Life Lately – January 2022

Well here we are, getting onto almost half way through January and I’m only just getting time to wish you a Happy New Year. I thought today we’d have a little catch up for what’s been happening in 2o22 and my loose plans on how to carry my blog forward into this year.

“Have you stopped blogging?”

A recurring question from a few friends and long term readers recently – I guess the answer was “accidentally, yes”. Last year I really enjoyed life, I focused on getting my house decorated and finished, I met an amazing person unexpectedly and we into a new relationship, I spent a lot of time with friends and family and I really threw myself into my job and worked really, really hard. So blogging kind of took a little bit of a back seat – I think blogging used to be more of a tool for escapism for me – as it was a way to distract myself from home and work issues. Whilst I still love the beauty industry, I now work in it and I guess a little bit I’m feeling a bit less passionate about talking about it in my own time as I spend a lot of time talking about it in the day.

For a long time I’ve wanted to pivot my blog into my other interests, and now maybe this is the time to do so. I do think I’m never going to be back to blogging 3/4/5 times a week, but I do still have a passion for writing as a creative outlet and maybe the shift is needed to talk about other things too. That being said I do have a stack of mascaras I’m wanting to talk about, a new perfume I want to review and a pile of shiny eyeshadows I want to play with and take photos of looks with, I just need to get back into that rhythm of taking pictures as I do!

Blogging is something that I’ve always enjoyed more in summer – it’s easy to snap a photo at most times of day. I’m so stacked during the day working and busy most weekends finding time to take pictures is difficult at the moment.

The Realisation That I’m a Low Level Extrovert

For the most part I am in a way better place than I was a year ago etc, my brain is able to rationalise emotions better and know that’s a trigger of fear because of X, Y or Z, but I am still struggling with the adjustment of “living alone” – my partner is here a fair bit with me, but on the nights where I’m alone, I can find it really hard and don’t get much pleasure in my own company.

Two major thing I’ve learnt about myself is that I a) have quite a caring nature, I want something to look after (probably explains the five pets and 60 house plants), I like being someone who gets up to get people a drink etc and b) I get my energy from being around people I care about.

After the intense socialisation period of Christmas, the evenings that I’ve been alone have been really hard – I’ve had periods where I’m in tears as I just d0n’t know what to do with myself and can’t find anything that seems to entertain or distract me, it’s been like an extreme comedown from the things that give me my “charge” in energy and I’ve really been struggling to adjust to time alone again. In lockdowns early last year I adjusted okay, maybe as it felt more forced or because everything that was going on I just needed time to process, but I’ve never lived alone at any point in my life and I’ll admit I just don’t enjoy it and I’m having a really hard time with it.

I’ve had people tell me “I’m so lucky”, “I’d kill for some time alone” – and whilst it comes from a place of intent, it doesn’t help, I don’t feel “lucky” in that respect and often in those moments I feel pretty lost. I don’t have many friends who are single and those who are don’t live at home or live with a friend – so I don’t really have someone who gets actually what it’s like to live by and rely on yourself only.

Same House, New Wheels

Undoubtedly one of the biggest stressors and saps of my time from August to December was the negotiation of buying my house out fully, the negotiations were pretty stressful and ended up having to agree to things I thought were disgusting and unfair just to be able to be able to move on with my life and not have it drag out another year. However, on the 23rd December – I completed on the house and got to wake up on Christmas Eve in my home knowing that I felt properly safe here for the first time in almost 2 years.

I have big plans upcoming in the house including a new ensuite and finishing the kitchen makeover that started almost 2 years ago that had to be paused, but I’m getting a lot of fun out of starting being able to properly plan the ensuite.

I had planned to get a new car sometime this year, but as I was on the way to the garage to get an issue fixed with the Apple Carplay functionality in my car, the garage rang me to tell me they had a surprise delivery of the car I wanted – it felt like fate and within 3 days I’d sold and bought the new one and so far, I couldn’t be happier!

Cats, Cats and More Cats

In October 2021, I got my first cat and my partner has been a thoroughly bad influence on not talking me getting two more since we’ve been together. So it’s a bit of a crazy house here, two dogs, three cats but we bloody love them and we love a night at home with our little petting zoo. The two newest kittens (Pam and Stanley) are settling in well since we got them in September and October, and are starting to rule the roost a little.

And there we are, that covers everything that’s happened in life lately. I have plans to round up my empties from the year, report in on my project pan etc (again, photos are an issue!). But I’ll be back with content over the next few weeks *I hope!*.

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