How To — Blog — Gwennan Rees

13 WAYS I'VE MADE MY PHONE A HEALTHIER PLACE TO BE

The last year has tested us in so many ways but I didn’t expect it to test my relationship with my phone as much as it has. The constant availability because for real, what else are you even doing? The doom scrolling online, the constant shit news, everyone having a bad time and offloading - it all got a little much and then throw in working from home where work life balances basically don’t exist and I found myself sick of the sight of my iPhone. Let alone the clicking feeling I’ve been getting in my thumbs…..

Ways to Stay Productive in Lockdown

It is estimated that half of the global population is currently living in some sort of lockdown, or under social distancing measures. Here in the UK we are about to enter week 4 of lockdown, where we are restricted to only essential working, going out for one form of exercise per day and to the shops for essential items only.

Making My Mornings Easier | Pre Work Routine

My pre work routine lets me feel prepared on a Sunday night for the working week ahead and more importantly - saves my valuable time in the weekday mornings which I can use for an extra half hour in bed.

Five Easy Cheap Ways To Update Your Workspace.

No matter what you do in life, chances are if you're reading this you have some sort of workspace in your home. Maybe it's an office or a corner of a spare room where you work from home. Maybe it's a desk in your bedroom to do your college work from? Maybe it's just a particular armchair you like to blog from in the evenings. Whatever it is - sometimes those workspaces get stale.

You need to keep your workspace inspiring to keep you inspired and that often requires a bit of a revamp. I am one of these people who simply has to rejig things every 6 months or so or I get bored of my surroundings. When I lived at home or in uni I'd rearrange which side of the room my bed was on or where the wardrobe went so it's no surprise my office is the same.

Here's 5 simple ways you can update your workspace to keep it exciting for as little effort or cost as possible.

How To Create The Ultimate Care Package.

This post came requested from a lovely school friend who recently got sent not one but six care packages over the course of a fortnight when she was in need of a little cheering up. She was pretty happy with her mini care packages and mentioned she'd never have had the thought, nor the ideas of what to put in the parcels.

A care package for those not in the know is a little parcel, letter, card or collection sent in the post or delivered in person when someone needs it most. A way of cheering someone up, letting them know you care and you love them, a way of helping when you sometimes can't physically be there.

7 Failsafe Ways To Motivate Yourself When You Work From Home.

Working freelance from home sure has it's perks there's no doubt about that.

There's the lack off office politics, there's the free timetables, the ability to take a day off on a whim, not having to fill in time sheets and don't even get me started on the perks of working from your sofa.

But for all it's highlights of course, like any job it has it's pitfalls. Working from home and working for yourself has it's strains and the biggest of all comes from the knowledge that you and you alone are making your cash. Sick day? You ain't getting paid. Holiday? You're losing money as the days go on.

It can be a ballache for your mojo so here's 7 of my failsafe ways to stay motivated when working from home:

5 Ways To Wrap Your Christmas Presents*

Aside from eating turkey sandwiches and putting up the decorations, wrapping is probably my favourite Christmas activity. I love wrapping presents at the best of times and this time of year means I have about 20 million individual parcels to festoon with ribbon and bows and tags and I am in my element.

Here's my top 5 Pinterest inspired ways to wrap presents that even the least crafty of us can master....

2 Hearty Meals To Make For Winter

There is nothing that screams winter to me more than hearty meals, preferably slathered in gravy. Or cheese. Or chocolate.

I am no culinary wizard but since having my own house with a mahoosive kitchen I have tried my hand at more recipes this year than the whole of my life. Here are my two favourite hearty meals for winter, which just so happen to be so easy to make that I can do them.

DIY Fillable Baubles.

I promised you two DIYs this Christmas and I didn't disappoint did I?

Following the success of my Christmas wreath I thought I'd try my hand at fillable baubles for our Christmas tree. I have a really sentimental tree theme, less about specific colours and more about things that mean something to us or a collection of things we've accumulated over the years. Every year we buy a few new baubles to add to the tree and this year I thought it'd be sweet if I had a go at making my own.

