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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.

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It’s so easy to forget that cups need to be refilled, creative ideas replenished and ‘output’ needs to pause occasionally in order for the above to take place.

This weekend is a bank holiday weekend in the UK, meaning that those with salaried jobs get an extra paid day off on Monday. That used to be me. In fact, this time last year it would have been half term, and I was in France for a week celebrating my 40th birthday.

2026 is different. I’m now 100% self employed, running Hannah Ashe Interior Design. It feels really good to say that and there is zero part of me that wants to go back to any form of teaching right now, but that’s not to say it’s all roses.

A bank holiday means a three-day weekend for my husband who has a salaried job and since the weather is stunningly good, it feels right to also take a three-day weekend myself. Make hay while the sun shines and all that.

And anything that makes me stop for three days is definitely a good thing because since full time self-employment has been my thing, I find it hard to stop working. I really love working on my business, but pausing is challenging and I find it particularly difficult to make time for writing.

It’s now Sunday morning, 8:30am. I’m sitting in my garden in my pants and a T-shirt. No bra. Sorry to any neighbours that might have opened their curtains, but I honestly don’t care. I’m about to turn 41 (next Saturday) and zero fucks are given these days.

The birds are singing, the magpies are going crazy (the less relaxing end of the birdsong spectrum) and there are bees frenzied with decisions about which flower to visit next because my garden is a little haven for them right now.

I was reading Julia Cameron’s memoir Floor Sample in bed, but it was getting warm and I wanted a cup of tea and, as happens when I read Julia Cameron, I was overcome with an urge to sit outside in my pants and write. So here I am.

Yesterday, we visited the Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden. It’s a piece of woodland that has been transformed over the past 40 years by its owners. We’d visited once before in April 2022.

One of the first things that struck me as we started exploring the garden on this return visit was that last time I came here, I hadn’t started writing.

I couldn’t shift that thought from my mind the whole time. It felt like I would see and feel the place differently because I knew I would need to write about this experience, and I knew that it would influence my artistic practices both in terms of my work and my creative hobbies.

Reading Julia Cameron’s memoir has grounded my understanding of creative practice - of not needing to be defined in one artistic medium and going with the flow. It’s how I feel about much of my work but have often felt like I flit from one thing to another - music, design, writing, drawing - but Julia has reminded me that I can do all of these and I should do all of these.

One artistic practice will feed into another and we sometimes have periods of our life where one is presenting more strongly than another, but that’s not to say we can’t keep shifting and returning to old forms which fit like a glove.

I started my creative life as a musician. I trained as a composer and was always drawn to multi-disciplinary work even back then. While at music college I worked with dancers, choreographers, actors, graphic designers, artists and sculptors. With each project, I thrived on the energy that was exchanged in this collaborative effort, and it would often prompt me to branch out in further creative ways from the music.

One musical composition, commissioned for Kettle’s Yard a few years after graduating - Contortions for two cellos and a dancer - started life as a series of sketches. I began with the visual element for each movement and the music flowed from there.

Another time, when writing Chromaticity, I worked with a graphic artist who interpreted my music for a 12-piece saxophone ensemble into a visual sequence. I haven’t watched this for many years until today and I was struck by the sense of ‘line’ throughout the piece:

Line in music often means melody, but line can also extend to become counterpoint when the layers of melody interweave. Line is arguably the cornerstone of my interior design work with most projects beginning life as lines on a plan and invisible lines of flow through a space being central to a layout. The rhythm of that line becomes vital as it does in music.

Colour too, is a central theme of my work. The musical composition above is called Chromaticity meaning “an objective, mathematical description of a colour's quality, independent of its brightness or luminance”. I remember at the time of performance, the conductor accidentally referring to the piece as ‘Chromatic City’ and I also like this name because the music has a sense of colourful busy-ness to it - with a moment of expressive light emerging halfway through.

Like a person spending years following the crowd and then suddenly realising their voice is important and wanting to gently, but insistently share what they have to say before rejoining the throng, irrevocably changed. Is that a metaphor for me?

Chromaticism in music refers to the 12-tones of the chromatic scale, alluding to a sense of colour spectrum in sound (chroma = colour). Colour in interior design is a vital element and I can’t explain to you how I know certain colours work together. I just feel it.

So what did the sculpture garden have to do with any of this?

During the three hours we spent there, I realised that my creative senses were awakened. Colour was a key to some of the sculptures, ensuring that as you rounded a corner or caught a glimpse from a new angle, colour was the first thing you saw:

Others tricked my eyes and morphed into trees as I approached and the light hit differently.

Setting and nature were vital to each piece and we noted how the sculptures would look and feel different at various times of the year. In May, foliage is at its most luscious and vibrant but that meant that some artworks were almost swallowed by the rampant greenery, whereas in winter, the materials would present completely differently.

This is what I want my art to be - alive, constantly changing and evolving, and responding directly to situation and circumstance. What I write depends on where I am physically, mentally and geographically. What I design is inherently related to the given brief, but it will always be a response to what I’ve been seeing and experiencing and what I know to be true and feel right in that moment.

Musical creation isn’t active right now, but it will call me again when the time is right and I will be ready for it.

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I’m Hannah. I’m 40, childfree and live in London. I left teaching behind to pursue a more creative approach to work. I earn my living from interior design consultancy, writing and creating works I’m passionate about.

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 takes place on Friday 12th June from 7-8am (UK time). Click here for more info.

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I only found my love of writing three years ago in August 2023 when something inside me, a feeling I can’t quite explain, wouldn’t go away.

It was summer and I was spending a lot of time sitting in my garden wondering what the hell I’d just done giving up a well-paid, stable teaching job that I’d worked my entire career for. But I was also excited about what the future held and somewhere amongst all of that there was a desire to write it down.

After a few weeks of batting away the feelings and mentally branding writing as “something other people do”, I sat down at my laptop and started a Substack.

I was terrified. Of what, I’m not sure. I mean what’s the worst that can happen when writing a few honest thoughts about making a career change? Nobody reads it? My old work colleagues read it?

The reality was somewhere in between. A few people on Substack read it, my work colleagues didn’t because I didn’t tell them about it.

The world didn’t end and my confidence steadily started to grow. Each time I sat down to write I felt a little braver and a little more willing to share something about myself. My hopes, my dreams, my feelings about work, what I was excited about, what worried me.

And here I am nearly three years later with a thriving interior design consultancy business and a writing habit that has stuck around. I’ve written weekly here for nearly three years and I’m very proud of that.

Some of that writing has attracted a fair bit of attention (this was quoted in Forbes), some less so, but the important thing to me is that I keep showing up.

I continue to do the thing I said I was going to do and I continue to enjoy it. I hope I’ve improved a bit. I’ve certainly made some wonderful friends along the way and I have no plans to stop now.

Every month I host two online writing sessions for subscribers. This is where many of the friendships have developed - people coming back every month and steadily we get to know a few things about each others’ lives and what we’re working on. I love that.

The next session takes place on Friday morning from 7-8am (UK time).

It’s really simple (and lovely): we log on and chat for a minute or two and then mute ourselves and crack on with some writing. The writing can be whatever you choose - morning pages, a Substack post, a book…

There’s no reading anything out required at the end, just a chat about how we’re feeling. Sometimes the words flow, sometimes they get stuck, but knowing there are others on that call always helps.

