H E A R T A U T U M N

Christmas is just around the corner, like, literally knocking on the door; the songs are on the radio, the mince pies in the stores and the festive candles are burning. I don't know how that is, considering Christmas 2018 was mere weeks ago (right?) but I'm ready to embrace the ugly jumpers and cheesy Netflix movies with my whole damn heart. Christmas just makes everything brighter! So with that thought, I wanted to share a few easy ways to make your Christmas a bit more sustainable and environmentally friendly. We are still in the depths of a climate crisis guys.
The real vs faux Christmas tree is one I've not really touched on. We have a faux tree that's been going for years, simply because pine needles aren't great when you have a cat; but environmentally speaking real trees are better (no plastic, obviously), however, only if you dispose of/recycle them correctly. I know our local reservoir collect them after Christmas to use as defence barriers around the edges, so definitely check these things out!
Oh and the one that goes without saying really, less dead animals on your plate is always gonna help!

1. Rethink Christmas Cards

They're kind of a tradition, but do you need to send that many? Will they all be appreciated? It is 2019 after all and everyone's digital. But for those you do want to send, make sure they're recyclable and not covered in glitter. You can even get compostable cards too and some that you plant to grow! And if you receive cards that aren't recyclable nor compostable, get creative and make nice decorations out of them!


2. Choose The Right Wrapping
Yes, all the different wrapping paper everywhere is very pretty, but almost all of it is covered in foil/glitter/waxy covering making it unrecyclable. And think how much of it we all get through! For the past 4 years I've opted for brown craft paper with reusable accessories; ribbons, bows, etc. It all looks very nice and neat and coordinated. Craft stores might have rolls of other coloured paper to use but I've also seen others use newspaper, or you can use knot wraps with reusable fabric squares/scarves. Bonus: you don't need any tape and the scarf works as an extra additional gift! Whatever you do just don't wrap gifts in cellophane!!

3. Get Baking
When it comes to Christmas there's so many sweet treats EVERYWHERE, the majority of which are in single-use plastic packaging and it's horrific when you think about it all. So here's the time to get creative in the kitchen! Make your own gingerbread men/reindeers/house; bake a Christmas cake; make some chocolate covered treats! You can make exactly what you want, the exact amount you need, cut down on both packaging and food waste and have fun!


4. Think Twice About Your Decorations
Did you know if every UK household swapped a string of incandescent lights for its LED equivalent, we could save more than £11 million and 29,000 tonnes of CO2, just over the 12 days of Christmas? LEDs are the environmentally-friendly choice for lighting up your Christmas tree each year. They use up to 80% less energy so will save you pennies too! Outdoor lights look pretty, but you don't need to go overboard and if you can use solar-powered lights outside that's the best way to do it! 
As for other decorations, simply invest in ornaments that will last, don't buy tinsel (it's ugly anyway, so I don't know why you would) and avoid anything with glitter because the chances of it being eco-glitter are, let's face it, very slim.

5. Buy Local 
We should all know by now about the air miles in food and how unsustainable a lot of it is; so get to your local market/greengrocers/farm shop and buy fresh homegrown produce for the big meal! This is something we should all be doing all-year round, but I think is especially important at Christmas to support local and smaller businesses. The same goes for gifts; buy local, support small businesses and save on a whole host of unnecessary packaging.


6. Make Your Own Christmas Crackers!
Crackers are a staple at Christmas, I get it, but they're filled with plastic tat that nobody wants and are more often than not, made of glitter/plastic-coated card that can not be recycled; so make your own! It's super easy; buy some cracker snaps, use a stencil to cut the card out and get creative - you even get to make up your own jokes to go inside them.
If you're a bit unsure, I've got an IGTV going up next week showing how I make mine, so keep your eyes peeled.

7. Reduce Food Waste
Christmas dinner is all about over indulgence but it doesn't have to go too far. If you're doing the cooking this year then make sure there's a reasonable amount of food and not a ridiculous amount. Food waste generates on average 8% of global greenhouse gases, which to put into perspective, if it were a country, would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, surpassed only by USA and China! So we really don't need to overface our plates this year. But remember to use a compost bin if there is any waste!


8. Make Your Own Advent Calendar
Don't get me started on how much I hate the beauty advent calendar trend; a load of miniature plastic bottles for products you don't even know if you like? No thank you! I guess thinking about it, the classic chocolate advent calendars we all have aren't that great either with the plastic trays, are they? We have pocket advent calendars which we've reused and filled with sweets and treats for the past 5+ years. There's so many cute little wooden drawer ones you can buy now too, fill them with your favourite treats and there's much less waste!

