People always ask me “What’s the biggest challenges you’ve faced running your own business?”. I’ve always felt a sense of guilt coupled with confusion, and responded every time with “I haven’t had any challenges”. I could honestly say I never found running a company difficult, and I certainly never had any hurdles.

I guess you could say I’ve been pretty lucky. We’ve been nominated for national awards, presented at some of the largest marketing conferences in Europe, and whilst turning over a healthy profit that we can both live on (and pay for an awesome wedding and honeymoon!). We’ve been doing all of this whilst enjoying long weekends and trips away. Seriously, what more could we possibly ask for?

Alas! Three weeks ago, everything changed. It’s almost like my 2-year trial was up and now shit was getting real. Our exponential growth has caught up with us, we soon realized we were completely out of our depth, despite working our butts off all week It’s okay, everything is under control; it’s actually been really good because it’s forced us to change the way we operate *silver linings*.

The only thing is, I’m kicking myself. I feel like most of these things could have been avoided if I just did a little bit more research. Like I said though, it’s given us that little push now to get everything right, and I guess we’re always going to be learning. So here’s some advice I wish I had:

Hire based on recommendations

You’re probably thinking “I’m not planning on hiring anybody”, well I have news for you – you will. Outsourcing and hiring experts to help you run your business is a no-brainer. Sometimes you need to hire people because you aren’t qualified to do it yourself, such as a lawyer or an accountant. Other times, it’s just to free up your time so you can spend it doing stuff that’s really important. Technically, I could write my own contracts but I wouldn’t feel confident that they’re good enough to hold up (more on that soon!).

I used to try and do my own finances but a) it was so time-consuming b) I found that my accountant could save me heaps of money, so she was worth her weight in gold. Last year my company officially incorporated and is now a limited company, which changes how we do things. Now, even if I wanted to, I can’t file my own tax returns because I’m not qualified to do so. We have a bookkeeper and an accountant that deal with everything and I have the peace of mind that it’s being dealt with properly, and all above board.

We have an amazing content writer called Lee-Anne, great SEO contractors, and a team of experts that deal with our social media platforms, which saves us hours every single day. The time that they save us in invaluable because it means we can dedicate time to our clients. My fiancée and I are always throwing ideas back and forth but it’s nice to have a team of people that have input on the best things to do.

We’re lucky we have a team of people that we trust but it wasn’t easy to do. When I first began outsourcing I didn’t appreciate the importance of recommendations, I just welcomed people onboard that gave a good proposal. Turns out, this was a bad idea and almost ended up costing me a lot of money. I found out that the services I was receiving was actually going to do my business more harm than good, and I switched suppliers. At the time I wasn’t educated enough to understand this, but eventually, you work out who’s a pirate and who is a trusted supplier. I won’t go into it, but I’ll just leave it with this: Reviews matter.

You might not be ready to employ people but instead, you might have started using websites, like AppPaye, as your business is growing. So, don’t forget, recommendations don’t just apply to people; they apply to products and services, too.

Be firm with your clients on deliverables

When we first started delivering retained packages for our clients our proposals were quite vague in what the client would receive. This opened us up to clients potentially being unhappy! Luckily, this didn’t happen to us and we’ve always had positive feedback, however, if our proposals were a little bit clearer it would have saved a lot of unnecessary phone calls and emails. We decided to make our bronze, silver and gold packages much clearer so clients knew exactly what they were going to receive. This was never really a problem with us, but I can see how it could be for other businesses that deliver a service, especially on an ongoing basis.

We have run into trouble based on clients not really understanding what we do, and expecting us to do all kind of random jobs for them that don’t relate to our 2 core services, SEO & PPC. If you don’t know what these services are, I don’t blame you, not everybody does! It’s essentially Search Engine Marketing; or ‘Getting People to the Top of Google’, is how I like to word it! This means increasing visibility in the normal results and by using ads.

