People change throughout their lives, it’s just how life is, so I thought with it being a new year, I shall reintroduce myself.

If you have been with the blog since the beginning you already know that I have lived a thousand lifetimes by now…

The question is :

Who is Eleanor now? Also is she Eleanor, Ella, Elle? Who are you girly?

AGE

I am 33 going on 34, feeling either like 22 or 67 depending on the day.

LOCATION

Nelson Mandela Bay, home of beautiful beaches, friendly people, and wayyyy too many grown folk who don’t know how to use bins

HOME LIFE

I’m the mother of a very precocious five-year-old vegetarian, who I am told is very smart for his age (I think they meant to say, smart mouth for his age) Sometimes I post things he says on FB and wonder how many people think I’m delusional, but then they meet him and he says something cringe-worthy  and “they get it”. I am married to a homicide detective (also with the smart mouth) who is into gourmet food and fancy tech. I always feel like I need to mention that we actually have two sons, but the eldest received his angel wings at only two days old. We live a very “attempting to be green and sustainable” life. Which means we use all these green products, cook from scratch, don’t use single use  straws and reuse things as much as possible , but also we keep forgetting to take our reusable cups to the coffee shop and our reusable bags to the store. I have two nephews Caleb and Liam who fill my heart with so much joy. You can see my 3 boys on their very own instagram page Curlyhaired_Cousins

HEALTH

I live with clinical depression and anxiety, also type 2 diabetes and I’m severely anemic , so is the little vegetarian roommate, iron deficiency I mean (we eat pretty healthy and are fairly active so even though I look LEKA CHUBS, none of my health things are caused by obesity, rather the other way around- I’m told – my depression  meds made me gain weight like an inflatable baby pool, so I have to put a lot of effort in to staying chubs vs being contacted by biggest loser)

EXTENDED FAMILY

I come from a large tightknit (read: all up in your business, but if you sneeze you will get a surprise soup or tissue delivery) extended  family. My husband has two siblings and so do I , we are both the eldest and according to a poll – where our votes weren’t counted – we are also  the nerdiest.

CAREER

I am a journalist turned  self employed  “creative entrepreneur” (my boss is a wack-a-doo). I employ myself to do writing and subbing for any publication who will have me. I do layout and design for the biggest paper in the region (and book reviews in exchange for books). I am the social media manager for a health food company. I run this here blog. I do blogger focused events with Luchae over at MySpreadsheetbrain. I used to own a kids accessories business and run a gifting business with a friend, I don’t do those anymore, but I have been known to take on gifting, crafting jobs in exchange for money to buy more craft supplies. This aside  I have a big project coming up…but I need to get my ducks in a row with that one first before I spill the beans. (I also like to mix metaphors)

HOBBIES

Uhm did you not read the career part? Where must I fit hobbies in? huh huh? I lie, I make things A LOT usually as gifts or as donations. I like renovating furniture and finding new uses for old things. Can my hair be a hobby, let’s say it can. I have gone from chemically straightened to completely natural hair, I then cut it and it’s growing out all messy, so taming my main, reviewing products and sharing style tips is sort of like a hobby for me.

WHAT DO YOU READ

I like chick-lit , not even going to lie. I also LOVE biographies. I actually stopped reading actual books for a while (years) but I have since started doing book reviews for the paper I work for and this has really got me back in to reading. Also my friend owns a second hand book store The Littlest Book Shop and that keeps me in reading material, seriously Belle from Beauty and the Beast is super jelly of me. I gravitate to anything light-hearted. I mean I’m pretty depressed enough (look at me and my mental health jokes) but seriously I like to keep my down time light

WHAT DO YOU WATCH

I watch nothing nothing nothing then a  full season of something on Netflix until 4am. Seriously though I’m not the type to follow popular trends in series and so on. Like I still have not watched a single episode of Game of Thrones, or Greys Anatomy, I haven’t even watched Harry Potter. I’m a BIG sitcom fan though, like HUGE! Even Nickelodeon sitcoms, people, What can I say? I like to laugh. That being said, my  favourite things to watch are Jane the Virgin, RuPauls Drag Race and a bunch of political satire shows like Mock the Week and the Daily/Weekly/Nightly type things. I watch so much political satire, Aidan (that’s my son,  for those of you who are new here) can point out  the likes of Donald Trump, Theresa May and Jacob Zuma pretty easily.

WHAT IS YOUR STYLE LIKE

A million years ago (7 years ago I think) I won a local style award – best dressed media person, now I have a collection of yoga pants – how the mighty have fallen. With health issues and weight fluctuations I am not quite as brave as I used to be when it comes to fashion. However, once a quirky girl, always a quirky girl. So different hair colours and funky jewelry, and a pretty nice scarf and shoe collection means I do still sort of have my own style. I think , like most things in my life it can best be described as Urban hippie.

So that’s me here at the beginning of 2019. I love to laugh which is evident on my Instagram and Facebook pages. I have the most beautiful supportive family and friends and my life reads like a Netflix series that they are trying to keep on air so they keep throwing insane plot lines…

Hope you stick around I have a lot of tips, tricks and stories to share 🙂