Building

Things made with hands. Kitchens, beds, brains, businesses. Whatever the next thing is.

55 posts · 2012–2019

Other topics Garden 2 Family 5 Travel 2 Reading 3 ← Back to all posts

2019 1 post

16 Apr 2019 100 Days of Awesome There are certain things that you know if you do them your life will be better. You have absolutely zero doubt that this is true and not just your life but your family as well. These things are generally not huge things and do not cost large amounts of money either but still, you do 4 min

2018 1 post

28 Dec 2018 A new year, a new start. I've been playing around with this blogging thing for years. Starting, then stopping, writing then vlogging but it always patters out. 1 min

2016 5 posts

28 Oct 2016 30 Day Vlog Fail My 30-day vlogging challenge was an epic fail. Daily vlogging is really, frickin hard. I was enjoying making the videos, even thought they were terrible. 1 min 14 Oct 2016 Simple Doesn't Mean Easy A while ago I was cleaning out my email, doing a huge purge of everything I'm subscribed to when I found this email from Corbett Bar. Corbet is one of the guys behind the pretty epic fizzle and I'm subscribed to his lifestyle business weekly blog sites email list. Every now and then some one 1 min 07 Oct 2016 Why cold showers can change your life At the moment of writing, I'm on a 25-day streak of cold showers. Yep that's right people, for 25 days I have been willingly stepping into a ball shrinking shower that's been set to cold as a polar bears arse – and I've liked it. Why? Because cold showers can change your life! Why cold 4 min 06 Oct 2016 30 Day Vlogging Challenge I've just taken a spare of the moment decision start a 30 day vlogging challenge. It's not been something I've been thinking about and I don't have a clue what I'm going to say but hey, why not. This crazy arse decision was made in a second while listening to a Tim Ferris podcast with 1 min 30 Sept 2016 Waking Up Ain't Easy When sleeping you don't actually know that you're dreaming. It's not until you've woken up and the sleep clears from your eyes that you realise you've been lying in the same place for the last 8 hours. Sometimes the same thing happens in life, waking up and realise you've been in the same place, not 1 min

2015 8 posts

05 Nov 2015 Are too many opportunities a bad thing? Last week I failed to meet a weekly goal. Normally not a big issue but this time I'd publicly posted it on a forum. Accountability is a great thing and, in this case, it made me look at why I hadn't completed it. I had piles of great excuses – family health issues, last minute 3 min 17 Aug 2015 The morning routine killer! Only a couple of weeks into restarting my morning routine and it's already become obvious what kills a morning routine faster than anything else, it's the night before. 2 min 03 Aug 2015 The power of a morning routing Sometimes life throws you a curve ball and it knocks you clean off your stride. Sinead getting sick and ending up in hospital was just one of those things. She's been back in hospital once since then and it's a very scary time. During the process, I didn't realise that bit by bit I've been 3 min 10 Feb 2015 Setting up a Blog for a Child- Part 1 Before we start this is a great big disclaimer. The contents of this post are my thoughts they are not an encouragement to do this for your own children. 2 min 29 Jan 2015 My thoughts on turning 40 OK so I'm turning 40 and am totally underwhelmed, is that weird? There's no mid life crisis, there's not "Oh my God I'm old" . Its just Meh (I wish I knew how to type that sound but that the best I can do). Apparently its supposed to be a big deal but I'm just 2 min 22 Jan 2015 Loosing faith in the "health" system First of all I do think that doctors generally do an amazing job. It's a job I wouldn't be able to do and this is in no way a rant against them. However, I do think that the system they work in is fundamentally flawed. In the UK we have the national health system but in 4 min 15 Jan 2015 My fear crippled our business, how not to let it cripple yours. This post will be a little difficult to write but I'm hoping that I'll learn something about myself in the process and maybe I can pass that something on. I'm going to run through our first real business Funkybump Maternity, how we started it, how fear crippled it and how we've come out the other 7 min 08 Jan 2015 4 Big Takeaways of 2014 2014 has come and gone and a lot has happened. I've managed to get into the best shape of my life so far, Sinead (my wife) has spent a year of being unwell and still managed to get into some pretty amazing shape as well. I've relaunched my business's and started some new ones. My 4 min

