Why Don't You?

It’s Why Don’t You time, my lovely (supposedly weekly!) feature inspired by Diana Freeland: seven scrumptious little suggestions designed to help you think outside your house-shaped box, incorporate the pretty, dream up new ideas and add new routines and rituals to your day

Let’s start planning a little loveliness…

Day One…

Order a full-length body pillow to snuggle up to in bed. There are so many reasons why this is a good thing – wrapping your legs around a pillow helps prevent knee pain and keeps your hips aligned; snuggling something makes you feel safe without heating up your partner by clinging on to them or dragging all the quilts over to your side of the bed in order to have something to hold on to; and keeping your head and spine aligned helps prevent shoulder and back ache, and reduces both snoring and acid reflux.

What’s not to like? Try the (amazing) orthopaedic pillow from Kally Sleep.

Day Two…

If your head feels fuzzy then it is time to get really specific about your life by making a good old-fashioned five year plan: if only so that you can visualise a time-line for those years without your plans turning into spaghetti in your head.

So get cozy and start writing: what will life look like next year? How do you want it look in five years time? What do you need to do between now and then to bridge the gap between what seems impossible now but your heart needs then? Be honest, be practical and try not to let yourself be held back by what seems to be standing in your way today: there is ALWAYS a solution to all that life throws at us.

Day Three…

Re-think the way you look after yourself by downloading Danielle Coppermnn’s guide to Well Being (Currently just $3.99 for the Kindle!) and reinforce your attitude to making yourself your priority by registering (Free) for one of Yale’s most popular courses ever, The Science of Wellbeing on Coursera.

Day Four…

Today freshen up your oven and by filling a deep baking tray with boiling water and adding ten to twenty drops of vanilla essence or vanilla essential oil. Swirl it around then pop it into the oven on its highest setting. “Bake” until almost all of the water has evaporated and then switch the oven off and remove the tray.  Et voila no more fishy stench!

Day Five…

 Tonight treat yourself to the bliss of Stephen Fry walking you through fields of lavender as you fall asleep.

Day Six…

Today get serious about editing your life to gain clarity on who you are and where you are headed. Think not about editing clutter but instead about cutting out those aspects of your life that are no longer serving you. Look at your week and identify where you are over complicating it. Consider how often you are saying yes when your soul is screaming no. Examine routines and decide which aspects are not necessary: those things you do simply because you do, but which are in fact not bringing either joy or meaning to your life.

Get brave and consider editing friends who aren’t really kind, abandoning courses that may be worthy but make you uncomfortable or bored. exercise you do routinely but which no longer make you feel alive and shops that numb your brain because the stock never changes, etc. etc.

Cut, chop and change! 

Day Seven..

Transport yourself back to your childhood by deciding to have a Laura Ingals Wilder season: start at the very beginning with her Little House on the Prairie series, snuggled up under a crocheted blanket (just right for a cozy Autumn I think?), then move on to read about the woman herself in Prairie Fires, the best-selling biography by Caroline Fraser.

Have a lovely week Housekeepers!

P.S: Have you joined The Puttery Treats Club yet?