Dream Boards, Animal Origami & Winter Sun

I feel like I’ve spent most of the last week contemplating things over coffee. I’m determined to not be overwhelmed by the January blues, so I’ve made lots of time for self-care and family and friends. My mum and I had a coffee date last week in Starbucks. I love the cocoa and orange lattes they have at the minute. I’m releasing myself from any pressure to produce and I find that in doing that, I feel more inspired to be creative anyway 🙂

My daughter had a day off last week as she wasn’t feeling well, but she perked up during the day so we made some brownies and she made pictures with her stencils. She saw me updating my dream board with images of all the things I want to achieve/things that inspire me this year and she wanted to make one too. So, she picked some pictures she liked for me to print off and then she cut and glued them to a piece of cardboard 🙂 (She included toys on hers, funnily enough.) When her sister got home she said “I want one of these.” I thought she was talking about making a vision board too, but she just wanted the toys 😀

We called over to my sister’s house for my nephew’s birthday and had some cake with them. She sent us home with party bags (myself included.) It was nice to get a party bag as an adult and I think sweets and wine are the perfect treat when the girls are in bed 🙂

At the weekend, we went to what has become our local haunt (the Folk Museum.) It was very quiet and not much was on, but we still enjoyed exploring the town. One of the ladies who works there told us that baby piglets had just been born, but we haven’t seen them yet (the girls refused to walk in the countryside part!) The girls called into the sweet shop to spend their money on some jar sweets.

When we got home, I made hot chocolate and we opened an origami kit we hadn’t used before. I’ve always found it really tricky and I think the girls did too, so they left most of the folding to me and added stickers to the animals when they were finished 🙂 We made a giraffe, which was the hardest one. I liked how easy the ladybird was – there were about two folds in it 😀

I made some smoothies using fruit we had in the freezer. I find it a really good way to get the girls to eat fruit 🙂 It came out more like sorbet which the girls approved of.

On Sunday, we stopped at a park on the way to see my parents. It was another beautiful, bright morning. It feels like we have got a lot more of those recently 🙂 I brought some tea and the girls played and made friends with some other little girls there. I got to read for a little while (between pushing swings and carrying people across the monkey bars!)

This week has felt like a gentler week because I’ve had a little more alone time. I made myself a latte and worked on my new book. My daughter loves chocolate cake and I kept a recipe from a magazine for a Swedish, gooey chocolate one. it’s a bit like a giant brownie 🙂 My daughter was so excited about it when she got home from school. After writing and cleaning, I felt the need to get out of the house, so I went for a walk. I went to a local cafe where I was the only customer and got a window seat. It was the perfect spot to read in 🙂 I just looked at the blue sky, enjoyed my americano and got some reading done before the school pick up 🙂 I had a look in Nature’s Way too and got some polenta to make corn bread with. I’ve had a craving for it recently, so I made some with dinner last night 🙂

Yesterday, I went for coffee with a friend and then made myself a fancy lunch 🙂 It’s nice to be able to take the time to sit down and eat without having to get up repeatedly/tell people off 🙂 I started a painting too. As usual, I wasn’t happy with how it turned out, but I enjoyed the process 🙂

This morning, I returned to Starbucks to write some more of my book and to indulge in another cocoa orange latte 🙂 Then, since the weather was so lovely, I went for a solo walk in Victoria Park. I walked around the pond and saw some swans and ducks along the way. The ducks were so tame they were like pets 🙂 The sun was blinding but I realised as I was walking that we will only have the Winter sun for a little while longer and I think it makes really pretty photographs 🙂