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thehappysideof40

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How are we all doing this weekend? I must admit I’ve struggled this week. Turns out I don’t have the patience or energy for teaching and seeing other people use this time to create great things at home has left me ... well, feeling VERY unproductive.
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So our Nurture & Thrive group mentoring call on Thursday with @josephinepbrooks couldn’t have come at a better time. I’m letting go of my expectations for the next few months and just concentrating on the things that can be achieved in the pockets of time that I have. Everything is split in to 10/20/30 minute tasks so when there’s a window, I can go straight to this list. How are you finding this time, super productive or not so much?

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We’ve just started 14 day isolation after the youngest had a high temp yesterday (he’s fine now though thankfully!) so I created a 14 day meal plan and grocery list to try and figure out whether we’ve got enough for lunches/dinner while we’re stuck at home.
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It’s surprising when you sit down and write it out, how many meals you can create from what you’ve already got. I think I learnt about meal planning in school Home Ec classes, it seemed like an old-fashioned skill then. Back when we just had to pop out to a supermarket and assumed that’s funds permitting we could have whatever we wanted, whenever we needed it. A lesson in humility for us all me thinks!
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Anyone else trying to plan meals a bit more efficiently? I’m creating a printable version of this grocery and meal planner spread if you’re interested. Just pop over to the link in my bio and drop your email in the subscription box, it’ll go out to my newsletter subscribers in the next few days.
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#stayinandcreate #bulletjournalinspo #14dayquarantine #plannernerd #plannerobsessed #bujomealplan #bulletjournaljunkies #bujobeauties #showmeyourbulletjournal #bujobeginner

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As much as I love my kids, it’s ok to need something for yourself. This came from an amazing chat with Katie from @ceramicmagpie, recorded earlier this month and now available on the Being Heard podcast. It has taken on a whole new meaning this week as we prepare for schools to close and home-schooling becoming a way of life for a while. We were originally talking about how Katie discovered a love of pottery after taking a career break with her kids. She wanted to find something that was just for her, not as a mum or a partner but simply as Katie.
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Now more than ever, this fact still holds true.
Yes we want to make our kids time at home enjoyable, yes we want to maintain their schooling and yes we want to take advantage of the unusual chance to spend more time together as a family. But in amongst all of that, it’s also ok to feel daunted by the prospect. To feel slightly (or massively!) terrified by the lack of personal space, and the need to absolutely rewrite any goals or plans you had for the next few months.
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As the old saying goes, we cannot be the parents we hope to be if we are drinking from an empty cup. So please don’t feel guilty about factoring time in for yourself in the new home routine. Whether it’s during nap times or reading time, or most likely with my two boys - device time. Take a moment when you can to do something just for you.
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To hear my conversation with Katie, just search for Being Heard in your podcast app 💕

#beingheardpodcast #womensupportingwomen #momentsofcalm #quietchaotics #mykindofmum #myslowandsimple #capturequiet #aslowmoment

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✨#Marchmeetthemaker / Help✨
My word of the year is testing me in ways I could never have predicted a few months ago. With so much uncertainty around, trust is hard to muster. Even on a more trivial level, I told myself I’d trust in the process of building a business. But easier said than done when you spend all week working on one product, get it 99% complete but then struggle to finish that last little part.
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In my case that tricky 1% was trying, and failing, to figure out how to add a customisable word of the year print to my shop 🤦‍♀️. Any tips gratefully received on how to add a simple customisable product to a Woocommerce/WordPress site! In the meantime, if you’re looking for a custom printable of your word of the year - drop me a DM 😄

#trustintheprocess #heytheremaker #easiersaidthandone #dustyourselfoff #tomorrowisanewday #bepatientwithyourself #wordoftheyear #wordoftheyear2020

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This is just of the things that came up in my recent conversation with Jo from @madandsadclub which resonated so deeply with me. I can well remember that daily sense of being permanently on edge and feeing like I was clinging on by my fingertips.
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Jo spoke about her own experiences of mental health breakdowns and how it made her reevaluate the unhealthy relationship she had with her work. As a result she left her corporate job and is now using her experience to help others figure out a way to work that allows them to manage their mental health and to stay healthy.
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It’s only after leaving the job that I was in and taking some time out that I’m now aware just how unhealthy my relationship with work was. That heightened level of stress and anxiety does not have to be my normal anymore and it doesn’t have to be yours either. To hear Jo talking about this more, our conversation is on the podcast now - just search for Being Heard or go the link in my bio to access it on my website.
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#worklesslivemore #agentlehugforthesoul #moreflowlessno #anxietyandme #livingwithanxiety #slowthingsdown #tellyourstory

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✨Close-up✨ Day 5 of #marchmeetthemaker and for me, this one is all about perspective. In close-up I often see the microscopic errors in my lettering work. And yet I love nothing more than zooming in on another artist’s piece to revel in the fine detail. I don’t see their ‘errors’, but yet I obsess about mine.

