Ditching the Mum Guilt


Recently, I did something, that at the time, felt ridiculously self-indulgent.

Let me start by explaining myself. You see us mums need to do that when we do something purely for ourselves and not our children, now don't we?! ;)

It started with a few drinks and my friend Sam and I discussing how we missed holidaying together. We should book a few days up north, we said. Somewhere gorgeous with a lovely spa and nice walks, we said.

We then started to search for hotels and balked at the prices. How much for two days??! We might as well go abroad, we said.

And so we did!

As you can imagine this was somewhat fuelled by the aforementioned, 'few drinks', and as we pressed, 'BOOK', my excitement instantly turned into a sick feeling. Was this ridiculously selfish of me? Should I be spending that amount of money on myself? If I'm going on a little beach holiday should I not be taking my babies with me who absolutely adore the beach? All the mum guilt came crashing down. Predictable, I know.

I think this is an eternal struggle for parents who have young children, the inability to on occasion put our own needs first. It goes against the grain, doesn't it? We live for our little humans and take care of their every need, but as soon as that stops being the case 24/7, whether that's going back to work, an overnight stay, a weekend away, we can't help but let that guilt creep in.

For this very reason I pushed the fact I booked a holiday to the back of my mind and prayed that when it came around I would enjoy it and not be wracked with guilt the whole time.

Well I can tell you wholeheartedly I enjoyed every single minute. This holiday was a tonic that I really didn't realise how much I needed until I was away. I actually realised whilst laying on the beach, Sam calling my name to see if I wanted another drink, that my name had been said more in those few days than it had in years. I'd forgotten what it was like to be called, Claire, when my days are spent hearing, mum, mum, mum a trillion times, and the other variations, Caleb's mum. Archie's mum. It felt so good to be called, Claire.



Do you know what else I learnt on this trip too? To stop labelling myself as, 'too old'.  When we first saw this amazing deal to Marbella, my instant response was, we're too old, we couldn't possibly go, I mean, I love carbs for a start! Surely this is not the place for me.

Utter rubbish! We stayed in the lovely area of San Pedro which is mainly Spanish inhabitants, carbs were free flowing ;), and it has such a relaxed and friendly vibe. I don't know what I had in my head exactly, I think I've watched one too many episodes of TOWIE and Made In Chelsea, which says more about me than it does about Marbella!


We decided we couldn't visit Marbella and not partake in a beach club experience. We chose the world-renowned Nikki Beach, and I'll be honest, I was convinced we were way too old for this. I pictured a flurry of hot, young babes in thongs, meanwhile, I'd be there in my full-length kaftan wishing I was 16 years younger.


That wasn't the case at all, we chose the Friday to go, which is one of the days they don't have any specific events on. This was perfect for us, we got to sample all the luxuries of Nikki Beach with a more relaxed vibe. If you want to party, party though, definitely choose one of their event days.


 We chose a bed by the pool and it was the perfect spot to sip rose wine and enjoy one of their gorgeous mezze platters. Any thoughts of not belonging in a place like that, now I'm a mum, completely vanished and it was a day of luxury I didn't even realise I was craving. Be warned the price list is not for the fainthearted, but for us it was worth every penny. I've since concluded that I need more luxury in my life!!

No holiday is complete without finding a hidden gem to eat and drink, and this was Guayaba Beach for us. It was a no frills, friendly beach bar that just happened to serve the best seafood and sangria.


I came back home feeling refreshed, rejuvenated and guess what?! Three happy boys who had a blast while I was away, but also appreciated I was home. Nothing like absence to make the heart grow fonder ;)

So maybe your pondering a night away, a holiday with friends or your other half sans kids. Do it! Push that parental guilt aside. Book those tickets immediately. I can honestly tell you it will do you more good than you realise, and those little people in your life too.

Same time next year, Sam?!



Thursday, 9 November 2017 Comments: 4
Read more »

THE BENEFITS TO DECLUTTERING YOUR HOME


I get asked a lot of questions about our home over on Instagram which I try to answer as best I can, but I thought I'd write more in depth explanations over here on the blog about how we have made our home a functional, enjoyable space for busy family life. I thought I'd start off with one of the most frequently asked questions, which is,

Where is all our clutter?

