Let's Talk About Life While I Clear Out My Wardrobe

hi everyone today I thought I would do a Q&A I would answer your questions about books and lockdown and life and everything and I thought that instead of just sitting down and speaking to you answering those questions I would talk to you while I clear out my wardrobe so if you're mute here my name is Jen hello I am an author and my husband and I recently moved places we recently bought our first flat and we haven't bought any we bought one lamp we haven't bought any new furniture for the flat yet we were thinking about it we wanted to take our time and then lock down happen so we haven't bought anything so everything that is here is stuff that we've either brought from a previous place or was left by the people who were renting this place before we bought it the Wardrobe is one of those things and I actually actually quite like it for now so this did have a big black plastic cover over the top but now it's just an open wardrobe so I have this wardrobe I have a little drawer next to my bed working my underwear and stuff I have three boxes under my bed that looked like these they're old wine crates so I've got one with my hats in and when I say hats I mean like the one I'm wearing right now Baker boy hats I have one with a woolly hats and scarves in and then I'll not pick up the third one because you get the idea the third one that has my pajamas in and then I have these jumpers which we're in a drawer so I have got these books with a couple of boxes from our attic that is not an attic but we call it an attic that have my spring/summer clothes and I want to put away I mean some of these are spring/summer clothes as well because I wear them with tights in the winter and autumn and then with bare legs in the summer but I want to take out anything that is really wintery put it in a box put anything really summery on here and just talk to you well as you know does that sound okay I hope that sounds okay cuz then that that's what we're doing today okay one question was what are your favorite snacks like craving snacks not healthy snacks so if you've been watching my Instagram stories or my recent videos you will know that I have been channeling my stress into baking and I have been enjoying that and the thing that I have been craving the most though I don't actually think I've put them in a video yet and if you would like me to I can and I'll drop scones so drop scones are a little bit like American pancake so they're thicker but they're they are small so they're about that big and they're really easy to make you just quickly fry them and then I put jam and butter on them and they're great so they're not really a pancake and they're not really is gone that there's something beautiful in the middle of those two things so let's start sorting I'm gonna make a pile of clothes that can go into the boxes once those have been emptied and a pile for anything that needs to go to the charity shop or once those are open again I shouldn't have too many items go to charity shop because every six months when I do this switch up I go through everything and make sure that everything that's in my wardrobe I would like to be there and I've been trying to buy fewer things as well so let's go [Music] this is a jump that I'm gonna keep out because it's very spring-like Jean got me this for Christmas so it's a jumper that she got from a charity shop and then she stitched a eucalyptus plants on it which i think is so cute okay so I know that it's here because it can hang up in a minute oh here is a relevant question someone asked you always wear such colorful clothes do you have a favorite color if I do have a favorite color and I think it's I think if this which is very helpfully inside-out let me rectify that second this I think this color green is my favorite color I had a few questions recently about floral dresses because I have three of them this one this one and this one and where they're from I would recommend checking out puppy days who is a blogger you may be familiar with her she has a whole page on her website dedicated to floral midi dresses so go and take a look Oh fun fact this is what I got married in this is a jumpsuit that I got married in and it is as I'm filming this it is our two year wedding anniversary tomorrow maybe I will wear this in honor just you know around the house I think actually will you know now that I've said that oh these on the end these where I keep my head scarves so if you're new here I have alopecia which is why I have so many hats and beanies and I tend to wear in the summer beanies with a head scarf and this is a way that I store them I just tie them along a hanger and I quite like the aesthetic of them in this open wardrobe actually I think they look quite pretty I really love this shirt dress I wore it to the Yule Ball at the Warner Brothers Studios which I was actually I wasn't invited to it that's a lot Lina was invited on took me as her date and I felt very special I didn't buy it specifically for that occasion but I thought it was quite celebratory wizarding robe Ravenclaw esque so yes and then this one is very autumn so into the books it goes okay so we've reached the dungarees section of the wardrobe I think these ones should probably stay out because um they're very summery and very lightweight as well so I have some dungarees that are corduroy and I'll probably put most of those away but then these ones are cotton so I'm going to keep these out most