9. Reconsider Your Outfit
Christmas jumpers are an essential we all love to hate, the gaudier the better! But we all need to remember that they can be worn for more than one year and if you want/need a different one, charity shops and vintage stores always have plenty on offer. There's no need to be constantly buying brand new for 1-2 wears only! And when it comes to Christmas party outfits, are the non-recyclable PVC and sequin numbers really necessary unless you know you have multiple events/occasions for you to get plenty wear out of them?

10. Don't Buy Stocking Filler Tat!
There's always those people who you exchange gifts with but you never know what to get each other and end up with a random gift set (usually bath stuff!) so put a stop to that this year. What's the point in secret santa with people you don't really know? Opt out and simply suggest they donate to your charity of choice or sponsor an animal in your name instead. Save the planet one gift at a time!

The days are long, the sleep broken and the exhaustion never-ending. So why are we a generation obsessed with being busy?

I'm not even being dramatic when I say I'm burning myself out. I sat and cried the other morning (a Sunday morning) looking at my to-do list. A list of tasks that I have set myself, that nobody else is going to hold me accountable for, things that absolutely were not necessary, things that would've waited a day or 5. And that was a sign that I should have climbed back into bed and had a duvet day, like everyone proclaims that Sundays are meant for, right? But how many of us actually spend Sundays being lazy anymore? 
I had a day off work sick a few weeks back; my IBS was hell and I'd been up every couple of hours through the night running to the toilet, so I had a legitimate reason to call in sick and spend the day on the sofa watching Harry Potter movies (whilst still running to the toilet, soz). But I felt guilty for spending a day doing nothing? I kept telling myself how rare it was to get a day with no plans, and wouldn't it be good to be productive? I simply couldn't switch my brain off and so ended up finishing a blog post I'd been working on and editing an IGTV video (whilst watch HP, of course).


I work a fairly standard 9-5, 5 days a week, with a 40 minute commute each way. I'm quite grateful for the commute tbh as it proves the perfect time to catch-up on the ever-growing list of podcasts I'm subscribed to! But it still makes for fairly long days, especially when I try to go to the gym on at least 2 evenings, because the gym isn't open early enough for me to have time in a morning! I do sometimes get up early for yoga in a morning to de-stress, but honestly, as much of a morning person as I am, sometimes it's nice to just have an extra 30 minutes in bed. Then there's trying to cook a healthy dinner each night, meal-prep lunches so that I don't end up going to Greggs for a vegan sausage roll everyday (they are bloody good though), and wanting to spend at least half an hour reading before bed on a night. I'm a really slow reader and my TBR pile is getting out of hand - not to mention the constant stream of movies/TV series that I want to watch too!
My favourite way to fit in some quiet time each day is with my bullet journal; writing my daily gratitude list, keeping on top of plans and simply doodling away. I also have numerous colouring books/sketch pads/painting canvases/cross stitch designs because I love to make time for creative hobbies but honestly, they sit collecting dust! Jigsaws are my guilty pleasure for downtime too but I got an 'impossipuzzle' one last year that I still haven't completed.

Everything that should be light-hearted down-time is beginning to feel like a pressure.


Trying to keep my blog/instagram/IGTV up-to-date on top of this tends to fill my weekends. Shooting photos, filming the occasional video, editing, writing, scheduling; not to mention making time to read other peoples blogs and keep on top of everyone elses content can be long. And I don't want it to feel like a chore, I want it to continue to be a fun hobby, hence why I often end up not sticking to any kind of schedule or being all that consistent.

And with all this, something has to give and it is always my social life. Spending time with my family comes before friends because they're my favourite people, sorry! But being around people and having to socialise is so so draining for an introvert like me that I purposefully push it to the back burner all. of. the. time.  I was so relieved last week when I'd planned to go for drinks with some old friends and because some couldn't make it in the end, we rescheduled and I got a Saturday night in sheltered from the rain. But again I ended up using that time to edit some photos because I don't seem to stop? It might not seem like I do a lot compared to some people online, with my sporadic blog posts, once in a blue moon IGTV videos and average-at-best instagram photos, but there's a lot of work that goes into them, crafting my skills, and a lot of work on other projects that aren't online. 


So I'm putting this here to hold myself accountable; I'm not waiting for the new year to make a change and set myself goals. I'm prioritising myself, both my mental and physical health, because I've run myself down these past few weeks and am now full of cold and feeling rubbish! I want to go for long walks without my camera and the pressure to get content; I want to take the time for face masks and doing my nails every week; I want to set aside a few hours each week for no screen-time; and most of all I want to start booking more spa days and staycations to just get away from home and out of the monotonous headspace.

Because really, why do we feel such a pressure to constantly be busy? Why can we not have a day off and not feel guilty about sitting on the sofa and doing absolutely nothing productive? Why do we not know when to stop?

