Permission to pry

Apologies for the three-week gap since my last blog – we’re now on the right week for me to be able to write fortnightly about my upcoming weekend on QVC. There are however a couple of ways for you to catch up with me weekly, one I’ll talk about later, but the other is a new Instagram Live I’m doing weekly on @juliagroberts called Permission to Pry. The first one last Friday was with Glen Campbell and if you missed the live it is still available to view as a video on my Instagram. Glen was great fun to chat to – did you know his first proper job was as a hairdresser? No, neither did I. We discovered a few things about Glen, including his wish to try a Spanish maggot-filled cheese… I’m not sure I wanted to know that!

So, you may have realised from the photo above that this week’s live chat will be with Keeley from Elemis. The questions will be more or less the same each week with a few little tweaks to personalise them, plus a ‘tell us something about yourself that we didn’t know!’

One thing Keeley didn’t know was when I booked a last-minute trip to Cyprus to visit her (we stayed in a hotel) five years ago, which is where this photo was taken. I’ve known Keeley for a while so I’m looking forward to her ‘surprising’ me! I’ll try and keep Permission to Pry in the same time-slot each week of 11am, but there may be a few exceptions – for instance, next week it might be a little earlier as I have a physiotherapy appointment in Chiswick at midday. If you have any suggestions of people you would like me to chat to, do leave them in the comments section below.

On the subject of great beauty brands that we sell on QVC, I’m really looking forward to my L’Occitane show tomorrow at 2pm with Alexis Murdoch, not least because one of the products in the Today’s Special Value has long been a favourite of mine. I panic sometimes when beauty brands change the formula of something however, I have to say I’m really pleased with the new version of the Divine Eye product, which is now suitable to use around the lip area too. It’s a lovely light fluid which absorbs quickly and doesn’t cause puffiness on me. You’ll know if you’re a long-time reader of my blog that I had difficulty finding an eye product I liked after Serum Hydratenseur was discontinued by Decleor… this is my favourite so far.

Also in the Today’s Special Value is the iconic Immortelle Divine Cream, which, as the name suggests, is deeeevine, and the Overnight Reset Serum. Bought directly from L’Occitane this collection would be £184, so our price of £79.98 is over a one hundred pound saving and it’s on three easy interest-free instalments. It’s already on pre-launch on our website if you think you’d either like to give it a try using our sixty-day money-back guarantee, or stock up if you already love the products you’ve tried.

I’ve also got a Hotel Chocolat show on Saturday afternoon at 3pm. I don’t eat masses of chocolate, much as I’d like to, so when I spend the calories, I choose quality chocolate. I know it will be a little late for Mothering Sunday, but you could always arrange to have something delivered directly to your mum as a nice surprise to look forward to if, like most of us, you’re not going to be able to see her in person. I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to hugging my mum when we’re eventually permitted to travel to see her. This photo of her was taken the day after her ninetieth birthday at a surprise lunch we had organised for the entire family, including most of my sister’s family from various parts of Scotland. I know she’s my mum, but how amazing does she look and she’s still doing so well as she approaches her ninety-fifth birthday this summer.

Speaking of birthdays, it was our son’s girlfriend Katie’s birthday earlier this week. Last year, Dan took her to Paris, in fact the soap dish pictured above was a souvenir he brought back for me from their trip, but of course things are very different this year due to lockdown.

As it was a big birthday (one of those with a zero on the end) Dan asked if we could organise an ‘Afternoon Tea Party’ for her, as that’s one of the things she likes to do with her mum as a birthday treat. So, Monday evening and Tuesday afternoon were spent baking cheese spelt scones, fruit scones, broccoli and walnut quiche, jam tarts and chocolate cupcakes, not to mention putting the decorations up as Dan was working. We had a cake made by the lady who does my book launch party cakes and we also had cucumber sandwiches done with homemade bread… who knew cucumber sandwiches were so tasty!! I hope we made it special for her and if you want to see a couple more photos and hear about their ‘Taskmaster’ evening, you could check out my new weekly blog on my author website, the link to which is in my Twitter and Instagram bios.

We wanted to make the effort for Katie because she has done some lovely ‘arty’ photos of my books for me lately. This is one she did for my latest book, My Mother’s Secret, but again you can see more on my website if you’re interested and also if you’ve signed up for my free newsletter. I absolutely love this teddy bear – he is a Charlie Bears bear and belongs to Dan because his name is Daniel. I’m not sure if they do a bear called Sophie… I think I should probably check!

Katie had some lovely gifts, including one from my mum of a sausage dog figurine whose tail doubles as a ring holder! The reason for this is because Katie is crazy about Dachshunds and was really tempted by a dappled silky long-haired puppy, mentioned to me by Marissa our Hotel Chocolat guest. The timing is just off though as Katie and Dan want to move into their new home first and get settled in – wise decision, I think, although the puppy was utterly gorgeous. I also got in on the sausage dog theme by ordering the Joules Packaway Parka in the sausage dog option… it is available in other options if you’re not as big a fan of them as Katie!

Well, that’s about it for now – I’ll be back on here in a fortnight but do check out Permission to Pry on Friday mornings on my Instagram and remember to leave your suggestions for future guests in the comments below.

I know Mothering Sunday/Mother’s Day is not the easiest for some of you, which makes me all the more grateful for what I have. I’ll see you on air for some fab gardening shows throughout Sunday afternoon at 1pm, 3pm and 5pm.

Much love,
Julia xx