The theme for this month’s Studio collaboration is “Back to Work / Back to School” to prep for September. I can still feel the excitement that I felt every late summer when we would get our class list and school supply list in the mail. Is there anything more memorable than the smell of a brand new box of crayons? I really don’t think so!
And as I got older, I was no longer doing back to school shopping in the same way, but I loved getting a first day back outfit for high school and university. Because to kick the term off to a new start, I needed a new ensemble. Obviously.
This year, I’m not going back to school, nor have I done for many, many moons now. Though long-time readers will know that I LOVE being a student and if I was independently wealthy I’d be a student forever and learn 1 million different things.
Other than our week camping in Scotland in July, we haven’t had any real holidays so I don’t have a huge back to work feeling, but I do always feel that the end of the summer transitioning into the autumn is a great time to set new routines for the work year to come. Many people focus on doing this around the New Year, but I think there’s too much pressure then.
Whereas at the end of the summer, there is the “back to school” feeling in the air, even if you’ve been at the same job for ages, and I think it’s easier to ride that frisson into some goal setting for the next 12 months.
So my take on the theme was to focus on having healthier mornings that set me up for a more positive day for the work week. I’m very guilty of setting my alarm to be about 20 minutes before needing to be out of the house and as soon as it goes off, I leap out of bed, fly around the house like a confused goose, usually pulling on my trousers as I brush my teeth at the same time. That kind of hectic start definitely leaks into my daytime mental health.
As much as I like my snooze, my main aim is to set my alarm far earlier than I need to be up so that I can transition into the day more peacefully.
And I found some great products from Studio to help me do that.
I want to banish mindless instagram and twitter scrolling from my bedtime routine, and to do that, I can’t have my phone in the room with me as a temptation. But the only alarm clock I own is on my phone. Which is where Studio comes in with this gorgeous retro VQ Digital/FM Radio/Alarm (with bluetooth capabilities). I set the alarm here, keep my phone downstairs and spend a few minutes listening to the radio and journaling before flying off the handle getting ready.
Ideally, I’d like to then do my daily 30 minute yoga practice after that but before getting dressed, which is ambitious depending on my sleep the night before. Regardless, as soon as I’m dressed, I usually pop into the kitchen for some toast or other sweet breakfast item.
I’m going to try to add green smoothies into my regular breakfast rotation. I know that objectively, green smoothies aren’t 100% great for you and you’d be better off just eating a salad, but as long as I keep the sweeteners to a minimum it’s still a better and more sustaining option that a few slices of toast or a pastry.
Sam and I haven’t owned a blender since the marvellous blender / food processor we had for ages broke. (It was almost older than me – it was a hulking brute of a beast that was Sam’s mum’s for ages that she gave to him when he moved to London. And it lived all that time!)
Studio had a lot of great blenders to chose from but in the end, I settled on the Tower Glass Jug Blender with Grinder as it had the most number of speed settings, no plastic bottles that I’d never end up using, and the best capability to double as a food processor for the only things that I ever used a food processor for (making salsa and hummus.)
September’s theme is “cooler weather”. I’m a summer baby through and through but I’m still excited to get my hygge on.
If you enjoyed this month’s post, you might also like:
An Introduction to Studio (June)
Studio: The Great Outdoors (July)
***This post is in collaboration with Studio, but all thoughts and opinions are forever my own.***
