It’s been a good few months since I’ve done an update on life, likewise blogging in general has been quiet but I find I’m more of an Autumn to Spring blogger anyway! I love the cosiness of sitting down with a laptop a lot more when it’s cooler. As it’s been so long I wanted to an update on my summer and all the bits that I’ve done! As we all know, I love being a bit nosey so hope you enjoy this personal catch up too!
New Office!
The Northants Life (and onefoursix) team moved offices in August. A fantastic change for us into some swanky new spaces which consisted of a lot of Ikea trips and use of my car being the office lorry. It’s a big change for us but we’ve quickly made it home and I much prefer where we are now. It’s slightly reduced my commute too which is nice so all in all, an exciting move for us as a business.
Took some time off!
So after a busy week of moving offices, I took some well needed time off! We went to Norwich, which you’ll be seeing covered on the blog on various blog posts, then we took a trip over to Lowestoft to see Dan’s dad. It wasn’t a big holiday like we normally do (and I’m not going to lie, I did miss having a hot holiday) but we’ve been saving our money for the house this year. It was nice to take some time out of working and enjoy time together. The city break allowed us to chill out and switch off!
Work, work, work, work, work, work
Last year’s summer was pretty much spent working from home, catching up on emails in the garden but this year it was SO busy. I think with the move, time off and a busier working environment compared to last year – I was chocca. Luckily, the business is doing well and we’re seeing progress in all the areas I wanted it too. We’ve shifted our focus a bit this year compared to last and the revamp of the website has transformed the look and use. Whilst I’ve been pretty darn tired this summer, the rewards are starting to show from it.
Ticking off some goals
This summer I’ve worked with some fantastic brands and there’s a few items I worked on that will be revealed in due course in the next few months. It’s so tiring running magazines, freelancing and blogging but I try to take every opportunity that comes my way because I do worry that one day it will all disappear.
This September I’m also hosting our marketing agency’s networking event, Lunch and Learn and will be educating over 40 businesses about Instagram. Whilst I know I’m not the 10k profile that you might expect, there’s so much I’ve learnt through all the platforms I’ve run that I want to help share my knowledge to local businesses.
I have always enjoyed the adrenaline from public speaking so as we’re close to this being one of our biggest events yet this year – I’m looking forward to giving this a go, hopefully it will be the start of more talks like this.
Hosted my first press event
Northampton Life and Gin & Temple collaborated to create a bespoke range of Northamptonshire cocktails. This event was lots of work to create as we showcased the best of Northampton’s food scene alongside a range of gins. We invited clients, suppliers, local media and Northamptonshire bloggers to check out our range we had created which was such a success. It was so nice for our vision to come to life. I was nervous that no one would turn up or ‘get it’ but everyone did. The GiNN collection is available throughout September so do give it a visit. It was such an intimate event but I gave a little speech (which you can see in the girls vlogs below) and generally felt very appreciated. Thank you to Gin and Temple for working with me on this!
Thank you to Nicole, Jenn and Louise for blogging/vlogging the event and all of the lovely girls and guys who had shared it through social. The support did not go unnoticed and I’ve always valued the support from blog to magazine.
And that’s it…
September is already in full swing and it’s a good month so far. I’ve realigned some goals, got Dan’s birthday and just trying to keep a positive mindset the key agenda.
What’s your summer been like?