For the past 3 years, Refinery29 have been running a Money Diaries series which documents how women on different salaries, in different cities, spend their money. They detail a week-in-the-life and for nosey parkers like me, it is GREAT! It covers those on six-figure salaries, graduates in their first full-time jobs, those working multiple jobs to get by and everyone in-between. So because I enjoy reading them so much (like many others, given how popular they've become) I thought I'd keep my own little money diary. Partly for me to hold myself accountable for any silly spending, but also just for a bit of fun! Seeing how someone spends their money is a great way to get to know them!

So this was the week before last, 21st-27th October and it covered payday for me: I get paid on the 25th of every month! It doesn't actually show where most of my money goes, because my bills are generally 28th or 1st of the month but that isn't the point of this; it's more to highlight what I do with my ~disposable~ income. And here's what I spent!


Monday 21st October
I usually work a straight 9-5 Monday-Friday but actually had this day off to use up some annual leave and give myself a nice long weekend. I didn't do anything special, just running errands and having me-time but that always involves shopping! It started with a trip to the farm shop for some fresh fruit and veg along with some grains and seeds from the refill station and other treats, coming to a total of £20.14. I then called into JYSK because I only discovered them recently and wanted to explore the store. I picked up some wicker baskets and a fancy paperweight I absolutely do not need, spending £21.99 in total, before then meeting my friend at Subway for lunch where I grabbed a margarita pizza sub (how good are they?!) for £1.99. I had my reusable water bottle so didn't need to buy a drink! After some photo taking, a walk round the local reservoir and an hour in the gym, I called into the supermarket for some fresh crusty bread which cost £1 to go with dinner! 
Total: £45.12

Tuesday 22nd October
Back to the office! I have breakfast at home and drive to work, so no expenses in a morning; I also had leftover leek and potato soup from the night before for my lunch, so ended up not leaving the office at all until 5 o'clock, instead opting to eat my soup and read my book for the duration of my lunch hour! From work, I drove straight home, ate dinner from what we already had in and then made some salted caramel brownies, of which I bought ingredients for last week! I set myself a challenge to bake along with GBBO each week and I'm so glad it's the final next week because coming home from work and baking every Tuesday is LONG (especially bread week, I hate dough). But it keeps me busy and meant I spent absolutely nothing this day, so I can't complain.
Total: £0


Wednesday 23rd October
Although I took lunch with me today, in the form of a tin of soup from the cupboard, I still ventured out at lunchtime, mainly because I wanted some fresh air! I work very close to an Aldi, so just popped into there on my lunch hour for a mooch; I came out with some cereal bars to keep in my desk drawer for emergency snack times, and a scented candle. They've now started doing dupes for Yankee Candle and had a black cherry one (my favourite scent!) so thought I'd give one a go. Together I spent £4.47. Again, I drove straight home and ate dinner from what we already had in. I then spent the evening filling my bullet journal with pages to use up to the end of November! This is sounding like the most 'wholesome' (boring) week ever isn't it?
Total: £4.47

Thursday 24th October
I hate lunch food and always struggle with deciding what to have for my lunch if it's not a toastie from Costa everyday! So when there's leftovers from dinner, I always claim it. Today that was leftover vegetable 'shepherds' pie from the night before and it kept me in the office with my book for my lunch hour once again! Before setting off home I did pop into Aldi again because I'd seen they were doing heated faux fur blankets, so I nabbed myself one of those for £34.99 managing to resist buying any of the sweets/chocolate they were next to! I was intending on going to the gym this evening but ended up going straight home with a pounding headache and proceeded to curl up with my new blanket and a big bowl of my dads vegan chilli.
Total: £34.99


Friday 25th October
I really should've picked a ~busier week to do this to make it somewhat more fun to read, but alas my life often is just this boring! I walked up to Greggs at lunchtime and got myself a vegan sausage roll and some tomato soup for lunch, which was £2.35 together! After work I went down to Hobbycraft to get some things I needed to make a rainbow cake for GBBO next week which cost me £10. My mums not been great this week as she was taken off her meds before having a procedure in hospital, but today that was over so I joined my parents for a Chinese takeaway (her choice) which my dad paid for. We then had a cosy night in hiding from the torrential downpours!
Total: £12.35

Saturday 26th October
A lazy Saturday morning was on the cards for me as I ended up sleeping in much later than necessary! So I decided to make the most of it and have a big brunch at home of veggie sausages, hash browns and beans. I then headed into town for a shopping trip with mum where the first stop was upgrading my phone; I went for the iPhone 11 and paid £40 upfront to switch to a Smart Plan. I also picked up some new tights for £3.49, but other than that it was quite the disappointing trip! Later that afternoon I was browsing the TooGoodToGo app (they work with lots of restaurants/shops to eliminate food waste and I would 100% recommend!) where I bought a 'Magic Bag' from my local Morrisons for £3.09 to collect the next day. I was supposed to be going out in Leeds for some drinks with friends but these got postponed because it's 2019 and apparently everyone is a flake now? Anyway, saving money and staying cosy and dry is much more ideal isn't it!
Total: £46.58