2014 25 posts

08 Dec 2014 100 Press Ups Done This one was my nemesis. After many attempts I finally beat it. At one stage 10 would have been an achievement but the power of a little every day one again beats the impossible. 1 min 24 Nov 2014 25 Pull Ups Done At the weekend I managed to complete 25 pull-ups in one set. The thought of being able to do this a few short months ago wouldn't of seemed vaguely possible. I was able to comprehend doing 100 press ups (still only on 75) but 25 pull ups was well beyond reality. Was the journey hard, no 1 min 19 Nov 2014 How to Setup a Gmail Account for your Child This is the start of a series of posts regarding children and tech. We live in a word where our children will know more about technology than their parents. Its pretty damn scary. 3 min 10 Nov 2014 I Love Egg's and Egg's Love Me! This happened a while ago and I've been meaning to post it. Sinead cracked an egg to make my breakfast and well, sometimes you words just don't do justice. 1 min 06 Nov 2014 The Most Life Changing Quote Never Spoken The other day I read a great post from Scot Dinsmore from Live Your Legend. He was asking people for a quote to go on a t shirt and I copped out by quoting live the life you love love the live you live Bob Marley Now don't get me wrong its an great quote and quoting Bob is 6 min 30 Oct 2014 Print Friendly & PDF for Chrome Short post here about an amazingly handy plugin for Google Chrome and if you don't have chrome don't worry there's an easy work around for any browser. Its called Print Friendly & PDF for chrome, it basically takes any page and makes it print/PDF worthy. 1 min 27 Oct 2014 Make Your Own Huarache Running Sandals For a long time now I've been thinking about making my own running sandals, yes you did just read that Running Sandals. Basically I'm too cheap to buy them. So I finally bit the bullet and got to it. Took no time at all and they've turned out brill. Can't believe how easy they were 1 min 24 Oct 2014 Push up and Pull Up Workouts – Scrap the App If I'm being totally honest I've taken my eye off the whole leveling up side of things. The last 9 months have seen an absolutely massive change in my health, well-being and fitness which is amazing but it all stopped being goal focused since I was unable to complete my half marathon. Now I don't 2 min 07 Oct 2014 Slow Carb Diet Week’s 3 & 4 So I survived the ploughing and felt great for it. The cos lettuce sandwiches were awesome (above Piri Piri Chicken, Hummus , Bacon and Tomato on Cos) and I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything. It took till the last night to actually get my dinner without chips but even when they 1 min 03 Oct 2014 Slow Carb Cod Wrapped in Parma Ham on Lentils Last Saturday I made this and it didn't go down to badly if I do say so myself. Its easy, fast, pretty damn tasty and who doesn't like cod wrapped in parma ham. As with all of my recipes I'm not one for measurement and tend to do things by eye. Ingredients 2 Cod Fillets 3 min 22 Sept 2014 Slow Carb Diet Week's 1& 2 This is just a quick update on the slow carb diet/4 hour body regime I've been on. First of all Its far easier than I thought it would be. I'm eating great breakfasts, loving lunches and dinners as well. The switching to no sugar hasn't been too bad either as cinnamon in coffee is pretty 2 min 16 Sept 2014 Four Hour Body for Normal People! Last week I started an experiment. You'd be amazed at just how often those words come up in my life. It normally starts with "Sinead, I was reading this book and …" and ends with my wife rolling hers eyes knowing that her life is about to get slightly more difficult. So here we go. 5 min 07 Sept 2014 Failing to Achieve a Goal – and being happy about it! I've recently failed to achieve a goal, running my half marathon this coming weekend. The reason I've failed is that my body just isn't happy to go further than about 8 miles at the moment. I've know for a while that I wouldn't be able to run this half marathon and have been fairly OK with 2 min 13 Aug 2014 Cranberry Gin Recipe Last year I had planned to do Sloe Gin but never got around to it. Then before Christmas I saw a this cranberry gin recipe and thought I'll give that a go. I was not disappointed this stuff was delicious. 1 min 08 Aug 2014 Runners Knee, am I bothered? After last weeks high I was really looking forward to my weekend run. 8 miles was going to be a doddle, or so I thought. After a very enjoyable, and fast by my standards, 6 miles my knee started to play up. It wasn't bad enough to stop so I finished the run and maybe I 1 min 28 Jul 2014 Running 7 Miles -its a really big deal! On Saturday I ran 7 miles, I really enjoyed it although my knee started to play up after a couple of hills at the end. And even though It was only 7 miles it was a really big deal. The reason it was a really big deal is that 7 miles is the furthest I've 1 min 27 Jun 2014 Almost Gluten Free – Doesn't Work! At the end of last year we discovered that Sinead, my wife, was a celiac. After a torrid 6 months of adjusting which involved huge weight loss and lots of related illnesses she's starting to glow again with a complete diet over-hall. 2 min 09 May 2014 Calcaneous Bursitis – Sore Heel I have Calcaneous Bursitis, sore heel to you and me, so my physio has told me to leave off the running until I'm all healed up. Its a bit of a kick in the teeth as I'm absolutely loving running and I've been taking my time trying to build a base the right way. It 1 min 09 May 2014 How to Level Up – The Game Begins I've already posted about Steve Kamb and levelling up, I now think its time to add some more meat the them bones and give you a guide on how to level up. Also in the interest of complete transparency I'm going to publish my own personal list for levelling up my life. I'm also going 2 min 01 May 2014 Finishing what you started We've just come back from Portugal on holidays, for me it was one of the most special holidays I have had since our girls were born. One of the reasons it was so special is because I was truly there. That may sound a funny statement but normally I'm thinking about our business's or the 2 min 13 Mar 2014 Meditation 30 Day Challenge In January my 30 day challenge was to start meditating. The plan was to start with just 2 minutes and the build it up from there. Its something I've tried many times before and just couldn't stick to it, due mainly to a lack of discipline/commitment but also the feeling that I was always doing 2 min 10 Mar 2014 I'm going to run a half marathon! Yep, there I've said it and I can't take it back now. On Sunday the 14th of September 2014 I'm going to run the Belfast City Half Marathon. Now a statement like this is typical of me, I've only been running for a couple of weeks and here I am over committing again. I can't help 2 min 28 Feb 2014 To be yourself… [![image](http://www.feganegg.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/wpid-ralph-waldo-emerson-self-quotes.jpg "Ralph-Waldo-Emerson-Self-Quotes.jpg")](http://www.feganegg.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/wpid-ralph-waldo-emerson-self-quotes.jpg) 1 min 22 Jan 2014 Stuck on Level 1 My short running career has hit its first hurdle. For a long time I've suffered with neck/upper back problems. Last night my back went into spasm and running is suddenly not an option. In fact at one point this morning I thought that getting out of bed was going to be out of the question 1 min 20 Jan 2014 Levelling Up For the last while I've been following the awesome blog Nerd fitness. It's run by a guy called Steve Kamb and its tagline is Level up your life. Its written for nerds, geeks or people who just want to get fit and its packed full of fitness info with a gaming theme. It makes 1 min