I’m trying to teach myself to let go of that self-critical eye and bullet journaling has definitely helped. Each week is a new layout and a new opportunity to try again. Maybe I should adopt that attitude for the rest of life 😄

#doneisbetterthanperfect #littlebitsof_life #createmakeshare #capturemycraft #makersformakers #doitanyway

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Oh the irony. Day 3 of #marchmeetthemaker is Time and I well and truly ran out of time to create the image I had in my head 🤦‍♀️. But you can probably get the gist - I wanted to talk about how short the hours between school drop-off and school pick-up feel. How the clock seems to speed up between the hours of 9 and 3 and there’s never enough time to get the work done that I think I *should* be able to.

That was the plan at least, but between podcast editing and World Book Day costume sorting, I ran out of time. Again. So here’s the shortened quickly-put-together version. Tell me it’s not just me who feels like this?! #neverenoughtime #howispendmydays #makersgonnamake #schoolrunmum #workingmumlife

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✨ Day 1 of #marchmeetthemaker and the prompt is to share our story.
My story begins with a book. An empty book with no title and no words (bear with this rather fanciful metaphor - I promise it goes somewhere!). The empty book was my bullet journal for 2018, and that’s where the story of this stage of my life really begins. I started bullet journaling mainly because I wanted to get organised and declutter my foggy brain. But I ended up with an outlet to practice my long forgotten creativity. A place to record the goals I had that weren’t family or home related. And a place that helped me reconnect with the creative, fun (least I think so!), happy human being that I was before the daily toll of being someone’s mum, partner and worker bee took over.

I never thought for a moment, when I started journaling in 2018, that it would lead me to where I am now. Having just opened an online shop to sell my hand lettered prints and planner templates. And sharing my love of bullet journaling with the lovely friends I’ve connected to here. This is very much the beginning of my story. But I sure as hell can’t wait to see where it leads.

#createdtocreate #supportsmallbusinesses #littlebitsof_life #tellyourstory #makersgunnamake #createmakeshare #heytheremaker #storiesofmylife #indiebiz #modernmakers #makersformakers #capturemycraft #shophandmadeuk #handmademovement #howistarted

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Did you ever feel like you’re not achieving enough? Or not as fast as we’d like to at any rate.
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I’m chronically impatient and constantly put myself under pressure to deliver all the things in one fell swoop. Unrealistic goals, too short deadlines - I’m guilty of them all.
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So it’s taking a lot of self-control and reprogramming the way I think to remind myself that small steps, consistently made, will get me there in the end. I’ve had a rejig of my shop and although my unrealistic goal was to have an entire collection of new prints and planner inserts at the start of each month, I’ve realised that was wayyyy too much pressure. And that’s not the way I want to work anymore. So in a funny way, it seems fitting that the first physical print I’m releasing in my shop is this. Baby Steps is hand lettered and can be found in my shop now in four colour options. More coming slowly 😉
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#solopreneurlife #selfemployedlife #alifeofintention #slowthingsdown #seekinspirecreate #smallmakers #justacard #shophandmadeuk #handmadeisbest #createmakeshare #heytheremaker #makersgonnamake #slowmakermovement #modernmakers #typographyart

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Another half-term done. How did it go for you? It’s back to normal today and if you’re anything like me, this can easily become a week of zero productivity. Not because there isn’t a shed-load to do, but because I often find myself completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume and I have no clue where to start.
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In an effort to combat this rabbit-in-headlights feeling, I’ve started prepping myself with an almighty brain dump of everything that has popped in to my brain over the last week. Literally everything gets put down on to one humongous list in my planner. No worrying about order, prioritisation; the only slight categorisation I do is to separate in to one of three sections - work, home and self.
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I should say that this is not about creating a crippling to-do list - no sir-ee, this beaut will probably keep me busy for the next month! But what it does do is free up my overactive brain from trying to *remember* everything, and give it space to figure out the do-ing instead. Which is kind of the point really, isn’t it! Have you got any good tips for overcoming the overwhelm when you get back to work after a break?

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