Sundaze 132

What a bumper week I’ve had! I’m absolutely exhausted as I write this, I’m genuinely nodding off, and it’ll be fairly obvious why when you read the full post. Around in-house client work at Molton Brown 9-5, work for another client, finishing up house-sitting and moving all of our things home, it’s been super busy.

I’m ready for a week-long nap, let me tell you that.

I’ve felt completely out of sorts this week. Chloe, my work wife, and I popped to pick up our first Pumpkin Spiced Lattes of the season and we had a big ol’ heart-to-heart about how exhausted and confused we are at the moment. I have about a thousand thoughts, ideas and decisions flying through my head right now but, honestly? That’s going to have be a task for next week. I have no headspace at all right now.

An imminent move!

The biggest news this week is that our family is moving! It’s not a particularly big move. It’ll be within my same town. My parents are downsizing as our current family home is far too big for the four of us, especially given I’m planning to buy soon. I didn’t grow up in this house, we moved here when I was 10 or 11 and most of my childhood memories are in our first house or my auntie and uncle’s place.

With that in mind, I hadn’t expected to feel so emotional about leaving. But with 18 years of memories here and knowing that this house is imprinted with our thoughts, decisions, mistakes, celebrations and successes makes it all the more bittersweet to leave. Of course in classic house-buying fashion, we’re not exactly sure when we’ll be in the next place, but that’s not to say I hadn’t already started thinking about what would happen when I found my first home.

I worry all the time about finding it hard to ‘feel like I’m at home’, whether or not Milo could come with me as he’s our family dog… And now everything has been amped up a notch! I’m also already feeling completely overwhelmed at the packing process. How does a gal begin to pack up 250 books?!

London Beauty Week 2019

It was the inaugural London Beauty Week this week and I was invited along to the press preview. I shared plenty over on my Instagram Stories, as I had so much fun. I got to have a delightfully long catch-up with Sade (she is such a wonderful lady) and met Mona, who is equally as lovely. I was a guest of Floral Street – more about that soon – and got to discover the entire collection, sample their brand new personalisation service, and indulge in plenty of beauty goodness from brands including GLOSSYBOX, Weleda, Molton Brown and Miller Harris.

Although of course it is over for the season, it’s a genuinely great initiative and there’s plenty of cruelty-free beauty included. Be sure to keep an eye out for the next season.

All the anxiety…

Is there something in the air?!

Because my entire week has been anxiety-ridden and I haven’t been able to shake it off. It started on my morning commutes, having to get off trains just to get on top of things before they escalated into a full-blown panic attack, and has bubbled under the surface ever since. Work has been difficult as the anxiety courses through my day and leaves me unable to focus coherently on any of my clients’ projects. And after work, I fluctuate between knowing I need to do a little more work but being totally unable to.

This too shall pass, but seriously: is there something in the air?

Mid-Autumn Festival

Friday marked Mid-Autumn Festival, which is always one of my favourite celebrations in the Lunar calendar. Celebrated on the 15^th day of the eighth month, it’s a family-centric holiday where we gather to eat mooncakes, check out that big ol’ full moon and spend time together.

I shared a full grid post and Instagram Stories about the occasion, but in short it’s a harvest festival. There’s an epic legend that pertains to the moon (which, by the way is beautiful and huge at the moment) and we tend to celebrate the full moon by viewing it together, eating round food to symbolise completeness, and making and eating mooncakes!

Given I haven’t been recently, I didn’t get a chance to make any this year but I’d love to make vegan snow skin mooncakes next year. Another wonderful tradition we have in Chinese culture is playing with lanterns. Not paper ones like you’d stereotypically expect, but plastic neon ones with LED lights. I used to choose a Hello Kitty one every year and scoff my dinner down as fast as I could so we have lights out and 30 minutes of playing with them indoors, in the dark!

The Handmade Festival

Louise and I were kindly invited to The Handmade Festival this year! I must admit I’d never heard of it, but when I received a press release and tickets I knew it was right up my street. Held at Hampton Court Palace, The Handmade Festival is a three-day celebration of all things arts, crafts and, well, handmade. With a star-studded line-up of Kirstie Allsopp, Liz Earle MBE(!!), Rahul from GBBO and more, the festival plays host to over 300 independent retailers and guests can book workshops to hone skills in gardening, baking, paper cutting, brush lettering, book binding, macramé and plenty of other activities.

We had the time of our lives learning all about windowsill gardening with Kim Stoddart, who has co-written a book called The Climate Change Garden. My kinda gal. And we left with two new additions to our own windowsill gardens and armed with SO much knowledge. I made soooo many notes and can’t wait to get stuck in with some seed extraction.

Links I’ve Loved

My girl Sarah wrote a really brilliant post all about the simplicity of swimming and the impact getting back into the activity has had on her.
‘Tis the season to forage for blackberries on English hedgerows and Gem has dreamed up another delicious recipe. Try these Blackberry Spiced Doughnuts.
10 Creative Ways to Store Books (That Aren’t Bookshelves)
I forgot to share this last week! But I adored The Guardian’s interview with Taylor Swift.
Signs The Book You’re Reading Is Great