Tag: New Year

A New Year, A New Pace

It’s two and half weeks (and a bit) into the year already and I’ll start by saying overall, so far, so good. I kicked off my year (as usual) feeling incredibly hungover but with little regret, as we’d once again achieved the success of an epic new year’s eve party, with lots of our close friends round at ours to celebrate.

Due to these spirited (in more ways than one) New Year’s Eve celebrations, I tend to officially start my new year on the second day of January, when my brain is no longer rattling in its scull, we’ve swept up any lingering glitter and any traces of Christmas have been tidied away.

This year however, my body had another idea and I woke up on the second of January with a cold, or as I’ll refer to it, my very own bout of severe level Man flu. It was annoying, to say the least and I must admit that by week two I was feeling a tad stir crazy, which led me to feeling quite sorry for myself – poor Damien bore the brunt of it each day when he’d return home from work and I’d be vying for attention like a puppy who’d been left alone at home all day.

In the grand scheme of things it’s not the worse thing that could happen and a cold is just a fleeing setback that most of us have to deal with around this time of year. Plus, whilst being sofa residing for the most part of two weeks, I did in fact still manage to get some work done. I even managed to drag myself away from my snotty tissue ridden hovel that I’d nested myself into on the sofa, put on some makeup and shoot some collaborations in time for their deadlines – go me!

So as I said, cold aside, not a bad start to the year. Now I’m 3 days post cold and feeling enthusiastic to officially get into my year properly.

I always tend to have my positive and optimistic head on around this time of year. I think a lot of us are still feeling driven and that motivation can be quite infectious at times. However, as we move towards the end of the month, I do find there is a tendency for things to all slowly go downhill from there. The January blues creep in and the reality that we’ve not even reach the coldest and gloomiest part of winter hits. It’s like the glum slog between Christmas and Spring that feels never ending. Between that and the emphasis on ‘keeping up with those goals’, there can be an overwhelming pressure to be living our best lives, when all we really want to do is go into hibernate until it’s summer.

I feel different this year though, still eager for summer yes, but just a lot less pressured. Even whilst snivelling my way through the first two weeks of this year, I was still feeling (albeit a little tired) content and calm mentally.

I think the main thing that’s helped my mindset has been my shift in focus this year. I already spoke in my last post about ‘things I’d like to do more of in 2019’, and wanting to have more me time was a big overriding theme there. I’ve been abiding by my own ‘rules’ and allowing myself to switch off, guilt free. I’ve got lost in the pages of a good book, wrote for the sake of writing and switched off from social media. It’s really done me the world of good. It’s also shown me that things don’t all just crumble when I stop. Just because the whole world feels like it’s going at 110mph, it doesn’t mean I have to.

We’re still only two weeks into this year, yes, but so far I’m finding a nice balance between work, me time and socialising (more emphasis can go on the socialising now that I’m lurgy free). I’ve started as I mean to go on, set things in motion that will help me in the long run, started to form new habits that are allowing me to relax and given myself the permission to go at my own pace, which is a lot slower than previously.

Samio x

#SamiosSelfPortraits

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January 17, 2019
Things I’d Like To Do More Of In 2019

Create Art

When I was younger (I’m talking pre-teens), my hobby was always focused on or around art. It sounds somewhat vague but if you would have asked me what my hobby was when I was younger (aside from singing and writing *cough* masterpiece, stage plays for myself and my friends to perform), I would have answered with ‘art’…Creating art, doing arty things and basically taking a huge leaf out of Neil Buchanan’s book and making art, out of basically anything I could get my hands on, was my thing. And I mean, anything. I went as far as ‘collecting’ the insides of toilet rolls, which I’m pretty sure drove my Mother mad at the time. But I never knew when my next creative project would require such unique and versatile props, and let me tell you, the middle of a toilet roll came in handy for a number of my ever dynamic projects.

