Welcome, July! The beginning of the second half of the year; the perfect time to take a step back and check in on those goals you made at the start of the year. I have been looking over my January goals, and have a blog post ready to go up tomorrow with my process. It has been, as usual, revealing, hard at times and liberating at times too. How are your goals or your word for the year holding up?

July is, for many, the pinnacle of the summer. The weather is warm and dry, the school summer holidays start in just a few weeks and the best of the seasons fruit and flowers are abundant. This summer in particular has been the warmest we've had in years and I am drinking it up! I'm living in sandals, sunglasses and sundresses and we are busy planning some summer adventures too. Hurrah!

Earlier this month, we became entirely bewitched by a cabin on a private lake. It's called Ditchling Cabin, in Hassocks, Sussex, and is listed with Canopy & Stars. We had never stayed in a cabin before, nor on a lake either. I thought I preferred coastal water but boy, was I wrong. We completely and entirely fell in love with the cabin, and the lake life that came with it.

The lake is completely private with no neighbours at all. That in itself felt totally luxurious! We ate delicious vegan food cooked on the Big Green Egg barbecue, slept in the most enormous bed you have ever seen, bathed in the bathtub of dreams. There were pink and purple sunsets reflected in the water, trout jumping and splashing back down, creating ripples all over the lake. Mature trees gently swishing and swaying at all times, constant birdsong and buzzing. The sounds alone were wonderful.

We ate in swimming costumes on the deck, had afternoon swims, and family boat paddles. There was fishing, journalling, reading and fire pit lounging.

We were there for 3 days, after a really busy month, and it was so desperately needed. It had such a magical affect on my mood. When I returned I realised how much more relaxed I felt. I wasn't holding tension in my shoulders and chest and felt generally calmer. The difference was amazing, actually! I felt like I really and truly exhaled in those 3 days by the lake.

Let me show you around.

I have spent an inordinate amount of time in my life, imagining my dream house. My list is really quite detailed, and I have loved asking my instagram followers for the things on their dream list. I appreciated all the comments that involved less obvious things like plants, window seats, books and sheds!

One of the things on my list was having tumbling red geraniums bursting out of my window boxes. I have just always loved them, I think since seeing them on holidays in France, Venice and Croatia when I was younger.

The Summer Solstice is this Thursday and I am looking forward to celebrating the calendrical mid point of the year, the longest day and the middle of the summer. This date has had huge significance for thousands of years. It is traditionally a time to celebrate light and sun, fire and warmth, growth and prosperity, fertility and abundance. I am currently planning a Solstice celebration for my kids (mostly new books, a nice meal, and making our summer list) and am having a few friends over in the evening to light the fire pit, eat snacks and talk. I don't have the capacity for big celebrations this year (busyness, tiredness, etc etc) but I do want to see my friends, fill my house with flowers, and mark it in a simple way.

One of the things that swung our decision to move to this house was the potential to turn the biggest bedroom upstairs into a studio space. We had made peace with living in a small house and the discipline that went along with that and were happy in our little space. However when the opportunity came up to move to this house we jumped at it; mostly because of the potential studio space upstairs and room enough downstairs to host workshops. For the first few months, the studio was our dumping room, then it was hastily cleared (/things shoved in corners) to work in. Over the last 6 weeks we made the time to properly sort through it, and make it into the functional beautiful space we have been dreaming about.

My design brief (to myself!) was to create a functional yet beautiful space mixing warm vintage and sleek minimal. We kept the base colour pallet simple: Grey and White, with forest Green as the accent colour. I wanted to mix vintage furniture with contemporary White furniture, plants and art.

​June June June! Strawberries and Peonies and Elderflower! Sandals and barbecues and freckles! June has been a sweet, warm month for us Brits so far and I am soaking it up. This month I am committing to rest after a weird heart health scare last month (anxiety related heart palpitations - fun times!) We have booked a last minute mini break next week, and I have been making more time for small moments of rest in my daily life too. Enjoying the sun in the garden, outside cups of coffee, taking myself off for naps and little lie-downs, watching Netflix in the evenings for the first time in months.

June is the midpoint of 2018, how has it been for you?! This month, whilst on holiday,I will be looking back at my January book and assessing where we are against where we thought we would be. I will try to share a blog post about it this month, a part 2 of the January Book, if you like (in case you don’t know what i’m talking about, The January Book is the planning and review process we go through each year)

10 Wonderful Things to Make, Do and Celebrate in June!

I have been talking about my journalling process a lot on instagram stories (my favourite place to be!) and have been promising a fuller blog post about it for ages. I have also had lots of questions about the process so I’ve put my thoughts into a fuller blog post. First things first...

My history of journalling:

I have written in a diary (as I used to call it) for as long as I can remember. I have some of them still (some I have burned!) including the one I wrote in aged 10, the year my mum died, which I wrote about. Oh how my heart breaks for 10 year old me.

I am naturally a high energy person. I am passionate, feel things really deeply and am also very empathetic. The flip side of this is being pretty anxious, overwhelmed by other people’s feelings, and having a very ‘buzzy’ mind. But writing about it has always been immeasurably helpful. As soon as the words are out of my head (written or spoken), I feel calmer. Writing down and processing my feelings in a non judgemental, totally unbiased blank book been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. It's one of the best ways I can support my mental health, and it's free!