I’d love it if you would come and join me on Friday morning and start your day getting some words down on the page.

This does require a paid subscription but I hope you’ll see the value in that - I dedicate my time, pay for the Zoom subscription and nuture a community.

To register and get the Zoom link, click here:

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Last week I wrote about feeling somewhat discombobulated with all the various projects - both work and fun - that I wanted/needed to do, but not having much of a clue where to start and how to manage my sprawling ideas.

I asked you for help and I got a lot of brilliant and kind advice.

Of course I did, because you’re all marvellous.

Thanks to , , , , , , and for your sage advice - all of which has been keenly noted! You can read all of the comments in full here.

Today I’m going to share a couple of the suggestions I have since implemented and explain how they’ve improved my mindset already. I’ll also share a little of what’s been going on in the busy world of Hannah Ashe Interior Design.

Hello, Trello!

Thanks to this excellent suggestion from , I was reminded that I should be using Trello to track all of my client projects. I was already using it for communication with my VA and so it made sense to create a new board with each client project on it. I set that up on Monday and it’s already made keeping track of ongoing work much easier. Thanks so much Naomi!

I haven’t had a chance to listen to the recommended podcast yet, but it’s on my list.

A calendar in one place

It sounds simple, but thanks to I was reminded that I didn’t have a calendar in one place and that was a problem. I love the romance of a paper diary and my Circle planner is so lovely with creamy, thick paper I love to write in with my fountain pen…but it overcomplicates my life.

Since January I’d been using it as my main diary, religiously writing everything in there, but it’s a bulky diary and I don’t take it everywhere with me so inevitably there have been times when I was unable to check if I was free and just guessed. That’s a slippery slope.

A few weeks back, I met up with Nikki at her lovely Bold Types gathering and it came up in conversation, with Nikki sowing a seed that maybe I wasn’t being completely efficient in organising my time. Then Nikki’s reminder in her lovely comment spurred me into action and this week I’ve transferred everything onto Calendar which syncs with my iPhone, Macbook and iPad. I’d been half using it, but now I’m strictly only using this. Already so much easier!

The Circle planner is no longer in use for appointments, but I’m using it for general planning, goal setting and reviewing, and ad hoc journaling.

‘Time Management Tactics for Interior Designers’

On Tuesday, an email appeared in my inbox from the BIID (UK professional body for interior designers) linking to a blog post with the above title. They were reading my mind!

I was particularly drawn to a list at the bottom of the article and upon reading it I realised I do lots of these things anyway, though there are some things I could certainly improve!

I’ve set this as my desktop background so that I can regularly check that I’m doing these things. I especially like ‘say no…to events and requests that don’t fit either your personal values or your business objectives’ and the final bullet point about rewards. I’m the worst for just carrying on working!

My week in photos:

After the bank holiday, I visited a new client whose bedroom I was tasked with redesigning. The main challenge was layout and whether the wardrobes should remain in this location (revamped ofc) or be taken out and moved.

Then over the weekend we did a deep, deep spring clean of our own house because something exciting happened on Monday - I’ll be able to share more on this very soon!

On Tuesday this week I visited a new project which was further afield near to St Albans. I’m happy to travel further for the right clients and the right project and this was both; an amazing period cottage with incredible paneling in the living room. My brief is to modernise whilst still retaining the character. I’m loving working on this project.

On Thursday a new washing machine arrived after the old one finally gave up. We’d had it since 2012 and it had moved house several times, so I don’t think we can complain.

But if you fancy upgrading your subscription to help towards the washing machine fund, that would be appreciated. Every little helps these days! Paid subscribers are invited to my monthly co-creating/writing sessions too:

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Also on Thursday I posted a tour of my house on Instagram and TikTok. I don’t venture onto TikTok all that often and I was reminded of why when the trolls came out! Here’s one of the comments:

But don’t worry, I’m not taking anything personally - instead I’m using these comments to work on new content which centres around misconceptions people have about interior designers. I mean, I’m an interior designer not a millionaire…

And then by Friday I had finished the designs for the bedroom project. Here’s one of the mood boards from the design pack I sent to my clients.

Hope you are all having a nice weekend. Come and say hi in the comments and tell me what you’ve been upto!

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One of the challenges of having a brain that constantly fizzes and buzzes with ideas (I once referred to it as an ideas volcano), is figuring out how on earth to fit in all the things that I so desperately want to do.

• Finish my book

• Write a Substack post

• Send an interior design email newsletter

• Take on an exciting new client

• Visit my family

• Travel

• Write about the travel

• Do some drawing/painting

• Potter in the garden and plant some new things

• Watch back the workshop I just paid £38 for and make notes

• Reply to all the emails

• Check in with existing clients

• Read my book

• Read all the books in the tbr pile

• Organise another Garden Salon event for the Autumn

The list goes on and on. The more I do, the more I want to do, yet I have a little voice in the back of my mind telling me “don’t burnout again”. And I know that rest is so very important - it gives perspective and enables new ideas to form and flow.

In June, I’m taking two weeks holiday in the South of France and I’m determined to:

a) reach that holiday confident that my finances look buoyant enough to take time off knowing there is enough in the bank with work lined up when I get back.

b) not do any work while I’m away

In order for a) to happen, I’m currently working extra hard but that’s leaving less time for the fun stuff - the writing for me, the art, the tasks that are lower down the priority list.

100% self-employment is still very new for me and I love it, but the boundaries are very blurry and I’m interested in all and any tips you lovely readers might have.

I’m planning to turn the comments into a post with everyone featured credited.

I figure that if I need help with this, then others out there do too and I’d like to help (and add another thing to my list…)

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P.s. if you’re a paid subscriber, don’t forget to join me for Create Ensemble tomorrow evening at 7pm on Zoom. Details here:

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Last week I did something I’d never done before.

I gave advice to visitors at the Ideal Home Show at London’s Olympia for two consecutive days. I was one of four interior design experts in the Design Studio, an area where visitors can stop by to get free interior design advice.

The 20-minute slots were bookable in advance and there were a few walk-ins available each day.

I had no idea what exactly to expect in terms of the challenges I’d be faced with, but I was well-prepared with paint charts and fabric samples along with branded merchandise to give to those who paid me a visit.

And as with many of the things I’ve done over the past three years since leaving teaching behind, it felt a little scary.

But, I approached it with an open mind. I may not know the answers to every question asked, but I would know how to find the answers. A skill I’ve learned as many years as a teacher.

In teaching, it was never wise to bluster through answering a difficult question, but instead better to tell said pupil that I didn’t know the answer, but I would find out and get back to them.

It’s the same with interior design. And the parallels didn’t end there during my two days at the Ideal Home Show.

Arriving ridiculously early on my first day meant that I had the pick of the tables to sit at. I choose one in the middle of the Design Studio with views down to the other side of the hall meaning I was front and centre. The little tables each set with four chairs reminded me of parents’ evenings and I set up my space, carefully working out the best position for my business cards.

As my first appointment began, I realised this was like parents’ evening in terms of thinking on my feet and communicating ideas clearly, except there was far less pressure and I was actually enjoying myself.

