Things That Make Me Happy #4

With the ominous feeling in the air recently and all the depressing stuff going on in the world I feel like I need a little dose of optimism in my life. I'm kicking that off with a Things That Make Me Happy post and following it up with two weeks of Re-Readathoning, that should do the trick!

As ever, thanks to the wonderful Ellie of Lit Nerd for encouraging us all towards positivity!

1. Rhys' Birthday 

Turning 30 in style,with some kind of shooting game..

Brioche blood orange ice cream sandwich

On Monday, a bank holiday here in the UK, Rhys turned 30 and we celebrated! We were originally going up to London but predictably the car decided it was going to break and have to be in the garage for a few days so we didn't end up doing that. Instead we bought a day bus pass and went exploring, starting and ending the day at ice cream parlours (our two favourites - Melt in Margate for a mid morning snack and Morellis in Broadstairs to round off the day) with a trip to a retro arcade and pinball parlour (Dreamland in Margate) and a little seaside walking in between. We did a lot of giggling, a lot of staring out of windows and ended the day with very wet feet (it tipped it down all day) but smiling faces.

2. Garden produce

I'm so loving the garden at the moment. Our first year as proper garden owners has had its ups and downs produce wise, but we've done better than we expected to and even succeeded in growing blueberries! I've been reading gardening books and Grow Your Own magazine this week to try to get some knowledge about what you do with your garden during the winter... Meanwhile we're planning to make mixed fruit jam with the small crops of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries (golden and normal) from the garden plus blackberries we've picked. We'll see what it tastes like...

Our blueberries!

3. Ninja Book Swap 

Ninja Swap is back again! I've been going on about the Autumn Swap all week on twitter, but sign up is open til September 14th if you'd like to join in. I love the swap so much. It's so much fun meeting new people and sharing the love of books, plus I always add tons of books from my partners wishlist to my own... You don't have to have a blog to take part, just an active online presence (twitter,tumblr,goodreads etc). You can sign up here.

4. Discovering random farm shops

Rhys being confused about the random selection of animals!

Today we were driving home and took a different route, as Rhys is apt to do when bored of the motorway, through country roads. As we were driving we saw a sign for a farm shop and thought we'd stop off and have a look. Farm shops are one of the best things about living in (or at least near!) the countryside and we love to support local ones as much as possible. However once we'd parked the car we saw that not only was this a farm shop but also a tea room, playground and working farm with animals you could go and visit including emus, geese, ducks, rabbits, horses, cows, sheep and pigs! Unfortunately it was 4:30 by the time we arrived and they closed at 5 so we only had time for a quick shop visit, a run around to the animals and five minutes on the swings, but we will be going back again soon to spend more time there. 

5. OTSP Secret Sister

I've mentioned this before on the blog but today I received my September parcel from my Secret Sister. This month is Rhys and my fourth wedding anniversary and she made us such a lovely, thoughtful parcel for it! She discovered that we both love Dr Who and are both musicians and she made this gorgeous artwork which is the sheet music of the Dr Who theme tune with a rather well known Doctor's face over the top of it. She also put it in a frame to match something she sent me last month and I just love that she thought about it this much! If you're reading this, secret sister, you really didn't need to worry, we are both so happy with our present! Then she got me a 'Shut Up, I'm Reading' mug which is so so like the 'Go Away I'm Reading' mug that I've wanted for years and I LOVE it and am going to use it for everything from now on, and finally a lovely little bookmark :-) I am so happy and spoiled and coming home to find the parcel was just the icing on the cake today. 

My amazing September parcel

Lots of other things have made me happy this week, these are just the major ones and as always it's done me good to sit down and think about them again. What's made you happy this week?

Things That Make Me Happy #3

This week we've been on holiday and despite it being inordinately stressful for the first few days due to us still being in  everyday life/work frames of mind it's still been more full than usual of things making me happy.  Some of these will be things I'll do individual posts on over the coming days but I wanted to mention them all here first!

1. Ice Cream 

Our ice cream blog will be coming back with a bang this week as we've pretty much tried a new ice cream place every day we've been away! Highlights were the hot fudge sundae at Macari's in Worthing and Oreo and Toffee milkshakes at Starvin Marvins in Greenford. We also really enjoyed the ice cream cake from G & D's in Oxford.

