In the thick, barbarous fog of deep pre-pay-day January, everything is a little bleak. Bleak and dark. I’d go as far as to say depressing: getting out of bed, doing the dishes, paying the tax bill… So I thought it would help to meditate on some happy thoughts of simple things that can be enjoyed, mostly for free:

• Shiny rows of glossy magazines. Especially the ones about glamorous interiors. Wow.
• Flowers – fresh pinks or bright lemons
• Clean bed linen (preferably new, with packaging wrinkles intact)
• Synchronicity
• Tins and boxes with lovely prints
• Haberdashery - Liberty’s springs to mind but Mandors will do…
• The scent of Rose – for everything – but I love my Neal’s Yard Rose Facial Oil
• Sleeping in the afternoon
• New carpet – texture, smell
• Cold, crisp sunny days
• The quiet tranquility of very early morning (not when I have to get up for work)
• Ticking things off my to-do list
• Writing a new to-do list on a fresh, clean page
• Fabulous stationery. This can be pored over in a shop to get the same frisson
• Day-dreaming
• A grande signature hot chocolate from Starbucks (mostly without whipped cream)
• Staying up late reading a great book
• Waking up inspired from a fantastical dream
• Freshly painted nails in scarlet/emerald/fuchsia
• A compliment from a perfect stranger (like that time a man I didn’t know bought me a cocktail in a bar because “I was too beautiful to pay for my own cocktail”! That was a buzz!
• Sunlight streaming into a room (any room, anywhere – this is such a universal joy)
• My bright orange bag from Kitsch Kitchen in Amsterdam
• Having a good cry over nothing in particular
• Listening to the ‘upbeat’ playlist on my iPod – 60′s, 90′s, random downloads…

Oh yes, I feel better already. Let happy thoughts rule in 2011!

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