Moving into my teens I thankfully abandoned the hoarding of loo roll middles. Long gone were my days of creating ‘art’ out of random bits of cardboard, which had been stuck together with PVA glue and professionally finished off with a bullet proof coating of Papier-mâché…but my love for creating did not subside. If anything it grew and with it so did my passion for drawing and painting.

I’m going to boastfully toot my own horn here, and proclaim that I was very good at art growing up (if I do say so myself – but so did my art teacher *toot, toot*). I loved to consume art and I loved to create it. I even used to have a boy in high school pay me to do his art homework because he wasn’t very good at it and, well, I was…but we won’t get too much into that adolescent fraudulent activity in today’s post.

Basically much of my life growing up revolved around being arty and in particular drawing and painting. This lasted right up until my university years…and then, I stopped. I’m not entirely sure why. I guess it’s that age old thing (excuse the pun), of getting older and ‘no longer having time’.

Then into my 20’s my hobby and outlet for being creative evolved into my blog, which then evolved into my job…and then I wound up here, in my late 20’s and hobby-less.

I think it’s important to have hobbies and to be able to tune out to something that isn’t just work related all of the time. Whilst I love my work, I also love having something else outside of it, or else work can become too all consuming without me even realising it. So in a round up to this rather long winded summery, I basically want to get back to creating more tangible art. The stuff that’s non-work related, on paper, or canvas, and maybe even something I can hang on my wall if I fancy. We shall see.

Do More of My Other Hobby

Okay, I tell a lie. I do have hobbies, which I do still practice, I just don’t think I spend enough time on them as I should do.

Another one of my hobbies, which I wish to spend more time on, is acting. I actually got back into it for the first time in a loooonng time, this year. I did two short films this year and I have to admit, I was very rusty getting back into the swing of things. But, it didn’t matter, because ultimately I had fun, and that for me is what it’s all about.

I spoke about ‘things I maybe could have been but wasn’t’ in a previous post a few months back, and an actress, was one of the things I’d mentioned. Acting has always been a passion of mine, which I went as far as to study at university. And whilst I don’t pursue acting as a career, it’s still something I haven’t lost my love for. It’s almost a passion I forget I have until I exercise it and then my love for it comes flooding back. For me it’s such a great escape from the real world, when I’m learning a script, developing a character and then performing. I really do enjoy it and after having got back into it a bit this past year, it’s definitely something I want to do more of, purely for the enjoyment of it.

Drive

Now this next one is not a hobby, in fact, I’ll go as far as to say, it’s not something I particularly enjoy. I don’t hate driving but I wouldn’t say it’s something I’ve ever been excited to do and I certainly don’t have ‘fun’ doing it. Quick back story, for those of you who don’t know, I passed my driving test back in June . After having put off having driving lessons for years and years…and years, I finally decided to bite the bullet back in March and learn to drive. I surprised myself and actually flew through my lessons, and then surprised myself even more when I passed first time. It’s just another example that it’s never too late to learn something new, (even if it’s something you’re not that interested in). Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely glad I learnt to drive but I still don’t have that eagerness or excitement to get in a car and actually drive anywhere.

I’ve neglected my (no longer so) newly learnt skill and I’m still not confident enough to drive on the roads without someone in the passenger seat (preferably Damien – although I’m pretty sure I make him nervous).

The hard part is over. I passed the test. I have the little pink ID and all that, I just need to get off my butt, or actually get on my butt more, and off my feet, and get on the roads! So this year, I need to get back to practicing and building up my confidence driving. I know it will benefit me in the long run and then I won’t have to always rely on Damien to drive us when we need to do a big shop and I’ll be able to go homeware shopping whenever I like too. An excellent benefit.

