Nearly there: time to celebrate

Next Friday will, of course, be Christmas Day, but for now I have more practical matters to celebrate.
First off, did you get a fabulous sunrise today? As part of my drive to power through my to-do list, I have been getting up early this week, that is to say, before the sun, so I was at my desk for the view shown in this pic.

Second, I've wrangled a lot of words this week. As well as teaching five yoga classes and two one-to-one sessions, I've written 2,000 words on llamas and started a follow-up article, and finished the subbing/proofing of my two monthly magazine jobs.
Third, it's girls' night tonight. All round to Elaine's house for food and gossip.
Fourth - and this is actually the biggest celebration - Tim Peake is safely installed on the ISS.
Have a good weekend, folks.
Celebrate the Small Things  is a blog hop. Visit Lexa's Blog for the rules, and then post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week. Originated by VikLit) and co-hosted by L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge and Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog.

Prizes and awards

Husband came home from work on Friday clutching a bottle of champagne and a certificate that he had been given to commemorate 10 years in his current job. Then yesterday he brought home a case of beer and a gift voucher by way of Christmas bonus from his immediate boss. What will it be today, I wonder?

I've had a little prize, too. Earlier in the year, I did an online course on forensic anthropology via FutureLearn. The focus was a police investigation based on a story created by Val McDermid. (Read more here.) Anyhoo, as well as labelling bones and using facial reconstruction software, one of the options was a competition to design a cover for the short story. I nearly didn't enter because art isn't really my thing, but I was tempted by the prize of a signed copy of Val's latest book. So, with a bit of judicious cutting and pasting (literally scissors and glue), I created something. To my astonishment I was runner-up! My book has arrived and has gone straight to the top of my reading pile. I've just got to finish Monstrous Regiment before the weekend, so I can read the complete Narnia over Christmas and then Splinter the Silence here I come.

This Friday's small celebrations

Just a quick place-holding post today.

It's been another frantic week, but today things have calmed down, so I've been catching up on a few admin jobs and tried to restore some semblance of order to the house. I'm not going out tonight, but instead plan to plonk myself on the sofa and not move until bedtime.

... and relax.

Celebrate the Small Things  is a blog hop. Visit Lexa's Blog for the rules, and then post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week. Originated by VikLit) and co-hosted by L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge and Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog.

 

Best of both worlds

The scene is set. Photo courtesy of Ruth Stanway Woodings

I have written before about my friend Rachel's latest venture, a bookshop called Not Just Words that also doubles as an arts venue. It is housed in a fabulous development called The Yards, tucked away in a corner of Kettering that used to be the site of the old fire station.

Anyway, last night I held a meditation session in the shop, thus combining two of my main passions. About 20 people turned up with open minds and good hearts to explore some breathing practices, visualisations, relaxation and meditation, surrounded by lovely books, musical instruments and various pieces of decorative ephemera. It was grand, although I say so myself, and it looks as though this might become a regular feature.

There are also plans for some writing gatherings in the same space and I'm looking forward to getting involved with them, too. There must be lots of business premises up and down the land that would be suitable venues for readings and workshops: all those shops with an upstairs room just crying out for use in the evenings. Is there anything near you?

Celebrating new friends

I feel as though I haven't paused for breath this week, because it's all been a bit full on. Nevertheless, I'm happy to take a break now to celebrate the small things.

I met some lovely new people last night when I ventured out to a different ukulele group. I'd met the host before, but only in passing and she turned out to be a wonderful lady: full of life and interested in everything and everyone. She welcomed us into her home with tea and cake, so I knew it was going to be a good evening. Among the new friends I made was a woman who not only makes medieval clothes, but also wields a longbow. As if that wasn't interesting enough, she has been the women's longbow distance world record holder! Another was a family support officer, specialising in children with ADHD. Honestly, you never know who's around the corner.

Elsewhere, I'm celebrating the safe return of number one son from (yet another) stag weekend in  Amsterdam and the triumph of number two son's performance with his music-teacher colleagues at the grand switch-on of Kettering's Christmas lights. 

There's also been sadness, though, with the funeral on Monday of an old school friend. I was acutely aware on Tuesday that while it was business as usual for me, for his wife, who I've also known since school, things will never be the same. So as last week, I celebrating my simple life. 

Celebrate the Small Things  is a blog hop. Visit Lexa's Blog for the rules, and then post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week. Originated by VikLit) and co-hosted by L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge and Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog.

It's curtains!

I've had a bit of a triumph on the Domestic Goddess front in that I've actually managed to turn up a pair of curtains. I know! Who'd have thunk it.

This is the sort of task that many of you will be able to do in your sleep, and I have many crafty friends who can whittle things out of wood and renovate chairs, knit and sew, and perform all manner of tricks with glitter  and bits of card. The handicraft gene seems to have skipped a generation, because while my mother can happily whip up a cushion-cover, I struggle to thread a needle.

I have what is laughingly called a needlework box that contains a colourful tangle of bias binding and other bits and pieces I have no recollection of buying; but the only items I usually reach for when something needs mending are Copydex and a stapler - and yes, this includes fixing clothes. I might, if pushed, manage to manipulate a strip of Wundaweb, but there really has to be lots of luck and a following wind.

However, now that the external renovations on our house are complete, for now, we're turning our attention to the inside, beginning with our bedroom. Since my husband was kind enough to put up a new curtain rail, I thought the least I could do was to wash the curtains. Unfortunately, they shrank. Fortunately, the friend who originally turned them up for me had left a generous hem for just such occasions.

With much grinding of teeth and puncturing of fingertips, I managed it. True, I did stitch the material to the living-room carpet at one point (always my work surface of choice), but then again, I once stapled an early-years reading book to the classroom floor when I was a parent helper at my son's infant school.

Anyway, they're up, they're level and they meet in the middle. Good times. 

Time to celebrate

Has there ever been a better week to celebrate the small things? So much of what is going on in the world at the moment is just too big. I don't understand it and I certainly can't do anything about it. Therefore I'm going to focus on improving things in my corner. Perhaps if we all do that, the little patches of goodness will join up.

So today, in very general terms and in no particular order , I'm celebrating family and friends, music and books, having a home with central heating and enough to eat, health and relative wealth, and just leading an ordinary, uneventful life.

Celebrate the Small Things  is a blog hop. Visit Lexa's Blog for the rules, and then post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week. Originated by VikLit) and co-hosted by L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge and Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog.