It is that time of the month. No not my cycle but a newsletter and share some content I am putting together like a gift guide and it is half term. The time is going so fast that I have to catch my breath and means planning for Halloween, Guy Fawkes, birthdays and then Christmas.
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I will be taking my son on his first plane ride. I will do a packing vlog I think and some of our trip to Scotland but see how it goes. I feel it is good to take one day at a time because he may not like it, but I feel he will love it and been my first plane since 2012.
I really you have a good half term and be ready for the next term ready for Christmas.
So many Christmases this year will be tight with prices going up on Utilities and so it can be a worry for people.
Remember you don’t have to buy a gift for everyone and you can split the costs by having people contribute and why I budget and make sure I have money for emergencies and that a gift doesn’t have to materialistic in fact I bought my nieces one year to feed the Giraffes at Chessington and so it can be clothes not worn or a simple as a notebook what I received as a birthday gift this year.
In this weeks Cheat Sheet are tips on Saving for Christmas:
I hope you find this helpful and if you have tips then please share. There is a comment section below and subscribe so you will be notified of when I post.
These weekly and free to download and print. I enjoy creating them and please subscribe if you want to be notified of when I blog on here. Remember I am doing my Autumn Reset and so if you like to read these : Autumn Reset
It is good season because it is time to let things go, restart and for me is my favourite season as I plan projects, getting my home in order and getting my son ready for school and is a good time to complete and why I set up my autumn reset programme so we can finish tasks and I building up my health by exercising more and changing my eating habits with a few naughty foods, but try alternatives.
I love a soup and a roll and today by not buying so many processed foods and getting more whole foods, which has helped me spend less on my weeks shop. I am realising that it is good to have a mixture of things. It has helped me, watching those cooking on Instagram. It has helped me cook homemade meals and puddings again which can be good it all depends on what it is and I do feel better for it.
I suppose this may be the worst thing, but I like the dark mornings. I like to have time to read and since doing that I have felt so good and have list of things I’d like to do, like having a coffee up at Wimbledon Village, having a coffee in Gail’s and walking to Ashtead Village and have a coffee and so still do some walking and just good time to plan a countryfied walk and enjoying where I live.
There was a time where I’d find it hard getting up in the mornings but this morning I felt good and I like to get back wearing my tracksuit bottoms and where I have a bath, wear a T-Shirt and PJ bottoms but altering my wardrobe this autumn. I am getting rid of my current PJ’s as I prefer bottoms that have pockets and this is the same with shorts, tracksuit bottoms and Jeans.
It is good to have a clean up and I used to do Seasonal Clean ups on my Youtube channel, let me know if you want me to bring these back. The link to my Youtube channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/@Carriechalloner I like having a clear out and check out recent video I did about having a health reset this year: https://youtu.be/kWeigemntCs
Doing a meal plan even if it is a scrap piece of paper, what I tend to use. I am recycling a lot this year and saving bits of paper, I am having a quiet coffee or tea. This is in the morning and I do have some mugs I use in the Autumn. Check out this blog post: Taking The Time to Just Enjoy Your Coffee Inc. Weekly Cheat Sheet and seen some nice new mugs in Waitrose so going to take a trip and may buy and change up my mugs for Autumn as in some areas I like investing in new things for the home and it is good to start a fresh and that is what makes an autumn reset for me and lets do it together and perhaps set up a group. This may be for the future but let me know what you think? You can leave a comment below.
So lets enjoy and have those nice cosy drinks and food, along with a new mindset to get those tasks you’ve not managed to finish done.
It is almost goodbye to the summer. We have a two weeks left and it has flown by. We did so much, my son and I. He loves bus rides and trains, he has been on a Ferry for the first time and it amazing how much we have managed to fit in and not the end, we have more before it is time to go back to school.
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I love doing these. I have been filming meals, GRWM Videos and Doing the squat challenge. Please check out my Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Carriechalloner
Watching Madonna’s Confessions concert it made me ask myself. What makes a Superstar?
I feel they have a recipe to success that is indescribable and that not just pop stars but nurses, doctors, cleaners because without these people we wouldn’t have nobody who could make us feel better, have dirty spaces everywhere and just make a difference no matter what they do.
I call my son a superstar when he does something good. It doesn’t mean you have to be wealthy but what actions you take for others and what impact that person has on you and others.
When I think of the word Superstar I think is someone’s else’s view of someone and not something you feel yourself. I feel it can be disused and that it should be saved for the right purpose. I like it when people have said to me and it makes you feel good but not something I take for granted; It is a terminology that is abused because there’s been those so-called Superstars and they’ve hurt others and turns out they’re the not the person you thought they were. Example a guy I met before my husband who left the holiday camp, where I was living as I worked there, was not a nice person and was glad to have been free from him.
When you get excited about seeing a friend then you know that person is to you a Superstar they give you a buzz and can chat about everything and anything. They’re not going to judge and you can really be your true self. If someone makes you feel uncomfortable then chat with them, no matter how hard it is and often people don’t realise how they’ve made you feel. I have not always been a good friend and so had to spend time away to see that noone is out to hurt me and it’s not a competition and that I have been selfish. I have been self centred and drove people away.
