Wall flower

Hooray! Your new favourite read has arrived — issue #02 of Wallflower magazine is out now!

We at Wallflower magazine have been working super hard to bring you our brand new summer issue! This time around, we celebrate the joys of spending time alone; a bit of summer solitude is a beautiful thing! Whether you’re chilling in the park, swaying in a hammock in a lovely hot country, or relaxing in the comfort of your own home, Wallflower is the perfect read to get you in the summer mood.

Issue #02 – Summer 2017

Capture your summer memories in a Wallflower style photo album, Make one of our refreshing fruit smoothies, listen to our recommended podcasts or check out our interview with the creator of Introvert Doodles, Marzi .This issue is jam-packed with awesome content, you won’t want to give it a miss!

Like what you see or have a great idea for the next issue? Tweet us or get in touch to let us know. You could even see your work featured on our website or in our print magazine.

Make a personalised photo album as a gift this Mother’s Day (and rise up a place on the favourite child list)!

Mothering Sunday is just around the corner and if you have forgotten about it, fear not! We here at Wallflower have come up with the perfect solution for your lack of a present. Make use of crafting skills to good use and put together a very special handmade photo album for the woman that bore you. It’s so easy to make. All you need is:

-A few pages of construction paper -Glue -Ribbon -A hole puncher – lots of stickers, coloured pens, fancy paper, stamps, lettering, tape,etc for decorating -Photos

Follow our quick and easy video on how to assemble it all together.

Siobhan sends a postcard to her childhood home

“​Dear House,

You are where my childhood memories begin. The red brick house with its red tile kitchen that our foolish deerhound refused to walk across. The two gardens, one filled with trees, hedges and a secret pathway, the other hiding a small blue wooden house beyond the vegetable patch – the cottage of a rose fairy.

The house with the shiny new conservatory that started as just a hole knocked through the living room wall, where we saw in the Millennium and covered the fading Christmas tree with strands of party poppers.

The sink where I stood on a stool “washing up” and making endless soapy “cappuccinos,” which I would hand to my parents and they would dutifully pretend to sip from then act surprised when I would fall into giggles announcing, “It’s just bubbles!”

The house where I had two bedrooms. My grown-up bedroom was at the front of the house and I had my own desk and two windows, one looking out over the driveway and the other to the side of the house. A room with so much floor space I could build a whole sprawling town out of Duplo across the carpet. But before that, I had the bedroom at the back of the house with a window looking out over the garden below, a church spire in the distance.

The bunk bed with plastic stars stuck on the bed panels that glowed ghoulish green when goodnights had been said and the lights turned out. The room where I picked up a yellow crayon and scribbled it back and forth over the roof of my Barbie house before turning to the walls. Not really trying to be naughty but just wanting to know what it felt like to do something I knew I shouldn’t. The thrill of the act and then the waiting. Waiting with anticipation for my sins to be discovered, which, inevitably, they were. And then the icing on the cake: to be able to blame it all on Jessica Pierce and get away with it all.

Jessica was a notorious scribbler of walls, so no questions were asked and my lie remained intact until, many years later, I revealed it to my mother, much to her amusement. She couldn’t really chide me for my lie when she too had lies grown from that house.

From the back garden, the tip of the church spire peeked above the tops of the trees, beyond the other houses that lay between us and the churchyard. The chiming of the bells would roll over these houses and into our garden. One summer when I was still quite small, the church bells varied from their usual ringing and began to play some different tunes, most memorably The Teddy Bears’ Picnic. Each day of the summer holidays spent playing out in the garden would be accompanied by the church bells’ rendition of that song.

To a child it didn’t seem so unusual, and it wasn’t until I was in my late teens and my parents and I were reminiscing about those years that I recalled it all. My mother burst out into uncontrollable laughter, tears spilling down her cheeks. I sat there surprised and confused until, between giggles, she confessed that it had never been the church bells but instead an ice-cream van. An ice cream van that used to pass by the front of the house every day of the summer holidays. The church bells had been a spur of the moment lie to spare her from a child’s daily demands for ice cream.

When I found out we were to leave this red brick home I childishly, stubbornly, and tearfully refused to. I said I would remain despite everyone else going. Until the day finally came, when the last of boxes had been packed, rooms standing bare, when we closed the front door for the last time, climbed into the car and began the drive north. Leaving an empty house behind.

