2017 Aspirations & How To Be In The Moment

Welcome to 2017.

This is the year that I want to start fulfilling my dreams. I've spent quite a few years floating along, now, the time has come for me to create a life that I love. Whilst using that phrases jars with me just slightly since Zoella started using a similar one - it's still something I can aspire to. Also, I don't hate Zoella.

This year I want to blog better, work harder and earn more. I want to be a better mother, a better girlfriend and a better friend. I want to love my life, my career and myself harder and I want to strive to live a more positive existence but there's one goal, one aspiration in particular that has been the focus of my thoughts for the past few weeks. Like many people, I fail at resolutions. I can go back over old diaries, paper and digital, and tell you a hundred resolutions that I have made throughout my life that I never kept,and probably quite a lot that I ended up doing the exact opposite of.

A lot of people scoff at setting goals and aspirations at New Year. Oh, "it's just another day" and "what's the point I've never kept them". But I see the New Year, despite definitely being 'just another day' where things go wrong, as a chance to look at what I am not achieving that I definitely want to - and there aren't a huge number of other days in the year that I bother to sit down and mull over that.

I spend a lot of time rushing from one thing to another. Rush to get my son to school before the only bus that won't make me late for work sails past. Rush from the bus stop to the train station because there is only a few minutes connection time. Rush from the station to work because there's only just enough tim to run there and not be late. I rush through the morning trying to get everything down and I rush around at lunchtime because I have a 20 mins period to do things like, eat, go to the bank, take a top back, go to the post office. I rush through the afternoon willing the day to end so I can go home and then I rush to the school to pick Ramsey up before the 6pm deadline. We then rush to the shops and home before I collapse and I make dinner as quickly as I can because bedtime is approaching then we rush through a bath...

You get the idea.Life is a rush. All through these days (eat sleep repeat), I'm willing the time to hurry up so I'm one day closer to the weekend and at the weekend, I rush from eating to meeting to cleaning always thinking of the next thing I need to get done.

I found myself saying a few times after the holidays ended this week - it just rushed past. One minute I was drinking Prosecco at work and the next minute I was back at work opening my brand new desk diary you know? There didn't seem to have been a moment of time that took the duration that it should have. I freaked myself out a bit, is time speeding up? Am I going to wake up tomorrow and I'll be 78 and my life will have gone in a flash? I still think the answer to that question is yes, but now, I have a plan.

I am going to recognise each moment that happens.

It's a big one, I know. It's also impossible because who could do that? Every second? No-one. Maybe some mindfulness supremo that lives every second with intent or whatever, that isn't me. But if I set the goal to try and be in the moment as much as possible, perhaps the terrifying rush of life will at least seem to be going just a little slower and I can try and revel in the existence that I have.

When I was younger time seemed to pass incredibly slowly. I would lay awake at night sometimes and not be able to sleep and the time would seem to be taking eons to slip past. I've sat in bad jobs before and looked at the clock, only to look four hours later and see that just five minutes have passed. That doesn't happen anymore. Maybe because I really love my current job and there isn't enough hours in the day to do everything that I want to achieve with it, maybe because I'm older.

I've rambled a little here, but I don't really mind and I hope you don't either. I really love looking at at my New Year posts and seeing whether or not I have fulfilled my goals for the year - back in 2012 I wrote a list of goals that I wanted to achieve and it's been a real benchmark in how I feel my adult life is going, even though they are all pretty silly. You can read the full post linked here. I hope I can look back at this in the same way towards the end of year and have some input into whether I was able to put more of a focus on appreciating the moments of my life.

Blogwise, I want to ramp things up. I'll be posting more regular content giving insights into how Influences are making money and developing a whole industry under the umbrella of marketing, I'll be sharing behind-the-scenes look at some of the marketing projects that I'm working on with some major e-commerce and high street beauty and fashion brands, and I'll be looking to share plenty of gig and festival reviews and info. Happy 2017!!

The Curious Yellow Weekend, The Gibberd Gardens with Sweetcornbread

I've been sitting here staring at a white box trying to work out how to start this post and to say everything I want to about the incredible weekend we had at The Curious Yellow.

