This is the second in my behind the scenes series and this week I’d like to introduce you to Lori. Lori writes the gorgeous blog Wild & Grizzly and has one of those workspaces that you think might only really exist on Instagram. You can see more from Lori on Twitter and Instagram.
Today’s post is from my fiancé, and is a follow up to his recent post where he looked forward to his first festival experience.
I’m writing this a couple of weeks after my first festival experience.
Hard to believe, isn’t it, that someone who works in music and likes to believe he has notes, harmony and stave lines pouring through his veins could possibly have gone 35 years without ever spending a few nights of mild discomfort and cold in a field in the name of the art form which I’m most passionate about? View Post
I have a reputation in my house for being ruthless when it comes to decluttering and it’s true, I am definitely not a hoarder. What I will say however, as my mum is inevitably reading this, is that when I cleared out that stuff you stored in my garage, I definitely did not throw away anything that wasn’t actual rubbish.
(I know she doesn’t believe me – anything that has ever gone missing is attributed to me throwing it away – but there we go, it’s written down now, so it must be true.)
I find decluttering very relaxing, therapeutic almost. I am most at ease when we go on holiday and have minimal stuff around us, and although I do like to have a certain amount of bric-a-brac around for sentimental reasons, I just don’t see the point of hanging on to boxes full of crap. When you’ve moved house as often as I have you really are forced to question exactly how much of your stuff is worth packing, moving, and unpacking again.
Here are my pearls of wisdom to help you declutter:
Understand your motivations
Be wary of throwing things out because you’re in a bad mood, only to regret it later. If you’re not sure, get as far as packing it up and putting it in the garage or the car and then leave it a couple of days. For things that are plain garbage to you like old furniture, let the roll-away dumpster in South Park Township take care of the disposal instead of leaving them in your shed and covered in dust.
Get some cash back
If you’ve got some decent quality items to get rid of, you might want to think about selling them – it might just be DVDs or CDs, but if you have a lot of them then the earnings can add up. An app like Ziffit is easy to use as it has a built in barcode scanner to help you process and cash in on your unwanted items – it really couldn’t be simpler. View Post
I’ve been a member of Hestercombe Gardens on and off ever since Belle was born. When she was little, it was our go to place for meet ups; many an hour have been whiled away on weekday afternoons looking at the ducks, hiding in the orangery or paddling in wellies in the streams.
I walk around the formal gardens now and I can still picture Belle and her friend Ella as toddlers, propped up against the side of the fountain, chubby hands in the water. I can’t quite get my head around how tiny they must have been. View Post
If you know me but at all, you will know that I’m not exactly enthusiastic about exercise. Avid followers will know that I have tried my hand at running with little success. I also played a bit of netball, but I think that was more about wanting to win and less about wanting to keep fit.
One type of exercise that I have always quite liked though is yoga. It’s barely exercise at all really is it? I mean some yoga poses are quite hard, but if you’re a beginner it’s basically just breathing, stretching and relaxing, which somehow has loads of health benefits! Great right?
After moving away from my netball team, and giving up running after discovering the many reasons why you shouldn’t run anywhere, I’ve been thinking about starting yoga up again and have been to a few classes at the Nuffield gym up the road from me. Aside from its many benefits to your wellbeing, here are some other great reasons to practice yoga. View Post
I am now 37 years old and I have never had my own kitchen. Well obviously I have had kitchens in the houses that I have lived in, but I’ve never done that really grown up thing of going to Ikea or somewhere and buying lovely matching kitchen units and getting them installed.
However, now that I am getting married and becoming a Real Adult and all that jazz, I’m starting to think about moving house, maybe to somewhere more grown up, and maybe finally getting my very own kitchen that I have personally designed.
If you’re thinking about planning your perfect kitchen too, here are some things you need to consider. View Post
Last week I moved into a new office.
I’ve been sharing an office in Taunton with a couple of guys for a while now, but it had a little bit of a student bedsit feel about it – gym kits, dirty spoons, rugby posters, you can picture the scene. My roomies were lovely, but there wasn’t the space for me to have all of my things around me.
My new office is much more spacious and I rocked up with a whole car load of stuff from home – folders, tissues, plants, fruit bowl – pretty much all of the things. Back in Bristol I had dedicated office space at home, and had everything arranged really nicely, so it’s lovely to have all of my work things back around me, and all of my pretty postcards stuck up, for me to gaze at when I get bored. A high proportion of my paraphernalia is food based – granola, biscuits and bananas abound.