Pretty straightforward, huh? Well, here’s what we’ve been asked to do:

• Web development
• Newsletter marketing
• Web design
• Project managing content
• Calendar management
• Javascript
• Social media
• Facebook Advertising
• Bespoke CSS
• Shop refunds
• Transcript writing
• Malware clean up

We’re pretty clued up on all of these services and we can deliver them. This is great for us, because as business owners we don’t need to outsource this stuff if we don’t want to. For example, we built our own website and if we ever want bespoke changes, we can just code them in ourselves, saving us heaps of money. But our clients often ask for these services; for a while, we used to ‘umm’ and ‘ahhh’ about how we could help them. Why? We wanted to make their life easier, we knew we could help, and it was an easy way to make a bit of extra cash.

This soon turned into a problem when we realized we were spending more time on things we didn’t want to do, and we ended up running other people’s businesses for them based on ad hoc payment. We essentially turned into virtual assistants for a short period of time, and it got messy real quick. Stick to what you know because then you can be known if your industry for what you do best. Luckily, we didn’t entertain this idea for long but I already experienced the stress of offering all these services.

Your contracts must be watertight

We’ve got a pretty solid terms and conditions document, our proposals are very clear, and our investment packages clearly outline what we offer. The client has an onboarding process and we find out everything we need to know about them, they pay their invoice one month before we begin working, and then we deliver the project. The process is pretty straightforward and I feel like we covered all bases. Oh boy, was I wrong! Individual contracts for each scope of work with a clear Start date are so important.

We loved that we could offer a service with zero contracts, no minimum commitment and no cancellation fees. We’re real people, offering a service to make an honest wage. This is one of the things our clients love about us because there isn’t many other companies that are this flexible. We’re not trying to scam anybody out of any money, and so we don’t feel the need to tie our customers in. If they want our help, great! If they don’t, also fine. We’re so lucky that we have enough clients that we don’t have to lock people in, there’s always other clients that are on our waiting list, dying to get a slot in our calendars.

This was never a problem until a client decided they didn’t want to pay until the work was completed. We’re very understanding so we decided to deliver the project before payment was received. We began the work, after being told to go ahead. Two months later we’re left without payment. I only have myself to blame for being so laid back and not putting it into a contract. We learned our lessons, and we’ll always stick to our contracts, and we’ll always require payment upfront. Make sure you don’t forget how important these contracts are!

I essentially need a backbone. What lessons have you learned from running your own business? 

The post 3 Things I’ve Learned Since Starting My Own Business appeared first on Strawberry Squeeze.

Changing seasons is the perfect time to review your skincare products because it means you get to do it 4 times a year, and your skin has different needs depending on the time of the year. You’ll want to move to lighter moisturisers and opt for products that have an SPF formula

** Please excuse the fact I’m not an Instagram model and I don’t spend all my time in the gym. My treadmill is gathering dust, and other than surfing, sea swimming, and walking, I don’t regularly exercise. Terrible, I know! But if I’m honest, I’d rather eat pizza and go on little van adventures with my fiancée and my dog. So here’s my curvy pizza belly (until I start my wedding fitness plan).

There are so many products out there, it’s hard to know what to buy, so here are my 2 cents on what works for me. Psst! It doesn’t have to be expensive!

Organic Raw Virgin Cocoanut Oil

Over the past couple of years I’ve religiously been using Garnier Skin Micellar Cleansing Water. It always got my makeup off without needing to scrubbing or irritating my face. I recently learned that there is a cancer-causing ingredient in this product though which (unsurprisingly) has turned me off using it anymore.

There are tubs of coconut oil all over my house, in the bathrooms, in the kitchen, on the bedside table, you can’t get away from the stuff. So incorporating cocoanut oil isn’t something new to my beauty regime, as I started using it when somebody told me that’s how they got super soft skin in 2012 when I was living in Australia. HOWEVER, I never used it to remove makeup. My skin is quite oily, so I thought this would just make it worse.

