One of the highlights of 2017 for us has been our amazing holiday with James Villas. My Mum, for a treat, took us to Majorca back in June and it kind of changed the way we think about holidays for the whole family. Renting a private villa with a private pool is a whole different story to staying in a busy hotel or even a villa complex and actually, I think we all rather fell in love with the notion. I’m not saying that we won’t vay-cay in any other way again because we absolutely will but I know now that we will always try and get a villa holiday in when we can too because the intimate privacy of this type of holiday cannot be beaten.

It felt free and easy and almost as if we owned the place (I wish) and although our villa was from the James Villas ‘Simply’ range, basically the lowest rung on their ladder, we couldn’t have really wanted any more! I wonder what the more luxury considered villas must be like?! Pure opulence I can only assume. I wrote a more in-depth review of our time on Majorca with James Villas here if you fancy a butchers at our gorgeous villa and little slice of holiday heaven; I assure you, if you are looking for a villa holiday then JV are who you should be booking with because they take all the responsibility of finding you a perfect villa and let’s face it, they definitely know how to do it! I’d rather trust them than me perusing the internet sorting out flight times, the right abode and all the other intricacies myself. This was a no hassle holiday arranged beautifully from start to finish with little need for me to even get involved other than state which airport I wanted to fly from, where I wanted to go and what sort of place we needed… Ah bliss! Wish we still had it all to come!

Coming back from a holiday is a bit of a come down and I always need to look over my pictures regularly to remind myself I’ve actually been. It can feel kind of surreal that first day back to norm after a fantabulous break and I think it’s important to bring home the memories so that you don’t lose the vibes… We always buy some trinkets and souvenirs as well because… Well, why not! It’s always good to bring a little bit of the holiday home so that it stays with you and makes you smile from time to time and last Friday I was lucky enough to have James Villas themselves invite me to #BringHolidayHome as they were hosting a Majorcan inspired crafting afternoon in central London.

They didn’t have to ask me twice. James Villas + Majorca = GREAT in my book so off I trotted with my bump and my knitting to meet up with some lovely craft and family orientated bloggers where we were taught how to Ikat weave and make espadrilles… Some traditional Majorcan crafting techniques with some really great people. @Daughters Of Weave and Luchi and Ota took us through a couple of very enjoyable workshops while we listened to Spanish music, drank cocktails (virgin for me) and ate really great food. It really felt like a holiday vibe that afternoon and James Villas were, as I’ve come to realise is their wont, the perfect hosts…

It was a great afternoon where the chaps from James Villas really got stuck in and crafted with us. They impressed me in many ways. Last week the terrible trauma of hurricane Irma was hitting and leaving terrible devastation in her wake; listening to James Villas talk about how they as a company were dealing with it for their customers really made me think very highly of them indeed. One of Jonny’s colleagues at work was due to fly to Florida this week and had heard nothing from her holiday company (not JV) which must have been very upsetting for her as she literally didn’t know what to do. This is the absolute antithesis of what will have happened to James Villas customers judging by what I overheard (listened into). The team from JV, although super attentive to us bloggers, kept dipping out to organise and manage their customers upcoming holidays and they were discussing quietly amongst themselves how they would be offering their holiday makers trips at any other time or trying to find them alternatives if they wanted to travel now. They seemed so concerned and that’s how it should be – it definitely makes me even more determined to holiday with them again knowing how caring they are.

It also makes me want to vote for them in the annual travel awards – we had SUCH a great holiday when we booked with them and now I’ve seen them in action when problem stations arise how could I vote for anyone else? You can vote for them too at the British Travel Awards and Family Traveller!

Thanks for a great afternoon James Villas, it really did bring holiday home and it was great to meet up with some of my faves like Mummy Endeavours and Deep In Mummy Matters as well as stalwarts in blogging Pink Oddy and Mari’s World and also to properly meet the lovely Red Ted Art (urm, hello crafting elite), Being Mrs C and Parent Shaped. I know there’s people I’m forgetting with my dodgy baby brain and this upsets me because it really was a wonderful afternoon, ‘crafternoon’ if you will, and it reminded me of the blogging old days! The blogging community is a wonderful place to be but it’s changed over the years and these days it’s a very different place from the one it was when I first started. I’m not saying it’s worse now, far from it, but it’s much more of a business today than it used to be and alongside leg cocking, face pulling, whopping out your stretchmarks and brandishing the fish fingers on Instagram, it’s become a whole something different to when I first entered into this online world of over sharing. This is great, please don’t get me wrong – I run Rocknrollerbaby Ltd as a company and it pays my bills so I’m really not complaining but… It’s nice to re-visit the past, perhaps friendlier days when it was more about friendship than it CAN be today – there’s something a little bit more je ne sais quoi about ‘old skool’ bloggers that I can’t put my finger on but which I am very pleased to see now and again. It was a real holiday of an afternoon taking me back in time like that and I’m very grateful to have had it!

I might just be dreaming about some winter sun now as it goes… Perhaps somewhere for February half term might be something to plan for… Maybe, you never know!

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