It got me thinking though about how your workspace influences creativity and productivity, and I was curious about how other bloggers work – does everyone really have beautifully white Pinterest ready workspaces, or is the reality a little more down to earth? View Post
“My spider babies all seem to be doing well,” I said to my fiancé last night. I had been watering them and spending some time gazing lovingly at them.
“Yeah,” he said, “I was kind of annoyed at how they were working out.”
“Why?” I asked, wondering if I should move them somewhere safer. Bee has always had a problem with my spider babies. I don’t see why. To me it feels kind of magical that I got nine babies from one plant, and that when they grow up, each might have another nine babies of their own.
“Well, not annoyed,” he said, (he will worry at this point that I’m going to make him sound mean and uncaring, which he absolutely isn’t), “it’s just that you’re so bloody optimistic about things. There’s a long list of things you do that I think are a bit ridiculous and will never work, but you always prove me wrong.”
“Like what?” I asked, imagining him carrying a special notebook around for the purposes of making such lists.
“I don’t know,” he said, “like all of your soups.”
Soups?? View Post
I have moved house once or twice.
*counts on fingers*
OK, make that about 26 times. (I didn’t have that many fingers obviously, I’m not a freak.)
In the course of my house moving marathon, I’ve picked up a few tips that help things go as smoothly as possible. Moving house is apparently one of life’s most stressful events, so it pays to be prepared. Here are my 6 top tips to help with your house move:
Plan ahead
Just as with any big event, planning ahead is crucial. Make a list of everything you know you need to do and assign a timescale to it. Some things, like setting up phone and broadband installation, should be scheduled as early as possible to make sure you get the appointment you want, other things, like reading the meters, have to be done on the day. McCarthy’s have a really useful house moving checklist if you’re a complete newbie and aren’t sure what even needs to be on a list. View Post
Seriously, what’s not to love? Read this post and learn how to make an adorable chum.
Here’s how to make a sock bunny of your very own:
Firstly, gather together everything you’ll need:
Fold the sock flat, inside out, and draw on ear shapes, using the edges of the sock to make the outer edge of each ear. Stitch around the ears and then cut off the excess. It’s up to you how long you want the ears to be.
Turn the sock right side out again. Fill it with stuffing, being sure to push plenty down into the ears. It will take a lot more stuffing than you think, so keep on shoving it in until it looks about ready to burst.
Now you have to stitch it up. The easiest way I found to do this was to do a simple stitch, gathering up the bottom of the sock. When you’ve gone round once, go round again, this time gathering up the bits that stick out from the first gathering. This sounds confusing but it feels pretty intuitive once you’re doing it, honestly. Finish off make making the end secure and then poking the needle right through the sock bunny and out the other wise. Cut off the excess cotton.
Make the ears look super cute simply by pulling them together at the base with a length of ribbon. Tie a firm double knot to keep it in place and then a bow.
Then all you have to do is get creative with a face. I did simple crosses for eyes and a V shaped mouth with dark cotton, but you could try different expressions or use buttons.
I remember once chatting to a friend about her new double glazing. (I know right?)
“We weren’t really sure what to look for,” she explained, “so we got three quotes and picked the middle one. We figured they must be half decent, but they wouldn’t be ripping us off completely.”
I have a very similar strategy with my food shopping – ‘second crappest’ is a motto I have passed down to Bee, and one which defines our supermarket habits.
For a big investment though, like new windows, you might want to do a little bit more research, so here are four top tips to help you plan your window installation:
Read reviews and check accreditations
Few of us nowadays will make a large purchase without first reading a few online reviews – we are the Trip Adviser generation. Reviews are really useful, but trade websites and reviews from established bodies are also a good source of information so do look out for kitemarks and accreditations and check them out properly rather than just taking the company’s word for it. K Glazing for example shows the Which Trusted Trader logo and links from this straight through to the Which website so you can check it out. View Post
Living in a rented house has a lot of benefits – rent doesn’t fluctuate with interest rates, I’ve never had to pay huge legal costs when I move and if, heaven forbid, the boiler breaks down, I don’t need to pay to fix it. I wrote a long time ago about my attitude to car maintenance, (it involves satsumas), and I’m not sure I’d be very good at being in charge of a house.
The downside though is that it can be hard to really stamp your mark on your home. All of the walls in our last three houses have been white and I’ve had to resist the urge to splash the pink paint around. Instead, I try to inject splashes of colour through furnishings and accessories. I am basically Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen in a dress.
I thought I would give you a little tour of some of my favourite colourful spots in my home, to prove that renting doesn’t have to mean boring. View Post