One evening I was in a bit of a pinch and needed a cleanser, so I used the coconut oil and it removed all the dirt and makeup without any hassle. It’s all-natural, it’s ridiculously cheap and it smells heavenly, too. So I’ve chucked out my nasty chemicals back with PHMB (Polaminapropyl Biguanide, and moved to a natural cleanser.

NIVEA Q10 Firming Rich Body Lotion

I’m so lucky that I’ve never had a problem with having dry skin – it’s actually quite oily the majority of the time. This does mean I’ve got a little complacent and I don’t moisture as much as I should. I’d usually apply cream to my body a couple of times a week, but now I’m making the effort to apply it twice a day, especially on my legs. I’ve been keeping up with my new routine for a couple of months and now I couldn’t imagine not moisturising everyday single day, because my skin feels so much better for it and 100% healthier.

Finding a light cream is difficult. Body butters feel too thick on my skin and I don’t like applying it, I prefer something that will glide over my body. Recently, I was introduced to the NIVEA Q10 firming rich body lotion with Vitamin C and I’m officially in love. The bottle claims to noticeably firm the skin and improve elasticity in 10 days and I can hand-on-heart vouch for that statement.

The lotion comes in a new pump format which helped me get into a routine of using it everyday, as it’s easy to just pump a bit of lotion and go. The pump also works quite nicely with my busy schedule, I really have no excuse.  People assume that because I have my own business that I can just float around at home all day maxing and relaxing, but the truth is that my calendar is packed full of deadlines every single day! So the fact it has a pump and it keeps your skin moisturised for 48 hours is everything right now.

Deliciously Ella Rose, Lime & Cucumber Set

I’ve been using the Deliciously Ella rose, lime and cucumber facial wash and daily moisturiser for a year and a half now, and I love it even more now than I did when I first started using it. Firstly, it smells gorgeous (just like the rest of the Neal Yard range – check out the de-stress aromatherapy blend – it’s my favourite ).

The refreshing facial wash is suitable for all skin types and is made with antioxidant-rich blueberry and acai. It does a stellar job at removing everyday impurities using a beautiful blend of fresh, organic ingredients (instead of harsh chemicals!). Once I pat my face dry with a fresh towel, I use the beautifully light moisturiser which again, smells amazing! It makes such a difference not having a thick cream on my face and I feel so much better. Once the cream has absorbed into my skin I then apply SPF50 and a primer if I’m applying makeup.

You can pick up the combo on the Neal’s Yard website for a cool £42 with free delivery.

The post 3 Skincare Products That I’m Loving This Spring appeared first on Strawberry Squeeze.

Another reason we’ve not taken it out as much as we hoped, is we still have a few jobs to do. We’ve pretty much got the van ready to go now though, and as I’m typing this, I’ve just received word that our lovely handmade curtains are ready to be fitted. This means we’ll have grey curtains that are both black out and thermal lined, which is going to make a huge difference compared to the blinds we have at the moment.

Luckily, Cornwall has a lot to offer and we’ve had plenty of fun being tourist in our own county. There are so many places we haven’t been that we want to explore. I couldn’t list everywhere we’ve been because we take it wherever Magicseaweed says the surf is (Perranporth, Polzeth, Praa Sands, Newquay etc). But here’s a round up of some of our trips exploring the Cornish coastline beyond the surf!

St Agnes Head, St Agnes

When we first picked up the van in March we were eager to take it out as soon as possible. It was a little bit chilly but we decided to head up to St Agnes, pull back the sliding side door and enjoy the view. Thanks to the previous owner, Boris has a great sound system, so we put on some Bon Iver and watched the sunset with our dog.

We found a way to watch the sun set without getting out of bed Last week we filled the bed with blankets and cushions, turned up some @BonIver, and snuggled whilst the sun go down. #Cornwall is so beautiful, we’re so lucky that we live here SO glad we can make full use of Boris with even leaving our county.

