The speed at which the pace of life changes around here is a little bit like whiplash. I had been mapping out summer a few months ago, and suddenly it's July. I've been to Spain for a week, and then to London and Bristol, I went with Jhey for a week, where he spoke at Config in San Francisco. I've just had my last conference talk of the summer and am enjoying the Croatian coastline for the weekend.
When it's slow, it's slow and when it's fast...well it's certainly fast.
Kitchen Renovation #
After being delayed for a month, our kitchen renovation finally kicked off in May and finished the week before I left for Spain (in the beginning of June). Things are still not done, like painting the walls especially the hard-to-reach areas, and lots of things still need a home and we need to buy more organizational bits to help said things find their home. I haven't done a full kitchen vlog yet but you can see renovation bits here: YouTube Vlog 1 & YouTube Vlog 2.
Vlogging #
Speaking of vlogs...I've been vlogging my weeks on YouTube, and I've been really enjoying it. I lost the love I had of my original lifestyle blog and have been sad that that creative outlet wasn't bringing me joy. The reality is I don't dress up like I used to & I've been on a slow journey to get back into personal style. Vlogging has been fun but time-consuming. I'm about 3 weeks behind...maybe 4 weeks because of so much travel. I have a video waiting for a few final edits and some music before I publish. Feel free to follow along and subscribe to my channel.
Conferences #
I've had to turn decline lots of speaking this summer for the sake of my mental health & to protect my work/life balance. The rather blunt truth of it is, hailing from Seattle, and now living in the UK, summers are sacred to me. I want to be able to enjoy time being outside in the sun because November-May is pretty bleak. There are exceptions, but I'm looking forward to the rest of July and August being event free. I've given three talks the past month, at Pixel Pioneers, Web Engines Hackfest and Web Summer Camp. They have all been lovely and have also helped me refocus on how/what types of talks I like to give.
Other bits #
I've barely had time to read, workout or do yoga over the past month. The way things fell on the schedule for June made things hard. I'm expecting a bit more of the same in late September with so many life events happening. I feel a bit out of sorts, the routine out the window & my gut is telling me my Hashimoto's is affecting me.
Also, cheers to the IRS. I hired a third party to do my taxes. I owe them money but they won't accept my return until I verify my identity. Having done my UK taxes for the first time, let me say how absolutely ridiculous I now find the US tax system.
Design for Developers #
Available in 3 languages! English, German and Russian. A very cool and exciting thing to see. Manning will be having a sale on Monday July 8, you can grab the eBook for 50% off here. If you miss the sale and still want to grab it, use code stimacpp for 45% off through July 22nd to celebrate all the conference talks :)