Sunday 27th October
I think Sundays are my favourite day of the week y'know? And after the clocks going back I got another lay in, so what could be better! Starting the day with a swim in my gym, I then went to pick up my TooGoodToGo purchase from Morrisons which turned out to be far more than I was expecting; fruit, veg, biscuits, muffins and noodles! My first purchase through the app and certainly not my last. I then went to see my Grandma before heading out to Toby Carvery for a family dinner which again was paid for by my dad. This makes me sound really spoilt doesn't it, but it's not a regular occurrence! Promise!
Total: £0

So I don't think this was a bad week tbh; no frivolous purchases, no unnecessary clothes/shoes/make-up, only one lunch that I didn't take from home! And I must say that heated blanket was my best purchase possibly ever?! I will never be cold again. Keeping track of my spending definitely made me more conscious of where my money was going, however, so it's definitely something to do if you're trying to seriously save!

Every October, I do some kind of post talking about Autumn; why it's my favourite season and why it should be yours too, basically. You can read last years annual declaration of love for Autumn here, and 2017's post on 10 reasons why Autumn is the best season here! Because I'm absolutely terrible at marking my blogs 'birthday' every year (it's some time in June I think), this has instead become my marker for looking back each year at how my content has changed. It makes sense when it's essentially my blog name, doesn't it?! And although for each of these 3 posts the photos have been shot on the same camera with the same lens, the improvement is insane. In both the images captured and my confidence in posing for photos; along with much better writing too! Personal growth we love to see!

This year I thought I'd talk about the essentials that everyone needs to make Autumn the best season possible. Whether it's pieces in your wardrobe, things to do or essentials to carry in your bag; there's many things that just scream 'Autumn' and you simply need when the weather turns and the evenings draw dark. You need your KeepCup in your bag to get a hot drink when it's raining; you need to dust off the slow cooker for all the warming dinners as the evenings draw dark; you need scented candles to light as soon as you get home and you need new TV series to binge-watch while sitting cosy under blankets. 
But anyway, here's my 5 Wardrobe Essentials!


Chunky jumpers
Autumn can be that weird in-between weather of 'do I need a jacket today' so the perfect balance is often to opt for a chunky jumper and give the jacket a miss, because who doesn't love being snuggly in an oversized jumper anyway? 

Knee high and OTK boots
Autumn signifies the end of bare leg weather, but before it's Winter and tights are an absolute necessity, long boots bridge the gap! Perfect with skirts and dresses of all lengths!

All of the hats!
I bloody love a hat and I don't know what it is about Autumn that makes it hat season, really, but it just is. So I've already dug out the fedoras, berets and baker boys. Not forgetting bobble hats too!


Leather jackets
As I said, Autumn is the in-between season of not needing jackets at all and needing big faux fur coats. Which is where leather jackets come in - warm enough without being too cosy and ideal for layering. See also: denim jackets and trench coats. 

Corduroy
One of the big trends for this season and something I have a slowly growing collection of in my wardrobe! Corduroy is much cosier and comfier than jeans and comes in all of the autumnal tones. (I picked up an insane pair of purple corduroy flares from Blue Rinse Vintage in Leeds the other week and am OBSESSED).


And because you can't go on Pinterest at the moment without stumbling over Autumn must-do lists, I thought I'd share 5 Things You Need To Do!

PYO pumpkins (and carve them!)
Of course!! Is it even October if you don't go to a pumpkin patch? I used to just buy them from the supermarket but now the whole experience of a pumpkin patch is a must-do (and not only to get pics for the 'gram!). I spend far too long carving them afterwards too, because I set ridiculous expectations on myself. But it's all good fun.

Woodland walks
My favourite thing about living in Yorkshire and out of the city centres is the scenery. Nothing beats a long walk around a nature park when the air is crisp and the leaves are crunchy. Finished off with hot chocolate afterwards. Divine!

Sunday Roasts at a cosy pub
A roast dinner is arguably the best meal and no Sunday in Autumn/Winter is complete without one. But they're extra good if you go to your local pub and it's all warm and cosy with a log fire on too!


Baking
Autumn starts off the best time of year for both cooking and baking; homemade soups with warm bread and salty butter, yes please! But I'm really into baking right now and can't wait to make more apple pies and banana loafs to enjoy fresh and warm on a rainy day.

Collecting conkers
If you didn't grow up getting excited for conker season then I am afraid you very much missed out! While I'm not really about conker fights anymore, it still doesn't feel like Autumn without going out to find some. Also: good to keep in the house for warding off spiders, apparently?