How I've been adapting to self-isolation

It's been about a month or so since Australia moved to a lifestyle of self-isolation, staying at home unless necessary, and avoiding contact with other people. At first, it was a pretty massive adjustment for a lot of us, as our evenings and weekends no longer involved going out for a meal, hitting the gym, catching up with friends for Saturday brunch, seeing a movie at the cinema, or going to church on Sundays. I generally like to try to keep a positive mindset, so I've been discovering new ways of adapting my old hobbies to keep entertained and happy during these times. I've given a summary of a few of these below if you're looking for new some ways to stay busy at the moment.

My working from home tips

With many of us working from home in this current crazy state of the world, I thought it would be a good time to share the tips I have learnt over the past four years since I began working from home. I definitely learnt the hard way in many respects, from some days spent in my pyjamas until midday, to going far too long without leaving the house - habits that I quickly discovered were not conducive to a productive working day. So, I thought it might be useful to share the below 10 tips for anyone who has found themselves in the position of being at home with your laptop and not too sure how to navigate this new way of life.

Foraging Throughout Tasmania is now available!

My cookbook, Foraging Throughout Tasmania, is now available to purchase!

Exciting news...I wrote a cookbook!

I can't quite believe that I am writing this post, however after two years of working on this project, I am so ecstatic to announce that I have written a cookbook! Foraging Throughout Tasmania is a collection of simple, delicious and wholesome recipes that I have created over the past few years, and particularly since moving to Tasmania. It is a collection of 40 recipes including 20 savoury and 20 sweet recipes, and focuses on nourishing and nutritious meals, along with some more indulgent treats (because we all need balance in our lives).

How (and why) I got into the habit of waking up at 5:30am

Years ago, the thought of waking up at 5:30am every week day would have made me head straight back under my doona. However, about two years ago, as I settled into a working-from-home routine, I decided to try exercising first thing in the morning, rather than at lunchtime or in the evening. Over this period, I have discovered a number of things that have helped me get into the routine of waking up at 5:30am each week day, which I thought might be useful to anyone who may be wanting to set their alarm a bit earlier each day.

A few sustainable practices I have been adopting lately

More and more these days, we are hearing and learning about sustainable practices that we can be adopting in our lives to prevent further pollution to, and deterioration of, the environment. I think it can be pretty overwhelming knowing where to start sometimes, given that excessive consumption and consumerism is such a major part of our lives these days, however I have slowly been trying to incorporate more sustainable habits into my life over the past few months and years to do my part for the environment. Before starting each of these, I thought it would all be a bit of a faf and would cause more inconvenience in my life, but honestly, once I started incorporating them into my life, I realised it really isn't a burden and once each of these became a habit, I haven't thought twice about them.

My travel packing tips

Since moving to Tasmania a few years ago, I have definitely become more of an expert in the area of packing, due to the increased number of trips we make back to the mainland (I really am Tasmanian now) for weddings, family occasions, long weekends and holidays. Over this time, I have honed in on a number of packing habits that I try to adopt each time that I embark on a trip away from home.

Small tasks I do each week to stay organised

Something that I have noticed over the past few years, and even more so since working from home, is that if I put in a little bit of extra effort to stay organised each week, I am much happier and calmer each day. There are a number of tasks that I try to complete each week relating to my home, doing exercise, and general life admin, which help to make me feel that little bit more organised.

My favourite beaches in Tasmania

One of the many things I love about Tasmania is the expanse of incredible beaches on offer, often only a short drive away from where you are living or staying. In particular, I love the fact that you might visit one of these beaches in the middle of summer, and be one of the only people on the sand or in the water (a very foreign concept for someone who grew up in Sydney). I thought I'd put together a list of my top five favourite beaches in Tasmania, though it was hard narrowing it down to just five, given how many beautiful, clean, serene and uncrowded spots there are in this amazing state.

My day on a plate when working from home

One of the benefits of working from home is the flexibility to cook or assemble whatever I like throughout the day (as well as the lack of temptation to spend $10-15 on a measly sandwich from the cafe at the bottom of an office building). I am quite a nosy person when it comes to what people eat (one of my favourite types of videos to watch on YouTube are 'What I Eat In A Day' videos), so I thought I'd put together a post on what my average day of food looks like as I work from home.

