Grey February... My Top 5 Tips to get through these gloomy grey days!

Personally speaking, I find February probably one of the hardest months when it comes to mental wellbeing - it's hard to feel chipper when the sky is endlessly grey! With the excitement of the festive season behind us, and the feeling that spring is ages away, it's often difficult to beat off that lingering feeling of gloominess... 

But hang on a second, let's not get swept away with too much doom and gloom! 

It's easy to let the dull winter days pull you down, so I wanted to do everything I can to bring you some colour and brighten up your day a little bit. It's easy to overlook the grey days when Christmas is here - all those twinkly lights to make things cosy. But this time of year is definitely what I call the "bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan" (who hasn't moaned at bleakness and frosty wind?!). 

So let's have a little splash of colour to warm ourselves up!

Spring Colour Inspiration - colourful gifts and home decor to brighten your grey February days!

I think it's also important to take stock and try to look at things with some positivity. Here's my top 5 ways to look at grey February with a bit of positivity:

1. The little glimmers of springtime are starting to appear this month (yes, you may have to look hard, but trust me they're there!). I've spotted little snowdrops by the roadside here in chilly Lincolnshire, and the daffodils will be joining in soon with a blast of glorious yellow. 
2. The cold weather means that we can still enjoy cosiness in our home - lighting candles, cosying up with a lovely blanket, a hot chocolate before bed. Creating a cosy environment and a warm sanctuary to escape the dreariness. We don't want to do any of that in the summer, so let's enjoy it while we can! Treat yourself to the little pleasures in life when you need a little lift.
3. You can always introduce a little colour into your life to balance the grey days. Open your curtains wide to let in as much light as you can, treat yourself to a bunch of flowers (I think you can't beat carnations for bringing a little cheer - affordable plus they last for ages!), add a couple of cheery colourful new decor pieces to your room for a freshen up.
4. Because we're at the start of the year we've got everything in front of us to look forward to. It's a great time to set goals for the year and plan adventures. Having something to look forward to can make all the difference in maintaining a positive mindset. While February may be grey and cold, it’s also a month full of quiet opportunities for self-reflection, growth, making plans.
5. February is short - so if nothing else, at least we know it won't be hanging around for long!

Trust me, there's tiny glimmers of warmth just around the corner - warmer days are on their way soon. And in the meantime, embrace the stillness and quiet of the season, find joy in small moments, and make space for the things that bring you peace and positivity. The days are gradually getting longer and the world will begin to bloom again. Until then, take February as a time to recharge and appreciate the little things that spark joy.

The world outside may feel cold and grey, but there’s always a spark of positivity to be found (even if we have to look hard sometimes). Keep smiling - spring is on its way!

Sarah x

How to stay productive when you're working from home - my top 5 tips

Ah, that old chestnut - I've been in this game for a few years now, so I'm a bit of an expert. You won't find me getting distracted by the contents of the world wide web, or the dog/cat, or household chores, or my phone... No. Noooo. Not me. Ahem.

OK, so you may be surprised to hear I'm not super-human when it comes to knuckling down - although I do think I'm not all that bad really. Of course, doing a job you enjoy helps, but even then there's still a lot of things you don't want to do/can't be bothered with that leads to all sorts of prevarication and distraction. And sometimes, even knowing it's something you HAVE to do RIGHT NOW doesn't even help give the proverbial kick up the bum you need to get productive.

So, what to do, what to do? Here's a few little tips I've found work for me over the years - hopefully they might prove useful to you too.

The sound of silence...

I hate it, can't work in silence, never have. You may not be the same, but if you find quiet distracting then my tip is to put on the radio (not the TV, never ever the TV!). Personally I listen to Radio 4 all day long while I'm working, plus occasional podcasts when I know I can listen (because most of the time I'm not actually listening, it's there just rumbling in the background in a comforting kind of way). It reminds me there are other people working out there in the world too. Which leads me onto...

Body-doubling...

If you find working at home completely on your own is hard, and background noise from a radio for example doesn’t work, sometimes just having another person present in the room is enough to spur you on. So maybe work in a coffee shop or library for a couple of hours a day.

It's all about timing...

When are you most productive? If you're sitting down at your desk at 9am on the dot and expecting to find the creative juices flowing when you don't actually hit your creative sweet spot until after lunch, then you're on a road to nowhere. Plan your day around when your brain is feeling it. Use the non-creative time to do the mundane stuff. I personally find I can't knuckle down until I've sorted out my emails and done the admin stuff. It frees my mind, knowing that it's all organised and now I can relax and do the productive, creative things I need to do.

