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Foolishly, I thought that by the end of August I would know definitively whether I was moving house or not, but it seems the universe has other plans and limbo is here for a while longer. More on that later.

Before I get into those August feelings, here is the most recent episode of my Creative Career Change podcast with author ICYMI. It’s a great reminder of how/why taking creative risks can pay off.

This past week in previous years of my life would have had a ‘last week of the holidays’ feeling to it, but I’m pleased to report that it feels nothing like that. In fact, I checked to see when I would have been going back to school and the INSET (training) days are on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this coming week.

I’ve seen quite a few teacher friends recently and we’ve talked about that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach as the end of August approaches - do you know the one I mean?

We’ve all agreed that it’s a bit ridiculous when you’ve had 4-5 weeks off prior to this feeling kicking in, but that’s the ‘all or nothing’ nature of teaching, and I honestly am not missing those extremes.

The flip side is that I’ve been working all summer.

I had two weeks in France in June and since then I’ve been working, occasionally taking a Friday off to visit family or go away for a long weekend - those are the perks of running my own business! Apart from the heat, I’ve enjoyed working during the summer. There have been pockets of very quiet times (first two weeks of August, for example) but that’s been when I’ve been able to get my head down and immerse myself deep in design work without the distractions of new enquiries.

There was a point in mid-August when I was a little worried about earnings, but then over the past two weeks things have picked up considerably and August has been a surprisingly good month.

Which I’m relieved about because I’d taken the decision to book myself a short escape to the sea in early September in celebration of not going back to school and there was a moment of ‘can I afford this?’. The truth is that making that decision was not just about money, it was about affording myself some time and space to reflect on how far I’ve come this year as well of the unpredictability of life.

Which takes me back to the house move limbo.

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Jennie and I first met back in 2023 at a creativity retreat with and . Jennie’s debut novel ‘The List of Suspicious Things’ was not yet out in the world and I had just left my 16 year teaching career behind. Change was afoot.

Since then, Jennie’s world has turned on its head and she is now a Sunday Times bestselling author of two books and is currently writing her third.

I was delighted when Jennie said yes to sharing her career journey here on the Creative Career Change podcast.

Links and mentions

• Jennie’s brilliant Substack, The Crow’s Nest :

  The Crow's Nest

  A personal perspective on writing and creativity and life from a writer who is mostly all at sea, trying to make it to land.

  By Jennie Godfrey

• The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey

• The Barbecue at No. 9 by Jennie Godfrey

• The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

• On Writing by Stephen King

• Follow Jennie Godfrey on Instagram

A note from Hannah

I’m aware that those in the thick of a career change, who have left a job or taken a pay cut, may not have the means to pay to listen and so the Creative Career Change podcast will always be free to all subscribers.

I hope the conversations may inspire positive change and the pursuit of creativity and balance. I’ve created the resource that I wish had been available to me several years ago when I felt trapped by my job.

Making this podcast is a labour of love and I do everything myself. This includes finding guests, writing questions, recording the conversation, editing, mixing, composing music and publishing the episode.

Upgrade to paid: support future episodes

By becoming a paid subscriber, you help to ensure I can continue to record new episodes and make the Creative Career Change podcast available to all who might be inspired by it. Alternatively, if you’d prefer to make a one-off contribution to the podcast you can buy me a coffee here. I’m hugely grateful for all and any contributions!

Thank you.

Hannah x

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A quick check in from me today because despite what I wrote about last Sunday -‘Is it the end of limbo land?’ - it turns out that the house-move rollercoaster is still going. Albeit very slowly, stuck at the top unsure whether it will remain there for weeks (forever?) or suddenly whizz down the slope with no warning.

I can’t really say much more at the moment, but I am looking forward to getting to a point when I can write candidly about this relocation journey because writing helps me to process the range of emotions I’ve experienced over the past year.

On Wednesday, episode 3 of the current series of the Creative Career Change podcast will drop. I’m chatting to the inspirational about her career journey from HR Director to Sunday Times bestselling author. And it’s quite a route!

There are now over 30 episodes all sharing the career change journeys of women in mid-life. Listen here:

And the final thing to mention is tomorrow evening’s Create Ensemble session taking place from 7-8pm on Zoom.

I don’t know about you, but I’m in need of an hour of calm creativity where I can lose myself in a mindful activity. Join me by clicking on the link below.

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I’m writing this from my very warm studio. The fan is on full blast and it currently displays 32 degrees as the air temperature. It’s also 7 minutes in to the Create Ensemble Zoom session I’m hosting on Wednesday afternoon. It’s the first time I’ve held a session on a Wednesday afternoon and it’s popular! Upcoming dates at the bottom of this post, including another Wednesday afternoon.

If you’ve been reading my words here for a while or know me personally, you may remember that almost exactly a year ago I wrote about the drizzly day swimming in the lido pool in Penzance with my husband, when we made the decision to put our house on the market.

It was a huge decision - we’d bought our Edwardian house in 2017 as a wreck and over the years lovingly renovated and restored it into a beautiful home that we adored. But there was a nagging feeling, a desire to be near to the sea and closer to our beloved France.

We put our house on the market, I handed in my notice on my part-time teaching job and we started house hunting. Our plan was to move near to the Kent coast.

It was all very exciting.

Until it wasn’t.

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I don’t usually write on a Tuesday, but I’ve got two time-sensitive things to say, so here I am!

The first is a reminder that tomorrow is Create Ensemble and I’m trying out a new time/day of the week. We’re meeting at 3pm on Wednesday 12th August for an hour via Zoom and I’d love you to join me. I know that the early mornings/7pm evening slots don’t work for everyone depending on your commitments and time zone, so I thought I’d add a mid-afternoon slot and see how it goes.

In case you have no idea what I’m on about with Create Ensemble, it’s a co-working/co-creating online meet. The concept is that you use that hour to work on something creative that might otherwise get overlooked in your busy life. You don’t have to share your work, we just chat briefly at the start and end about what we’re using the time for. I host 2-3 sessions per month and you can read more about it here.

