What I’ve Been Up To [7]: Happy Changes

It’s been a while since I last did one of these “what I’ve been up to” posts and it’s also been relatively quiet around here, so I figured I’d catch you all up on my life and everything that’s been going on!

First of all, as I mentioned in this post, I started a YouTube channel a few months ago and I’ve been kind of busy with that. At the moment, that channel’s called Books Baking and Vlogging, which I thought was a nice variation on my blog name. However, I think I’ll be changing the name soon because it turns out that I don’t really like making baking videos.

As some of you may know, I’ve always considered baking to be a therapeutic activity – it’s something that makes me feel happy and calm (except when things go wrong, but luckily that doesn’t happen too often) and it gives me a sense of accomplishment, which is why I love it. But I found out that when I have to pay attention to filming the process and being coherent in my explanations at the same time it’s not that much fun anymore. It was just stressful, which was really disappointing and didn’t make me feel better after baking. So, yeah, I’m going to stop doing that! I love baking, and I love thinking up new recipes and sharing them with you, but I’ll stick to doing that on here, on my blog. That means that my YouTube channel will be mostly bookish stuff because I am really enjoying making those videos! It will need a name change, though. Right now, I’m going back and forth between “Anne’s Book Bakery” (so I could still do some baking videos if I’d want to) and “Anne’s Bookish Dreams” (which just sounds sweet). Which one do you prefer?

Now, onto my actual life updates (although those videos have been a big part of my life lately). Another big thing that’s been going on: I’ve found a new job! I left my old job at the end of July and I’ll be starting my new one later on in August. Right now, I’ve got three weeks off, which is just heavenly. I’ve got all the time in the world for reading, writing, maxing, relaxing… It’s great! I’m also very excited about my new job. I’d been working at my old job for almost 2 years now (give or take a few months) and it was a good first job, but I was pretty unhappy there for a while now already, so I’m relieved about the change. I’ll also go from working three full days a week to working just mornings on all five weekdays, which will be an interesting change. I’m looking forward to it! I also think it’ll be really good for my overall happiness and mental health.

What else has been going on… My boyfriend and I went on holiday to the Black Forest (Germany), which was just lovely. It was nice to be out in nature for a little while and just take nice walks, see pretty things and read a lot. No matter where I go on holiday, though, I always enjoy going back home again. We’ve now been living in our apartment for a year and I’m still so happy to call this our home! It’s truly both my happy place and my safe space.

One last thing that I’m really excited about is that I’ve started writing in a diary again. I used to do so almost every day but at some point, I stopped and I’m not sure why. People (and with “people” I mean “the internet”) always say it’s good for your mental health to write in a diary or journal and I know it is. It has always helped me in the past so I’m glad I picked it back up. During the first two days of writing, I already came to helpful personal realisations. This time around, I also plan on decorating my diary with nice stickers, images from magazines and little drawings. I think it’ll end up looking really cute and I hope it’ll be something I’ll enjoy looking back at when the notebook is full. Just looking at the cover makes me happy already: I deliberately bought a cheery, fruity notebook. It might seem insignificant, but I really it’ll help keep me motivated and excited about it.

You might have noticed from the tone of this post that I’m feeling happy and motivated. Yesterday, I had a bit of a bad brain day – I was doubting everything (mostly myself) and when I tried writing this post then, I couldn’t do it. But I also knew I shouldn’t do it. I knew that, overall, I was feeling happy with my life right now and that one bad brain day wouldn’t change that. So, I’m glad I decided to write this post today, when things are going a lot better. I’m excited about things again: I have some good ideas for new blog posts; I’ve got a great recipe coming up next week and I’m grateful for this wonderful community – after almost six years, I’m still enjoying it so much! Taking a bit of a break to focus on my YouTube channel has given me fresh energy for both the blog and the channel and I’m looking forward to what’s still to come.

Now, enough about me! How’s everything going with you? Tell me one (or more!) thing you’re excited about in the comments below – I’d love to hear about it!