Dating someone new can be tricky at times. You get all caught up in the moment and want to spend every waking minute together, getting to know each other, but then work and real life can get in the way. This can be particularly difficult if one of you works shifts, or has to work away from home frequently. If things are meant to be then you'll find a way to make things work, but it may require a bit of effort and imaginative thinking from both parties. Firstly think about how you can make separation no longer than absolutely necessary. What you don't want is one of you heading off on a ... read more
The Importance of Work-Life Balance for Small Business Owners
With the amount of pressure people feel nowadays to make money and reach sometimes unattainable goals, people often devote too much of their time to work. It’s not the type of devotion that employers want to see in those that work for them. It’s devotion that’s more of a chore. It’s not always on just employees either. Sometimes employers overwork themselves without realizing the effect that it has on their employees. You start to resent your job and dread waking up in the morning, knowing that you have to suffer through another day there. If you feel like this, you’re one of many in the ... read more
Birdy & Bou: The Floating Library – Mandy Stanley & David Bedford
These last nine months have seen me living literally next door to a library. Anyone who has read this blog before will know how much I love books and am a huge supporter of libraries, yet for the first few months of living here we hardly visited. I'm not totally sure why, but I've put this right recently though and the kids and I have become library regulars, even remembering to return books before they become overdue! Both kids have really discovered the joys of audio books and our local library actually has a huge collection of them which they can borrow for free. I just daren't tell the ... read more
Plant Pairings – A Green Thumb’s Guide to Companion Planting
Source: https://www.rd.com/health/wellness/health-benefits-of-gardening/ As the characteristics of a neighbourhood can affect the experience of a homeowner, the features of a garden can affect the wellbeing of its plants. Noisy neighbours can disrupt life, whereas quiet neighbours can allow for relaxing living. In order to run a peaceful garden, the needs and wants of each plant must be met and its environment must be tailored accordingly. Companion planting, also known as intercropping, is a common way of ensuring that the environment of a plant is beneficial to its well being. It has been ... read more
How to do Valentines Day…
Valentines Day may have only just been and gone, but it's time to reflect on how it went and how you might do it differently next year, especially if you're in a new relationship. To me the key message is to talk about expectations first. Not everyone expects to be taken out to a posh restaurant and greeted with a huge bunch of flowers the second they see their loved one of February 14th, but then again some people do. To some Valentines day is just a commercial venture sponsored by the greetings card companies, but to others it really is the most romantic day of the year. Some even dream ... read more
Turn Yourself Into a Wine Connoisseur
There is a notion that wine experts have been born with some special skill...a particularly sensitive nose, or an intuition that helps them set apart the exquisite wines from the cheap rubbish. Or, that they have honed their craft over years of intense instruction and training. Fortunately, for anyone wanting to start out in the world of wine appreciation, both ideas are a myth. Anyone can be a wine connoisseur if they put their mind to it, and there are a few ways that the path can be a little quicker and smoother. The first way to find out more about wine and its variants is to simply ... read more
Brio Central Train Station and Bus and Train Station
Master C's love of all things rail just continues to grow and grown. Whilst it was originally limited to the trains themselves and pushing them around simple track layouts he seems to have been inspired by all the model train shows that B and I keep taking him to (and the railway modelling magazines that I find him reading in bed by torchlight!) and at the moment he is fascinated by railway infrastructure. Whether that be stations, points, sidings or "end of the line bits" as he likes to call them. He's started thinking much more about the whole passenger journey. How they get to a station, ... read more
Making plans
After writing about how were were searching to find our new family home I have a bit of an update. Drum roll please... We've found it! I don't want to temp fate too much by giving away too many details, but the hours and hours that I spent on RightMove looking at houses and then scouring maps to work out exactly where they were before moving on to Google Street View and spying on the whole neighbourhood finally paid off. I ended up finding somewhere and just as soon as I looked at the floorpan I just knew that we could make the place work. It gave us the three bedrooms that we want ... read more
Top tips for selling your home
When it comes to selling your home, there’s always a strange, mixed bunch of emotions – we’re excited for pastures new, relieved to have finally taken the steps to make such a momentous decision, nervous about whether or not you’ll get your asking price and even a little sad to be moving on. But selling your house can also be hugely overwhelming…so roll up those sleeves: there’s so much to do before you sign your name on that dotted line and close your old front door for the last time. Here we’re going to focus on how you can help potential buyers see that your old home could be their new ... read more
It’s Time for These Harmful Dental Habits to Bite the Dust!
Photo Credit When people think about looking after their teeth, the basics are obvious. Brushing twice a day, flossing, visiting the dentist on a regular basis, avoiding sugary drinks etc. However, there may be some habits that you aren’t even aware that you are doing which are causing a great deal of harm to your pearly whites. Here, we will talk about a few of them to encourage you to break them once and for all! Nail Biting Nail biting is the type of nervous habit that may seem harmless (albeit a little annoying) but it can actually lead to chipped teeth and jaw dysfunction. Try applying ... read more