Create Ensemble is a perk of being a paid subscriber which I hope you might consider upgrading for, because it’s always such a lovely hour and a great way to get into the ‘zone’ for your creative project.

The second thing I’m here to do is announce the winner of the Interior Design Consultation giveaway. I launched this at the end of July after winning a competition via Substack myself and deciding I was going to pay it forward in a similar way.

The prize is a 1-hour Rapid Revamp Interior Design consultation with me where we solve a design challenge for a room in your home. In just an hour, I can plan a furniture layout, put together a colour scheme or give you an accessories shopping list. You’ll leave the call feeling confident to move forward with making changes in your home.

The winner’s name is announced below the paywall and I’m also offering 20% off a Rapid Revamp consultation using the code (also below the paywall).

…..(drumroll)…..

and the winner is…

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It turns out that there are downsides to going on holiday in June.

Obviously there’s my envy towards everyone who is currently on holiday enjoying these unusually balmy days on British beaches or exploring foreign cities and sharing their fun times on Instagram.

But more than that is the lack of anything happening.

As I thought it might be, my work is very quiet right now. Even some of my favourite Substack writers are declaring a break for August which means fewer things to read.

I’ve got a few interior design projects still going but there hasn’t been anything new coming in for a few weeks and the enquiries have gone rather quiet too.

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I’ve always been happy in my own company, but one of the challenges of that is constantly having a mental to-do list rolling in my brain. I’m not very good at switching off and doing nothing.

Combine that with founding an interior design studio which, as any other business owner will know, can take up every single bit of your mental energy, leaving little room for ‘switching off’.

On Thursday last week I’d blocked out in my diary what I was referring to as a ‘Hannah Day’. I’d booked a ticket for an exhibition I’d wanted to go to for a while and reserved a table at one at one of my favourite London restaurants. The booking of these two things meant that there was no backing out and no excuses (from myself) that I was ‘too busy’.

There was something different about the act of taking a single day off mid-week to go and do things I wanted to do on my own. Different to a weekend planned collectively with my husband or a day out with friends or family. These choices were mine alone with no compromises.

One thing I was determined to not do, was any work.

That might seem easy, but the urge to check emails or ‘just do a bit on that kitchen project’ or message a client are extremely hard to resist.

Hannah Day

My ticket for Paint! Pattern! Print! The Textiles of Susan Collier and Sarah Campbell at the Fashion & Textile Museum was booked for 11:30am. This meant no great rush in the morning and I could start my day with my usual early morning walk & podcast listen followed by journaling. I’m on week 7 of The Artist’s Way and this daily practice of morning pages is something I look forward to when I wake up. It’s a very good way to start the day.

I got the 10am train to Waterloo which takes about 25 minutes from my house and then walked along the river as far as London Bridge before heading down Bermondsey Street.

Bermondsey Street is one of my top places in London because it has many of my favourite things: great bars and restaurants, galleries (White Cube and Fashion & Textile Museum), a gorgeous bookshop (Morocco Bound) and several other independent shops which are great for a browse. There’s even a fancy charity shop.

My first stop was coffee at Chapter 72 almost opposite the F&T Museum. The coffee was outstanding and the cinnamon bun disappointingly dry (tasted like it would have been good yesterday…). I paused to read a little of my book and then headed over the road.

The Fashion & Textile Museum is small enough to cover it all in an hour or two without drowning in information. The prints and sketchbooks were wonderful - full of life and colour and I found the story of Susan Collier and Sarah Campbell’s pioneering business enterprises as fascinating as their work.

In the gift shop afterwards I picked up several postcards, with a plan to write and send them later. I couldn’t resist a new note/sketch book (can you ever have too many?) and a pencil. It was a bit like being on a school trip.

I had a little time before lunch to wander. This included a visit to Morocco Bound bookshop which has a beautifully curated book selection. It’s also a bar/cafe and live events space. I bought Joan Didion’s ‘Play It As It Lays’ to add to my never diminishing TBR pile!

Lunch was at Cafe Murano. It has tasteful decor and exquisite food and the irony wasn’t lost on me that only that morning had I found out that I’d won tickets to an event there on Sunday evening. Some kind of synchronicity, perhaps?

I decided to be brave with my lunch choice and order mussels for the starter. I’ve always believed I don’t really like them, but felt it was a good day to give them another try and see if my tastes had changed. I enjoyed the flavour - less so the texture - but I did eat them all. It’s good to challenge ourselves with food every once in a while.

The main course was a giant plate of delicious broccoli and spicy sausage pasta which I couldn’t finish because I wanted to save room for dessert. Stephen, my excellent server recommended a lemon meringue and it was divine! In between courses I took out my notebook to journal and jot down interesting observations. The staff are so friendly at Cafe Murano and kept coming over to chat to me which was nice.

Very full from lunch, I decided to walk along the river and head for the roof garden on the top of the Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre. Although the riverside bars and restaurants were brimming with tourists, I had a feeling that the roof garden would be quieter and I was right. I got myself a drink and sat with a riverside view to write postcards.

Writing forced me to override the urge to reach for my phone and instead focus on what I was doing in that moment. I couldn’t help listen a little to conversations nearby, as well as watching people walking along the river below me. I could see and hear boats, large and small, on the water. I was calm.

The postcards were deposited in a post box in Waterloo Station and I boarded the train to head home for a chilled evening in the garden with J.

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I know that I am in a position where I don’t have caring responsibilities and so it’s easier for me to have a day like this. But, if you have any way of doing something similar, I 1000% recommend a day/morning/hour to yourself.

It doesn’t have to cost money. It doesn’t have to be in London. But the focus is on not working, doing something creatively enriching and spending time with your thoughts. It’s an opportunity to do things exactly your way.

wrote a beautiful piece on something similar last week. She has walked the entirety of the Saxon Shore way alone. This is a national trail of 163 miles which she completed in 12 stages. Sarah writes about both the practicalities and the mental processing that goes on during such an adventure. Read about it here:

At My Own Pace....

