I mentioned in a previous post that vision boards were OUT for me, that ‘mood boards’ were the only way forward for positive visual guidance. I also realised that the vision boards I’d made were almost all more mood in tone anyway so.. this isn’t really a huge change but the introduction of a seasonal switch up has been a recent thing I’ve really enjoyed.
This is an easy tick off my 40by40 list because I was doing it anyway but I added it so I’d have to share it with you.
Think of this like styling for your life. If you’re looking for wardrobe inspo, you might save a folder of outfits you like. If you’re decorating, you might be screen grabbing from insta home accounts on the reg. This is collecting images that inspire you or represent how you want to feel. Doing this at the start of each season is a great way to set the tone for the next quarter and refresh your excitement for your day to day.
This doesn’t have to mean shopping or spending any money at all. It’s not about changing yourself or your home. It’s more about choosing areas to focus on, maybe creating a colour palette.. it’s more a creative to do list, if you will. For me, it’s just more stimulating than words on a page and I’m more likely to be motivated by it.
So what’s on the board for Spring?
Pops of Pink
It doesn’t have to be pink but I’d like to make the effort to inject more colour in to my day to day. Whether it be makeup or clothing, dopamine dressing is on the rise for a reason and after the coldest winter in memory, I will try anything to boost my mood.
Bright Workspaces
Again, the winter has been DARK for me and I’m ready for some LIGHT. I’ve been reorganising my office and I plan to shuffle the candle studio so that I have a brighter work space to spend my time in. I am craving light mornings and warm afternoons in a way I never have.
Garden Prep
Every Spring I get ahead of myself and clear out the garden too early. I start cleaning up and planting and then it inevitably snows or rains for the next 28 days. This year, I will plan a little less haphazardly and make sure I get outside when I can. I want to plant some more flowers from seed this year and commit to keeping the garden tidy as an almost (forced?) outdoor therapy. If left to my own devices I could go weeks without ever setting a foot outside, even though I know I need to see sunlight to have a chance at a lighter mood. All of my work and hobbies are indoor so I need to find a reason to leave the house.
Business
We’ve had a little more time ‘off’ than intended but candles are a seasonal business and I think we were both a little burned out (no pun intended) after the Christmas rush. Between that and a lack of supplies, we had a couple of very low effort months but we have an in person market on Saturday so we’re going to use that time to reset and make plans for the year. I want to get our social media/marketing plan in place and be less adhoc in 2025.
Style Content
This kind of fits in with the first but it’s more specific and quite different to what I’ve traditionally posted. I want to put more time in to sharing outfits and realistic styling on someone pushing 40, who lives a regular life in the North of England. Someone with an actual day job rather than a big city influencer is who I’m looking to follow but they’re few and far between so I want to be that for other people looking for that.
They’re kind of mini goals to refresh my enthusiasm for keeping on track but more than anything, it’s a visual representation of a VIBE. It’s a feeling.
So what else has been going on this week?
Well.. we had the Great Flood of 2025, which I wrote about here and features in this vlog
That was fairly terrible and we still don’t have lights downstairs but the wifi is back and the sockets are working so.. could have been much worse and we’re keeping our fingers crossed that the circuits will dry out eventually. It’s only been a week.
I’ve been experimenting with how many meals I can make from one chicken (both as a cost saving exercise and trying to cook more) so expect something about that soon because it’s becoming somewhat of a fixation.
I wrote something about my relationship with makeup and my face for Wednesday but I put it in video form - I was just in the mood - and the response has been really surprising. It’s more and more common for people to forgo makeup in their daily lives now and I truly thank lockdown for that. I think it’s helped me accept myself and my face at a time when I may have been more critical of my ageing appearance.
I’ve been trying to avoid social media this week because every time I open instagram I’m pulled into comment sections I wish I hadn’t seen and reminded that there are people who truly do not care for anyones rights but their own. It’s an ongoing terrible place to be right now and yet it’s how I earn a portion of my regular income.
I was talking to my kids about family channels recently. I didn’t post them much as kids and made most of the vlogs when they were young private a long time ago because I recognised that it wasn’t a great idea to put them online at that kind of volume. They still featured here and there but my vlogs are almost 100% just me because I don’t want to give viewers trolls (let’s be real) unnecessary access to my friends and family.
With this in mind, I talked to my kids, given they’re older now, about family vloggers and asked what they thought. Neither of them had an issue with the general premise. Even when I pointed out the grey area with money and consent.. maybe because it’s so normalised to be online now? but I think I felt the same way 15 years ago. I couldn’t zoom out.. maybe that’s age.
My point being, most adults would agree that family vloggers are not to be supported these days. We don’t want to feed in to a culture that could be exploiting children and so we protest it by avoiding that content - because if we engage with it, we’re no better than they are.
So when social media feels as toxic as it has lately, as bitter and dark (and I recognise this is my timeline, probably not yours) how much of that has to lay with us for sustaining it. Especially those making money through it. I mentioned last week that I’d reset my feed and it’s helped some but not as much I’d have liked. I definitely feel a full instagram detox coming for me. Maybe I should have added that to my list so I had to do it!
Share this post