Thursday, January 5, 2012

Things That Make Me Smile No. 1: My new bling

I was uncharacteristically watching Dumbrise this morning when a piece came on about a woman who decided to take one photo each day of something she was grateful for. I'd been thinking about this earlier - probably because I'd subliminally registered a headline mentioning that the piece was coming up - and wondering whether this is a project I should take on. Well, if it's anything like my 365 Clouds project (yes, take a photo of a cloud every day) it'll last about 3 days, then get forgotten about for a day or two, then resurrect itself for a few days and then die an early death. I did learn though that overcast skies are incredibly hard to photograph and that clouds move fast so it wasn't an entirely wasted experience.

So, it's not really worth me starting up a new blog but as most of the things that I'm grateful for tend to be to do with my family I figured I'd just stick it into this blog. Who am I kidding? It's because I haven't updated any of my other blogs for so long it just doesn't seem right to start doing it again. This blog is where it's at these days.

So I wondered for a while whether to bother, having read something at some point in my reasonably recent past about gratitude diaries leading people to feel more miserable. I tried to remember what it was that I'd read. Then the piece came on and the woman said that she'd been miserable and having a gratitude diary made her happier. She said other stuff too but I was only half watching. She also posted her photos online but when I googled it ("gratitude 365" if you're wondering) there are a few things out there and I'm not sure if any of them are her so I won't bother linking to it.

Then I remembered (I think - see previous post mentioning that sleep deprivation has destroyed my medium-term memory) that the book that I'd read about gratitude diaries making you miserable was actually referring to a study done on children. I forget where I read this or what the study was but it seems a safe bet it was in a great book called "Nuture Shock" by Po Bronson, which basically challenges everything you ever thought about raising kids.

So I've decided to give it a go, with or without a photo but instead of going with the usual "gratitude" title I'm going with Things That Make Me Smile.

Yesterday this was having a bath with Ash. (I didn't take a photo.) I used to bath with Phoebe frequently in the evening. Sometimes Toby would bath with her and other times we'd all get in the bath together. We've had a family bath once or twice since Ash came along but it's a rare occurrence. Usually it's just the two kids splashing around together. It was lovely to have some time alone with my baby, to just chill out, have a breastfeed and enjoy some skin to skin contact which we hadn't really done since we left hospital. (In hospital Toby and I were enjoying our perfect little newborn so much we didn't dress him for two days. We just wrapped him in blankets.)

Today I started the day thinking that the fact that Ash had woken once in the night at 4am for the second night in a row, and then slept until 7.30am, was the thing that made me smile today. Then my bling arrived.

My Emirates airmiles were expiring and I couldn't afford to travel home in time to use them. So, despite being incredibly skint it meant I had a fair whack of credit to spend on myself. I ordered a beautiful Swarovski necklace and matching earrings (and a wine cooler). They are just so unbelievably gorgeous. The earrings are solid and heavy and make me feel very glamorous. The necklace is so fancy it has a crystal-encrusted Swarovski swan pendant at the clasp and even the clasp has the swan imprinted. It definitely made me smile. And I did take a photo.



Now I just need to sort out my finances so I can afford to go out somewhere and wear them.

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