2. The Story Museum, Oxford

We went to Oxford on a whim. We originally set off for Virginia Water but decided to keep going up the road as I'd never been to Oxford and Rhys not for years. A quick google of 'things to do with kids in Oxford revealed the Story Museum, an amazing space celebrating the different ways of telling stories. I'll be posting about this in full later in the week as it was incredible, but highlights were playing croquet Alice in Wonderland style with flamingoes and hedgehogs, and reading stories in a sailing boat. 

3. The Zoo

We went to Marwell Zoo on Wednesday because the boys, particularly Ben, are really into zoos and wildlife parks at the moment and Rhys had fond memories of it from when he was younger and it absolutely didn't disappoint. We particularly enjoyed the children's trail where they had a booklet that the kids could collect embossed stamps from various animals. Personally the giraffes and the penguins were my favourites, I could have watched the giraffes all day. 

4. OTSP Secret Sister

I've been seeing people tweet about #otspsecretsister (On the Same Page Secret Sister) but for the last two rounds it's been U.S only. Thankfully this time around they had enough international interest to open it up to some other countries as well and I'm really excited to be taking part! For those who don't know, the concept is like Ninja Swap but lasting for six months - you get an email containing all kinds of info about your secret sister and then you send them parcels based on their interests each month for six months. You don't know who you're receiving from and it's just generally awesome. People have been asking and answering questions for the benefit of their sisters (and brothers, it's not just for girls!) all week on twitter and it's super addictive and generally joy inspiring. It's organised by three amazing ladies, Brittany, Alyssa and Amy and having organised the (much smaller) Ninja Book Swap for the past three years I'm in awe of their ability to organise 250+ people for such an incredible event!

5. The Gracekeepers* by Kirsty Logan

I heard about Kirsty Logan on Jen's Youtube Channel a couple of weeks back and then came across The Gracekeepers on my sisters bookshelf while visiting this week so I snagged it and devoured it in a few days. It's beautiful, set in a fantasy world where there is more water than land and revolving around a circus and a displaced girl. Highly recommended for everyone!

*affiliate link

6. Re-Readathon #2

After discussion with Katie I decided to host another Re-Readathon during September! The one in May was a lot of fun - very informal and full of people's enthusiasm for re-reading their favourite books. We decided that a week wasn't long enough last time so this one will run from September 7th -20th and you can sign up here! Spread the word using #rereadathon on twitter and instagram and let me know if you're planning to take part in the comments!

There's a lot more than six things that have made me happy this week: time spent with family, watching The Iron Lady, hanging out with Rhys and being silly, Brighton (omg I love Brighton!), going to the Women's FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium yesterday and being part of the biggest crowd to ever attend a womens' football match. The list goes on, but these are the major culprits.

What's making you happy this week? Link up your posts with Lit Nerd!

Things That Make Me Happy #2

Ellie at Lit Nerd has been hosting this as a weekly link up for a few weeks now and I'm excited to take part again! (I don't know if she's hosting this week because she's travelling and I'm writing this at 7am because we'll be busy later but I'm taking part anyway!).

This week has been full of adventures and gorgeous weather. We were pretty full of activity all week until Friday when we just staying at home all day and ran around the garden, and then we were up in London yesterday for the first gig we've ever been to in our five years together... This week has been full of happy things!

The Piano Guys

So this is the gig we went to yesterday and it was amazing. We didn't think we'd ever be able to afford to see these guys because tickets are like £50 but then last week they released some more standing tickets and Rhys and my parents paid for a couple of tickets as an early birthday present, which was the most exciting. If you haven't heard of The Piano Guys I want to know why. They are (mostly) two (sometimes four) guys, one of whom plays the piano, the other plays the cello and they do mashups, often of classical music with contemporary pop and cool unexpected versions of songs and if they can make One Direction songs good then they definitely deserve your attention!

The gig was really inspiring. The music was gorgeous, the guys are amazing performers and really funny to boot and I've never been to a gig with such a wide spectrum of people represented - I think the youngest person we saw was around six and the oldest probably over seventy. We may have bought ourselves a signed copy of their latest album, Wonders and we may well be listening to them on loop forever. If I've just introduced you to them, you're welcome. Also check out this, it's my favourite: 

Quiet Book

There's a post about this going up tomorrow for Inspiration on Monday so I won't post more pictures but I'm really enjoying making this (secretly) educational and fun book for Benji's birthday in October. I anticipated that it would take me ages to finish because I'm generally such a procrastinator but then it turns out that this project is really fun, pretty simple and very inspiring so I'm racing through it!

