Taking Stock in November

by | Nov 1, 2017 | Creative Living | 0 comments

Taking Stock in November

Hey Internet, long time no speak!

So long in fact, I haven’t shared any photos from our summer holiday in Dorset, hence the very out-of-season image accompanying this post.

I didn’t intend to take a two month break from blogging, but I guess that’s just the way life goes sometimes. I’ve been pretty busy with work since the end of the summer, so you could say I’ve been channelling my creative energy elsewhere.

However, I’ve missed posting here on-the-regular and I desperately want to return to my old rhythm and routine. Inspired by one of my favourite reads, Practicing Simplicity, I’m going to ease myself back into blogging with Meet Me At Mike’s wonderful writing exercise, Taking Stock.

Not only does it feel good to ponder and respond to each prompt, it’s also an easy way to fill you in on what I’ve been up to lately…

  • Making : Plans for the weekend. It’s probably going to be a lazy one because I think that’s what we need right now.
  • Cooking : The usual, but more and more plant-based meals. We’ll be having Jamie’s Keralan Curry tonight.
  • Drinking : Mostly tea, but sometimes San Pellegrino Lemon and Mint.
  • Reading: The Railway Children by E. Nesbit. I always return to children’s classics during the winter months. They seem to be filled with comfort and warmth.
  • Trawling: The entire Internet for my winter wardrobe. It’s officially sweater weather.
  • Wanting: This Cable-Knit Jumper from Joules.
  • Looking: For the perfect pair of gold hoop earrings.
  • Deciding: Whether or not to have pasta for lunch.
  • Wishing: Cold weather didn’t leave my skin feeling quite so dry.
  • Enjoying: A small pot of M&S almonds I found at the bottom of my handbag.
  • Waiting: For board game night this Friday. We’ve got some friends coming over with their kids. It’s going to be so much fun.
  • Liking: Jane the Virgin on Netflix.
  • Wondering: How soon is too soon when it comes to Christmas.
  • Loving: These Cath Kidston Peter Pan PJs.
  • Pondering: How to manage everything the festive season entails.
  • Listening: To Courage and Spice, Sas Petherick’s podcast for humans with self-doubt.
  • Considering: A new piercing. Nothing too extreme, just a second hole in my ears.
  • Buying: Copper tree decorations from Cox & Cox.
  • Watching: Season 1 of Stranger Things before we binge watch season 2.
  • Hoping: To catch Unrest, a documentary about living with CFS/ME.
  • Marvelling: At how fast this year has flown by. I cannot believe it’s November already.
  • Cringing: At old photos of us dressed in questionable Halloween costumes.
  • Needing: New slippers. I hate having cold toes.
  • Questioning: My addiction to Youtube ‘Clean With Me’ videos. Erica Lee and Love Meg are my current faves.
  • Smelling: My delicious new perfume, Elie Saab Le Parfum.
  • Wearing: All the layers.
  • Noticing: Just how cold it gets in our attic office.
  • Knowing: This month will be hard.
  • Trouble-shooting: Nothing at the moment.
  • Thinking: About feeling ‘grievy’.
  • Admiring: Kate’s coat and scarf combo in this post.
  • Getting: Ready for a cosy evening at home. If it’s going to get dark at 5pm, I’m going to have to find a way to make the best of it.
  • Bookmarking: Lottie’s fabulous post about how to go vegan.
  • Opening: Many, many wedding planning Whatsapp messages from my recently-engaged sister.
  • Closing: This link. Why have they made such a pretty dress backless?!
  • Feeling: Sleepy.
  • Dreaming: Of a holiday abroad. What I wouldn’t give for some winter sun.
  • Hearing: Our neighbour’s sweet baby girl crying next door.
  • Celebrating: A productive day.
  • Pretending: I’m OK with the clocks going back.
  • Embracing: The cold weather. NOT. I’m already counting the days till summer.

What’s new with you?

