life – Keeping it creative

goal setting, intentional living, lifestyle, Mindfulness, nature, wellbeing, wellness

Easy and fun ways to make the most of your summer

Posted on Jun 25, 2026Jun 26, 2026 by Laura

For the last week or so, it’s felt like summer has finally arrived in the North East of England with better weather, more sunshine, warm breezes and the chance to wear some of my new seasonal outfits whilst sitting out in the garden. Although I struggle when (if!) it gets really hot due to my very fair skin burning super easily, I love it when it gets up to around 22 degrees C (around 72 degrees Fahrenheit) especially on days when I can just sit and relax outdoors.

Every season, I create a personal bucket list full of activities, including things I always enjoy at that time of year, and new things I’d like to try (harnessing the power of firsts as advised by Meik Wiking in his book The Art of Making Memories). This year, I’m also taking part in the monthly bingo challenges being run by Kelseyleigh over at My Abiding Journal, which is currently providing even more ideas for making the most of my summer.

So, today, I thought I’d share this year’s summer bucket list and also some further suggestions to help you make the most of the summer months whether you want adventures, experiences, opportunities to relax and recharge or a combination of all three. I hope my post gives you some new ideas or provides helpful reminders about maximising your days throughout the season. I would love to hear about your plans for the summer in the comments and if you’re excited about trying something new in 2026 feel free to share so others can take inspiration from you.

Summer 2026 Bucket List

I like to start planning my summer towards the end of spring by creating a bucket list in my bullet journal. For me, the season begins on June 1st so you’ll see I have a few items ticked off already. The cupcakes I made were vegan strawberry ones and although I think I would slightly modify the recipe if I made them again, I had such fun with my afternoon of baking and the cupcakes tasted great too.

It’s not too late to create your own summer bucket list for 2026 and you don’t have to make it super decorative like I have. Just a plain piece of paper or a page in a journal will do. You don’t have to get everything on your list ticked off but it helps to have something to work towards and provide inspiration.

Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping it Creative

I’ve just signed my husband and I up for strawberry picking on Sunday and I’m excited to try this for the first time at a farm in Northumberland where we enjoyed visiting a pumpkin patch a few years ago. I’m going to take my DSLR camera with me to record our time there.

Bingo boards

There are loads of seasonal bingo boards available online which you could use, or you could have a go at making your own. I found this lovely example, which is good for spotting various signs of the season, and most of the items can be observed in the UK. It was created by Haley Post at MyMoonstoneKitchen, whose content I really enjoy on YouTube. Her printable can be found on Patreon as a free download if you sign up as a (free) member.

The monthly bingo boards I’m having fun with are available if you become a paid member of My Abiding Journal on Patreon and you can see glimpses of them on Kelseyleigh’s Monthly Journalling livestreams too. I stick mine in my monthly highlights journal and add photos or a description to say how I’ve completed the items I have checked off. Although some of the activities are perhaps more aimed at people in the USA with the creator being based there, it still offers plenty of food for thought and you can always tweak a few of the ideas if they don’t suit.

A Summer Reading Challenge

This summer, I thought it would be fun to set myself a little reading challenge to help me try to diversify my reading and choose some books that I wouldn’t ordinarily pick. I generally go for psychological thrillers and police procedural crime novels, but I wanted to push myself to opt for something different during the summer months. So, having explored various 2026 summer reading bingo boards and reading challenges I found online for ideas, these are my chosen categories:

A book originally published in another country
A historical fiction book to be listened to on Audible
A children’s classic that I’ve never read before
A modern classic
A book published this year by an author whose work I’ve never read before
A memoir
A collection of poetry

I decided on 7 books for the challenge and I’m already on my second book which is Land by Maggie O’Farrell. Set in Ireland, it’s a historical novel which spans the years directly before and after the great hunger. I’m enjoying it so far and I’m glad I chose it as my audio book as the narrator is Irish actor Dane Whyte O’Hara which adds to the atmospheric and lyrical prose and enhances the reading experience wonderfully.

