Hello, I'm Bonny Snowdon, ex-corporate person and mother turned successful artist entrepreneur. It wasn't that long ago though that I lacked the confidence, vision, and support network to focus on growing my dream business. Fast forward past many life curve balls, waves of self-doubt, and so many lessons learned. And you'll see Ignite my thriving online coloured pencil artist community, a community that changes members' lives for the better and gives me freedom to live abundantly whilst doing what I love and spending quality time with my beloved family and dogs,
all whilst creating my best artwork with coloured pencils and mentoring others to do the same. But this life wasn't always how it was for me. It used to only exist in my imagination. I've created the, It's A Bonny Old Life podcast to help increase people's confidence, share mine and my community's experience, and hope through fascinating personal stories, champion the other amazing humans in my personal,
professional, and membership community and create another channel through which I can support others to realize their dreams. If you're a passionate coloured pencil artist or an aspiring one who's looking to create their best work and a joyful life you love, you are in the right place. Grab a cuppa and a custard cream, let's get cracking.
I met my next guest in 2020 looking for some help in designing my studio. A Google search took me to her website where there was a multitude of colour and I was delighted when Ann Marie said she could help me. Since then, she's helped me with my kitchen and my living room and has made an incredible difference to my living space. Not just thinking about the design, but also thinking about my family life and the dogs too. So sit back and relax. She has the most wonderful voice and a fabulous backstory.
Morning, How are you? I'm Really well, thank you. How are you? Oh my God, I look like I'm sitting in a cave. Don't they? A messy, I Was just about to say, it looks amazing. I was about say how we're always harder on ourselves, other people are,
and what a lovely office you have. Yes. What a lovely office. How are you? I'm really well, thank you. Really well, I've just, I'm just onto the last week of a detox and I'm actually starting to, I haven't felt terrible to be honest, but I'm actually starting to feel really quite, quite lively. Oh, good.
How long is the detox? Detox overall? 30 Days. That's a long time. Yeah, But it's not, it's not like, you know, some of these detoxes where you kind of almost starve yourself and you, you, you feel like you're sort of withering away within like three hours. It's not that kind of detox, it's more just not putting bad stuff in and just putting good stuff in.
Okay. And it's actually Been really quite simple and it's something that I needed a kick up my rather large backside to do something. So, so I've done it and I've even done a, an inside cycle this morning as well. Can you believe that on the bike? Well, I, this is the thing. I think anything that's really extreme, like I was talking to somebody last week and she's doing intermittent fasting and,
and she said, and I feel great and I haven't eaten my first six hours except for coffee and water and blah, blah blah. And I'm just like, that really freaks me out. I'm just like, intuitively, and this is no more than that. It feels like that's very close to getting really disordered around your eating. And I'm just like,
whereas just like, you know, saying not to drink and have caffeine and sugar for a month, I'm like, okay, I really miss wine, caffeine and sugar. But you can see why. And then when you go back to normal eating, you might go, like recently my husband's been exercising a lot, so instead of having a glass wine a Thursday and Friday and then some wine with dinner on a Saturday,
we have some wine on a Saturday. You know, so it's just been kind of pulling it back a bit rather than going crazy about it. Yeah. So, so yes. So that, that's me and everyone, I, everyone's now gonna think that you that, that we're now talking about this because you are an expert in diet and everything and you're not,
are you? No. Anyway, you might not all, no, no, no, absolutely not. I'm gonna open this 'cause I was, sometimes my desk faces this window, this north spacing window, it can be very bright and then see you get that bleached out thing when you look bit like a ghost, but it's, you know, it's the cave look or the ghost.
I like to go from one extreme to the other. I love the, I love the mural behind you was did you do that or did you get someone to do it? You did it. It's, No, no, sorry, it's wallpaper. Oh, it's gorgeous. And it's definitely in that kind of, you know, seventies look when there was loads of those really big lousy patterns going on.
But I needed, like your office, I needed loads of storage, so this is kind of my wall of cabinetry all going that way. But because it's north facing, I wanted, so during lockdown I gave up my studio that was in town because obviously when the kids went back to school in that September, all of the afterschool stuff was no longer available.
So I was like, well, I'm paying rent on a place that I'm never going to, clients never come to. So, and we had this space underneath with it like a shed underneath our garage. So garage on a hill and we're like, why are we not, why don't I just make, you know, a home studio, you know,
the garden space that everyone has, why don't we just do that? But because it was, it had a concrete base, but it was just gonna be like a box. So I was like, right, we need to add some interest, need to add something cool because there's no architectural features, you know, so, so we've got a gold ceiling,
we've got this lovely wallpaper and obviously needed loads of storage to hide all the rubbish. We were doing this obviously before Zoom, doing lots of zoom calls was a really big thing. I think if I'd thought about it with regards to Zoom, I'd have had this as my wallpaper wall because then it makes a really nice zoom and I've since done offices where we have thought a lot about the view behind desk when you,
when you're on your calls. But it's been really great. Yeah, well I think it looks fantastic. I know you because I wanted somebody to come and help design my studio and then you came and designed my lounge and there's some funny stories around that actually from my, my children's thoughts about stuff. Oh really? It was Done. Yeah. And then when it was done,
they were like, yeah, I quite like it now. I think that's the thing, our family members always so have such strong opinions and I think especially when they're kind of young teens and young adults, because obviously it's that stage of life when they're figuring out who they are and they have very strong opinions, but also because they haven't done this a lot,
they kind of don't understand that you kind of have to trust the process. It's a bit like letting your hair grow and when you're kind of going, it's at that bit where you kind of can't do anything to it. But you have, you have to keep on going. And that the process, knowing that somewhere along the process there will be a bump and you'll go,
not really sure about this. Like the paint going on the walls. Typically the time that people go, I'm not sure. I'm like, yeah, but it's 'cause you don't have your sofa in there or you don't have your curtains or all the beautiful stuff. You're not gonna have a room. Especially when people go for a strong colour, which we didn't really do for yours.
But you know, like when we did painted our sitting room, for example, for the first time, which was probably the first Navy room, I did bless them all. Decorators were like, not really sure about this colour. Ann Marie don't think this is a good idea. And I'm like, no, no, it's, it'll be great, it'll be great.
And once it was all finished, they're like, oh, it's not bad. I'm like, I mean that's praise indeed from a decorator Dear. So you are an interior designer? I am. But you haven't always been a, an interior designer? Nope. I had a whole other path. So I used to be a solicitor and in particular, I used to be a litigator,
which means I took cases to court and I mainly did fraud and I also did some insurance cases. So I started off, I did a law degree in Ireland and then I met my now husband in France. Who, who, and he's English. So I then came to England and did a master's in law because I still didn't want to be a lawyer,
but I wanted to be in England. So I was like, oh, I'll just do a master's, it's fine. And then I still didn't really know what I wanted to do, so I went to law school. So I, I kind of was on a conveyor belt, you know, and I think when you do a vocational degree, it's you have to,
there's such a strong conveyor belt, there's such a strong path for doing that thing that to get off requires a kind of a breath of vision that I didn't have at the time. So I went to law school and then I became a trainee solicitor and then I qualified a long time ago, I can't even remember, about 20 years ago, 25 years ago maybe.