Finding your place…

Make sure that the area you work in is comfy, well lit, and YOURS (at the very least, for the time you need to be working at it). And make your area attractive: a nice plant or a fancy pot to put your pens in is sometimes enough - but don’t try to work amongst clutter or housework that needs doing, it messes with your head, your creativity, and it’s super-distracting (as in: “I’ll just tidy up before I get onto to those emails..”)! Get those urgent chores done before you even sit down to start your work day. Equally, unplugging from social media can help you to keep productive - we all know how much of a glorious timewaster it can be! Turn off the notifications so there are no pop-ups trying to lure you back in.

Plan your day…

I find having a scatter-gun approach to work can be really distracting; where you simply react to things as they happen. I know I work much more productively if I can allot sections of my day to certain tasks. As I’ve said, I start my day by going through emails because it also gives me an idea of what needs to be done that day so that I can prioritise. I try to tackle any jobs that I don’t want to do first rather than leave them to later in the day - this includes anything that’s boring, difficult (because I know it will play on my mind all day if I don’t do it early on), or annoying. Take regular breaks during the day, making sure you actually get up off your chair and move. I don’t have set times for this because it’s not always possible to do, but even just getting up to make a cuppa and stare out of the window while the kettle boils is enough to give your brain some downtime and be able to go back refreshed.

It can often feel as if productive, efficient people must be some kind of robot - but they’re just people that have found their workflow: and you can too!

Sarah x

How to get printer ink off your hands...

Getting ink off fingers - choose your weapon!

Running a business like PhotoFairytales, this is a regular occurrence for me - I rarely manage to change an ink cartridge on my printer without managing to get a few smudges on my hands. Drives me mad!

This morning I had a complete disaster when a black cartridge decided to flood ink all over me, coating my finger tips and palms. So this is what I tried to get it off:

• Straight away I reached for the nail varnish remover - took off a bit, but not very much.
• Next I sent my OH into the garage to fetch his Swarfega (I love the smell of this stuff!) - and that, coupled with an awful lot of scrubbing took off another layer or two.
• But I still had ink ingrained into the grooves of my skin, so after some quick googling, I found a tip that mentioned hairspray. I sprayed some over my fingertips, waited for about 10-15 seconds, then scrubbed it off with some soapy water and the nail brush again. By this time the skin of my poor hands were starting to rebel from all the hard scrubbing!

I’ve still got some ink imbedded in the grooves of my fingertips, but the ink on my palms has by now pretty much gone. I would say that I’ve managed to get 95% of the ink out of my skin - certainly enough to be ‘passable’! (Although I think if I worked in an environment where my hands had to look completely spotless they wouldn’t pass.)

The only other thing left to try is a bleach solution (roughly 1 part bleach to 10 parts water). But my hands are suffering from all the scrubbing as it is so I’m not going to bother this time - but I’m sure it would be the ‘big guns’ if I did need them to be totally flawless. (I’ve also heard that window cleaner is worth a try, and also those ‘magic eraser’ sponges, but I have a feeling bleach would be the best final resort.)

So I shall give my poor hands a rest and give them a treat with some of my Body Shop Hemp Hand Protector (seriously, this is the best handcream I have ever, EVER, tried). My hands are so prone to dryness and if I don’t look after them (or have a day when they’re in and out of water), they get sore and cracked - but this hemp handcream is great at restoring them. I can’t praise it highly enough, so if you’re looking for a really heavy-duty handcream I’d definitely recommend it. Bloomin’ marvellous (bit pricey, but lasts for ages)!

Have you found something miraculous for getting printer ink out of your fingers? If you've got any other tips do leave a comment and let me know!

Sarah :)

4th April 2015: Update - new tip! 

After having to discombobulate (yes, I'm pretty sure that's a real word...) my daughter's desk over the weekend we discovered her printer had been quietly leaking blue ink, forming a massive pool of the stuff under itself. Glorious! So, after cleaning up the hateful mess I was once again faced with inky fingers. This time though, I reached for the toothpaste - and have to share this fabulous tip because it does work really well (and smells an awful lot nicer than bleach, etc).

I used whitening toothpaste (not sure if standard toothpaste will do the trick): rubbed it over the inky bits, left it to work for about a minute, then scrubbed with the nail brush. It cleaned off nearly all of it - I just have a little bit left in the cuticles of my nails, but then again, I was COVERED in the stuff, so I think that's pretty good going! So, whitening toothpaste is going to be my secret weapon for cleaning printer ink off my hands from now on.

Mmmm... minty fresh! ;)

Sarah x

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