What Sarah Kate Says

Sometimes a girl just has to treat herself, right?  As I mentioned in a previous blog I used to buy a lot of stuff.  Retail was my therapy and I would be a big fat liar if I said I was now a non-shopper.  My Amazon delivery guys can attest to that. I am now much more about quality over quantity though, so when I saw someone on YouTube sporting this necklace from Whistles (apologies I forget who it was...probably ViviannaDoesMakeUp or Lily Pebbles?), I just had to investigate.  It's simple design and chain length really appealed to me. I've never purchased anything from Whistles before so was not sure what to expect.  I anticipated that they would be quite a high price point, but was pleasantly surprised when I saw this neckalce was only £25 and with free UK delivery. Now I know you can find cheaper necklaces and believe me I have tried many in my lifetime, but they tend to tarnish quite quickly (usually around the sweaty neck area) so they never quite feel good

Sometimes the struggle of balancing a blog with "normal life" gets the better of us.  Motivation is there but physical energy is low.  I'm having one of those weeks.  I have all these ideas I want to share, but my mind is scattered to a million different places.  I fear I would not do them justice. So instead I decided to share with you one of the loves of my life...my fur baby Lucy: She is a 4 year old English Springer Spaniel and very cheeky. Things she loves most in the world are tennis balls, chewing and rolling in things we wish she would not. As a puppy she was a handful, but she has grown up to be the softest, most gentle dog in the world.   Even our friends who "hate dogs" find themselves falling for her doe eyes and cuddly manner. No matter how bad my day, coming home to her excited wiggly bum always brightens my mood.   I'd be lost without her now. Thank you to my Dad for taking these fantastic action

Struggling to keep on top of all the cleaning that needs to get done?  Why don't you try Zone Cleaning? A zone = an area of the home that will be detail cleaned over the course of a week.  This is done in conjuncture with your normal cleaning routine and covers a different "zone" of the house every week in rotation. The number of zones (and therefore weeks) in rotation really depends on your property size and layout.  I thought I would share mine to give you an idea what I am on about: Living Room and Downstairs hall way Dining Room and Stairs Kitchen Bathroom and upstairs landing Guest Bedroom Master bedroom Office Methodology: Over the weeks you simply rotate through each zone doing a really detailed clean.  As the house is kept generally fresh and clean on a weekly basis with the normal cleaning routine [My Weekly Cleaning Routine] , the zone cleaning is for less frequently done jobs like washing skirting boards, pulling furniture out and cleaning b

As I've shared before I was always a bit of a neat kid, not in an obsessive way, but having the smallest bedroom growing up made me try my hardest to keep things tidy-ish. However as an adult with a disposable income I began slowly buying more and more stuff.  Retail became my therapy.  I found myself coming home with clothes and stuff that I never found a proper home for, so stuff just began to pile up in my spare room (where I could shut the door on it and pretend I was not in danger of becoming a hoarder!). Why I started to change: A few years ago I began doing up my first home and really enjoyed the process of taking an area I did not enjoy and turning it into a room that was a pleasure to be in.  I also met and had the love of my life move in with me, so creating a cosy, enjoyable home together became even more important to me.  I wanted a space where we could entertain and have family round without being embarrassed of our home. How I started to change:

It's funny how the scents you like to wear change over the course of your life.  I envy those women who find their "signature scent" and stick with it all their lives.  I'm obviously a more fickle creature and am forever changing it up. More recently I have been experimenting with layering.  This is wear you do exactly that - layer up a few different perfumes or perfume and body lotions to create a more individual style of fragrance.  For more information on this technique I recommend reading the following by Byrdie:    http://www.byrdie.co.uk/how-to-layer-perfumes-2014/ My current go to combination is a heady mixture of Jo Malone's Wood Sage and Sea Salt, Molecule 101 with a little bit of Chloe thrown in for good measure.  I'm no fragrance wizard, but I have had compliments and more importantly like it a lot myself. What are your favourite scents to mix together? Links: http://www.jomalone.co.uk/colognes/fragrance-families http://www.harveynichol

Last week I shared some of my favourite lifestyle you tubers with you in the hopes you would find them as inspirational as I do.  I decided to break this down into two short blogs to avoid recommendation fatigue - here is my final batch of favs. Light by CoCo videos promote "Living Light" and is full of useful and inspiring videos on how to live more minimally.  Her style seems effortless but she clearly puts a lot of thought into the creative side of her channel. I doubt I will ever be as minimalist as CoCo, but she does hold the bar high for us all to strive to. Jennifer at Pretty Neat Living is a highly accomplished and organised blogger, you tuber and new mummy.  I found her channel a few years ago and fell in love with her chatty, open style of presenting her videos.  She is a queen of organisation and her love of stationery seems to match my own.  She also inspires me to try harder to organise my life to bring more calm and order to my world. Marnie Gold

I've been an avid viewer of You Tube videos for a few years now.  There is just so much inspiration out there and I wanted to share with you some of my current favourites in the hope they inspire you too. A warm, caring and inspirationally positive woman from America's deep South.  She publishes vlogs and lifestyle videos sharing what she is doing to inspire others.  Her "New Year, New You" series is truly inspiring me this year. Another strong American woman who shares videos of her household management techniques, grocery hauls and meal planning.  She inspired me to finally start meal planning and implementing cleaning routines I had only dabbled in before.  Check out her organisation series this year for a great way to instil some self-discipline. A New Zealander living and working in Sydney, Mademoiselle shares her wardrobe inspirations in short and excellently presented videos.  Her style is so effortlessly chic and she has really

"It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness" Eleanor Roosevelt  http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/e/eleanor_roosevelt.html I've had a long love affair with scented candles - it began with inexpensive ones from the supermarket.  I lived in a flat that had an open plan kitchen/living area, so they were great for keeping kitchen smells at bay.  I probably should have just cleaned more to be honest (see my last blog post on cleaning).  They did their job, but I was always a bit disappointed with how quickly they would burn out or how they'd smell great for the first couple of hours of burning, but would then fade to nothing. These candles taught me that there are two things that matter most to me in a scented candle...strength of scent and burn time. Overtime I became aware that there were more expensive offerings out there, but I resisted for a long time as I was not convinced a candle with a £20+ price tag would live up to my expecta