Wonderful Wednesday #189

{Snapped purely because ^that^ colour combo makes my heart SO happy}
Oh hello there! So nice of you to drop by and check-in!   How the devil are you?!  And how has your week been?  The first few days of mine have been spent tickling and tidying up at home and tootling around on those two wheels since i booked a day or so off to go alongside my days off.  Most people at work think I'm a bit mad not taking a whole week but i've started taking just two or three days holiday every so often and adding them onto to my usual two days off a week and it does me the world of good!  Work has been stressful and tiring and taking it's toll on me these past few months I'm putting me first for a change!!  

SO, i've got Florence and the Machine as this weeks' #wonderfulwednesday soundtrack and i am MORE than ready to list some 'jollities.'  Pretty sure i just invented a word there.....
 
Shall we...?

 1.  Mornings.  I've always been of the assumption that you're either a night owl or a morning person.  For me, try as i might, my body naturally powers down after 9am and very little can hold my attention {or keep my eyes open!} past that time; save for maybe 'First Dates'.  Even reading before bed can be tricky - i usually manage a page or two before i end up frustratingly rubbing my eyes, trying to focus and doing my best not to read the same line three times!  No, no i have always been much more productive in the morning. That's not to say i leap right on out of bed, cartwheel to the bathroom and make my porridge whilst dancing to Magic FM {okay well that sometimes happens  - the dancing part at least} i still hate actually waking up and being disturbed/taken away from my little cocoon of too many pillows and cushions and huge marshmallow-ey duvet!!!  But once i'm up, i love it.  I love being awake when everywhere is so still and quiet and peaceful.  I use it as my time to think, ease myself into the day and plan what i've got to achieve.  This week my mornings have been even better since i booked Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off work so, in short; i've made every morning start like a weekend one would:  Tip-toeing downstairs to make hot tea and then taking it back up the stairs and sipping it under the duvet.  I've had longer lazier and more thought-through breakfasts and burnt candles in the morning whilst I'm sorting myself out too.  You know know how most people wish for a week of Sundays...?  I'd quite happily have a week of mornings anyday!!!

2.  Walnuts.  Me and nuts?  Just like Forrest Gump and Jenny:  We go together like peas and carrots!!!  Jokes aside there really isn't a day goes by without me consuming a nut in some form or another.  It's no secret that i preeeetty much keep Meridian and Pip & Nut in business with the amount of nut butter i get through, but nuts are also my go-to snack pretty much always. I always carry a little box of them in my bag and like to mix up which ones i pick up depending on what i fancy.  I know:  Rock.  And.  Roll.  This week has been all about walnuts.  Possibly one of my very favourites too!  I've been blitzing them with cacao powder, seed butter and maca powder to make energy balls;  chopping and sprinkling them on top of chai and corn cakes stacked high with cottage cheese and best of all:  crumbling them right on top a bowl of the thickest, creamiest greek yoghurt coupled with slices of juicy fig and a great big zig-ah-zig-ah of raw runny honey.  Best.  Combination. Fact.  

3.   Sleep.  It's a simple one but sleeping well and properly isn't something to be sniffed at it's most definitely something to celebrate!!!  Before these few days off I'd been starting to feel run down, tired and a little scratchy-throated!!!  I've been going to bed at my usual time and sleeping so well and it's amazing how much of a difference it's made to how i've been feeling.  Some restful days, bike rides and gulping fresh air down at every given opportunity might have also had something to so with it!

4.  Day-dreaming.  I've always been a dreamer, always preferring what goes on in my head, as appose to the real world.   Especially lately.  I can get lost up there for ages and sometimes i don't really even realise I'm doing it!  When i was younger at Primary school i remember getting pulled up about my news journal at parents evening.  When we were little {there are three of us} my dad worked long hours and i always remember my mum taking us on interesting adventures, trips and days out but i always made them sound a little bit more interesting!!  I'd always write about what we really did, but then I'd add in extras:  fairies, magical lands and celebrity appearances!  Just because I'm a little older, doesn't mean the day dreaming has stopped, it's just far less fairy and more.....'in an ideal world'-shaped.  

