So I decided to write a blog…

Welcome to my blog “The cupboard full of cream”.  For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Catherine (Cat to most people), I am 35 and I live in the beautiful village of Alrewas (Staffordshire, UK).  I run my own business making curtains and blinds and I am also(!!) a stay at home mum to Alfie (3 years old) and Rene (15 months old).  Also making occasional appearances on this blog will be Lee (husband of 8 years), Oscar and Darwin (our 10 year old moggies) and Jagger and Richards (our 10 year old gigantic goldfish!).

If you know me personally you will also know that for the last couple of years, during May, I have posted a series of updates on my Facebook and Instagram about ‘ichthyosis’ (for those of you that don’t know what this is there will be more on that to follow).  The posts over the last few years and the comments I have received as a result of them is a main reason for starting this blog.     May is Ichthyosis Awareness Month so it felt appropriate to start now and so I have bitten the bullet.  I have a few topics I have already started to write about but if anyone has any burning questions or anything they want to ask then feel free to send me a message.

Our son, Alfie, was born with a rare genetic skin condition called Ichthyosis (yeah exactly – we had no idea what that was either!) As it is so rare, the ichthyosis community strive to not only raise awareness but also promote understanding, empathy and acceptance (even though that really should be a given but some people…I’m not going to start a rant so early on!)  The ichthyosis community is vocal all year round but during May we get even more so.  Many of us post a series of social media updates about our lives but then a lot of us go quiet again until the following year; I realised that even after posting every day for 31 days, I still felt like I had a lot to say. 

I’m very mindful that a lot of you reading this early on will know me personally and for those of you that I have known since before children came along, you will have been through a lot of this with me. I apologise for repeating myself but I feel that it is important to start at the beginning and go from there.  There will be some things that I’ve shared before and some things that hardly anyone knows.  I am also very mindful that this blog is predominantly about my children and I want to find a balance between sharing parts of our life which are quite personal whilst doing it in a holistic and respectful manner.

So here it is, welcome to the “The cupboard full of cream”.