I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to write this post, to be honest. I’ve written before about the scent of hygge, where I briefly touched on perfume, but I think it’s time for me to dedicate a full post to my combined love of both hygge and fragrance. The usual caveat that…
Category: Features
How joining a choir made me happy
In bleak old January, I finally took the plunge and joined a choir. My friend Rob had been telling me I should join for a good couple of years, and I knew I had a relatively free few months, and popped along to the taster session for Soul of the City choir in Brighton with…
Win a hygge hamper this winter!
HOW HOW HOW have we reached this point in the year?! As I write this post, it’s grey, misty and murky outside, and I love it. I’m so much happier in this weather than in the oppressive heat. Today I wanted to do something to say thank you to everyone who’s read my blog this…
World Mental Health Day: it’s never just you
It’s World Mental Health Day 2018, and I am BIG on supporting mental health. It’s something that most of us have issues with at least some of the time, but it’s so easy to feel isolated or like it’s just you when you’re standing in the street with a racing heart and mind and you…
30 reasons I love September
It’s here! I know we shouldn’t wish the year away, but… autumn! I can already feel my energy levels rising, and the world just feels more ‘right’. The -ber months are my favourites by far, but in this post, I’m focusing on the first -ber. So, one reason for every day of this beautiful month…
Hygge and Jante Law
Have you ever heard of Jante Law before? If not, you’re far from alone. Jante Law, put simply, is a set of rules underpinning (certain parts of) Scandinavian society. It’s named after the fictional Danish town of Jante in Norwegian author Aksel Sandemose’s novel, A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks. Jante Law is all about equality,…
Capturing everyday hygge
I see a lot of articles these days decrying millennials for not living in the moment and being too glued to our various screens to look up and experience life. I agree that while spending an entire gig watching the band on stage through an Instagram filter is no way to live (and it’s not…
Where the wild roses grow
Last weekend, I went to Preston Park. It’s two minutes away from my new flat and my favourite park in Brighton, and I wanted to show a friend the roses, so off we went on Saturday evening. It’s not big, but there are hundreds and hundreds of pink and peach and white and yellow roses….
Little ways to give something back
I’ll be honest: my monthly direct debit to The Brooke came about after I saw a TV advert featuring lots of sad donkeys and horses when I was EXTREMELY DRUNK one night. I came home from a night out, flicked on a show and then clearly felt so deeply upset about our four-legged friends that…
Making memories
When you’re remembering things from your life, which are the memories that jump out to you? Are they times of sadness, grief, stress, worry? Or are they happy times – childhood trips to the beach, your first (legal) night out, your wedding day? Memories are funny things, aren’t they? The mere act of thinking about…
Danes apply for UNESCO status for hygge
Did you know that our Danish friends have applied for UNESCO status for hygge as ‘intangible cultural heritage’? I must admit, I was pretty surprised about this when the press release dropped into my inbox. I always thought UNESCO was for physical sites of cultural heritage – I had no idea that an intangible concept…
Hygge gift guide: Merry and bright
Welcome to my final hygge gift guide for this festive season! This time we’re focusing on the fun side of hygge – not just languishing in front of a log fire, but the laughter and merriment that is so integral to Christmas. If the idea of parlour games or the endless game of Monopoly which…
Hygge gift guide: Eat, drink and be merry
Oh, the best part of the festive season is the food and drink isn’t it? If we’re completely honest? Guys? Anyone with me here? Of COURSE you are – I’d bathe in mulled wine if I could, and I would happily eat yule log for breakfast every day. Eggnog before bed? Sure, why not. For…
Hygge gift guide: Comfort and joy
I can’t believe I’m writing my first Christmas gift guide of the year! I really enjoyed putting these together last year, and I’m fully in the Christmas spirit, so crack on your favourite festive tunes, grab a hot drink and we’ll reconvene here in five minutes… Even though hygge absolutely cannot be bought, I always…
Get cosy with Finding Hygge
I have something very exciting to tell you about today! 2018 sees the release of Finding Hygge, a documentary dedicated to finding the real meaning of hygge. In this documentary, we will meet a host of real people embracing hygge in their own lives, and find out what it means to them. From The Little…
Why you can’t force hygge
On Tuesday night, it was raining hard, I’d had a couple of glasses of wine and I was reading in bed under my fairy lights. I was fresh out of a ridiculously elaborate bubble bath, and I was so cosy and warm under the covers under the twinkly lights with the wind whistling past my…
Hello, hygge – welcome to English!
