How's It Going?

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That's been me that has.

Anti bacterial spray in one hand and vacuum cleaner in the other.

Getting each room tidy, things being put back into their normal places as decorations were taken down and an attempt at restoring some sense of order.

I wrote a few times last year about how helpful I found the Brocante Home website as I tried to become more organised and one of the things which struck a chord was reading how we should give in gracefully to the fact that come 1st January we simply aren't able to start a new year all neat and tidy as there is still so much Christmas around.

Better to cut yourself a bit of slack, give time for things to be packed away properly which in turn allows for getting your home and head straight and then  welcome new year on 15th January.

Maybe the first 14 days of January could be re-named Januember.

A lot of people don't like January so this could be a good solution.

A jolly good plan I reckon.

And I love the badge, it was given to me by my sister as one of the gifts in our advent swap.

 

Another of Alison's recommendations is to ensure you have what she terms as puttery treats.
Little treats daily or every now and then to brighten the day. It could be something simple like buying a bunch of daffodils,  or planning a trip to go and see an art exhibition, eating a chocolate éclair for breakfast, going to bed an hour early one night to read a magazine. Anything. It's whatever YOU want it to be.
I have been giving some thought to things I would like to do each month and along with Alison's writing and other sources of inspiration like the book Simple Abundance I have come up with a few ideas and key words or phrases to capture the feeling of each month and season.

Board games.
Playing board games is always a favourite thing to do during the colder more indoor based months.
But this Saturday afternoon T asked me to play a game with him.
Yep you read correctly.
T asked me.
This is the game we played. G joined in too. S was occupied elsewhere with a friend she had invited round for the day.
I bought this a while ago at a jumble sale, can't remember how much, but probably for a pound or so I expect. It had never been played before. It was still wrapped in cellophane. The board is a map of central London, but not London as we know it today.
This version of the game was made in 1983.
It had sat in it's wrapper waiting to be played since 1983!
We checked online and a new updated version can be purchased and would we recommend it, yes we would. We played 3 rounds of it on Saturday and all 4 of us played it tonight.
One of you is Mr X, a master criminal, who is on the run in London and the rest of you are detectives trying to hunt Mr X down.

 

 

Cosy socks.

When the weather is wet and cold what we need is sturdy footwear and what we need underneath that footwear is cosy socks.

 When we are snuggling up indoors with a good book we need our tootsies to be warm in cosy socks.

And I have been given the cosiest of cosy socks.

Last year my lovely bloggy friend Jo and I arranged we would do a 12 Days of Christmas present swap.

One little gift to open each day starting Christmas day to take us into the new year.

A way of extending the festivities a little longer.

A way of brightening those early days of January.

Or Januember if you fancy going with the name change.

 Jo is very talented when it comes to yarn being able to knit and crochet.

 I already have a wonderful pair of fingerless gloves she made me last year and one of my swap gifts were these handknitted socks. 

They are so soft and comfortable to wear and the colour combinations are perfect.

Thank you Jo, they are such a thoughtful gift.

Me and my cosy toes are very lucky indeed.