The Saxon Shore Way?

Last year I made a crazy plan to walk the Saxon Shore Way, from Gravesend in Kent through to Hastings in Sussex. 163 miles through all sorts of terrain, along rivers, canals and along the coast. Thanks for reading At My Own Pace....! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work…

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a month ago · 3 likes · 6 comments · Sarah Manley

What’s Next?

I will definitely be blocking out more days like this in my calendar. In fact, for September I’m in the process of making this into an overnight stay to mark the occasion of not going back to school. For the first time in 20 years I will not be attending an INSET day on 1st September.

I’d like to book a night in a hotel by the sea and I’d love your suggestions!

Leave a comment

And finally, a reminder that I am giving away an online interior design consultation to a paid subscriber. All you have to do is comment on the post linked below. If you’ve been thinking about upgrading your subscription, this is the perfect time!

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Last week an email newsletter dropped into my inbox from with the subject title ‘Hello, a giveaway, and see you soon’. Now, I always enjoy reading Mark’s writing - a combination of food, culture and writing about writing - so it was no hardship to read. But I’ll be honest, it was the word ‘giveaway’ that most got my attention on this occasion.

I’m an absolute sucker for a competition.

Mark was giving away two tickets for the next Cafe Murano Book Club on Sunday evening. A pair had been returned, and rather than re-sell them, he had decided to kindly give them away to a paid subscriber who was available. Mark would be interviewing whose food-focused memoir ‘Hungry Eyes’ had recently been published. I love Dawn’s books - Cat Lady and So Lucky amongst recent favourites. And we’d been to two Cafe Murano Book Clubs previously: and . Both fantastic evenings all round.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t a paid subscriber to Mark’s Substack before the giveaway email, but as Mark wrote “If you aren’t a paid subscriber and have been pondering taking the leap, now might be the time”. I had and I did!

After upgrading my subscription, I added my comment to say I was available and would love the tickets.

And guess what?

I was chosen! (Thank you Mark)

So, yesterday evening was spent sitting at the beautiful terrazzo bar counter of Cafe Murano, eating delicious food and listening to the inspiring career journey of Dawn, prompted perfectly by Mark. It was just brilliant.

I bought a copy of Dawn’s new book which she kindly signed when she came over to chat to us, and I can’t wait to read it.

As someone who has stopped taking the ‘easy’ route in terms of work, I loved hearing about the twisting path that Dawn’s TV and writing career has taken over the years. I loved hearing how she takes opportunities as they come rather than meticulously mapping out a future. I loved hearing her say that after Masterchef she now wants to do something in food.

I left smiling, thinking and dreaming. The best way to end a weekend, I’d say.

And so, now I want to pay it forward in a similar way. I’m borrowing the ideas from Mark to offer a giveaway to my readers.

The Giveaway!

I’m an interior designer in my day job, as most of you know. The most popular design service I offer is Rapid Revamp, an hour long video call where I do my very best to solve your interior design problems, remove some of the overwhelming feelings and give you a clear plan of action for a room in your home.

Last week I helped someone navigate the minefield of curtains vs blinds for an awkward shaped bedroom window. The week before I was casting a professional eye over bathroom plans and advising on tiles and brassware. I love these calls, and I love problem solving and sharing my ideas and expertise to make homes better places to live in.

I’m giving away one Rapid Revamp video consultation (worth £265) to a Chez Hanny paid subscriber.

Leave a comment

On Sunday 9th August I will pick a name at random and email the winner to let them know. This is open to everyone, wherever you are in the world.

If you’re not yet a paid subscriber, this might be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for!

I’m Hannah. I’m 41, childfree and live in London. I left teaching behind to pursue a more creative approach to work. I earn my living from interior design, writing and creating things I’m passionate about including the Creative Career Change podcast. Listen to the latest episode with Carolyn Boyd here.

If you like what I’ve got to say, you can support my creative work by upgrading to a paid subscription. For a few pounds per month you will receive monthly invitations to online writing/creating sessions, in-person events and honest writing.

The next co-creating session for paid subscribers takes place on Wednesday 12th August 15:00-16:00 (UK time). Click here for more info and to register.

Subscribe now

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When Carolyn Boyd’s book Amuse Bouche: Eating Your Way Around France came out a couple of years ago, I felt like it had been written just for me. It was the coming together of several of my interests - France, food, culture and writing. I hoovered it up.

And then, a couple of months ago I saw Carolyn post on Instagram about her 10 year anniversary since going freelance. What did she do before? I wondered, before sending her a message and straight out asking. Carolyn’s response had me inviting her to be a guest on this podcast and here it is!

Links and mentions

• Carolyn’s excellent Substack :

  France Traveller Newsletter

  Tips and inspiration for travelling and eating your way around France from expert writer and author Carolyn Boyd

  By Carolyn Boyd France Traveller

• Amuse Bouche: Eating Your Way Around France - buy it for the Francophile in your life.

• Carolyn’s website: www.carolynboyd.net

• The Roux Scholarship: www.rouxscholarship.co.uk

A note from Hannah

I’m aware that those in the thick of a career change, who have left a job or taken a pay cut, may not have the means to pay to listen and so the Creative Career Change podcast will always be free to all subscribers.

I hope the conversations may inspire positive change and the pursuit of creativity and balance. I’ve created the resource that I wish had been available to me several years ago when I felt trapped by my job.

Making this podcast is a labour of love and I do everything myself. This includes finding guests, writing questions, recording the conversation, editing, mixing, composing music and publishing the episode.

Upgrade to paid: support future episodes

By becoming a paid subscriber, you help to ensure I can continue to record new episodes and make the Creative Career Change podcast available to all who might be inspired by it. Alternatively, if you’d prefer to make a one-off contribution to the podcast you can buy me a coffee here. I’m hugely grateful for all and any contributions!

Thank you.

Hannah x

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Hello Friends,

I’m having one of those weeks that four years ago I often daydreamed about.