Now being a past hoarder this one makes me smile as it was such a different story a few years ago. I was the Queen of Stuff. I kept EVERYTHING, there wasn't a surface free of trinkets and such. Our home was packed to the rafters, not to mention a garage and multiple storage cupboards bursting at the seams too. Think Monica's cupboard from Friends, we had five of those. Oh the shame. 

Back then I got a strange comfort out of keeping everything, either from a sentimental point of view or convinced we would have need for it in the future, so how could I possibly throw it out? Of course that 'future need' never happened and everything just collected dust, and slowly without realising it, it started to overwhelm me.

Then the best thing possible happened to us, although at the time it felt like a ginormous hassle. We sold our flat leaving ourselves with a four month gap before our new home was ready to move into. Where exactly we were going to house a family of four and all our many belongings for four months we had no idea. We eventually found a fully-furnished holiday rental that definitely took care of where we would live, just not all our stuff. Our belongings would need to go into storage.

As everyone knows selling and buying property is an expensive affair and now we needed to factor in storage costs too. I knew it was time to be brutal when it came to my hoarding tendencies. I decided we would only pay storage on what we truly needed and loved. The rest had to go.

So the deep cleanse began, and what an eye opener it's been.

One of the biggest lessons I learnt is objects don't hold memories, we do. That's not to say I don't have precious and important items that I haven't kept, I've just tamed down the volume and re-evaluated what's important and precious. For example keeping every birthday, engagement, wedding, baby card is, when you see them altogether piled high, completely unnecessary. Little did I know I had a small forest living in my flat. I know all our family and friends love, support and celebrate big life occasions with us, I don't need cards after the fact to remind me off that. So I picked out a few as keepsakes and the rest went off to be recycled. 

I felt pretty grossed out by how much we'd accumulated over the years, that recycling and donating felt good and I can't tell you how freeing it was. I swore never to hoard again. When we finally moved into our new home I joked that we would barely have anything to put in it, especially as our new home was bigger than our last place. I was right, our new home felt super sparse, but after being overwhelmed with belongings it was the most refreshing feeling ever. I didn't want to rush and fill it with unnecessary stuff. I want to fill our home with things we love and need over time. I want the house to grow with us and reflect us as a family and our lifestyle not just become one big, giant Monica cupboard.

Here are some other unexpected and rather lovely benefits to de-cluttering:

  • With small children around it makes home life so much easier. Clutter is a temptation. It's something to be played with, pulled out, emptied, chewed on, licked! A cluttered house, can quickly turn into a messy and chaotic house with children. I wish I'd figured that out when Caleb was little.
  • Cleaning and tidying is quicker and easier. Dusting used to be my number one hated chore and it would take forever!!!! Now I can have the whole house dusted, hoovered in no time. That brings me serious joy. Who wants to waste their life dusting?!
  • I really noticed an overall positive change in my mood at home. I've since come to realise if my home has an overwhelming amount of stuff in it, I feel overwhelmed. Same as when it's overly messy and chaotic, that's exactly how I feel. I guess it's not rocket science but I didn't make the direct correlation until de-cluttering. 
  • Through figuring out what I truly loved and decided to keep I've found my interior style. Before I was a mish mash of lots of different styles, that I loved individually but didn't particularly flow well together. The pieces I have in our home now compliment rather than compete with each other.

Have I missed or regretted anything we got rid of? Not a single item. In the picture above you'll see the quote, 'Collect memories not things'. After de-cluttering it has kind of been a mantra of mine and a daily reminder to keep my old hoarding ways in check. So far it's worked.

If you've been thinking of de-cluttering your home, do it! Do it now, you won't regret it. You don't need to be moving home to de-clutter. I personally wished I done this years ago.

If you'd like to see more interior pictures of our home and daily life you can find us over on Instagram here.


Thursday, 7 September 2017 Comments: 8
Read more »

NEW CHAPTERS - A Time For Blogging


So here I sit this morning, typing out this blog post and it feels weird, and pretty damn glorious if I'm honest. My blog writing (or lack there of) has always been reserved for the evenings, when the boys were tucked up in bed. Turns out a tired, frazzled brain does not a good blogger make, or that was indeed the case for me.

It's been one heck of an emotional time here lately. A time of change for everyone. Caleb has started school, and as if that wasn't quite enough change for us all, I waved Archie off for his first full morning session at nursery today. As I walked away from the school and nursery buildings empty handed, I didn't know whether to skip, laugh or cry. 

