The times are a-changing

Life update xo

Aug 21, 2025

I took a week off from the newsletter… it was my first one since May.

I was not short of ideas, but I just had absolutely zero time to write anything worth sending.

It’s less than three weeks until Access:Given, a digital accessibility and inclusivity conference I am co-organising with

Michelle | Specky Scribbler

and it’s all happening.

Tickets are still available, but we’re filling up. So if you want to join us for the day at Newcastle Helix on Wednesday 10th September, you can pick up a ticket for just £119 here.

It’s even less time until the Great North Run, which I am running again for Pancreatic Cancer UK. This will be my fourth time running the 13.1 miles in memory of my mam, Miriam, who died from this vicious disease back in April 2019. You can find my brother’s and my fundraising page here. Any donations are greatly appreciated.

At the finish line last year with my husband, Craig.

While all that is going on, we are also undergoing a significant change here at CBTS HQ. For those who don’t know, I started Content By The Sea as a freelance venture while caring for my mam back in February 2019. My husband Craig then joined the business during the pandemic. For the last five years, we’ve offered a full-service content strategy and web design service, alongside SEO copywriting and other training services.

We also had a baby in 2022, which was obviously great news but also extremely hard work. Neither of us was able to take any significant time off, and a lack of free childcare left us pretty burned out.

Now that our daughter is in pre-school, we have a little more time, and the business has continued steadily. We don’t take on many website projects, but when we do, they are exciting projects that truly matter to us—like this recent build for a local disability civil rights charity.

Mockup of laptop screen showing Difference NE website, a purple and pink site with text and photos.

We’ve been fortunate in the sense that work hasn’t ever truly dried up, which I know has been an issue for many others in the content field as ChatGPT and other AI products take precedent among cost-saving clients.

But the rollercoaster of dual self-employment has truly taken its toll. We work very flexibly, but we don’t really take proper holidays (I just checked, and I haven’t set an out-of-office since 30 April). That’s why Craig is taking on a contract role, which will see him working full-time for a company for a few months, including a couple of days a week in another city.

This means I will run Content By The Sea by myself—I am already swotting up on our more technical clients, and working with Craig to make any transition as smooth as possible. I will also lose a day of childcare, as Craig currently spends a day with our daughter so I can work.

This is all happening in September. Alongside the conference… and the Great North Run.

Animated GIF of a dog in a burning room, sitting at a table with a cuppa saying: "This is fine."

Change is hard, especially for a neurodivergent couple like us, even though we’ve been preparing for it for quite some time. As a company, we invested in retraining Craig in a different field, and I am so excited to see him excel in this new role. It’s still content, but much more worthy of his time and expertise.

But we also have faith that it will improve our quality of life, and in the long term, working apart will only strengthen us together. I am also extremely excited to learn from Craig’s new role, as it aligns well with my passion for accessibility.

So yeah, that’s all I have time for this week. Everything is manic, but it’s all good.

Come to my conference.

Donate to my fundraiser.

Free Palestine.

In this section, I summarise topics dominating the online discourse this week.

My personal Roman Empire is the ongoing court case against Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, known as Mo Chara, of Irish rap group Kneecap. He was back in court this week on a terror charge yesterday, but no decision was made as the defense put forward a technicality relating to the timings of the offense and summons. This circus and waste of resources will continue on 26th September.
Author Sally Rooney has promised to donate the earnings from her BBC adaptations to Palestine Action, a proscribed terror organisation here in the UK. It goes without saying that I love Rooney; all of her novels are top-tier for me. I also love how she stays out of the limelight until moments like this, which makes for a bigger impact when she has something to say.
A screening of Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights has gone down like a lead balloon, as the director is being accused of Saltburn-ifying this classic novel for the big screen. Tbh, I think this film has been cursed since the start. The casting is all over the shop— Margot Robbie is an unhinged choice for Cathy, while many readers previously interpreted Heathcliff to be of Romany gypsy descent, or another origin of colour… not exactly Jacob Elordi, anyway. Only time will tell with this one, but I’m not holding my breath.

💌 About this email

I’m Ellen, and I write about mental health for the chronically online. I am a freelance copywriter, strategist and web designer, and I work from home with my husband, Craig, at Content By The Sea. We have two rescue greyhounds, Potter and Harmony, and a toddler.

I started this newsletter in March 2020 and have sent over 200(!) emails; currently, I have over 1,300 subscribers. I write about a wide variety of topics, including diet culture, my love of running, jealousy, my life falling apart, mam guilt, and this dystopian world we all live in.

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