Personal Experience

My worst habit, procrastinating

Personal Experience, Planning

Day 22 what’s your worst habit, 30 day blog challenge.

I thinks it’s everyone’s worst habit isn’t it?

Putting off things to do later or an a later day. This weekend has been wonderful. We had an amazing day walking in East London where I used to live!

It’s spring so it’s all about the bluebells. We then had an impromptu picnic in the park and had a mini pub crawl!

It was bloody wonderful.

Then the next day I did some wedding catch up with my bestie. It was great drinking, shopping laughing.

Sunday was a proper rest day. I had a big list of things to do but I left them all till today.

Procrastinating is definitely my worst habit

I always put things off it’s why I have to be a slave to my lists and bullet journal.

My list this weekend was small!

  • Plant my dahlias
  • Buy running shoes (yup)
  • Find wedding glasses ( think we found them)
  • Try making the favours ( failed but will try again
  • Clean up the garden
  • Wash and dry clothes for the week ahead
  • Answer work emails (done)
  • Gut the kitchen
  • Organise my art supplies
  • Dye napkins

Not a massive list for 4 days but today I need to these things in one.

Because I have procrastinated so much I have left the majority till the last minute. Too late.

I still plan to do it all, getting up at 9am has helped!

At work I have to stick to my list. I try an deal with problems straight away because when I put something off it builds up into a larger issue when it never needs to be.

So procrastinating is definitely my worst habit.

I need to just do it!

What’s your worst habit?

What makes me sad: Manhattan disappeared

Personal Experience

On Friday 6 weeks ago Manny went out and never came back.

She is a rescue and just your average grey tabby with yellowy pale green eyes and beautiful black paws.

I am heart broken that my tiny cat has run away or been injured or worse killed.

I can’t tell you how much I am lost without her. She is my fur baby and I have had her for 10 years. I m hoping she will be at home curled up in the bed giving me a bored expression. Or better cry and run at me!

I thought it might be cathartic to tell you about how I came to own a beautiful cat like Manhattan.

Finding Manhattan

I used to work in Jigsaw so long ago. I worked in many of the stores, some of which aren’t there anymore but the Islington one is and that was my main shop.

I was the assistant manager ther and my friend and colleague Marianna went out for a cigarette, next to the vets. Mariana lives animals she ran in off her break and said( I should warn you she is quite dramatic)

Dana I have seen the most beautiful cat and I want him!

She then described a man walking into the vets with a cage full of cats and kittens. So I told her that if they are bringing them in like that to the vets then they are likely to be destroyed so if she wants him she should ask.

Killing the cats

She ran back into the shop screaming they are going to kill the cats.

They had already destroyed one.

But we saved the rest. I told the vets that however many they had left I would take them home.

I took home Inca and Manhattan. They thought manny was the mum even though she couldn’t be much older than 2.

She was scared, malnourished and hissy. Then will time and love she turned into the sweetest cat. Friendly affectionate. She acted like a puppy always following us around the house.

Heartbroken

I can’t tell you how guilty I feel and how much I miss her little face. That little cat has comforted me so much in my life and never asked for a lot in return. If you pet as ever gone missing you know how painful it is.

I just want her back.

This is what makes me sad. Not knowing. I hope she is happy and healthy.

What makes you happy

Advice, Personal Experience

I think is pretty simple what makes me happy.

Gin

Friends and Family

Frank and Manhattan

Honesty and kindness

Nights in and nights out

My home and garden

Planning

Traveling

All about my tummy

 I think by know you know how much I love food. I will try anything twice, I say twice because you should always try something. Just because you don’t like it one way doesn’t mean you wont like it another.

I always try tofu, why I don’t know. Its gross. I have tried it fried, in soups. I will always try it but I just can get my head around it. Sorry, its just not worth the calories.

Lie no more

I love my bed. I used to lie in till 10-11 most Sundays. That was until we got frank. Who is happy to sleep in too but only if its near to you and he snores. So every weekend I am normally up at 7-8am which is completely unlike me. I love my bed. Its huge and high and my bedding is mostly from Jigsaw because they do the best linens.