The first book was the children’s classic The Velveteen Rabbit and I found it available for free as an audio edition read by Richard Armitage. It was such a sweet little story and I listened to it to wind down after a busy day.

Seasonal eating

One of my favourite foods is in season in the UK in the summertime, and that’s strawberries which I like to enjoy in salads, with ice cream or yogurt, and, more recently in cupcakes! This year we’ve bought our own little plant, but, as it’s an alpine variety, we’ll only get mini fruits from it (as long as the flowers get pollinated!). I can see some tiny yellow fruits on the plant but I’m not sure if that guarantees they’ll turn into red strawberries or not. There’s also lots of flowers but I’m yet to spot a bee on any of them!

Other fruits we love to eat in the summer include watermelon, peaches, nectarines, cherries, pineapple, raspberries, plums and juicy tomatoes, most of which are grown in the UK. Eating locally grown produce (or at least from the UK) means that they retain their nutritional content, taste better and are better for the environment (less food miles). This recipe for watermelon, green bean, halloumi and mint salad is a favourite of ours and we even have own homegrown mint leaves to add this year.

In the summer, there are lots of vegetables that thrive here in the sunshine including peas, beans, courgettes, aubergines, peppers, lettuce and potatoes. When it’s a hot day, one of our favourite meals to create is a poke bowl (pronounced poh kay). This often includes layers of lettuce or spinach, cooled roasted veggies such as pepper, aubergine, butternut squash and broccoli, a protein source such as chickpeas and coucous, sweet potato chunks or cooled salad potatoes for the carbs. We then drizzle on salad dressing and enjoy our bowl al fresco at our outdoor table and chairs.

And, of course, as well as eating seasonal produce, you can also make some amazingly tasty fruity drinks too. Our current favourite is a refreshing ‘Cinderella’ mocktail which we found a recipe for last summer. It uses a combination of citrus flavours, sweetened with a small amount of grenadine syrups and, once shaken, is topped up with the spice of fizzy ginger ale. Here’s the ingredients to make two glasses full:

150ml orange juice
150ml pineapple juice
60ml lemon juice
3 teaspoons grenadine
1/2 litre ginger ale (or soda water if you prefer)

Add the orange juice, pineapple juice, lemon juice and grenadine to a cocktail shaker (or give it a good stir in a glass) and shake until combined. Divide into two tall glasses and add some ice. Top up with ginger ale. Enjoy!

Embracing the outdoors

Summer is the perfect time to connect with nature and enjoy spending lots of time outdoors. Being in natural environments improves our mental, physical and emotional wellbeing and is known to reduce stress and enhance our mood. I’ve been trying to spend as much time as I can in the garden this year and my husband and I have treated ourselves to a mini tabletop firepit which is perfect for sitting out in the late evening.

Have fun playing an outdoor game – my husband and I purchased a bright orange frisbee last year and we took it to a large outdoor space at a National Trust place we go to regularly. We both had smiles on our faces for the entire time, even though the wind kept lifting it and sending it off in the wrong direction! And it was fantastic exercise too. Other lovely outdoor games include bowls, badminton, quoits, croquet, throw and catch or even trying to get a ball or beanbag in an empty bucket.
Tend to your garden – summer is not the time for digging, moving plants or completely overhauling the garden but a few gentle maintenance activities such as hoeing a few weeds, deadheading spent flowers, checking on the progress of home growing fruit or vegetables helps to keep things progressing and looking good. It’s also important to do some early morning or early evening watering which allows the water to penetrate the soil and get to deep roots. Established plants should be watered deeply every few days or so, whereas seedling or delicate plants may require daily watering, especially during spells of hot weather. And, don’t forget to take time to observe your achievements and appreciate your hard work.
Take a hike – There are so many beautiful places to explore in the UK including the lake district, the highlands of Scotland, Snowdonia in Wales, The Peak District in Derbyshire and surrounding areas, the South West coastal path. It’s best to avoid walking during the hottest part of the day (11am – 3pm) but an early morning or evening trek can be wonderful. Also, remember to take plenty of rest breaks to look at the stunning scenery and always carry plenty of water to take sips from throughout your walk.
Go somewhere new and take a self-guided walking trail (you can find lots of these online or at a tourist information place) – depending on your preferences, this could be a historic tour of a nearby town or village, a nature walk through woodland, forest or around a lake or you could even follow a path around a nature reserve spotting birds from various hides. Just remember to dress appropriately for the weather, wear comfortable shoes and use sun protection.

