Huge Overhaul

Hey! I've been having a super deep think about my blog, it's direction, what I post about, and most of all if it's actually what I set out to do in the first place.

I've found that the more I look at other lifestyle blogs I keep thinking "why isn't my blog like that?" full of cool events and cute little cafes, reviews, hauls, marble backgrounds in the pictures, insanely gorgeous Instagram feeds, interesting and conversation starting tweets...And I've kind of come to a conclusion on that.

• My blog isn't full of events, because I don't go to any other than Barn Dances, Vegetable Festivals, and farm festivals /celebrations. 
• I don't do reviews and hauls in particular, because my monthly budget doesn't stretch that far to be able to try out new things that I'm not sure about.
• I don't have any marble backgrounds in my instagram -or any - photos, because my house is an old semi-detached house in the middle of the fields on a farm and hasn't been majorly redecorated for years, and I don't feel like spending money on my blog just yet. 
• I don't really get into huge conversations with people - even though I really want to - because when I do get into a conversation, after a few tweets I feel like I'm annoying that person.

My main goals of this blog were to help others and to document my life to look back on in years to come. Telling people about how this lifestyle changes you as a person, makes you appreciate the little things and the hard work that goes into it all. Giving my experiences / opinions on things that have happened to me and my family, hopefully to help others going through the same thing. 

This doesn't mean I'll only be posting about veg, ducks, chickens, and farming in general. I'm going to be writing about other things like family, cleaning, cooking, etc. much like I have been until now. I just feel the focus of my blog has shifted through nobody's fault and I've lost sight of why I started and where I am.

Having said all this, I'm sure you've gathered that The Life of a Farmer's Wife will be changing. For starters the name has changed too.

The Homesteading Life

This is what me and B do. We're not full time homesteaders, we don't spend our days in the veg garden and making home-made lavender soap - however much I want to! - but these factors are definitely big things in our life. 

As this is a lifestyle blog, it doesn't make sense to write it without including our major lifestyle choices and circumstances. I was at first embarrassed or worried about posting about vegetables and livestock, mainly because I've got one foot in the Homesteading community and one foot in the lifestyle blogging community.

I have also decided to move over to Wordpress. This gives me more opportunity to control the look and appearance of my blog, although I've had to read a few tutorials on it all. 

You can find the new blog here

I realize I will lose following, I will lose readers and I'll lose any ranking my blog had made up until now, however small or big that may be. I'm not too concerned with ranking and google searching, it's just numbers to me at the moment.

I do care about my followers, my readers, but I also don't want to build up a reputation while doing something I'm not entirely happy with. I can't write the best posts, or give the best advice if I'm not happy doing it. I'm sure many others can understand that.

I've been blogging for around three months now, and to be honest I think this is around the time most bloggers start to find what makes them happy, what makes them want to blog more and more, what their readers like & don't like... It's like the first three months of blogging you get swept away into the magic of the blogging community and meet all these wonderful people, and then you start to settle into a routine, start to know what you want to blog about for definite, find the right way to portray yourself as close to reality as possible.

I suppose this is the time for me to do that too. It's starting to sound a bit like I'm saying I'm leaving but I'm not. I'm changing for the better and making this stay something I enjoy doing instead of viewing it as a job.

If you stick around and come with me on my adventure, I would really like that. I do understand that homesteading and farming isn't what everyone wants to read about, so I know some won't want to continue reading if this becomes a main feature, but as it's the main feature in my life it's going to be a main feature on my lifestyle blog.

Thank you for reading, and I'd love it if you went over and had a look at the Introductory Post on The Homesteading Life.

Bella x

Bedroom Wishlist and Inspiration

I had the worst weekend blogging wise, having had a day on Saturday that I just couldn't find the motivation to write, and on Sunday as soon as I was getting ready to write up some posts... Boom! One of our cockerels falls ill and I go into panic mode. We spent most of the day going from our house to friends' farms to see what was wrong and to pick up the medication he needed. Thankfully he's back on the mend now and I can sit here knowing he's alright. 

So, as I was just stalking the web for some bedroom furniture, and as always came back to my two favourite places to buy from: IKEA and ASDA's George. The furniture tends to come from IKEA, but I always go back to George for bed-linen and such. It's like it's tradition!

How I Clean Our Family Bathroom

If you follow me on Twitter, you've probably seen I tweet quite a lot about housework. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it. One particular place in the house I love to clean is the bathroom. It sounds quite weird, but there's just something about a lovely clean bathroom. Especially when it's the only bathroom in the house.

It's used by us, the kids, guests... anyone who comes over will probably use the bathroom at least once. Where it's positioned in the house, it often gets used as a mudroom and it's the first thing people see when coming in.

This means I try to keep it as clean as possible. We're not bothered by the specs of mud on the floor or small piles of straw that occur after B gets home from work, but others who don't work on farms probably don't want to feel straw under their feet or in their shoes. It also needs to be kept as clean as possible because the children use it too.

Getting back the point. By now I'm pretty confident I do a good job and get things as clean as I can. I'm not suggesting you should forget how you clean your bathroom, and immidiately take up my way of cleaning. However, it works for me and I thought it might help someone else perfect thir cleaning routine.

I will say this now, sorry if the pictures aren't quite up to standard! I'm still getting to grips with my camera - I'm absolutely useless with it. If anyone knows of any good articles on how to use Cannon DSLR cameras please tweet them to me or leave me the link!

Cleaning the Family bathroom

First of all, I go straight in and bleach the toilet bowl. We have pretty hard water round here, and it had been left to build up inside the toilet before moving in. Using thick bleach has been one of the only ways I've been able to even make a dent into the cal.

IKEA Budget Wish List

Since moving in together, me and B have been trying to make our rental house into our home. I love watching home-wear hauls, especially from Ikea - who doesn't like IKEA!?) or Primark. They are pretty much my favorite shops for house bits.

I'm only about half an hour away from my closest Primark, but my closest IKEA isn't exactly close at 3 hours and 27 minutes away. I'm pretty sure there is a collection point somewhere near us, though.

I've given myself a budget of £100 pounds for my online window shopping. Some might say it's a lot, and some might say it's not very much. B and I try to budget everything, we're a young couple and B has two young children - we're also hoping to expand our family more - so money is something we try to save whenever possible. 

Quick disclaimer: The prices mentioned could change. If you're reading this months - or even years - after this was first published, prices could have changed or products could be removed from the production line.

None of the links provided are affiliate links. This post is not sponsored in any way, and I don't get paid or compensated for any of it. I've linked things purely for your ease of use if you find something you like.

Anyway, here we go! Here's my IKEA wish list- on a budget.

Trofast - £29

Having two kids - even if they don't live with us all the time - means we have toys everywhere. Our downstairs is pretty much drowning in toys and kids' bits and bobs, so this box system seems a pretty good idea. The kids are old enough to know to put their toys away, so having boxes where they can just throw everything in before eating or their bath and bed-time would help keep the downstairs tidy. Failing that, once the kids are in bed I can put everything in the boxes haha!

£100 - £29 = £71

How to keep up with the Housework

"How to keep up with the Housework" is going to be a little series on The Life of a Farmers Wife. This is the first post, How to keep up with the Laundry. Suggestions are welcome :)

How to keep up with the Laundry