Friday 25 November 2011

The power of tidy

I’ve always been a relatively neat and tidy soul – I find mess distracting and disorientating, but its only recently that I’ve fully discovered the delights of decluttering.  Whether it’s an attempt to impose order on a world where I feel I’ve lost a little control, I don’t know, but I wish I could bottle the satisfaction to be gained from a really good sort out.  Taking a drawer, a cupboard, or a shelf, emptying it, getting rid of the broken, the unused, the unwanted, the unflattering and putting it back in order gives me a deep level of contentment.
A beautifully colour coded wardrobe, where everything is clearly visible, fits me, is clean and works for me – well I’m still working towards that.  One of the big challenges I’m facing at the moment is that since having a baby, I’m not only slightly bigger than I was, but I also feel as if my clothes need to grow up.  And that’s difficult to come to terms with. 
But shelf by shelf, drawer by drawer, I’m working through the clothes – each sweep is more ruthless than the last.  And soon I hope I’ll have a wardrobe I’m happy to photograph and show in public.
But its an addition that could become a problem.  When I’ve done my own, maybe I’ll have to start on other people’s?

Tuesday 22 November 2011

Emerging blinking into the light

I'll get round to telling you more about me in the following posts.  But just for starters, I wanted to post the reason for writing.

I never thought I'd start a 'Mummy blog'.  I never thought I'd be a mummy - that was never really the plan.  But now I am, and there are a lot of things I suddenly seem to need to say.  Even if no-one is reading them.

With my little biscuit now 14 months, and having returned to work in the City, I'm becoming increasingly aware that who I was a couple of years ago, isn't who I am now, or who I'm likely to be again.  I was a cocktail drinking, designer clothes wearing, new restaurant visiting, marathon running city girl.  I didn't live in an episode of Sex and the City, but at times it seemed like it.
Then I found myself pregnant by surprise (I was a bit old to be surprised in such a manner, but these things happen).
And what I had always seen as my life plan was thrown in the air.  My body isn't the same as it was, my social life definitely isn't, and I'm definitely not the superfit superwoman I used to be.
But I have discovered a new love for my home and my family, an interest in embroidery that surprised me, and a skill for organisation outside work that has given me pleasure.  I'm still trying on the new me for size, so I'm hoping that this blogging experiment will help me through the maze to find a new way of living that suits me, and my family.

Watch this space for items about fashion, style, keeping house, cooking, London finds, motherhood, exercise, work, relationships, happiness and many other musings on life, 

Happy reading,

Ali