Wonderful Wednesday #188

 {If ever there was a time of year to look up...}
By jingo i'm here, i'm here and i'm finally in my happy place!  I've got my favourite slouchy charcoal-grey jeans on, my huge cream ruffly jumper {i'm having one of those 'i can't get warm' kind of a day}, my hair is piled {allbeit pineapple-shaped} on top of my head in the messiest creation of a bun that you've ever seen aaand i've got my favourite mug {a cream Anthropologie favourite, adorned with a big golden letter 'S'} filled with my favourite Lady Grey tea!  Whitney Houston's greatest hits is tinkling away in the background and i also have my favorite candle lit {Tobacco Pipe Smoke incase you're wondering} Have I painted the scene well..?!  Can you tell I'm pulling out ALL of the stops tonight!  I've had the l-o-n-g-e-s-t -feelin' start to the week and i'm so very ready to hit pause and to sit and list the very best bits!  
And golly gosh we've already almost began and i havent even asked how YOU are?!?  Has your week also been long-feelin' and full of busy-ness?!?  Maybe you too will sit down and think of a few things that have actually meant this week hasn't been as bad or as long as you'd at first thought?!  Oh, did i tell you i'm also having avocado on toast again for supper?!  AND that it's my day off tomorrow?!  And, and, AND i'm also off again this weekend?!?  Suddenly things don't seem half bad AND i haven't even started listing....


1.  Falling asleep to the sound of the most horrific weather.  You know what if i had a penny for every time a customer at work complains about the weather i could be a zillionaire by now!  Us Brits chit-chat {but mostly complain!} about our weather so much don't we?!  Actually we really shouldn't {me included!}.  We're lucky not to get any real extremities in our weather and that it's fairly predictable and not too havoc-causing!  This week though has been filled with the strongest of gusts and heaviest of rain showers!  There is something rather lovely and a lot of comfort too; to be taken in the fact that you aren't out in it and don't have to be AND best of all; that you're all tucked up in bed listening to the whistling huffs and puffs of a gigantuous storm.  I did worry a little bit for the creaking sycamore tree over the fence right next to our window though....


2.  Porridge.  Oh i know but after my few days off and then not being able to pick up my favourite kind of porridge milk {hazelnut incase you're wondering} i'd sort of not eaten porridge for breakfast for the past week or so without even realising and had got into the habit of a breakfast made up of toasted rye bread topped with banana and nut butter.  This week though, well those stormy nights and a notable drop in the temperature come the morning could only mean one thing:  The porridge game was back on.  Monday morning porridge was SO much heaven i can't even tell you:  Mashed banana mixed through whilst cooking and topped {let's face it the VERY best bit} with a zig-zag of honey, toasted pumpkin seeds, toasted coconut and toasted black sesame seeds.  SO good!  I was warmed right through to my little bones and might have wished that i could have a little nap straight after too...


3.  Kind-of Arancini balls.  Only 'kind of' because i'm pretty sure you're meant to deep fry them and we definetly didn't do that and just tossed them in bread crumbs and baked them.  A great way to use leftover risotto i guess but we actually just used normal leftover cooked rice, fried off with spring onions, diced yellow peppers and garlic.  Then we took little bit of mozzarella, rolled them in pesto and rolled them in rice and THEN rolled them in breadcrumbs and baked them until they were crispy.  We served them on top of a crispy kale and mixed leaf salad with baby tomatoes, fresh basil and a lemon-y dressing and they were the bees knees. I might also add they they were also rather lovely cold for lunch the next day.  I love thrown-together off the cuff suppers just like these.  




4.  Winter perfume.  Whilst i'm not in full-on Autumn Winter coat quite yet {i don't want to peak too soon} i have switched up my perfume to my usual colder weather one.  Is it just me that even does this?!  It makes me sound a little extravagant but i usually ask for my two favourite perfumes for Christmas and birthday and find that a bottle of each usually last me half of the year each.  I just find that i prefer a softer, floral scent in the warmer months and a deeper, richer one come this time of year.  There's a little bit of a lovely feeling snuggling into your first few wears of a more cold-weather coat and smelling a sneaky spritz of perfume on it when you're cold.




5.  All the leaves are brown.  {And the sky is grey.  Well except that it's not, it's pitch black but i couldn't resist *wink wink*}.  After this weeks gale-force wind and burst of rain showers, it's safe to say it's definetly also looking a lot more like autumn instead of just feeling  it.  There's no better typically cliche and predictably autumn-shaped feelin' than crisping and crunching through piles of leaves on your way home on a golden sunny evening! 


6.  Slippers.  I only really wear slippers come this time of year and much prefer scampering around barefoot in the warmer months.  Last week i treated myself to the toastiest pair of sheepskin slippers {you know you're getting older when slippers are a treat...} and i've jumped straight into them as soon as i get home each evening and first thing in the morning. One of this weeks' particular highlights:  Stood wearing my cosy slippers, in my pyjamas and favourite cosy cable cardigan, sipping tea and watching the sun rise from the french doors.  I really am getting older....


7.  New Simple Things magazine.  This is a first.  I'm pre-telling you that i love this even though i bought it last friday; safe in the knowledge that i knew i was working until this Wednesday {are you keeping up?!} just  so that i could save it to treasure and devour cover to cover on my day off {tomrrow}.  Is that odd?!  I mean, i havent even read it yet but i know i'll love it because i fall more and more in love with it each and every month.  In fact, i don't even buy any other magazines and just this one.  And the real dream...?!  To write for them one day.  Can you imagine?!?!  Maybe we should campaign for them to have a #wonderfulwednesday spotlight each issue.....


8.  Music.  Not just music though because i adore it every live-long day!  In fact {aside from words because y'all know i love the bones off the english language and of writing and imagining and dreaming through tangled over-long sentences with not nearly enough punctuation - whoops} BUT if there was one medium i could never do without - music would be right up there alongside the written word.  At the end of last week i was grumpy.  Really grumpy.  And for no real rhyme or reason except maybe tiredness.  It's hard to fix something when you don't really know what caused it {or can't fit in a nap at 5:30pm on a Sunday evening!}. So when i feel like that, there's only one thing for it:  Music. Sure enough, an hour and a half of cleaning bathrooms, changing beds and tickling and tidying up {because what are Sunday evenings for anyway?!?} in preparation for the week ahead all whilst that Mr of mine kindly prepared supper all to the company of Magic FM {BEST picker upper shaped radio station incase you're wondering} and such JOYOUS music by Wet Wet Wet, Phil Collins aaand Micheal Jackson and i was CURED.  And i knew i would be.  Never underestimate the power of music.  


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And quick as a flash - tea, candles and sing-songin' aside, i'm all done again for another week.  Use this list as you wish:  To inspire you to do the same - to stop, count and be grateful for the lovely oftentimes silly greatness of simplicity OR to even just cheer up your cheeks on a mid-week afternoon or evening or in fact whenever you stop by.  Because the day doesn't really matter does it?!  What really matters is that we make the time to notice these little moments.  That we don't let them pass us by in the rush of a working week or a hustle and bustle of busyness and 'to-do's or that we don;t let the big stuff over-shadow the lovely littler bits.  If you've got room for more {and let's face it we've all got room for as many happy lists as we can fit in} then make sure you scamper right on over to  Jo, Helen, Michelle, Sarah, Kate, Cat, Sam, El , Kerri's, and Peta's blogs  and read exactly what's been cheering up their cheeks this week too.  Better still share your own!  And tell us!  So we can share them too! Join in across social media channels using the #wonderfulwednesday tag.  As always i'm @sallyangle. 
Same time next week then...?