25/08/2026
Love a bit of blackberry picking this time of year ☀️
🍇 🍇
21/08/2026
If one photo could sum up an entire Burlesque routine, this would be it! 🤗
MUSIC: “Buttonz” by The Pussycat Dolls ✅
COSTUME THEME: sexy highwaywoman ✅
VIBE: sultry moves, strutting sequences, and a side dish of sass ✅
This photo pretty much sums up how I felt through the whole routine 💁♀️
The choreography was sultry, and sassy, and there was A LOT of strutting around chairs (my favourite move!), alongside some super fun “trigger happy” moments where we made a gun sign with our fingers and slowly lowered our hand down our centre front...to our pelvis, thrusting as we went 😅 🔫
As a group, we pushed the envelope with the choreography on this one. All 6 of us on stage, strutting and switching chairs/positions throughout the routine, and visually, I think it really landed for the audience! 🪑
This number opened the second act for the show, and by that point the audience were well and truly warmed up, which helped 🍺 🍹 😂
Performing it in front of that crowd though was one of the HIGHLIGHTS of the whole show for me, personally. Not just because everyone was so supportive, they were just properly engaged. Cheering, whooping, whistling - the lot! 👏
Such a great experience, and one that I can’t wait to repeat again soon 💃
20/08/2026
This week I shared 2 pieces of feedback I’d received. One from a Pilates client from 13 years ago, and another from a Substack reader who emailed me after recognising herself in my writing 📖
And sitting with both of them made me realise something.
The Pilates testimonial (as lovely as it was), I received it the way I received everything back then. Through the external validation lens 🔬
It was like this: She noticed me. She acknowledged me. She valued me. She saw all the work I do behind the scenes. Finally 💀
It felt good. Really good. I got my validation top up, but then I quickly moved on...until the next person said something critical and basically UNDID it all in an instant 🪄
Because that’s how external validation works. It fills the gap temporarily. But it doesn’t stick.
The message from my Substack reader hit me completely differently.
I wasn’t thinking about what her words meant for ME. I was thinking about her. Her story. The injustice of a little girl who got honours in her degree and didn’t think her own mother would be interested 👩⚖️
I felt it. In my chest. Not as a compliment, but more as a connection 🤗
It’s not that I was MORE grateful for one than the other. It’s that I received them completely differently. One got consumed by the external validation loop. The other just landed, completely naturally.
One was about ME being seen by others. The other was about me seeing someone else.
I know which one feels better 🥹
Thanks for reading,
Yours in self-worth,
Claire xx
☀️❤️🙏
19/08/2026
I sewed this 1940’s blouse for a Lady Marmalade burlesque costume last month. Now, it’s quickly becoming one of my favourite garments to wear because I can dress it up, or down! 👯♀️ 💁🏼♀️ Which is your favourite look? 👚
17/08/2026
This one got me in the feels 🥹 Check out more of my articles on Substack here: https://substack.com/Claire Mockridge?r=46jlrj&utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-page or click the link in my bio 🔗
17/08/2026