Black and green

I've been wearing black and green (clothes not chocolate!) for the past three days. It's been too warm for jeans (not that I'm complaining) and it feels like the height of luxury and decadence to smooth body so fine on to make my legs look a little bit sparkly as they peek from my skirt.

I'm assuming that my move back to wearing green and black (my favourite colours) means that I'm feeling like me again! I've even painted my toenails green and have been wearing green bracelets.

I was interested to see this take on wearing green clothes. I've also been adding more green items to the collage on my study wall. All the different shades of green look so good together. Alas it's going to have to come down as Dear Heart and I are working on transforming my study into the perfect room for me to do my stuff in (that'll be sewing, writing, reading, yoga and feeling creative then). We took the carpet up last week. Chipped the plaster off the chimney breast to expose the brick underneath. Stripped the paint off the door to reveal the wood. Dear Heart is going to sort out the plaster on the walls, sand the floor boards and paint it all in a nice neutral shade. Except for one wall which is going to be covered in cork tiles so that I can use it as an inspiration wall.

I'm rather excited by this prospect. I've been taking a break from eBay but I have several boxes taking up floor space in my study that I just want to sell so that there is no clutter! Photographs will hopefully follow at some not to distant point!

the make-up diet

Yesterday I had an appointment at the Benefit counter in Boots. I was looking forward to half an hour of hearing about the latest products, oohing and aahing over colours and packaging and just generally feeling pampered. I've been watching my money with the thought of buying a few items.

Anyway I got there on time and both the assistants were engaged with other people. So I hung around and examined all the products. Then I examined the again. Both assistants were showing no sign of lifting their heads. So I wandered around a bit more. It was 20 minutes after my appointment was due to start by this point. I was feeling very self concious and thinking that even if they did finally acknowledge me I was going to be cutting things a bit fine to make my bus. So I left.

And as I walked away I felt a sense of relief and puzzlement. Why had buying expensive make-up been so important to me? I've got so much make-up and quite a bit of it is Benefit anyway. I really don't need anymore eyeshadow, foundation or lipstick. I wasn't going to be there to buy something I needed, I was there because I felt the need to find something to buy. So I decided no more make-up until I've used up what I have. If I want to be pampered I'll book in somewhere for a massage or a pedicure.

Here's to using what we have before buying more.

Santa visited my house!

I had a splendid Christmas curled up at home with Dear Heart. He did home-made pizza for Christmas dinner served with champagne.

So many people bought me thoughtful presents. Dear Heart bought me (among other delights) some vouchers for a local sewing shop. I’m so exciting by the prospect of buying patterns and fabrics!

I also had some lovely gardening themed presents including slate markers, stuff to scrub my hands with (and boy do I normally need it after a session on my allotment) and then make the nails all nice and a welly airer (no more wet wellies).

A feast of Sudoku puzzles with an enormous pack of pencils. I was thrilled to solve a ‘killer’ (where you have to make the number equal the total in dotted line box) for the first time ever.

My birthday is just after Christmas, so I was showered with presents once again. My sister bought me a totally genius card with fuzzy felt front (see http://www.fuzzyfelt.com/ if you have no idea what I’m talking about). It showed a birthday cake and I’ve made loads of different pictures since. That’s definitely going on my desk to play with when I’m stressed or need to be creative.

I got loads of Benefit products. I was really excited to have so many different products. Some of them were things that I would never buy brand named (such as make-up remover) so it rather nice to give them a go even if I never buy them again. I’ve had a play with some of them over the festive period but have decided that I’m going to put some of them away and open them in June so I can really appreciate this kind of abundance.

I’m really touched that so many people bought me such lovely things and have taken the time to think about my interests and what I might like (anything green rocks).