Write

Well, here I am, writing. Technically, my self proclaimed mish-mash of a job title that is ‘blogger/creative’, implies that I spend the majority of my time writing and whilst in some ways I do (emails are the bane of my life), I actually don’t, in the way in which I’d like…

Blogs are making a comeback. There, I said it. How do I know? Because I said so! Okay, I don’t know, but even if they’re not, I know I want to write more, and my blog is the perfect place for me to do just that. I know this comes back to my job, but I also want to continue to write more of the personal, more diary style posts (like this one) too. Hence me writing right now, because if you hadn’t noticed, this little corner of the internet has been getting a bit more action than usual recently and I have to say, I’m pretty happy about it.

Along with my 100 other, partially abandoned creative related hobbies that need dusting off, writing (surprise, surprise) is also one of them. So to bring it back to my initial point, I’ll be doing more writing here and offline going forward this year.

Exercise

Now before this sounds like a cliche ‘new year, new me’ segment, it’s actually more a case of ‘new year, more of last year me’. Okay that sounded rubbish, but maybe you get my point. I’ve mentioned a few times on the blog about how Damien and I started PT sessions back in August, and if you follow me on Instagram and watch my Instastories then you’ll definitely know that we have since become avid bootcamp/gym goers over the past several months.

I’d go as far as to say it’s actually changed our lives, the whole, getting into fitness thing. It’s been a small, yet at the same time big life change and we’ve just added a new element into our routines that includes working out. Having the PT was just the push we needed to get us into the swing of things and I couldn’t recommend JAG fitness enough who have helped Damien and I so much. For someone who has a job which at times can have no real-routine when it comes to work, it’s actually nice having the routine of working out. For me it helps me mentally as much as it does physically, if not more. It serves as a great time out for me and when I start my morning with a workout I feel like my day is off to a good start.

Read

And if I didn’t already have enough things I wanted to do more of, here is one more. Read. I want to read more books and even more blogs too. I used to love doing a lot of both but in the past year or so I’ve done very little of either.

I feel myself wanting to revert back to my old ways and slow things down a little. It’s often hard, with social media and the online world, as everything is quick and in your face. As it’s a big part of my job, I often feel obliged to constantly been involved in the online world and it’s hard to digest everything, and if I’m honest I can find it quite overwhelming.

Switching off from social media over the festive period has made me realise how much I value my uninterrupted time spent offline too. Things like reading a good book can easily get pushed aside for mindless scrolling and in the end I rarely come away with anything of value. I wouldn’t even say I’m that bad for spending too much time on my phone but I still want to cut it down even more.

Sometimes it’s so easy to procrastinate when working alone from home, or at least, it is for me anyway. When ideas or thoughts just aren’t flowing the way in which I’d like them to, to enable me to work, it’s all too easy to pick up the phone and have a scroll. If anything it can leave my mind feeling more congested and out of sorts than it did to start with.

I’ve come to the realisation that I’m always going to be somewhat of a procrastinator, that’s just how I am…but rather than filling that inescapable procrastination time with nothingness, I may as well fill that time doing something that I actually enjoy and which fills me with something useful. And so, I’ve decided to fill those moments with reading. Be it a chapter from a book I’m currently reading or an interesting article or blog post. I at least want to fill my ‘idle time’ with something that gives me a little more back. So I think reading is a good replacement for that, plus it’s something I thoroughly enjoy when I get into it.

Yesterday I picked up my first book of the year – it’s one that my mother passed onto me a few months ago and I still hadn’t got around to reading. I finally started reading it and I couldn’t put it down. An hour later and a few chapters in and I was ready to get on with some work. The best thing is, unlike when I procrastinate on social media, I didn’t wind up feeling bad about the time wasted, because it didn’t feel like time wasted at all. That saying is true; ‘the time wasted doing something you love isn’t time wasted at all’. I must remember that one this year.

Samio x

January 3, 2019
The Problem With New Year’s Resolutions

New year new…*eats doughnut*. Okay, new year, same old me, but why am I feeling bad for breaking a New Year’s resolution that isn’t even mine!? Maybe it’s because I feel I don’t have enough New Year’s resolutions of my own, so my subconscious has decided I should take on other people’s too. Why only aim to watch less Netflix when you could also aim to get fit, learn a foreign language, get up an hour earlier everyday, learn to mediate, write a book, start a new hobby, take up yoga and learn to play the banjo.

