of a catalogue, but this books shows the complete joy in taking time to build up your collections, to make your interior style as individual as you are. The homes feel so happy, each of the rooms have their own stories to tell, back gardens which have hosted parties and quiet Sundays, kitchen tables for feasting on and sofas to collapse on. 

The book also shows you Emily's home. She shares the story of her beloved armchair where she nursed her children, her street finds and how they have curated their "home for now" in the most frugal fashion. Her honesty in the way she describes how she feels about how house is heartwarming. As a sentimental hoarder I was amazed to read she sold or gave away almost all their belongings when they moved back from Los Angeles three years ago. That sense of freedom then the journey of starting again. 

I was so pleased to be able to buy Emily's book and meet her in person. We all follow our favourites for inspiration and her blog Life Unstyled is just that. Inspiration by the dreamy blog post load! You can buy a copy of both Emily's book through her website here.

You can find out about upcoming events at Anthropologie by signing up to their lovely email updates.