Exciting news for all fans of hygge! I was delighted to discover this morning that ‘hygge’ has now officially been added to the Oxford English Dictionary. So, this ‘untranslatable’ word which kind of means ‘cosiness, togetherness, a feeling of warmth and belonging’, now exists in the English language! As a Linguistics graduate, I know that…
The future of hygge blogs
Since September 2016, when hygge hit the British media, there has been an explosion of blogs about hygge. I remember when I first started out with Hello Hygge back in January 2015 (has it really been that long?), there was only really one other blog I could find in this niche – Hygge House, which started…
Hello Hygge in Project Calm magazine
Just a quick one! I recently wrote a piece for issue 3 of Project Calm magazine called ‘A spring day the Nordic way’. In this article, I talk you through a spring day with some Scandinavian concepts you may not be familiar with to help you embrace this beautiful season. And yes, there may be…
7 untranslatable Nordic words you’ll love
In case you hadn’t heard, I’m quite fond of hygge. One of the things I really love about it is that there is no direct translation into English – this is the Linguistics graduate in me. I love the different characters of languages that give us terms we can’t say neatly in our own language….
Cosy books for Christmas reading
I’m 99% sure I was born with a book in my hand. I was one of those kids who read 24/7. We had to write about our weekends on Mondays at infant school, and on every single page of my book I’ve written about the Enid Blyton book I read or bought. I wrote my…
Hello Hygge on BBC radio
Another super quick one tonight – I was on BBC Radio Coventry and Warwickshire on Sunday morning talking about hygge and hellohygge.com! If you want to give it a listen, it’s available here. The hygge segment comes in at 1:15.25. Let me know what you think (please be kind)!
Competition time: ‘Tis the season to be Jolly
How is it already November? I swear we only hit September about 13 seconds ago. Now Halloween (and my birthday) are out of the way, festive fever is in full force, and it’s all systems go at Hello Hygge HQ. For some people (Scrooges, pure Scrooges), 1st November is too early to be thinking about…
Bringing hygge into the workplace
I’ve just finished my first week in a new job, so I’m very tired and filled with information, but also very excited about the challenges coming up. That said, many of us spend 40+ hours a week in the office, so we may as well make it as comfortable and pleasant for ourselves as possible….
Hygge x Overdiluted: AW15 menswear
Everyone knows how much I love hygge – and how much I love my boi (ya boi) Jake Story. This is an extra special post from everyone’s favourite menswear blogger Jake from Overdiluted.net, who has something to say about super-cosy menswear for AW15. Hyggeligt attire is usually one of two things. It’s either cosy, warm…
Let’s play CHRISTMAS NEWS BINGO
To ease myself back into the blogosphere (what a hideous word), I’m going to make some predictions for some of the season’s classic news stories. Let’s play CHRISTMAS NEWS BINGO!
Your secret dating experiments are OK, Cupid
It was revealed this week in a very chirpy blog post that the naughty sods at OkCupid have been ‘doing a Facebook’ and have been experimenting on their users. I for one am shocked and appalled and will NOT be using the site again! Oh wait, no, sorry, I don’t care in the slightest.
Why Hanif Kureishi might have a point about creative writing courses
So the media – OK, maybe just The Guardian’s Comment is Free – has been losing its mind over the comments of Hanif Kureishi. What exactly did Mr Kureishi say that is just so damn outrageous? Kureishi teaches a creative writing course at uni, and he has sent shockwaves through the Guardian-reading community (which, let’s…
Brighton Festival 2014: initial thoughts
An extraordinary new play! Works of minimalist power! A lively choreography of manifold and intricate avoidance strategies! I want to experience it ALL! I always look forward to Brighton Festival, and 2014’s line-up, announced today, certainly hasn’t disappointed me at first glance. In this post, I’m going to whittle them down to my top five…
Jo Malone London Rain collection: a review
Anyone who knows me knows that there is one thing I covet and collect: perfume. My collection is beyond a joke, and that just isn’t going to change – many apologies to my poor, bruised bank balance. When I heard about the Jo Malone London Rain collection at the end of last year, it sounded…
Responsible reporting about diabetes
Any of my regular readers will know that I am a relatively recently diagnosed type 1 diabetic. If you are a new reader, hi, I’m Kayleigh and I’m a relatively recently diagnosed type 1 diabetic. Potted history: diagnosed in October 2012 following seven months of very obvious symptoms, was hospitalised with severe diabetic ketoacidosis, have…
How Autographer could revolutionise photojournalism
I have a very love-hate relationship with technology, and as such I am very rarely excited by new gadgets and gizmos, but I have finally found something that really gets my pulse racing. Meet Autographer, the wearable camera which automatically takes up to 2,000 photographs a day without the wearer having to do a thing….
The long-lasting impact of a short story
Short stories are irresistible. While the novel is sprawling and unfurls over hundreds of pages and weaves together dozens of storylines and twists and characters, there is little I love more than the brutal, screaming impact of a short story. When I talk about short stories in this post, I will be referring to short…
My language love affair
I only speak English. I feel that I should get that over and done with from the outset in case you’re hoping this will be some gorgeous long love letter about my relationship with all the languages of the world. I speak a little French (GCSE level, so essentially none at all) but it’s hardly…
Sugardaddie.com: Can money buy love?
