Make your home a sanctuary

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Where to start? The past two weeks have felt like we are all playing a part in a film about the apocalypse. Most of the time it hasn’t felt real and I often feel like I am about to wake up from a bad dream. Living with fear and the unknown has been so hard for all of us and I know from the messages that I have received that many of you are finding it hard to sleep, concentrate on anything and we are all experiencing extreme highs and lows. I am trying to find and focus on the positives each day, and have found that limiting myself to one hour of news at 5pm recently has really helped. We did have the radio and rolling news on up until a few days ago, and I found myself in a permanent state of anxiety.

Although we live in London, we are extremely lucky to have some outside space and I know that this isn’t the case for everyone. I feel that gratitude every evening, as we have had some beautiful weather this week and we have spent most of our days in the garden soaking up the sunshine which has felt like such a tonic.

I set up the seated space on the decking every morning with a rug and cushions and a few blankets (It is not quite warm enough without the blankets yet) so that it feels cosy and welcoming. I do take everything in at night as we don’t have an outdoor rug, but it has become a nice ritual that I do at the end of each day while listening to music.

I am trying not to think too much about how many weeks of isolation we are facing and find the best approach is just to get through one day at a time. It’s our 11th day of complete isolation. We took the children out of school and isolated a week earlier than the rest of the country as my mum (who lives with us) had various symptoms that we thought might be the dreaded Covid-19. Until the antibody test is available we won’t know for sure, but with the absence of a cough, we made the assumption that it was likely to have been a different virus. Thankfully, she is feeling much better now. We have been lucky enough to get Ocado deliveries, although the selection of groceries is very limited we have been able to find the odd delivery slot. However most of our meals have been from our usual weekly deliveries of Hello Fresh which thankfully seem to remain unaffected by the panic buying.

When it comes to home schooling, I have taken a fairly relaxed approach with Charlie. He is given set work to do each day, but I figure as long as he gets it done at some point in the day, that’s good enough, so we don’t have a timetable to stick to. The girls are following their usual school timetables and do have to log in to Google classroom every morning for their remote lessons. Home schooling is so much easier with children in senior school, as you really don’t have to supervise much at all. I know that the girls are really starting to miss their friends now, so I have completely relaxed my usual phone rules. Their ‘house parties’ with their friends are their lifelines right now.

I am trying to keep a routine of waking up at 7 in the week, having a shower, getting dressed and putting make-up on. I may not make it out of my slippers, but feeling ‘ready’ from the shins upwards makes me feel so much better in myself. I had planned to read books and watch lots of great telly, but so far, I am finding it very hard to concentrate on anything, and find myself darting around from one task to the other at home. I do exercise every day (sometimes only 20 minutes) and have really enjoyed Melissa Wood Health for Pilates. I trialled it free for 7 days, but as I have frozen my gym membership, I think I will continue with the paid subscription.

Work wise, most of my contracts have been paused, but I do still have two collaborations to deliver, so I am working on those this week. I know that in a time like this, sponsored content may feel misplaced to an audience, but I hope that you will be understanding of my need to continue working if the work is there (now more than ever) and I hope that you enjoy the content that I have to share with you. Thank you to everyone that is supportive of the projects that I take on.

Well that’s my update for now. I really hope that you are all well and safe and if you are still working, a heartfelt thank you for putting yourself at risk under very difficult circumstances to help others.

Love,

Chloe

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My staying home edit

Since we are all going to be spending all of our time at home for the forseeable, I thought I would share a few ideas of things to make it feel like more of a sanctuary.

I am on the lookout for a new summery table cloth so that we can start to have BBQs and eat outside and I thought this one from La Redoute was such a bargain. They have up to 60% off at the moment, so now would be a good time to buy items that you may need such as a new coffee table (we have this one) or dining chairs like these.

I am going to buy this lovely set of cutlery which is currently half price to use for our ‘outdoor’ meals. I thought this rainbow cushion would be a lovely addition to a child’s bedroom especially as rainbows signifying hope will become a reminder of this time in our lives. I am looking at diffusers and calming essential oils for our kitchen and a couple of extra cushions to add colour to the garden.

If you practise yoga or pilates I would highly recommend purchasing a good mat. Not only does it make your session more comfortable but it sets the workout zone both physically and mentally. I have also finally ordered myself a pair of these pilates socks.

Enjoy and thank you for reading!

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