OK so I’m not sure where the time’s gone already, and it’s only the beginning of the year, but January it’s already over when the year seems to be just started to me! Anyone else?

This last month I’ve been all about staying cosy, being healthier and grab inspiration everywhere, and this is perfectly reflected in my January favourites selection! So here are a few things I’ve loved this last month…

Rose Facial Wash – Neal’s Yard

BEAUTY

This month my beauty regimen has been extremely basic, even more than the usual, but one thing I was excited to try was this 100% organic Neal’s Yard Rose Facial Wash I’ve been meaning to buy for quite a while now. This cleanser is making me excited to get out of bed every morning (even though I swear I can’t feel my feet everytime they pop out of the duvet) just for its amazing and calming rose scent!

It’s a pleasure to use: so nicely gentle, refreshing and easy to apply, it makes for the perfect morning and evening cleansing routine. Apparently it’s one of Neal’s Yard best sellers and I can easily see why!

Organic Relax Vata Tea – Pukka ; Algae Omega 3 ℅ NothingFishy

FOOD + HEALTH

You know I love my nighttime teas, and I just needed the perfect excuse to incorporate the same flavours and scents in my everyday tea. So this Pukka option, featuring organic chamomile, fennel and marshmallow root, totally felt very appropriate this January. Everytime I curl up with a cup of this sweet tea, I can’t help but enter a cosy and calm mood that’s doing a lot of good to concentration and with helping to switch off!

Over the course of the last few years, I’ve been very interested into implementing Omega 3 into my diet but have always struggled to find tablets that didn’t taste fishy or contained any fish oil at all. I was so excited to be introduced to NothingFishy!

They make Omega 3 tablets from algae only, because the actual primary source of Omega 3, and also where fishes are getting them in a first place, are algae (of course, why didn’t I discover that earlier?!). This also means you’re not getting all the nasties and pollution that fishes absorb from the sea, because their algae are grown in a controlled environment. Aside from the fact that the packaging is extremely nice, I’m really loving these tablets a lot this month: being vegetarian, I’m excited to have found an Omega 3 alternative that’s healthy and environment-friendly and completely vegan. Do check them out!

Knitting wool: Drops Alpaca Silk & De Rerum Natura Ulysse ; Book: How To Style Your Brand

LIFESTYLE

You might remember when my knitting obsession started last November: well, it’s still going strong! I’m in the process of making my very first sweater right now, but I’m constantly after new patterns and wool to try and have fun with. If you follow my Instagram profile you’ll know all about this topic and my preferences by now, but I’m 100% obsessed with the softest warmest wool by Drops, which is one of the wools I’ve picked for my sweater project (more on that soon!). But I’ve also just discovered French De Rerum Natura, that produces and sells beautiful ecological wool made in France – I can’t wait to cast on some new projects this February!

Lastly, this month I’ve read Fiona Humberstone’s How To Style Your Brand book and found it extremely inspiring. This book is full of tips and hints to make your own brand great, and although I’m already familiar with branding and design with running a design business myself, it felt so nice and refreshing to read about a different process than my own, which helped me a lot with realizing new things about my business I have never thought about before! If you want to hear more of my thoughts, you can find a mini review here.

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That’s all really! Let me know what’s on your January favourites list as well! x

In my New Year’s Resultions this January, I purposely avoided any reading goals. In the years I’ve learnt I’m not good at setting specific goals just in general, and this mainly applies to books and readings. However every January I’m extremely motivated to start new reads, and this is the time of the year, together with Summer, when not only my to-read list reaches peak, but I also get most of my reading done!

This year I’m finding myself extremely attracted to non-fiction lifestyle books especially: anything from nutrition, health, business and well-being, I’m just all about it! Especially with grey January around and a couple more months between us and Spring, I need to curl up and read anything inspirational, learn new skills or notions and find something exciting to apply to the everyday.

