Life | Lauren Garland

Early Adventures in Gluten-Free

By: laurengarland

26-06-2011

I have been thinking about going gluten-free for a while, and then after suddenly suffering various allergic reactions, despite never having had any allergies, I decided it was time to give it a try.

It’s quite an easy decision to make, especially now our supermarkets have great selections of gluten-free foods, but what I didn’t really think about was the transition. So after deciding to go gluten-free I went to my kitchen to get some lunch and realised that everything in my cupboard had gluten in it. Ah. Slight hitch. I couldn’t exactly just throw out my entire cupboard and start again, and I couldn’t expect The Boy to eat it all. Don’t get me wrong he wouldn’t complain and he’d manage it, but it would take him a while and, more importantly, I’d have to cook two lots of food every evening to make it happen.

So instead of cutting out from day one, I’ve been cutting down. Breakfast and lunch I’ve gone gluten free, and when we have something glutenous for dinner, I’ve just been having a smaller portion. The cupboard supplies are starting to go down, though still I need to do some baking and get through some of the flours stashed in the cupboard, and I’m starting to replace them with gluten free products. Doves Farm is my saviour, but more about that another time.

So you can expect some posts on here documenting the trials and tribulations of my new gluten-free life. Baking successes and failures (in fact there are two coming up shortly!) and no doubt various rants about lovely treats I can no longer eat. Or drink. Like beer. I had beer on Thursday night. Friday morning I looked like I was about to give birth to a beach ball. Who’d have thought the effect would be that drastic after just a couple of weeks? Cider it is.

All Change, Yet Again

By: laurengarland

11-06-2011

All, Life

Its all been rather hectic here recently, and my blog will have to adapt a little again to reflect that.

After a year of job hunting, interning and freelancing, two jobs appeared on the horizon a couple of weeks ago. So I suddenly had various interviews to attend, trial days to go to and lots of new people to meet. On top of this I was very aware that last week I had booked to go on holiday with The Boy and didn’t want to delay my potential employers by asking them to wait until I returned.

So just over a week ago I agreed a job with one of these companies, sadly without finishing the interview process with the other as there just wasn’t time, and this very morning I signed a contract for my first ‘proper’ job, and I start on Tuesday. I’ve taken on a job as a Garment Technologist for a high street retailer, something I know I can do as I have done it before at Mulberry, but that doesn’t stop me being terrified!

While all these interviews were going on I suddenly realised that my free time was coming to an end and I should probably get done all of the errands/appointments I’d been putting off and I also needed to get ready for our holiday. On the same week as all this happened my new Brompton Bicycle arrived, which I’ve hardly had a chance to ride yet sadly, but will be great for my new commute next week, and I also found out I’d got a place on the 2012 Brighton Marathon! So I need to step up my fitness from here on in!

My Etsy shop will probably close once the items are sold/expired, but I may decide to keep it and list the occasional thing. I’m not sure yet, I’ll keep you posted.

I’ll be keeping my Tumblr. It’s had most of my focus recently, so I’ll try and be good and write here more.

Yes There Have Been Delays

By: laurengarland

18-04-2011

All, Life

I just wanted to apologise for the delay in blog posts and etsy listings. Last week I was struck down with my first ever migraine and it left me cowering on the sofa in the dark for rather a lot of the week. So sadly I was not as productive as I’d have liked.

However, I have a blog post or two in the pipeline and I will get my most recent creations photographed this evening to be listed this week. I’ve also got some new ideas to play with, so I shall push on with those as well.

Oh and this blog. I’ve re-written the CSS, it just needs some tweaking. So hopefully you can see it in it’s finished form this week! It’s driving me nuts at the moment!

All Change

By: laurengarland

01-04-2011

All, Life

I knew when I chose to go freelance as a pattern cutter that for my first couple of years at least, my working life would be one of feast and famine, it’s the nature of an industry with just two major deadlines a year. So, from before I started work I’d been thinking about how to keep myself afloat during those times of freelance drought, and the answer was pretty logical.

My job is to pattern cut clothes and I love making things, so why not keep my skills up to date and hopefully improve them further by designing and making clothes and selling them? I never intended to start my own label, but it seems that is what I’m now doing! My etsy store will open this weekend.

So, to make sure I’m doing this online brand thing properly, I’ve had a bit of a reshuffle of my internet presence, which I’ll admit has been stressful. I’ve probably spent more time coding HTML and CSS this week than I have sewing clothes and the custom Tumblr theme I wrote was a total waste of a day! I still don’t understand how I went wrong there. But the rest of it is looking good and, hopefully is working!

You can reach all of the important pages on the links on the right, and you can contact me at the top of the page, but here’s the key ways you can keep up to date with me:

TUMBLR | I’m keeping my Tumblr because, well Tumblr is ace, but I’m going to use it more as a visual diary of inspiration. Lots of pretty things, no ramblings.

BLOG | That’s here. Here you’ll find updates about my etsy store and updates about my life. Plus, the books, knitting and food based posts that used to appear on my Tumblr will move here so they can be a bit more wordy. You can subscribe to the RSS to make life easier.

ETSY STORE | Obviously. You’ll be able to view and buy my designs here. How exciting!

TWITTER | My stream of consciousness and a lot of general updates about what I’m currently eating/cooking/craving/etc.

EMAIL | And of course feel free to get in contact the old fashioned way!