A post shared by Sam Charles (@samcharleseuk) on Mar 25, 2018 at 12:44pm PDT

There’s nothing better than being able to watch the sun go down over the sea whilst being cuddled up in bed. I can see us spending a lot of time up in St Agnes in the warmer months. It’s so quiet and peaceful, and you don’t get other people in camper vans up there. There is a height restriction to get into the carparks overlooking the headland but Boris just managed to slide under the barrier.

Minack Theatre, Porthcurno

If you live in Cornwall, as soon as the weather starts to warm up, you’ll notice your feed covered in pictures of Porthcurno. I’m ashamed to admit that before May, I’d never been to this scenic village on the coast.

Desperate to go, we packed up the van with our dog on the first sunny morning and headed down towards Lands End. We left our van in a nearby carpark and followed the coastal path from the beach over to the Minack Theatre, taking in the incredible views on the way.

The views were breath-taking, just as we expected. I’ve got so much GoPro footage to sort through, I don’t even know where to start. We were blessed with sunshine all day which made such a difference.

We soaked up the sunshine at the Minack Theatre and ate our packed lunch before heading back along the beach.

A post shared by Sam Charles (@samcharleseuk) on May 20, 2018 at 10:42am PDT

Of course, dogs aren’t allowed on the beach during the summer but we recently discovered a little loop-hole… Nobody minds where you take your dog if you carry him in a backpack. In matter of fact, it’s actually encouraged.

Everybody swoons over how cute our scruffy little Jack Russel is, when they see his happy little face poking our of our K9 Airsack. I don’t blame them – he looks absolutely adorable! It’s also really handy if we’re going over dangerous bits of loose rocks or if he gets tired after a long day of walking.

St Michaels Mount, Marazion

The first place we slept in the van was overlooking St Michaels Mount from Marazion. We arrived with plenty of time after our trip to Porthcurno so we could get a good spot. There’s so many great places to park up but we had to make sure we could stay somewhere it was legal to sleep.

First, we headed over to a carpark that was right next to the beach. We reversed into a space in the quiet carpark before popping the back door. When we were laying on the bed drinking a cup of tea, all we could see was the calm sea and hear the waves gently crashing, bliss!

We spent a couple of hours enjoying the view before moving on to somewhere we could sleep, because we didn’t know how easy it would be to find somewhere. We drove a little bit further down the road and found Slipway carpark, located right opposite St Michael’s Mount. We pulled up and made a beef stew with dumplings and had our dinner whilst the sun went down. We couldn’t believe we got such a good spot with toilets nearby!

Surprisingly, I slept like a log and we didn’t wake up until 10am. It was so nice being away from technology (although we do have electrics, chargers, lights etc in the van). The distractions of televisions and laptops were left at home so we could just be in the moment. We had a slow morning with the doors open, having hot drinks, chatting in bed and letting the dog play on the nearby footpath.

Somebody came past our van at about midday, just as we were about to leave for a day out at the castle and said we shouldn’t have slept here, but it wasn’t a problem and he was really understanding. Oops!

We walked across to St Michael’s Mount and had a lovely day out, capturing even more amazing GoPro footage!

A post shared by Photos Of Britain (@photosofbritain) on Jun 1, 2018 at 2:20am PDT

Tintagel Castle, Tintagel

North west Cornwall is an area we haven’t explored much, so I was really excited to visit Tintagel a village situated on the Atlantic coast. Tintagel lies within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), with the same status and protection as a National Park. I didn’t know much about Tintagel but I was aware the area was associated with the legends surrounding King Arthur.

We parked in a field near the coastal path to Bossiney Haven overlooking panoramic ocean views.

There were 3 other campers parked up in the field and the adjacent fields were empty, so it was really quiet. Once we got settled we walked into the village and had a drink in a nearby beer garden just a short 10 minute walk from where we parked up.

We headed back to our van and warmed up our smoked beef cheeks and macaroni cheese before having an early night so we’d be full of energy to explore in the morning. We woke up roasting at about 9am which soon got me out of bed and out in the sunshine. I must have spent about an hour throwing Alfie’s kong in the field before we got ready and headed to the castle.