#30dayswild

Still loving this. This week we missed a couple of days because of travelling and work, but we still did lots: a couple of seaside walks, some reading outside and listening to birdsong before work, a walk in the woods with associated collecting of natural items, and a lot of time in the garden earthing up potatoes, picking strawberries and generally maintaining things! 

Star Wars Biscuit Cutters

These were reduced in Lakeland this week and so when Rhys was pottering around town with the boys he got some. We already have the Tardis and Weeping Angel cutters from one of Rhys' Ninja Swap parcels and they're great - the detail is awesome! We baked a batch of chocolate biscuits for Rhys to take to work and these are from the batch of chocolate gingerbread we baked for my family this weekend to say thanks for looking after the boys while we were at the concert. In case you're interested the recipe is thus: 

Chocolate Gingerbread

100g butter

100g dark brown sugar

2 tablespoons golden syrup

200g plain flour

2 teaspoons cocoa powder

1 teaspoon ginger

Cream together butter and sugar, then stir in golden syrup. When thoroughly mixed add the flour, cocoa powder and ginger and stir to form a dough. Flour the tabletop and roll out the dough to roughly 1-2cm thick. Cut shapes. Bake at 180C for approx 10 mins or until turning golden round the edges. 

Awesome Board Games

At a car boot sale last week we picked up copies of a really cool looking Winnie the Pooh memory game for kids. It has little honey pots with different colours on the bottom and baskets and you basically have to collect three honey pots with the same colour on them. Not too advanced for Ben to be interested in and a gorgeous game! We also got a copy of The Wind in the Willows board game which we have yet to play but it may be the most beautiful game we own. We have a silly amount of board games and never play a lot of them. I'm hoping that this summer will give us a kick to start playing again and enjoying some time together as a couple and as a family. 

What made you happy this week?

Things That Make Me Happy

I'm joining in again with Ellie's Things that Make Me Happy idea. I love this as it forces me to go back over the week and remember the awesome stuff which in turn also helps me to see it on a daily basis and stress out less about the negative things so thanks Ellie!

This week the weather has been so so weird; rainy and windy one minute, glorious sunshine the next, so we've had some strange days and some stressful days but overall it's been pretty good.

1. The garden. Everything is shooting up at the moment it's amazing. Every time I look out the window the potato bed has got bigger and there are more strawberries ripening! A lot of stuff won't actually bear fruit until next year but still it's great to see it all getting going. I'm also getting really into flowers after being way more of a practical 'let's only grow it if we can eat it' kind of girl for years. They're so beautiful and happiness inducing and cheap. Awesomeness.

2. Frozen yoghurt drops. I found the idea for these on Pinterest and have no idea why I haven't tried them before. You literally put clingfilm on a baking tray and then put little spoonfuls of yoghurt (ours was apple and mango but any flavour will do) on the clingfilm and stick the tray in the freezer for half an hour. Then you peel the little dots off and eat them and they are the most delicious and refreshing thing ever. I'm in love.

3. Making stuff again. Although I've been making things daily for my #yearofmaking project I feel a little like it's been mostly cookery based lately, which I always view as the easy way out because dinner has to be made anyway! This week I started making a quiet book for Ben's birthday despite it not being until October and Sam's birthday being in a couple of weeks (on the same day as mine if anyone's taking notes) and me not having anything for him yet. I have plans though! I'll be posting about this in more detail for a future Inspiration on Monday post!

please ignore the finger puppets not yet having eyes...

4. Six Second Hugs. I've been reading The Happiness Project and Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin lately and I don't remember which book it is but she mentions that if you hug someone for six seconds or longer you instantly feel more connected and affectionate than if you do it for shorter amounts of time. I was skeptical but this is an actual thing you guys. Six is the magic number, give it a go!

5. #30dayswild. We're taking part in The Wildlife Trust's challenge to do something wild each day during June. So far we've done a lot of garden work, planted some seeds, done some wildlife identification and been for a lot of clifftop and coastal walks. I'm excited about making a butterfly feeder this week and going for a walk along the river and feeding ducks with the boys. It's been really good having something to push us to go outside and explore each day.