And then I worked in the city until the early two thousands when I got married and then moved to Yorkshire in 2007. And then I didn't, I stayed being a lawyer while I had my first two kids and then didn't go back to law after the second one. And I'd always been interested in interiors. I was about 19. I met my dad for a coffee when I was at uni and I was just,
and my dad had had the big corporate thing, so this was kind of what was expected. And he said, I said, I don't think I want to be a a lawyer. I think I want to be an interior designer. And he was just like, that's ridiculous. And I'm like, okay, right. I'll just go back to lowland.
And so it was about, and then when we bought off flat in London, I'd always been really interested. So I loved doing that, but I was like, oh, this is just what I'm going to do. I'll keep doing it all for my proper job and I'll do this for fun. And then we got some media exposure. A friend was a photographer and because she was starting out,
she couldn't afford to pay for shoot houses. So she was like, oh, can I photograph your place? I was like, yeah, yeah. Okay. And then we moved up here and we bought a, a 1930s house in Leeds and we did the same. And she said, could I do photograph again? Yeah, yeah, that's fine.
And then we bought this house and I mean my, the innocence of it when we viewed this house, so it's a Victorian house and I had never, you know, with some old houses, you find out there's been two families there over the last a hundred years, whatever this house had, it was a bit like a a a revolving door. There've been lots of people through it and,
and I said, oh, we're just gonna paint it and we'll put in new kitchens and new bathrooms and that'll be it. And the only thing that we haven't touched is the front elevation of the house and the windows. And that's because it's conservation. So we reroofed, rewired, re plumbed, we all new kitchens, all new bathrooms. We decorated everywhere.
We'd done pretty much everything except the windows. And then after that I did some work experience during that process. So it was a 10 month build. So we moved out because the kids were really little and it wasn't safe to be here. I mean, our son was two and he was like very excited every time he came on site and saw builders and you see them all like quay when was the middle child picking up tools and stuff.
And I did some work experience with the architect at the same time to understand about how you do drawings. And I did when I was pregnant with our son who's now 12, I did some short courses in London 'cause obviously a lot of design worlds in London. And then once we finished our house, I had lots of friends. 'cause you know, people hear you chatting about when the build's finished.
Oh yeah. And some friends then contacted me to ask me to for help with their place. And that was in, in May, 2014 we moved back in. So shortly after that I set up a website and thought, right, actually it's not to con not just do it as fr as for friends, actually this is my opportunity to decide to actually leave law,
you know, rather than it just be an extended maternity break. So yeah, 2014 I set up a m c design. Amazing. And you haven't looked back? Not at all. I mean, you know, I think the great thing that law allowed me to bring into interior design, because obviously it's an unconventional path. Most people who leave law either go into teach teaching law,
you know, for the professional exams or they maybe go into an in-house legal team and then possibly go into a business. That's a much more normal thing to do. And especially if you're something like an employment lawyer, you go into the HR department and that kind of path. But I think I came at it with a problem solving mentality and being very aware of the client relationship and the client,
the, the professional service element of, of it. Because it is a service. You know, I, I solve problems now and in my old job because I used to sue people, you're solving a problem, you know, you've had a a business deal and it's gone wrong and somebody owes you 5 million quid or whatever. Well that's worth su suing over if you are owed five grand,
it's small claims. If it's 50 grand, you don't want to go all the way to trial 'cause your legal costs are gonna be way more than that. But what I always loved about my old career was I really liked the people. I like speaking to people and finding out why for you this case is worth going to trial 'cause it's gonna be two or three years of stress and expense.
So why is it worth it for you in comparison to just having a commercial, a business meeting and doing a deal. And I like finding out how to resolve the problem. So I like the people part and I like the problem solving part. And when I, I came into this really at a kind of a gut level, you know, very instinctively I'd done art and stuff at school and I'd always loved the creative side,
but because I'd also been good at the academic part, that had been the path I'd gone down. But it had always been this kind of part of my life that was, you know, the, the sliding doors saying of if I'd not done law, what would I, where would I end up? And I love talking to the clients. I love going on site and talking to the builders and you know,
they'll say, right, we can't do this because we need a beam, we need an R S J. And I was like, okay, so that bath is gonna be really heavy so we would need to, I'm causing extra build cost if we definitely want that bath. For example, if you put a copper bath, for example in a first floor bathroom,
it's gonna be really heavy. You're gonna have to reinforce the floor. I'm like, okay, if I can get a composite or if I can, if we're doing other stuff, that means that we need to add that extra strength in the, in the floor, the bathroom floor. That makes sense. Or if the client really loves it and they don't mind that there's an extra cost.
So it's just understanding all the elements of a job that require you. 'cause I read something on Instagram, I think it was recently, and it was somebody, an interior designer who put up a beautiful photograph of a scheme they'd done and they said the end result belongs to the client. It's not really ours. As a designers, our job is to make the process and make the build and as painless as possible and take away all the problems and all the hassle.
And also to convert what the client maybe doesn't always know that they want and how to bring that to life. And that's why the people part and the organizing part, they're the most important parts of the job. You know, it's, the job is maybe 20% creativity. And that's great because I think whatever your thing is or you know, for your business now or if you are selling shoes or whatever or doing what I do,
it's not all about that. A lot of it is mostly is about the clients. The next bit of is about organizing your business and organizing how to deliver that service to the client. I think if you don't love selling shoes or interior design or teaching people, that's a big problem because on the rubbish days when you're just doing invoicing that it's all about soul destroying.
So I love that part, but also I really love the people part of it. And that's, you know, some designer, if you read stuff they'll say, you know, this job is 40% marriage counseling or psychology. And that's a huge part of it because, 'cause most of the work we do is residential, so you have to go into people's homes.
Like it's such a privilege to be allowed into people's home, you know, to come to your place, talk to you about how you and the kids and the, and the dogs live and work how everybody comes and goes it. And I love having those chats because if you don't have those chats, it's kind of just like shopping, you know, it's going into John Lewis and choosing because obviously they set up a sitting room scheme or a bedroom scheme or something and go,
yeah, we'll have all of that. But the answer will be, well, hang on those room sets, they're massive, you know, they are say five or six meters in each direction, which is about two or three times the size of most normal bedrooms or sitting rooms. So what will look lovely there might not work, look be great in your place,
or it doesn't allow for the fact that, you know, you've obviously got a beautiful rural outlook from your house. But if it was a really edgy, kind of contemporary urban type of room that's in fashion at the moment, well that's not gonna really work when you're got this IC countryside around you. So it's making it work for the clients and for the setting and for the bones of the building.