Relax, reset and recharge

Just because the days are longer in the summer, doesn’t mean you have to fill every waking moment with tasks and adventurous activities. It’s also important to find time to rest and just be, especially when temperatures are particularly high and the Sun is blazing. Here are some ways to recharge and build wellbeing related activities into your routine:

Enjoy an analogue hobby outdoors – do some reflective journalling, read a book, sketch some of the flowers in your garden or at a local park, grab your paints and have a go at watercolour painting
Sit or lie outside (either in the sun with SPF on, or in the shade of a parasol or tree) and simply be. Try doing a mini meditation or other mindful activity such as using your senses to appreciate the here and now (take off your shoes and feel the grass beneath your feet, close your eyes and notice the different sounds around you, look up and watch the clouds moving and changing shape). I lay back on one of our reclining chairs a few days ago and I set the timer on my Fitbit for 20 minutes. I closed my eyes and relaxed for the whole time and those 20 minutes felt like a really long time. It was so good to just do nothing for a while – even though there was someone getting noisy building work done further down the street!
Pack a picnic and head to a local park, the coast, a lake or riverside. Depending on your preference, you could take a picnic rug or research somewhere nearby which has picnic benches available.
Give forest bathing a go – this restful, nature based activity was first developed in Japan but is now really popular in other cultures. This article from The National Trust provides a good introduction and also explains the wellbeing benefits.

Final words…

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading today’s blog post and it’s help you to come up with some lovely ways to make the most of Summer 2026. Although some of the activities will incur at least a small cost, there are also free suggestions if you’re living on a tight budget.

As I write these last few sentences of today’s blog post, it’s gone really dark and there are rumbles of thunder in the distance. And rather than thinking how awful the weather has turned, I’m excited to tick off an item on the summer bingo board – summer thunderstorm!

Wishing you your best summer yet!

goal setting, housework, mental health, planner girl, productivity, Setting goals and intentions, spring cleaning

Spring cleaning: Tips for setting yourself up for success

Posted on Mar 13, 2026 by Laura

This year, I’m trying really hard to be methodical with my spring cleaning to make sure everything gets done over the next three months. So, today, I’m going to share a number of strategies I’ve adopted which are working really well so far. Obviously, it’s only the second week of March at the moment, but I’m super pleased with the progress that I’ve made so far and the number of items that have been crossed off my various lists.

Getting started

Before Christmas, when I was struggling with motivation to do things, I downloaded an app called Finch onto my phone. This self-care app combines gamification with mental wellness tools, letting you care for a virtual pet called a Birb whilst improving your own habits and mental health. I’ve stuck with using it for over 100 days now and I’ve increased the number of goals I work towards each day, especially now I’m feeling well. At the end of February, app users were encouraged to sign up to a spring cleaning challenge, where you have 14 tasks to complete before the end of March. So far, I’ve done a task each day and the sense of accomplishment I’ve felt as I’ve completed each one has really increased my motivation. And it’s even left me with the urge to do a few more cleaning activities at other points during the day. Of course, you don’t have to sign up to an app to do some spring cleaning, but what you might like to do, is pick out some ‘easy wins’ that will only take 5 or 10 minutes to complete and hopefully, this will encourage you to do more.