On Friday I was very excited to head to London as a guest of St Martin’s Courtyard and Mercer Walk, a stones throw away from Covent Garden, to celebrate London In Bloom as part of this week’s Chelsea Flower Show. From flower arranging classes at the Academy of Flowers, fragrant scents from The White Company, floral cocktails at Dalla Terra and dreamy craft supplies from London Graphic Centre, St Martin’s Courtyard and Mercer Walk are in one of my favourite areas of London to visit. I’ll show you my highlights below. For those of us who are unable to make it to Chelsea this week, I thought i'd include some also take home floral tips too. As usual, all links will be at the end of the blog post.

I used to walk through Covent garden every day for years when I lived in London, but I haven’t been back in the city, for anything other than a really busy styling job with no downtime, for months and months. I also haven’t taken myself shopping for pleasure, in over a year! So spending a rare morning shopping making and drinking cocktails was flipping lovely.

I was delighted when, a few short wintry months ago, a beautiful invitation landed on my doorstep asking my attendance to a retreat by Canopy and Stars and Wknd:In at Elmley Nature Reserve. My yes didn’t take long to form; the mix of gorgeous ethical brands, attendees and location (hello favourite place) were all very exciting! I also styled the evening dinner in the barn so I was there in a mixed work/play capacity. I try to use my platform to support ethical independent brands, and a conscious way of life, and the brands that Olivia had brought together were so inspiring.

I have been so excited to share photo’s from this dreamy event for weeks. Everything was just so beautiful, from the flowers (brought by me, so of course I would say that!) to the food, and the thoughtful sessions we attended. I learned so much about photography over these few days. I loved having chance to really play with my camera settings, and be able to ask the help of some incredible photographers too. I also enjoyed being there with a crowd of women who get similarly excited about magnolia blooms and beautiful decaying textures and the light in a huge black barn. Oh, the light! It was wintry and low and directional and I couldn’t stop shooting it. Anyway, I have finally had time to edit and upload my photo's, and pull together some information about the sessions we attended.

I have been thinking recently about the importance of making space for ourselves, both figuratively and literally.

I have recently swum the rather choppy waters of sleep deprivation, crippling anxiety, and a hiccup in our finances. Quite the toxic combination, and one that has resulted in vivid (and sometimes hilarious) anxiety dreams; think Game of Thrones style peril, but wearing only flip-flops and undies. I realised in the middle of the squall, deep in the doldrums of February, that I was lacking space from which to gain some perspective. Lacking time to think about things rationally, time to create a plan. But when I finally made some proper time to sit with my journal and just think, I gained clarity and such a feeling of lightness.

It became apparent that sleep was the single biggest thing I needed. So I created a space for it. I made space mentally by stopping all work and blogging in the evenings. Other than half an hour of essential housework which I did with Dave, I went to bed, wrote in my journal, and slept, every night for weeks. We also night-weaned Auden and Dave took over the night parenting.

I created a literal space in which to sleep; a simple mattress on the floor of my study, away from Auden and Dave. I plumped and zjujed it and threw some favourite cushions and blankets on it. I put a lamp on an apple crate and put some magazines and favourite books on there- a symbolic act- even if I have only managed a few pages at a time! I gathered my favourite essential oils and put some flowers in a jar. I created a sleep retreat. It’s very simple but it makes me smile when I walk past the room; I literally silently thank it for giving me a space to rest and sleep.

We need space.

We need space to think.

And we also need spaces in which to ‘be us’ in, to feel held in.

HURRAY, MAY! Warmer weather has been unusually late in the UK but it’s here and to that we say YES. I have been sitting in my garden every morning and soaking up all the magic Spring energy. The leaves on the trees are entering adolescence and are a joy to watch with all their bounding growth. The ground is coursing with life, and the insects and birds are milling about happily, in increasing numbers.

I have been focussing on internalising and expressing this burst of magnificent creativity and energy, after a very long introspective winter. The sun just feels like the most welcome, healing blessing at the moment and I am turning my face toward it at every opportunity. #suntherapy

Spring weather is historically much more temperate and reliable than summers fickle effort, so remember to get outside and enjoy it as much as possible!

I am writing this whilst shivering at my desk. The wooly layers are on and the wind is quite literally howling at me. through the cracks in the window frame- and somehow managing to pierce through my layers. Brrr. Just last week we had 30 degree sunshine; our little island is truly an eccentric one, isn't it? I actually quite like it's weird weather habits (infuriatingly true to the #embracingtheseasons brand, I realise!). Anyway: it's hard to believe, but May Day is tomorrow! This will be the 7th year I make May posies for friends to celebrate Spring; an idea I originally learned about on Lou's blog, many moons ago. The first day of May was once a cause for a big celebration. It's the official first day of summer according to the gaelic festival, Beltane, and featured May pole dancing, a May Queen, village fetes and May posies amongst other things. The 1st May is also Labour day; a day to mark labour rights, and to me these things work well together in a weird way. I like marking both.