FAMILY WEEKLY UPDATE: 7TH - 13TH SEPTEMBER 2026 | TRAFFORD CENTRE, THE GRUFFALO GRANNY & SUBLIMATION MUGS

Oct 4

6 min read

Updated: Oct 5

Family Weekly Update

This week's Family Weekly Update covers 7th–13th September 2026, and after the excitement of going back to school the previous week, we were starting to settle back into our usual routine.

There were a couple of trips to the Trafford Centre this week, including an early birthday lunch for Dad and a day out with Lawrence while the children were at school. Back at home, I spent more time working on my drawings and experimenting with turning some of my designs into mugs using sublimation.

There was also a big first for Alice this week, a book I'd been trying to find finally turned up in a rather unexpected place, and we finished the week with a quiet movie day at home.

Here's what we got up to.

💻 Monday – Vlog Editing & Blogging

Monday was another day spent working at my computer.

I spent most of the day editing one of my weekly vlogs and writing the Family Weekly Update blog post to go alongside it.

I managed to get quite a bit done, so by the end of the day I had another vlog edited and its Family Weekly Update written too.

🍕 Tuesday – An Early Birthday Lunch For Dad

It was my dad's birthday on Wednesday, so on Tuesday I took him out for an early birthday lunch.

Mum came along with us too, and Dad drove us over to the Trafford Centre, where we'd decided to have lunch at Pesto.

We ordered from the lunchtime menu, where you can choose three dishes for £13.99.

I'm very much a creature of habit when it comes to Pesto, so there wasn't much deliberating over what I was going to order! I went for exactly what I normally have – pepperoni pizza, chicken wings and the spicy Italian sausage with potatoes and peppers, along with a Diet Coke.

After we'd eaten, I had a quick look in the Haribo shop and picked up a pack of Strawberry Softies and some Balla Zing Stixx before we headed home.

It was a lovely little early birthday lunch for Dad.

Hand holding two Haribo strawberry candy packs in a store aisle, with colorful Haribo shelves in the background.

🎨 Wednesday – House Jobs & Drawing

Wednesday was Dad's actual birthday, but we'd already had our birthday lunch together the day before.

I had a much quieter day at home, getting on with some jobs around the house before spending some time drawing on my iPad.

I've been doing lots of drawing recently, and I'm really enjoying seeing my collection of designs gradually grow.

🏊‍♀️ Thursday – Alice's First School Swimming Lesson

Thursday was a big day for Alice because she had her first school swimming lesson.

I'd been asked to go along for the first session just to make sure she was okay and could cope with everything.

Thankfully, I didn't need to worry. She was absolutely fine, her friends helped her and she ended up having the best time.

By the time I got home afterwards, I only had about half an hour before I needed to head back out again to collect Alice and Leo from school!

Alice was quite tired when she got home after swimming, so we had a quiet afternoon and watched Zootropolis 2 together while I did a little more drawing on my iPad.

Leo didn't fancy watching the movie with us, so he went upstairs and played on his tablet for a little while instead.

🛍️ Friday – The Gruffalo Granny, TGI Fridays & A Trafford Centre Day

Lawrence was off work on Friday, so with Alice and Leo at school, we decided to have a day out together at the Trafford Centre.

We got the bus and headed to ASDA first because I wanted to see if they had the new The Gruffalo Granny book.

I looked where all the other books were and couldn't find it, so I assumed they didn't have any.

Then, completely randomly, I spotted copies sitting on the floor down another aisle!

I'm not quite sure why they were there, but at least I'd found them.

Bookstore display of Gruffalo Granny books in a yellow stand, with colorful toy boxes above and £9 price tags.

We then had a quick look at the children's clothes, although we didn't see anything else we wanted to buy.

We did pick up a couple of bags of onion ring crisps because they're Alice's favourite at the moment.

After ASDA, we headed over to the Trafford Centre for lunch at TGI Fridays.

