Picnics, parks and pivots: the best blogs of 2020

You put your left arm in
Your left arm out
In, out
In, out
Shake it all about
You do the hokey cokey and you turn around… 

Sound familiar? We're going to call 2020 the Year of the Pivot. Yes, it could also be described as the Year of the Virus, but we don't want to get all gloomy on you, because that's not what The Indytute is all about. 

And also because in among the stress, there have been moments of happiness. We all fell back in love with London; we've learned not to take our old lives for granted; we've finally done those long-overdue home improvement projects and done all sorts of silly things like taught ourselves how to knit.

And so as the year draws to a close, we're looking back over a year at the Indytute, and funnily enough, everything you've been reading reflects how crazy it's all been. 

1. The best gift delivery ideas

Image: Jason Dent

Remember lockdown: the first edition, when everything shut and no one had any idea what to do? The only thing we could hope for was parcels of joy arriving at our doorstep thanks to our valiant posties.

2. Secret London picnic spots

Image: Peter Trimming

If not the year of the pivot, 2020 has definitely been the year of the picnic. Parks became seas of picnic blankets and we lived off pots of supermarket hummus and those weirdly addictive lentil crisps.

3. 25 screen-free activities for adults

Computers and phones became our livelihoods and our literal life lines – but screen fatigue was real. 

4. Spotlight: The Indytute's lino printing kit

Image: Sarah Spenser

2020 has also been the year that we've all got creative – whether it's journaling, drawing, sewing, music or something more adventurous. And lino printing apparently really floated your boats...

5. The best pub gardens in London

If we weren't jetting off to Portugal, we were basking in the sun in the pub garden. They're almost the same...

6. The best quarantine birthday ideas

For all the need to relax, we still needed to celebrate too – we built cinemas in our back gardens and visited virtual bars and mixed our own cocktails. 

7. Lovely London Instagram accounts

Image: Becca Collier

Being locked down in London initially felt like a torture, but many of us fell back in love with the city, discovering new areas – for some us our own areas – and appreciating how lucky we are to live in a place with so much to do.  

8. Stay-home party ideas 

Image: Photo by Yoksel 🌿 Zok on Unsplash

From filthily delicious burger kits to virtual coffee mornings, we still knew how to have a good time. 

9. 5 ways to experience culture without leaving your house

Along with the restaurants and pubs, we all yearned for culture: theatres, live music and art. But even that didn't stop us feasting our eyes on world-famous oeuvres from the comfort of our living room.

10. 10 outdoor date ideas

image: Free-Photos

Love in the time of corona has many challenges, and the socially distanced date was definitely one of them – but true romantics knew how to find a way around it.

Main image: Erwan Hesry on Unsplash