I guess that's how I feel about this whole transition. Part excited, part devastated. Ready for change, yet fighting it. This yo-yo feeling has brought with it a lot of anxiety too, and left me questioning myself. The biggest question being who exactly am I outside of being the boys mum? In the last five years so much of my identity has been made up of being a stay-at-home mum that stepping outside of that, even for a few hours every day seems daunting. Does that sound silly? Oh there is nothing quite like a 36 year old woman having an identity crisis now is there?! My lucky husband ;)

But as I sit here in silence (yes silence, glorious silence, I didn't even want the radio or music on) I feel good. I feel without even realising it we were all ready for this next stage, ready for new challenges and adventures outwith each other. They're both going to get a chance to grow as individuals in their own right, and ironically so am I once again. 

The time I've longed to give this blog is finally here. I've come to realise I question my capabilities as a blogger (yep, just called myself a blogger, that's a first for me!) far too much, rather than be proud that whilst bringing two young children up I have found a job that I can work around them and their school and nursery hours. This very fact makes me even more determined to not let my self-confidence ruin the opportunities I'm being given.

This new chapter for me is all about growth, kinda exciting to think you never stop growing. I'm a mum, but I'm also a person in my own right, and it's going to be rather nice getting to know her again.

So what can you expect from this space in the upcoming months?

Keep an eye out for interior posts, how to find your interior style, the pros and cons to living in a new build, how de-cluttering changed my life. I'll also be sharing more about my personal style as a busy mum who loves her clothes but doesn't have a silly budget to spend on them. There will, of course, be more adventures with my family in Edinburgh and further afield too. I also plan to introduce monthly features on different topics too.

I'm really excited to get back to blogging regularly and I hope you come join me too.

Wednesday, 23 August 2017 Comments: 10
Read more »

RECYCLING WITH NESPRESSO


Coffee. Thank the heavens for coffee.

It's been keeping my mum brain going since 2012. Yes, I loved coffee before that, just not in the my life depends on it if I'm going to keep two young children alive all day, kinda way.

Now when I wake up I NEED that first coffee to fake the 8 hours sleep my body so craves. The first cup barely touches the sides, the second cup I really, really enjoy, and then let's not discuss how many cups I go onto thereafter, I'll leave that for my coffee anonymous group meeting, but let's just say it's a whole lot of coffee.

So, when Nespresso got in touch with me about raising awareness about their recycling system, as an avid coffee drinker, I jumped at the chance. I don't know about you but with the age of both my boys recycling is a big topic. I love that recycling is just the norm for them. They know what goes in what bins at home, apart from the occasional banana peel (usually Archie) that ends up in the wrong bin. Like a blood hound I know instantly when this has happened and don't rest until I've found every last bit of peel. Oh that smell. That aside though, they're great at remembering and understanding it's important to recycle as it gives things a new life.

First off, all Nespresso drinkers will already know that the aluminium pods can't go into household recycling. If you ever wondered why this is, it's because the capsules need to go through a complex process to separate the coffee from the aluminium, something that is difficult for traditional recycling.

So why the choice to use the aluminium casing still?

With Nespresso priding themselves on the best possible coffee drinking experience, aluminium is used as it keeps the coffee as fresh as the moment it has been grounded. Have you ever wondered why when you buy your Nespresso pods you can't smell the coffee? That's thanks to the sealed aluminium pod locking in the freshness. In fact, if you can smell coffee it means the pod is damaged somewhere. However, their choice to use aluminium is not only for the quality of the coffee but also because once recycled it goes on to have a very valuable second life.

This is exactly what I learnt when I was invited down to their recycling plant in Congleton. Picture me, high viz jacket, protective eye wear, it was like being back on a school trip again! There we watched them sort through all the bags of used pods they receive and then the entire process it goes through until it finishes up as blocks of differently graded aluminium. There they go on to make car parts, bike frames and more, while the coffee goes off to be used as compost.


Whilst we were at the recycling plant we were apparently only looking at about two weeks worth of pods. There were tens of thousands and that's without us all recycling them. It really brought home how important it is to keep them out of landfill. Never underestimate the power of doing your own little bit. It does count, and it does matter. For me recycling is helping to safe guard the future world for our children, and their children's children. 

Nespresso are currently striving to make it easier for us as the customer to recycle our pods. In the ideal world we'd all put them out with our normal bin collection service, this is something they'll be trialing very soon in the Chelsea and Kensington, London borough. However, for the rest of us, until that hopefully happens they're looking to us, the consumer, to do our part to stop the pods clogging up landfill and instead go onto to have a second life. 