We ordered from the lunch menu, which included an appetiser, main course and drink for £12.50.

Lawrence and I both chose the Cheese & Bacon Loaded Chicken Bites for our appetisers. Lawrence had the Crispy Chicken Fingers for his main, while I paid an extra £8 to upgrade mine to a rump steak. We both had Diet Coke to drink.

The food was delicious, and it was lovely to have a nice lunch out together while the children were at school.

After lunch, we walked across the bridge to Trafford Palazzo, where we stopped to have a look at Gaia.

Gaia was a huge seven-metre replica of the Earth by artist Luke Jerram, created using detailed NASA imagery. It was suspended inside Trafford Palazzo and glowed above us, so it was pretty impressive to see it in person.

Huge hanging Earth globe with Australia centered in a bright mall atrium; people sit and stroll below the skylight.

We then headed into Primark, where I had a look at all the latest Disney products and filmed a new Disney Come Shop With Me video for YouTube.

We did actually end up buying something too – a couple of cardigans for Alice.

After Primark, we had a look around Primark Home before getting the bus back home in time to collect Alice and Leo from school.

It was quite a busy day, but we'd managed to fit a surprising amount in before the school run!

☕ Saturday – Making More Sublimation Mugs

Saturday started with me helping Alice and Leo with their homework before I went back to working on some of my drawings.

I've been creating repeatable patterns from some of my Procreate designs, and I wanted to see how they would look on mugs.

Once I'd finished the patterns, I transferred them onto my computer, added them to my mug wrap template and printed them using my sublimation printer.

I cut out the mug wraps, wrapped them tightly around the sublimation mugs and added a mug wrap to hold everything in place.

Two teal green mugs with taped, chipped rims sit on a desk in front of a blurred white keyboard, bright and still.

Then it was time for another attempt at sublimation with my dedicated craft air fryer.

I put the mugs into the air fryer at 200°C for eight minutes, turning them after four minutes.

I was really happy with how the actual designs looked once they were transferred onto the mugs. Seeing patterns I'd drawn myself in Procreate wrapped around a real mug is still really exciting.

The sublimation itself wasn't quite perfect, though.

There was some blurring on parts of the design and a little fading around the handle, neither of which I'd had on my previous attempt.

I'm wondering whether I moved the sublimation paper slightly when I turned the mugs halfway through, which could explain the blurring. I'm also not sure whether the paper was completely flat around the handle, which could have caused the fading in that area.

So although I'm really happy with the designs themselves, I definitely need to do a few more tests and keep adjusting my method until I can get consistently good results.

It's all part of learning, though, and every mug is helping me work out what I need to change for the next one.

Two patterned mugs on a desk: purple with dresses and microphones, blue with baking items and names Becky, Jenna, Dawn.

🎬 Sunday – Matching Pairs & A Monsters Movie Day

Lawrence was working on Sunday, so Alice, Leo and I had another quiet day at home.

We played Matching Pairs together before settling down for a bit of a Monsters movie day.

We watched Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University, while I also spent some time working on more drawings on my iPad.

It was a nice, relaxed way to finish the week before getting everything ready for another Monday morning and another week of school.

💭 Final Thoughts

This week felt like we were properly getting back into our normal school-term routine.

It was lovely to take Dad out for his birthday lunch, and I was really pleased that Alice enjoyed her first swimming lesson so much. I think I was probably more worried about how she'd cope with it than she was!

Lawrence and I also had a lovely day together on Friday. We managed to find The Gruffalo Granny, have a really nice lunch at TGI Fridays, browse Primark and Primark Home and even get home in time for the school run.

I've also become slightly obsessed with trying to perfect my sublimation mugs!

I'm really pleased with how my drawings and repeat patterns look once they're actually on the mugs, so now I just need to work out exactly what is causing the occasional blur and fading. Hopefully a few more experiments will get me there.

It was a nice mix of family time, getting back into the school routine and finding a little time for some of my own creative projects too.