On both days, I’d hardly come up for breath before realising it was lunchtime and I was starving, but fortunately I’d come prepared with sandwiches and snacks so I didn’t have to spend money on overpriced food.

The questions were so interesting and varied, ranging from people due to move into new homes soon and wanting advice on layout configuration (sometimes more veering towards architecture) to those wanting help choosing a paint colour for a specific room.

Some people came armed with printed plans and photographs, others came with nothing, but regardless of what was presented I could figure out a plan for them.

In the days leading up to my two days at the show I’d posted a fair bit on my Instagram account, and had invited anyone who had pre-booked to send me a message and tell me a little about their query in advance. A couple of people did this and it felt a little more familiar when they sat down at my table.

For those looking for help with colour schemes, I was armed with paint and fabric samples which I carefully selected according to the brief given and then neatly packed them up in branded folders to take away along with handwritten summary notes on the back of a Hannah Ashe Interior Design branded postcard.

I’d tried to consider personal touches that I would appreciate if I was receiving a service like this, and worked from there.

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One couple were from Kent and after I’d sketched out a design of a bar area for their kitchen/diner, I told them about my (very slow) plans to move to the county. They were lovely and I hope I bump into them if I ever do manage to move to Kent!

At the end of each 20-minute session, I asked if the visitor would be willing to leave their name and email address so I could send a follow up email. Everybody said yes and by the end of the two days I’d done 12 sessions and collected 12 email addresses.

The follow up email explained the various ways to work with me should they require some further interior design assistance, but it also signposted to my email newsletter as well as my Instagram account so they could stay in touch.

I’ve had a few of these people sign up for my email newsletter and quite a few new Instagram followers. One lady responded to say she’s planning to book me in soon and I suspect others might tell their friends about me at the very least (hopefully in a good way).

What was really interesting in the lead up to this event, was the influx of messages from friends and people I’ve not heard from in a while getting in touch to say how impressed they were. It’s funny how something well-known brings people out of the woodwork!

It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly why or how this opportunity came about for me, but one of the producers found my website and contacted me via that. He told me he also looked at my Instagram - which presumably he felt showed a level of quality and skills and was up to date. I’d been showing up regularly.

And that showing up regularly, even if not perfectly, had got me noticed.

The other day on Facebook I was noticed, seemingly for the same reason of showing up regularly, but this time wasn’t deemed to be a good thing:

This was a comment on one of my regular business adverts in a local Surrey group. The words “You are relentless 😴” was posted anonymously (classic fb) and meant rudely, but I’ve taken it as a compliment.

Yes, I show up regularly and I take this seriously. Perhaps that made this anonymous poster feel a little inadequate. Perhaps their business isn’t doing so well.

I suspect my relentlessness got me the Ideal Home Show gig in the first place, so I think I’ll carry on.

Fingers crossed I will be asked to return again next year. I’ve sent a thank you email to the producer and registered my interest for next year. Let’s see!

I work on homes of all types, but if truth be told, my favourites are the Edwardian and Victorian houses so if you need help with one of those, I’m definitely your woman!

Visit www.hannahashe.co.uk for more details.

Here are some of the lovely things my clients have said about my work:

There may not be a newsletter next week as I’m away for a few days, although let’s see how that goes because I find it hard not to write!

And if you’re a free subscriber and fancy delving further into the paid archive or want to come along to the monthly online sessions I host, why not upgrade?

Here are some of the popular pieces you’ll have access to:

I’m Hannah, I’m 40 and I live in London. I left teaching behind in December 2025 to pursue a more creative approach to work. I now earn my living from interior design, writing, podcasting and building this Substack.

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Good Morning,

I hope you had a restful weekend and are ready for the week ahead. Yesterday I saw a lot of wisteria on a riverside London walk, including the one pictured above which is one of the UK’s oldest (apparently). Spring flowers make everything feel better, in my opinion!

If you’re looking for something calming to do for yourself later today, why not join my Create Ensemble session at 7pm (UK time) today?

It takes place on Zoom. It begins with hellos and a quick check-in on what everyone is planning to use the session for - the choice is yours, anything creative works - and then we leave our cameras on, press mute and get on with it.

Seeing everyone working away in those little squares gives me excellent accountability to keep going during that hour, and I think that’s the case for others too. Today I plan to work on my book draft, which hasn’t seen much action over the past couple of months, but I’m taking a full day out to work on it this week on Thursday and so I’d like to reacquaint myself with it before then.

In the final five minutes, I bring everyone back together and we share how we got on.

It’s very relaxed, very gentle and I always finish the hour with a smile on my face.

To join at 7pm today (UK time), register here:

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As many of you know, when I left my teaching job in 2023 I was close to burn out and no longer had the enthusiasm or the ‘spark’ that I’d once had for the teaching profession. Instead I was grumpy, lacking in energy and had no drive to do more than the bare minimum.

It’s taken a while to get here, but I’m now at the helm of my very own interior design business - Hannah Ashe Interior Design, which I’m pleased to report (at the time of writing) is thriving. I have some wonderful clients and I have work lined up for the next couple of months and new enquiries coming in.

I’m regularly having to pinch myself that this is really happening, but it is. And I’ve made it happen.

Today, I’ve been getting ready for what feels like quite a momentous occasion. Tomorrow and Friday, I’m going to the Ideal Home Show. Not as a visitor, but as an interior design expert. Me, an expert!

If you’re coming to the show, please come and say hello! I’ll be in the Design Studio and visitors can book free 20-minute interior design consultations with me. There are still a few left, and I’d absolutely love to see a Substacker there!

Getting ready for this show has reminded me of a few things about myself that I’d forgotten, or at least lost sight of.

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I was planning to give myself a week off writing a Substack post, but you know what? I can’t do it! Writing here remains one of my weekly highlights, especially in amongst the slightly chaotic (and super exciting) lurch forward that my interior design work has taken in the past month.

So, instead I decided I’d write a little ‘life update’ - what’s going on with the house move, what I’m working on at the moment, plans for the weekend and a reminder about the co-creating sessions coming up in April (a paid subscriber perk!)

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For eighteen years, September felt like New Year’s Day. The fresh start, the new classes, the smell of a brand new teacher’s planner. Even when I was only part time, the school calendar ran underneath everything and shaped how I thought about work, rest, and what a year looked like in my mind.

Does anyone else see time in their mind or is that just me?

It’s been just over three months since I left teaching completely and my world view has shifted significantly. I’m seeing time differently, but I’m also seeing my surroundings in a completely different light.

I said that the start of the September felt like New Year’s Day for the past 18 years, but in a way it’s been more than that - more like 35 years. I started school aged 5, went to university and then became a teacher with no gap years or breaks anywhere in between. I’ve never known anything different to the academic calendar cycle, until now - and it feels very weird.

Last week, for the first time, I realised I had no idea when schools were breaking up for the Easter holidays. I don’t have kids and I no longer work in a school, so there’s no reason for me to know this information. It felt extremely freeing, like I was becoming unshackled from something that had had me in its grip for most of my life.

Maybe that sounds overly dramatic, but for many years I’ve wished time away. Even when I was teaching part-time and the pressure and responsibility wasn’t as great, I would still be mentally counting down the teaching days until the next half term or longer holiday.

