✨🌟Moments of mine ✨⭐

My simple pleasures this January & plans for the future

💙

✨💛✨I was looking at the dresser top today so full of colour & blooms... Its so uplifting on a dark, grey afternoon.  Worth the £3 spent. I definitely need colour in my day during January... Sometimes after all the sparkle that Christmas brings when you put the decorations away the home can seem kind of lifeless... So what I've done is kept my fairy lights out around the fireplace. I'll put them away come March when the lighter days start to come. Im still using up my festive candles too. My 'figgy pudding' one is burning today its a lovely festive aroma. 

✨🌟💛✨All this brightness & colour makes my heart skip happily with the joys of Spring to come... So I've been busy with a few hours here and there making mixed media and painted my whimsical creatures. Meet my Spring duck. I really like how this has turned out. 

✨🌟💚✨Local, lovely countryside walks on the old railway tracks which look towards Dartmoor... The tracks been replaced for country paths used by bikes & walkers... High up above the trees on the old viaducts & bridges... Rivers flow below and the sounds of the farmer's fields and birds above... So peaceful. We found an abandoned cottage (maybe the railway masters cottage?)... Lots of beautiful views. 

✨🌟💚✨The wind was whistling through the trees - we said it sounded like the train was still in use...  We only met two other people on this walk... It felt like we had it all to ourselves.  We were overjoyed to see our first snowdrops 💚

✨🌟❤️✨We had another walk around my old stomping ground of Plymouth... It was bitterly cold that day, we wrapped up warm but still nippy in the air. But enjoyed hot chocs and harbour views... And the wonderful light house on the hoe looking out to sea... I didn't take many pics my hands were far too cold to take my mittens off. 

✨🏖️💛🌟✨ And last weekend we had a trip to the coast in Cornwall on the Torpoint car ferry... Oh' my it cheered my soul so much... We took a picnic & headed to Kingsand, Cawsand... Its a place I've mentioned in past posts here on my blog.... Its my favourite! And despite its beauty always seems a hidden gem. Summer it's packed with ferry boat day trippers and most of the sweet coastal cottages are holiday let's now... But Winter to Spring and Autumn it's like a ghost town... I do feel sad that this can happen to such beautiful coastal villages... That these wonderful cottages haven't got local families in keeping them alive all year around and not lining the pockets of rich, wealthy city dwellers making money on holiday homes that only get used less than 6 months of the year!... Rant over! But it is a crying shame.

Stevies father grew up playing on cawsand beach and remembers the fishing boats and a hive of activity which sadly is long gone. 

But, one Joy of it being a seasonal village and only about 2,3 shops its not busy at all during winter and its so beautiful & peaceful... We always admire the colours of the cute and quirky little cottages picking out our favourites... I do hope one day we'll move closer to the sea. My childhood was spent on an island on the east coast and I miss it so much ... The fresh sea air... The sound of the rolling waves... Blissfully perfect! 

✨🌟💙✨🌟✨Oh I do like to be beside the sea side... Beside the sea...

🏖️✨💛✨⭐

Beach combing, treasure seeking, rock pool hunting, pebble skimming... 💙

✨💛🏖️✨⭐ I adore Dartmoor and the walks and rivers around me here but I think I'm at that time in my life where we are not going to be needing a good school... Sophs now nearing the end of schooling... And the college shes hoping for is a city one so as long as she's on a train, bus route it opens up moving to the coast. And that feels my heart with joy!. I can see a new life by the sea. And I so hope we can... Its a big move so it won't be just yet. Lots to think about, decide on and work out financially... But watch this space. 🤞

✨💛⭐💙✨ The only problem with cornish coastal villages is how expensive they are...especially the ones I long to live in. The market has rocketed. But, its not a rush... I'm happy to wait for something worth waiting for. And I love getting ideas and snippets from magazines and feeling inspired. Im not a fan of change it gives me big anxiety but some how I don't feel like that about moving to the coast, it actually excites me more. My partner has been discussing it for years too now... We want a studio too... So there's been many 'a discussion lately. 

✨💛⭐✨💚✨⭐Back to cosy comforts... I've been wearing all my winter woollies this Winter as the temperatures have been freezing... I even wear a jumper & thick woolly socks to bed... Also being aware of rising gas bills I've really reduced what we use. But we do still use the heat especially evenings... But I never put it on if I'm in the cottage alone. Just another jumper! Thankfully I have plenty of them. And I've been using a water bottle & blankets. Even mittens downstairs... What a sight! Sounds more like wartime Britain and making do! 

✨🌟✨🌟⭐✨Keep warm and cosy. 

x   K a z z y   x

Here we go a wassailing ✨⭐

✨✨✨✨🌟✨✨✨✨

(New year's eve, Wassailing in the New year at Cotehele Orchard, National trust) 

✨✨🎉✨✨⭐✨✨🎉✨✨

✨⭐2023⭐🥂

A New year's blessing of good health and well being...

I definitely do not believe in new year's resolutions, 

I think it's far better on yourself to just take each day with an open heart and a open mind and enjoy the simple pleasures that come our way... Life has taught me through some quite frankly difficult times in my past that looking at the good things within our daily life however big or small can make even the bleakness of days so much bearable. I've always kept a journal for positive thoughts... I like to look back through the pages, remembering the good bits of year that's passed.  Life can be a roller-coaster of ups and downs...but here, on my blog I prefer to share my happy little snapshots of life. 

Enjoying the festive garland at the Medieval Hall at Cotehele... ✨✨⭐✨ It's absolutely magical and beautiful and made from all the dried flowers grown in the gardens at Cotehele, each year its more and more beautiful... It definitely cheers my soul. 

Lots of turquoise jars showcasing the dried flowers used in the garland... ✨✨✨⭐

Also, a few days before we spent a Magical day at Buckland Abbey, national trust. So many handmade textile decorations to feast your eyes on and the old Monks barn was made into a magical lit up forest of Christmas trees with sounds of nature around in hidden speakers and wildlife decorations hidden within the branches. A huge textile white Swan on a dish in the huge kitchen. 

✨✨✨✨⭐✨✨✨✨✨⭐✨✨✨✨

New year's New journal... Junk journals, I'm still working in my pin dolly junk journal from last year... Dipping in and out when I feel inspired to... No rush, no deadline. But I've started a New creative junk journal too, filled with ideas and inspirations... Also a sketchbook journal for drawings and scribblings and doodles... 

A New year always seems to bring me lots of new ideas... The excitement of new paintings and crafty creations... I'd especially like to do some more slow stitch style drawings too, brooches and little wall hangings... Even weaving... The winter months do inspire me most... But finding time is my biggest problem... Such a big year this year with my daughter revising for her g. c. s. e's, so I'm putting her needs first this year. We've been to college open evenings and another this week... I still almost pinch myself that I have a sixteen year old. I'm so proud of her and everything she's achieved in her life so far. So it's going to be very busy months a head! But I'll try get some art in too here and there. ✨✨⭐✨✨

... My imagination put down on paper✨✨🌟Also Misty early morning skies over our Market town And a friendly Robin... ⭐

Today its been so dark and mizzly here in Devon... ✨🌟✨🌧️🌦️🌧️

Hyacinths and snowdrops on the window... 

Cheering up a bleak, wet January afternoon. 

Finding joy in simple pleasures. My foxy mask hangs up reminding me of a joyful wassail... I hope your year is filled with wonderful small pleasures that bring you joy✨✨🌟✨

    x      K  a  z  z  y      x