Brightening Up January

We have had some moments of sunshine in amongst the dreary rain showers over the last few days, now that term has started and I'm back at work. I've noticed them as I flit around school, and just for a couple of minutes it's felt wonderful. The sky has been bright and clear, and my reactive glasses have turned into sunglasses by the time I got indoors again. It has felt like a foretaste of spring, even though there's a good while to go before it arrives. In the garden bulbs are coming up and a single pale yellow daffodil is blooming, certainly the earliest one I can remember for a very long time, a result of the incredibly mild temperatures we've had so far this winter. The weather forecast is predicting more wintry weather next week with snow falling in some places, and dropping temperatures. I'm ready, but I hope that nature can cope with this, now that it thinks spring is here.

Indoors I've followed my yearly tradition of having bulbs on the kitchen windowsill as soon as Christmas is over. The hyacinth bulbs which I potted up back in October have come up a lovely shade of soft pink with the most delicious fragrance. They really are such a treat, and not very expensive at all if you buy the bulbs in the autumn and put them in a pot full of compost yourself. From mid-spring onwards when they have finished blooming I always plant them outside in the garden and enjoy them growing there in following years.

This one is changing colour from green to the palest blue.

I've squeezed in a bit of creativity this weekend with some jewellery-making. It only took me 20 minutes to make a pair of cranberry-coloured earrings and a ceramic button necklace. You may notice that it's got a small crack across it. After I bought the button in Cornwall last summer I managed to drop it onto our newly-tiled kitchen floor. You can imagine how cross I was! However it was a clean break and I repaired it with some superglue, and I think it's not too noticeable, as it's far too nice a button to throw away.

After the excess of Christmas I'm enjoying a simpler diet again and am drinking herb teas. We have quite a collection of them in our kitchen cupboard as D is very keen on them, but this Rose Lemonade tea is one of mine. As you know, I love roses to smell, admire and to cook with. This tea really captures the essence of a scented garden and makes me dream of summer.

In recent years I've enjoy dispelling the January gloom with some sparkly light in the form of fairy lights festooned around the dining room, and this year is no exception.

And on the kitchen shelves too. You can't have enough of them in my opinion. They brighten the house and are often half price or less in the sales after Christmas.

On the subject of light, I thought I'd show you the scented candles which I made last month. I couldn't reveal them before as they were Christmas presents for my friends. I made three batches of soy wax candles in different colours and added essential oils to them. There were sweet orange, geranium and lavender and lavender and lemon ones. I had such fun making them and packaging them up in pretty cellophane and ribbons.

I bought these vintage teacups last summer at a garden which we visited, and filled them with lemon and lavender-scented wax in a pale yellow colour. They do smell good.

I love lighting candles at this dark time of year, and am calmed and cheered by their flickering flames.

It's even better if they're in a twinkly glass holder.

Three years ago when it last snowed properly here I took a couple of candles outside in the snow for a mini photo-shoot. I love the wintry combination of fire and ice, and enjoyed watching the flames reflecting off the white fluffy crystals around them. 

Who knows? Perhaps we'll have some of the white stuff here this week. It's certainly turned a lot colder. Wherever you are I hope you stay cosy and enjoy a bit of sparkle too.

See you soon x

A New Year and a New Start

A Happy New Year, and a big thank you to all you lovely fellow bloggers/blog-readers for your kind thoughts and good wishes! I know I already said it in my last post, but this as this is my first one of 2016 I thought I'd say it again, especially as the weather is so very gloomy and wet outside and I've been taking down the decorations today. That always makes me feel a bit downcast as I miss all the sparkle and twinkliness. However, I am very lucky in having a dry, safe home which is free from flooding, so I do count my blessings.

To get the year off to a good start I have made up my usual calendar from last year's blog photos online and it will be delivered soon (I'll show you it when it arrives), and I have bought a couple of diaries for the coming year. One is for carrying in my bag and contains all my appointments etc. I know I'm a bit old-fashioned in not using my phone for this, but I do like to keep all my addresses and useful details in one place, and I like diaries as objects in their own right.
The other diary is my mindfulness diary for the coming year. I plan to write down something that I've enjoyed during each day, a kind of positive moments diary. I did this a few years ago and I find that it helps me to be 'in the moment' as well as looking for the good bits in each day. Being mindful is a way of embracing and enjoying what's going on in the present moment instead of thinking about the past or the future, and focusing instead on the things I can do and enjoy right now.

I'm not a great one for New Year's Resolutions and don't usually make any as I often find that mine are vague and unrealistic. However I have made three for this year. I plan to: 

1) Have my own craft stall. In the past I've held one at summer fairs etc, and love deciding how my stall will look and presenting it in my own style, as well as meeting people and having them think my creations are worth buying (hopefully).

2) Find more time during term-time in which to blog as I so enjoy sharing things and finding out what you've all been doing and creating. Blogging is such a happy and friendly thing, and I miss it very much when I'm away from it.

3) Keep looking after myself. I've already started this one, and by this I mean I'll continue with eating healthily and going to the gym. I bought some new clothes in the sales this week and was thrilled to discover that after 12 gym visits (3 a week) clothes are already fitting me better and I have lost a good few inches from places I'd hoped to lose them from. I was delighted as I thought it would take a long time to see any real difference and it's the perfect incentive to not give myself a choice over whether I go or not. It certainly gets those endorphins going too. 