Rather than being in the moment and focusing on what I was doing there and then, I was dreaming ahead to the days of holiday and freedom and joy and wonder… when in reality I was most likely to spend the first few days with a virus, too exhausted to do much.

But now, I don’t see the year mapped out before me in my mind. I’m present.

I’m busy - arguably I’ve never been busier in terms of how my brain is occupied - but it’s all with things I enjoy and work and play that is on my terms.

In case you’ve only recently stumbled across my writing here, I’m Hannah, founder of Hannah Ashe Interior Design. I used to be a secondary school music teacher and transitioned to full time self-employment gradually over the past three years. In December I gave up part time teaching completely and am now 100% in my business.

I no longer have to cram seeing friends into the school holidays because I’m too tired to go out on a ‘school night’. These days I can see friends whenever I want, and if it ends up being a late night on a Wednesday, I arrange my diary accordingly. It all feels very grown up, but why has it taken me 40 years to get here?

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A couple of weeks ago, I went out on a Thursday night to meet a friend for dinner. This friend and I first met a few years ago when we were teaching in the same school. She too was a music teacher, but when I saw her she was a week away from leaving teaching completely and starting a new role in the civil service.

Another escapee - sad really that so many good teachers (I think I was good…) are leaving the profession in the UK, but for many of us it has just sapped our energy away. And at a time when we’re all likely to be working to 65 or older, why continue doing a job which leaves you wishing your life away. No thank you.

But, what I noticed when I was heading out to meet my friend was that I was seeing my local area differently. It was a nice evening and I walked the 40 minutes to the restaurant. I started noticing things I’d not stopped to think about much before: a beautiful building, a cafe that opens for wine and cheese in the evenings, a sign on a lamp post advertising a local yoga class. I’m sure all of those things had been there for a long time, but I’d been so busy wishing my life away that I hadn’t noticed them. Sad really.

But now, I’m here. I’ve arrived and I’m present and noticing the world around me, the people I have the joy of connecting with and the life I am extremely fortunate to live. We only get one shot at this and I plan to do it well.

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Since leaving teaching completely in December, I’ve been writing a series of honest diaries about the joys and challenges of self-employed life. Read them here:

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March is almost over, and I’ve been 100% self-employed for 3 months now.

The first thing to note, more for my negative naysaying self, is that I am still here and still financially afloat. Nothing terrible has happened.

In fact, lots of good things have happened.

Today’s diary is going to take the form of an overview of the past three months under each of these headings.

• Design Work

• Finances

• Opportunities

• Fun & Freedom

Here goes.

Design Work

I counted that since April 2023 when I first launched my interior design business, I have worked with 47 clients. Some of those have been via my online Rapid Revamp service, and others have been in-person with the more in depth Design Spark or Full Service Design. All are valued clients who I’ve enjoyed working with very much.

My aim at the moment is to complete 3-4 x Design Spark projects per month. This doesn’t overburden me and means I can do a really good job for those clients. Providing an excellent service remains at the heart of what I’m doing.

March was full and April is very nearly booked up too. So if you’re looking for me to help you in-person I can book you in for May and beyond.

One thing that doesn’t seem to be converting at the moment is clients wanting me to source items (furniture etc.) for them. I can get most things at a trade price, and although I charge a % handling fee, it almost always works out that the client saves money compared with ordering themself. They are saved time and energy having me do it for them. But, few people are opting for this and so I think my messaging and communication is off. This is something to look at in April.

I’d also like to sell more of the Rapid Revamp video consultations. I’ve made a few tweaks to this service recently and simplified it following an excellent website strategy session earlier this week with expert Beth.

Freedom and flexibility remain as key reasons why I wanted to have my own business and the Rapid Revamp service is something I can do from anywhere I have a stable internet connection. So, I want to put significant focus into marketing this service in April.

Reminders for April: spend time working on messaging and communication with clients for sourcing / focus on marketing for Rapid Revamp.

Do you want your home to feel better? Why not explore my interior design services or book a discovery call?

Explore my Interior Design services

Here’s a photo from a guest bedroom/home office space I designed that was finished recently:

Finances

After two years of teaching part-time peppered with some interior design work, I was used to earning much less money (around 50% less) compared with when I was Director of Music.

Some months were leaner than others, but I had enough money to pay my share of the mortgage and bills with a tiny bit left over for saving or doing something fun. I’d left my full-time job with a little buffer of savings and somehow over the two years with a halved income I didn’t really dip into them.

This was all good prep for January 2026 and leaping 100% into self-employment, but even matching the reduced income wasn’t easy. I made a deal with myself that I could dip up to £1000 per month into my savings pot from January-March in order to ease myself into this new way of working. It was logged in my spreadsheet and I’d convinced myself that was what savings were for.

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On Friday I found out I’d won a competition! And I truly love a competition, always have, probably always will.

When I was a student I used to go through the Money Saving Expert competition forum and enter as many as I could, often winning something random like tickets to see Meatloaf at The Motor Show at the Excel centre in 2008. I won four tickets and had to coerce friends to come with me. As someone neither interested in super cars nor a big fan of Meatloaf, it was a slightly underwhelming experience. But a prize, nonetheless!

I digress, the competition I won on Friday was linked to the BRILLIANT marketing group I’m part of - Hannah Isted’s daily 10 minute marketing: The Best 90 Days Ever*. I’ve been a part of it for almost 180 days now, and I really, truly love it and my marketing everywhere has improved 200%.

What did I win, you ask?

(I quote) ‘A Big Fish tote bag filled with goodies’. This was the third prize. The first and second were varying lengths of subscriptions to TB90DE, but I kind of think I may have lucked out? Partly because I’m already a paid up member for the year, but a goody bag of mystery seems extremely exciting. I'll let you know what’s in it when it arrives.

The main reason for writing today, however, is not to inform you of my good fortune, but instead to put something out into the world.

The Big Fish challenge was five days of marketing tasks which pushed its participants to be brave and try things that initially feel a little uncomfortable. Not in a marketing bro kind of way, but more a gentle, ‘go on, ask for the thing you want’ sort of vibe. I needed it this week and as a result of engaging fully, I signed 3 new clients with very interesting, hyper-local projects.

The final day’s task was to figure out a ‘Big Fish Energy Goal for my business’. Sounds a little bit cringey, but I chose ‘speaking on a panel’. Weird for an introvert.

But… something I’ve learned over the past couple of years is that introverts come out of their shells when they’re speaking about the things they are truly passionate about.

The task was to email Hannah with my goal and then later in the day she emailed back with 3 personalised steps to help me move towards that goal.

Here is her reply:

“Ohh love this!

What about putting out a LinkedIn post or an article on Substack about this as a goal and the things you’d love to talk about? I feel like you just need someone to connect you with someone doing an event and you’d be in!

Are there also any events you’d love to speak on a panel at? Could you contact them too?

You could also email the ideal home show and just say by the way if you are doing any panel events you’d be interested! x”

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And so, I’ve thought about what I want to speak about quite a bit, and here I am asking for an opportunity.