Yeah. And, and what, what we did in my sitting room, I would never have said, Ann-Marie, this is what I want. And kind of chosen all of those things, not in a million years because we've always had, well I'm saying we've always had like magnolia on the walls, we've had all sorts of weird colours that that,
that when, you know, I was with my husband, he'd just go out to b and q and is, well this is what they've got, so this is what you're having, you know, and we have a mixture of, you know, matte and a bit of eggshell on the wall, so you've got a bit of shine in places. Well It interesting,
it's unconventional, but you know, a conversation. But, but my sitting room now, I could never have envisaged that on my own ever. And you know, when we were looking at all of the mood boards and all of that kind of stuff, I, I, I kind of could sort of see what it was and the children were like,
really? I'm not sure. And then of course when it was done, they're like, oh my god, this is amazing and it's a beautiful room. I have to say the dogs are in there far more than I am. They kind of, Well they're not busy teaching your lovely students. No They're not. But, and I guess also your sitting room is a great example of that because of your beloved dogs.
Of course we wanted it to be beautiful for you and for the kids, but also that it wasn't gonna be precious so that when the dogs were wagging their tails or anything that we, and that's why, so we did the paneling up to kind 1200 off the floor so that it's bombproof, it looks beautiful and it's easy if there is a muddy paw somewhere,
it's easy to clean and things like that because there is no point. Whatever your lifestyle is, whatever your home situation is, whether you've got lots of big dogs, whether you've got lots of kids or you're a really supportive family, you know, because if you're the kind of family that's going to have muddy paws or muddy rugby kit or swimming kit or you know,
stuff, there is no point having delicate finishes on the floor or below waist height because either you'll drive yourself demented looking after at all time, or you'll be too busy to look after it and then in six or 12 months or you know, a limited amount of time it'll be trashed and it's waste all that time and effort. Whereas actually if by keeping the beautiful,
delicate things kind of go waist high and above fine, you know, tails don't wag that high. So that's why the getting to know the client part is like the most important part because it has to be solutions that are orientated around that client, that household, that lifestyle. So yeah, and I think that's what I brought from my old life. And I guess also like,
I really believe in being nicely straight with people, you know, from the clients to the builders to everybody else because most problems aren't insurmountable. You know, like as when my kids are getting a flop or something, I'm like, unless it's drug dealing or murder, like we can sort out anything and okay, thank, we don't have murder or drug dealing on our building sites,
but you know, we can solve problems. You just have to talk to people really clearly about things. So the same is true for either when we're trying to figure out what the scheme needs, what your room needs, or when we encounter, like we had a job recently and they, it was a really old house and we discovered asbestos and we knew there was gonna be some asbestos,
but there ended up being a lot more asbestos obviously, if that's a problem, contractor gels it appropriately. But you know, that wasn't a great bit of news on that job. But once we had a plan for dealing with it, you know, you keep all the lines of communication open, you everybody understands why we are where we are or you know,
we need to discover some damp. We discover that the window frames that we all thought were grand because the windows only went in seven years ago, that actually the some rot in it. So we need to fix that part of the window frame. It's always about being straight with people because it's how you get the best result. You know, I might be in my client's lives.
I, I think you and I, Bonny we met during lockdown, so we've now known each other about three years or I mean all lockdown timescales in my head of, of just pre and post covid kind of stuff. But I think it must be about three years. But it's not only that you and the kids love it on the day that, you know,
the decorator walks out and everything is put in place. It's that three years hence, and five years hence, and 10 years hence. But you'll go, this is great and this works really well for us. I mean, in 10 years we might be like, I think we need some new cushions and you know, they've, they've had their lives kind of thing.
But actually by, by it being client-centered, it like when we buy clothes, you know, you, we buy a good pair of jeans or nice overcoat and we might have different scarfs or earrings or makeup or whatever, but actually that coat does you for like 15 years or something because you kind of do it once and do it right and make sure the bones of it are classic.
And when, when we think about our schemes, you know? Yes. Like for example, my studio that I'm sitting in, you know, I've got statement wallpaper over here, but I've gone oak floor and I've got dark gray cabinets. So actually if I want a really different change, I want to change everything in here. Even if I went for something,
I did a hole recently and I had this beautiful wallpaper, it's called Prism by colon stones and it looks like a magnified version of a, a prism, you know, when the light goes through with glass and it's got shards of colours in with kind of triangles and verticals actually, because the bones of this studio are quite classic and it's pinks and turquoises and greens.
It's really vibrant because the bones of my studio are quite classic. If I wanted to really vibrant studio all of a sudden repaint that I probably get rid of all my gray and stuff, accessories and I add some pinks and blues and I've got a whole different scheme. And it's the same like when I'm looking at your, the room behind you, because we've got the currently that works great for the,
for the dogs because we've got white cabinetry. You know, if you want a really moody room, we repaint the lovely pink with say an inky blue, you've got the gray chair in the corner. We might add a couple of say sunflowers or something in the basket instead of the hydrangea and all of a sudden you've got a really snuggy cozy kind of space.
But because we've kept the bones of the room classic and strong, we can change that. You know, we can have what look like a big change without actually throwing the baby out with the bath. I think it's brilliant. I think it's really, and the other thing that I really love as well is that, you know, so if I was gonna decorate my room,
I'd have to find a decorator. I'd have to find somebody to come and do the, you know, and then that's, that's has, that's real hassle for me. Oh gosh, I've gotta find somebody to come and do this. And I've go and you come along with a team and it's, and it's like, that's amazing. That is a really,
really amazing service to, to give to somebody who doesn't have a huge amount of time, who wants something doing. And you know, and your, your decorator Steve, oh my goodness, what an amazing man. And he's come back and done more bits and pieces for me. You know, he is done my hallway, he did the, he did the garden studio,
but I would, I'd never have found him. Yeah, I think that's the thing, you know, our clients are busy people and so it's partly because it makes our clients' life easier, which is always our focus with everything that we do. And secondly, the execution is as important as the initial selection because if your beautiful cabinetry is put in on the wonk because it's a rubbish joiner or because you know,
that lovely wallpaper in the sitting room with pink, with the birds on it. If the joints aren't but edge, if, if it's not hung properly when you're sitting watching TV and then looking at the French doors and you see that the birds start to like teeter a bit as it goes across the wall, that's what you remember, you know, three years and six years,
whatever down the road. So, so it's partly because having a good team allows us to have quality control on the implementation because at the end we want you to be really happy and we want the, the finish article with photos to look great. And if it's, if it's a, an other, you know, joiner, tech decorator, sparky, I don't know that they will actually do it the way we want it done.