Current ways to recycle your Nespresso pods:

1.    Drop them into your local Nespresso Boutique, ideal if you've ran out of coffee and need to stock up. You can also pick up more recycling bags in store while you're there.

2.    You can use any of the thousands of CollectPlus points in the UK. Simply print out a label and pop it into your nearest collection point. You can find more information on that service here.

3.     Call Nespresso to arrange a collection and then simply leave outside your front door. If you run out of recycling bags and don't have a boutique near you, you can order on line for free with Nespresso here. 

As you can see I've drafted in my coffee makers and they know exactly how to make my coffee (with my help;) just how I like it, and to pop the pods in the recycling bag when we're done. A favourite job of Caleb's.

I hope you found this post as informative as the day I spent with Nespresso. I was totally unawares of their recycling efforts, and I'm so glad I know now.

* this post was sponsored by Nespresso. A big thank you to them for a really interesting trip. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Tuesday, 6 June 2017 Comments: 3
Read more »

CALEB & ARCHIE'S ROOM with My 1st Years


When we moved last year I decided that we wouldn't rush in and decorate the boys rooms straight away. I'd done the whole nursery design thing when I was pregnant with Caleb, which I absolutely adored doing. It was such a fun process designing a room for a little person I'd not even met yet. I actually found it quite therapeutic and it helped me mentally prepare for the massive change that was about to happen in our lives.

Then while I was pregnant with Archie, as we knew the boys would be sharing we decided to decorate Caleb's room again. As that happened we prepared Caleb for the idea that he'd be sharing it with his little brother soon enough. We even put up the cot, which of course he didn't go into until months later. By the time we did put Archie in with Caleb it was a super smooth transition as Caleb had been waiting for the time to come.

Now here we were in a new house, and this meant Caleb and Archie would have a room each. We didn't rush to decorate, mainly because the boys had shared so well that we did wonder whether separate rooms might go down like a lead balloon. It didn't which was great, but with a whole house to decorate it dawned on me that it would be so nice to take our time with the boys rooms and have their input as much as possible.

Their rooms still aren't finished, but as growing and changing boys, I don't think they'll ever be. I like the idea of the rooms simply evolving around their personalities and current interests. One thing that is an absolute hit with both my boys right now, is anything personalised. They get a real kick out of seeing things with their names on, I think they find comfort in the fact there's no dispute over who it belongs too, ha! When it comes to beautifully made personalised goods I love, My 1st Years. They do clothing, toys, storage, furniture and more. Which brings me onto our latest finds for the boys rooms.

I've been wanting to get the boys each a desk and chair for their rooms. They're big colouring fans and with both Caleb starting school and Archie starting nursery this August I thought it would be a lovely addition to their rooms. I found the perfect one at My 1st Years for Archie.


To say he was thrilled when he saw it was an understatement. He now has his own little art corner in his room where he can hang up his masterpieces, I love that with just a simple bit of string and pegs he'll have a ever changing wall of his latest works. We picked the White Wooden Desk and Chair as it fitted best with Archie's room. However, they also do a lovely Wooden Desk and Chair with a chalkboard table top too, which I think is a great idea for mini artists. No soon to be nursery start is complete without a backpack, and to save me a job of having to label it too, I picked my car loving boy the Vintage Vehicle Backpack. The bag is currently home to as many cars as he could fit in it ;)


With Lego and train track obsessed boys good storage is always key in our house. Thanks to hand me downs from family we have a pretty impressive amount of train track which was starting to spill out of the storage trays we have. The Large Navy Star Storage Bag is ideal, and can even fit in the multiple bridges we have for the track. Thanks to it being well made and sturdy its take the weight of it all too.


My favourite new addition to Caleb's room is this really fun Cloud Coatstand in mint. For a boy who's becoming very particular about what he wears it is now home to his favourite jackets and hats.

There you have the whole thought process when it comes to the boys rooms. It's lovely watching the spaces take shape, a place that they love and can call their own. Please remind me of this when it's all smelly socks and week old cereal bowls hidden under the bed, because we all know that is going to happen!!

* This post was sponsored by My 1st Years, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

SHOP THIS POST


Thursday, 1 June 2017 Comments: 8
Read more »
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)