If you’ve been a subscriber here for a while you’ll know my passions and skills, but here are three specific topics I’d love to speak about:

• Career change at the age of 38. I had a successful teaching career and it appeared to be creative (I taught music). Why did I change it and how did I change it? I didn’t think there was anything else out there for me other than teaching, and I was wrong. I can talk about the steps I took to make this shift happen and the challenges and benefits I’ve faced along the way so far. I want to inspire others to feel able to make change and not spend the rest of their careers stuck in a job they hate.

• Why founding a business is one of the most creative things I’ve ever done. I’d love to talk about how I channel my creativity into running my interior design studio - not just in the form of the design, but in all the other daily decisions: finance, marketing, working with freelancers, trying new things and stepping into the unknown.

• The joy of interior design is in the people I meet and the stories they tell. I’ve worked with 47 different clients over the past three years and they all have brilliant stories to tell. Stories that I always try to weave into the designs I create. It might be the background to a painting, a piece of furniture from a now deceased family member or items collected while living abroad. It’s all rich and usually becomes the centre starting point for the design. I’d love to talk about this concept and how listening to clients is vital to gain their trust and get the design spot on.

What I want you to do:

Share this post, mention it to someone who might have an opportunity or get in touch yourself. This big fish is ready to head into some new waters and do something a bit different.

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And a reminder to paid subscribers that the next online co-writing session - 🐦‍⬛ Early Bird Writers’ Hour - is coming up on Friday 27th March from 6:30-7:30am. Join me via Zoom for an hour of early morning writing to start your Friday right. More information and the joining link can be found here:

I want to add that paid subscriptions mean a huge amount and give me a place to write when I want to share my most open thoughts. The next paid piece will be installment #5 of the self-employment diaries with a round up of how March has been. If you’re keen to read that and are able to support my writing, then I’d value your subscription and kindness very much.

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I’m Hannah, I’m 40 and I live in London. I left teaching behind in December 2025 to pursue a more creative approach to work. I now earn my living from interior design consultancy, writing, podcasting and building this Substack. Come and say hi in the comments:

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*the link to Hannah Isted’s 10-minute marketing group is an affiliate link, which means I will earn a small amount of commission if you click on it and sign up. But believe me when I say that I only ever recommend something that I’m 100% in love with, and this group has changed so much for me! If you’re a small business owner, you probably need this in your life.

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I’m having an admin day. It didn’t set out to be this, I’d planned to get some client work done too, but then hundreds of little admin tasks started to appear and I decided that it would be better to get all of those tasks done and get various loose ends tied up, before I started getting stuck into client work. And so tomorrow there will be no admin tasks, just a full day of client work without distractions, but for now I’m getting things done!

One such task was to update the calendar for the monthly co-working sessions I host for subscribers. There are two: ✨ Create Ensemble and 🐦‍⬛ Early Bird Writers’ Hour.

The premise is the same for each: log onto a Zoom call, chat for a few minutes and then mute ourselves in order to get on with something with our cameras on. For Create Ensemble, anything goes - writing, drawing, painting, knitting, crafting… whatever you’d like to do on a Monday evening to give yourself some creative escapism. At Early Bird Writers’ Hour - yes, you’ve guessed it, we write!

Anyway, I’ve now published the dates for April - June for both sessions and you can read more about each if you click on the links. One thing to note is that I’ve amended the timings of Early Bird Writers’ Hour from April to start a little later at 7am, rather than 6:30am.

Please don’t worry if you’ve not been before, it’s very relaxed and informal and nobody has to share their work!

🐦‍⬛ Early Bird Writers’ Hour 🆕 2026 dates:

• Friday 27th March 2026, 6:30-7:30am*

• Friday 24th April 2026, 7:00-8:00am* (please note new time!)

• Friday 22nd May 2026, 7:00-8:00am* (please note new time!)

• Friday 12th June 2026, 7:00-8:00am* (please note new time!)

✨ Create Ensemble 🆕 2026 dates:

• Monday 16th March 2026, 7-8pm

• Monday 20th April 2026, 7-8pm

• Monday 11th May 2026, 7-8pm

• Monday 22nd June 2026, 7-8pm

All times are UK (GMT) and, yes, the next Create Ensemble session is today!

To join, you just need to upgrade to a paid subscription and you can access the registration and Zoom links which are below the paywall.

If you’d like to join the session today, click here:

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I spent last weekend in the Northern French city of Lille with my husband. It was our second visit there within a year and I truly believe it’s an underrated city (from a UK perspective) and is well worth visiting. In this article I share advice on where to stay, how to get around, what to visit and what and where to eat and drink. All from the home-obsessed perspective of this interior designer and self-confessed gourmande!

Where should I stay in Lille?

When we first visited the city in April 2025, we stayed in this Airbnb in Vieux Lille or the old-town. It was more residential and therefore quiet, plus the apartment had a full-kitchen so we had the option to prepare meals if we wanted to. But, there turned out to be such a great choice for food and drink everywhere (more on that later), that we barely used the kitchen. We arrived in the evening and had to collect the keys from a nearby, but slightly out of the way, hostel reception and the cobbled streets and wheel-y suitcases weren’t the greatest combination. I’ve since learned that most of Lille’s Airbnb rentals do not have key safes due to strict municipal rules in the city. So, this kind of key collection isn’t unusual.

The apartment was on the top floor of the building and accessed via a very precarious spiral staircase, which certainly wouldn’t be suitable for anyone with mobility issues. Once through the door it was a very lovely space, tastefully designed and extremely comfortable for a weekend there. We had to check out at 10am and return the keys to the hostel. Our Eurostar train wasn’t until quite a bit later in the day so we left our luggage at the train station which was cheap and easy.

On the most recent visit last weekend, we stayed in a hotel. During the previous trip, we’d clocked that there was a Mama Shelter hotel very close to Lille Europe train station and so I’d signed up to their mailing list to look out for any offers. It was a potential offer mentioned in their email newsletter that prompted us to return. The offer was for 3 nights for the price of 2, although in the end we didn’t manage to get this offer, but the room rate was very reasonable for 3 nights and so we booked.

Our train arrived just before 10pm on Thursday evening and it was a very easy 5-minute walk to the Mama Shelter Lille hotel. Check-in was quick and we were in our room within 15 minutes of getting off the train. We’d opted for the Medium Mama Double and paid €332 for three nights (excluding breakfast).

The room was stylish and funky and had a view over the next-door park and across to the train station. The bed was super comfy and I had some of the best night’s sleep for a while there. We had a TV with all the main French TV and radio channels (FIP is a favourite listen of ours). The bathroom was pretty straightforward though the rain shower part of the shower didn’t work properly (like standing under a leaking gutter as J described it) and so we could only really use the handheld shower. It wasn’t a big problem for us, just a bit annoying. There was plenty of space for suitcases and a decent sized hanging rail as well as a safe and a mini fridge. There were no tea or coffee making facilities but that’s because it’s France and I haven’t yet reached the stage of my life where I travel with a mini-kettle. Reader, I survived without tea.

Breakfast was an optional extra at €20 per person per day and we could have had it last minute on any morning. We didn’t, because there were so many great cafes and brunch spots nearby (see Food and Drink section).

