Thirteen Reasons Why, Mushroom Risotto and a Gift to Treasure – #LittleLoves

Welcome to another Little Loves roundup and hello February! I know we all joke about January being the longest month ever, but I have to say, I think so far, 2018 is flying in. One minute it’s Monday and the next it’s Friday (always a good thing!) I’m always excited to discover what another new week will have in store 🙂

I had a very busy week last week and managed to write three blog posts, 2000 words on my book and do all the end-of-month admin for my husband’s business.  The downside of all this productivity is that I ended up with eczema on my hands and eyelids, and a flare up of the autoimmune symptoms that have plagued me now for quite a while. When will I learn that overdoing things is Very Bad News! from a health perspective. I have a never-ending struggle with wanting to get things done while at the same time trying to embrace a slower life.

Thankfully, I did invest in some self-care with my weekly little loves, and I’ve still managed to fit in some fab reading, watching and listening to over the last seven or so days. We also had a glimpse of some Spring-like weather over the weekend and into Monday which was fantastic. A nice walk and a cycle was just what the doctor ordered on a frosty February afternoon!

READ

I also spent quite a lot of time at the weekend finishing off  Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher after picking it up in a local charity shop. I was aware of the Netflix adaption but hadn’t watched it, so the book’s story was completely new to me. I have to admit I could hardly put it down and now can’t wait to watch the series and see how they’ve adapted such an original writing format for the screen. It’s a stark reminder that we never know what’s going on in the lives of others and a cautionary tale about the importance of always showing kindness. Teenage suicide is a very difficult subject to tackle but I’d say this book has done it extremely well.

WATCHED

This week myself and the Mr. have been watching McMafia, the BBC series starring James Norton as the son of Russian exiles who becomes embroiled in a web of global crime. We’ve been catching up on iPlayer so that we wouldn’t have to hold out for weekly episodes, but now we’re up to date and have to wait another week for the final reveal – gah! It’s a really fantastic series and if you like your TV dark and full of intrigue, I’d recommend it. It definitely makes me glad to be living a simple life free of too much money, greed or power!

At the weekend I also took the kids to see Coco at our local cinema. If you haven’t already seen it I’d really suggest you go. It’s a super-sweet story about love, loss, music and memories. Take the hankies with you though – in the usual Disney Pixar style, there are several tear-inducing moments before the final credits roll 🙂

WORE

Last week we spent a lot of time wearing waterproofs. It just seemed to rain, snow and hail for days and days on end! I had a couple of particularly miserable dog walks which basically involved getting repeatedly pelted with hailstones – not my favourite form of exfoliation! Another reason I was so glad to see the sun make that reappearance at the weekend.

HEARD

One thing I always try to do if the weather is awful is have a good podcast lined up for walkies, and thankfully last week I actually had quite a few. I finally started listening to Joanna Penn’s Creative Penn podcast for writers – there are so many great episodes on there I think it is going to take me a long time to catch up with them, and I particularly liked an episode on self care and productivity for authors with Ellen Bard (see paragraph two above!) I also caught up on the latest Worried Writer podcast which coincidentally, this month also featured Joanna Penn. She’s such an amazing lady with lots of advice for people who dream of making a living from the written word.

MADE

Lately all I seem to have been making are beds, warm drinks and dinners, but I have been making this mushroom risotto from my Easy. Tasty. Healthy. gluten and dairy free cookbook regularly – it’s become a firm favourite in our household, well, at least with me 😉 In the past I’ve found risotto fiddly to make but this one is so easy. Plus, the addition of coconut cream means you would never know it’s dairy free!

AND LASTLY…

Before I go, what about this Sackboy knitted toy my mother-in-law made for my eldest? Isn’t he a cutie? We agree! She made him for us after we asked my sister for a sackboy knitting pattern at Christmas before deciding it too ambitious for my meagre knitting skills and asking my mother in law to help us out 🙂 If you’re a stranger to the video game Little Big Planet you’ll probably have no idea what I’m on about but in a houseful of gaming fans (with the exception of me), this guy is considered a very big star indeed. Home made gifts are so special and we love him. You never know, maybe one day I’ll be up to knitting something like this all by myself!

That’s it for this week’s Little Loves but I hope you’ve enjoyed it. I’ll see you again next week for lots more different-but-the-same 🙂

G x

*This post contains Amazon affiliate links which mean that I will receive commission should you choose to purchase something via them. This enables me to earn a small income from the time I spend on blogging and does not in any way affect the price you pay.