What I've Been Up To

I’m going to be completely honest and admit that overall I haven’t really been that productive lately and my days certainly haven't been spent doing a whole lot. I haven’t been feeling that well for the past few days either but even before that I still feel as though I haven’t actually been doing a whole lot. But that's completely fine. We should really just be doing the things that we want - as well as what we need - in this time rather than trying to force productivity onto ourselves. I feel as though our society has created this constant need for busyness or a sense that we need to fill our days otherwise they're "wasted", which can often leave us feeling guilty for not doing something every single day. 

Anyway, mini tangent aside (maybe that's a topic for another blog post😄),  for today’s blog post I thought I’d talk about some of the things that I have been doing recently - more specifically, things that I perhaps wouldn’t have otherwise been doing at this time if things were "normal". 

BIKE RIDES

The weather has been unusually nice for the past few weeks which I'm so grateful for. I'm also grateful to live near lots of little country roads (because I don't like riding my bike on main roads😄). Recently I've been going on bike rides with my family as it's given us all something more to do rather than stay cooped up in the house. On one of our bike rides, we went on a route that took us through a wind-farm. I've lived in this area for over 19 years and I had never been to the wind-farm; didn't even know it was there in fact, despite it being practically on my doorstep. It was the best place to cycle through - there were no other people/cars around and, on particularly sunny and warm days, it feels almost like being in another country.

BULLET JOURNALING

Near the beginning of the lockdown, my brother had the idea to get a bullet journal and some fine tipped pens and I jumped on the bandwagon and joined him. Bullet journals can be used in a number of different ways and so far I have been using mines to take note of my favourite books/movies/TV shows or to draw things that make me happy. It's almost like a visual way to express the sorts of things I blog about. I've found that it's quite a nice way to pass some time. 

ONLINE QUIZ NIGHTS

Something which I had never done before lockdown was having online quiz nights with friends - it was never something we had ever really thought of (or felt the need to do) before the lockdown happened. I've found that they're a great way to catch up with friends each week as well as to have some fun and friendly competition😄. I'm really missing seeing everyone is "real life" though, FaceTime calls are just not the same.

BAKING

I've been baking a lot with my brother recently, although I think I'm more of the sous baker as my main job is to weigh ingredients out and then pass them over to my brother, which I'm perfectly happy to do😄. We've baked a variety of treats but I think my top three favourites have been peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies, brownies and a digestive biscuit chocolate tray bake (I have no idea what it's actually called😄).

MADE AN INSTAGRAM FOR MY PHOTOGRAPHY

This has been something that I had wanted to do for a few years now but never had the confidence to do so. One day, I just decided "why not? If this is something you want to do, then just go for it!" Plus my brother was really encouraging of the idea so I did it. 

(Ironically, I'm not going to link the account or mention its name as it has my own name in it and I'd still like to continue to keep my blog anonymous for now. Maybe by some chance you'll stumble across the account and not even realise😄).

CREATING BLOG POSTS

I've been on such a blogging kick recently, I feel like I've got lots of ideas at that moment. Usually when I get ideas for my blog, I'll write the posts out and save them up to post throughout the weeks because I never know when I'll have the time to write some more. However, with all this time just now to actually think of ideas I've just been posting whenever (which is why there has been an increase in blog posts lately😄.

 

NAIL ART

Nail art is something that I would have never thought I'd give a go. I used to have really short nails (I was a nail biter, disgusting I know). I managed to grow my nails in 2017 after getting acrylic nails for prom - the woman who did my nails made comments the whole time about how short they were and basically guilted me into making more of an effort to grow them. Getting my nails done wasn't a fun experience but at least from it I managed to grow my nails so silver linings😄. After looking through Pinterest for some inspiration, I attempted some nail art type stuff - I'm not very good, but it's been fun trying.

What are some things you've been doing that you wouldn't have otherwise done before all of this?

Bye for now, xo