Bedtime Stories, Christmas Jumpers and Wreath Making  #LittleLoves

Welcome to my final Little Loves round up for 2017, I’ve so enjoyed writing these posts over the last few months and every week I can’t wait to get onto my computer to share some of my tiny joys 🙂  Aside from my ‘normal’ life as a wife and mummy, a lot of my time revolves around writing (or thinking about writing), and when my son asked me recently what I’d like to do if I could do anything, all I could think of was exactly what I do! So thankyou to those of you who have taken the time to read and comment on these posts over the past few months – it means so much to me. If I can hand out any positivity or inspiration to those around me while doing something that I’m loving, then all I can say is I’m a very happy girl indeed 🙂

The last week has been a busy one in our household; my husband is away with work a lot just now and we’ve been squeezing in as much as possible of our Christmas to-do lists while he’s been at home at the weekends. We also had a couple of days off school last week while Storm Caroline battered our little county – good grief the weather can get brutal here in winter. It’s just as well I love the far north of Scotland – you really need to hang onto that feeling when Mama Nature roars. Even I feel the effects of six hours daylight, though, and I’ve been supercharging my house with fairy lights and LED candles to get that ‘hygge’ feeling and beat any touch of the dreaded winter SAD. And thankfully, despite needing an extra hour a day to turn on and off all my twinkles, I’ve managed to have a pretty good week on the reading, watching, making et al front. So sit back, grab a cuppa, and let me tell you all about my latest loves…. 🙂

READ

Ok, maybe I haven’t been doing all that well on every front – I have to admit it, I’m still reading Fangirl which I posted about last week. In my defence it’s quite a big book and I’ve been busy writing a round up of the best books I did actually manage to finish this year 😉 The kids and I have also been reading Tom Fletcher’s The Christmasaurus at bedtime – after hearing him talk about it on the Penguin podcast last week I was inspired to dig it out of the Christmas book box and I’m really glad I did – it’s funny, sweet and just perfect for this time of year.

WATCHED

Oh my, I’ve got a good one this week. After a recommendation from my sister, my husband and I dipped into The Sinner on Netflix while the kids were away at a sleepover with their cousin at the weekend. It’s a thrilling story about a woman (played by Jessica Biel), who does something unthinkable on a day out a the beach with her family, and a detective (played by Bill Pullman), who attempts to unravel why she did the thing she did. We ended up watching five episodes between Saturday night and Sunday morning – post-kids binge watch unparalleled! It’s one of those shows that really makes you want to carry on to the next episode. We only have one instalment left to watch now – I for one can’t wait to see how this fascinating mystery concludes.

WORE

It’s been all about the Christmas jumpers this week, and we’ve been pulling on the festive favourites pretty much every chance we’ve had. Even the dog has been getting in on the act and one of the things I look forward to most come December is getting him into this snowflake number. I’m not sure what his own thoughts on it are but after 365 walks and the same number of nights stealing my bedcovers I say he owes me 😉  Dressing your dog up for the season has to be one of the most smile-inducing pet ownership perks there is.

HEARD

I was listening to the Sara Tasker podcast again this week, and really enjoyed the episode with Jen Carrington on Stopping the Glorification of Busy. There are actually quite a lot of other topics in this episode but the header caught my interest as it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot of late. A few ups and downs with my health this year have meant I need little persuading that glorifying ‘busy’ isn’t something any of us should aspire to. I say that as someone who talks about being busy and getting through to-do lists – it’s a personality issue I’m trying hard to shake! Ultimately I believe we pay a price for long periods spent running ourselves on empty. If there’s one thing I’d urge you to put on your New Year’s resolutions, readers, it’s to be as kind and generous to yourself as you are to everyone else 🙂

MADE

On a slightly less philosophical note I made a Christmas wreath/centrepiece type thing at the weekend. I had a frame from last year’s wreath and a bunch of £2.99 foliage from my local Lidl’s store so I thought I’d channel my inner Pinterest-er (if an inner Pinterest-er is indeed a thing at all). I went for the minimalist design partly because I like minimal and partly because I ran out of stuff to put onto it – between some bits I picked up on a walk and a quick search through the spice jars I think I just about pulled it off. Insert the LED twinkles mentioned earlier and we’re rocking. I think it might look quite nice on my dinner table come Christmas. I like it so much I’m tempted to try another one to hang on my front door! 🙂

AND LASTLY

In actual fact, my wreath might have to hold out for the Boxing Day table, as this year we will be having Christmas with my parents and my sister’s family at my Mum and Dad’s. There will be six adults, three children and four dogs (one of them is a Great Dane so it may get very cosy! 🙂 ) I am a very family (and dog) oriented person so I think it’s all going to be just fab 🙂 Whatever you’re doing for Christmas I hope you have a great one. I’ll see you again in January for more reading, watching, listening to – and so on. Here’s to all the Little Loves we’ll enjoy in 2018 and beyond! 🙂

G x

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