Life Update Summer Edition

Hey friends! Just wanted to give you a little life update, because I feel like it’s been a while and we’ve just made a big changefor the next few weeks/months...!

We decided to join both of our families in the South of France for the whole summer. We drove down all in one go and we’ve been with my parents for a few days already. We don’t even have a return crossing booked, we decided we’re going to be down here for the foreseeable future (most likely until some point in September), both working remotely and seeing how things go. We feel incredibly lucky to be able to be here and be reunited with our families again. Feeling especially lucky to be able to see my grandmother who has been unwell in the past few months (unrelated to covid) and also feeling so grateful for my job which allows me to work from wherever I am as long as I have an internet connection (I always coach clients remotely via Skype, and my content creation clients have been so supportive of me being in France). Also feeling very grateful for Michael’s company who have been incredibly flexible and supportive (he’s been working remotely anyway for the past 4 months since lockdown in early March).

It’s been a wild ride, hasn’t it?! I will never take any of it for granted. The amount of gratitude I have every day is immense, these past few months have definitely changed us. It’s changed our perspective on a lot and made us realise how much we had taken for granted in the past, and how precious life is.

Waking up to nature every morning, being healthy and surrounded by our loved ones…that’s what life is all about! Last time we were able to be down here for such an extended period of time was when we were both still at university!! (and we weren’t together then, just friends..!) So it still feels incredibly strange that we’ll be here for so long… I still feel like we’re only going to be here for a couple of weeks like we normally do, but instead, we’ve both settled into our work routine during the week, got ourselves a little desk area, and we’re taking each day as it comes.

Here we live in the middle of nowhere, we have access to the nearest town for food shopping, but most of our time is spent at home, going for long walks and hikes in the mountains, swimming in the nearest rivers and lakes and picking lots of our food directly from the garden (dad has planted a whopping 60 tomato plants this year…. so we’re about to be submerged in all things tomatoes, I’ll show you the garden very soon).

We luckily have our best friends looking after our flat and plant babies in London (praying there won’t be too many casualties when we come back haha!)

So get ready for lots of France stories and blog posts, I’ll also be shooting most of my upcoming recipe e-book here so I’ve got lots going on!

Recently I felt like I’ve been holding off sharing too much on social media and on here, and I’ve felt like keeping things close and to ourselves. I think it’s mostly because I have felt like things online recently have been tense (and I’m not talking about the incredible shakeup we all needed supporting the Black Lives Matter movement).

I’m talking about petty mean comments on just about everything and anything. I haven’t had to deal with it much, but I know some friends have and a lot of people I follow have shared how disheartening it has been recently. Which I know is mostly to do with how scary and strange these times have been, and when people feel angry, scared, lonely, unloved and isolated, their best side doesn’t always come out.

But we all need to remember that what people choose to share on social media is only a tiny fraction of their life and that as much as we think and believe we know the whole story, we just don’t. We must remember to always give people the benefit of the doubt, that we know so little about someone’s life and we shouldn’t make assumptions, we must hold ourselves accountable, and most importantly we must treat each other with kindness and an open heart. Discussions are welcome, constructive criticism when said kindly is welcome - I would never say anything to anyone online I wouldn’t be proud or capable of saying to their face in person - truly. Being mean and rude for no particular reason is the easy route, it’s the cowardly route. We all have different values, different opinions, different lifestyles, and I really believe we need to celebrate our differences, instead of tearing each other down.

I’d love to know what your thoughts are on this and if you’ve felt like this too?

I definitely don’t want to stop sharing, I love sharing snippets of my life with you guys, it’s such a beautiful creative outlet for me, I think I’ve just gone through a phase. Being highly sensitive doesn’t help either and I often feel I need to protect myself. Maybe I just need to toughen up, or maybe I just need to learn to let go, but these things are easier said than done. People can get incredibly personal and as always you hear the one mean comment louder than the 100 positive ones. I truly believe we all crave connection with one another, people crave authenticity, and transparency more than ever - I know I do.

Below I wanted to share a few accounts and women that have been an incredible source of inspiration, and have made me feel uplifted and teach me so much - maybe you’ll like to follow along too :

- Sophie Thompson- Montana Lower- Yoli & Otis- Oh Dear Drea- Rudy Jude- Haile Thomas- Kelly Vittengl- Geneva Vanderseil- Ronni Nicole- Chris Loves Julia- Erin Ireland- Athena Calderone- Elise Cook

On that note, I am sending you all so much love. Please let me know what you’d like to see from me from out here in the South of France! I am off to start cooking a feast for dinner, I’ll be sure to start sharing more cooking stories and everyday life snippets very soon. Have a beautiful evening!