And also our lovely, lovely team, they know what we expect and so they do, we also make their life easy. So they will get a detailed spec sheet with all the colours, the little image of the colour in case when the paint shop mix it up, they mix green instead of blue. Steve will go, hang on, I've got a picture of what it's meant to look like.
That doesn't look right. We make their life easy, we give them detailed information about everything. And like the electrician, I went to a job with him and recently and he said the client, he said to the client, what, how do you want the light on? Do you? And like we know what Ann Marie wants. Ann Marie wanted 2000 millimeters or to 2,100 millimeters off the floor.
And the client kind went, okay, I think you need to call Ann Marie and it was nearby so it like ran over, hits them right Salmon Dale, what do you think I want? They're like 2000 to 2,100 off the floor. I was like, okay, hang it up and I'll tell you. And it was 2007 off the floor when they,
they all the work place. I was like, yeah, that looks right. And that's the thing. So they make the job more efficient because we all know how we work together. They know what my expectations are. They will double check things with the spec and with us. So that also works in the client's favor. Your working day is not being interrupted by lots of random questions about do you want your skirting satin or eggshell,
you know, what, what light fitting do you want? What, where do you want at home? Do you want a dimmer switch or do you want a, a light switch? Because we've dealt with all those queries. So although obviously it's a service that's part of our offering, it's a very efficient way to do it because our clients are not being interrupted all the time.
And because we don't start from scratch every time kind of creatively, we start from scratch. But for all the processes and all the solutions, you know, we always put our light fittings on a dimmer because even if it's say in your kitchen or your bathroom, probably we all need the light to be bright. Well it's also nice in say in the kitchen when you're cooking,
obviously we need functional light, we need it to be bright. But when you're sitting there and done having dinner, we dimm the lights over the dining table, turn off the lights over the kitchen units. 'cause no one wants to see the dishes if you're sitting down to dinner. So we know those, we are going to always do those in our scheme.
You know, I've got a job at the moment and I was talking to Sparky on Friday that you want all demo new Sparky to us. Yeah, all demos always, always these spotlights. But why are these spotlights Ann Marie? Because they're so, when you have a spotlight you can normally say 10 pounds for a spotlight, it's about if you go to B&Q or place like that or,
and I was like, well these ones are about 30 quid. And he was like, why? And I was like, because the bezel on them, so the part that you see on the ceiling is really, really fine. So when we go to B and Q and we buy one for 10 quid, it's gonna have a rim on the ceiling that is about a centimeter all the way around.
That's ugly. We don't need to see that. It's, it's like showing your underwear when you're all dressed up the wedding, you know, you can see your pants through your dress. No one wants see that. Well, not in my point in life, maybe, maybe if I was 20, but, but I, and we can angle the light bulb.
So when you have a beautiful piece of art on the wall, the light bulb can move with inside the light fitting. It's like a tube and the light bulb goes like that. So the beam of light is directed towards the piece of art without it being the kind of light spotlights we all had when we were kids. Like I remember my parents had a light and they were like a whole globe,
it would come out the ceiling, you know, it's coming halfway down the the room and those kind of things. Okay, yes, 15 pounds or 25 pounds extra per spotlight. You might think, well that's an unnecessary cost. I'm like, the impact of that in your room when you finish, you know, in comparison to say the cost of your sofa,
which is probably gonna be 1500 quid, two and a half grand starting point an extra hundred pounds on the four spotlights that we've put in the room when it make a massive difference, you know, the extra cost of having a dimmer light switch in comparison to a light switch, light switch, which is maybe an extra, even if it's a fancy one like brats or something,
it's maybe an extra 10 pounds. We don't spend money rashly, you know, we don't kind of go right, we'll just go spend the client's money like this and we're very respectful of it. But where those differences make a big impact. We had a site meeting with a client on Thursday or Friday and we chosen some wallpaper and then when we costed it up,
it came in. We knew it was gonna be expensive paper, but it came in really expensive and I mean she said, you know, we can do this if you think we really need to. And I was like, well there's this alternative and there's this one. And we were still talking about wallpapers that were about 80 pounds of roll. So it's not like we'd gone from Rolls Royce down to Ikea and I was like,
listen, what we feel comfortable spending is it has to be the right level. You know, it's a bit like when you really want a really nice burger and somebody gives you fillet steak and you're like, well it's kind of the same but it just doesn't hit the spot. So it's about spending their money in a respectful way because there's no, you don't always want fillet steak and it's not always the right solution for that room or for that family and that life.
So she's still gonna have a beautiful room. We just didn't choose a wallpaper that was, I think it was 140 pounds a roll or something. We've gone for one that's like 80 pounds. So it's beautiful. It fulfills all the function if, and it looks very pretty. It's, it's a neutral pattern one, but it's about, that's why like I'll always stand up for my spotlights with my extra 25 quid on them.
But actually I'll give up the, the wallpaper when it's not the thing. Like for example in your sitting room, that wallpaper with the pink, with the birds on it, that was the thing. And if you had said, actually I don't really like the colour of paint that you've chosen for the paneling. I'm like, oh that's okay. We can tweak that.
That's in every room. You need a hero piece, you need a, you need a hook that makes the room come to life. Because if you don't have one thing that's amazing and it isn't necessarily always the big thing like the wallpaper or the sofa, it could be like if this was a, like a sitting room rather than office, you might have a table lamp that's behind me that might have say a bright orange shade on it.
That might be my hero piece because actually that gives a quirkiness, it gives an extra bit of interest to the room. So once you have that one thing that's a bit unexpected or a bit cooler than you might have anticipated, that's what elevated into being a really great space. Yeah. Gosh. And do you have to keep up with all of this?
Do you have to, you know, or is it just, I, I'm, I'm guessing there are trends and all of that kind of stuff. Is that just through following other people, like interior magazines? Do you go to like the, you know, where they have these big conventions and everything? Is that where you start to pick stuff up or is it a little bit more like osmosis you just sort of absorb stuff when you see it?
You do absorb a lot and I love going to hospitality settings. My mom had for lunch on the weekend and I was like, oh it's gonna be, it's gonna be a, a restaurant that's got really good lose lose are always good. Look at when you go to bars and restaurants. So some it is osmosis and there is an interrelationship between interiors and fashion because colours tend to go through cycles,
not at least 'cause the colour consultancies, you know, say like this year is the color, the color of the year is magenta. Which yeah, there are some rich colors coming through. So it's a combination of magazines, Instagram and social media and like you say, the big trade fairs, which are, there's London in September just been to a little one in Manchester,
which was really nice because it, the big shows tend to have them bigger brands. But one of the things that we really love to do is to introduce our clients to the small brands that they won't know from flicking through living etc, or homes and gardens and all the rest of it. Because we want to bring something unexpected to them. We don't want it just to be deliver what they have in mind.