  To read more from Siobhan’s series Letters Home, visit thelettershomeproject, and follow her on Twitter! Or read her first letter in issue #2 of Wallflower magazine, out 21 March.

Want to have your work featured here or even in our next issue? Just tweet us or get in touch and you could be our next contributor!

Our resident Wallflower Kim Kaveh demonstrates how to make delicious, summer smoothies

With summer only a few short months away, the Wallflower gang have created three delicious smoothies that are sure to quench your thirst, tickle your taste buds and leave you feeling healthy and energised!

Let us know what your favourite smoothie recipe is! And if you feel like creating your own, be sure to tag us on Instagram so we can see your delicious drinks!

Wallflower Kim Kaveh on finding the middle ground between two extremes

There are many different types of introverts and extroverts. However, the general consensus is that introverts generally lose energy from social interaction and extroverts gain mental energy in social situations. I for one however, am both. Sometimes I am introvert, others I am extrovert. So, what am I?

According to the Myers Briggs test, I am a person with 60 shades of extrovert and 40 shades of introvert. Therefore, I am an ambivert – a person who has a balance of extrovert and introvert in their personality. I’ll agree, some people do fall squarely into either the introvert or extrovert camp. But roughly 38% may be somewhere in between, personality psychologist Robert R. McCrae told the Huffington Post.

I’ll admit, love being in groups of people, seeking excitement from an outside environment and generally being a social butterfly. I have always had a loud, confident personality and have always been ready to party with friends, go on a night out, or even a nice meal with my nearest and dearest.

Then again, some of my best weekends have been spent alone with Netflix and a takeaway to recharge my batteries ready for a new week. I can often go out and have hours of fun being the life of the party, but suddenly find my energy levels have dropped and all I really want to do is go home and be alone.

My behaviour is likely to change with the situation, and I can easily become “unbalanced.” I’m equally as comfortable in situations where the introvert feels most at home and where the extrovert is being the life and soul of the party. I tend to seek dare devil risk taking behaviour, but simultaneously relish my quiet time with a nice book to keep me company.

I have a tendency to balance out whoever I’m with – If I’m with someone loud, I’ll be loud. If they’re quiet, I’ll be even quieter. In the right context, I love attention, but more often than not, I don’t want to be the person everyone is looking at.

The truth is, I feel completely content with being an ambivert. I find both introverted and extroverted worlds both satisfying and rewarding. Being an ambivert helps me enjoy a varied life and helps me appreciate both personality types equally. But, whether you are an introvert, extrovert or an ambivert, we are all gloriously complex beings and the key to success is to embrace the personality type that you have.

If you want a fun little test to see if you are an ambivert, visit: http://ift.tt/11YghJF

DIY coupons: make some she can use to lounge around all day, while you cook breakfast or do the dishes

Make her a sparkly card

Handmade card with a heartfelt poem written by you

Bake her a cake, a batch of cupcakes or some cookies

A scented candle with a personal message on the label (hint: apple cinnamon is our pick)

Scented candles, warm and comforting

Her favourite bath products (not yours, hers!) or a gift certificate to the spa

Mum deserves to be pampered, not just today but everyday

DIY coffee mug (draw on a mug with a permanent marker and bake it)

A picture frame with a photograph of a happy memory

Frame a happy memory

If your mum is a coffee addict, maybe a gift card from the best café in town? Or better yet, take her there and let her order anything from the menu that her pretty little heart desires

Keepsake wine glasses

9.  A bottle of expensive wine, a matching wine glass to go with it and indulgent dark (or milk) chocolate truffles

In the battle of the pets, bunnies seem to get short shrift. Which is a bit unfair because they are just so snuggably cute! Here’s nine adorable little nose-twitchers to brighten up your Friday

  These buns are #squadgoals:

via http://ift.tt/2l7UdbU

  As the proverb says “a bun in the hand is worth two in the bush”:

via pixabay.com/SimonaR

  These two rapscallions are getting’ up to no good:

via flickr.com/jpockele

  This bun playing hide and squee:

via http://ift.tt/2nO6and

  Look at these bonny bunnies:

via flickr.com/jpockele

  This little guy is hopping mad:

via flickr.com/jpockele

  Nothing like a family feast for these two:

via WikiCommons

  Mother and bun:

via pixabay.com/couleur

  Bun in a bowl:

via flicker.com/jpockele

We spoke to some of our Wallflowers to find out their thoughts on pursuing their lifelong goals. Here’s what they said

Being an adult ain’t no easy feat. School (for the most part) is like a big ol’ cushion, gently easing us through our childhood years. And then BAM! We find ourselves thrust into the real world with a great big kick to the backside.