I would shy away from people. I went to a birthday party then waited for her to talk to me at a school open day and that mum didn’t and we became strangers and I knew that it should have been me who had to make the effort not them all the time. I was still that girl who would sit on a bench waiting for someone to come over. With dancing class though I was totally different, because I went with a friend and it still took a while for me to come out of my shell but then a friend from secondary school asked if I wanted to go and watch rugby.
It was so different and I really let my hair down and it changed my life in many ways. The supporters I met spoke to me as if I had been going for years and I fell in love with it. I see my friend who took me as a superstar and other friends from Secondary and felt that it shaped the rest of my life until I then went to work at a holiday camp. There were people there who I saw as superstars and who helped me survive it, as many who I had started when I did at the Holiday camp had left soon after but it suited me and with rugby meeting who I think were Superstars and my mum, step dad and family too and that you have to wake up to your own behaviour and of others and who truly have your best interests at heart and that you and them are Superstars because of the experiences you’ve had with them and how they make you feel on inside and outside.
Soon my Summer Project 2027 will be over. I will be doing my Autumn Reset. This will be begin in September 1st September and will be completing another book, sorting my sons and mine bedroom and cleaning part of my home such as my Food Cupboard and finally clearing my baking cupboard. I have been doing a Squat Challenge in August, doing 100 squats a day raising money for Cancer Research check out fundraising page and my Vlog Channel:https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/carries-giving-page-23102806, https://www.instagram.com/carriechalloner/ and https://youtu.be/j9odgBsvQlY
To let you know My Autumn Reset will be Subscriber only to help grow my challenge but content I share will still be for free.
Hello! July has been good. I took my son to the Guilfest to see the Proclaimers. His favourite band and share my first experience of the festival and also I am taking on a challenge in August 2026.
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When it comes to how we feel about the way we feel or had a bad day and you can’t stop thinking about it write about it. This will help to make sense of what happened and what would make you feel better. I had a Migraine a couple of days ago and it really hit me hard so I decided to take a break from screens and wet to bed and now limit my screen time.
Picture from the Guilfest
If I have made a mistake when doing radio, I go over what I would do differently and what I have learned.
I learned in my last show to create some scripts for introducing my show better and with cooking a meal that I did wrong. I tried to make a Carbonara but I didn’t make enough sauce so took note of that and know for the next time.
Address the bad and how will you turn it around?
We saw that the traffic was heavy going back to the A3 to get to Tolworth to go home so we went a different route and life is like that too. Still focus on the destination and workout how many ways you can get there. You may need to do a U-turn, but if you can still reach it. I was having issues with posting Youtube videos as my software kept crashing so I thought well I have my phone so film on that now and use the software to edit videos for Youtube on my phone and I am getting so much enjoyment from that. I have no schedule and like being sporadic as I will plan but like today I wanted to do some cleaning I write it down but say Clean One Area and that instantly makes me do it. Lower the pressure and how can you make everyday yours and get much more out of your life. I went to the Guilfest and it was crowded and flying ants and I was a bit dubious and it meant moving away from that area and when we returned it was fine and I thought no I am going to enjoy it no matter what is swarming and just move away. We got a drink, found the toilets and so my anxiety faded and I didn’t want to spoil it for my son as he’s favourite band was playing and why I booked it and next time take chairs and get there earlier perhaps move and gave us a chance to look around. I do feel it needed more organisation because people were scattered all over the place and I may pay the extra year and pay for the VIP section.
My laptop crashed and luckily have been able to use my husbands laptop and now hand write books I want to publish and use Google Doc and so learned not to save everything on my husband’s laptop on Word but google docs I can use it via another laptop as many of my book ideas have gone and so not to rely on technology and go analogue still. If I use a notebook and write out a its less likely to go missing.
So I now make the bad into good by thinking of what went well and how could it be better next time.
Evaluate like you would in an accident. Is it safe? Did anyone get harmed? could it have been a dangerous situation?
Are you still breathing? Was it that bad now you have answered those questions?
I laugh now when my dad would say there are doobie noshes after us as he would say when walking from the entertainment venue to our caravan where we used to holiday and it was great fun. I take so much from that. I loved family holidays and being with a mixture of people. Yes I got sick on holiday and my nan did, but we still had fun and enjoyed those times and I love the things we do now.
We still went for a drive like we do each weekend, we had a nice breakfast and with my migraine going to take more care when it comes to screens and do things away from a screen like having a sort out, read or now I like to watch a bit of the World cup and the tennis.
Today continuing this blog sorted out my sons toy cupboard in the living room and put it off but glad that was done.
I have gone for jobs where I it has been a disaster. I remember going to one and I said I’d looked at the website and it was obvious I hadn’t and yet I was so close in getting the job and they didn’t like the fact that I had turned up early, which now I am somewhat glad I didn’t get it. For me if I was running a company punctuality would be top of the list.