I’ll admitt my list was ginormous, with lifestyle books fitting in all the different categories you could think of, from decluttering your home, approaching a simpler lifestyle, photography, setting health goals and everything in between. But I restrained myself to buy them all and only limited to three (for now!). I’ve already tucked into all three, one almost finished, and really needed to share my picks…

How To Style Your Brand by Fiona Humberstone – Running my own web and brand design business full-time I already knew most of the notions in this book. But knowing a notion and branding someone else is completely different from crafting your own brand, and I’m loving this book so much because it makes you really think about the direction you want to take. It’s like having a brand stylist constantly helping you out and allowing you to see your brand from the outside! I’m sure you have all heard of this book already, but if you’re a blogger looking to up your blog game or a small business owner, this is a great and inspiring book to turn to, with lots of examples, amazing pictures and fun “homeworks”!

Eat Pretty Every Day by Jolene Hart – This time last year I read Jolene’s  famous Eat Pretty: it was a time when I just started caring a lot about what I eat and it felt pretty appropriate and also inspirational for my healthy eating journey. So this year I was very curious to give the “sequel” a proper go! Her books are just so beautiful to go through, with all the beautifully illustrated pages and sections, but I also love the contents and the way she clearly explain what-does-what a whole lot. This new book has a page for each day of the year, with different tips, health goals, food facts, recipes (and more) every day, categorized by seasons. I can’t really wait to have a proper read and have it around every day in 2017!

The Little Book Of Hygge by Meik Wiking – Everyone knows about Hygge by now, and I’m extremely late on the bandwagon, but you know how I feel about anything cosy, and this book is all about that and more! It’s a very light but interesting read: I love to curl up in the cold evenings under a blanket, light up my fairy lights and go through its pages. Jam-packed with interesting Hygge facts and happiness studies, it’s also a different way to get to know a pretty interesting country and its traditions. I was already considering to visit Denmark soon, and now I’m just sold!

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What about you? Are we currently reading the same lifestyle books?
Any suggestions on what to read next extremely appreciated… x

You might remember me (or anyone really) raving about Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up book around this time last year and swearing by the fact that it drastically changed my way of organizing, storing and, in particular, getting rid of things. Well, last year I had a major wardrobe decluttering session I was extremely proud of after reading the book, and felt extremely inspired to see how I’d get on with maintaining my wardrobe a tidy space (which has never really been in it’s entire existence, really).

As with every January, this time of the year I feel very excited about fresh new starts and feel the urge of renewing everything I can see and think of. I was curious to see the results of Marie Kondo’s technique after one entire year, and so started tidying my wardrobe from top to bottom, and… I can now say I have finally discovered the art of non-dreaded decluttering!

Although I’m not sure how healthy it can be to take everything in Marie Kondo’s book too literally, it’s such an interesting read I can’t help but want to suggest to anyone. I’m especially a big fan of her decluttering method, that helped me get rid of so many things I have accumulated over the years and have never been able to decide what to do with them.

Last year the pile of clothes I was finally getting rid of was 3x the pile of what was going back into my wardrobe. Not only it helped me a whole lot with storing things and finding what I was looking for, but I discovered my wardrobe contained things I didn’t even remember I have bought or I was never able to find before… and I used to tidy my closet twice a year, it’s not to say I’ve never tried!

Not only I didn’t need to tidy my closet in Summer last year, but what’s even better, I was amazed by how quick this year’s wardrobe decluttering and tidying ended up being! I went through all my pieces of clothing and discovered only a very very small pile haven’t been useful this past year, which basically means I have used 90% of my closet during the year and I still love and want to wear every single piece that’s in there!

This basically means this January my only tidying task was getting rid of what I have realized I’m not going to use anymore during the year. And then put everything back in there, in order of what I’ll wear and in which season. I also found very inspiring most of Marie Kondo’s techniques of folding and storing clothes, which I’m still sticking to this time!

Half-an-hour later I was already done with my wardrobe and felt so inspired that I decided it was about time to do some serious decluttering in the whole room. I finally have a nicely tidy bookcase, and you know when they say ‘tidy space, tidy mind‘? Well, I don’t know how I was working all these past months when all I could see was a big overcluttered mess right next to me! I was even able to build a little neat tea section (because that makes me happy!) where before there was only space for randomly piling things up between one shelf and another.

Just in case you are curious, I’ve popped a couple more clothes I can’t quite bear the thought of throwing away (because they’re pretty good in conditions) on my Depop page for only a few ££ (everything under £10), just because I believe they should have a second chance and find a new home!

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How about you and your relationship with decluttering and tidying?