So…it’s been a while

5 min readJan 3, 2021

In the following paragraph I kinda just wrote what came to heart, I let me words flow and didn’t edit them. I have finally been able to write. Here is an update on where I have been and what I have been doing.

Ok I admit it, I have been in a writing rut. I have spent all of lockdown staring at my screen willing myself to write something, anything, come on just put words in a sensical order. As you may have guessed it didn’t work. During the lockdown I lost the will to write and found that my life was so repetitive that I had no creative drive whatsoever. Sure, we put out a few podcasts and I kept up with Instagram but that is about it. So here we are 2021 and want to catch up, how are you doing? How was your lockdown? Are you ok? I mean really, are you ok? Tell me in the comments below and let’s support one another.

I baked and I gained a few stone.

Well, we left off with me trying to learn how to bake, there were two things that happened here. I can’t honestly say *fingers crossed behind back* that I am a capable baker. I have been making desserts pretty much every week since March and I think I have finally cracked it. I even managed a lemon tart, it has pastry, PASTRY! The other thing that happened was I piled on about 3 stone and became the heaviest I had ever been… now some would blame the baking, I don’t believe that it was the baking, rather it was the wandering hand that kept finding the baking and the lack of will power to stop me from eating it.

I lost a toenail

Around the middle of August I made a terrible mistake. I forgot to close my laptop sleeve, picked up my laptop and let out an almighty scream. It had fallen corner first onto my big toe. At first I thought it was ok but after 30 minutes of hobbling around and the pain only getting worse I took off my tights and found that my nail was black. A few weeks later the whole nail comes off in one go and I end up in A&E with what felt like a balloon attached to my toe. It’s grand now, it’s growing back and doesn’t look too bad, but I did learn my lesson to check and double check that my laptop case is closed. I would not wish that pain on anyone.

We did a podcast

https://www.buzzsprout.com/932293/6261559-s01e05-it-s-hibernation-time-google-feud.mp3?blob_id=30737788&download=true

I won’t say too much about it because I will do a post on this but we added another episode to our podcast which you can find below, you can also find the rest of our episodes on our YouTube channel Graceless Living (Let me know what you think of our podcast and whether you would like to hear more in the comments below).

Slimming World

After I had gained the 3 stone from the constant comfort eating I decided that I would do something about it and I have joined Slimming World. I’ve done things a little differently and so far have lost 2 stone. There is still a fair bit to go but I have been working my way through this for 4 months and it’s coming off slowly but surely. If you want to keep up with my journey I have a Slimming World Instagram account which I update regularly.

Designing

With becoming more involved with Slimming World and Instagram I found myself wanting to design template. I’ve designed a few weight loss trackers and recipe cards, but what I have been enjoying beyond this is designing cross stitch patterns. I have been getting to know and using two softwares to do this MacStitch and PixlematorPro. I will hopefully be able to reveal these soon but for now here are a few of the insta templates that I have been creating.

Books and walking

There are two things that brought me through the final half of last year, that was walking and reading. There were many wonderful forest walks with squirrels and birds ( yes I am still bird watching — Before I start bird watching… ). I loved exploring places close to me and finding new slices of heaven to break away from the “new normal”. I also managed to read 22 books last year and have just published my new list for the year, 21 Books for 2021 reading has really helped me through this pandemic, it’s given my brain a bit of rest time has helped calm me in general. I used to be worried that I would be missing out on something if I was reading during the day but now I would rather turn off the TV, pop on Classic FM and bring out my current book. Blissful.

So, here is the final and most important question. How I feel going into 2021?

I feel hopeful and peaceful. There are many things that I want to do with this year and now we know what we are up against I feel that I can keep going, making the most of every day and learning some new things as I go. Keep a look out for my new year resolutions. They are coming I promise.

I hope that you and yours have a safe and happy new year, wherever it takes you.

Until next time.