Some examples of 5 minute decluttering and cleaning tasks include:

clean light switches and door handles
polish a mirror
dust the corners of the main rooms in your house
bin out of date cosmetics / toiletries
remove stains from cups and mugs
vacuum under the sofa cushions
dust pendant lights or lamps
tackle soap scum on your shower screen
check the fridge for items that are ‘past their best’ or out of date

Adopting The 5 Minute Clean Routine

This is the name of a book written by popular Instagrammer Anna Louisa who offers cleaning tips and advice. I purchased this handy cleaning bible a number of months ago but only dedicated time to reading it when I was feeling better and more motivated to get my house clean and tidy. In it, as well as providing lots of cleaning tips, she shares her ‘5 Minute Clean Routine’ with the basic premise that most household tasks can be achieved in minutes (unless your home needs a serious declutter first), or at least broken down into five minute chunks of time. The idea being that tiny tasks lead to small and satisfying wins which make ‘…you feel like you’re in the driving seat of your own life, rather than a backseat passenger.’ It helps readers to see that cleaning routines, checklists, five minute bursts of activity plus a carefully curated cleaning kit can make such a difference to your home and your happiness in it.

Towards the back of the book, there’s a long spring cleaning list of tasks which you might do once or twice a year. Again, these can be split up into 5 minute blocks or longer if you’re feeling particularly motivated. However, this year, I chose to create my own lists for the different rooms of my home and also a more general list of chores around the home. Of course, as Anna Louisa says in her book, you don’t have to get everything done over the springtime. You might tick things off over the course of six weeks, 3 months or longer, depending on what works best for you.

Creating my cleaning lists

Rather than writing my room by room lists on scraps of paper or on a list pad, I chose to create something I could tweak and come back to again and again. I wanted to create digital documents but also print them off to stick in my bullet journal. As I currently have a Canva Pro subscription, I had a look on there to see if there was anything I could adapt. Although I generally use photographs and images, there’s also another feature of Canva where you can search thousands of templates for all manner of documents. In the search box, I typed ‘Spring cleaning list’ and was excited by the many examples available which would save me lots of time and energy. I opted for a pretty floral design and got to work setting up files for each of the main rooms in our home.

To ensure I had listed everything for the rooms I wanted to work on, I physically went to each room in turn (over a number of days) and looked around and noted down all of the different items and places I wanted to focus on (on paper to be transferred to my digital lists). This was much better than doing it by memory as it’s easy to forget small areas that often get overlooked. I also tried to think of some tasks that I do every week anyway (such as cleaning the toilet and vacuuming floors) along with tasks which aren’t done so regularly (such as cleaning the extractor fan in the bathroom and vacuuming under and behind the sofa).

Designing your own cleaning schedule

What you do and when you do it can be very much personalised to you and your circumstances. Perhaps you have a really busy work schedule and find yourself exhausted in the evenings and want to do the bulk of your cleaning on a weekend. Or maybe you have a small child you care for and want to get a few chores done during nap time. Whatever your circumstances and life commitments, you need to work around your existing routines and carve out regular tidying and cleaning time, either in quick 5 or 10 minute bursts or a longer time period when you feel up to it. Even an hour of housework can be broken down into five minute chunks to help prevent overwhelm. Just like scheduling an appointment in your planner or on your calendar, try to use time-blocking to map out your spring cleaning sessions to ensure you stick to your commitments.

Also to be considered, is your attitude to cleaning and any short or long term physical or mental health difficulties you’re currently facing. Perhaps you really struggle with motivation to clean right now but you want to make your home environment a priority and know some spring cleaning would make you feel much better. If that’s the case, you want to start slowly with a few quick win tasks (maybe from some of the above suggestions) that hopefully spur you on to do a little bit more. Maybe you become exhausted quite quickly due to the physical nature of cleaning or are easily distracted so find that a little and often approach works best for you. However you organise your cleaning time, remember to do it with plenty of self-kindness and compassion, celebrating each of your small wins or recognising and accepting that you don’t have enough spoons that day and it’s okay to rest and plan some cleaning time for another day – you have the whole of spring (and beyond if you so wish) after all.

