Pick Me Up! Special June 2021

Picture this – it’s a Friday evening and you’re watching the sunset with a delicious glass of wine. Sounds perfect, doesn’t it? We think so too, and with summer just around the corner, June holds all the prospects of these glorious evenings. So, to get you in the mood, we’ve enlisted the help of wine connoisseur, Emma Rice (pg12). As well as sublime wine advice, we have plenty of remarkable real-life stories. This month, we speak to three mums and entrepreneurs juggling life to raise businesses and babies (pg42). Between naps and feeding times, these mumpreneurs launched their businesses during lockdown last year and are proving anything is possible if you just believe! And they’re not the only inspiring mums. After a traumatic birth, Chloe was diagnosed with PTSD (pg31).…

Picture this – it’s a Friday evening and you’re watching the sunset with a delicious glass of wine. Sounds perfect, doesn’t it? We think so too, and with summer just around the corner, June holds all the prospects of these glorious evenings. So, to get you in the mood, we’ve enlisted the help of wine connoisseur, Emma Rice (pg12). As well as sublime wine advice, we have plenty of remarkable real-life stories. This month, we speak to three mums and entrepreneurs juggling life to raise businesses and babies (pg42). Between naps and feeding times, these mumpreneurs launched their businesses during lockdown last year and are proving anything is possible if you just believe! And they’re not the only inspiring mums. After a traumatic birth, Chloe was diagnosed with PTSD (pg31). Struggling to cope, she…

Slice of heaven The only tiers I want to be involved in from now on are the ones in my mum’s incredible birthday cake! Laura, Oxford Three for me I was tempted to eat all of these homemade tarts myself; they look so good! Verity, Norwich Missing this Cheers to this amazing throwback of me and my girlfriends in New York a while ago. Melanie, Launceston Bake me proud I must say, I’m pretty astonished by how well this cake I made for my dad’s 60th came out! Danny, Pembroke Kids again Playing rounders for the first time in about 15 years with my friends on the weekend was absolutely exhausting, but just as fun as I remembered it being. Amanda, Reading Pit stop Whenever I go for a walk…

Slice of heaven The only tiers I want to be involved in from now on are the ones in my mum’s incredible birthday cake! Laura, Oxford Three for me I was tempted to eat all of these homemade tarts myself; they look so good! Verity, Norwich Missing this Cheers to this amazing throwback of me and my girlfriends in New York a while ago. Melanie, Launceston Bake me proud I must say, I’m pretty astonished by how well this cake I made for my dad’s 60th came out! Danny, Pembroke Kids again Playing rounders for the first time in about 15 years with my friends on the weekend was absolutely exhausting, but just as fun as I remembered it being. Amanda, Reading Pit stop Whenever I go for a walk I just have to stop and have my afternoon coffee and…

Innocent eyes Meet the terrible trio. They may look well behaved, but they're always running around like maniacs. Deb, Skegness Clawsome! Buttercup is such an affectionate cat – she's always giving strokes to Oscar. Renee, Glasgow Adorable pair This picture of my two puppies, Alfie and Bertie, is almost too cute to bear. Nancy, Sidmouth Candid pic My cat, Gregg, could be screaming, singing or laughing in this picture. Who knows? Dana, Lancaster…

My phone buzzing, I could see Mum was calling me. ‘Guess whos’ getting married?’ she practically screamed down the phone to me. As she shared her exciting news, I was thrilled for her. It was late 2016, and my mum Nicola had been with her partner Jason since 2009. Growing up it had just been me, my older sister Rhiannon and Mum. Our dad not in the picture, the three of us were fiercely close and all our friends loved Mum. She was laid-back and always up for a laugh, letting us play our music loud and made us pizzas. She dated a few men here and there, but there was never anyone serious, and Rhiannon and I never met them. So, when she introduced us to Jason back in…