Attempting the 10x10 challenge

One of my favourite blogs that I've discovered over the past few years is Caroline Rector's blog, Un-fancy, which delves into the world of capsule wardrobes and minimalism when it comes to fashion and style. Caroline has, over the years, embarked on a collaborative challenge with another blogger, Lee Vosburgh of Style Bee, who, in 2015, created the 10x10 challenge.

My approach to fitness over the years

Over the past few years, my approach to exercise and fitness has changed quite a bit. When I was in school, a lot of my exercise revolved around school sports, and I found that it was pretty easy to get my required amount of exercise from the various organised team sports that I played. However, it wasn't until I left school and got to uni that I realised how hard it can be to make exercising a habit. I joined a gym the year after I left school, and after trying a few different classes and personal workout programs, I soon discovered that group fitness classes were my favourite form of exercise.

My favourite ethical brands

Over the past couple of years, I have slowly been discovering the world of ethical and sustainable clothing. When I first heard about ethical shopping, my initial thoughts were something along the lines of 'ethical clothing is boring/unflattering/for old people/expensive', and I think these are views that can be quite common. However, as I've been delving further into these brands over the past year or two, I've come to realise that those thoughts I previously had aren't necessarily true, and I now love shopping from ethical brands for a number of reasons.

A month without shopping

As mentioned in this post, I decided to try a little experiment throughout the month of March, where I went one month without shopping for any non-consumables. This included clothes, shoes, books, jewellry, accessories, homeware items, etc.

My meal prepping routine

Ever since moving out of home and getting married a bit over six years ago, I've definitely experienced a broad range of meal prepping routines over this time, from not thinking at all about what meals I'll make in the coming week (and either ordering take away or ducking up to the local IGA to spend far too much on ingredients), to planning out every lunch and dinner in advance for the coming week.

Delving further into the world of minimalism

Over the past few years, I have really been fascinated by the world of minimalism. I've been interested in minimalism since around 2015 when I read Marie Kondo's famous book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, but I think the move to Hobart, combined with rediscovering The Minimalists podcast, has rekindled my interest in this subject lately. Minimalism is essentially the concept of removing any items or things in your life that don't spark joy or bring value, and only keeping those things that you truly love (and only bringing new things into your life that you love), enabling you to focus on the more important values and relationships in your life.

Sugar free January

One of my favourite food blogs to follow is Pinch of Yum, and in December, a post went up on that blog about sugar free January. Essentially, sugar free January is what the name says - it is a challenge to give up refined sugar for a month. As someone who definitely has a sweet tooth, and will always reach for the cupcake or brownie over a meat pie or sandwich at an afternoon tea, I thought this would be an interesting challenge to attempt.

First impressions of Hobart

While it has only been about two weeks since we moved to Hobart, so far we have absolutely loved living in this city. After first moving to Tassie two years ago, where we spent a year in Launceston (and to be honest, found the transition pretty difficult), to moving to Burnie a year ago (which was a much smoother transition than the previous year), to now living down south in Hobart, I have found this new part of the world to be extremely beautiful and calm with its natural surroundings, yet also busy and exciting with its city life. While we loved our time in Burnie and could easily see ourselves moving back there at some stage in the future, we are really looking forward to spending some time exploring a bigger city.

On the move again

We are about to embark on our third move in three years - this time, we are heading south and setting up home in Hobart (for hopefully more than one year). These past few weeks have been filled with packing, decluttering, organising, and emailing/calling various companies regarding the move. I wrote a post this time last year on my packing tips, but I thought it might be useful to put together a bit of an updated packing and moving guide for anyone else who might be moving homes, whether to a place 5 minutes down the road or to a completely new city.

Moving on from grief

About two months ago, my mum passed away suddenly. Nothing prepares you for the shock of something like this, from receiving the initial phone call at 2am, to arriving at the hospital to see mum lying in an ICU bed, to receiving the final confirmation about 24 hours later that mum had passed away. In those first few days, it all seemed surreal, like some crazy nightmare that I was waiting to wake from. Each morning I would think, ‘what a horrible dream’, only to realise it was reality.