If you’ve never been, then you should definitely go! We spent hours just walking around in awe of the scenery and learning about the history of Tintagel. I couldn’t recommend it enough. Especially Bossiney Haven carpark (if you’re vanning it!) because it’s only £1 and overnight sleeping is legal. There’s also clean public toilets at the top of the field, just next to the coastal path.

As you can see from our pictures, Tintagel is BEAUTIFUL

Arizona Birkenstocks from Footway

Next stop: Snowdonia

The post Touring Cornwall In Our Converted Campervan, Boris! appeared first on Strawberry Squeeze.

Instead of product reviews I’d much rather provide a my readers with an informative post and then mention products I’m currently loving that *may* have been gifted. Obviously, as you all know, I ALWAYS declare this at the end of my posts, so you know that I might have been given a product or paid to write the post. I’m not going to lie, this little blog earns me a decent wage but that’ll never impact how and what I write about brands.

Going against everything I usually stand for, I’ve decided on this occasion to write a review on my lovely new electric toothbrush c/o Uber Sonic because I genuinely think it’s worth shouting about.

It’s a toothbrush, what’s the big deal!?

If like me, you hate your teeth, you’ll know how important it is to have good-quality dental products. I don’t really care about makeup that much but I like to look after my hair, nails, and teeth because I believe it says a lot about a person. Long story short, I had a hideous set of teeth but after a couple of cosmetic procedures, I’m pretty happy with my pegs. I began writing about exactly why I hate my teeth, and I ended up writing loads so I’ve popped it into a toggled box in case you can’t be bothered to read about my sob story.

Why I hate my teeth

I’ve always hated my teeth and it’s forever been a sensitive subject. Despite having healthy teeth they aren’t aesthetically appealing. I had a huge gap in the front of my teeth and it really bugged me. When I was a kid, my dentist told me I had to wait until I was 16 to go on the waiting list for braces because it was for cosmetic reasons only. I can’t remember how old I was at the time but I remember thinking it wasn’t too long to wait.

The day I turned 16, I put myself on the list. Years went by and I heard nothing, just as you’d expect. Years later I dropped it into conversation with my dentist and he said that he tried to get in touch when I had it to the top of the list but at this time I was living in Newport, Wales. The message got lost and I ended up dropping off the list. By this time I was 19 years old and not eligible for braces on the NHS. BOOOOOOO!

I was absolutely gutted when I found out that having my teeth straightened could cost up to £4,000 and I’d end up having train tracks in my twenties. I did a bit of research and looked at brands such as Invisalign to fix my teeth but at the time, I didn’t have a huge amount of money because I was at university, and I knew I was moving to Australia in the near future so it wouldn’t really work having appointments abroad, etc. Eventually, I gave up on the idea of having my teeth fixed and decided to put it on the back burner until I could make a decision.

Fast-forward a few months later, I’m sitting in a shared kitchen near London at my brother’s flat. I met one of his neighbours that said she had a gap in her tooth but they fixed it with composite bonding in just 20 minutes. This changes everything. I went into work and started telling people about it and found out one of my colleagues had the same procedure for a gap that she had in the front of her tooth. Next thing you know, I’m on the phone to the dentist and booking my appointment to get it done myself.

My cosmetic procedure

I spent 20 comfortable minutes in the dentist chair during my lunch break, having my teeth stuffed with play-dough and cured with a UV light. The anticipation of seeing my new set of teeth was so exciting but also a little bit terrifying. Despite having it done three years ago, I remember the feeling of looking in the tiny round mirror after the dentist finished working his magic.

Wowee! What a difference. The procedure completely changed my teeth, as they didn’t just fit composite bonding into my front gap, but they also filled in the chips and gaps I had everywhere else. Finally, I had a set of teeth that wasn’t perfect but I was completely in love with. The only regret I have is that I didn’t get it done years ago. It was undoubtedly the best decision I’ve ever made.