So there's London in September, Paris is in January and Milan is in April and they kind of serve different markets and so you don't always go to all of them, but we'll go to something every year as well as then keeping up with smaller brands and smaller shows that are more local to us. Gosh. Yeah, well I suppose it's the same with everything,
isn't it? You know, you, once you're in that world, you are, you are then immersed in that world and you, you know, you follow the same people and all of that kind of stuff. So you work from home. Yes. And you have your, you've got your dog now Got dog now Yes. Although she's now a teenager,
so she's being a bit of a monkey at the moment, but I'm thinking she's 15 months I think another couple of months then she'll settle. Right. What is she co cockapoo? Labradoodle Labradoodle. Oh, is she quite big? No, actually she's a really small Labradoodle. She is, her dad was a miniature red, so she's about the size of a big cocker spaniel.
Right. So, but yeah, she's really good and getting her was the best thing we've ever done. Oh. But yes, because with the children and everything, she fitted in really well with like home life. Yeah, absolutely. And also it means that now every day I get up early and I walk the dog. So today I had to lie in,
but I was out out the door by about half past six and there's no way I'd be getting up, especially when it's been raining like the last few days on a rainy day if it wasn't for her. So she's been great and, and I guess also it is made me more, I understand more about when people are having taken their dogs into account.
Because although we had dogs when I was a kid, you know, since I moved to England 25 years ago, I've never had a dog until recently. So she's been really great. So yeah. And the kids are pretty good at walking her most days. I would say five or six days outta seven, one of the kids will walk her in the afternoon,
which is pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. How so how old are your children? 14, 11 and nine. Right. So you are, oh, so you've still got a couple of years left at junior school? At at primary school then for your youngest? Yeah, I mean she is itching to be grown up like her brother and sister recently.
She was like, oh mommy, I think I go, she's going into year five in September. Mommy, I think I can walk home from school in year five. And I was literally about to go. Yeah, yeah, fair enough. It's not that far. There's no major roads. And the other two were like, we weren't allowed to walk in year five.
I was like, oh yeah, the whole consistency around parenting. I'm like, yeah, yeah. Okay. So I've got a year more of doing the school run and then, but yeah, my son is going to secondary school in September. He's a very chilled kid. He doesn't get agitated about much. I was like, are you excited? They finish on Wednesday,
like it's all right. Are you excited about going to grammar school? Right. He very much takes after his father. Oh yeah. But it's all good. But yeah. So they're a bit younger than yours because remind me how old your youngest is again? So mine are 23, 22 and 18. Soon to be, very soon to be, 'cause all of their birthdays are August and then beginning of September,
so there'll be 19, 23 and 24. So does that mean no one's in school anymore? No. Oh my goodness. That has been a revelation. Although, to be fair, they were all driving at 17. So there was a point obviously where, where I had to do, you know, we were teaching them to drive. Oh my goodness. That was How much you love your children,
I think amazing Stuff. Oh gosh. Yeah. You know, and, and it's funny, you know, the boys kind of took to it relatively easily. My daughter got, if she listens to this, she'll kill me. I can remember sitting in the, she'd had a couple of lessons with her, Dr. Driver instructor, I can remember sitting on our drive and she got a little fiat 500 and she sat in it and she's like,
revving it and whatever. And I was like, what, what are you, what are you doing? You know, just leave me alone. She's like this and she's looking for the, she's waiting for the biting point and I'm, but she's just revving her engine. I'm like, no, that's kind of the feeling that you get between the collection of thing.
And she was her, for some reason, her driving instructor had said, when this is the biting point here. And that's what she was looking for. Anyway, it took us 10 minutes to get outta the drive and then we shot out of the drive, nearly ran a neighbour over rear down the, down the road. And I'm like, oh my God.
Turned a corner to go onto this little back road around the side of house. And she didn't turn the steering wheel back round. So we turned the corner and then we just went onto the grass. Oh my God. And then the amout of times that she stopped the car and got out. Oh Yeah, I've, I did that before as well. My stepfather tried to teach me very new relationship with my mom and he is like,
I'll teach Ann Marie. I got outta the car at least twice. I'm not listening to you. I know, I just, you know, and I didn't have that with the boys, but she's a, she's a really good, she's a really good driver. She's just, she's got her new car, not new car, but new to her car on,
on Saturday. She's got a little lovely mini, it's really nice. Oh, cute. It's really nice. The five door. And it's lovely. So yeah. And then my eldest son, Frank, he's oh gosh, is speaking of car, I dunno why we speaking cars, but he bought this Hyundai, Hyundai called, what does he call it?
Hyundai. Hyundai, I dunno, whatever. It's the top kind of the top of the range in the one that he's got. Yeah, blue. It's in there. Okay. And it's like a, it's like a pale, pale blue. That's, I, it's just like grandma and grandpa's cars blue. My mom had a pale blue car in nineties about say,
But this is like, and this car, oh my god, it makes so much noise. Oh. But he's one of those boys that drives around with his car, like sputtering and everything. It's probably an age thing, isn't it? I think if you're a young man, a young adult and you like cars, you want a car that's gotta go And who's going,
You don't want something that'll fit all the kids and the, and the kit and the dog. Well, Exactly where I'm Exactly. So he's got, he's got that and it goes like, absolute stink. Oh my god. Honestly, I'm sitting there if I go in it and I'm like, please slow down, please slow down. It's like, and then Sid,
my youngest, who's the most hilarious child, he's not a child. He's got a little Citron C one. Oh yeah. And they all work. So they, they all work and, and they've all bought their own cars and everything. So, and he just drives around with a window open with his, with his arm on, zooming around. He's just,
he's hilarious. He's absolutely hilarious. That means he's got like a farmer's tan on his driving arm and he's going to like have a really white arm on the other side. Not this year maybe. Yeah. But my eldest son, he is, he goes off to Australia in September Traveling or to move, He's going for, well he's going for a year,
but who knows, might not, might stay out there, you know, well Binmen are here now. It, so that's a bit of a, That's a thing. That's A big Thing. My mum was over this weekend and we end up talking about that 'cause my kids are little still, you know, obviously we've been at the stage of being excited that we're not dealing with toileting anymore or you know,
they kind of shower themselves and all that kind of stuff. And I'll let she only 14, I can kind of, you know, you've got friends who've got older kids and talk to people like you've got kids who are just like, you know, five years older. And I sit to her going, I can't imagine my kids living in a different country.
And hey, you know, Yorkshire's Dublin, it's not far. George door's about four hours including waiting time at the airport. It's, you know, you can drive further not that far in England, do you know what I mean? Or in Britain. And she was like, yeah, it's, it doesn't stop being hard. And we went to a wedding around the time we got married,
we went to a wedding in Sydney, a Welsh guy and a Sydney woman. And all the Australians obviously very proud of the country and very excited to show us everything. And they were like, would you move here? And I was like, it's too far away from home. And I in leaving Ireland, I always have in the back had 'em at the back head if something happened,
you can get home in this amount of time. Yeah. And when I worked in London, I worked with a woman who was a New Zealander and she said, well, she had a very, very old grandma and she said she was coming to Europe for two years maybe, and her grandma died in that time. And she's like, I, I can't get back in time.
