Wonderful Wednesday #51

Is it just ME or does this week seem extra and particularly lovely?!  I'm going to be honest with you and tell you that over the weekend i felt like everything in the whole wide world was just irritating me.  That man of mine is just the luckiest sometimes.  We aren't even talking things that warrant even getting slightly BOTHERED about - things that arent even worth wasting words on.  There was no rhyme or reason and it's quite out of character for me too.  But as fleeting as my little two day 'i hate everything' phase came, come Monday morning morning i woke up in The Best Mood since….well since even i can remember.  
Those who know me know that i am already a glass half full/ dolly DAYDREAM/ general happy soul most of the time anyway.  But this was such a good mood that even customers commented to me at work and the the Mr even noticed that I was particularly chipper.  Well actually his exact words were "You seem particualarly happy.  What have you done?  What have you bought?."  Oh ye of little happiness faith.  Truth is, i have no idea where it all came from - but i am ROLLING with it.  It might have something to do with smelling Spring a little bit.  You know, that indescribable 'green' smell outside?  Tell me you have smelt it too and it's not just my imagination?!  Or maybe it's my new morning routine. Or maybe, maybe it's all that extra outside time on those two-wheels i have managed to squeeze in lately.  Either way i feel full of FIZZ and beans and like i could take on the world this week!  
Hold onTIGHT, you might well be in for a super-charged, over the top, far too optimistic {even for me} Wonderful Wednesday…
*  Having a REVOLUTIONARY discovery that has changed my LIFE.  You know me and porridge?  I could live off the stuff.  In fact if i could eat it for every single meal then i would.  I sometimes did before i lived with the Mr.  It's pretty much what kept me going when i was a student.  I have always liked making it from scratch.  There's something quite cathartic about standing over a bubbling pan of warmed almond milk and oats and stirring and thinking and waking up and getting ready for the day.  But to get a really delicious and lovely bowl of porridge can sometimes take at least twenty minutes.  That's fine and dandy on a leisurely Sunday but not so much when you are trying to apply mascara, get dressed and avoid putting your deodorant in the fridge {yes that has happened}.  Time is PRECIOUS.  On Sunday evening i read that to make extra-fast porridge, you simply soak the oats in enough boiling water to cover them for ten minutes.  Then simply add your milk and heat up and stir.  I cannot even begin to tell you the difference this makes.  On Monday morning at precisely 8am i had the best bowl of porridge i have ever had in my whole and entire life.  Try it and don't tell me it won't change your life.  You are welcome by the way.  
*  Pigtails.  Or more to the point - SLEEPING in pigtails.  I think i have already mentioned that lately my hair and i are having some kind of World War 3, 4, and possibly 5.  It just wont stay, or be and is so very dry and horrid and forever tangled and i'm blaming it all on the cold, wet and snowy weather we have been having.  I feel like a leave-in conditioner for a whole week wouldn't sort out my mop.  On Monday evening - out of sheer despair and 'this afternoon i got drenched again in the rain and i only just washed my hair last night' sort of a feeling, i popped my hair into two low slung pigtails, messed them up a bit and went to bed that way.  My hair was the perfect amount of dishevelled, much less tangled and stayed that way all day.  Doing my hair before i go to bed has saved precious moments on dark early and cold mornings.  Combined with the above, i could probably have an extra twenty minutes in bed….
*  Homemade burgers.  Slathered with spiced damson chutney and piled high with red onion, vine tomatoes from the windowsill and watercress.  And served alongside salty french fries.  Sometimes you just really need a bloody GOOD burger.
*  An impromptu cleaning SPREE fuelled entirely by 90's music - up loud.  I cleaned everywhere.  Not even just the places i usually do:  Furniture was pulled out, skirting boards and beams tickled and every surface was 'Mr Sheen-ed' within an inch of it's life.  It felt damned GOOD.  
*  The most magical cup of camomile tea.  I've got to tell you sometimes i don't find it so easy to WIND down of an evening. the Mr is a bit of a night owl and i just can't hack the late nights anymore - especially not with my early starts.  I've always drank camomile tea, and combined with some sort of routine i usually get sleepy-ish and fall alseep.  I often feel as if i don't sleep deeply enough though.  This week i bought Taylors of Harrogate Chamomile and Vanilla tea.  I shan't lie, we had run out of our usual Twinings Spiced Apple Camomile and the font on the vanilla and chamomile was too pretty to not try.  My word this tea knocked both of us out.  Since having a cup each night since, we have both slept amazingly since.  Not just any kind of sleep too:  The DELICIOUSLY deep, heavy and blissful kind where nothing in the whole world wakes you.  We will both be drinking it for the rest of our lives.  No jokes.    
*  Stumbling upon a dress i had ADMIRED from afar for so long in Topshop and one which i had kicked myself for never ever just buying.  I held back:  Largely because, well i didn't need it {do we ever though?!}, it was far too expensive {£65} and i was sure i'd see something i'd like more soon.  Oh and it wouldn't be £65 - i hoped.  So i never found anything better, not even in the sales.  And i often thought about this dress - in the same way you think about a long lost item of clothing you sent to the charity shop, lost or gave away {it's not just me that does this, is it?!}.  So today as if by fate or some kind of dress-related miracle, there it was hanging upon the sale rail - just one, in my size for £15!!!!!!!!  That my friends is what i like to call dress karma.
*  Daffodils in a teapot on my window sill. It's the simple things sometimes:  My own little rays if dancing sunshine.  
*  An impromptu bread-making evening on Monday night that resulted in the BEST loaf i think i have ever made!  I made a rough soda bread with half rye flour and half spelt and it was and still is HEAVEN.  
*  Progress. I'm really getting into my morning stretches and i am managing well with increasing my repetitions with the little exercises i have been doing.  It's all in a bid just to make my upper body a little stronger - an area which i have never given much thought to.  
*  Getting my reading GROOVE back on.  This is something i have been working at for a little while after always being someone who loved to read.  Truth is, i just got our of the habit and filled it with other silly things {not pinterest}.  Lately i am loving curling up with my book for an hour or so before bed On Sunday afternoon just gone, it was pouring down and curling up with a hot mug of tea and a big lilac blanket was HEAVENLY.  
*  Sweet potato, butternut squash and lentil chill made by the Mr.  Remember i was saying how we each have certain things we can cook so much BETTER than the other?!  This is totally his forte.  Infact i swear he could sell this stuff.  When we first started seeing each other, this was one of the first things he ever made for me.  I remember when he told me i wasn't that impressed and couldn't imagine how a chilli without meat could taste better.  I was so wrong.  Served in a big bowl with just a dollop of creme fraiche and i could eat it forever.   *  *  *   How the BOBBINS has your week been so far?!  What's been the definite highlights?  What are you looking forward to for the rest of the week?  Have you ever made bread from scratch?  Or got yourself a bargain that was also almost too good to be true?!  Don't keep it to yourself!  Do share!  Remember you can leave me a sweet comment below or tweet me with your #wonderfulwednesday on twitter.  I'm @sallytangle.