Third anniversaries

This coming Sunday will be the third anniversary of Chris and I finally getting engaged after living together for almost forty years! The picture is of our small engagement dinner with family and close friends; it seems such a long time since we were allowed to do that, but hopefully it won’t be too much longer! My beautiful engagement ring was designed by Alison O’Reilly, who also did our wedding bands, and just to mention, she will be putting in an appearance on Diamonique Day next Friday.

Our original plan had been to get engaged on April 1st as we figured that after all those years together, some people might think we were playing an April Fool’s Day joke, but tragedy struck. We lost our gorgeous cat Poppy. She died in my arms after looking up at me as though to say, ‘I’m ready to go now.’ As a family we were dreadfully upset as she had truly been one of the sweetest, most loving cats we’d ever had. She rests in our garden with an enamel poppy to mark the place and if I’m feeling stressed or emotional, I’ll go and talk to her because she calms me down.

Talking of our garden, how lucky were we with the weather on Easter Sunday. We had arranged for Sophie and her family to come over for a barbecue, which we were able to enjoy in the sunshine in relative warmth, although by the time they left at around 9.30 in the evening it was pretty cold, and I was thankful for the fleecy slankets I’ve had from QVC over the years.

As well as the veggie burgers and bangers, along with veggie kebabs, new potatoes, corn on the cob and salad, we also indulged in this decadent cheesecake made by Katie! No wonder we’ve barely scratched the surface with our Easter eggs!

Monday was a different story; I don’t know about you, but we had a couple of snow flurries and it reminded me of Chris and my first Easter together. We’d gone to visit his parents in Spalding and had driven to Mablethorpe on the Lincolnshire coast where it proceeded to snow quite heavily! Mablethorpe is the beach location for chapter 1 and chapter 43 in my latest book, My Mother’s Secret, and both chapters are set on Easter Monday on two consecutive years, so quite topical for this time of year!

I say my latest book, but there is a newer one that I have just received the first round of edits for, which will be out in August if all goes to plan. And speaking of books, look what I received in the post this week. The title of the book is a giveaway as to who the author is – Renee Greenstein – who sells her fashion ranges Attitudes by Renee and Women with Control on QVC and in fact had a Today’s Special Value earlier this week. I can’t wait to delve in when I get a few minutes of spare time.

If you love fashion Today’s Special Values, there are two more over the next couple of days, as we have a two-day fashion event. Today it is a Skechers ‘arch-fit’ sandal. I haven’t had a chance to try the sandals yet, but I am a massive fan of the arch-fit trainers; in fact, I have two pairs and will probably buy more. I have a very high instep, so it helps fill in the space underneath it without it feeling stretched, but it is also good if you have quite flat feet as it helps prevent from rolling inwards. I wear them when I walk on my treadmill, which I’m able to do much better now than I could a year ago – there are a couple of videos in the extra ‘Story’ I did for our Health and Wellbeing page if you fancy a look.

Then tomorrow, we have a Ruth Langsford Today’s Special Value. I have two shows with Ruth at 11am and midday… one is her fashion range and the other is one of her edit shows featuring a variety of different brands.

And while on the subject of different brands, I have a show with Danni Minogue and the range she has created for QVC on Wednesday at 3pm. I haven’t seen many of her styles yet, but I’m absolutely loving the Big Deal leggings – I wanted a close fit, so went for the small in the Petite length and they are perfect, as there is a lot of stretch over the tummy area which is where I need it. Danni will also be featuring with a couple of shows on Diamonique Day at midday and 8pm. The Diamonique Today’s Special Value is a chain-link bracelet watch in stainless steel. I haven’t actually seen it yet, but it’s nice to have something a bit different as the star of the day.

If you missed last week’s Permission to Pry live on my Instagram (juliagroberts) last Friday at 11am, you missed a very enlightening chat with Jacqui Joseph. The good news is that the video is still available to view, and I would highly recommend it.

We know her as the ‘face’ of Ashwood handbags and Nina Leonard fashion, but did you know she also presents the property show, Homes Under the Hammer and the upcycling show, Money for Nothing, both on the BBC. That’s what she’s currently up to, but she has a long history of interviewing celebrities, including the likes of Will Smith and Beyonce, oh, and she has met and chatted with Nelson Mandela!

I tell you, she really is a bit of a dark horse when it comes to her career, so how appropriate that she should mention one of her favourite tipples to go with her fave cheese (you’ll have to watch the interview to find out what that is) is Dark Horse Cabernet Sauvignon!

Of course, I immediately bought a bottle to try it over Easter and I must say it is pretty good. The flowers in the photo are from my garden by the way, from the de Jager bulbs I planted last year. I love daffodils for their beautiful happy colour, but these are gloriously fragrant too.

Back to Permission to Pry for a second – this week’s is featuring our fabulous model Ali Bailey, although you might not have recognised her from this photo!!!

Someone who has already featured is Keeley Aydin from Elemis, who we’ll be seeing quite a lot of on Sunday as they have the Today’s Special Value that day.

I kid you not, it’s a tough choice in terms of the body products because I love them both as fresh and uplifting spring/summer fragrances. One option is British Botanicals and the other is Sea Lavender and Samphire, which is not ‘lavendery’ at all. The whole kit comprises the NEW Pro-Collagen Renewal Serum, Pro-Collagen Marine Cream SPF 30 (first time it has featured in a TSV) Pro-Collagen Energising Cleanser and the Shower Milk and Body Cream in the aforementioned options. It is already on pre-sell and proving to be extremely popular. Check out the value for money too!

Well, I need to dash, although I will be taking it a bit steady for a couple of days as I’ve just had my second Covid vaccination, brought forward at the request of my leukaemia consultant, in case you were wondering.

See you next time.
Love,
Julia xx