Why I’m obsessed with dental care

The first couple of months felt weird and I couldn’t stop smiling. Once I left my appointment (with a giant grin on my face) I went to go buy lots of new dental products to keep my new gnashers in good condition. It makes a big difference which toothbrush I use because of my fakies because technically I don’t have gaps in between my teeth anymore, so I need a brush that can get into the tiny gaps. There is also the chance of getting build-up on the composite bonding itself around the edges where it adheres to my teeth. You can’t see this when you look at my teeth, but if you squint really hard and get right up in my face on a sunny day, you can see where the bonding has been applied. That’s why having a good electric toothbrush is everythingggg.

TLDR; I hated the big gaps in my teeth but getting braces wasn’t for me for a number of reasons. Instead, I had my teeth professionally whitened and had composite bonding to fill in my gaps (essentially cured play-dough to fill in my gaps!). You can read more about my cosmetic procedure and see some before and after pictures above

What’s so special about the Uber Sonic?

This toothbrush is sexy. Yep, I said it! Both the bathrooms in my house are tiny so I try and avoid clutter and only put pretty things in the bathroom where I can. Dental care tends to be pretty ugly so it’s quite refreshing to see some designers have put some effort into toothbrushes because after all, we use them twice a day, every day.

Sonic high-speed movement with 35,000 vibrations per minute ensures plaque and bacteria is removed seven times more efficiently than when using a regular toothbrush. This is music to my ears because like I said it’s super important that I not only keep my teeth and gums clean (duh!), but also because I need to get plaque of the composite bonding which can sometimes be stubborn.

I’ve used electric toothbrushes a lot in the past but I usually end up using reverting back to my manual toothbrush because I don’t feel ‘clean’ after using an electric brush. Weird, huh? Knowing electric is the way forward, it’s been my mission to find one that works for me. I can whole-heartedly say that I DO feel clean after using the Uber Sonic. Perhaps it’s the high-speed movements?! 5 stars, never the less 

Teeth whitening kit

Prior to going in for my dentist appointment, I was told that whatever colour my ‘cheap man veneers’ were, would be the colour they’d stay for the rest of my life. With this in mind, I went to get my teeth professionally whitened for a cool £250 at a local non-invasive cosmetic procedure salon nearby. It took hours, it was uncomfortable and obviously, it wasn’t cheap. But it was super important that I had this done though because it meant when I had the composite bonding done they wouldn’t be putting in yellow teeth.

I’m still so happy with my teeth. As I said, they’re not perfect but they’re much better than what they were and they’ll certainly do until I have the whole set ripped out and veneers put in. Until then, as long as I keep them glistening white, they look pretty good. Alas! The teeth whitening has faded though. This is completely expected after 3 years but if I’m honest, I’m not rushing back to have them done professionally. I’ve been experimenting with teeth whitening stripes and toothpastes.

When you buy the Uber Sonic toothbrush you also get a free whitening kit. There is a syringe full of non-peroxide whitening gel and 2 mouth trays so you can get beautifully white teeth at home. This is a God-sent because it saves me spending the afternoon in the salon and my bank account is pretty happy about it, too. I definitely saw my teeth go a few shades brighter which is more than I can say about over cheap brands in Superdrug.

Sounds good, what’s the catch?

The toothbrush kit is quite reasonably priced. Uber Sonic toothbrush and the free gel teeth whitening kit with first refill pack is just £19. You can’t really complain about that.

What actually bugs me about this product, is that it makes with a normal plug. I don’t know about you, but I live in a new-build house that doesn’t have a plug in. We’ve just got a bathroom safe plug socket for electrical shavers only, which all the electric toothbrushes I’ve had in the past have been compatible with this type of wall socket.

It’s not the end of the world, but it means I have to plug the toothbrush in to charge in the bedroom and go and get it before I brush my teeth. This means that sometimes it runs out of battery and means I have to use my normal toothbrush because I can’t be bothered to wait for it to charge.

Overall, it’s a really good product but just a shame about the plug but that might not be a problem for everybody.