Love Audrey xxx

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Love Audrey
Taking Stock in November
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May in photos 🤳 1. Finally, some Franky weather. One of the best things about this month has been dusting off my summer dresses and being able to wear sandals ☀️ 2+3. Coronation weekend. So many thoughts 💭 But the food was good! I made a vegan version of my mum’s famous coronation chicken and it was delicious. 4. Jesse staying upbeat during yet another trip to hospital. That steroid buzz though. IYKYK. 5. Some of the food served at the first meeting of Bristol Cook Book Club since 2020. It felt so good to get this going again. I can’t wait for our next feast! 6. Me among the cow parsley, snapped by Jesse. 7. I’ve been thinking about creativity a lot this month while working through the ‘The Artist’s Way’. 8. Breakfast outside. 9. {Still} scrapbooking December. Fingers crossed I can finally wrap up this project in June 🤞🏻 10. Izzy’s final show at The Tobacco Factory. After tonight, she’ll be done with college {and compulsory education} forever 🤯 We packed a lot into this month. Enough to fill two carousels! This might explain why I’m so tired! I’m looking forward to June though. Everything’s better when the sun shines ✨
@_charlieswift has been raving about ‘The Artist’s Way’ by Julia Cameron for years. I finally caved, ordered the book and agreed to work through the course with her and some other artists. The book focuses on ‘guiding you through the process of recovering your creative self’ to ‘help you unleash your inner artist’. It’s early days {I’ve only read as far as week two and I haven’t even started my morning pages yet - IYKYK}, but I’m enjoying the process so far. Today I took myself on my first Artist Date - ‘a block of time… especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist’. I decided to treat myself to a solo cinema trip to see ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.’ The film was brilliant and taking time out midweek to do something just for me felt… kind of naughty? And fun! It definitely filled my creative well {again, IYKYK}. Have you read ‘The Artist’s Way?’ Where would you go on a date with your inner artist?!
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Franky weather ☀️🌅🔆🌻✨ That’s it, that’s the caption.
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April in photos 🤳 1. Our trip to London over Easter was a definite highlight this month. Here’s the obligatory ‘flowers outside Liberty’ shot. 2. Finally! Some sunshine! More of the same please, Mr. Weatherman ☀️ 3. Dressed for a day of sightseeing in my new favourite pink jacket. It’s Boden and I bought it in the sale 💖 4 + 5. Scenes from a trip to the big Waterstones in Piccadilly. This poem by @charlycox1 floored me. Crying in a bookshop. Not awkward at all. 6. I was proud of these steps, so I’m posting them here for posterity 🚶🏼‍♀️🥄 7. The Easter holidays also featured lots of lazy days 🎮😴 8. We bought a nutribullet and I’m officially in my smoothie era. 9 + 10. Dinner and drinks at @thecoconuttreeuk with our IzzyBee. Taking your daughter out for cocktails is a season of parenting I’m very much enjoying. Not pictured: a family funeral and the chest infection I’m still getting over 🤒 How was April for you?
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Easter weekend in my hometown 💃🏼 No trip to London is long enough for me to see all the people and do all the things I want to do while I’m there, but we always manage to pack a lot in. It’s 17 years since I moved away, but somehow it still feels like coming home. Here’s some of what we got up to… 1. Being tourists. 2. Shopping at Westfield. 3 + 4. Hanging out and eating at Southbank. 5. Refuelling in Chinatown. 6. Enjoying the big Waterstones in Piccadilly. 7. Admiring the spring flowers outside Liberty. 8. Visiting the Imperial War Museum for the first time since I was a child. 9 + 10. Seeing Elton John at the O2 with my mama 👓🎹🎤🪩✨ I hope you’ve managed to enjoy the long weekend, whatever you’ve been up to! That sunshine though!☀️🤩
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March in Photos 🤳 1. How it’s going… 2. How it started. 3. My in-laws were involved in a terrible car crash earlier this month. They’re very, very lucky to be alive. It was a horrible time, so I’m grateful there was a happy ending. 4. My husband sent me this photo of a photo from our wedding day while he was visiting his parents. Turns out his mum carries it in her purse ❤️ 5. While I was waiting for news from Derby, I took myself out on a walk and ended up in @thesmallcitybookshop. It was like my feet knew books would bring me comfort. 6 + 7. Just spring things. 8. Vegan lemon and almond loaf and a green smoothie from @theorchardcoffeeco 🍰🌱 9. I bought it 🌸 10. Other music? I don’t know her. How’s March been treating you? Personally, I’m ready for April and spring PROPER!
There is a past version of me who cannot believe I get to do this every day 💭📝💻 She’s around 12yrs old, working on her first novel in a little ring-bound notebook, dreaming up stories, devouring books and trying to imagine a life filled with words. Everything that makes my business possible now barely existed then, so even she’d struggle to conjure up an image of what my life looks like now. I’m grateful that I get to do this, for the clients who trust me to find the right words, and I’m grateful to that past version of me too. Without her, I wouldn’t be here now. Sure, she’d probably want me to hurry up and get back to that novel, but I think she’d be proud of the business I’ve built and the way I’ve managed to create a life filled with words. What did you want to be when you grew up?
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Lockdown memories, three years on 🦠⏳ Very little of my life made it on to the grid in 2020, so this is the first time I’ve shared these images. They’re all from the first lockdown and most were taken between March and May. I think the arrival of spring will always remind me of this strange time. When Boris made his announcement on the 23rd, our children had already been out of school for a week. Jesse, who was initially deemed clinically vulnerable, spent the next 6m shielding. He left primary school one day not realising he’d never go back. He did not see another child his age until the summer. Like many kids and adults in the same situation, the experience had a deep impact on his mental health. Izzy was in Year 10. As the pandemic raged on, she did most of her GCSEs online, celebrated her 16th birthday via Netflix Party, finished secondary school with minimal fanfare and missed out on prom completely. When she finally had a normal night out with friends in the winter of 2021, I cried quietly in the kitchen when she got home. Seeing her so happy and animated after a simple ‘cheeky Nando’s’ only highlighted everything she’d missed out on in the previous 18 months. It’s easy to forget how little we knew about the virus in the beginning and how frightening that was for everyone involved. We had it easy in comparison to some, but I still marvel at the way we coped with it all. The way we isolated, home schooled and kept our businesses ticking over. My goodness it was hard! As my children often joke, I hope we’re done living through major historical events for a while.