Scrumptious Puttery Treats

Well I think it’s about time don’t you? You see the problem with scrumptiousness is that if you don’t attend to making life lovely on a daily basis, you forget to attend to it all and life becomes one long round of kids packed lunches and scrubbing toilets and it seems to me that there is little joy to be found in the daily drudge. Unless of course we whiz around the dull stuff, housekeeping music on full blast, collapse with a long, tall glass of something cold and fruity and then award ourselves an afternoon resplendent with puttery loveliness…

Go on. Take your pick…

* Seek out lavender, orange or rose scented sugar syrup and use it to add a little blast of loveliness to plain yogurt first thing in the morning….

* Mommies never frame photographs of themselves. Find a photograph of you at your prettiest and put it on the kitchen windowsill. You are beautiful… you just forget occasionally.

* Set yourself a challenge for the next twelve months, twelve difficult books you will read between now and next Spring. Twelve increasingly difficult sock patterns…? A chapter a month of the book you’ve long considered writing…?

* Create an "organisation station". A corner of the kitchen where a pinboard, calendar, diary, address book and housekeepers journal live. Have a little pot with pen, glue and scissors, a tin with note cards, envelopes and stamps, a place to charge your mobile, and somewhere to hang your keys. Never again will you leave the house without your shopping list…

* Take yourself on a creative excursion for the biggest ball of natural string you can find. Aesthetically gorgeous all by itself you will find endless uses for it and will, like I do, consider it a fabulously silly investment…

* Spend the afternoon downloading a wonderfully upbeat collection of Springtime music to your Ipod, Just perfect for finally getting into the garden and dancing by yourself while you sweep away the last vestiges of Winter.

* Hunt out an old fashioned enamel coffee pot and use it to water your houseplants while you wait for the kettle to boil in the morning…

* Create a "Treasure journal" for noting the provenance and price of all your vintage finds. Make it handbag sized and oh so pretty and you will, over time find yourself with a precious little record of your favourite vintage haunts and most gleeful moments of discovery…

* Spray your signature perfume onto your partners pillow… Oh and while you are about it, open your underwear drawer and spray a tiny blast in there too…

* Sew yourself an oh so quick collection of eco shopping bags from scraps of vintage this and that and stash them everywhere: in your handbag and the boot of your car… Never again will the supermarket cashier sneer at you when you pack your shopping into a plastic bag…

* Add a length of the prettiest, brightest ribbon you can find to your house keys. They’ll be so much easier to spot in the abyss that is your handbag…

* Dust your light bulbs with a cloth infused with aromatherapy oil for a gentle scent when you switch them on…

* Create a "Charging Point". Choose a plug and extension and use it to charge mobile phones, cameras, mp3 players etc etc all in one place. Enough already with all these wires dangling everywhere! 

* Choose a pretty teacup and use it to scoop washing powder into the machine.

* Freeze slices of leftover lemon into ice cubes for the perfect G and T’s…

* Sprinkle handkerchiefs with cedar oil and put them in the pockets of Winter coats before you put them into storage for the Summer…

* Write your Daddy a love letter and include a picture of yourself as a little girl… perhaps he misses her…