Hello, hello!
I (unexpectedly) took such a big break from my blog that the login page didn’t even come up in my search bar at first! I last posted in March, and I haven’t even thought about posting since! To be honest, I’m not sure why I haven’t updated my beloved blog – I’m usually so consistent with it, especially because it’s a platform that I update more for myself than anyone else. I think life just came at me fast for a while there, and although I was busy with work again, Scotland has been in limbo for the last 7 or 8 months, which has meant I haven’t had much to update you on anyway!
It’s been a really strange time, we’ve sort of just been holding our breath waiting for some of the restrictions to lift. We haven’t been able to leave Glasgow since December, and by the time we were allowed to venture out, I was already away filming (more on that soon!) so it feels like the first half of 2021 completely passed me by!
I do have big plans to come back to this blog, but I thought I’d write up a little update post first before I continued on as normal. I’ve been in a bit of a funk with my online life in general, so hopefully blogging again will help to ease me back in to sharing more in general!
01. I feel like I’ve finally caught up on myself after a few months of constantly chasing my tail! It feels like one day I was working myself up to face five months of being stuck in yet another lockdown, and the next it was all go. Even now I’m still getting used to being out and about, seeing people and going to restaurants, bars etc. I keep saying I need to be reintroduced to society because my social skills have taken a beating! We’ve still been trying to keep a low profile, only seeing our usual bubble of friends and not venturing too far from our neighbourhood, but even so, the times where we have been out for lunch or gone to a bar, I’ve felt very ~aware of myself! Is anyone else struggling to get used to being in groups again? It’s a very strange time!
02. The good news is that both Jordie and I are now double vaccinated! What a relief it is to be able to say that. In an unexpected twist of events, we also both caught the virus so it’s been quite an exhausting couple of months. I still don’t feel quite right, and I also didn’t really give myself a break as I had to get ready to leave for filming as soon as I was able (which meant packing, appointments, meetings, planning content and picking outfits all while feeling exhausted!).
I’m trying to factor in some downtime to my days now I’m back, especially the weekends, but it’s hard when everything feels like it’s finally opening up again!
We’ve had some beautiful weather in Scotland lately, probably the longest and most consistent hot spell I can remember, so we’ve been day-tripping to the beach or Loch Lomond to swim and enjoy the sun. Heaven!
03. We managed to film the fourth series of Scotland’s Home Of The Year over the last month or so too, albeit with many restrictions and protocols! In some ways it actually felt tougher than last year, I think because we left to shoot so soon after the last series had ended so there was still a bit of a buzz. It meant we had to go the extra mile to make sure we were keeping to the restrictions. We filmed a lot earlier this year too, we don’t usually shoot until August/September, and due to some delays we had only finished filming the last series in November so it was like no time had passed at all!
It was so good to be back on the road with my SHOTY family, we had a truly incredible team this year and I know the series will be awesome! Even so, it was a long, tiring month on the road and I was very pleased to get home to my own bed and usual routine. It always takes me a few weeks to get some structure in my life after being away for so long but thankfully I’m just about over the post-tour blues now!
04. The other reason why I’ve perhaps not updated this blog so much lately is because the wonderful team at Gatto Web are working on a new design for me! I haven’t had my blog updated in many moons, so I’m excited to tweak the layout a little and add a few new features. I love having my .com as an extension of Instagram – it feels like I can say more and be a bit more candid on here!
05. I’m planning a few flat updates over the coming months too – for a minute there we thought we might have found our dream house (hello, I’m a Rightmove obsessive) so we (okay, Jordie – I was away filming!) quickly did some last minute prep to get our flat ready to sell, and in the end our dream home wasn’t our dream home at all! Still, we managed to get our storm doors painted and tiled and it’s made me want to shake up the rest of the spaces a little too. We’ve lived here a year this month so I think it’s about time I splashed some more paint around and gave the rooms a bit of a makeover! I think I’m going to swap our office and spare room over, which means painting the terracotta colour something a bit softer, and maybe wallpapering one of the rooms. I’d also like to do something to our kitchen because I’m really not the biggest fan of it – but the layout is tricky and I don’t want to put too much money in to it if we don’t plan to stay here much longer! Still, it could be a fun project so we’ll see…
These photos were taken in Yell, a small island off Shetland, as well as the Isle of Lewis and Orkney! We don’t often have time to get photos while filming but I managed a few quick snaps!
06. For a while there, when there was a bit of a lockdown lull, I had so many plans and projects in place. I had time to process what I hoped for the future, and I was planning things that sat alongside my online life – I was writing a lot, creating moodboards for possible collections and thinking about the bigger picture. Now things have picked up again, with the show airing and shooting again, work projects taking over and travel becoming a possibility, it feels like I’ve shelved all my plans! I don’t feel too conflicted about it, I think there’s still time to work on something quietly on the side, but it’s funny how different I feel to a year ago or even six months ago! Is anyone else feeling the same? I like to set myself so many goals but I’m never too bothered about the timeline, if something is meant to be, I’m sure it’ll fall in to place eventually…
07. Hopefully this means I’ll be a bit more present on here now I’m home and life is getting more interesting again. I miss parts of my old life (especially the travel!) but I also like the slower pace of this new way of living, I’m sure we can all relate to that! I hope everyone is looking after themselves and not giving in to the pressure of going back to big plans and a full diary. I’m trying to take it one day at a time, making sure I have something (even just a lunch date or a trip out of the city) to look forward to.
It’s good to be back and get everything down in a blog post, it was a bit of a brain dump really but I know you always appreciate my honesty! While I have you, is there anything you’d like to see more of on this blog?
