When I write ‘That Girl’ I’m sure we all have an option of who a ‘That Girl’ is, they’ve always got their life together, know who they are and what they want. Their life seems effortless. While I’m sure no-one actually gets through life without effort, in this series I’m going to step by step create habits and systems to make me feel like I am ‘That Girl’
I’m going to start at a place that should be fairly easy and ‘declutter’ things such as my emails, the notes on my phone and my files. Delete what’s not needed, unsubscribes from what is irrelevant and organise what is left. Hopefully this act will make my day-to-day that little bit smoother, getting me one step closer to being ‘That Girl’.
Hopefully this might inspire you to also clear out your inbox!
Yup. We have moved back with the dogs and all. I’m pleased to announce we are thriving. Thankfully having relocated internationally before we’re becoming PRO’s at this now. Honestly found it a lot less stressful this time around. Don’t get me wrong the last three months have been *busy* but not terrifying.
The hardest and most stressful part was definitely sending the dogs. Popping your precious babies on a 9 hours flight without you is very scary. Tears were shed. They managed absolutely fine and have settled in brilliantly. The company we used really exceeded expectations which was absolutely lovely.
We managed to sort a house out fairly easily on our last visit here and now just setting up a new business to run along side our current one. Fun fun fun.
How scary is it making friends as an adult? I think it might be the hardest thing we have to do. After a certain point in our lives, we’ve all had horrid experiences with people, bad friends, who have let us down or hurt us in some way, so letting someone new in? Terrifying.
I’ve recently moved and most of my old friends are an hour away, so I decided I must ensure I make a couple of friends who at least live in the area. I honestly pulled out the pre-school move of ‘Hi! Lets be friends’ and you know what, it worked! Something about being honest with your intentions means you’ll either get a good result or save any confusion (even if you do get slightly rejected).
Anyway, she’s fab, I’m so pleased I made a (for me) bold move and approached her. So if you know someone who is likely to be your friend, go ahead and just ask because they might just also be looking for a new best friend.
Finding the correct dog food for my fussy two dogs has been nearly impossible. we’ve tried every type and either struggled with them eating it at all or it making them just not on tip top form. However we have finally found something that they are obsessed with, so much so that our dog who HATES meal times (strange, I know) actually gets so excited and begs for more!
Bella and Duke, a raw dog food that’s delivered to you. They operate on a subscription service but my goodness it is fabulous. I really couldn’t recommend it more if you have fussy dogs. It is such an easy way to feed raw, just keep in your freezer and defrost in the fridge, so simple once you get into the routine.
Our two are fairly large (Rotti and Mixed) so eat a lot, which means if the quality isn’t there its no good. This food truly has been a game changer in getting them fed and happy. The price point is pretty fab too for a good quality raw food. If you’re thinking about Raw or just doing trust yourself to get it right this is definitely the best company we’ve tried! Thankfully they offer a 50% discount code (below) so you can try for an amazing price!
Anyone else feeling them? Short days, miserable weather and the feeling that I’m living the same day on repeat. It’s not doing much for a positive can do attitude. I like to think I’m ‘naturally’ a happy person, I tend to wake up feeling excited for the day ahead. I think I’ve learnt it’s not so much ‘natural’ but orchestrated by myself subconsciously. This has got me thinking I need to sort out these lockdown blues and make myself happier once again.
I like to think I know myself fairly well, however its not as easy as you’d think to say what makes you happy and how you can bring more of that back to your life during lockdown rules. For example and easy one for me is that I love horses and riding, but due to relocating I’m between horses and can’t just go book a hack or riding lesson.
I’ve decided to section out my life into ‘parts’ that make me happy and give me value. These are now my to do list, to ensure I am giving some time to each part of my life that adds value to me. On top of this I’ve set myself some ‘good’ habits to get into, including getting up at my original normal time (not 8.30!!!) and righting in my planner every morning.
One of the things I was really excited to try when coming back to the UK was Hello Fresh. Living abroad showed me how hard it was to get hold of good, tasty, health food and honestly made me bored of cooking from scratch. The worst bit for me is deciding what to make. My husband always just says ‘I don’t mind’.
If you don’t know what Hello Fresh is, it’s a company that deliver all the ingredients you need to make a chosen amount of meals each week. You get to pick the menu and just wait for it to turn up. There is a good choice each week of quick, veggie or luxury meals.
