Lifestyle
When admitting defeat can change your direction for the best
It’s been a while since I’ve written a personal post here. Actually, this blog has really been neglected and there is a reason for that. Since arriving in Stockholm I’ve had this niggling feeling that something had to change in my life. I felt a little lost and like I didn’t have a purpose. Did I really want this blog to be a business? I had such big plans with it before and it was really starting to take off and I was beginning to make a small income from it along with external writing projects. Then I had the health problem before leaving NZ and everything just kind tumbled and my focus shifted. But after I had settled into my new city I kept beating myself up. Why couldn’t I get back to posting three times a week and start building it up again? Why couldn’t I be more aggressive on social media? I told myself that I wanted to be the Garance Dore of the interior and lifestyle genre…. I told myself a lot of things, but in retrospect I felt so unaligned with it all. I felt like I wasn’t living my truth. I had lost my passion.
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A Quote for a Friday
Today we’re heading away for the weekend to recharge the batteries. We’ve packed our gumboots, boardgames and books, and we intend to do nothing else but soak up the country air, and each other’s company. I love moments like that and I realise that we haven’t done it as a family for quite some time. Lately all of our getaways have been more of the go, go, go kind. They’ve all been so much fun, but we forgot the stop element. I find that booking a weekend away is a great way to unwind. It’s a small commitment so you don’t feel like you’re wasting your holiday time doing nothing. Although writing that, next summer I intend to book a beach house somewhere warm and do nothing else but swim, read, eat and go for long walks on the sand. So if you have any recommendations for me in Europe, let me know.
11 Things I’ve Learnt in 12 Months Living in Stockholm
Last week saw the one year anniversary of us arriving in Stockholm. I can’t believe how quickly that time has gone by can you? It’s been a fantastic and very busy year for us settling in. While we’ve spent a lot of time exploring the city, we haven’t really explored the country itself. I guess this is because we’ve used up holidays going to France (twice), Morocco, Cyprus and Germany. This is in no way because we want to escape, it’s the sudden feeling of freedom of close proximity to all of these places after living in Australia and New Zealand for so long. While we will continue to hop on the plane and make the most of Europe and surrounds, this next year we will definitely be exploring this beautiful country.
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Why the silence on Styled Canvas?
You might have noticed this unintentional silence that I’ve had here for a while. It’s been on my mind a lot lately. To be truthful, I had completely different plans for this blog the past few months. I scheduled posts to play out during my transit from New Zealand to Sweden that featured some of the wonderful talent from the home I was leaving. I arrived in Stockholm, so excited to share my adventure, and then it happened. Blank. Complete and utter nothing. Here I was in an amazing new country and yet I felt I had nothing to write about. I didn’t understand it. And so, I kept silent. I wrote an occasional post, although I mainly only kept in touch via Instagram.
As we say goodbye, it isn’t over…
Our house doesn’t look like this anymore. The entire contents minus five suitcases have been packed and are hopefully on their way to Stockholm now. It’s been a mammoth job closing up my life here and I didn’t even have to pack myself! Hence the silence the past couple of weeks.
Guess where we are moving to?
One of my sisters has always said that I like a bit of drama, or rather attract it. She has certainly been right this year, as I’ve gone from the not so good, to the super exciting. So here it is…. are you ready for it?
A life changing moment
Hi there everyone. I’ve been silent here for quite some time but it’s not out of choice, you see I’ve had a lot going on that I needed to sort through. As a lot of you may have read on Instagram, life threw me a challenge. I have thought long and hard about whether to share my story here. It’s a scary decision because I want to protect my children from unnecessary anxiety and yet I believe strongly that I have a platform here to build a little awareness. So I ask you, if you do by chance know our children, please respect our decision to protect them and never mention this around them or their friends.
Happenings and weekend reads
I can’t believe that we are moving into our last week of January! It makes me a little sad knowing that we have only one more month left of official summer. Okay we do manage to stretch it out into March, but still. I do live for the sun and warm weather!
