Wonderful Wednesday #210

 {Light glorious light.  And COLOUR!  *blinks and covers eyes*}
I'm BACK!  But seriously where have the last seven days gone?! When did someone make January three months long and the rest of the months of the year only half a month each?!  I'm trying to strike a fine balance between looking forward and not wishing my life away.  But it's hard.  I need to appreciate the present moment more:  and what better way than to count the best things in it?!  

Shall we get going before it's already tomorrow before today has barely begun?!?   No wait that really does hurt my little head a bit..... 

1.  Family time.  I'm not lucky enough to live close to all of my family.  I am lucky that my sister only lives two streets away but the rest of my family are scattered all over the place and even though it's not that far between us all and maybe only a couple of hours at least, when we are all together it really makes me feel grateful that i've got them and grateful that they keep me afloat when i need them to and that we all support each other in our own different ways.  I'm especially grateful for that brother and sister of mine.  They're both younger than me and there's roughly three and a bit years between each of us now.  At times when we were younger that wasn't always great.  Three is an odd number and it almost always felt like someone was left out or that one of us wasn't old enough or young enough as another one of us.  But now we're all grown up we all just fit.  All the things that made us so different when we were younger have some how mellowed into something a little bit magical and when i spend time with either of them i can see so much of me and of each other in all three of us. We're like the three musketeers and those two get me quite like nobody else ever will.  It's a special bond that brother and sister one and one that you don't appreciate nearly enough when you're all growing up; finding your own feet and trying to be so different all at once.

  
2.  Toast.  Because it's technically breakfast-y and you all know that i'm all for celebrating any given opportunity to eat anything loosely breakfast-based all i can.  I hit on it this week, why that is:  Why i love breakfast things:  Because they're so flexible and you can do do SO much with them to suit whatever mood takes you!  Just like porridge, toast is just a great vessel for almost anything sweet or savoury and whilst i've still been very much enjoying porridge all day every day for breakfast; lately toast has been taking a little bit of an almost-front seat too!  Aside from the no-brainer of peanut butter piled high with banana {#standard}, i've also been eating it anytime and spreading it thickly with beetroot hummus and dotting it with cottage cheese, chopped mint and a great big scatter of nigella seeds.  Sometimes all i need is a generous spread of thick cottage cheese and some forgotten-about chestnut chutney. Other times it's simple sticky roasted baby tomatoes mashed up afterwards with a little olive oil and red wine vinegar and plenty of black pepper and sea salt and some torn up rocket.  I joke that i'd really love my own little cafe that just sells breakfast all day.  Maybe i could revolutionise the term 'All day breakfast.'  What do you reckon?!? Hello dream job.....

3.  Big sleeves.  I'm fortunate that for my job i get a little bit of discount and so must also wear current season items.  This week it was time to pick a couple of new bits and i cant wait to show you!  I've picked up two blouses with the most ginormous, over-sized bell sleeves with the prettiest embroidery!  I've been swishing and swooshing them whenever i wear them.  They're a bit ridiculous but they make me SO happy!
4.  First washing on the line of the year! Tick!  Yes it didn't really dry one hundred percent and yes i probably should have waited a couple more weeks but the smell alone was worth all of the damp clothes being hung from every imaginable place for the next couple of hours!  Roll on Spring!  

5.  Garden plans.  Don't get too excited. I'm not so great at keeping things alive!  Although i've successfully managed  not to kill my two tiny cactus plants but only really through neglect and forgetting about them!  That aside optimistic planning of any kind is good!  I got a lovely book for Christmas all about gardening and what to plant when and how to care for them etc, etc SO i've been enjoying imagining up what to fill our tubs with this year and crossing all of my fingers and toes that my baby hydrangea bush comes back....alive!  Because aside from weather if there's one jolly great thing about this time of year it's most certainly all of the green and colour that's starting to appear.  

6.  Scrap-books.  This week i've been spending some time flip-flippin' through some of my old scrap books:  images and scraps of fabric and the like that i've cut out of magazines ever since i can remember and put together Mood-boards of things that inspire me {you can sneak a peek up HERE} and i still find so much inspiration from them today!  It's refreshing to look through an actual book rather than scroll through Pinterest for a change!

7.  Pickled anything.  Okay well not anything!  If i'm honest i've never really been into anything pickled.  I mean it's nothing personal i just don't and never have liked the smell of vinegar.  I'm not sure why.  But over the past few months i've been dipping my spoon toes into some pickled things and i' really rather hooked!  So much so that i'm keen to try my own!  Any recipes or combinations that i should give a go?!  I think beetroot is definitely high up there so far.....

8.  A bargainous trench coat.  That actually was brand new and cost less than £10 on Ebay.  And is also the most practical and 'go with anything' coat that i think i've ever owned.  I've never thought that they were very 'Me' but it didn't take long to change my mind!  I've worn it over anything and everything:  Smart work dresses with opaque tights and boots; over the top of jeans and a tshirt on a weekend and even slung over a striped turtle neck, black kick flare jeans and boots and i'm in LOVE.  It somehow has a way of making me look all kinds of put together yet equally.....unkempt {?!} if i want a more low key look.  Where has it been all of my life?!?

9. Cheer.  Because sometimes you might not feel so cheery.  But surround yourself with the cheeriest bunch of lovely people and you can't help but laugh a little.  Then a bit more.  And then all of a sudden you're laughing along and getting swept up in the moment and suddenly whatever might have made you sad, or anxious or might have been niggling  at the back of your mind just seems less.....difficult somehow?  Sometimes when you don't feel your best self, you're thankful for those that sweep you away and along for a little bit and make you realise life is too short to feel sad for too long.  

*  *  *

And i'm already done!  Hurrah!  I take it back i'm not happy i'm done so much as only really happy i'm done because i'm so hungry!   This week's post was fuelled by 'i don't know what' but it's seen me through to the end of a list that was as long as it was lovely.  These posts are one of my favourite weekly traditions:  A bench mark for the half-way, a reminder of the good bits in a week that might have otherwise been completely forgotten.  More than that they're a reminder that there always are some.  Sometimes they land on the page before i've got chance to form a sentence; i have to chase the words and put them in order before i lose track and i forget!  Other times - contrary to popular belief - i go round in circles and wonder if there'll ever be enough.  But i always find some.  And i always get to the end and i always, always feel better because of it.  

Go ahead and hop right on over to Jo, Helen, Michelle, Sarah, Kate, Cat, Sam, El , Kerri's, and Peta's OH and Ellie's blogs and catch up with their lovely lists of #wonderfulwednesday -shaped greatness!  Better still share your own little moments of lovely below orrrrr by joining in with the chit-chat over social media using the hashtag so we can all see!

See you in seven?!  Is it a date?!