My future Husband

Gav loves how simple it is to please me. He doesn’t bring me flowers home. He brings me La Duree macarons, blocks of cheese, Chinese buns, Portuguese custard tarts, BBQ Dreams noodle salad, tea stained eggs. We love food. We love eating out and he loves me to cook for him. I cooked a chicken aubergine curry the other night with baked cauliflower and he loved it. Said was the best aubergine he had ever had. As he hates aubergine. Now I have to make him eat courgettes again because they are my favourite.

He knows that although I have my eye on a few designer bags that actually what I really want is an amazing backpack. That is smart enough, but also if I want to run home with it is fits me well and doesn’t open or jiggle about too much. Gavin likes to tease.

He loves to torture me constantly in fact, this means that we end up laughing all the time. Not chuckling but belly laughing. He can also be very sweet and sensitive when he needs to be.

The fur babies

Manhattan was a rescue cat, she is the sweetest most loving cat anyone would want. Unfortunately she disappeared and I still can’t really talk about it.

She has got me through a lot in life and has been with me for 10 years which puts her age at 12 ish the vets didn’t know. Hopefully she will come back.

Frank was also a rescue. He didn’t come from a bad home but he does have some behaviour issues. We think something may of happened to him when he was a pup. He is joyful and sweet and completes us as a family.

Just the four of us is pretty perfect!

Honesty and kindness

I sound like a sap, I know but being good and kind is all that matters. People smiling makes you smile so why wouldn’t you want to perpetuate that!

Nights in Nights out

am not much of a social bunny.i live my friends but I don’t need to make more. Making time for you friends is so important. I do love going out but we generally tend to go for a nice meal then cocktails! We do dress up but we are not clubbing people.

I left my dancing shoes after university. I did go out a bit in Edinburgh but most of the time we just went down to the local which always closed when we were ready to leave!

But I always loved going home to my bed!

Home and Garden

I am a home bunny. I love going home from work. I love my nights, get home walk the dog, make dinner, eat watch Netflix. Talk about the wedding, I put on YouTube, Gav plays some games online. Wash my face and do my skincare and head to bed!

Although at the moment there is a lot more writing and photography involved.

Rinse, repeat and love it.

Me walking home has ended up with us meeting for a quick pint before we head home and then planning the weekend!

Planning

Oh how I love to plan. My bullet journal is my life. I have mentioned it before so I won’t keep harping in about it!

Bloggers that inspire me!

Advice, Personal Experience

Blog 18, bloggers I read, I read a lot of blogs I love them so I am just picking my top 5 that I read the most!

Jungalow

I found this blogger on Instagram. Her pictures where insane. It turns out I am definitely more of a boho vintage interior designer than Scandinavian. I love her use of colour and prints and she intern introduced me to some other accounts that are obsessed with plants as I am.

Her blog and shop are successful and she has a book out and sells printed textiles all of which I love. She is not afraid of colour and her house and office is the stuff of dreams!

Anna Edit

Love Anna, love her blog, bought her book and follow her on YouTube, and Instagram. Does that make me a stalker?

I just love her life ethos and how grateful she is. She is definitely a friendly writer. She writes a lot about organising and decluttering life. She has made me think about my wardrobe choices on more than one occasion.

Less is more are definitely words to live by! Considering I am a bit of a hoarder is weird that I like her so much. Perhaps she is escapism to me.

Productive and pretty

She is a planner and has some lovely posts. Her images are what made me start following her blog and I read pretty much everything that comes into my inbox.

She has a very nice organised mindset that is a little too perfect for my life even though she talks about bad days and unproductivity. Plus I can get lots of bullet journal inspiration from her photos and blogs.

Emma hill

Maybe the funniest YouTuber out there. Emma is like a good cup of tea, it wouldn’t be right without a biscuit. Emma is way cooler than I am but with all the blog I read I probably identify myself with her the most.

She loves food, her husband, doesn’t want or need to talk about children ( it’s nonsense that people think they can ask about your reproductive parts) I love reading her blogs they can be in-depth about fabric as they are about her personal experience.

Emma is a fashion blogger which may shock you as I am not very fashion forward but she loves clothes, has a muted palette and lives in jeans and blazers! My hero! She is also the reason I posted my first blog. She did a YouTube video on how to start it and that’s why I am here.