Nothing huge has happened, I’ve mostly been beavering away in my little studio at the top of my house, but my time is mine to use exactly how I wish and I no longer have to do things I don’t want to do. As long as I can pay the bills, of course. Which does seem to be happening.

Instead, I choose when I work, how I work and who I work with. This week has been excellent so far because it’s been varied. I’ve been getting deep into designs for several rooms ready for a presentation, I’ve had calls with potential new clients who are becoming more and more aligned to my design ethos and I’ve prioritised exercise and journaling each morning. Writing this post, scribbling and posting some more postcards and editing podcast episodes (a new one dropping on Sunday) have peppered the days and I had the loveliest conversation with the inspirational on Tuesday for my Creative Career Change podcast (watch this space).

Tomorrow, I’m taking the day off (because I can!) and I’ve got a ‘Hannah day’ in London planned. I’m so excited.

On Friday I’m hosting the next Create Ensemble online session via Zoom. It’s for co-working/writing/creating something and most important of all, feeling connected to a community of like-minded people.

This is an early one if you’re in the UK: 7:00-8:00am, but you can join us from anywhere in the world. To join, you just need to be a paid subscriber.

It’s £3.50 for a month (you can join for one month and see what you think!) or £30 for the whole year. I run 2-3 sessions like this every month and write pieces specifically for paid subscribers. Below the paywall today you will find the link to Friday’s session and I also reveal my ‘Hannah Day’ plans for tomorrow.

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I’ve been writing postcards. A few to people I’ve met in real life or on a Zoom call, but mostly to strangers.

This writing has gently punctuated my working week, taking 10 minutes here to write a card and learning something creative about the recipient in the process, and then 15 minutes there to walk down to the postbox to deposit.

Two cards were sent internationally so required a trip to the Post Office, although it turns out that it’s just 2 x first class stamps that are required to send a postcard from the UK to anywhere in the world. If I’d known that I could have avoided being given some of the most ridiculous stamps I’ve ever seen - the man in the post office giving me four of these and me having to find space on the already cramped postcard to lick and stick them down. One is going to Ireland and the stamp choice felt a bit much. As you can perhaps tell, I’m no royalist.

I digress, because I wanted to write today about the calming effect of postcard (or letter) writing. There’s a sense of purpose to sitting down to carefully write the address, stick on the stamps and then decide on a message. I did it that way around to make sure I could fit everything on after learning quickly when writing the first one and doing everything in reverse.

The postcards I’m sending are currently all from exhibitions I’ve been to over the past couple of years. There’s some Georges Seurat, Hurvin Anderson and some Newlyn School artists bought from the Penzance gallery last year.

I was buying postcards at exhibitions before I had any clue who I was sending them to, but suddenly they’ve found their purpose.

Perhaps some of this has been inspired by reading Virginia Evans’ Women’s Prize winning book ‘The Correspondent’. I think it was the idea of sitting down at a desk as Sybil does in the book, and carving out time for this practice. I was definitely inspired by who started doing this first and I loved the concept and copied it. Hope you don’t mind Louise.

Each postcard has my return address on so that (assuming it ever reaches the recipient), they can write back if they wish. Though there’s no pressure to do that.

When I was a kid, I had several penpals. In fact, I was part of a penpal club run by Royal Mail called Hola! (RM was not the intended theme of this post, but it seems it’s where it is going…).

Do any other 90s kids remember this?

Upon signing up you were sent a blue folder (like the one in the image at the top, but mine was not Pocahontas branded) and some airmail paper and envelopes along with some stickers and other stuff. I’m now wondering if that remains somewhere in my parents’ loft along with the letters. Mum, Dad, I may want to hunt when I’m next back.

Through Hola! I had a penpal in France and one in Germany. There was such a thrill when a light blue envelope with an address written in a distinctively european cursive dropped through the door.

I was studying French at school so was able to at least attempt to write something meaningful in the language, but my German… I seem to recall writing one letter to my penpal in German using only a pocket dictionary for help. It came back with many, many corrections. I’m pretty sure I wrote in English after that.

Around 30 years on, I still get that same feeling of excitement when a letter or a card written by an actual person appears on the doormat. I got excited the other day when an envelope with a wax seal and our name and address written in gold pen plopped through the letterbox. Sadly, it was from a more creatively-minded local estate agent who was trying to get our attention. It worked for a minute, until I realised what it was.

But in a way, that estate agent understood the little fizz of excitement that comes when a real hand has written to you.

Perhaps it’s also due to the sea of AI swill we all find ourselves swimming in. This is the backlash.

If you’d like a postcard, fill in your details here: https://forms.gle/Y8HvSHvRjf2pFBCA8

Happy corresponding!

I’m Hannah. I’m 41, childfree and live in London. I left teaching behind to pursue a more creative approach to work. I earn my living from interior design, writing and creating things I’m passionate about including the Creative Career Change podcast I host with brand new episodes about to drop.

If you like what I’ve got to say, you can support my creative work by upgrading to a paid subscription. For a few pounds per month you will receive monthly invitations to online co-creating sessions, in-person events and honest writing.

Subscribe now

The next co-creating session for paid subscribers takes place on Friday 24th July from 7-8am (UK time). Click here for more info and to register.

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I enjoy a nose into other people’s day to day life and so this week’s post is an insight in what’s been going on in my work and life.

There have been some new subscribers to Chez Hanny recently - wishing you the warmest of welcomes!

If you are new here, I’m Hannah a residential interior designer with my own studio - Hannah Ashe Interior Design. I’m based in SW London and I specialise in transforming Victorian and Edwardian homes. I’m a career changer into interior design having been a secondary school music teacher for 16 years before retraining and leaving that career behind. I’ve written extensively about my career change here, so do delve into the archive if that’s of interest.