Overall, we preferred the hotel experience over the Airbnb for a short stay, and found the central location and late (midday) checkout to be very helpful. We would definitely return to Mama Shelter.

Is it easy to get around in Lille?

Compared to London, where I live, Lille is small and most places can be accessed on foot, but on both visits we did go a little further afield to visit some galleries, and the public transport system was very easy to navigate.

Tickets are bought from machines in the metro or train stations. We opted for the paper ticket which can be topped up 10 times. You prepay for the number of single journeys you need - in this case it was just 2. €1,80 per single journey which counts as travelling anywhere in the metropolitan area for up to 1 hour. You tap your ticket as you go through the barrier and then can switch onto different metro lines or buses within that hour. On this most recent trip, we used public transport to visit the Musée LaM (more below) which required us to travel 5 stops on the metro and then switch to a bus. When we got on the bus, we didn’t have to tap or show the ticket because we’d already validated it upon entering the metro. We weren’t checked, but I’d imagine that if ticket inspectors appear, they scan your card to see the time it was validated and all is good if within an hour.

Google Maps provided all the information we needed, but I think you can also download the Ilevia transport app which covers the metropolitan area of Lille.

Our travel to and from Lille was via train operated by Eurostar. This is a direct train from London St Pancras (with no stops in between) and we opted for the Thursday evening 7:35pm train from London, arriving into Euralille just before 10:00pm local time. We returned to London on the 12:34pm on Sunday which had us back in London just before 1:00pm local time. It’s pretty quick! Eurostar do sales from time to time and these tickets were bought in a recent sale, costing us £70 each return. Bargain.

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What is there to do in Lille?

Lille is packed full of culture and history and there are many options for galleries and museums in and around the city. When we were there last year in April, a local shop owner (either Vic or Mel of Vic & Mel’s lovely candle shop) told us about the festival of video mapping that happened to be on and we had a great evening wandering the city after dark, following the crowds between the video installations. The city has lots of mini festivals throughout the year and you can find out more here.

This time around we had planned to visit the newly re-opened LaM (or Lille Métropole Musée d'art moderne, d'art contemporain et d'art brut). It was this visit that required the metro and bus travel, but it only took about 30 minutes to get from our hotel to the museum. It was worth the travel to experience this magnificent gallery set in a sculpture park. Entry to LaM is €11 per adult, though with an Ilevia travel ticket validated on that day, you can get in for €9, which we had. They clearly know how to encourage visitors to use public transport - what a great idea!

The building itself is worth a visit alone, but the Kandinsky exhibition was sublime. It charted the artist’s work from his early life in Russia, through to the Bauhaus years and beyond. It was fascinating and for someone interested in multi-disciplinary arts, as I am, I was blown away by Kandinsky’s insistence to understand the world around him and there was lots to take in about his study of geometry, music and the cosmos which then became visible in his paintings. I couldn’t recommend this exhibition more, and if you get the chance to visit before this exhibition ends on 14th June, go! It really is worth the trip on public transport.

Last year on our trip, we visited the Palais des Beaux Arts which is the main art gallery in the centre of the city. It costs €7 per person to visit and there is a large permanent collection, with lots of Flemish art as well as works up to the present day. A surprising extra was the collection of relief maps housed in the basement of the building. I’m not sure I know where to start in describing these maps, but I highly recommend visiting them. Especially if you’re a map nerd like me! 🗺️ 🤓

Another highlight from last year’s trip was La Piscine de Roubaix. It’s a gallery centred around an old swimming pool and is one of the most beautiful settings for a gallery that I’ve ever seen. Like the LaM, getting here requires a trip on the metro as La Piscine is in the adjoining town of Roubaix (famous for the Paris-Roubaix bicycle road race), but only takes around 30 minutes from the centre of Lille. It’s particularly good for sculpture and ceramics, including several pieces by Picasso. But honestly, it’s worth going just for the building and the amazing stained glass windows (see photo below).

I’m yet to make it to Villa Cavrois, but this is on my list for my next trip to Lille. Villa Cavrois is a large modernist mansion built in 1932 by French architect Robert Mallet-Stevens for Paul Cavrois, an industrialist from Roubaix active in the textile industry. This is a little further out of the city and requires a 45 minute journey via the tram to get there, but if the photos are anything to go by, it looks like it would be worth it. Especially if you’re interested in modernist architecture and interiors like me!

Aside from museums and galleries, there is some fantastic shopping to be done in the centre of Lille. The French have a special way with window displays and the clothes shops tempted me so much by their beautiful, colourful displays. Particularly the bags and shoes. I managed to resist this time, but the Rue des Chats Bossus is the place to head if you fancy some serious shopping.

The other kind of shopping J and I very much enjoy, is food shopping. We did less of it this time due to staying in a hotel but we did make a trip to Meert, famous for its gaufre (waffles) which are a brioche style pastry filled with Madagascan vanilla paste. It’s worth going in just to see the shop which is an old fashioned patisseries with counters and beautiful gift wrapping. We had to queue a little to get in but it was worth it for the sugary treats.

There are many excellent patisseries in the centre of Lille, a favourite of ours is Pâtisserie Croquet on Rue Esquermoise. Their cakes, pastries, bread and quiches are everything you would hope for in northern France.

No trip to France is ever complete without cheese, and if you want to be overwhelmed, head to one of the two Fromagerie Philippe Olivier shops. It’s worth noting that due to current restrictions, bringing cheese back into the UK from France is currently not allowed. You’ll just have to eat it all while you’re there.

Lille is brilliant for homeware shops and if anyone wants to employ me to source beautiful French furniture and homewares for them, Lille will be my first port of call. A few favourites includes Ellen Desforges (stunning light fittings), Mouflette (cute ceramics and small homeware items), Maisons du Monde (which felt a bit like the French equivalent of West Elm) and Celadon-Paris (ceramics). There are also showrooms for bigger French furniture brands such as Tikamoon, Roche Bobois and Ligne Roset, all in the centre of the city.

Where are the best places to eat and drink in Lille?

I think the French would describe J and I as ‘les gourmands’. We enjoy good food and drink and will go out of our way for it. We won’t accept poor quality grub, so I hope that if you like good food too, you won’t be disappointed with these recommendations.

Paddo Cafe - 72 Rue Pierre Mauroy
We ate breakfast in this Australian style cafe and I had some very delicious avocado and feta toast. Great coffee too.

La Capsule - 25 Rue des trois Mollettes

Excellent beer bar with more than 20 beers on tap, changing regularly. We spent a couple of hours here on the Friday evening before going for dinner and managed to work our way through a few of the beers on offer. I liked that all the beers were available in 25cl measures and the prices were very reasonable too. They also serve apéro snacks such as crisps, cheese cubes, and saucisson.

La Canopée - 286 Rue Solférino

We ate dinner here following the beers in La Capsule. It’s a bit of a walk from the city centre, but worth it for the lively, but warm and cosy atmosphere. We were worried it might be more suited to a younger crowd than us, but actually it was perfect. There were groups of friends and families with kids as well as people there for after work food and drinks. You can reserve a table on their website and the food and drink ordering is at the counter and was very speedy. We both had burgers with excellent fries.