Firstly, I didn't know if I would be going until late Friday afternoon, when a hurried trip for more tent pegs and a portable battery charger happened but we still weren't sure if there were enough tickets. 

However, after the usual conflicts about getting everything into the car, we packed everyone up and set off for the secret location, which turned out to be some of the most beautiful and cleverly arranged gardens I have ever experienced. 

We arrived just a the sun was setting, and pitched our tents in a little circle with some of the other band members and everyone else who had come along for the ride.

 There had been quite a secretive air about this festival, and I had no idea what to expect. I knew it would be a little larger than Rumbellion and probably a lot less commercial than Rhythms Of The World, but I had no idea just how far from reality I would be, and how  transformed I would feel afterwards.

The first night, there was the most incredible thunderstorm, lighting up the sky, the (way too dark, lights needed next time!) campsite and the beautiful sculptures for hours whilst pouring sheet rain onto our unprepared heads. We danced the night away in The Dome to psytrance and the sound of thunder overhead, then retired to a huge Bedouin tent, set up with blankets and airbeds where I managed to ignore the fear of a reveller standing on me and captured a few hours sleep.

And when I woke up....I had the most incredible morning. I have kind of gushed about this part of my weekend to everyone I have come across in the days following, so I'll try and keep it short.

 At 6am the sun rose through the trees and the gardens came to life. I managed to capture these photos on my phone of the sun filtering through trees surrounding a multi-leveled brook and the main pathway between the three arenas of the festival. There was noone about. I tried to rush back to campsite to rouse someone else to show these beautiful pools of light streaming through but I knew it wouldn't last long and I came back to drink up the full experience. I don't know why at this point it didn't occur to me to go and stand in one of the beams. I wish I had!

I went on a solitary walk around the gardens. The festival was held in three connected fields at the bottom of the site. Leading away from the main path, which wound past the brook and was lit by clear hanging bulbs at night, were lots of smaller, overgrown pathways between giant, tropical looking plants. I delved in, winding round and round a small freshwater spring (which kept us sustained through the hottest weekend of the year!) and coming across clearings with beautifully placed sculptures and artworks. My absolute favorite piece in the gardens was a pair of majestic columns and accompanying carved urns, set in a clearing and so totally unexpected. I wished there had been an opportunity to party under these Altantis like structures, maybe next year Curious Yellow? Turns out they are actually salvage from the old Coutts bank on the Strand, but I can dream, right?

The Saturday was one of the hottest days of my life, and even though we had prepared by freezing six 2 litre bottles of water, and I hate complaining about beautiful weather, there were a few times I felt I was boiling inside my skin and had to lie down under some cooling undergrowth.

We ate pizza and pancakes and egg and bacon rolls for the entire weekend. Big love to the Crew Salam people for providing us with sustenance from their pizza oven, and to The Love Shack for their never-ending supply of ice, rum and glitter...

The second night was incredible, listening to the band we came with, Sweetcornbread, smashing their set in the early evening and dancing all night to the other bands in the main arena, followed up with watching a way too short dragon staff fire display. My phone was dead at this point, and I think those sort of things are very hard to capture on a phone anyway, but take my word for it, it was pretty cool to watch.

I stayed up until 5.30, determined to catch the sunrise again and stand in those pools of light, but I crashed out in a corner with a pile of blankets and a huge smile instead, and woke up about 8 for another beautiful day on the site, spend riding bikes, bouncing on space hoppers and enjoying the sunshine.

A final highlight were the boys from The Consciousness Collective, who we met on the first morning when Tom bought round load of fruit, including avocados, fresh and cold, to wake everyone up with nutrients and friendship. They had a selection of other-worldly instruments, including a Mouth Harp, an Om Wand (my absolute next luxury purchase) and a stunning gong. I actually got to have a go on it, you can sit in front of the beautiful round plate and feel the most incredible vibrations rushing through your body, definitely something I want to experience again and again. I want to thank them for their welcoming attitude and their openness in letting us amateurs try out their instruments and giving me a new obsession. I have spent the last hour looking up giant gongs and wishing I owned one.

