Tag: Work

Families, Family Life, Festivals, Flowers, London, Memories

Brightening Up Your Workspace With Flowers Of Colombia

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Who doesn’t love the sight and smell off beautiful fresh flowers. As humans we are automatically drawn towards their beauty and their sheer presence immediately gives us a lift.

This is not the only thing that we need to be grateful to them for though; they can in fact be a huge benefit to people when they are housed in the work place. Believe it or not they can increase work productivity, improve memory, help concentration, reduce anxiety, relieve depression and improve negative thoughts.

My workplace being the home means that I love to have a vase of beautiful flowers on the side to look beautiful and aid my motivation.

Some of the best flowers come from the beautiful city of Bogotá in Colombia where Flowers Of Colombia produce gorgeous and hardy chrysanthemums and carnations that can last for up to four weeks if kept watered. Making it a very affordable way to create a beautiful and motivating display.

It’s not often that I think about the back story behind how these flowers make the their way into my home but it has been great to find out that the trade association Ascolflores that look after the production of all the flowers of Colombia and who do a fantastic job of taking on and making the workforce up of 65% woman who use this job to escape poverty and better themselves.

What could be better than brightening your day with a burst of colour that has somehow gone towards bringing some colour and happiness into other people’s lives.

Flowers Of Colombia actually wanted to spread their love further back in June and mixed the beauty of flowers and music to create the London Flower Tribute right here in London.

Take a look HERE at what they created by merging these two wonders.

*collaborated post

Children, Education, Families, Family Life, Fashion, Holidays, Kids Style, Large Families, Learning, London, Memories, Outdoor Play, Parents, Parks, Picnics, School, Summer, teenagers, Work

Celebrating The Small Things:Week Twenty Eight

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Well I nearly catching my tail and I have made it to the end of the school term with my ‘Celebrating The Small Things’ series. I have to say that I’m dreading Oscar starting school but I will give me a chance to really get my working day in order and hopefully get more organised…well we will see!

This week I am taking about school awards, park trips and kids fashion.

Dot To Dot London – My blog covers such a variety of topics which I often think I should kerb to be a little more niche but then realise being a bit of everything opens up some great opportunities. One of which being kids fashion that I have a real passion for.

I have always loved kitting the kids out and to be honest their wardrobes are always way better than mine.

The other week I got the chance to go along to Dot London which is a press show for all kinds of fabulous children’s wear brands. There were some of my favourites there that I have worked with before such as Tootsa McGinty and some brand new companies that I can’t wait to see the Autumn/Winter.

Hours And Hours In The Park – One little thing I am certainly celebrating is the amazing weather we have been blessed with this year. We are huge fans of the great outdoors and it has been made so much more accessible with the sunshine on tap that we have had. I honestly don’t think we have had as many picnics and park trips as we have this year.

Feeling Proud – Izzy has just finished her first year at high school and I have to say I couldn’t be prouder of all she has achieved in her time there. She has never been naturally gifted when it comes to the academic side of life but she always gives her all and works to be best of her ability. This was recognised at the end of term when she received an award for all her efforts and I actually think I was happier than her about it!

Children, Families, Family Life, interiors, Large Families, Learning, Parents, School, Work

Workspaces For Teens

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Give me a newborn over a teenager any day! Oh yes there are the sleepless nights and the endless cycles of feeding but as long as food, comfort and plenty of cuddles are supplied they are pretty much catered for. Teenagers however are a different breed altogether.

I have managed to navigate one child through their teens and she has now made here way into her twenties with both of us coming out the other side pretty much unscathed, however I am now on the same journey with my eldest son who has been completely different to my daughter.

I actually couldn’t ask for a better teen than Archie in so many ways to be honest. He is kind, caring, thoughtful, helpful and aside from the occasional strop he is pretty easy going. However when it comes to schooling its a different matter!

He is punctual, always completes his homework and is very well behaved during class but is a naturally gifted boy that is coasting through school and isn’t fulfilling his potential which is in fact more frustrating than anything else.

If he was messing around or not completing work then this could be dealt with by punishing him, but lack of motivation is a much harder thing to crack as it has to come from him.

He does however have lots of ambitions for jobs that don’t nesseserily need formal education and he has his heart set on this. I love and encourage my children to follow and fulfil their dreams so I am probably a large part to blame for this and need to get his mindset to think in a slightly more practical way without quashing his dreams.

He currently dosent have a area dedicated to learning so I think a workspace where he can keep organised, stay away from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the house whilst still building on his teams would be just what he needs right now.

Below I have listed a few of the top things I think are needed to create the perfect working environment for a teen:

Privacy: This is always something that most teens crave and I think its very important to allow their work area to be private and somewhere they can grow their own independence.

Organisation: Organisation isn’t always something that goes hand in hand with teens and many struggle to get this sorted, so a good desk such as the ones from Lionshome will help them to make sure everything has a place of its own, things are to hand as and when they need it and allows enough space for them to carry out all the work that needs to be done.

Limit Distractions And Boost Creativity: Make this area somewhere that is solely for work. Make sure that computer games and any other devices are kept away from this area to limit distractions and allow this area to be a calm, motivating place that allows your teen to be creative, productive and engaged to have a positive effect on their schooling and hopefully whatever career path they wish to follow.

I would love to know how you get your teenage children motivated to work.

*Collaborated post

Children, Christmas, Diet, Exercise, Families, Family Life, Fitness, Food, Gym, Healthy Eating, Hobbies, Parents, Photography

Celebrating The Small Things:Week Four

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This weeks ‘celebrating the small things’ is a little self indulgent as I’m unusually pleased with what I have achieved. I’m usually full of self doubt and always see the negatives in what I do which is really counter productive and something I want to try to improve so here it goes:

Happy In My Work- I recently restarted teaching my ladies fitness kickboxing classes which I have found a whole new love for. Teaching was always a huge passion for me but the more children I had the trickier it became to fit this kind of work in and sadly it stopped a few years ago.
Thankfully the New Year has bought with it some lovely faces both old and new that have made my job an absolute pleasure once again.

Weight Loss Going Well – A New Year, restarting my classes and a big hit of self motivation has seen me finally losing some weight.
I wrote a post a while ago on how the past few years have seen me gaining a lot of weigh which has really bought me down and I’m so pleased that over the past few weeks I have seen some changes for the good.
I’ve banished the scales as these are always a source of disappointment for me and have simply used how I look and real as motivation to keep me going.

Looking Back – Last week the lovely Carrisa over at Little Likely Lads tagged me in a post on Insta Stories that needed me to scroll back through my hundreds of photos on Instagram to find my first ever post.
Of course this task had me stopping and looking over all the photos through the years and made me love this social media platform even more.
Moments captured in pictures are hugely important to me and Instagram allows me to see a whole host of my favourite moments in seconds.

Baking, Cakes, Chocolate, Food

Elevenses Recipe Book Launch

by thejoyoffive1 Comment on Elevenses Recipe Book Launch

  

Stopping for tea and cake at eleven is a quintessentially English tradition that also stands firm in the work place with all of us nipping away from the desk to grab a quick snack.

Some of use like to opt for the healthy option of a smoothie or a piece of fruit whist others would rather indulge in a chocolaty treat or a nice sticky bun.

Whatever your preference there is a need for an energy boost at this time as our sugar levels dip and our next meal is not until lunchtime.  So something to tide us over and keep us going for those next few hours is much needed.

The people at Furniture At Work have compiled a great book with a selection of recipes from a group of Blogger’s, including myself which can offer something from a super healthy treat to something a little bit naughty!

If you fancy taking a look you can download the link here. There really is something to suit everyone and help you get though that workday.