Bloom Coffee - 10 Pl. Maurice Schumann

On Saturday morning we wanted a light breakfast due to having lunch reservations at midday. Bloom Coffee had fabulous coffee (as you’d hope) and we shared some fruit, yoghurt and granola and a financier (quand en France…). It was delightful and the service was excellent too.

Bierbuik (well actually, Bloemeke) - 19 Rue Royale

I have to pause here to give a mention to the brilliant because some of the food places mentioned in this piece have come from Carolyn. Carolyn wrote a fabulous book Amuse Bouche: How to eat your way around France and honestly, it felt like she’d written the book for me. Bierbuik is one of the recommendations in that book and so we eagerly booked a table.

However, when we arrived, my name was checked off and we were sent upstairs to a cosy space with seating for around 30 people. We were shown to our table where the only menu was for drinks. There was one guy covering the whole space and he seemed very busy. We decided on our drinks (beer, of course) and waited for our order to be taken and for a food menu to appear. After a while the busy server came over and took our drinks order. He then asked if we knew about the menu. “Non” was our reply. He then went on to explain that up in this part of the estaminet (a name for pubs in northern France), the menu was a three-course ‘surprise’ set menu for €30. He asked if that was ok and whether we had any allergies. It was ok, and we didn’t have any allergies.

What we’d been expecting was estaminet-style burgers and chips, but it seemed that what we were getting was an exciting 3-course menu. No complaints from us. We love food and actually J finds choosing from a menu hard(!), so it was ideal for him. No decisions.

We ate a fabulous meal of smoked herring with purple potatoes followed by spiced pork meatballs with spelt risotto and maroilles cheese and finished with a blackberry pavlova with milk ice cream and fromage blanc mousse. It was all divine and a bargain for €30.

It wasn’t the meal we were expecting, but it was better! I don’t think it’s totally clear from the website, but we think that if you book a table, it’s assumed you want to eat in Bloemeke, the upstairs space. Otherwise I think it’s walk-ins only for the downstairs burger and chips. But, be warned, this place is very popular (the chef owner is quite famous in these parts) and so the queue was down the street when we left.

Petit JaJa and JaJa - 37 Rue Saint-André

Last year when we were in Lille we had some drinks and a sharing platter in JaJa, a lovely wine bar in the old town. We’d decided to return on Saturday night but when we arrived it turned out they were closed for a private function. Over the road is Petit JaJa and so we tried our luck there and managed to get one of the last spaces. This is a very intimate wine bar with a beautiful bar-counter, a small, but exquisitely selected range of wines by the glass and bottle and a short menu of small plates to share.

I’ll be honest, London has ruined small plates for me, because they are usually way way too small and extortionately expensive.

But Lille isn’t London! Portions are generous, prices are reasonable!

Having eaten the three course meal at lunchtime, we didn’t really need a lot, but we were on holiday. We ordered some Japanese style fried chicken, an exciting sounding dish of baby gem lettuce cups filled with cockles and other delicious things and a cheese plate. They were all enormous and came with lashings of home made bread. This was washed down with an excellent bottle of red wine, and we were very happy. I love sitting at a bar counter - it’s a great way to see how the restaurant operates and I like the buzziness.

Eating out in France also has the added joy of those wonderful two words: service compris. The price is the price. You know where you stand and you also know that the waiting staff are being paid fairly. I wish the UK and other parts of the world would adopt this.

Tamper Coffee and Lunch - 10 Rue des Vieux Murs

Our final food and drink stop before heading back to London on Sunday, was breakfast at Tamper. The coffee was once again excellent and my huevos rancheros was delicious. J opted for avocado toast this time, this version coming with smoked salmon.

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I absolutely loved our second trip to Lille. There is so much culture and great food on offer and it’s so easy to get to from London. If you haven’t visited yet, I strongly recommend it and I hope that this guide helps you to navigate your way around the city.

If you have any Lille recommendations to add, please tell me in the comments. I’ll definitely be back, so I’d like some new places to add to my list.

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*Just to say, everything mentioned in this post was chosen and paid for by me, no freebies/PR/incentives to say nice things etc. etc.!

If you enjoyed this, you may be interested in my London guide:

I’m Hannah, I’m 40 and I live in London. I left teaching behind in December 2025 to pursue a more creative approach to work. I now earn my living from interior design consultancy, writing, podcasting and building this Substack.

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It’s been two months since I threw myself head first into the full time running of my interior design business - Hannah Ashe Interior Design - and if you’ve listened to my latest podcast episode, you will know that my world hasn’t caved in. The world is a different matter, but sadly I don’t have much control over that…

Today’s update is not a day-by-day diary, but instead 10 great and not-so-great things that I’ve learned about running an interior design business in the first two months of being in it full-time.

The Great

1. Community breeds kindness: I still maintain that starting a Substack and creating a community here is one of the best things I have ever done. I’d hoped that by sharing the ups and downs of my career journey, I might encourage and inspire others to give something a go, but I hadn’t banked on how much this community would support me. In the past couple of months I’ve completed interior design work for three lovely subscribers here and others have been in touch to say that there’s potential work in the pipeline. Starting with an existing connection makes designing your home even more joyful. Get in touch if you’d like some help with your interiors!

2. Weekly Hatch sessions: I’m now 8 weeks in to the Hatch Incubator business course and I’ve learned so much. The sessions are online, but every week I get to know the other business owners in the cohort a little better and we share our challenges and wins and feel that there is a supportive network there who ‘get it’. If you’re in the early phases of a business, I really do recommend applying. More info here.

3. Running/walking at whatever time of day suits me: as I get older, I learn more about myself and what works and what doesn’t. I love to get up early and work for a couple of hours. Then I like to go out for a walk or run for an hour before returning to my desk to continue working. Of course, some days I’m busy visiting clients mid-morning, but where possible I schedule my client work to leave that window free for exercise and nature. Because I can.

4. Unexpected opportunities: Right now, I never know what is going to drop into my inbox next. In mid-January it was an invitation to be an Interior Design Expert at the Ideal Home Show in April and recently I’ve been invited to be interviewed for a blog post by a local mortgage company. I’m learning that everything is good marketing and PR so I’m saying yes and wondering what might come next!

5. Becoming a business sponge - words I never thought I would say! It turns out that founding my own business is one of the most creative things I’ve ever done. Creativity is found in writing and art and music, but it’s also about problem solving and figuring out what I want to do next and how. My creative brain is fully fizzing and alive and I’m soaking up all the information I can from experts out there: books, events, podcasts etc. If you know of something I might find useful, please do recommend!

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6. Freedom and flexibility: it’s long been my dream to be able to work the hours I set myself and to sometimes work from different locations. So far, I’ve worked from northern France for a few days and I’ve been able to visit my parents mid-week and combine work with fun things. Tomorrow evening we’re going away for a long weekend and we’ve just booked a trip for my husband’s 40th birthday in April. None of which is during a school holiday. I’ve literally been waiting 40 years for this!

7. Making my clients’ homes work better: there is no greater sense of pride for me right now than when I send designs to a client and they respond with “Very many thanks for all your help, enthusiasm and inspiration, it's definitely exactly what we needed”. I feel like I’m making a difference to homes and lives and it spurs me on to want to help more people. My aim is to provide a clear plan on what to do, how to do it and where to start.