Overall, one of the most beautiful experiences I have had. I cannot thank the organisers enough for such a memorable weekend, enjoyed by all in our group and definitely to be repeated next year. Have a look on their website for more information about this festival, and follow them on facebook - We will be going next year for certain!!

Reality bites today!

Thanks to Zoe, Tasha and Jim for the photos in this post. I wish I had taken some nighttime ones to really show how feral everyone went, but I think it was probably best that my battery died instead ha!

I'm on the look out for more social media work, if you are a band or event organiser looking for write-ups or social media help, please get in touch via email, here.

Rhythms Of The World with The Turner Brothers

This weekend was all about Rhythms Of The World and the Turner Brothers...

I started the morning customising my Turner Brothers tee, I didn't like the high neckline in the photos from the last festival so I slashed it up and sewed on a sparkly bow from one of my Lucky Dip Club boxes and I'm pretty pleased with how it looks now, I'm planning to do a black one for the next gig, I'll try and do a little DIY on my blog.

Rhythms of the World is a two-day festival held annually in Hitchin. I absolutely love the ethos of the event, which is all about bringing together local people through music and the arts. There were so many great acts over the two days as well as a ridiculous array of beautiful food and fun activities for children and adults.

I didn't know what to expect from this festival. I knew it was going to be much bigger than the previous gigs I'd joined The Turner Brothers on and that they were playing on the BBC Introducing stage. I was still pretty surprised when we arrived at the site and finally got through the rather stringent security. I wish I'd taken a shot of the place later in the day because by late afternoon every spare patch of ground was filled with people dancing and having a great time!

You can tell from these photos that we were not as lucky with the weather as we were at Rumbellion!

One of my favourite things about these festivals is all the amazing food options. ROTW had pretty much ever food you could ever want, and I did my best to shovel as much into my mouth as possible.

The band were fantastic, I absolutely love seeing them live anyway, but they really rocked it. At the start there was a lot of rain and the field was looking a little bare but they the end there was a huge crowd going right up the hill and everyone was having a great time!

Can you spot me having a dance?

Here are a few of my very favourite shots from the boys performance, you can see a lot more on the Facebook page for the band as well as updates, gig dates and videos of their performances at this and other festivals.

And then we celebrated! If I had one criticism about ROTW, it would be that considering there was a £15 entrance fee, everything was very, very expensive. It was almost impossible to get food for under a fiver, even doughnuts were £4.50 for six. It makes it pretty expensive for families with more than one child to attend these kind of events which is a real shame because there was an incredible selection of food, music and stalls to enjoy. We hung about backstage for a bit...

This is actually the next VIP area to us. We pounced immediately on our snacks and water and left a trail of carnage behind. This seemed better for a photo!

And then we found a bar where they sold buckets of Pina Colada...well that was pretty much it for me after that :)

Next gig is a smaller one down in Suffolk, details here. Oh yeah...and that's Goatboy. He has his own Facebook page here. He likes festivals and rock climbing and going feral.

The day ended with a beautiful curry at Turner Towers washed down with some ice cold beer (Thank you Mrs. Turner!!) and I fell into bed extremely tired and happy, coated in glitter and Pina Colada...

I'm so super lucky to able to go along to these things, we really have a brilliant time at every single one ♥♥♥

Thank you also to my lovely boyfriend Jay for being the most amazing impromptu photographer for the band!!

(I'm looking to take on a a new social media client - if you are an individual or small business whose social media could do with a boost, get in touch for a chat, email me here)

#BRINGBACKCOSMIC

When did you last hear the word COSMIC?

If you are one of my friends, or in fact have met me in the last few weeks, you may have heard it from me. I've started a little project to try and get COSMIC said a little more. It's a great word.

So, #bringbackcosmic is a thing now. Well, I'm trying to make it a thing. So far, I've asked everyone I have met in the last week to try and find an opportunity to use it and spread the word!

You might hear some especially cosmic music, see a particularly cosmic film, or even be standing under the night sky and suddenly feel a little cosmic. If you see an opportunity to  describe something as cosmic, please use it, and let me know using the hashtag #bringbackcosmic on Instagram or twitter 

Saw these two at a festival recently and told them both they were extremely COSMIC.