HELLO 2022!

Hello everyone and Happy New Year- granted we’re already on week two BUT I think it’s still a valid thing to wish you all, no?
I hope you’re all feeling well rested and refreshed after some time off over the festive period. I know I am, despite contracting the dreaded Covid and despite Christmas not going exaaaactly the way we’d planned it to.
We made the most of it regardless and had the most beautiful Christmas together and made up for a quiet Christmas with a belter of a new year out in the countryside.

I decided I wasn’t quite ready to get back to it last week and took an extra week off to just be with my little girl and to enjoy a little more family time whilst things are quiet. For only the second time since my career as a content creator began around 9 years ago (wow!) I’m choosing to embrace the quiet of January and February as I know things are bound to kick off again at full speed come spring. I’ve always loved being busy and being able to throw myself into work but since I was 8 months pregnant last January and, this January I have my beautiful baby girl here with us, I’ve been able to see the beauty in taking things at a much slower pace and to finally take on the quiet time, knowing that it won’t last forever. I know it’s a huge perk of being self employed so for once I’m going to enjoy that perk and take each week as it comes and enjoy some time with my special girl before she turns ONE NEXT MONTH!!!!

I thought I’d take some time, mainly to be a little self indulgent and to outline some of my hopes and plans for the year ahead. I always like to do this and I think this year it will particularly do me good to write this down, since I’m taking the start of the year at a much slower pace.

Nothing ground breaking but a handful of things I would like to achieve before the end of the year that I hope might inspire you too.

READ MORE
Typically, I have added read more to my list of yearly goals… What a cliche! Since having Goldie I’ve not had much free time to spend reading and I really, truly miss it. I’ve read a couple of parenting books and of course I’ve read Spot the Dog and Elmer the Elephant countless times BUT I only managed to read one book for myself from February onwards. This year I’d like to add just a couple more as I absolutely LOVE to read and it’s something that makes me feel really great when I do.

DECORATE OUR ROOM
I’m going to tackle decorating our bedroom this year as we’ve never really given it the attention it deserves, just a quick lick on paint during lockdown one. And whilst I love our room (when it’s tidy) it doesn’t really feel like us. And as I spent sooo much time in it last year, what with having a newborn, breastfeeding and of course the countless early mornings and relentless lockdown days, I decided that it needed to feel a little more special and a whole lot more luxurious.
I’d like to add some colour, some panelling and some wallpaper to our space since I’m SO in love with Goldie’s bedroom and our newly decorated spare room which you can take a peek of here. I’m hoping to get this boxed off relatively soon so if you have any fabulous wallpaper brands up your sleeve OR any great inspo pages then please do send them my way.

RENOVATE BATHROOM
I think I mentioned this last year but I am desperate to renovate our bathroom! We planned to kick this off last year but with a baby who naps like clockwork every single day, we didn’t think it would work for us and would be much too disruptive when we had a good thing going on.
We planned to hold off until spring 2022 when Goldie was most likely not napping quite so much and we could get out during the day a lot more in the milder weather, perhaps even taking some trips in the camper van whilst the renovation takes place, that would be beyond fab.

This goal for 2022 is the most daunting for me as it’s such a huge job. I’ve had countless nights tossing and turning fretting over it, but it’s something I would really like to get done as I know it will benefit us so much in the long run! Wish us luck.

TRAVEL IN THE CAMPER VAN
As mentioned above, I would love to get out in our camper van as much as possible this year as we didn’t get to enjoy it half as much as we had planned to in 2021.
If you didn't know, we bought and renovated a 1970s camper van last year, but sadly the transformation went on for much longer than we had originally planned for so we only got one trip out of it and in October nonetheless.
However, this year will be our year for getting on the road and enjoying our van to the full! Watch this space and if you’d like to see the renovation, watch this video here.

GET ABROAD
It’s been over two years since I saw another country and I am ABSOLUTELY ITCHING to get away again. We have a summer holiday planned which I am so excited about and praying to the holiday lords above that it will happen! I’m excited to take Goldie away and to experience all those beautiful holiday firsts with her, I just love seeing the world through her big blue eyes.

ONWARDS & UPWARDS FOR SATURDAY
I have so many plans in my head for Saturday By Megan Ellaby but at the moment I feel so overwhelmed by it all. I’m planning on taking this year one step at a time when it comes to Saturday and not to try and do it all at once… In theory! I’d love to find even more time to design, I really adore coming up with prints and with colour combinations so thats a big one for me. In fact I’ve booked out an afternoon tomorrow where I plan to sit and design on my iPad and I’m really looking forward to it! I’m excited to get my mojo back again.

I’d also love to eventually find an office space for Saturday but I don’t think it’s overly essential just yet but hopefully at some point this year it will come to fruition. When the office space comes along I’ll then expand the team which is a lovely thought. Having coworkers again gives me all the excitable feels.

BE KIND TO MYSELF AND REVEL IN THE QUIET
This is something that being a mother has really forced me to do. It’s allowed me to step away from work, to be fully focused on Goldie and to not beat myself up if I’m not working 24/7. George and I are so lucky that we are both self employed and are able to be flexible and juggle parenting with work and with family time too. I feel so so lucky about that.
However, it doesn’t mean it’s always easy and I have my fair share of low moments when I feel like I haven’t achieved anything, I’m frittering away the days and I still get moments of intense imposter syndrome from time to time. But I’m vowing to be kinder to myself and to remember that I have achieved something in a day even if it’s simply keeping my daughter fed and happy, that’s the most important thing after all.

BLOG MORE! TIKTOK MORE! TALK MORE!
And finally for some work related goals and probably the most self explanatory of the bunch. I’d like to find more time to write here on my blog, I want to throw my all into creating video content for TikTok which I LOVE! And I’d love to find the confidence to talk more on Instagram stories as I get asked to do this all the time! I lost my confidence back in 2020 but I’m feeling so strong again (for now) so I think I’d like to chit chat, face to face with you all again… Watch this space.

Thanks so much for reading this and PLEASE if you have anything you’d like to see more of from me, any interior recommendations, places to visit in the camper van this spring/summer or any questions, do let me know in the comments below.

Lots of love

x M