Final words…

I hope you’ve found today’s blog post useful and it’s either given you the motivation to get started on your spring cleaning or some ideas about how to proceed. My lists are pretty thorough but I’ve still thought of a few things I missed which I intend to add to the space at the bottom. For me, the tasks are very much pick and choose, rather than the lists being a room by room work through from top to bottom over the course of a day as I prefer a little and often approach. I’ll be delegating some of the tasks to my husband or asking for assistance as I’ve already attempted to move the sofa and found it stuck to the carpet (ha ha!) and will definitely need help with moving the other heavier items of furniture. There are also some household tasks that I would be getting in a professional for, such as deep cleaning carpets (although ours don’t require this), cleaning the upstairs exterior windows or the outside of a conservatory (if we had one) as I feel there are some jobs that make sense to pay someone else to do.

Thanks for reading and happy spring cleaning!

bullet journal, Bullet journaling, creativity, goal setting, intentional living, lifestyle, planner girl, planner lifestyle, Planning and journaling, Setting goals and intentions

My Spring 2025 Bucket List

Posted on Mar 5, 2025 by Laura

Late last month, I sat down at my desk to create a list of ideas for what I want to do over the course of spring with a view to writing a bucket list for the season. When I’d finalised things, I set to work on a two page spread in my bullet journal which contains all of my planned activities, a sticker image or two to represent each one and some general springtime flowers. Today, I’m sharing the pages I created in the hope of inspiring you to make your own Spring bucket list. I’ll also discuss how I went about choosing what to include.

My finished Spring bucket list BuJo spread

How I went about choosing my bucket list items

I started the process of choosing my items by looking at my vision board for 2025. This helped me to focus in on things I want for the year and I picked out using my Cricut Easypress to create some projects and using the principles of Kaizen to discover why I haven’t made much progress with tidying and organising my craft room. You can see above how I added these to my bucket list.

I also thought about things that I wanted to achieve last year, but, for whatever reason, didn’t get around to or didn’t have much success with. In 2024, we bought a wide shallow pot to grow rainbow chard in. We planted seeds and grew some leaves but we didn’t really maintain them and also never used them in any recipes. For this reason, I’ve added homegrown chard to the bucket list and a picture of some nice colourful leaves to remind me of my intention.

Next, I considered creative pursuits that I want to do more of and remembered that I loved exploring with my watercolour paints. I hope to do more painting so I added ‘Do another watercolour exploration or two’ to my list. I’ve tried to keep it realistic and doable by only stating one or two activities this spring as I tend to add too many items and then struggle to get them all ticked off in the given time.

There are also a few activities on my list which I like to do every year or each season such as decorating our home, doing a seasonal jigsaw and collecting photos, ephemera, caption ideas and tip ins for my creative journalling. This year, I’ve bought a gorgeous Garden Allotment jigsaw puzzle which I couldn’t wait to get started on and have already made good progress with. I’ve also started to change our home decor to add spring related accents, including a few new ornaments which I purchased over the weekend. Towards the end of the season, we will be going on holiday to Portugal and, whilst there, I will be planning which aspects of the trip I wish to document in my journal so this has become part of my bucket list too.

Finally, I turned to Google and Pinterest to provide inspiration for other items to add to my list. I searched ‘Spring bucket list ideas for adults’ and selected some activities which appealed. I included some which I think would be fun to do such as baking bread and playing an outdoor game. I’ve already seen a frisbee in a National Trust shop which reminded me of my intention to do something I enjoyed as a child but I’m keeping my options open until the sunnier and warmer weather comes.

Final words…

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing my spring bucket list as a creative double page spread in my bullet journal. If you haven’t yet had a go at writing a seasonal list, I thoroughly recommend it as a way of making sure you get the most out of the coming months. It’s also great fun creating decorative pages and looking at a colourful layout (especially with doodles or stickers) can help keep you motivated to try new things and revisit favourite activities.

Let me know in the comments if the idea of creating a bucket list appeals and feel free to add your Instagram or other details if you share yours on social media.