The problem, or more specifically ‘my problem’ with New Year’s resolutions is just that, the fact that it always seems to involve making more than one. Before you know it, you have a list as long as your arm of unachievable standards, that not even Beyoncé could keep up with.

Of course (like many), privately I like to make goals for myself and write them down in hopes of channelling those thoughts and eventually achieving them, but I don’t necessarily wait until the start of a New Year to do so. Not that there is anything wrong with that. I like the idea of starting a fresh and using a New Year as a way to wipe the slate clean and change old habits, or even create new ones. I feel though, that in the age of social media, we hear so much of other people’s goals that it can actually become hard to decipher our own. I do want to join the gym and have the body of a goddess…don’t I?

What I mean is, that sometimes our own real goals can be pushed aside, or overshadowed in place of bigger and more seemingly impressive ones. Not only have standards risen but standards of goals seem to have risen too. It’s not enough to want to make one small life improvement for the year anymore, you’ve got to be aiming for bigger and better and more, or so that’s the idea we are constantly fed.

I’m not saying we should lower our standards, if you have big things on the horizon for 2018, then you go for them with everything within you but if you don’t, that’s okay too. It’s enough being content with where you’re at and focusing on simpler achievements or even solely focusing on one.

If you aim to become fluent in French (which in my eyes is actually a biggie as far as resolutions go), you don’t have to add pressure to your plate by also aiming to learn to juggle, take up mountain biking and starting a cookery blog too, just because that’s what the likes of Malcolm Magnificent says he’s doing (totally just a random example here). There’s nothing worse than putting too much on your plate and in the end finding you can’t keep up with any of it at all.

In the end, my problem with New Year’s resolutions isn’t the idea of goal making itself but the pressure we put on ourselves to achieve those goals, or more specifically, to achieve a multitude of goals. Ultimately we may find ourselves feeling fully content (not to mention less anxious) by focusing on and achieving just one. Just remember what is really important to you, then priorities and take baby steps. Ease off the pressure, focus on one thing at a time and ultimately, you do you.

Wishing you the best of luck with whatever you hope to achieve in 2018, however big, or small.

Samio x

If you don’t already follow me on Instagram, you can search the hashtag #SamiosSelfPortraits to check out more images I’ve shot myself, like these ones.

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January 5, 2018
Back Into Work Mode

Slowly Rebooting Into 2018

When my alarm went off at 6:45 this morning, I wasn’t ready for it. I rolled over and reset it for 7:30am…I just needed 45 more minutes. Then 7:30 came around and I still needed a little bit longer in bed and so this routine continued until I eventually forced myself out of bed at around 9:20am. Being able to ‘sleep in’ is what you might class as a perk of working for yourself but it can also be a pitfall. Being your own boss you really do have to manage yourself and your time.

For someone who is mostly an early riser, 9am is a late get up for me and usually only a luxury I reserve for lazy weekends, or hangovers. It’s safe to say that these holidays have well and truly exhausted me and now I feel like I’m on a slow reboot getting into 2018.

Although it’s the second day of the new year, it actually feels like the first for me today because I’ll be honest, after one very boozy, yet fun NYE, yesterday was a write off for me – as I’m sure it probably was for many others. Today however, is the day that I get back to work after two weeks off and having taken a break from uploading to my social media platforms during that time.

I’d had hopes to get ahead of myself during the holidays but aside from planning content for a brand I’m working with this month, I didn’t get much else done in regards to work throughout the end of December. Sometimes it’s good to completely take time off but when you work for yourself it can often be hard to reboot again, get back to managing tasks, time and working to a schedule.