I offer a range of interior design services from online consultancy (Rapid Revamp) to full service design. Feel free to reply to this email if you’d like to know more about how I can work with you, or have a browse of my website.

www.hannahashe.co.uk

Monday

Up early for a short walk while the temperature is relatively cool. I’m feeling sluggish but I know that after a few minutes I will be glad I set the alarm and got myself outside. I get home, make tea and write in my journal in the garden until J comes down for breakfast. I’m currently working through The Artist’s Way and I’m on week 4 which means no reading for 7 days. Eek.

Between 9-10am I check my Trello board lists for each current project and prioritise what needs to happen this week. From 10-12 I have my scheduled social media planning time (now a weekly occurrence) where I plan the marketing content for the week. I have a minimum achievable goal and knowing that everything is created by midday on Monday helps me to focus on other things properly. This scheduling has unexpectedly timed well as is now running a 20-minute content prompt session every Monday at 10am. This is perfect to give me a starting point. I highly recommend Hannah’s 10 minute daily marketing group The Best 90 Days Ever which you can read more about and sign up to here (aff. link). It’s genuinely brilliant.

After lunch I have a Rapid Revamp call with a client who is in the thick of the renovation of a Victorian semi-detached house and requires help putting together the colour scheme for the whole house. I listen to her about how each room will be used and create a scheme that she can implement. She leaves the call very happy. Usually I would compile and send the summary notes immediately afterwards but this will have to wait until tomorrow morning. We are going to the Wine Society AGM at the Barbican - largely because there is a wine tasting afterwards, but also because we’ve been part of this cooperative for many years and really like their work. The wine is soaked up by a delicious pizza at Terra Rossa St Paul’s afterwards.

Tuesday

Walk followed by journaling to start the day. Breakfast with J and then straight into a meeting with Kat, my VA at 9am. Kat has been working on Pinterest posts which link to various educational blog posts on my website. This month she is also going to help me with some other content and it’s lovely to have another person in my ‘team’ who takes an interest in what’s going on and can see things from a different perspective to me.

Following the meeting with Kat, I write up the notes from yesterday’s Rapid Revamp and send. I then have a discovery call with a potential new client. It’s a really positive conversation and I like the sound of the project - there’s a good vibe. I follow up with an email with my availability for the initial consultation and get an immediate replying saying yes please. Woohoo, lovely new client!

Kat reminded me in the meeting that there was a blog post outline she’d put together for me on restoring a fireplace and so I spend the next hour writing that blog post and publish on my website.

I send a follow up email to a couple I talked to on a discovery call last week to see if they’d like to book one of the dates I suggested and they say yes and book in for early August. Two new clients in one day is a good day!

After lunch I do a Rapid Revamp call, this time focusing on the ‘middle room’ of a Victorian terrace which is going to become a playroom. We look at colour schemes, joinery and furniture layout. I write up the notes and send immediately afterwards before working on emails relating to ongoing projects. It’s extremely hot in my study, so I move into the bedroom on the cooler floor below. I take my laptop but do have the tennis on in background. It’s Coco Gauff vs Jessica Pegula (who we saw at Wimbledon last Friday). Gauff wins.

My parents facetime me from their holiday in France and then I write and schedule my website email newsletter ‘Find Your Style’ for Friday morning. Sign up here if you want more from me!

Wednesday

I start the day with a run followed by journaling. There are lots of thoughts swirling around my head because we are attending a funeral this afternoon. I reschedule a discovery call planned for 6pm as I don’t know how I will feel later and think it might be best to have nothing work-related this afternoon.

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These sessions have been so enjoyable and I love chatting to you and learning about your creative projects.

And then, after a year or so of those sessions, I added in a monthly early morning writing session - initially starting at 6:30am and later shifting by half an hour to start at the slightly more appealing hour of 7:00am.

Most times there is a lovely group of you appearing on my screen, but very occasionally it’s just been me - yet that doesn’t deter me at all. Quite the opposite, in fact. I run these sessions because I enjoy them and I get an hour to do something creative. This note was very popular!

Today I’m switching things up a little and making the online gatherings simpler and a bit more frequent.

Everything is now part of Create Ensemble (all creative disciplines welcome at all sessions) and I’m offering 2-3 sessions each month at a variety of times.

It means the details are all in one place, via the Create Ensemble tab on the Chez Hanny page.

So when are Create Ensemble sessions taking place?

There are 5 sessions taking place between now and early September - dates and times below. I’ll publish more every month and let you know when new dates are available:

• Monday 13th July 2026, 19:00-20:00

• Friday 24th July 2026, 07:00-08:00

• Wednesday 12th August 15:00-16:00

• Monday 24th August 19:00-20:00

• Friday 4th September 07:00-08:00

To join Create Ensemble sessions, you’ll need a paid subscription which is just £3.50 per month or £30 for a year.

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This fee helps to cover the cost of my Zoom subscription and the admin time to keep these sessions running. Plus you have access to all of my writing (I’ve published over 250 pieces on Substack over the past 3 years!).

As well as making a few changes to Create Ensemble, I’ve made a few other tweaks to my pages, updating the Welcome page and playing around with some of the visual elements.

Last week, I spotted ’ note where she was offering to send handwritten postcards from her travels in France. I loved the idea and have borrowed it (hope you don’t mind, Louise).

I LOVE receiving something handwritten in the post. In fact, reading Virginia Evan’s brilliant book The Correspondent has made me want to write more letters to people. I might make it my summer mission to acquire some beautiful writing stationery and start writing proper letters again.

Anyway, I digress. I’d love to handwrite postcards to anyone who would like one, and I will provide my address on the postcard in case you’d like to become penpals (I loved having penpals as a kid, why can’t we do it as adults?). I’ve set up a form which you can fill in here if you’d like a postcard: https://forms.gle/z4tv1MjVmBkwC9bZ9

By far my favourite thing about Substack is the community, and the opportunities to connect and meet with wonderful, inspiring and interesting people (that’s all of you!). I’m currently making plans for an in-person event for the Autumn which will focus on taking inspiration from nature for our homes and gardens. Paid subscribers will be the first to hear about it.

I hope you’ll join us at one of the upcoming Create Ensemble sessions, or perhaps we’ll become penpals.