The post Uber Sonic Electric Toothbrush Review appeared first on Strawberry Squeeze.

We started thinking… if our business is going so well, what’s tying us to coming back? Don’t get me wrong, we’re not talking about leaving our little seaside town forever. We have a house we love and a close network of friends and family we couldn’t live without. But we want to be able to lock up our home and hit the road with a few essentials (a laptop, a camera, and our dog), without worrying about when we’ll come back.

3. Pic I post today but I won’t delete this one i promise haha . Peño looks like a fatty he didn’t pose right haha

A post shared by Namaste You Beautiful Soul. (@susicruzz) on Apr 9, 2018 at 11:13am PDT

 If you follow @susicruzz on Instagram, you’ll see why I’ve fallen in love with the idea of #vanlife

Of course, we can do this in South East Asia, which is going to make for an epic honeymoon. That said, we started thinking, why should we be working from home when we have the opportunity to work from anywhere in the world? That’s when we decided that converting a van means we can travel with our dog, run the business on the road, and maintain our slow/easy lifestyle – all whilst seeing the world! The ‘project’ aspect was really appealing, too. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about how awesome our campervan conversion is going to be.

Window shopping

We began looking at vans just to get an idea of pricing. We didn’t anticipate buying anything for a while, after all, we didn’t intend to plan a big trip until after we got married. We did a lot of research but there were a few vans that kept catching our attention, these were Transits, VW’s, and Renaults. Assuming this is because they’re popular and within our price range, we did research into these vans mostly.

Late nights and plenty of tea later, we’d read hundreds of forum posts and soon decided these options weren’t going to work for us. After browsing some T5s we decided this wasn’t for us either because we wanted something more unique (we live in Cornwall, everybody has one here!). Instead of paying for a badge, we wanted a project that we could really make our own. Ultimately, there was one major issue with all of these vans. RUST! I’m not talking about a little bit of rust either, I’m talking about ‘heading to the scrap yard’ type of rust. We were looking at spending a lot of money and it just got to the point where I thoughtt it was going to just remain a pipe dream.

We found a van that *SEEMED* perfect but didn’t buy it but I couldn’t write this post without giving it a mention  If you don’t want to read about it, just skip this! If you’re interested then you can toggle the content and read more about what we nearly ended up with.

Finding ‘the one’

I’d already told my Mother-in-Law (to be!) about our grand ideas, and next thing I know she’s sent me a Facebook listing for a mini-bus that was for sale in my hometown. Space certainly wasn’t an issue, this thing was absolutely HUGE. Although it looked like it’d been used as a shed, it was partly converted already, making it the perfect base for us to begin our project. Best of all, it was at the lower end of our budget. It had done half the miles of any other van we looked at, and the MOT history was the best we’d seen so far. Just a couple of hours later, we found ourselves going for a bus and closing a deal the very same day.

One week later we were due to pick up our giant LDV Convoy, when suddenly we received weird texts from the seller at 11pm the night before we were meant to be buying it. Long story short, the seller pulled out and said he might be selling the van in the future but for the meantime he needed to go up country. We were absolutely heartbroken, and S even questioned if we should be doing this because he lost all motivation.

Dodging a bullet

S still swooned over the old LDV whenever we drove past it. Two weeks later we get a text from a friend saying they’re pretty sure they just saw said-van crashed into a lamp post at the bottom of a hill on the grass. It’s a pretty unique looking van so the chances are, it was the van we were going to buy.

It just so happens it was at the bottom of the hill where S’s mum lives. She ran down the street to see if it was the same LDV we were going to buy, and sure enough, it was! Obviously, the brakes went when he was going down the hill, and to avoid going into the roundabout he crashed into the lamp post. We drove past later that day and he was still there, leaning against his crumpled van. Safe to say, everything happens for a reason.