If you want to link up things that have made you happy this week you can do that here and use #sharethehappy on twitter and Instagram. I dare you, it will make you feel awesome!

Five Things That Have Made Me Happier

This post is inspired by Ellie from Lit Nerd and her 'Things That Made Me Happy This Week' posts. I hope she doesn't mind me borrowing her idea!

Back in January I posted about my One Little Word project for the year. I planned to write monthly updates about how it was going with my word (gratitude) but, as with many things it hasn't quite panned out that way. However I just finished reading The Happiness Project and I've been listening to Gretchen Rubin's podcast and both of these have inspired me to keep my word in mind at all times and give me ideas for new ways to incorporate it into my life!

One of the major ways I'm feeling myself being more grateful and thus happier is by thinking a lot more about the things that make me happy rather than focusing on those that don't. It may sound like such a simple thing but it's so easy to get bogged down in little things that piss me off and easy to forget to think about the positives and I think it's time to change that, so here are five things that have made me happier!

1. One Little Word - When I first heard about this at the end of 2014 I hesitated to actually join the class. I thought I could just kind of pick a word and take part unofficially, but I'm so glad I paid the £20 whatever it was because this community and the prompts and the experience have just been fantastic so far! As a lot of the people who take part are scrapbookers it's very that way oriented and I started off the year convinced that I wasn't going to have a scrapbook but by the time we got to March I'd totally caved and I now have a scrapbook of sorts. It's full of washi tape and scribbling and collage so it's waaaaay less organised and pristine than some of the others I've seen but I love it. I feel like it's very reflective of me, and I absolutely love having a more visual creative outlet again, it's been years!

The community surrounding it is amazing as well. There's a facebook group that I'm part of and on it people share their work on each months' prompts, their journey with their word and just things that happen or that they're struggling with or happy about on a daily basis. I have yet to see a single person respond negatively to anything anybody says no matter how trivial it may be. Everybody is really supportive and friendly and so willing to share their experience and try to help, it's an amazingly uplifting place to be.

The title page from my One Little Word scrapbook

2. The Happiness Project & Happier Podcast - It's all about the women this year. Along with Ali Edwards (founder of One Little Word), Gretchen Rubin is the other woman rocking my world at the moment. I finished The Happiness Project and picked up Happier at Home just before the rereadathon and I'm dying to get back to it on Monday! I'm thinking of officially starting my own happiness project, but in the meantime I've been trying to implement little things from the book and podcast such as the one minute rule - anything that can be done in one minute or less doesn't get left. Just do it! Little things, it transpires, can have a big effect on my levels of stress!

3. Our Garden - On the back of The Simple Things magazine last month there was a quote something along the lines of 'all you need to be happy is a garden and a library' and I so so agree. Our garden is full of things we've planted that are just starting to come out or which are now big enough to be planted outside and I love it. Just walking around it makes me feel productive and hopeful, and as well as the stuff growing there I love that the boys love it and run/crawl around like crazies and can ride their bikes and play hopscotch and stuff, and that it gives me and Rhys something outdoorsy to do together on our days off when we're not actually feeling that energetic. Gardens are literally the best.

I feel I should add that this was our strawberry basket like, months ago. It's now overflowing with strawberries!

4. M&S Dine in for 2 for £10/£20 - This is going to sound stupid but we did this for our second wedding anniversary because we couldn't get a babysitter and then Rhys surprised me the other day with some yummy food and drink he got on this offer and we've decided to do it from time to time as we attempt to reinstate some semblance of date night. It's just a really nice way to have a bit of a special meal without anybody having to make too much effort and a special meal makes the whole evening feel much more relaxed. Plus it's nicer than takeaway, and cheaper.

5. Podcasts in general - I've been listening to podcasts on my bus commute to work a couple of times a week and I love it! I'm so relaxed by the time I get to work, plus I've got food for thought for the upcoming day, amazing. Some favourites: The Art of Simple Podcast, Happier with Gretchen Rubin, The Bookrageous Podcast, Book Riot. 

And actually, writing that post! What makes you happy? Got any recommendations for great podcasts or favourite happiness related reading?