“If you are not funny, say so.” Perhaps the strangest piece of advice I have ever heard about filling out your online dating profile. It is, maybe, less surprising when you discover that this little gem comes from John from the management team at Sugardaddie.com, a site dedicated to matching up ‘Sugardaddies’ with ‘Sugarbabes’. A…
Etiquette: The dying art of good manners?
“Good manners will open doors that the best education cannot.” These were the words of Clarence Thomas, an American Supreme Court Judge. This quote, of course, extols the virtues of etiquette, seen by many as a dying art. But why exactly do people have so little regard for having good manners these days? Few schools…
The Voice UK Series 2 Final: The virtues of being virtuous
The Voice UK came to a surprising end last night with Andrea Begley emerging as victor, triumphing over favourite to win Leah McFall and country crooner Mike Ward. I make no secret of my love for TV shows others would seem facile, irrelevant and a waste of primetime broadcast space. But I don’t want to…
Penpals with a prisoner: prisoninmates.com
It’s tricky to explain why I wanted to correspond with a prisoner. A lot of people probably think that prisoners don’t deserve the attention of anyone in the outside world and that they should be left to rot. Well, that’s not me, and I decided to take myself online last year to find a prisoner…
Using Google Maps in journalism
The thing I really love about web journalism is the fact you have all these tools to play with to create a really interactive form of journalism. Don’t get me wrong: I love a physical newspaper, but the things you can do online give it a whole new dimension. For some people, it’s unnecessary embellishment……
Internet dating tips from the experts
It’s that time again on Soup du Journalism… we’re back on everyone’s favourite topic, online dating! This time, however, we’re not scrutinising any websites (though watch this space as I have a special one up my sleeve). I’ve been speaking to the people behind some of the biggest online dating sites to find out what…
A Weekend in Paris: A city review
Last weekend, I was fortunate enough to take a trip to Paris with one of my friends, Sia. We found a deal on a voucher website for three nights in a hotel in Nanterre, about 20 minutes outside central Paris on the RER, with Eurostar travel included, so we snapped it off and on Friday…
Auti-Sim: The game that shows you how it feels to have autism
“SHUT UP. Why can’t I make it stop?” An interesting thing happened when I started to play Auti-Sim. My browser, laden with tabs upon tabs and massive, complex web pages froze. I couldn’t close it, I couldn’t click anything. Everything on my laptop became unresponsive. Everything, that is, except the cacophony of distant screaming and…
Photos of photos from the 90s
Recently, I uploaded an album to my Facebook page of some photos I found of my brother and I in the 1990s. I don’t have a scanner, so here are a selection of those photos that best represent the decade of Spice Girl fever, Diggit, hair scrunchies and CITV’s heyday. I actually quite like the…
Oslo: A city review
Oslo is the somewhat overlooked capital city of Norway. Nestled at the top of the Oslofjord and surrounded by lush forest, it’s a wonder more people haven’t tapped into a spectacular natural beauty of the area, or more importantly, the fact that it appears to be the most chilled out capital in the world. I…
Running (Olympic) rings around the competition
Hello! This week has been filled to the brim with OLYMPIC FUN, so this is what this post will be about. I feel like journalists should be able to turn their hand to writing about anything, so I’m going to attempt a very, very topical sports post. Please be gentle with me! Now, I’m no…
A way with words: What is Linguistics?
Hello! As a Linguistics student, I get asked two questions: “What IS Linguistics?” “How many languages do you speak?” To answer the latter: I only speak English, and GCSE-level French, which I would like to develop if I had the time. I would also like to learn Icelandic and Norwegian, but let’s face it: when…
Beautiful enough for BeautifulPeople.com?
‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder’, apparently. And no website better defines this statement than the controversial beautifulpeople.com, the dating website that hit the headlines several years ago for its divisive screening process based on appearance. Current members are able to view the photographs of new applicants, and over a 48 hour period,…
Tanner’s Top Tips for Telling Tales
Hello! Today’s entry combines information I’ve learnt on my NCTJ course so far, particularly the Reporting module, and little nuggets I’ve picked up from books and the internet, about how to write a good news article. I don’t profess at all to be any kind of expert on the matter – I am merely acting…
The diary of a melodramatic 16-year-old
Hello! This is a special entry. It doesn’t have much (anything) to do with journalism, but for my English A-level coursework, I analysed a diary entry from the book Cringe. I recently found my own diary from when I was 16, and my god, I need to punish myself for being such an appalling person…
A whistlestop tour of Copenhagen
Hej hej! I have, of course, returned from Copenhagen! It was fantastic, despite the wind and the grit (more on those later) and I’m back in one (slighty whiplashed) piece, which is a plus. So, this entry is dedicated to a travel journalism piece about the trip. We arrived around midday last Wednesday, to a…
Hello Hygge 