Time flies. That’s nothing new. I now just seem to realise it more than ever before. I look at my daughter Mint and think when did you get so big? How are you suddenly talking and walking around when it feels like yesterday I was holding a tiny little baby in my arms? Of course I’m glad she’s growing up to be such an independent and funny little girl with a mind of her own (already! good luck future me!), but sometimes I’m scared that I will not remember what our life is like right now.
Enter the idea for this blog post. I am going take a moment every evening of this week to write down what my day was like. This will include my work life and my family life. I work from home and I often struggle to find a good balance between the two, so I also want to take this as an opportunity to improve that! It would be great to do this every few months, so I can see how much it changes over time and it will be nice to look back on years from now.
Monday – 8/4
Mint woke up at 8am and we had breakfast together, played with her toys and read some books before she had a bath. After that Mint had a catch up with her good pall Peppa Pig so I could whiz through the house to tidy and do some cleaning. Nap time! Our groceries for the week were delivered and then I had two hours for myself to get ready for the day and do some urgent work stuff. I’m currently finalising a new product design with the company who make the Seamstress Gauge and we’re almost there!
After nap time we had lunch together and then I packed up the Seamstress Gauge orders I received over the weekend. After dropping the parcels off at the post office Mint and I went for a little walk along the river. And of course, no walk is complete without some fun on the swings! Back home I made the little one dinner and it was bedtime straight after. Maarten came home at 7pm. He cooked. I cleaned. And then my ‘work day’ started.
I do some freelance work for The Fold Line, which is an online sewing community and one stop sewing pattern shop. I contribute to their website, blog, newsletter and social media. This comes to around 10 hours a week and I’ve got 5 deadlines I need to meet, one for each day of the week. I finished my ‘Monday deadline’ and then I started writing this. It’s actually much harder than I thought it would be! It’s difficult to find a balance between writing enough down so it gives an accurate reflection of my day and not oversharing things, like how many nappies I’ve changed today…
Tuesday – 9/4
It was a grey and rainy day today so I decided pretty quickly after waking up that today was going to be a pyjama day. After breakfast Mint was happy to play with her favourite toys in her cot so I could fit in some sewing time! My sewing table is right next to her cot so it’s great that I can keep an eye on her whilst cutting out a new project; a striped jersey Rowan bodysuit. During nap time I did some work on my website and finally figured out how to add categories to the menu, yay! I also waisted a whole hour scrolling through Instagram, showered and did some washing. After Mint woke up it was back to the usual: first lunch, then playing, singing, *unplanned bath time because of a certain explosion*, dancing and reading ALL her books.
I put her to sleep at 6.30pm and then I tidied the kitchen so that when the head chef came home shortly after he could start cooking straight away. After dinner – a delicious mushroom and cauliflower pasta – I spent about an hour working for The Fold Line, I replied to some Etsy messages and sent out some emails.
Wednesday – 10/4
An earlier start today at 7am to help my husband get Mint ready for nursery. They left the house at 7.30am and I had the whole day for myself! On nursery days I like to focus on the different jobs I have and not worry about any housework, or do any sewing (unless it’s work). It can be hard, but I had quite a productive day. I finished my work for The Fold Line, made some changes to improve my website, looked into teaching 1-2-1 sewing classes at home, replied to emails and planned the upcoming few weeks in terms of work and holidays.
This evening I taught a sewing class at Sewisfaction in Wokingham. This was the last one of a 5 week beginners course with 6 wonderful ladies. The class started at 7pm but I left the house at 5.30pm as traffic can be really bad. I listened to the latest Love To Sew podcast with Elisalex from By Hand London so that made being stuck in traffic much more bearable! The class went really well and I was back home at 10.30pm.
Thursday – 11/4
Another nursery day. Maarten and Mint left the house at 7.30am and I started the day with replying to emails and breakfast. I really struggled to focus today and I found way too many things to distract myself with. I did manage to finish the tasks that had priority today. The design I worked on for my second product is now finished and I ordered a couple of samples. I also edited photos that were made last weekend for the Pattern Pals Instagram page.
It was a gorgeous sunny day so I headed out to get some fresh air and lunch. I went for a wee wonder to clear my head and dropped off the orders I packed this morning at the post office. After that I was back into my PJs on the sofa finishing my work for The Fold Line. Maarten picked up Mint from nursery and I took care of her whilst he was cooking. Quite a slow evening tonight and I spent way too much time browsing Pinterest and scrolling through Instagram.
Friday – 12/4
Maarten was at home today because he has every other Friday off work. It’s always great to have him around so I don’t have to run after Mint every minute of the day. During nap time I finished all my deadlines for The Fold Line and we made sure that we were ready to go out right after Mint woke up. We took the bus to Kingston to do some shopping for our upcoming Easter holiday and I needed some sewing supplies from John Lewis. Nothing exciting, I just needed some buttons, thread and interfacing. We got everything we needed and headed back home around 5pm.
Tonight was actually really special because we had a Date Night! We don’t often get a chance to get away together so it was amazing to have our babysitter come over. We had dinner at Del Posto in St Margarets and it was absolutely amazing. We actually cannot remember the last time we received such amazing service and ate such scrumptious food. And very importantly, the prossecco was super tasty and sweet!
Saturday – 13/4
Another family day! As always Mint got my undivided attention in the morning which was unfortunately followed by lots of boring housework. After she woke up we took the train to Hampstead Heath. We hadn’t been before so we were blown away by the amazing views of the city and the stunning hills. We could have wondered around the park for hours but we had other exciting things on the agenda. We visited my friend Gabby (@gabberdashery) and her husband Stephen to meet their gorgeous baby Beatrix! She’s only 3 weeks old and nothing makes me happier than cute little baby cuddles.
I had a hard time leaving Bea behind, but Gabby wouldn’t let me steal her. We took the train home again and after Mint had her dinner and was down for the night we enjoyed a quiet evening in watching Netflix (currently watching Homeland season 7).
Sunday – 14/4
Maarten took care of Mint this morning so I could get ready for another sewing class at Sewisfaction. It ran from 10.30am till 4.30pm and it was the “Dress in a day” class for beginners. There were 5 lovely ladies in the class and they used some of my favourite patterns; the Coco dress and the Cleo dress. I had a lot of fun teaching this as they were all really chatty and everyone left with a new dress and a big smile on their face! Teaching a whole day can be pretty tiring, but it’s so rewarding to see how much people enjoy the class and I love to spread the sewing bug of course!
I came home at 5.30pm and after I put Mint down for bed Maarten had prepared my favourite meal: burgers and sweet potato fries! He made it (as always) from scratch, including the burger and delicious bun. I could not have wished for a better end to this week!