I tried to apply to be a red coat a Butlins and I don’t even think my application had reached the time or day.
My first time I applied to work at Butlins I was rejected and applied again the year after and finally got a role and it was persistence that finally got me the chance to fulfil a childhood dream. My first holidays were staying on a holiday camp that we’d go to with our grandparents and I loved it.
Rejection is a good thing because it helps to see if this is what you want can happen, but if you really want it and what can you work on that will make you successful next time. I was desperate to get a role and auditioned for Haven, applied for Pontins and when I first left school I was rejected by gyms I had applied for as at school I did Leisure and Tourism and got the roll sending my C.V to football clubs as a Steward at Fulham Football club.
Never allow it to get you down. The famous writer Jojo Moyes first books she wrote were rejected. Kevin Keegan was told he was too small to play professional football when he trained at Liverpool as a kid until years later he was one of their top scorers. Only Fools and Horses was going to be scraped, the double act Cannon and Ball came last when they went on Opportunity Knocks and Les Dawson also did that show too and didn’t win.
Rejection can still lead you to opportunities. Mariah Carey trained for many years as a backing vocalist until she became an artist and was waitressing when she finally got noticed. Paula Abdul was chorographer before she had hits and was a dancer, before a singer.
Listening to Jojo Moyes speak on Davina McCall podcast, begin again proved that you should never give up and get to know your trade and enjoy the process. I like that I get to spend most of my days with my son, building my blog sites, working on books and Youtube videos when he is at school and just learning.
So never feel if you have been rejected that your dreams aren’t going to come true.
Be consistent and persistent.
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I have never felt good in all of my life as I do now. I feel so good because I am not allowing the inner critic get to me, that talks me out of things but now I am Shaping My life because I’m following my dreams to get closer and have experiences. I look forward in achieving my goals, by not putting hurdles in the way. So take that trip around the world, go to see the World cup, go on a cruise and see a family member who’ve you’ve been meaning to see but never got round to it. Make the time and you’ll feel better for it.
Me at the Hampton Court Music Festival. I did do a vlog about it, see link at the bottom of this blog.
I am doing things that I never thought I would do. No I am not a millionaire. No offence to those who are but I am living. I am going to be going away with my son for the first time. Just him and me. Part of me is nervous but looking forward to it at the same time. A friend of mine travelled solo for the first time, just her and you have to live. Take the chance. I have been full of excuses in why I shouldn’t do something putting hurdles in the way and my mum said it once “If you want to do something you’ll always find a way if it is something you really want to do”. I have had opportunities. I could have trained every week in a local football team but I just couldn’t push myself but it was seeing the players who were built like bricks and put me off rather than using that to work towards learning football, but then I did some Courses later on and coached a team and so I achieved that goal, With dancing I went every week. With football I feel that I wanted the glitz and the glamour be the female version of Gazza and run rings around the other players rather than just enjoying the moment.
That is okay but I wanted to be Wonder Woman not seeing it as a learning experience. Back then women’s football was still being overshadowed by men’s football and I ended up running a team but fell pregnant and the team was taken our of my hands and even though that was disappointing I am grateful for it now as I could just enjoy my pregnancy and glad I had the experience.
I did dancing because I was good at that. I played football because I began playing at school but one of the girls made a remark and once again stopped going. It would matter to me when I was called a name by someone. Now I have gotten older got a lot stronger and why I got into running, now do a radio show and write. I published another book this year When Mothers are Real.
I took Henry to music festival in Hampton Court and got another this year and then with my mum going to see Bon Jovi. I am taking my son on a Ferry for the first time and he now plays tennis, which he has done well at. He finally got a school placement and so my aim now is to publish a new book I am working on, continue with my radio show I do for a local hospital, continue with my yearly Life Coaching programmes I’ve created and there is still a long way to go but I am no longer allow fear to follow my dreams and doing what I said I will do.
Take chances. I was listening to a Podcast hosted by Davina Called Begin Again with Jojo Moyes and it was so interesting. Here’s a link if you’d like to watch it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpTd0zOyg8Y&t=2894s and how you should never give up and enjoy the process. Jojo talks about how much she’s done now since she spoke to someone about her life and her failures. We all fail that is how we long and it makes you stronger. I feel that we can feel bad in taking some time wanting something for ourselves.
I like doing my yearly reading challenges. I love reading everyday. That’s helped with shaping my life because it has helped me with my books. It has helped me with writing and seeing the different styles. Going on my morning walks and watching a concert. I have been enjoying watching the world cup and listening about music. I love creating my show, even though the inner fear makes me resistant and get nervous but at the same time feel like “Wow I can’t believe I am doing this” and I did write a blog about Its Okay to Be Selfish as we need to help our world shape to help others we care about have shape. I want my son to have experiences, friends and a life that he is happy with. I love it when we play table tennis, go to the cinema, take trips on buses and trains and he is looking forward to seeing the Proclaimers and now I am being more intentional and it feels good.
So Shape you life and own your goals.
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