A life update

Well hello there! It’s been a minute, hasn’t it?

Rachel Wolchin once said: “My entire life can be described in one sentence: It didn’t go as planned, and that’s okay”. This couldn’t have been more applicable to my life the past three months. So rather than extending this introduction to meet a certain word count, let me get straight into it and give you a little life update!

Let’s start with work, shall we?

Work life

Well, this one has been… Interesting? Challenging? Discouraging? Anti-climatic?

Ok, I am just being my French cynical-self, it hasn’t been that bad. There is also a big silver-lining, the past 7 months of freelancing have taught me A LOT.

After a “what have I done???” 2018, things finally started to really take off. I went from very little prospects in January to one very sweet (read-nicely paid) gig in February. It was going really well. So well in fact that the client offered me a job (!!!).

Amazing! Well… Anyone who is freelancing will know that getting a job offer from one of your clients can be bitter-sweet. On one hand, it is very flattering, it means they are happy enough with your work and they want to make you a permanent member of their team. On the other hand, deciding to go freelance is much more than a career move, it is a lifestyle choice, and deciding to give it up is an impossible decision to make.

Anyway, I didn’t have to compare the pros and cons too long because about a month after the job offer, the company completely changed its strategy. So the last thing I know the projects I was working on became obsolete and my contract wasn’t renewed. Talk about a curveball!

So 6 months into 2019 everything went from ‘yay’ to ‘nay’. That’s the thing when you freelance, you are disposable. Some clients will be difficult. Some clients will deal with their own challenges and will have to dispose of your services as a result. It happened to me for the first time, it happened to all the freelancers I know many times, and it will happen again.

As I said, the first half of the year taught me a lot.

After a couple of days of feeling sorry for myself, I got back on the horse, and a week after ending my work with that client a new one signed me in! So I can officially say that I have been making a decent-ish living as a freelancer for a good 8 months now! Yeepeee!

All the drama mentioned above has been one of the reasons why I have been a bit quiet. I was busy working, worrying and my confidence wasn’t very high. But there is more…

Life life

Don’t worry no dramatic story there, but changes? Most definitely!

After a rather frugal 2018, Andrew and I have been able to enjoy life a bit more and have been busy travelling most of May and June.

I went to Belgium for my sister hen do (bachelorette). We then escaped to Morocco for a week in the sun (more on that hopefully very soon on here!). Finally, making the most of flexible working, I joined Andrew on a business trip to the US. We spent a week in San Francisco and Nashville, using the jet lag to our advantage and working from 4am to 12pm, using the rest of the day to explore. It was my fourth time in San Francisco, which I really like, and my first time in Nashville, which was a lovely discovery.

Oh, and my sister got married! So a trip to France kept us busy for a few days in July.

Andrew and I had been cruising a bit on the personal front for the past 4 years, living our best Londoner lives with little to no constrains. Children aren’t on the top of our list just yet, but another fur baby had been for a while. So in May, we started talking to The Underdog and kicked off the adoption process for a rescue dog. I talked about my strong belief in adopting rather than shopping before, and, at the end of July, Finley joined the family.

Let me tell you, adopting a rescue dog is WORK, and after the first week I even wondered if I could actually cope. But with a lot of love and tasty treats we are helping a rather anxious Finley to settle in his new life. It will be a journey for sure, and I will share it with you at some point as it may help anyone thinking of adopting a rescue pup.

So many trips and the arrival of a dog were other reasons why I went MIA. Yet, there is more!

Blog life

As you can tell from the above, I have been fairly busy, and I just didn’t have the mental space to write 700 words three times a week.

So where does that leave us? You and I, what’s next in our relationship?

I am happy to say that I am back! But…

I won’t be as hard on myself. I won’t put pressure on me to produce three articles a week and desperately looking for an idea of something to write about 90 minutes before my deadline. I want to publish quality content and, from now on, I will take my time to write something interesting, useful, educative or, if anything, at least entertaining.

I don’t want this platform to be about numbers but quality! I want you guys to come here so we can hang out and spend quality time together. Your time is as precious as mine, and I feel truly grateful that anyone may decide to spend theirs on here.

I also want to talk about the things that matter to me and my journey as a freelancer. Becoming self-employed has been such a big part of my life the past 18 months that it would be silly for me not to share it with you.

I have Vix Meldrew to thank for being a great coach and inspiring me to shift the focus of this platform so it feels more like me.

You will still find travel, interior and lifestyle content, don’t worry! I will just open the door a bit wider and share with you another big part of my life.

If you have made it that far, thank you so much! Thank you for reading and thank you for sticking with me for the past 3 minutes, 3 months or 3 years. I promise it won’t be as long until the next post.

Have a lovely evening or day, wherever you are,

Claire.

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