So that’s another reason why I love her!

Gothamista

Renee is a skincare goddess, I love her because she is so fresh faced and doesn’t appear to have an agenda. Her blogs her so informative it is ridiculously good. She is my go to skincare lady.

Because she is also on YouTube I can here her voice when I read her blogs. She has literally thought about everyone’s skin type. She makes recommendations and I find myself writing them down.

I send my mum her clips and she loves them!

Hmalcorn

Was one of the first followers I had. Her blog isn’t like anyone else’s it’s more like a diary entry and sometimes I feel a little nosey when I read it.

She writes from a wounded open heart and it is easy to hear her truth in the words. I read her blog because I subscribe and her words pop up in my inbox. Sometimes I want to hold her and tell her everything is going to be alright then sometimes I was to shake her and tell her that’s not the way the world works.

Reading her blog is like listening to a younger sister talk.

I love a good blog

so I do read a few more blogs and I am happy to take your recommendations about bloggers I should follow. This would be the longest blog if I listed them all!! I love a good blog. I like that I can read them on my phone and screenshot photos and words of wisdom I love.

This is me, not so perfect photos!

body confidence, confidence, Personal Experience

Blog 17, photo of you, 30 day blog challenge.

This is me. A photo of me is that the same as being me or just what I would like you to see.

I scrolled through images, too fat, bad skin, massive hair, weird angle. They were all me I just chose to ignore them! Then I thought. Maybe I won’t put the perfect photos in. Maybe I will just put the photos of me when I look happy! So be prepared for frizzy hair, laughing and pulling faces!

When your food matches your hair

Funny face

Me and Gavin met online. His first image of me was I thought a nice photo. It was a hot summers day and I was out in the garden. Not a bit of makeup on, looking up into the sky.

Gav hates this photo. He said it looks nothing like me. Even though he disproves of the image he still asked me out on a date so it couldn’t have been that bad.

After a while we befriended each other on Facebook and he, like me scrolled through lots of pictures of each other! He soon came to realise that I look different in most pictures. Something to do with the angles of my face.

Christmas tree shopping

I thought I would show you a range of photos to help you understand that I am not one photo. I am not one face, one body but I am me. Multi layered. Mostly happy, often hungry, loves to laugh and doesn’t need much to make me happy.

me and Becky dressing up and pulling faces. We always have fun and don’t care what other people say.

I want to look nice but I care more about having fun then I do about posing for a perfect photo.

Don’t get me wrong I still pose! I just don’t care so much! Have you seen the photos of me me trying to jump with my niece? Ha ha ha

So this is me!

Thoughts on education

Personal Experience

Day 16, thoughts on education, 30 day blog challenge

I teach art to children and adults so I can talk bout education from my experience only.

I am an army brat so I went to a lot of schools, a lot. It meant that my learning was effected and my dyspraxia didn’t get picked up. I wasn’t at schools long enough for them to pick it up.

Good start

I was really lucky. I had a lot of great teachers! A lot, especially at secondary school, not so great at college but followed by wonderful teachers at University.

Teachers are key to a great education there are alway good among the bad.

I am not a teacher by profession but from the few classes I teach a week I know that teaching is hard. The kids can be so insiteful and funny or they can be difficult and obstinate just like adults. Except they are just kids.

Kids drawings of me where they can’t look at the page!

Fairs fair

Teaching is hard on so my levels. The kids who disrupt your class often need a lot more guidance, which means the well behaved kids can get less attention even though they still need it. So I try and be fair with my time and my enthusiasm! At the end of the day they are just kids who want to be creative.

Education is so important. School or lessons ( I teach home school kids as well) are so important at any age. They are a place where kids can draw, create and discuss what ever they wish. I encourage them too.

I do agree that politics enter schools far too much. The arts are the first to be hacked to pieces which is so sad as this is a great outlet for children who aren’t so academic.

I don’t think there is enough practical teachings in school. Children should be taught about savings, bank accounts professions and the paths to get there. I know some schools do teach this, but not enough.