of my dungarees if I don't mention otherwise they are from a loosey eniac who an amazing company and I love them very much oh and I think it's the trunk parents see these dungarees which are denim dungarees are from loosing the AK and I'll gift it and then this dress here is from toast and that was also gifted gifted because I run their book club and we're doing online events at the moment and I'm gonna wear toast clothes for that event everything else in my wardrobe I bought myself so I'm just mentioning that transparency via these definitely need to stay in there Margaret do you keep your TBR books separate from your read books I do not so some of my books are in the Attic that is not actually an attic because I need to buy another bookcase but I can't obviously you can't do that at the moment and so I have two thirds of my books here so to the right of the camera here we have some nonfiction short stories and the end of the alphabet or fiction over there we have the middle of the alphabet and standing on the far wall we've got poetry and other nonfiction as well so all of my books a 2h as well as some of my close bank classics and other M books that were on top of bookcases are currently in boxes but not I do not separate my read books from my unread books I was asked Jenna did you find a suitable craft hobby to try out I have not but to be honest I have not tried that hard baking has been my craftiness recently and but but I do have a video planned where I would like to make biscuits and decorate them as book covers and a feeling I'm gonna be terrible at it and it would be hilarious so that would be a video coming either this week or next week as a crafter that I'm going to try how cool is this pinafore this is from run and fly and it has dinosaurs on and I like to wear it when I'm doing book shop events because it's a great way to win over toddlers I think this is wonderful charity shop it is really lovely so it's a it's a body and I've been wearing it underneath dungarees but it is very gaping you do you need to wear a vest top underneath and I don't know I just kind of feel like I should be in a Madonna video whenever I wear it and not in a good way and I do love Madonna so I think I'm gonna say thank you but but but goodbye to that if you didn't live in London where would you live I don't know but probably by the sea I really miss the sea I miss it so much who are three of your favorite authors Alice miss Michelle Faber Jeanette Winterson next question is a cute one it says how do you Jean and Sanne know each other so in 2014 when my fourth book the bookshop book was about to come out I was messaging booktubers to ask if they would like to review my new book it wasn't something that publishers were doing on their own yet reaching out to online book vloggers but I loved booktube so I wanted to reach out myself and I was researching not just emailing people out of the blue but was researching people who had already reviewed my previous books and I found Jean because she had reviewed two of my previous books so I messaged her to say I see that you like my work would you like a copy of my new book and she replied saying oh my god yes I would love that and you know we just got to talking and now were like best friends that was six whole years ago and then about six months after that i started a booktube channel of my own and I met Sanne around that time she was very supportive of new people coming into the booktube community and we filmed the video together which was really sweet and I think one of the first times I ever met her was at a screening not screening a press showing of the railway children a theatre production at Kings Cross that had a real steam engine and everything and it was it was amazing I basically live I know I'm not doing it today but normally I live in long-sleeved bodies so things with papas underneath and dungarees and I know that I'm gonna stay on these long sleeved stuff because it's not magically just gonna get really hot but I'm gonna put away the darker shades and keep these two the light gray and the green and this is depressing but anyone have one of these in their wardrobe is literally a funeral dress that's the only thing that I wear it for I'm not sure I should just and maybe I should put it somewhere out of sight because it's not something that we need to look at all the time this will make me laugh do you and mr. M ever get tired of each other now that you're spending all of this time together so as I'm filming this this is week seven for us and locked down in a one-bedroom flat and we only go out for our 45-minute walk at 5:00 a.m. and we don't go to grocery stores and our walks are together too so literally we are together all of the time my answer is no should we find out what his answer is he does he was complaining the other day that he hadn't seen me much one day what was I doing probably something like this so it's probably filming a video that's sweet I love these corduroy trousers I got them in Japan but they are definitely more wintry and when I haven't been living in dungarees I've been living these which are from Lucy and yak as well and they are so stretchy and so comfortable they're called their ooh what are they called oh I think they called their Alexa trousers so I have them in this color this and also in bright orange so I think I'm going to put the gray ones away and keep the bright orange and blue ones out these are also a favorite I got these in the thought they're a