If you’re already a paid subscriber and you would like to sign up for any of the upcoming Create Ensemble session, please click here and scroll to the bottom for all of the registration links.

I’ll be keeping my eye on the comments this evening (which are open to all), so come and say hi and have a chat!

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Something surprising happened today.

I said no to working with a potential interior design client which on paper looked like exactly the sort of job I would have dreamed of six months ago.

But the conditions weren’t quite right and there was a slightly anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

That was until I said no, and then everything made sense.

I’m in a different business headspace now, 6 months into running Hannah Ashe Interior Design full time. Plus, I’m just back from an extremely relaxing two week break, which I’m realising was more than just a holiday. It was a time to reflect on everything that had happened in the past six months and the huge life and work changes I’ve made in recent years. It gave me space, and I needed that space more than I realised.

The enquiry came in just as I was about to go on holiday: a beautiful Victorian property - exactly the kind I love to work on.

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I’m back in London after two weeks away in France. It was a holiday, but I’ve come to realise that our holidays are quite different to what some would consider a holiday to be.

We didn’t eat any meals out.

We didn’t go on a plane.

We didn’t go to the sea.

And we came back with a lot more ‘stuff’ than we left with.

Despite the above, it was a wonderfully relaxing break.

In today’s piece I’m going to write about the reasons why my ideal trip has evolved into something quite different to the stereotypical holiday image and why that works for me. It’s also a celebration of the artisans and producers we met on our travels up and down France. At the bottom of the post you will find links to all of the Airbnbs, producers and artisans mentioned.

Quality, hand-made and sustainably produced goods are something I’m passionate about in my work as an interior designer because it’s how I live myself.

I’ve become something of a Francophile over the past 5 years. I studied French at A Level but dropped the course after one year due to doing better in my other subjects (it was the time of AS Levels 🙄). I always loved learning about the culture as well as the language, but back then I was seeking something different to now - some kind of mastery or perfection. I now know that in language terms, it’s impossible. I mean, have I mastered English? No!

Fast forward 20 years and post-pandemic, something clicked in me that the only way I was going to improve my French was through regular practice. Like with a musical instrument, languages need to be used daily.

And so I set about taking my French more seriously. I didn’t sign up for an intensive course, or spend lots of money on reading materials. Instead, I asked my fluent-French speaking friend Judith what I should do.

“Watch French TV, listen to French radio, speak to J in French, find a native speaker to chat with occasionally…”

All completely sensible suggestions and also very possible.

This was in 2021, and since then we’ve watched countless French TV series (with subtitles), started listening to FIP on Radio France instead of BBC 6Music, attempted to do Duolingo reasonably regularly, and while I was still teaching I had lunch with one of the French teachers every Monday. This has also been combined with following some French social media accounts and visiting the country several times per year (3 trips so far in 2026).

I’m by no means fluent, but my understanding has come on hugely, and while we were away on the most recent trip my husband said to me “I think you may have reached conversational level” after we’d just spent an hour tasting wine with a French vineyard owner and I was chatting to her about our mutual love of liquorice.

It was quite a revelation that I was no longer feeling slightly anxious in advance of an interaction with someone new.

And all of this has meant that aspects of France that may have felt ‘off-limits’ previously as largely non-French speaking travellers, have suddenly opened up to us and made me fall even more deeply in love with the country.

Travels South

This trip was by car and we opted to take Le Shuttle to cross the channel. This is a train that you drive your car onto and it takes just 35 minutes to get from Folkestone to Calais.

Driving is our favourite way to travel on holiday because we can take specific items with us like kitchen utensils (J takes his kitchen knives with him…) and piles of books (including a few cookbooks). And better still, we have space in the car to bring things home. I love driving and in France it’s easy - wide, straight roads and much less traffic than the UK. Though don’t get me started on péage costs (motorway tolls).

We arrived in France around 10am and headed towards our first stop: Chablis - around 4 and a half hours from Calais. It’s a town we’ve visited a few times, but had never stayed there. This time we had a beautiful Airbnb booked for 2 nights (link at the bottom of this post) and once the car was parked we didn’t have to drive anywhere for 48 hours, which was nice after a long day of driving. There was a market on Sunday morning which was the perfect re-introduction to French culture and we visited the wine cooperative La Chablisienne to taste and buy some Chablis wines to take home with us.

We spent around half an hour tasting delicious, cool Chablis and chatted with the woman serving us, asking her about the stories of the wine names (one was called L’Homme Mort) as well as what her favourite wines were. We bought a couple of cases to take home with us and were presented with a free corkscrew and bottle stopper wrapped up in a nice little bag.

Arriving Home (ish)

The main destination for our trip was to La Drôme region which is in Northern Provence. We were staying in the same house we’d spent a month in during the summer of 2024 and were very excited to be back.

The benefit of returning was that we arrived with a list of places we knew we wanted to visit, as well as being open to new discoveries. It did feel a little like returning home.

On my list was to return to the tiny village of Aiguèze which overlooks the Ardèche river. Partially to enjoy the views, but also to go back to a little shop La grange des producteurs which sold local food, wine and lavender products. I use a few drops of lavender oil in the bath and this can be expensive in the UK. At this shop I bought 250ml of lavender oil for €18 along with some garrigues scented foot balm for €5. All locally produced and excellent quality.

The next day we returned to another favourite from the previous trip, the beautiful hillside town of Dieulefit, most famous for pottery, but also full of talented artisans and makers. We bought two new tea mugs and side plates from Poterie Dieulefit and I got a super cute pen pot made by ceramicist Corine Lavalle. It made me smile.

J was in the market for a new leather belt and we found a fantastic leather goods shop - Atelier Atout-Cuir run by Emma Gregoire - where he had a belt made to measure while we waited. I bought a cute pair of colourful earrings also made by Emma which were made from leather offcuts.