I have received some thoughtful Christmas presents from my family this year. P gave me a pretty silver button necklace and a fresh and floral Julie Dodsworth bag. I recently discovered her designs when we were on holiday in Yorkshire in the autumn. Do you know, I still haven't shown you that post yet? I'll do that this month.

I was also lucky enough to receive Simon Armitage's latest book 'Walking Away', which I've been looking forward to since I read 'Walking Home', and this DVD (yes, I confess I am a Poldark fan).



 There's something of a Cornish theme going on here, I notice, and it's continued in B's present to me - these gorgeous Cornish oyster shell candles.

J gave me a very pretty hot drink holder which I can use when I'm out in my shed, and D gave me a sweet-smelling clementine and honey candle, also destined for the shed. My family do know me well.

I've also picked up the scarf I was knitting again, and will have it finished soon. I so love its chalky blue colour and softness, and can't wait to wear it. Once January arrives, more neutral colours at the cooler end of the spectrum appeal to me: whites, pale blues, greys and soft browns.



Perhaps I'm needing a break from all the bright colours and dazzle of Christmas. I wouldn't mind a bit of sunshine, though, instead of all this rain! Right, I'm off to finish putting away the decorations and enjoy our last day before school/work begins again tomorrow. I shall leave you with a mosaic of some of my favourite bits of 2015.

See you soon x

Christmas Round-Up and a Happy New Year!

Hello again! Thank you all for your Christmas good wishes - I hope you've had a lovely Christmas holiday! Our Christmas here at The House With The Blue Door has been a very good one indeed, full of festivity and lots of nothing in particular which has been very restorative. With J back from university, P and B off work for a few days and D and I in the school holidays, our time has consisted of getting up late (bliss), reading, watching TV, chatting, eating treats, going out and generally being rather lazy. The character of our Christmasses has changed over the years as our children have grown up. Of course we no longer read them 'The Night before Christmas' on Christmas Eve (although we do all still have stockings), and they've all gone off the pantomine. However, these traditions have been replaced with new enjoyable pastimes. I have loved the fact that we have all had the time to catch up with each other again, and all three of our youngsters have enjoyed being reunited for the holidays. There has been much laughter and companionable chatting, along with pleasant shopping trips and our annual big family Christmas meal at a lovely country pub in which three generations of us gather together.

In the few days in between my last day of work and Christmas I managed to squeeze in some creativity. I made this wreath with foliage from the garden and berries which I'd bought from a florist.

I love the bright orangey-red ilex berries against the blue-green eucalyptus leaves.

I also crocheted mistletoe brooches as presents from a pattern in Lesley Stanfield's '100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet'. They were really quick to make and, after spray-starching them and sewing brooch-pins on the backs, I added pearly beads for berries. 

I had a glitter-tastic experience covering these cones in the sparkly stuff. I was confident I could keep the glitter under control - how wrong I was! It went everywhere. Reminded me of when I was a primary school TA and we made a giant glittery star for the nativity play - such a sparkly mess.

I also decorated a bough of blue spruce for my shed and hung it with tiny baubles and bells, as I've been looking forward to decorating my shed.

Even Miss Blossom dressed up in her festive finery. She does like a bit of sparkle.

Today P and I went to Weston Super Mare which isn't far from here. Our youngsters were all otherwise engaged and we felt the need to blow away the cobwebs by the Bristol Channel. Weston has a large beach which is perfect for long walks either on the promenade or the sandy beach, and the sea is always a long way out, even when the tide is in. When we arrived the sun was shining and there were lots of people with the same idea as us out walking and enjoying the fresh sea air. After several days of being lazy and eating chocolate and crisps, it felt wonderful to feel the cold wind (my, it was cold!) on our faces, smell the salty air and stretch our legs.

 

It was very blowy indeed, and seagulls hung suspended in the air above us.

As we walked gradually the sunshine disappeared and the sky became very grey.

We ate toasted sandwiches in a sweet little beach cafe as raindrops started to fall, and afterwards we walked to the end of the pier, by which time the rain was lashing at us horizontally. Luckily you can walk the length of it undercover.

We took refuge on the pier and in the shops of Weston for a while and, when the rain had stopped, we discovered a shining sunset over the beach.

The low, glowing light reflected off the puddles on the sand and lit up the horizon.

It was a beautiful end to our visit, and as we drove home we felt very happy to have had such a brisk and breezy walk at the coast. Perfect.

I wish all of you a very Happy and Healthy New Year, and I hope that 2016 brings you much peace and joy
xxx

Midwinter

I can't believe it's a year since I made a midwinter post. Time flies, doesn't it? The days are short now, and it starts to get dark in the middle of the afternoon. This photo was taken in my garden this weekend just after 4 o'clock as the light was fading on a sunny afternoon, and the moon was already high in the sky.





 For me there's something magical about the winter solstice, when the hours of daylight are at their shortest, and I mark it with greenery and candlelight. It's a time of imagination, reflection and introspection, as well as looking forward to longer, lighter days. How welcome they will be! The winter-flowering honeysuckle which grows by our back door is already in flower and smells wonderfully sweet. I added it to my midwinter arrangement, a mix of whites and greens.

I have treated myself to 'The Mistletoe Bride' by Kate Mosse, a collection of ghostly, wintry tales, just perfect for snuggling up with by the fire on a dark day. I'm easily spooked, though, so not great for bedtime reading I think.

I'll leave you with these midwinter lines (although the weather we have at the moment does not reflect what's described here, as it's rather milder): 

'In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan
Earth stood hard as iron
water like a stone'.

Christina Rossetti