We chose to get three meals a week to start us off, and my goodness we haven’t been disappointed and look forward to picking what we’re going to eat each week.
The kind people at Hello Fresh have given me a link for for £20 off 🙂
Photography. Now I’m no photographer and I don’t even have a particularly fancy camera (yet), however it is something I was hoping to get my teeth into while I’m back in the U.K. I had actually arranged a little photoshoot with a friend, sadly I think that may now not happen. However I’m going to make sure I get my camera out every single day of this lockdown.
I find the whole editing part of photography rather relaxing, the photo taking kind of stressful. I know what I want it to look like and finding that is harder than it should be! I also absolutely love having lots of photos to look back on. I was always that girl taking the photos when I was out with friends.
Another reason I really want to get some nice shots over the next month is I want to make my mum a wall of pictures for Christmas. I know she wants lots of black and white prints and I thought if some of them could be taken by me of the local area and of my sister etc. that would be really awesome!
Sometimes I struggle with confidence and taking photos. Taking my tripod our and getting photos of myself does scare me if someone can see. I also have the fear that someone might judge me for my basic camera. But I need to put my big girl pants on and get into it so I can justify buying a more expensive (still entry level LOL) camera. Practise does make perfect.
Do you have any ‘secret’ hobbies?
Here are a few of my photos from my iPhone and rather basic camera. Want to see more? Head to my Instagram @harrietkristina
Lockdown 2.0. I’m mad about it. Sort of. I completely agree that something should be done, I understand this is an impossibly difficult decision. I am so sad for all the small business owners and everyone else impacted (us included). But today I’m simply mad because I don’t have a horse in the U.K. currently and riding schools are having to shut.
Its ridiculous and childish I know, but I’m letting myself be annoyed today. Tomorrow I’ll be positive, but not today. I’m sad for the lessons I’d planned and hacks I was looking forward to, selfishly it really is my happy place. However, I’m also sad for riding schools that need regular business to survive.
It’s healthy to be annoyed, frustrated and upset. Personally the best way to cope is to give myself an allotted amount of time to feel that emotion and then pick myself up after. This works for me and I believe it’s important for us to all have coping mechanism’s in place for our mental (and physical) health. We’re all so different, this could be talking to someone, writing it down etc, however we should all have a way to ‘feel’ and ‘live’ these emotions so we can properly experience them and let them go. Do you have an emotional coping ‘plan’?
Fingers crossed this lockdown won’t be extended too much and we’ll be back doing the activities we love asap. I’ll certainly be off on horseback the second I’m allowed!
We all know goal setting is beneficial, it helps us to put energy in to key areas and accomplish jobs that would otherwise be pushed to one side. I’ve been offered a ‘new’ chance at building my life and I want to ensure I get the most out of it, and one way I’m going to achieve this is with regular goal setting.
Things to get done in November –
By mid-november I will have bought my new car
By the end of November I will have sorted a new family home
I will have decided which country boots to get and have bought them
I am challenging myself to write a blog post everyday and I will have completed this.
I will reach 2,500 on Instagram
I am also challenging myself to go for four runs.
So they may either sound huge or not a lot, but thinks like four runs is quite huge as I haven’t been running in at least 18 months. Sadly due to this lockdown I don’t think I’ll be riding which is very upsetting to me.
So with lockdown coming up we’ll do what we can and most importantly be kind to ourselves!
2020. The dreaded 2020. I think it’s been a year of madness for everyone, huge change and uncertainty. As I’m writing this we’ve just been told we’re going back into lockdown. Oh golly gosh.
I managed to avoid the first UK lockdown as I was in Barbados, arguable that lockdown was far worse, but that’s a different story. I don’t want to go into too much detail with lockdown or hugely political but I am sad about this lockdown and I don’t hold much hope that it will be four weeks to solve the problem.
Adaptation seems to have been what we’re all having to learn this year and I’m hoping that my platforms with reflect this. I’m a girl with a love of horses, shopping, travel, photography, the outdoors and my family. I don’t want to be limited to one box. I want to share it all. With that in mind that’s what I plan on sharing, a little of everything.
So welcome to Lockdown 2.0 Diaries. I hope you can stay a while.
Blonde Traveller 