Y’know those days, where you come home from doing all sorts and your mind is racing, you’re bringing the outside in with you and you’re already excited for what lies ahead tomorrow? Yeah. That’s what this Summer has been like. A blur of fresh air, soft breeze and busy schedules. If you’ve been reading the blog this Summer, you’ll know that here in England we’ve been graced with incredible weather for the past three months – from the beginning of May until two weeks ago, it was blue skies and weather anywhere from 22 – 29 degrees Celsius. Pair that with garden dinners, evenings spent by the coast and endless drives watching the sun dip below the trees and you have yourself a pretty great Summer season.
Today, I wanted to do a post to bookend one that I did a few months back: my Summer bucket list. These were the plans that I laid myself for this Summer, with things to do – and get done – before the end of August. Ranging anywhere from getting outside to exploring a new city and gaining more confidence in the shoots Scott and I do for the blog and my Instagram, I gave myself some big plans for these past few months and I’m excited to share how they panned out today on the blog.
Outfit details: Yellow Poplin Shirt (Similar), White T-Shirt, Stone Chino Shorts & Teva Float-knit Sandals.
Spend More Time Outdoors
This one has a HUGE tick mark next to it. This Summer I think I spent more time outdoors than I did in. With warm weather and subtle breezes, how could I not? If you’ve been following along on Instagram, you’ll probably have seen one too many Stories from the side of the pool, with a drink in hand and a pop song or two crooning over the radio.
It’s been a Summer where we’ve spent so much time outside that even when the sun set, we’d substitute our sun lotion for comfy blankets just to spend longer under the Summer sky.
Face My Photo-Taking Fears
Last time, I talked about my confidence issues when it comes to shooting: and how I want to get better at that in public areas. I won’t lie, although we did do some more public shoots – I’m still a little shaky in my confidence. I love shooting, and sharing outfits with anybody and everybody here and on Instagram, but sometimes it can be intimidating to shoot in public for fear of what people will say/think.
This is something I’m going to carry with me into the next season and work on as we bundle up in knitwear and flannels for some seasonal shoots.
Go Berry Picking for Fresh Produce
If you guys read the blog, you’ll know of my obsession with Kenyon Hall Farm. Based in Warrington, Kenyon Hall have a great selection of ‘pick your own’ fruit fields: specialising in Summer berries during the warm seasons, and then Autumn produce during Fall. Ashamedly, I haven’t made it out to Kenyon Hall yet this Summer – but I’ll definitely be paying them a visit before I go to California in September. There’s nothing like freshly picked berries, especially when you bake them into a pie or crumble.
Spend a Weekend at the Beach
Another bucket list item I have passed with flying colours: I feel like I spent my entire Summer at the beach. I don’t know if I mention this much, but I actually live in a beach town. I’m lucky enough to be by the coast, and I have been my whole life – in fact, my favourite beach that is only 20 minutes from where I live has the most beautiful boardwalks and incredible sunsets that Scott and I turned it into our own little running track once or twice when the tide was in.
The beach was always somewhere I took for granted during the Summer of previous years, so this season I’m so glad that I jumped in and actually fell in love with it in a way I had never before. It’s now one of my favourite places in my town and I can’t wait to frequent it through Autumn and Winter, too.
Host a Summer Staycation in the Mountains
Although this is something that I have loved the idea of doing for so long, hosting a staycation in the mountains is something that I’m yet to do this year. As I mentioned in my Summer bucket list, The Lake District north of where I live is a gorgeous area of incredible views and beautiful vistas: so it’s somewhere that I’m desperate to book a weekend away to as soon as possible!
Focus on My Health and Wellbeing
Now, THIS is something that I grabbed by the horns. If you’ve been reading for a while, you’ll know that visiting the gym is something that Scott and I have been pretty dedicated to during the past two years: which began to dwindle slightly as the weather got warmer towards the middle of the year. We would still turn up at the gym, but we weren’t giving it our all and we both felt guilty for the amount of effort that we knew we weren’t putting in (especially in comparison to the amount of food we were eating outside of gym hours).
Last month, we tackled this big time by actually cutting DOWN on the amount of gym time we have. Instead of turning up 5 times a week and slacking because we knew we’d be back tomorrow, we have 3 dedicated gym days (Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday) – and because of how they’re spaced, we’ve found that we’re actually motivated to put the effort in as we know we won’t be back to try harder for another two days.
This might sound a little backwards, but by cutting back on the gym we’ve found we aren’t wasting our Summer half-assing our gym project, and are instead dedicating ourselves in a way that we hadn’t necessarily before.
Get Lost in a New City
Not yet. Although my favourite city to explore – Liverpool – was visited many, many times. I didn’t dedicate much time to go further afield outside of when I was travelling with work. However, next month Scott and I will be visiting many cities that we have never seen during our road trip from California to Nevada (you can read about that right here) so I’m very excited to immerse myself in a new culture and see cities that I’ve only ever read about.
Scream Like I Mean It at a Local Theme Park
I love theme parks. Like, LOVE them. You might have guessed this from my love of Orlando, or the fact that I will try and get to Disneyland Paris annually (aka my favourite of all the Disneys – fight me on this). Staying closer to home, this season Scott and I visited a theme park in England with two of our close friends and had the best time. Sometimes there’s nothing better than scaring yourself at a theme park, and I can’t wait for us to visit Disneyland in California next month to do the same thing all over again.
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Overall, I had one of my favourite Summers that I’ve ever had – and I’m so glad to have spent it outside and enjoying life with Scott by my side. Sometimes, life goes by so fast that we forget to appreciate what’s happening right in front of us, so I’m really happy to have taken the time to appreciate how lucky I am.
As always, thank you so much for reading – I’d love to know how your Summer has been if you want to leave it down below.
What have been your favourite Summer memories?
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