One Empty Shelf One Empty Shelf - -minimalism- It feel right, finally, to say goodbye to this blog. One Empty Shelf has come to an end. I started blogging well over a decade ago, and OES has changed with me over the years, from optimistic minimalist blog, through work changes, life changes, health changes and more, right up to now. These pages have been an outlet for me to share my thoughts, frustrations, ideas, and my slow little life – but things are drawing to a natural close now. That chapter is over. I’ve said all the things I wanted to, let all of the words out that I needed to. One Empt ..read more

One Empty Shelf One Empty Shelf - Slow Living and Simple Things All Change.  So the last year or so has been a bit of a detour here on One Empty Shelf. I’ve been thinking about where I wanted to take the blog, and in doing so ended up taking it basically everywhere. I wanted somewhere to share everything, but in hindsight, I feel everything has become a bit, well, lost. In honesty I’ve toyed with the idea of closing the blog as I wasn’t having as much fun writing it – the loss of focus made it hard to know what to write, and I began to feel less absorbed by the words that eventually found ..read more

One Empty Shelf One Empty Shelf - Slow Living and Simple Things 3 books, 3 points: May 2021  A day late but I’m not sure time means anything any more! Without further ado, here are three reads well-worth picking up this month How to Save a Life by Eva Carter** Publication date: 27th May 2021 -One night Joel’s heart stops. Standing on the sidelines of the football pitch, Kerry sees Joel fall. Her first aid training kicks in and she performs CPR to save Joel’s life. Her friend Tim freezes and is unable to help. -How To Save a Life deals with the events of the following 18 years. Joel, Kerr ..read more

One Empty Shelf One Empty Shelf - Slow Living and Simple Things Getting out of the grumps. Since Saturday, I’ve been in a massive grump. Wandering round, muttering to myself, frowning at all and sundry. It’s even become quite funny. In a grumpy way, of course. Yesterday was like the culmination of all the week’s grumps – I had a grumpy lecture, then a grumpy meeting, then grumped to myself all afternoon about how much I dislike my research. However, solace was found in a lovely Lost Words Spell Songs concert on YouTube from the Natural History Museum. I managed to chill out a bit and actually ..read more

One Empty Shelf One Empty Shelf - Slow Living and Simple Things Making a new identity If you’ve been around the blog for a while, you’ll know I left my last job a while back now – I think it’s over 2 years ago. Since leaving, there’s been something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I’ve just felt really lost and without purpose. I don’t regret leaving, at all. But the lack of progress has been frustrating me and I’ve not been able to figure out why I haven’t been able to begin moving forward. In recent weeks I think I may have cracked it somewhat. Identity is such a huge thing, and our jobs g ..read more

One Empty Shelf One Empty Shelf - Slow Living and Simple Things Shops, coffee and almost spring  With great fanfare, the shops re-opened again here in England last week, along with pubs and cafes – those that have outside space, at least. I must admit I’ve enjoyed a quiet pint and a waterside coffee, and that was enough for me, for now. I feel like the more things that open up, the more I want to stay home. I’m happy for those who can return to jobs, for those businesses that made it through lockdown so far being able to reopen. But I must admit to a tinge of regret that there was no big ..read more

One Empty Shelf One Empty Shelf - Slow Living and Simple Things 3 books, 3 points Bumper Six-Book Edition! haha Welcome back to Three Books, Three Points… with six books this month! A bumper edition I’ve been really behind with my book reviews so here is a catch-up post with some fab books published in the last few months, and one, ‘The Revelations’ out last week. I really enjoyed all of these books – with uni it’s been quite hard to find time to read anything that’s not a research paper recently, hence the big catch up post! For this reason too, the Book Shelf Club launch has been delayed so ..read more

One Empty Shelf One Empty Shelf - Slow Living and Simple Things Morning Brew, 7.4.21. Well, good morning, It’s been a long time since I wrote a Morning Brew and I missed the whole stream-of-consciousness typing thing, so here I am! Today’s brew is an instant coffee (shocker) in a huge mug, steaming away beside the computer. My morning lecture was cancelled so I spent the time making playlist images for Spotify instead of doing anything productive, but it was fun! The Easter weekend has just passed by, which was lovely. We managed to visit family for the first time in months. Like everybody, I ..read more

One Empty Shelf One Empty Shelf - Slow Living and Simple Things Anti-Productivity. I was watching a YouTube video on morning routines yesterday. The general gist of it was that anyone who actually pressed snooze on their alarm clock is a heathen, and if we hadn’t crammed most of a work day into the hours before breakfast time then, well, what’s even the point of existing. The presenter laughed and said they got up at 2am to start the day. I giggled and waited for the punchline. It never came. They actually got up at 2am to start the day. 2am. Did they go back to sleep? Did they finish the day ..read more

One Empty Shelf One Empty Shelf - Slow Living and Simple Things Rollercoaster. Wow, I’ve been up and down with posting recently, publishing and deleting posts, getting into a funk about blogging (and life) and just generally being a mess. The last month my mind has been racing, overthinking, putting too much importance on things that just don’t matter. My dreams have been crazy, the same dreams as when I was going through burnout. I’m not sure where it’s all bubbling up from, but some fissure must have cracked open somewhere in the depths of my brain…! As all this is happening, though, I’ve be ..read more