That's just how it is. I think during Covid, you know, like I said, I, I came to England straight after uni, so in 1998 and having met my husband at uni, and it wasn't until Covid, I kind of thought my, my parents are fine. All my family are fine. We were very lucky we came through Covid unscathed,
but all of a sudden it was like, I can't go back to Ireland if I want to. You know, it's not expensive, it's not time consuming normally. And that was a real shock. I mean, I think if I hadn't been here so long, I didn't have English husband, English kids, English business. I, I can see why lots of people after Covid decided that immigration's great and having an overseas adventure is brilliant.
But why our homes and our families are really the most important thing. So I, and I said to my husband not long before Covid, just coincidentally, I was like, I really hope that our kids don't live their whole lives in Yorkshire. I think they hope they go and explore the world, whether that's they go to London or they go overseas.
I said, and I really, really hope they end up coming back. I hope they end up living within say, maximum an hour of us so that we can be part of their lives. I mean, I realize I'm getting ahead of myself. She's only nine the youngest. Like I've got, I've got a while to go. But it's that thing of,
of home and of people who you love and, and also old friendships, you know? Yeah. I've now been in England long enough that I do have old friendships here, but obviously the people I went to school with and went to university with, most of 'em still live in Ireland. Yeah. It is sort of starting to hit me really because it is,
you know, it's not, not that far away. And yeah, he's, you know, he, I think they're going to Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore and then, and there's a, there's four of them that are going and he is got his work permit and he is having his, I think he's going this week to have his typhoid and hepatitis C and all of that kind of stuff,
you know, but I was I was lying there the other night and I'm, and he's having a leaving party and I was thinking, you know, when, when you sort of like start playing scenarios in your head and I was like, oh my God, I hope he doesn't ask me to stand up and do a speech because I will literally,
I won't be able to get anything out. I'll be crying. You know? 'cause he's, they've been at home all the time, you know, we, we've kind of, we struggled through when, when their dad left and then, you know, with the, all the awfulness and everything like that. And we, we are a really good unit,
you know, but I'm, I'm so excited for him. I'm really am excited for him and I'm really glad that he's going because he is got no ties. He's got a brilliant job. He's got a really great job. He works so hard and he does a fantastic job. And he, you know, he really is good at what he does.
You know, he's got, he hasn't got a house, he hasn't got, he hasn't got sort of like a long-term girlfriend, you know, and actually to go No kids yet. Yeah, Exactly. To go and have an adventure now. I think if he didn't, he would regret it. Yeah. And you can plan a great holiday to go and see him while he's out there.
Exactly. Exactly. You know, well I have planned a flipping great holiday for February. I was like, we're going to Norway, Sweden, Finland, and we're doing the Ice hotel and all of that kind of stuff. And I'm like, are you, are you coming? Are, aren't you coming? And I've just been about, I've just gotta pay the,
the deposits and everything. And actually it's, it's been re it's much less than what the chap said it was gonna be. Okay. Oh, that's a nice surprise. She's Like, Frankie's like, well you can then pay for my flight over then. Which I'm like, do you know what, yeah, it probably could actually, it'd probably be really quite nice.
So yeah. And also I think when you've had a certain amount of money in mind, you know, meant the earmarked for Yeah. And then I mean, a how often is it that somebody goes actually, you know, it's 10% less or whatever. So you kind of almost mentally got that bag to cash. It's like, you know what if it means that he can come,
especially because if he's traveling and working, it's not like he's working full-time and Yeah. That, that's a really long, I think having those experiences with your kids as, I mean the probably don't even count as young adults anymore. Do they look like proper adults? Yeah, They are. That's amazing. You know, and I think also, like you say,
the fact that you're such a gang of four, I think that means it allows them that confidence and that bravery to go out into the world. But like that elastic band will always keep you connected to them and that's, that's the most important thing. Yeah, Definitely. Definitely. You know, I mean family. So I have six. Yeah.
So four sisters and a brother. There's six of us. And my, my sister who's 14 months older than me, she lives in Derby. Yeah. And then everybody else is literally within about 10 minutes. That's amazing. You know, that's also quite unusual for English people because I'm one of five, I'm the, there's three girls and then two boys and I'm the middle one,
so the youngest girl. And we're really close in age like yours this six years and nine days between the first and the last. Right. But since I moved to England, it's rare that you meet people who've got so many siblings, especially say from one marriage. It's both. We all have the same parents. You know, sometimes you meet people who've got lots of siblings,
but there's been, you know, steps and there's people who've had an ex family and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I think to have everybody nearby is such a precious thing. And that, I was talking to one of my brothers recently and I was just like, I really love my life in England, and I have no intention of moving.
I was like, I'd quite like if we had like, you know, the Star Trek teleporting machine. 'cause I'd really love my kids to like walk down the road and go and spend time with their cousins or to tell his wife all the embarrassing things he did as a teenager, you know, and that kind of stuff. And I think that's really lovely to have.
Yeah. Do you know, it really is. I'm going out tonight with two of my sisters and two of my cousins. So we've, I'm very close to to, to my cousins and we've spent, we grew up together and, you know, holiday together and we'll, we'll go out, we'd call it sisters and cousins night, you know, probably every,
every month. We'll we'll do some amazing, wow. That's Amazing. Yeah, it is. How Many cousins do you have? Well, four on my mother's side. Yeah. And I've got more on my father's side, but they actually live in Sydney and Switzerland. Okay. I don't really know those. It's just my, my uncle's children. And it's the two girls.
So it's Nikki and Debbie that we know really well. Yeah. And they actually live at Ripon and Leeds, so Oh, really? Nearby. Yeah. So really nearby. Yeah. Yeah. Which Is, that's, that's amazing because I've got a, an awful lot of cousins. 'cause my parents also come from really big families, but like, like typical Irish families,
we're all quite spread apart, you know, most of 'em are in Ireland, but there's over 35 cousins. But my husband has got two cousins, like a much more classic English family. And it took him years. I mean, we met in the mid nineties, so he's known them all for a long time now. And we'd go to family things and he'd be like,
who are all these people? I'm like, well if they've got my colour blue eyes, they're probably a cousin. But it's totally fine to go up to 'em and introduce yourself and ask how you fit in. And he's just like, really I'm like totally fine. You know, you kind of give, my dad is, there was only one girl said,
tell him which uncle you kind of belong to and where you fit. Totally legitimate. But I think when you have cousins of those who had a couple who we saw a lot as kids who were kind of more my friends rather than being, it's a bit like a school reunion where we all get together. Yeah. You know, it's kind of, how was Sarah who I sat next to in English in,
you know, in year six or something. It's kind of like that. But I have definitely got a couple of cousins who we spent a lot of time with in childhood and that's really nice to be friends with them as a grown up. Yeah, absolutely. You know, my sisters, I was round at my mum and dad's yesterday with two of my sisters.
