Wonderful Wednesday #50

HELLO!  How do i find all your lovely faces this week?!  Even-though it feels like each day this week has been colder and colder than the one before, i am even more hopeful of Spring coming soon and can see little sights and sounds popping up everywhere I go.  It's been -1 most days this week up in sunny-but-bloody-cold Cumbria.  But its been dry, bright and marvellously wonderful still.  This has got to be my very FAVOURITE kind of weather:  No winds to stop those two wheels of mine turning; Bright sunshine each morning when i wake and clean, fresh and bright blue skies as far as the eye can see.  It's worth the numb toes and fingers i can tell you!  

What's NEW?  What have you been up to so far this week?  As you read this I shall be back at work after ten whole days off of LOVELINESS:  Ten days of Christmas…kind of.  Well more to the point, ten days of rest.  Since working in retail means Christmas and thereafter are rather busy, i like to book myself off a good few days after all the rush of Christmas and the sales have calmed down, just to recharge.  It gives me time to sleep, catch up with friends and family, cook, clean and…well more sleep.  It has felt good.  I feel ready to go back though, i've missed those beautiful Monsoon girls LOTS.  But what have I loved so far this week?  Let's get going shall we:  

*  Falling in LOVE with another coat.  I have tried it on three times already this week.  Twice in one day.  But it's a little expensive and more than i would usually shell out on a coat. BUT it is a wonderful bright green and is lined with the most beautiful candy pink and green flora-ly botanical print inside.  It's just heaven it really is.  If you can imagine:  If Spring were a coat then it would be this one.  If there is one thing i have learnt as i have grown up, there a few things clothes-wise really worth investing in:  Coats, boots and shoes, and well-fitting jeans.  Have i convinced you?  I think i have convinced myself…

*  Waking up to the SOUND of birdsong for the first time in months.  One of the very best things ever.  It made me feel like Spring is juuuust there.  I'm so READY for it i just cannot begin to tell you.

*  Cold pressed RAW Almond butter.  I spend far, far too much time in my local whole food shop.   Is it a sad time when you find yourself excited by trying a new nut butter?!  I'd only ever tried regular almond butter - the kind that's pretty much just like peanut butter and the kind you would use just like you use peanut butter.  The kind lady in our health food shop told me raw almond butter was wonderful alongside anything chocolate-based.  That sold it alone if i'm honest.  I've been STIRRING it into my morning porridge alongside raw cacao powder and coconut oil when i am out of bananas.  It just beefs it up a bit more and makes it so much thicker and creamier.  It's also lovely melted into warmed almond milk alongside a few scoops of raw cacao powder.  That delicious drink has been my absolute go-to after icy morning bike rides.

*  Florence.  I love having my Ipod on SHUFFLE.  This weeks bike rides have mostly been accompanied with the goddess that is Florence and the Machine and i have been loving it.  Not that i forgot her dear face and beautiful melodies, i think i just needed to be reminded she was there!

*  Late afternoon banana bread baking FANCIES!  That was Tuesday.  It's one of my favourite bakes and one i feel almost virtuous baking because it's all made out of things you kind of have hanging around, and also one which feels rather healthy due to being packed with bananas and only being sweetened with honey.  We also make ours with spelt flour which makes it feel a bit lighter and less bread-y?  Sometimes i even add some chopped walnuts.  It sits somewhere between cake and bread.  It's DELICIOUS served warm from the oven.  My very favourite way to have it though, is when it's a day or two old.  Then it's firmed up a bit, the banana taste is nicer and the bread feels denser.  Pop it in a toaster and then spread generously with peanut butter and munch for a filling breakfast.  YUM!

*  Going to bed with a hot water bottle under my TUMMY.  Every. Damned.  Night.  I am beginning to worry that when it actually does get warmer that i wont be able to sleep without it…

*  Re-organisation.  Since our little attic is so small compact, whilst it is a DREAM to keep clean, it gets messy super-duper easy too.  I took great pleasure in devoting the entire afternoon on Monday to re-organising our draws, filling bags and bags for the charity shop around the corner and having a really good dust and sweep of each and every crevice.  Spiced and warmly scented candles had all but burnt down and so it's been nice to fill jam jars with fresh blooms {anemones and daffodils} and replace them with some fresher scents:  a neroli rose candle and a Lily Flame hyacinth scented dream too.  I've also been burning my Sainbury's Fresh Cotton incense in my clay burner on an evening.  I even had the window open yesterday morning.  Fleetingly….but still.  It felt LOVELY!

*  Stumbling across the most beautiful teapot in TK Maxx and finding out it was reduced to £1 because it was missing its lid.  It makes the perfect receptacle for daffodils!

*  Making the most of what i've GOT.  My hair has been terrible since the weather turned super duper cold up here.  First we had rain and wild, wild winds and now snow and ice.  As a result my hair feels frazzled and just a mess.  It's usually easy to look after and i only have to wash it once or twice a week, using dry shampoo in between.  Lately the dry shampoo feels as if it's not been helping the dryness at all.  Instead of hair-dryer-ing, straightening the odd stick-y out bit or curling it; i've just been leaving it alone.  I've still STRETCHED out my washes, but i've been holding off on the dry shampoo for as long as i can, using coconut oil on the ends and sleeping with it twisted up in a bun.  Then i have just been going with the flow.  Even doing this for a few days has made all of the difference.  

*  Spotting my very FIRST daffodils and snowdrops on a few laps around the park on Monday morning.  

*  HBO's 'Girls.'  Do you LOVE it as much as me?!  Please tell me you watch it too?!  I get so frustrated that it's only on for half an hour!  I feel like i could watch the whole entire series from start to finish and just go round again.  I am a bit annoyed i didn't watch the last series before the new one started again as it left me a bit lost.  But i've decided as soon as it ends i am starting from the very beginning.  I just love it.  I love how CRAZY it is, how relatable it is and as for characters?  Well i couldn't pick a favourite:  I feel like i can relate to each and every one.  Have you seen it?!
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Now it's your turn to SHARE!  Now we are pretty much halfway though the week, what has been your favourite thing so far?  What are you looking forward to for the rest of the week?  Or what is going to get you through the rest of it?! I'd love to know.  Remember you can share your #wonderfulwednesday below, or tweet me too.  I'm @sallytangle.  I'd love to hear from you, even if it's just to tell me i'm not the only one obsessed with Spring, 'Girls' or almond butter!