Once I did manage to drag myself out of bed this morning, after cleaning the house and about a thousand glasses that had still been left over from the New Year’s Eve celebrations (I told you yesterday was a write off), I pushed myself back into work mode.

The lighting has been pretty horrendous today plus it poured it down for a time. Luckily, as I’ve mentioned, lately I’ve gotten into the habit of shooting from home – because honestly if I waited for good weather I’d likely be seriously lacking content. Anyway, I managed to get a decent bit of lighting to capture these self portraits this afternoon. My outfit pretty much reflects my mood today, smart casual but still a bit undone…and as for my shoes I didn’t bother to try and get these in the shot as I’m wearing slippers, as I have been doing for the most part recently.

So here we are, getting back into it, getting into 2018 and getting back into work mode. I hope you’ve had a good start to the year so far. I’m looking forward to having a continued productive week and I hope the very same for you too!

Samio x

Shirt – System of Motion | Jeans – Weekday

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January 2, 2018
Goodbye 2017

A Brief End of Year Farewell

Oh hello there obligatory end of the year blog post. It feels only right that I do one final post before we sign off for the end of 2017. I’ve really, truly got into the festive spirit this year and went into full holiday mode over the past couple of weeks. It’s rare that I switch off completely from my blog, Instagram and YouTube all at once, but that’s what I’ve done these past couple of weeks and to be honest it’s been just dandy. I’ve not thought about content, shooting images and I’ve fallen straight to sleep at night without my head buzzing with ideas. It’s a rarity and I’ve let myself enjoy the period.

I’m only now starting to get that little niggling feeling that’s prompting me to get back into work mode and it’s only natural seeing as we are fast approaching the new year. I still don’t feel entirely ready for it yet though. Time always seems to whizz by quicker than I’d like and before I know it, it’s time to celebrate another New Year’s Eve once again.

On a personal level, this year has been a good year for me. It’s been stressful at times, with our house renovations, it’s been non stop with with all the trips I’ve taken and for the most part it’s been lots of fun. I’ve felt and seen myself evolve a lot, in more ways than one and I’ve been able to do a lot of things that I really wanted to do this year. I’ve proved to myself that I can do the things that I set out to do. I think my motto for this year has become ‘if there’s a will, there’s a way’. Each month has brought along a new adventure, more quality time spent with some of my favourite people and progression in our house renovations – which has been so exciting to see.

I thought I’d share a few of my favourite things about this year to briefly round things up.

Buying my dream pink sofa. I’m going to bring back the most over used acronym of 2012 here and simply say, YOLO.

Eating out all the time. It’s actually bad and something I plan on cutting down on in 2018 but boy, do I love food and I just love eating out and trying new places. If I could even attempt to add up the amount of times I’ve eaten out this year, I’d probably be sick, so I won’t even try. Lets just say, it’s been a lot and I’ve enjoyed every overindulgent mouthful.

I’ve created some of my favourite creative/lookbook videos yet. Two of which you can see here and here.

Towards the end of the year I upped my photography game and finally began to learn how to edit photos. I’ve also got back into taking self portraits, which has been a great way to help me practice and I’m loving the creative process of it.

I got to spend so much quality time with some of my most favourite people…and that leads me onto my next point…

I went on 11 trips abroad in 10 months, which was sort of my new years resolution, if you can call it that. It’s been one of my favourite and most fun achievements as I got to tick off new countries and I also got to go on many of these trips with some of the people I’m closest to, which has just been amazing. I actually dedicated a whole video to this, which you can watch here.

Basically, I’ve had a pretty good year. For the most part what’s made it good is just enjoying day to day life; Getting to work more on creative projects and as a blogger which is something I love, spending time with friends, going out and having fun and getting to enjoy the home that Damien and I have been working on for so long. I feel grateful for what this year has brought and the memories that it will leave me with. So I’ll say goodbye 2017. Thanks for reading and I’ll catch up with you next year!

Samio x

Thanks to Onyi for helping me capture these shots

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December 31, 2017