Chocolate like I have never tasted before

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Series 4 is finally here! This time round I’m handpicking guests rather than putting a call out, and my attention was peaked when Becky and I crossed paths on Instagram. She spotted my giant monstera plant, I looked at her profile and was instantly interested as soon as I saw that she hadn’t always been an artist.

Becky Ullah spent 15 years in medicine, 10 of them as an NHS GP, before leaving to become a full-time artist. In this episode, she talks candidly about the slow burn of burnout, the guilt of walking away from a profession she'd worked so hard to enter, and the unexpected route that led her to painting.

Becky's art fuses her medical training with her love of plants and anatomy, creating pieces that trace the botanical origins of prescription drugs. She talks about the importance of giving yourself space to think, the business realities of being a self-employed artist, and her upcoming solo exhibition at UCL Hospital, where she'll be showing a collection on chemotherapy drugs derived from nature.

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Links and mentions

• Becky’s website : www.beckyullah.co.uk

• Becky on Instagram: @beckyullahart

• The friends and coaches that Becky talks about in the podcast Dr Marcela Aguirre and Lucy James.

• Becky’s solo exhibition at UCLH is from 30th July - 20th October 2026 (poster image below). There will be a launch event on 30th July, 5-7pm, all welcome.

• Becky’s joint floral exhibition at 67 York Street Gallery, London running from 2nd-8th October

• Becky be participating in Herts Open Studios 2026 in September.

  

A note from Hannah

I’m aware that those in the thick of a career change, who have left a job or taken a pay cut, may not have the means to pay to listen and so the Creative Career Change podcast will always be free to all subscribers.

I hope the conversations may inspire positive change and the pursuit of creativity and balance. I’ve created the resource that I wish had been available to me several years ago when I felt trapped by my job.

Making this podcast is a labour of love and I do everything myself. This includes finding guests, writing questions, recording the conversation, editing, mixing, composing music and publishing the episode.

Upgrade to paid: support future episodes

By becoming a paid subscriber, you help to ensure I can continue to record new episodes and make the Creative Career Change podcast available to all who might be inspired by it. Alternatively, if you’d prefer to make a one-off contribution to the podcast you can buy me a coffee here. I’m hugely grateful for all and any contributions!

Thank you.

Hannah x

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I’ve set myself a challenge to become a Substack bestseller.

It’s a bit audacious for someone who isn’t famous, didn’t bring an already established list here and essentially just writes honestly about life and work and the joys, challenges and everything in between that come with it.

But I’m saying it out loud and therefore I mean it. Being a ‘bestseller’ means to have over 100 paid subscribers. I’m not so far away from that and I believe that it is possible for me.

Another reason I decided I was going to set myself this challenge was because it forces me to show up regularly.

I’m currently away on holiday in France. I’ve been here for a week and have another week before returning home. I’d worked super hard in the first two weeks of June in my interior design business in order to not have to work while away. I told all of my clients, put my out of office on and I’ve stuck to that so far.

But, I’m not one for being able to do nothing, so in between the reading and the rosé sipping, I’ve been writing. Morning pages every day before J wakes up, more ideas explored for my ever-evolving book, pieces for this Substack and the editing of a brand new podcast episode dropping tomorrow.

I’m staying in the same house we came to two years ago for a month-long ‘workliday’ and as soon as I walked through the door, I remembered that this was a place I wrote in. And I knew I must do that again.

So here I am, making time for writing and making myself accountable to show up by setting myself this goal to reach 100 paid subscribers.

Why should anybody care what I have to say?

This is a question I ask myself regularly when I’m writing. Why would anyone be interested in my relatively unexciting life? But then I think of what I’m most interested in reading - my favourite Substacks are those where the authors share the mundane as well as the exciting, but do it honestly and with integrity.

I can smell bullshit a mile away and as soon as I start thinking “well, hang on a minute, last week you said…” when I read something with a tinge of hypocrisy or sense some bending of the truth, I’m put off.

So, for my readers I write what I know to be true for me. I share the authentic highs and lows of launching a business after a long career in teaching, I share my interest in honing my writing and I share the things in life that light me up.

I also care deeply about creating a community of kind, thoughtful and like-minded people. That’s why I started hosting monthly online sessions for paid subscribers and through that I’ve made some wonderful friends. Sometimes I show up for those sessions and nobody else comes, but I don’t mind at all because I’m showing up for myself as much as anything. And being honest about the realities!

The more I think about it, the more I realise that art - be it visual, musical, written or otherwise - is all about documenting a moment. Moments are unique to us all and we are the only ones who can tell our story of a particular moment in time.

We live in a time where everything is photographed or videoed. Babies are literally born to a camera in their face and many people have forgotten what it is to really experience a moment, instead prioritising the filming of it in order to share it immediately on social media. Yet these very literally captured moments don’t really tell the story. And they certainly lose their sparkle when replayed. It’s a bit like making someone sit through your holiday photos.

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I’m writing today from the south of France. We’re back in the house we stayed in for a month during the summer of 2024. Sadly not for so long this time, but it’s good to be back. And the first holiday in June for me since after my finals in 2006 when I visited my friend in Madrid. Since then I’ve been fully institutionalised in the school system. But not anymore!

This morning I was looking back through my journal which I started when I came here in July 2024 and it was interesting to read some of the things I’d written back then. Most of it fairly mundane: how I’d slept, how many mosquito bites I’d acquired and what I’d had for dinner. Same old really, but it reminded me also of some of the interactions we’d had with locals and places we’d visited which all helped to make this region feel so like home that we’ve returned again.

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It’s a slightly anxious space I’m inhabiting at the moment. In three days’ time we will go away for two weeks on holiday. I simultaneously cannot wait, and yet am filled with anxiety around whether this is a good idea as a self-employed person.

Will I be able to simply not work for two weeks and still be able to make ends meet?

Will I really set my out of office up to say that I won’t be replying to emails until 29th June, or will I not be able to resist a sneaky look part way through?

Combine that with our house still being up for sale and the very, very dwindling possibility of moving now that we are trying it with the third and final (for now) estate agent. The current estate agent experience is probably a story for another day, but suffice to say it’s not going all that well. It creates a whole lot of uncertainty.