There are decisions to make, paths to take and there’s tons of growing up to do, all within what can feel like an insanely short space of time. On top of all that, there’s the whole question of whether we pursue our dreams now, or hold back and wait until we’re more financially stable (and perhaps a little more clued up).

With our YOLO obsessed culture, there’s an underlying pressure to drop everything and go full steam ahead with our lifelong dreams. Ironically however, there’s also a lot of economic uncertainty at the moment. We’re being encouraged to save our pennies, make responsible job choices that our parents would approve of and wait until we’re older to experiment a little more in life.

When it comes to making those big life choices, know that you’re not alone! We’re all in this together. We spoke to some fellow Wallflowers who shared some of their thoughts on living for the moment versus planning for the future.

1. What is your name, age, occupation and where are you from?

I’m Kirsten Rees, I’m 34 and I’m based in Glasgow, Scotland. I’m the owner of Make Me A Success —  Haute Copy & Couture Coaching

2. What are your dreams/aspirations? Would you say you’re living them?

I went through the careers book A-Z when I was in school and when I spoke to the career’s advisor about becoming a school teacher she actually talked me out of it. I was very shy and lacked confidence as a kid, so standing up in front of a room or teenagers to teach was a hell of a task for an introvert. I went through a long resumé of jobs over the years before launching my own business as a copywriter and business coach. It’s taught me that I am confident and capable and being introverted isn’t about lacking, it’s about being selective of your environment and the people you work with. I work really hard to attract female entrepreneurs like myself and they love working with me because they can relate to my own experiences. I’m currently writing a business book aimed at women launching a start-up and have a list of aspirations for the years ahead including publishing my book, winning an award, getting on the 40under40 list and doing more speaking engagements.

3. The big question: Do you think it’s more important to live for the moment or plan for the future and why?

I’ve found it’s best to have a balance. I went through a phase in my 20s, trying to live for the moment but it hindered my progression when it came to running a successful business. Nowadays, I have short-term, mid-term, and long-term business goals. However, I do also keep an eye out for anything exciting that might be a great opportunity. I think it’s important to keep a strong schedule but have some flexibility in there so if something does pop up, you can say yes!

  1.What is your name, age, occupation and where are you from?

I’m Sophie Dishman, I’m 22, I’m from Northumberland and I’m a student

2. What are your dreams/aspirations? Would you say you’re living them?

My dream is to become a journalist. I’d love to work at Radio 4 or a BBC local station. I’d also like to work on magazines and newspapers (Not all at once of course).

3. The big question: Do you think it’s more important to live for the moment or plan for the future and why?

I think it is more important to live for the moment because, as scary as it sounds, you never know what’s around the corner, but then saying that you should be planning for the future too.

  1. What is your name, age, occupation and where are you from?

I’m Marianne Miles, I’m a PR & Social Media Consultant and I’m from London

2. What are your dreams/aspirations? Would you say you’re living them?

I don’t have any dreams or aspirations. I have plans which I’m executing and that is to live a free & unrestricted life.

3. The big question: Do you think it’s more important to live for the moment or plan for the future and why?

Neither is more important. You have to plan and if you are working towards that plan all your ‘moments’ will contribute to your future.

Good news for all introverts out there – the first issue of Wallflower magazine is available to read now!

Ever wanted to know your MTBI Personality type, or find out about how the quiz got started? What about the best ways to get out of plans when you don’t feel like going out? Or even how to make your very own dream den, for those nights when you just want to stick Netflix on and relax with nothing but your own company, your favourite TV show, and maybe even a tasty Freak Shake too?

Now you can read about all that and more in the first issue of Wallflower magazine!

Issue #01 – Spring 2017

Look out for our next issue, where we’ll be talking about bullet journaling, travelling alone, mental health, and we’ll even have a special interview with Marzi, creator of Introvert Doodles. Issue #02 coming 21 March!

Like what you see or have a great idea for the next issue? Tweet us or get in touch to let us know. You could even see your work featured on our website or in our print magazine.