I’ve been on annual leave this week and it’s been a bit bleddy lovely – plenty of sunshine, trips to the beach, picnics, socially distanced catch ups with family and friends… <3 Plus I’ve got a few afternoons off coming up, so I’m hoping for more of the same.
I’ve been spending a lot of time away from the blog over the last couple of months and I wanted to chat about that briefly. When lockdown hit back in March, I was fortunate to be able to work from home. But with no commute, and Jenson not in school, I struggled to find time for myself, and the blog was the easiest thing to put on pause. I wanted to make sure I was able to get out every day, have some quiet reading time, slow down a bit, and relieve the pressure on myself to always be doing something.
I’m incredibly lucky as I genuinely love my job; recent developments have meant more hours and hiring a team to support me, and I don’t have that need to be doing something else I’m passionate about at the moment. I don’t want to abandon the blog completely, as I’m really proud of what I’ve built over the years, but I’ll certainly be posting less frequently here. I’ll still be posting daily over on Instagram, as that kind of content works best for my random bursts of creativity, rather than finding an hour or two to sit down with my laptop and create long-form content.
I’ve still got plenty of ideas and I’ve got loads of product reviews to share, including more dot grid notebooks, guided journals, bullet journal spreads, and more.
Right, back to our regular scheduled programming!
Vitamin sea
The beach is my favourite place. Whenever I’m feeling anxious or overwhelmed, just spending a few minutes ankle deep in the sea is a massive help. We don’t have a car and I’m still not comfortable using public transport, so I’m fortunate that we have two lovely beaches within walking distance. And Jenson loves the beach – come rain or shine!
Rockpooling
We’ve been rockpooling a couple of times – earlier today I caught two crabs all by myself! It would have been four if I hadn’t stumbled. Graceful as always!
Picnics
We were living here three and a half years before we finally had our first picnic in the park. We’ve been spending more time with my niece and nephew now restrictions are lifting and it’s so nice to be able to do this together.
Walks
I like to get outside every day and, on my days off, I try and make sure I hit those 10,000 steps. As I mentioned earlier, everywhere we go has to be within walking distance, so we’ve been hitting the same three or four routes. Of course, it’s always worth it for a Jelberts ice cream.
Jenson’s fifth birthday
I can’t let this update pass by without mentioning Jenson’s fifth birthday, which was a fair few weeks ago now. I felt so bad in the build up that it wouldn’t be the perfect day but, later that evening, he said: “Thank you for my birthday. It’s the best birthday I ever had.” That kid! <3 We had a picnic in the park for lunch, a BBQ for tea, and family stopped by throughout the day to say happy birthday from a distance.
New books
I haven’t read as many books as I would have liked lately, so I’ve not been buying a lot of new ones. I had to pre-order the Hufflepuff edition of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix though. And I ordered a copy of Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race from Waterstones. I always resent paying for postage so added a few Penguin Moderns to round up the order.
New clothes
A surprising new development for me is an updated wardrobe. I rarely buy myself new clothes but I’ve finally found a style I’m comfortable and confident in – the new tiered smock dresses from New Look. I’ve bought four new dresses and I have about a dozen more on my wish list ready for the next time they have 25% off.
What has brought a smile to your face lately?