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Hi there! If you’re anything like me (and the rest of the world), you will be finding yourselves under quarantine/self-isolation for the foreseeable future.
For me, there’s nothing wrong with being “stuck inside the house” (my fave place to be), but being legally mandated to be there changes the tone a little bit. It’s like this overarching sense of mild doom which permeates the hours, as they tick along oh-so-slowly.
But again, I love home, so I’ve found myself using the following things to enjoy this time & keep calm whilst we wait.
Athleisure wear
Ohhh yeah. You’d best believe I’m finding myself in PJs workout gear these days. I’ve realised Elizabeth Gilbert (yes, she of Eat, Pray, Love & Big Magic fame) wasn’t wrong when she recently proclaimed on Instagram the 2 secrets to working from home/not going insane right now: 1. Make the bed, and 2. Get dressed. Surprisingly simple, non?
So yes. Athleisurewear. Activewear. Gym gear. Whatever you call it, I’ll wear it, and I’ll also feel like I’m cheating the system by doing so. Whether a workout/yoga video actually gets done is up for debate… and besides the point, really. Because these pants! Are so stretchy! And they just cinch everything in, so you no longer feel like a potato vegetating on the couch (or is that just me?).
Last year, I went on a real Adidas binge, so most of my faves are from there. There’s my beloved Adidas Alphaskin tights which I have in both the black & grey, although the black has undergone the Great Cat Hair Lamination and need a bit of fixing up. The grey, on the other hand, hides a multitude of catty sins. I’m also partial to the All Me 3-Stripes Bra (again, in both black and grey), the Pink Logo Tee, and the Magic Logo Tee was my go-to when I was in my Pilates phase last year.
Also, if anyone can find my pink Adidas baseball cap… please let me know. I love & miss that ting!
Reading
Ahhh yes reading. That old chestnut! Something I always have loved, but seem to have forgotten it over the years, at times, and in stages. Throwing away the joy of a well-thought-out book to skim and scroll through endless clickbait articles that bring me no joy. No joy I tell you! So I’m trying to get back on my reading binge, and have had a few goodies this year already.
Well, we must start with the Queen Jessica Simpson’s memoir, Open Book. I’m not kidding, I have some weird affection for Jessica Simpson which has just grown over the years. I think it’s because she’s a fellow Cancer, and she just seems so real. I didn’t love her music (although my teenybopper self definitely partook of some of it), and while I enjoyed Newlyweds at the time, I don’t remember watching it as home as we didn’t get MTV at that time I think, so it was via friends or the sketchy internet of the early 2000s that i kept up with her.
But what I found really interesting was when Gav & I went to NYC in 2010, and she had a whole Jessica Simpson Collection wall in Macy’s. By then, her shoe brand was already a huge (unexpected) success, and I guess that kind of underdog spirit really speaks to me. So yes, I’m a J-Simps fan and I was ready & waiting the day this book dropped. I think I actually got it on the release date, because that’s just how I am.
I also absolutely ate up Dolly Alderton’s Everything I Know About Love a little while ago, it was just so warm and relatable (not pictured ’cause I lent it to my mum). Actually, I ploughed through this on a 4-day trip to Sydney in February, and I was surprised by how quickly I moved through it. Dolly writes with such honesty about the wild and wacky times of her twenties and uni days (some that will make you cringe, others that make you smile and cry), and it’s a real coming-of-age tale of a professional women now in her thirties and her higgledy-piggledy journey there.
I’ll put together a full blog post on the other books I’ve read/am reading right now, because I do have a lil’ goal to read 30 this year! I’ve got a Goodreads account too if you want to follow along. And let me know any recs you may have!
Cooking
I like to think I’ve come a long way in my cooking… because I have! Honestly, I really started from zero. No idea about seasonings, that’s for sure. Typical white girl stuff. Salt, pepper, spice? Didn’t know her. But these days, I’ve unlocked a lot of secrets to cooking, and most of them involve the aforementioned spices… and butter. Lotsa butter.
But really, one of the most important parts of cooking (for me) is patience. I used to get sooo flustered in the kitchen, things would burn, pots would clang and I would be very very not happy.
I’ve also realised that cooking is only as good as the utensils (and ingredients, lol) that you have. Gav picked up a silicone spatula (similar here) a while ago, as well as a nice n’ smoooove non-stick pan (similar here), and these two items alone changed my life. The way the scrambled eggs swoosh is a sound to behold. Moreover, it’s just cleaner and neater to serve, and Lord knows I need all the help I can get when it comes to coordination and plating (that’s my final frontier for cooking, tbh).
I’ve also loved putting rice on to cook, which sounds so simple but I just didn’t grow up doing it, so it’s still a thrill. Rice cookers, who knew? Aaand our best and most well-timed purchase in recent memory has to be our Samsung Bottom Mount Refrigerator (similar here, although ours is just single door without the icemaker!).
I know, a fridge… what have you been doing gurl? I hear you say. But when we moved in, we decided to get a mini fridge to cut down on food waste and to keep food fresh. We weren’t wrong! A lot of food just goes bad in giant fridges, and at the time I wasn’t so into cooking, so it was pointless.
But in the past year or so, as I’ve stepped up my cooking game, the little fridge just became untenable, and we had to upgrade. For the record, it was a bright red Hisense (similar here) and the freezer wasn’t separate to the fridge. This made it difficult to get an even temperature, which, long story short, ended up in the door being snapped off and the entire fridge essentially turning into a freezer. Icy oat milk for you? It was a whole mess. So yes, a fridge! Get one, they’re wonderful!
It’s kind of funny we picked this up just before the quarantine rules got imposed, because it’s really been a lifesaver. You know you’re adulting when a fridge excites you… and by gosh, it’s excited me a whole lot.
And of course… tea! One of the most relaxing things possible, is simply a cuppa. My fave is the Pukka Three Liquorice tea and Liquorice and Peppermint tea — so sweet! And if you’re put off by liquorice, don’t be; this uses liquorice root and doesn’t actually taste like liquorice. Just deliciously (and naturally) sweet!
So there you have it, a few bits n’ bobs that have been keeping me going whilst in quarantine. Honestly, these homebody things are my jam, but as I said, it’s just this weird overarching doom feeling which is throwing me off slightly. But these things (and Ella! Who now has an IG btw… #socialmediastar) have been keeping me going.
By the way — I have a YouTube channel! I’m still too scared to post regularly, but would it be something you’d be interested in? Trying to challenge my fears in 2020 and also have a lot of time in this self-isolation tank. So let me know!
Steph x