We’d looked at what felt like 1,000,000 different vans across the country, and we’d done so much research but I was coming to terms with the fact we might have to forgo the #vanlife dream. I wasn’t going to let the deflating feeling of window shopping ruin our dream of traveling the world. I jumped onto Gumtree and upped our budget, and that’s when I found the little gem that now sits on our driveway, Boris.

Picking up Boris

S didn’t even want to go and view Boris and said it was far too small to go traveling in. In March, I dragged him along anyway and I remember looking around the van and feeling so excited. I fell in love with the van instantly but I kept my thoughts to myself because I knew S wasn’t keen on the idea and I didn’t want to seem pushy. I was so relieved when S turned to me and whispered “It’s good, Sammy!”.

Whilst he cost a little bit more, he’s packed with character and a lot of the hard work was already done, saving us money in the long-run. He hasn’t done many miles, the engine had just been rebuilt and it had a 12 month MOT. It was also amazing that it came with a built-in kitchen, a foldout double bed and a large solar panel on the roof with full electrics. I’m quietly glad that I don’t have to do TOO much DIY, and I can just decorate.

Mini van tour

The guy we bought Boris off clearly loved this van. Before we agreed to buy it, we spent at least an hour talking about it, going for a test drive etc. He told us stories about places he’s been abroad in it with his bike, and about how much of a hit Boris was at festivals. There’s not much we need to go because he’s done a lot of the hard work, however, we want to make a few changes to make it our own.

As it stands, this is what Boris looks like right now (stay tuned for our DIY van posts though!)

Our trips

We’ve already taken Boris out and about locally in Cornwall, then we plan to head to Wales for a long weekend very soon. These shorter trips will hopefully help us work out the bugs – so that we don’t suddenly realise we’ve got a problem when we’re in a mountain range in Germany. We’ll also have an idea of how cold it’ll get in the van and if we need more heating. At the moment, it’s safe to say we’re very toasty!

We’ll be posting our trips on Instagram and updating the blog over the next couple of weeks. We’re also in the process of planning our big trip to Europe but this is going to take some time. We need to be in Milan, Italy by the end of November though, so it kind of gives us a push!  

The post We’ve Bought a Van And We’re Going To Travel The Globe With Our Pup 🌎🐶 appeared first on Strawberry Squeeze.

The silver lining is that we’re growing and when we come out the other side of all this hard work, it’s going to be worth every bloody minute. I’ll stop being so aloof and explain more in an upcoming blog post once the dust has settled a little bit. For now though it’s all about lavender oil diffusers and mindfulness. So I’ve decided to put together a post on 20 things I’ve been grateful for over the last couple of months.

1. Being invited to talk at Business Marketing Summit 2018, Milan, Italy

2. The opportunity to surf a couple times a week

3. Waking up in the van with a view of the sea on our doorstep 

4. Driving around Cornwall with the roof of my Mazda MX5 convertible down

5. Getting my engagement ring back from the jewellers and it now fits!

6. Enjoy a successful business trip to London to meet a client

7. Booking my hen do in Marrakech in February with 13 of my favourite ladies

8. Making awesome videos with our new GoPro camera

9. Weekends away in our van with my fiancée and our Jack Russell, Alfie

10. Seth finishing my sleeve tattoo and my thigh piece, ready for the summer!

11. Waking up sober every day for the entirety of spring

12. Spending the weekend with my family, celebrating my nan’s 80th

13. Eating Korean food in London with my fiancée, my brother and his girlfriend

14. Full body massages, mocktails and lunch at Merchants Manor hotel

15. Officially beginning our 1 year count down before our wedding in April 2019!

16. Bringing my giant cheese plant back to life again, no leaf casualties

17. Successfully learning to read, write and speak the Arabic alphabet ياي

18. Watching my friends tie the knot at a beautiful outdoor tipi wedding

19. Collecting my wedding dress from storage at the bridal showroom

20. Booking a holiday to Petra, Jordan in December with my best friend

What are you grateful for?

The post 20 Things I’ve Been Grateful For – Spring 2018 appeared first on Strawberry Squeeze.