Incidentally, what WOULD you do in an ideal world?   

Me?  Well i'd write fiction-based things for websites and magazines or descriptions of things.  Naturally I'd live in the country, with my own walled garden where i also grew my own fruit and veg.  When i wasn't too snowed under with looking after those things; I'd pop in and see how my cafe/concept store was coming along.  It'd all be to support upcoming and small makers and do-ers and be all gift-y and beautifully decorated with parquet flooring, salvaged furniture and sheepskins strewn across the floor and maybe also be in an old re-purposed building with huge floor to ceiling windows.  Oh and the cafe?  Well it would be a vegetarian cafe and most of the ingredients used to concoct our little dishes would be from wasted supermarket food, or naturally from that walled garden of mine at home.  

OH SORRY.  You lost me for a moment then!  Sounds pretty lovely though doesn't it?!

5.    Time.  It's not something i ever have or give as much of as i should and this transfers to pretty much every single aspect of my life.  There's nothing like a few days off work and away from your usual 'do ten million things at once whilst already thinking about the next list you need to make whilst also trying to finish what you are actually doing right that moment and stop wishing that it was already done yesterday when you've barely even started it.' Sound familiar?  If life feels like it's racing ahead at break-neck speed {please tell me it's not just me who feels like this?!  HOW IS IT ALMOST MID-OCTOBER?!}  that's because it is.  This week i've MADE TIME.  And do you know what?  Nothing suffered because of it.  I need to make more of a habit to clear space in my day-to-day.  All of this running and racing and mult-multi-multi-tasking is playing havoc with my whole entire self.    

6.  A new bra {or two}.  Nothing makes you realise how good a properly fitting new bra feels until you buy one and realise how out of shape and in a bad way the one you were wearing was before.  Hurrah for good old M&S underwear {always!} but especially when there is 60% off!!! It really is the simple things...

7.  Tea.  I mean that's another part of the economy {..?} that i like to think i keep afloat.  It's fair to say that i gulp down my fair share of tea in a day.  But nothing makes me feel better like my favourite tea, drank out of my favorite mug {extra bonus points if i'm also wearing my super duper soft sheepskin slippers, slouchy 'ripped a bit too much to be worn outside' grey jeans and some sort of over-sized jumper/cable knit card combo} curled up at home.  Spending a couple of afternoons this week snuggled up at home with good playlist, tea on tap and Pinterest opened was a little corner of heaven {and a perfect 'imagination-stretcher' } if ever there was one.  

8.  Cleaning and tidying.  I'm always fairly tidy as it is.  But for me there's forever been some kind of therapy in sorting, tidying and cleaning and these few days off have been used wisely.  Whenever my mind is busy, hectic or even stressed, tidying is my salvation for when those two wheels of mine can't be.  I'm not sure what it is, whether it's the ordering, the monotony or simply the comfort found in the finished result - either way it feeds something inside of me and brings me joy.  And they do say that joy can be found in the very strangest of places don't they.....
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And as quick as it feels as if i started tip-tapping this little post out to you; it's all done!  The light from today has slipped down behind the trees and into tomorrow already and it's almost time to start supper.  I'm having leftover beetroot and mint hummus on toasted sourdough with some crumbly feta and some kind of rocket-ty concocted salad and my tummy is rumbling just thinking about it!  

If this little full-of-words list isn't quite enough happy,  make sure you go hoppin' and a-skippin right on over to Jo, Helen, Michelle, Sarah, Kate, Cat, Sam, El , Kerri's, and Peta's blogs and catch up with their weeks and the very littlest and best parts of them to boot! Also feel free to share you own happy bits and bobs or join in online with the chit-chat by tagging  #wonderfulwednesday in anything particularly happy-making!  As always i'm @sallytangle every-which-where!  

Happy mid-week you lovely lot!