Sundaze 131

What a week! September’s steady chill is infiltrating and I couldn’t be happier. I’m not a child of summer, that’s for sure. Mornings comprise of me padding across the carpeted floor and swinging windows closed, boiling the kettle and making that delicious first cup of coffee. They comprise of tantalisingly enjoyable moments curled up in a chair, soaking in fresh daybreak sunlight – even if it is no longer warm – and ruminating upon the evening before and how I can build upon it today. I’ve been steadfast in daily journalling, although I’m definitely not at the stage of doing Morning Pages, and it’s been a game-changer for my focus and productivity.

Work smarter, not harder.

Throughout August, all summer really, I found that my brain was completely scattered. I’d begin one task and then dozily drift off onto another five minutes later. I’d find that, yes, I was getting the job done but I wasn’t getting it done.

Well, this week has been all about changing that.

New work

It’s been slow and steady on the work front this week, just the way I like it. There’s two projects in particular that have been at the forefront and that I’ve been so delighted to work on. With that being said, I can’t help but feel a little disconnect at the moment. Perhaps I need a break or perhaps it’s the tingling feeling that it’s time for change. This fickle freelance gal always has itchy fingers for newness…! In any case, it’s been a week of reflection and trying to fumble my way through a whole tangle of thoughts in this creative head of mine.

The final book haul

… Is it cheating if I mention something I did last Sunday? I write these posts a touch earlier than Sunday, so I suppose not. We stopped off in Herne Hill en route Brixton last weekend and I immediately spotted a darling little bookshop to explore. No sooner had Harvey found me – he was a few steps behind – had I sauntered up to the counter with a mini stack of books in my arms. I really do have a book-buying problem! And so Donna Tart’s A Secret History and Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens came home with me; thanks Herne Hill Books!

If you’re ever in the area, do stop by for a wonderfully curated book selection and the friendliest service. Always great to support independent too.

With that, I’m definitely putting myself on an indefinite book-buying ban. Oh how short lived my library obsession was! Anyway, I have more than enough books to keep me going for at least a few more weeks, and then after that I’ll be planting myself in the local library until further notice. You heard it here first.

On community

This week I’ve been crowdsourcing for an upcoming blog post that I’ve been working on for a few weeks. Back when I started this blog, there was a brilliant community aspect and while I know deep down that’ll never be the case again, I always want to try and encourage some of that feel again. I’m over the moon at the response I had and the feature is shaping up to be something really special!

Aside from that, I’d like to start running link hops on Daisybutter. I think I’ll run them alongside my fortnightly ‘Petite joys’ series. The general idea is that you can enter your blog links to the ‘hop’ and we can all click each other’s posts and support one another. Of course I could start this and have nobody at all add their links, but you can’t say a girl didn’t try…!

Links I’ve Loved

In the spirit of the September start, Rebecca at From Roses shared how she plans to make a fresh start.
Cooking quinoa is one of those life skills I fear I’ll never completely nail. This guide on Love & Lemons (my favourite!) shares how to perfectly cook it.
I always enjoy the wit & delight horoscopes: here are their September readings.
This article on Man Repeller detailing all the things that we should know but don’t had me belly laughing. I can’t swim, open cans, use a lighter or only use a tea towel to get things out of the oven. How about you?
The Spines is one of my favourite book blogs, and this week Megan shared five family-centric books to read if you loved Big Little Lies, which I definitely did.
Vix got married yesterday!! And she’s relaunched her blog. This post about why she and her husband(!) decided to leave the city is a great read.