2013 6 posts

23 Dec 2013 Now that's what I call dinner [![image](http://www.feganegg.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/wpid-20131223_184837.jpg "20131223_184837.jpg")](http://www.feganegg.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/wpid-20131223_184837.jpg) 1 min 11 Dec 2013 Moving on and letting go. Sometimes holding onto something is the right thing to do. It could be a dream or an idea that only you believe in and you know that if you just get around this corner you'll see the finish line, even though the whole world is screaming at you its over. But sometimes letting go is the 3 min 29 Nov 2013 Friday afternoon off Life is about the little moments. 1 min 14 Nov 2013 Removing Resistance Resistance is a funny old thing, its around us all the time and once your used to it you completely forget its there. You just get on with life thinking that this is the required amount of energy to get a task done, but once you remove it things happen so much easier. Less resistance 2 min 08 Oct 2013 A Year On and What Have We Learned Its about a a year since this blog was started, a whole year! Loads of things have happened, my girls are a year older, we've had year of learning that not all dogs do what they say in books, I've started cycling, our business's have had a year of ups and downs (mainly downs), we've 2 min 07 Mar 2013 Consistency “It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It's what we do consistently.” – Anthony Robins If I was to pick out the one area of my life that a small change to would have the biggest impact it would be consistency. I'm very good at starting things, brilliant in fact, I start 1 min

2012 9 posts

27 Nov 2012 Practice what you preach This is just a mini rant. If your company says it can do something when I look at your site I expect it to be a shining example of your ability to do what you say. The other week we went to an Invest NI workshop on user experience and conversion optimisation, it was very 1 min 18 Nov 2012 Springer Cross Names As you know we've recently added Lester to our family who is a Spreagle. While looking for a Springer pup I've come across allot of great names for springer based dogs which I thought I would share Spreagle – Springer + Beagle Springerdoodle – Springer + Poodl… 1 min 18 Nov 2012 The Perfect Ginger Beer Recipe – Part 1 – The Challange We've been making ginger beer for some time now and generally it has been our storeroom staple. It's cheap, natural, easy, super fast, most of the ingredients are from the supermarket and best of all its great on a summers day. 2 min 07 Nov 2012 What is Pinterest? I found out about pinterest a while ago but I really didn't get it. I was told it's a virtual pinboard and I still didn't get it. You don't just share your things with friends but with complete strangers at which point I decided that this wasn't for me. But after stumbling upon it a 2 min 06 Nov 2012 2 Blog Posts a Week My last 30 day challenge was to do 20 minutes of yoga a day. I failed miserably after a very good start. I started off feeling great and then a our normally healthy house was struck down with multiple sickness's. Everyone suffered and exercise was the last thing on my mind. Although I'm now pretty 1 min 19 Oct 2012 Kevin McClouds Man Made Shed – A Spark Kevin McCloud recently had a short series Called Man Made Home. He bought a small patch of woodland and built a shed out of recycled, locally available materials – Wood from the forest, an old safe, some old tractor parts – that sort of thing. I really enjoyed the show and so did the kids 2 min 05 Oct 2012 Spiced Crab Apple Jelly While taking a walk in Oxford Island, a local nature reserve, we spied a lot of crab apple trees. From said trees we filled a bag with apples. Now anyone who has tried a crab apple knows that they don't make good eating but apparently they make good jelly. So I pulled out my trusty copy of 1 min 03 Oct 2012 20 Minutes of Yoga a Day I'm about to embark on my first 30 day challenge For the last month or so I've been playing football on Fridays. I've never been that good at football but I thought it would help me get fit, unfortunately its had the opposite effect. 1 min 20 Feb 2012 Home Brewing (the basics) Making alcohol is essentially easy! All you need is a liquid, sugar and a little yeast, chuck them together in a warmish environment, give it a while and there you have it, alcohol. It will taste awful but will none the less be alcohol. 2 min