sustainable clothing company the thought sale for I think 25 pounds and given that I can't be outside I would like to dress at the garden I think that is now my life goal is to just dress like the outdoors so yes during lockdown mr. ma are not getting sick of each other and someone did ask actually what is a what was a pro of lockdown and I guess that would be it that we're getting to spend more time together but honestly trying to think of pros to look down makes me want to what makes me want to cry I don't think that it's necessary to try and find the positives all the time so if you're struggling to do that - I am with you it's okay just to sit with the fact that it's not great Oh Samantha says when isolations that looks like a little rubber blurts man says when isolation / lockdown ends is there any lifestyle change that you have made that you'll continue I would like to continue not every day but doing early-morning walks some of the time because I've really loved exploring the wood near where we live at that time of day because there's so much more wildlife if you've been following my Instagram stories you will know that we've made friends with the Fox who we see nearly every single morning and he's been coming closer in process to us every day and it's just been it's been really lovely and practically I don't think it's something that we could do all the time but it is something that I would consider doing definitely more of and in a way I would feel like I know this is really silly but I would feel like I was abandoning the folks if I never went back and so I would like to keep going mr. ever said you know he's gonna grow up and forget what about you and I'll say that's true that is what's gonna happen it's gonna be so sad as someone else says what are you most looking forward to when when lockdown ends I I don't know I find this question quite tricky because I fall into a more vulnerable category I'm gonna be restricted mr. M to because of me my movement is probably going to be restricted quite a bit longer than most people's is I mean they haven't announced the the rules on that yet but they have hinted that they will do it by age group and by health and location so they did say that they thought that vulnerable people would be asked to be in more confined spaces for up to a year to 18 months so that's something I'm trying not to think about too much also everyone's looked down it's different everyone's going through different things people were going through difficult difficult and different things before lockdown happened and that means that lockdown has impact with them in different ways it's just it's so it's overwhelming and difficult to unpack mr. M and I for example we're supposed to start IVF this summer that's not happening obviously because IVF is not happening I don't know when it will reopen in them when it does when I'll be allowed to do it because I'm in the vulnerable category and then where the funding will still be there for it because of everything the healthcare system is going through right now like there are so many things that are going on just outside of the obvious and it's quite difficult to to navigate I'm going slightly off on a tangent here but but bear with me I don't know I mean I know that I've spoken on here before about having a disability at a segment and growing up with the anxiety of being in hospital so much in so many opera and I feel like lockdown and this will be true for so many people I'm not just saying it's just just little old me it's just something that I've been thinking about I feel like I've seen a lot of indignation from from people about their right to certainty being taken away from them and that that's what they're finding hard that they had planned so much in their life you know maybe they were going to miss house or they just started a new job or they wanted to travel or they're missing out on X Y Zed it could be like a huge thing or it could be a little thing and we're all allowed to be upset about all of these things but that's just not my experience of lockdown and my indignation is not about that certainty being taken away from me because I never felt like I had that certainty to begin with I have lived my life with such a lack of certainty with regard to so many different things that this feels weird ly familiar I did write about this in more depth actually over on Instagram so I will link that down below just because if I talk about it here I may cry and I don't particularly want to do that today so if you would like to read it I'll link it down below also has a nice story in it which warms my heart okay let's get stuff out of boxes okay we have some shorts shorts can go under the bed I'm gonna put them in the box that hurt my woolly hats and scarves in because hopefully I will not need these anymore someone asked me what my thoughts are on the women's prize shortlist I love the women's prize shortlist if you haven't seen it it is girl woman other let's see if I can remember whether the mirror in the light hamlet its minute corner and what's number six like a quiz to myself what is number six I bet you're all shouting it at the screen I'm gonna have to google it and I really don't want to Oh a thousand ships by Natalie Haynes I'm really annoyed that I had to Google bet so yeah I'm really excited about it I've only read Hamlet so far but I will be reading all of them to review and because they're not announcing the winner until now I do plan to read the whole