You know, we all rock up at the same time and you know, it's, it is, it's really nice. It's really nice because I, I've got friends, you know, but I, I would say my sister's are the closest. Yeah, That's really lovely. Which is lovely, You know. So I've got a tip for you around in case your son does want you to say some words.
So, my best friend and I kind of feel like that makes me sound like I'm 12 saying I'm best friend. But anyway, my best friend moved to America about 10 years ago. She met a really lovely guy and I got married and, and I went ahead to the wedding and of, it was quite a small wedding and it was on the west coast of America so there were not many people came from Britain.
And so all of our kind of mutual friends who were sending me emails saying, can you please put this in the speech? Can you please say this? And lots of expressions of love and saying she's so amazing and she's so great. And, and first of all I realized that a American wedding speeches aren't like in Britain and Ireland, you know, it's a toast rather than half an hour speech.
And second of all, if I said all those things, I was going to end up in floods of tears. 'cause they all basically said, we really love her. We're really, really sad. We're really happy that she's getting married. 'cause she's lovely, but we're really sad because it's on the west coast of America. So I ended up, so I was like,
I can't say those things. I, you know, it'll be crying and snotting and all that stuff. Yes. So I, I thought it through and I said, it's great to see her so happy. He is a lovely guy. We all love her so much and she's such an amazing person and we wish the two of you all the happiness and we said all sending you all our love.
And because I had it kind of prepared in my head, like I think my voice caught at the end, but I could send her off with love from all of us and then had a cry. You know? So I'd say do that because no matter how hard it is, you want him to have that memory. And I'd put it going, my mom's so soft and my mom had a cry.
But you know, to send him off with love I think is such an amazing gift. Yeah, Yeah. Bless him. Ugh. Honestly. And then you know what will happen don't you? I meet a flipping girl out there and stay Aussies are quite good at moving. See Yorkshire people come back to Yorkshire. Everybody I know who is with the Yorkshire person,
Hmm. Irish people go back quite a lot as well. But there are some national, I think that people go back home and Yorkshire people tend to come home I think. Yeah. Yeah. I mean scar down country, how could you not? I know, I know. Exactly. And also I think, you know, I know me and my husband met really young but actually of,
I mean we were 20 of the people who were in couples at the time. We were very lucky. We were unusually lucky that we met and that we have grown up together and that we've stayed together. So I think set him off for an Australian adventure and I hope he had some fun with a nice Australian girl or whoever and have faith that he'll come home.
Yeah, bless him. He'll probably run outta money. That'll be the thing. And also I think also it's quite different than when after I did my law school, everybody was working and I had a summer off but, and that would've been around 99 or 2000. So mobile phones were still really expensive. It was still a case of going to an internet cafe and doing a dial up and stuff.
And so I'd call home on Sunday and I would call my then boyfriend my husband on Sunday. And if he was out because he didn't have a mobile, I'd leave a message and then I'd try again next Sunday. And I think now traveling is much different. I was talking to a friend who, whose daughter used to be our babysitter, so her daughter is now like 28 or something.
But, and when she went traveling she'd be like, oh well I wouldn't, I wouldn't speak to her every day. And I was like, what do you mean? She goes, well 'cause she's got wifi everywhere so I'll get a text or get a WhatsApp or something pretty much every day. And she was on Facebook or Instagram or something. She was so she just check in so I know where she is and I was like,
oh my, my parents had my itinerary and they had my flight numbers and that was kind of it. You know? So I think staying connected, even when he is away, will be very different from what you and I would've experienced at a point. Well, Yes, exactly. Exactly. You know, so yeah. God, I dunno how my parents coped.
I know. And, and you know, my parents went to the, the states in the late sixties when they were first married and, and I think that's what covid made me think of. Like almost like what immigrating must have been like before the 21st century that you kind of went and that was it. And you'd have a couple of letters I guess if you're a good letter writer you might have a letter every month or so.
But that was it. You just wished people well and had faith that you would hear something happened. Yeah. And I guess there's pros and cons to both aren't there? You know, it's just, I think sometimes I never did anything terribly stupid when I was traveling and I never got myself in scrapes that were they pretty, a few daft things but nothing that was serious.
Never ended up in hospital, never had an emergency phone call to my parents from the other side of the world. But there's technically stuff I did that my parents wouldn't necessarily have wanted to know about or you know, and that's kind of part of being 20 or being whatever and growing up and learning that you're going really wish I hadn't have, you know,
had that one extra drink and spoke like I was a bit dodgy and had my friend had to get me out of, you know, a tight corner kind of thing. But yeah, I survived, which is the main thing. Oh gosh, we've got this far, I dunno. Yeah, Exactly. And I think it's also about having faith in the man that you've raised him to be.
Yes, yes. Yeah, because he, he is a, they're, they're all amazing. They are, they are all amazing. Bless him. I sent him a text this morning with the, with the video, but the video didn't, didn't sort of download and it said, oh you're gonna have to sort the filter of the dishwasher again because it's not,
it's not working. And then I sent a video of the cat in the dishwasher. Oh You know, ha ha ha. And he was like, alright, yeah, I'll sort it when I come back tonight. And I was like, have you watched the video? And he was like, oh, hasn't downloaded yet. And I was like, oh,
watch the video. I was like, so there's nothing wrong with the dishwasher then Impressed that even talked about changing the filter on the dishwasher. Oh he Is brilliant. It was years before I found out about the filter on dishwasher. And I even once called a washing, a washing machine repair man. And he was just like, well I clear cleared the filter and I was like,
hi. I was about 35 or 38 at the point I went, what filter? And he was just like, right you see that door on the frontal washing machine? Obviously he opened it loads of guns and everything. I'm like, oh yeah, he's like 45 pounds for that. Thank you very much. Yeah, sorry. So they go, another reason to be proud of yourself.
Oh he knows what the washing machine dishwasher filter is. Oh dear. I dunno. Well do you know, it is been really, really nice chatting to you and I'm gonna gonna be getting in touch with you at some point as well 'cause I want my bedroom doing. Oh, that'd be a lot of fun. And it's always lovely to come and see you Bonny.
Yeah. And to see the dogs now that I can get dog tips from you. Yes. Well I've got four four now. I've got a little tiddler now. Little tiny A tiddler that's not like you. No, I know. Three, three big enormous ones and one ttr. Yeah. What's the ler? She, well she's supposed to be a cockapoo.
