APRIL ROUNDUP - LIFE UPDATE — The Basic Bitch Blog

When I celebrated my 1 year blog-aversary I asked everyone what they would like to see more of on my blog. The one “subject” most of you want to read more of, are personal posts. I kind of struggle with personal posts because, as much as I love blogging I still like to keep a lot of my personal life private. It’s just who I am by nature. I have always been the “cards close to my chest” personality. This goes for in person friends too. A lot of them have no idea what’s going on in my life because I really don’t share. Anyone else feel that? Or are you the open book personality?

I also love creating and sharing my fashion posts and wanted to focus more on that passion for the blog, as well as keeping the content consistent. Lately though, I’ve been feeling a little uninspired for creating fashion content and have been brainstorming other ideas that I want to share. This blog was originally started as a “lifestyle” blog and leaves the door open for so many content possibilities. This doesn’t mean my fashion posts will completely stop, I mean summer is somewhere around the corner and it’s my favourite fashion season! So, you’ll still find fashion posts in between other more broad range lifestyle posts, for at least the next little while.

The easiest way to open the door to more personal posts is a roundup of what I’ve been up to the last month – and, your girl has been up to a helluva lot! I’m also not going to take credit for this blog idea. I saw this bullet point style life update on one of my favourite blogs to follow, The Middle Edit. I loved this concept of a quick update, especially with how jam packed it’s been for me. So without further ado here’s all the life stuff!

We sold our house, moved into my parents house, bought a new house and have started a full on renovation. Ok, in fairness this didn’t all happen in the month of April. We sold the house within 2 weeks of putting it on the market in uh, January? I honestly can’t remember if it was January or February we put it on the market, haha. Anyhow, the house sold much faster then we anticipated and then closed end of March. I actually wrote a brief blog post with tips for selling your home after our experience. The new house we purchased didn’t close until end of April, therefore we had nowhere to live but my parents house. So, currently my parents house has 6 adults, one very busy toddler, 4 dogs and 1 cat living in it. I’m thinking we should start vlogging our day to day adventures. However, it hasn’t been as bad as I anticipated? I mean you never know, being out on your own for so long and then all of a sudden into a house FULL to the brim can invoke some anxieties. But, everyone seems to be in a good groove with this big transition. Our new home is in the “country”, on a great piece of land, but still very close to the city. I’m not quite ready to leave that whole city life behind. The house is being completely renovated, like the whole thing gutted and redone. Did we hire people to do this you ask? No. No we did not. My husband will basically be renovating an entire house on his own after he finishes work and on weekends. That means I’ll be living with my parents probably until my babe is 10 years old! I kid, sort of. I’ve also come to the realization, after the fact unfortunately, that I love looking at design ideas on Pinterest and saying “I want my kitchen to look like this” but when it comes to actually picking things out and going to places like Home Depot, I’m not so into it. Maybe it’s the fact we’re renovating an ENTIRE house versus a room that’s overwhelming me and making decisions. Like, I’ve already sent the pictures of how I want my space designed, why does my husband now need me to pick out this fixture and that fixture. Ugh. I just never thought of these things, which is totally foolish and naïve on my part.

I swear to you, the day the grass turned green (a.k.a nature started pollinating) I’ve been a hot mess. My nose was raw and red from the amount of times I had to blow it, my eyes were burning and tired feeling. No allergy pills were working. The weather got cold again and the allergies seemed to subside, but we’ve had a few warm days in a row now and I noticed my nose has started getting itchy and the sneezing started up again. I took a Reactin last night and I seem to be managing today. Anyone else find their allergies are really bad this spring or are suffering when you normally don’t?

After thinking about it for a long time, and really debating it the last few months, I booked a consultation appointment with a Cosmetic Tattoo Artist to discuss getting my brows microbladed. The consultation went well and I really liked the artist. I booked an appointment and decided on Ombre microbladed brows for a more natural look and better longevity. I’m literally counting down the days until that appointment as I’m SO over filling in my eyebrows everyday. I can’t wait to just wakeup and go. I’ll definitely update on this experience either here or on Instagram.

I’ve been feeling very not present as of late. For example watching TV the other day my husband made a comment about the show we were watching and I had no idea what had even happened. I wasn’t on my phone or doing anything else to distract me from it, I had been lost in thought but not even sure what those thoughts were. This is just one scenario of many I’ve noticed. I know the reasons for my distractions, so it’s just about adapting and trying to practice some mindfulness and take more mini me moments to refocus. If anyone has any other tips for refocusing and being more present in their day, do let me know!

As you would have seen on my Instagram, I had a lovely overnight staycation with my sister at the St. Regis Toronto. We had originally booked for one date but had to switch it to the Saturday of the Easter long weekend, which worked out so well! The city wasn’t over packed so we had zero issues getting a table at restaurants and it was nice to explore the city and not feel like cattle on the sidewalk. We had dinner at Fresh and gorged ourselves on Vegan Nacho’s and then tried to eat our respective veggie burgers after the nacho’s. So glad we walked back to the hotel as it helped me digest all that deliciousness. I also treated myself to their Wild Muskoka Mule, vodka mixed with ginger beer (my fave) as well as cold pressed lime and ginger, spiced maple bitters and rosemary! Honestly so good. The staycation was spent taking pics for the gram in our beautiful room, using the hotel facilities, brainstorming content ideas, catching up on our lives and just disconnecting from everyday life and responsibilities. It was much needed and so glad I have a sister to do these fun experiences with!

I’m not sure what’s going on, well I mean I kind of do know, but I’ve developed a nice little “Joey” as one of my Bootcamp pals calls the little extra love around the tum tum. You know like a kangaroo pouch where their baby’s hangout. I know it’s from over indulgence in sweets, not doing my weekly BBG work outs and probably stress? I can no longer get up before the babe since we’re all in the same room, once she hears me or my husband get up she’s up. I definitely have no energy or time now that my husband is off renovating every night to do the workouts after putting her to bed. I mean that’s an excuse because I could find the time and energy if I really wanted to. Life is also about balance and my mind and body need the couch potato life right now. I’m still doing my once a week Bootcamp, and my instructor just added a weeknight weight class. I was able to do the first one and I really hope I can work something out with my parents or sister to watch the babe so I can continue to attend that class. That would give me two 1 hour workouts a week, at least. I’m also hoping now with the weather kind of starting to warm up I can get outside to do more walking with my babe. I also need to slow the train, if not stop it completely, with the friggin sweets. Any tips on how to curb the sweet tooth? I need them!

This “update” really could have been included in an Instagram story, but I’m including it here so deal with it. I’ve still been keeping up with my meal planning, even though we are living with my parents. I’ve just upped the grocery list to ensure the meals are large enough to include everyone. I made this bomb ass vegan pasta the other night, even my very opposed to veganism mom liked it. I made the creamy pesto sauce out of scratch and everything. My husband comes home late, because renovations, and decided my pasta needed something added to it. What does this man add to my bomb ass vegan pasta dish? A friggin can of tuna! TU-NA! What kind of sociopath does something like that?! Even though it was a total abomination it made for a good laugh.

As you can see I’ve been a busy little bee and there’s no real signs of that stopping anytime soon, which is why it’s even more important to find those mini me moments in a day.

Now, your turn! Give me some bullet point roundup’s of what you’ve been up too! I’d love to know.