8. People, connection, stories: instead of working with the same colleagues every day, I am constantly meeting and talking to new people. That could be overwhelming to an introvert like me, but because these interactions are organised mostly on my terms, I love it. Whether I’m connecting with a potential new client on the phone or conducting a consultation in someone’s home, there’s always something interesting to find out about them. Just last week during a client consultation, I was shown wonderful paintings currently stored in their garage and told the incredible stories which these pieces of art held. Those paintings (and stories) are now a key part of that design scheme.

9. Hard work and effort belongs to me: gone are the days where I work ridiculous hours for the benefit of someone else. Yes, I occasionally still work long hours if a project demands it, but I know that there are two beneficiaries of that work: my client and me. I’ve never been afraid of hard work, in fact I thrive on it, but when there’s little reward it becomes disheartening. These days, I make the decisions and (hopefully) benefit directly from them.

10. The thrill of booking a new client: I don’t think that feeling will ever not be exciting. This links to the previous point, but when the hard work pays off and a booking is made, I feel elated and know that I want to do everything I can to give that new client the best experience I can.

⬆️ If you’d like to be the next person to make me feel that thrill, you can book my interior design services here!

The Not-So-Great

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It’s been several months since the last episode of Creative Career Change and a lot has shifted in that time.

At the start of 2026, I removed the safety net I’d always kept in place. I stopped teaching entirely and went all in on my interior design business.

And do you know what?

The world didn’t cave in.

In this reflective solo episode, I revisit the very first podcast I recorded back in September 2023 - just after leaving my full-time teaching role - and explore what’s changed in the two and a half years since.

It was a fascinating listen and prompted many thoughts about how far I’ve come, what has remained constant and what has changed over the past two and a half years.

Listen to the original episode here:

There were some key themes that came up, and in this new episode I explore:

• What it feels like to finally remove the safety net

• The return of what I call ‘creative fizz’

• Why process now matters more to me than outcome

• Rediscovering my love of organising events - but on my terms

• The power of conversation, connection, and finding your people

Upcoming Events

During the episode, I mention a few live events I’m hosting in March:

🏡 Free Interior Design Clinic: Friday 13th March, 12:00-12:30, register here.

✨ Create Ensemble: Monday 16th March 2026, 7-8pm - for paid subscribers

🐦‍⬛ Early Bird Writers’ Hour: Friday 27th March 2026, 6:30-7:30am - for paid subscribers

If you’ve made a creative career change (or feel the pull but don’t know where to start), I’d genuinely love to hear from you. Perhaps you’re my next podcast guest?

And if you enjoy the episode, a review on Apple Podcasts makes a huge difference.

Hannah x

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I’m Hannah. I’m 40 and I live in London. After 18 years in teaching, I left in December 2025 to pursue a more creative life. I now run an interior design business, alongside writing and podcasting. I’m building a career that feels more ‘me’: aligned, intentional, and creatively fizzing.

www.hannahashe.co.uk

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I’d planned to write the next installment of the self-employment diaries, but the words weren’t quite flowing and so it turned into something a little different.

Before I get into that, I want to mention Create Ensemble, which I host online every month and welcome you to join me and spend an hour working on a creative project. The next session is tomorrow, and this month I’m opening it up to all subscribers (usually it’s for paid).

It takes place from 7-8pm (UK time) on Monday 23rd February and you can join by clicking here: https://luma.com/ag0am3ip

It’s always a soothing end to Monday, especially during these dark and cold months and I’d absolutely love to see your face. You can find out more here:

It’s been a strange week. For three hours on Monday it seemed like all the house buying/selling stars were aligning and things would actually start to happen but then, it all fell apart. And so onwards we go, waiting and hoping for a while longer.

I spent Tuesday to Thursday up at my parents’ house in the Midlands which timed very well as a distraction from the house move woes and I worked from the lovely room overlooking the garden and my mum bought me regular cups of tea and I could see my dad pottering in the garden. It was nice and I plan to do it again.

In between the work we went swimming at the spa my mum is a member at, did a couple of walks and visited the local town where I went to school. I somehow managed to get return train tickets from London to the Midlands for £9. I’m not sure I will ever repeat this, but mum has enjoyed telling people about the price of the tickets (she loves a bargain!).

I think writing has felt a little challenging because I’m putting all of my energy into my interior design business right now which includes writing an email newsletter and blog and so I often feel depleted when I sit down to write here. I’m working on carving out more time for it as it’s very important to me.

I’m learning so much at the moment: marketing, sales, website improvement, finance… all new skills which a music teacher didn’t have to think about very much at all. But I really love this new challenge and there’s such a thrill when I sign a new client or a blog post does really well. There’s a real sense that the time and energy I put it is in direct correlation to the outcome, and that was usually not the case when I was working for someone else.

Last week I wrote a blog post for my website on the topic of sensitively modernising period homes and it has been my most viewed website blog post ever (almost 500 views at the time of writing)! I created lots of different social media posts based on this blog and directed them all to the post. This drove a lot of traffic to my website and I’ve seen an increase in newsletter subscribers and enquiries as a result.

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It can seem like a lot of time and effort to write a blog post like that, but this was a reminder that the hard work is for good reason and hopefully the rewards will keep coming. I will definitely use this method again.

The Hatch Enterprise ‘Incubator’ sessions I’ve been doing every Tuesday evening are really starting to get into their stride and I’ve loved the last couple of sessions. We had a particularly inspiring two hours with Dwain Reid who hugely helped to demystify sales. Since his session, I’ve been using the free CRM platform Hubspot to track my enquiries and it’s already making a difference to how I keep track of everything. Dwain also recommended the book Oversubscribed by Daniel Priestley* and I’ve been listening to it as an audiobook the last couple of days. I never thought I’d be someone who reads business books, but here I am!

It’s still quite an adjustment to get used to not having a regular salary payment. These first six weeks of full-time self employment have been just about okay finance-wise; I have nothing spare on top of what I need for mortgage/bills and I have dipped a little into my savings. I have faith that this will gradually improve and I’m making sure that I do lots of reflection on how I’ve done something so that I can try to see different approaches for next time if it’s not gone to plan.

I think burying my head into my work has really helped deal with some of the disappointment at the start of the week and I already feel a lot better about it all than I did on Monday. Sure it’s frustrating, but much worse things are happening in the world and I am very lucky to have what I do and I’m grateful for that.

Right, I’m off to do some more work in between blowing my nose because I seem to have a cold.

Please do join me tomorrow at Create Ensemble. Here is the link to register/join again: https://luma.com/ag0am3ip

I’m Hannah, I’m 40 and I live in London. I left teaching behind in December 2025 to pursue a more creative approach to work. I now earn my living from interior design consultancy, writing, podcasting and building this Substack. Do come and say hello in the comments!

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p.s. This is a free post available to all and so there are links which will earn me a small amount of commission if you click on them and buy something. It won’t cost you anything extra but every little bit helps for me, so thank you!

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I see that Substack is no longer calling this a ‘text post’, it is instead an ‘article’ which makes me feel somewhat scholarly for my regular inane ramblings. Ha!

This is a short-ish ramble today about house moving limbo. There’s been some progress.

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