Supposed to be. Nobody believes me when they look at her. She's like a, she's just like a working cocker. A miniature working cocker. Oh. But her parents are both cockapoos. Oh okay. So you've got kind of the grandparents jeans coming through. She is black, she is like a, she's spaniel through and through. Well Ashling ours,
she's much more, she's got the poodle front p so they're quite Chloe and she doesn't shed as much as a lab, but she looks like a shaggy haired red lab. Right. You know, she doesn't look like a Labradoodle but also in temperament. She is quite lab, you know, she's quite, she's a, like I say at the moment,
she's quite bouncy. She's going through that kind of adolescent thing. Yeah. But in general she's even as a puppy, I think she chewed shoes once or twice. She likes dirty socks if the kids leave on the floor. But she's not that bad at all. I'm just Gonna show you this now, 'cause Dora's nearly one, can you see that?
What was that? That was a little baby hippo sculpture that I got from South Africa. Look. Teeth marks. She's chewed the damn thing. It Looks like Dora really loved it if that's Yeah, she absolutely loves it. It's stone. Is that that moonstone or something? I, I don't, well it's kind of some kind of chalky stone. Anyway, she's been eating it.
So she's a chewer. She's a Yeah we Ashling really likes, she's not that bothered by we have those stinky cow hoofs. Oh yeah. They really smell. They do really smell. Did you really like them though? Yeah. Somebody told me that pigs ears aren't that bad for being stinky Pigs ears. Yeah. Do you know what mine have? And and when they came I was like,
oh my goodness, this is really sad. They love rabbit ears. I can't tell the kids about that. And they arrived and I thought they'd be like brown. Yeah, they're not brown. They look like rabbiters. They're they're, they're, they're like fluffy rabbit ears. I dunno. They're Gonna have to take me a picture because I was about to say I'll order some.
But I like, 'cause the kids recently, they Don't smell. They don't smell at all. And the dogs absolutely love them, but they Look like rabbit ears. They're rabbit, they're rabbit ears. They're dry rabbit ears. But they've got all the hair on them and the hair is really, really good for worming. 'cause it just pulls, you know.
Absolutely. Well apart from Vinnie, the deer hound, he, yeah. So when I give out the rabbit ears, Nelly has two. So she has Vinnie's slipper has one and then Dora has one and then Vinnie gets little tiny cat treats. He likes cat treat. He gets Cat treats because he doesn't like rubies. Aw, that's really cute. So yeah,
we've got loads of the cathos and then we realize how stinky they are. So we're like, mm. They're garden treats. Yeah. So we try and get all those really hard chewy bone composite type things. But yeah, it's mainly buying dog tennis balls and then pulling the co, the ca, the yellow casing off and then just abandoning that around the house.
Yeah. Or eating her vet bed. She likes to eat her vet bed. Yes. Yeah. Socks mine. So. Oh, anything pencils. Yeah. My flipping pencil. She'll have if one drops on the floor. Oh. Oh no. Because you've got really nice pencils. That's no good one. Yeah, I know, I know. She just gets anything that she can get.
She, she has Good job. You love her. Oh, I do love her. She said it all, she's a little treasure. Bless her. I know. Honestly it was the best decision and I know that it was only an eye, last time I saw you, I was like, I'm not sure if this is a good idea. And she's great.
And I was definitely thinking I don't have time for a dog. And I knew I was realistic enough to know that most of it was gonna fall on me. And yes, that is true. They're better than I expected because my expectations were kind of on the floor. So I'm glad I was realistic in that way. But she's great. Yeah. We just need to her to,
I would say in the last month or so, she's being a bit of silly, but I'm like, well she's a teenager. Yeah. In a couple of months and she'll settle down again 'cause she's been great. Yeah. And she's been spayed, which obviously helps as well. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So I'll bore you a doggy picture next time I come.
Definitely, definitely. Well, I'm, I will be in touch. I've got to sort all, all my bedroom's an absolute mess. And of course it's a, a dog haven as well. 'cause they all sleep in my bed. I'm very impressed about that because she, she does sometimes snore. So she and also my husband, well yeah, he's allergic,
which is why we got a labradoodle. She's still allergic to her. So he has to have amines every day. So that's why she'd never been, she does snore and Trump crawl out in her sleep. But because he's allergic she is downstairs. Downstairs. Yeah. Yeah. I would be disappointed, Bonny, if you told me that they all slept downstairs in,
in old school kennels. I like No, they're, They're all on, they're all on the bed. Literally all on the bed. I, I got up last night to go, I can't remember what time it was. I, I have no idea 'cause I don't have a, a clock in my room. And I got out there was Vinnie on the bed and he's got his own bed on the floor.
He is got like a sleeping bag then that he gets in. Oh, cute. Nelly's normally on one side and slippers on the other side. Well, Nelly had taken slippers side was all curled up. Vinnie was on the bed and slipper was just sitting next to the bed like that. It's like, And she couldn't get on 'cause I got a pillow,
I dunno, had a bad back anyway, so I had to move the pillow. And then she literally, so I got this kind of tiny slither on the bed. Well, I imagine, you know, it helps on the chilly nights, I'm guessing you never get cold. Oh, it's, It's, it is, it's really nice actually. Especially when they,
if you've got a bad back and they kind of, you kind of just shuffled up to them. So Yeah. Well, we'll make sure that we have, make it very dog-friendly and hey, that'll be a nice thing to look forward to having your bedroom done once your son's gone. Yes. Something nice look forward to. And then Christmas obviously won't be that far after that.
And then you've got your amazing trip to Norway and everything. Yes, exactly. So it'll be, it'll be really good. Yeah. One of the things I really wanna do is see the Northern Lights. So I'll have to tap you up after that trip and find out our way. Yeah, Well that's what we're wanting to do. Apparently it's not guaranteed.
No, I know. But we're going to all of the different places and we've got one of those little Aurora pods. Yeah. Pod, what Are they called? Yeah. So yeah, so That sounds fabulous. Very excited. Very excited. Well, thank you so much for having me today. I really appreciate Oh, thank you. And it's lovely to see you.
I know. So nice to chat. So nice to chat. I'll tell the children. Yeah, I'll tell them. I've got more schemes in mind. I know the rest of the house trying To do the bedroom. Yes, absolutely. And I guess also the good thing, not that we're, you know, Hasting, Frankie's departure, but at least then once he's gone,
you can move into there while it's all being done and it's less people. I can, I can, I can move into his, you know, he's, he's actually made a bed. I'm not sure I could get into it because it's kind of like really high. He made it, but one Saturday he was like, I'm gonna make a bed.
He made it. What a talented chap. I bet. I think he's got great things ahead of him. Australia is very lucky to be getting him. Oh dear. Oh, thank you so much Ann Marie. It's been so nice to chat to you. And I'll, I'll be in touch very soon. Thank you so much. It's lovely to see you and thank you for having me.
Alright Then. Bye bye. Bye.
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