Cromwell trilogy so willful bring up the bodies and the merit and the light which is which is a lot of pages question is anyone wearing jeans in lockdown I haven't worn jeans in so long these skinny jeans as well I think I just put them in the cupboard because I have no desire just no desire right now what music have you all been listening to recently because I feel like more so than usual I've been reverting to music I listen to as a teenager I'm not sure if I just want actually music I've been listening to so much lifehouse it's ridiculous salads summer dungarees it's just a category that people have in their wardrobe summer dungarees and these are dungarees shorts which are really cute and they are a mustard color and then I have these two pairs of dungarees which are both or all three of these are from Lucy and yak these are their Luna cut I think which means that they are very low so you have to be careful what you're wearing cuz then you may I think I've been known to show my underwear showing particularly care about but if they have that something you care about bear that in mind and so yeah really difficult to show Brooke bright blue and then this lilac and it's a really really thin material as well so it's great for when it's when it's really warm these may need I was gonna say in iron I don't have an iron but I do have one of those handheld steamers so they might need a go on that later but to be frank I can't be bothered to do that today so that is a task for another time I think this definitely will need a steam its crinkled a look okay let's have a few more questions so it says what's your favorite childhood memory um I don't know actually most of my memories are tied up with hospital staff which very happy though I remember being allowed I used to wear splints at night to encourage my hands to grow in a certain way and I remember and because when I went to my physio she asked me if I wanted pink velcro and the more blue velcro guessing that I was going to say pink because I'm a girl but I said I couldn't decide so I had pink on one and blue on the other and it felt like even though I was seven I was doing some kind of huge thing against the patriarchy that was quite fun non-hospital things playing Bugsy Malone in school play when I was eleven that was really cool Rex for shows that you watch recently we have watched quiz which is an ITV documentary about the man who was accused of cheating on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Michael Sheen plays Chris Tarrant and he's amazing at it I don't really understand because he looks nothing like Chris Tarrant but he manages to embody him it's really fun someone asked me very on on brand even though I didn't say that I was going to be clearing up my wardrobe when I was filming this Q&A what are your top three favorite clothing brands so I love thought it's where I buy all of my socks from and that's where these trousers are from as well Lucianne yak obviously and also I really do have a soft spot for running fly who do these really fun basically companies that do sustainable childlike clothing but for adults it's more like a beach cover-up really isn't it that's exactly why I love it I wore this in a video once and then lots of people said they were concerned that I was leaving booktube I'm not don't worry I just like the t-shirt okay I think this is it done hideout so we've got head scarves here followed by cardigan dresses and jumpsuits dungarees jumpers t-shirt couple pairs of trousers and two steps and that's everything and let's finish with one final question someone asked me is there one book that I have given to a charity shop or otherwise donated or gifted to a friend and have regretted I swear I swear I had a copy of Pride and Prejudice I must have done but I can't find it anywhere it may be that it's hidden away in the Attic that's not really an attic but I cannot find it so I have bought a new copy from @kt who runs storytellers Inc which is a bookshop that I love and that is being posted to me and when it arrives I'm gonna be reading that on Instagram live every day I thought it would be a nice thing come and chill out together for half an hour every day and I will read you Pride and Prejudice so as soon as that arrives in the post I will be doing that over on Instagram so if you would like to join me that would be lovely also the day that I am uploading this I am doing an Instagram live over on the toast Instagram feed with Maggie O'Farrell tomorrow on the 28th of April so if you're watching this the day goes up I'll link their Instagram feed down below and you can set a reminder and come and join us if you would like to if you're watching this after I will link the IG TV down below because they're going to be saving the lives so that you can watch it whenever you'd like so thank you for joining me while I got this task done I'm gonna put all of the jumpers into boxes now and shove them into the cupboard and yeah I always get excited when I have a switchover of my wardrobe because I've got some favorite things out of a box that I get to wear again even if I only get to wear them inside I hope they're all to having an okay week I love you all very much and I'll speak to you very soon [Music]

Channel: Jen Campbell

Views: 8,148

Rating: 4.9878788 out of 5

Keywords: wardrobe clearout, q&a, spring clean, clean my closet with me, jen campbell

Id: wpOJ8BG9qE8

Length: 24min 56sec (1496 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 27 2020