All of these are, of course, very first-world problems and I do understand that I’m extremely privileged to even feel this way. I don’t take it lightly that I’ve had the support network around me and means via savings from my previous well-paid job to allow me to take this plunge into the unpredictable world of self-employment.

Sometimes I find myself marvelling that I can pop down to the high street and pick up a birthday card in the middle of a weekday morning. But sometimes I wonder what on earth I’ve done and almost (but not quite) find myself reaching for the phone to search through the TES teaching job listings.

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I’m a morning person.

I do my best, focused work in the morning between the hours of 6am and 11am. I know this through tried and tested methods and so now that my work schedule is organised solely by me, I try to plan everything around this knowledge.

But sometimes unexpected plans come up and I have to adapt.

It was my birthday on Saturday and my amazing husband planned a whole host of things to do over the weekend. It was centred around interiors, art, books and food. He knows me well.

A key part of my birthday present was tickets to the excellent Cafe Murano Book Club hosted by which took place yesterday evening. The guest author this time was whose writing in both her Guardian column and books I’ve read regularly over the years. The evening featured a delicious three course meal (recipes from Felicity’s books) with an interview between Mark and Felicity (and Felicity’s dog, Wilf) in between the starter and the main course.

It was wonderful. I always find it inspiring to hear authors talk about their work, but there was something really special hearing about how Felicity had moved between writing a food column to food/travel memoirs and more recently fiction. I love to hear about how one idea leads to another and opportunities start to present themselves. I suppose it gives me hope to keep writing and working on the things I love.

The company, food and atmosphere were all top notch and Felicity kindly signed a book for us and chatted to us before we left.

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As is sometimes the case on a Sunday, our train line was out of action due to engineering works so our route home from Bermondsey took a little longer than usual. Combined also with a lot of Arsenal fans on the tube! It was after midnight when we got home and I climbed straight into bed.

I woke several times in the night - too hot, thirsty, insect bites itchy. And then my alarm went off at 6:15am (because I had set it to go off then).

The sensible thing would have been to turn the alarm off today and allow myself to sleep in. After all, I am self-employed these days and although the work won’t do itself I could have afforded myself this kindness.

But no, I dragged myself out of bed and pulled on some leggings and went out for a walk. It’s something I did every day during the previous week when it was really hot and I enjoyed the feeling of getting some exercise first thing and listening to my audiobook (currently Flashlight by Susan Choi). I’d arbitrarily decided I was going to continue doing this hence the forced getting up.

By the time I got back from my 40-minute walk, I felt about 10% more awake. I went to make a cup of tea, opened the fridge and realised we didn’t have any milk or bread and last night I’d tipsily said that I’d go to the shop on the way back from my walk. But in my dozy state I forgot all about it. So back out I went to the little Sainsburys to get milk and bread.

Reluctantly, at around 9am I went up to my study to start working, but instead of cracking on with a current client project, I started worrying about earning money this month. In mid-June I’m going away for two weeks and it’s the first time since going fully self-employed that I’m taking this length of time off work. Ironic, given that actually getting on with and finishing the client project would enable me to send an invoice and earn money, but the brain works in mysterious ways.

Instead, I decided to create various Facebook adverts to aim to sell three Rapid Revamp video consultations I have available on Thursday. Then I made an Instagram post on the same theme. And then one for LinkedIn too.

Suddenly I realised I needed to pay an invoice to my VA and confirm the work I wanted her to do for me in June. Again, important as I will be away for two weeks so having someone working in the background is vital. I then remembered there was a drafted blog post she had helped me with that I needed to finish and so I spent the next hour working on and publishing that (I’m quite pleased with it, actually. You can read it here).

Next I decided to return to the 10-minute marketing tasks which I’d neglected over the previous couple of weeks and spent the allotted 10 minutes + an extra 5 tweaking my website homepage.

Now that the blog post was written and I was attempting to sell some video consultations for Thursday, I decided it would be a good idea to write and schedule a short email newsletter to my website subscribers. That’s coming first thing tomorrow morning - subscribe here if you’re not already on that list.

Lunch happened somewhere amongst all of this and when I returned to my desk I had an email reply I’d been waiting for. On Friday I wrote a grant application and I was waiting for an extra piece of information to include before sending. This detail had now arrived and so I added it, did a final check and submitted.

By this point I was flagging again and I may have lain down on my bed for half an hour and closed my eyes. I’m a big fan of a power nap and it always does the job for me.

After that I switched to the client project and spent 45 minutes working on a living room design. 45 minutes might not sound like a lot, but I find it difficult to focus on deeply creative design work for much longer than that. I still berate myself for it though.

I went to make a cup of tea and was feeling quite rubbish about how little I’d accomplished today, when suddenly I paused and thought “what are you on about?”

It was then that I decided to write a list of all the things I had accomplished today rather than dwell on what I felt I hadn’t done.

Here’s the summary:

• 12 pieces of social/platform content published

• Website homepage audit and updates

• Finalised and published the Edwardian extension blog post

• Wix newsletter scheduled for tomorrow

• Hatch grant fund application submitted

• 45 minutes of client work

Seriously, what is wrong with me?! Do I think I’m superhuman?

Anyway, I decided to write this to prove to myself that I’ve not been lazy or unproductive today, despite having a late night!

I can add writing over 1000 words to the list.

Tell me it's not just me.

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I’m Hannah. I’m 41, childfree and live in London. I left teaching behind to pursue a more creative approach to work. I earn my living from interior design, writing and creating things I’m passionate about including my ‘Creative Career Change’ podcast with brand new episodes about to drop.

If you like what I’ve got to say, you can support my creative work by upgrading to a paid subscription. For a few pounds per month you will receive monthly invitations to online co-creating sessions, in-person events and deeply personal writing.

The next co-creating session for paid subscribers takes place on Friday 12th June from 7-8am (UK time). Click here for more info and to register.