Bad Vs Good

I understand that education comes in different forms and that teachers in what ever shape, trained ones, ones like me or parents that teach, it’s bloody hard. Planning, prepping and inspiring is not always easy and you have to be in the right mindset.

So bad teachers do exist but they exist to different children. As in a teacher who likes your child and bonds with them may be another child’s bad teacher.

I hope I am not a bad teacher.

Education is vital throughout your life. I have said before that I would like to do my MA and there are so many things to learn in life. Mario was my last teacher (snowboarding) and he gave me so much confidence. Where I didn’t have it before.

What are your thoughts on education?

Healthy habits, does chocolate count?

body confidence, food, health, Personal Experience

Day 14, 3 healthy habits, 30 day blog challenge.

I am slightly over weight, a sugar addict and lazy! So writing about 3 healthy habits seems a bit hypocritical however. I am trying to tone up and loose weight so I have change 3 things which is definitely a healthy habit.

Farewell Diet Coke

Like most people when they start dieting you give up the heavenly full fat drinks and swap them with diet drinks.

I became addicted we are talking 8 cans a day of Diet Coke. If I was hungry I would have one, every meal including breakfast I would have one. I felt like the fact that it had no calories meant that I could have it all the time.

Wrong

I started cutting back after Christmas when I ordered 3 crates of coke and Gav said it wasn’t healthy. When you rely on something too much then it’s a bad habit. It need to be kicked so I stopped.

I cut it down to two cans a day. Which was still a lot but at least it was something. This year I decided to cut out plastic water bottles. So cans of coke are harder to find.

Cutting back

When I went on holiday to Bulgaria I failed with my plastic bottles and diet coke wasn’t as everywhere so I treated myself to full fat coke!

But when I returned from holiday I didn’t buy any coke. At work I swapped my coke for squash because for some reason I wasn’t drinking enough water. I know squash isn’t that great. But I am drinking 4 litres of water everyday.

Swapping coke for water and squash is definitely a step in the right direction.

As you saw from my fridge yesterday there is no coke for either me or Gav. We both have a can but I still haven’t drunk it yet! If will be my Sunday treat!

Aurevoir chocolate

I had a lot of twix o’clock at work. Basically I now understand that I am an emotional eater. If I am upset then or annoyed then I want chocolate. Twix O’clock became a 2pm habit. I like to reward myself for everything!!!

It had to end. I am not going to deny myself chocolate but I definitely do not need it everyday. But a few times a week is fine. My skin doesn’t appreciate too much sugar so it better to cut right down. Plus I love celery so I cut it up and pop it in Tupperware. When I want to eat I something I can tuck into my cut up veg.

How good does that twix look!

Getting my arse into gear

So my last healthy habit is walking home. I get the bus to and from work. Living and working in London means that public transport is super cheap.

We now have lighter evening so roads and pathways don’t look so scary. So far I have walked home 3-4 times every week for the past 2 weeks . The weather hasn’t been great but it hasn’t stopped me.

My body is grateful for the exercise and fresh air. Plus it’s spring, so all the blossoms are out and my Instagram and a few of my blogs have had spring themes and lots of blossoms on them.

When I get home Gav meets me at the door with Frank and we go and walk him in the park. I have a wee bit more energy and my skin looks better.

Even though I should not reward myself I don’t feel so bad for eating a piece ( a whole bar, I am a compulsive eater) of chocolate.

But walking isn’t just about physical health. My 45 minute walk home clears my head. I listen to music and zone out. Walking has left me in a meditative state. I come home happy. The weather hasn’t bothered me.

I have given myself a task of 70000 steps a week and so far I have smashed it. I just need to keep going!

In summary

When I was photographing this I wanted to hurry up so I could drink the Diet Coke, it’s 10am so I will make myself wait! I also ate the celery, yum and will eat the chocolate later.

I am trying to be healthy, getting fit for the wedding. I have saved money walking home. I am saving roughly £24 a month so… I am going back to the gym. It’s only £36 a month and I miss it. I can go before work, my work mates go every day.

It about changing your mindset and creating a habit that you stick too. I am drinking more water (squash) walking home and cutting out my chocolate snacks for fruit and veg!

Things are getting better and I am feeling better!

Watch this space!