How To Decorate Your Home For Winter (Without Getting Festive) *

There's no denying that autumn is over and winter is no longer coming....it's arrived (and if you didn't get the GOT reference then shame on you.) With the colder temperatures setting in and the persistent rain we're having at the moment, staying in is the new going out. Gone are the hazy summer nights by the beach and back are the hearty meals piled with gravy and a cosy film in blankets.

Since our Halloween decorations went back in their boxes a few weeks ago our living room has been looking pretty bare. We'd quickly got used to all the lanterns and trinkets around the TV a and when they were gone Christmas trees looked a long time away.

With that in mind, our love of seasonal decorations and with excellent timing from Talking Tables, I came up with a few ways of decorating your home for winter - without getting too Christmassy too early (says the biggest lover of Christmas ever).

How To Motivate Yourself Back Into Blogging.

This was not the post I intended to write this morning, that was titled 'things I contradict myself on' but I just sat down to pen it and I just didn't have the motivation. It's partly because we went on a 3 hour round trip at 9pm last night in the pissing rain so I'm like a zombie and it's partly because I can't remember what thought sparked the title and what examples I had.

But it got me thinking about blog motivation and about what makes us want to write and what to do if we don't have the right vibe. So here's a couple of fail safe ways I motivate myself back into blogging when the mojo is somewhat lacking.

How Easy Is An 'Easy' Escape Rooms? *

My brother has been banging on about doing another escape rooms since the last time we went way back at the end of 2016 - so when I got the offer to review another one at Escape Reality Cardiff I knew exactly who I'd be taking with me.

How To Draw Easy Banners For Your Bullet Journal (& Free Worksheet)

In my 'ways I make my bullet journal pretty' blog post I mentioned that I get a lot of messages from people asking how I draw my layouts, how I make my pages Instagrammable and how I make it so cute.

I'm a trained illustrator and drawing comes second nature for me - in fact when I was designing these worksheets Hannah asked me how on earth I could possibly do it freehand on the computer. For those of you who don't have a particularly artistic hand, I've created a FREE step by step guide on how to draw simple banners for your bullet journal that can be used for decorations or headers for your pages.

10 Tips For Renovating On A Budget.

Last week I asked what type of home content you wanted to see on the old blog and the overwhelming answer I got was tips on where to find cheap accessories and tips on how to renovate/decorate on a budget.

So not one to disappoint, here I am with renovation on a budget.

How To Keep Your Mini Break Packing To A Single Bag (+ FREE Printable)

It's Summer, if we're not throwing caution to the wind and booking a fortnight on some Caribbean island because we're flat broke but fuck it we need a holiday, then we're lusting after something anything to get away from home.

Having just booked 2 mini breaks or long weekends with another 2 in the pipeline, the art of packing has once again entered my brain. The mini break or the long weekend is one of the most tricky breaks to pack for. It define it as two or three (or even four at a push) nights away, it's longer than one night from home but shorter than an actually holiday and preparing for it is a fine art.

How I Manage My Blog Advertisers.

I've been hosting bloggers on my sidebar for 7 months now and I think I've got organising it down to a tee these days. Working with so many bloggers, repeat customers, new people, money, social media accounts, tracking who's paid and booking months in advance - it can get a bit overwhelming.

Obviously if someone is paying to advertise with you, you want to do the best job possible and that means staying organised, staying on top of things and that's not always the easiest task.

How To Save Money & Make Extra Cash.

How Do I Even Make A Difference?

How To: A Glasses Makeup Look.

Pinterest Inspired DIY 003; Christmas Decorations.

How ToGwennan ReesDecember 17, 2016blog, blogs, blogger, bloggers, blogging, bloglovin, blogger life, bloggerlife, bloglife, blog life, blogspot, blogpost, lblogger, lbloggers, cblogger, cbloggers, welsh blogger, welsh bloggers, uk blogger, uk bloggers, alt blogger, alt bloggers, creative blogger, creative bloggers, pin, pinterest, pinning, pins, inspiation, inspiring, inspiration, inspired, diy, do it yourself, craft, make, how to, christmas, christmassy, festive, festivities

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