lovely stuff #1

It has to be said, of all the months, January sucks the hardest. Christmas is over and done with, the weather is still crap, it feels like it’s dark ALL THE TIME, and it’s still ages until half term. I’ve not been doing an awful lot lately, but I’ve seen, read and found a few cool things, so I thought I’d do a link share-y type post.

I loved this post on Thought Catalog about how we perceive our successes in life; we’re living in a hugely capitalist society, where success is considered to revolve around material posessions, and it’s really easy to forget about the simple things. It’s a good reminder to flick the v’s at social expectations and focus on the little pleasures.

A good antidote to my loathing for the colder months was reading Hannah’s Love Note to Winter over at Seeds and Stitches. Full of ways to make the long, dark season more tolerable (enjoyable, even!) it made even me contemplate heading outside into the cold to try and walk off my winter blues.

There’s been some pretty good things on TV lately (I do like a period drama!), but our solid favourite is Walking the Himalayas with Levison Wood on Channel 4. We watched last year as he traced the Nile like he was nipping down to the corner shop, and this season has been just as enjoyable. It’s the one hour a week where I can almost, almost satisfy my wanderlust; different cultures, breathtaking scenery and some pretty incredible survival moments. If you watch nothing else, check this out.

One of the biggest comforts when it’s cold and rainy is a steaming mug of tea. I usually drink Clipper tea, both for it’s super strength leaves and it’s ethical prowess, but recently I’ve been enjoying spicy winter teas from the folks over at Jing tea. The chai has won Ali and I over completely – the festive season might be over, but there’s still a bit of Christmas in my cup!

I’m a massive reader at any time of year, but curling up under a blanket with a hot water bottle and a good book is literally my favourite thing to do in the winter. At the moment, I’m making my way through All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, and I’ve just downloaded This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein. I also discovered that The Ecologist is available on the iPad, so I’m happily geeking out on the back catalogue of that.

Daisy has entered full Princess mode, something that I was pretty adament wouldn’t be happening in our house; you all know how irate I get about trying to define kids through gender, so when I found out she was a girl, I pretty much banished pink from the house with a stubborn, ‘screw you, society!’. Almost four years later, and I’ve discovered that removing the choice from her is equally as bad as trying to shoehorn her into society’s ‘norms’ – she now wears a Tinkerbell dress and sings the songs from Frozen, while shoving her feet into monster slippers, wrestling her brother to the floor and farting on his head (true story. Sigh.) Lucy at Lulastic wrote an amazing post (as usual!) on why the Princess phase is nothing to fear – have a read over here.

I’ve written about it on Instagram, but I’m thoroughly in love with my Julia Smith Ceramics cream pourer – so much so that I bought my Mum the blackbird version for her birthday this month. She’s just stocked her Etsy shop with some incredibly beautiful pieces (*flexes debit card*), so now if definitely a good time to have a look.

I think that’s about it for now – more link love soon!