Things that make me happy

This is how I wish I would spend my weekend, or some of it at least, in front of a fire with a good book. I need to rest my mind and gather energy, and there really is no better way to do this (for me) than to get lost in a favorite book. But unfortunately for me, modern apartments rarely have a fireplace, and I did plan to continue to sort through all that old stuff that somehow have invaded my home...so I guess I have to save my reading for bed at night. Now, there isn't anyone who force me to do this clean up but me, but I have had this feeling for quite some time now, that it is time to move from thinking about it to doing it, so... Anyway, I know I will feel so much happier when it is done. But I will make sure to make time for rest and relaxation too, of course.

 

I'm grateful for the beauty around us these days. Gratitude is an important part of life as it opens us up for changes for the better. It isn't just make-believe that life becomes more joyful when we start to be grateful for the little things in life. When I feel grateful for the things I already have, and what already works for me, I become more positive and happier, and I start to feel better about myself and life... and that is what makes the difference. So, I've started to consiously notice the things that makes me happy and that I'm grateful for every day.

 

Other things that makes me happy...

 

 Old-fashioned romantic rooms...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roses. lace and Pearls...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thomas Kinkade paintings....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soft piano Music and a fire...

  

 

 

Candles...

 

 

 

Early silent morning hours before the world outside wakes up...just me and my morning coffee and my journal....  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To curl up on the sofa and listen to the rain outside...knowing I don't have to go out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I wish you all a Wonderful Weekend...

 

 

Autumn blessings...

As nights get longer and darker, we light candles to create a warm and cozy feeling. I love get up in the morning, make coffee and light candles ~ and then sit and contemplate the day, write in my journal, or just daydream for a while before the day really begins. I feel good in moth body and soul when I can start my day at my own pace, which is slowly. There are so many things to be grateful for in life, and this is one of those things.

 

Isn't it strange how we often miss the little things when we count our blessings? We seem to take so many things for granted, and never think to be grateful for what we have. I try to find time to list things I'm grateful for, every day, and very often it is the small, simple things that make it on the list. My health, my home, my children (even though they are now grownups), that we have food to eat every day, the quiet moment early in the morning before the world outside wakes up, to sit in solitude and contemplate my day while sipping my morning coffee, to write in my journal daily... You see, this is really not any grand things, but they make it on my list of things I'm grateful for. To be grateful for the little things that we have can make a big difference in creating big things in our life. It is like little children and Santa Claus ~ you have to believe to see him. Believing is seeing, when we want to manifest our dreams too. Believe, be grateful...and then be able to recieve.

 

 

 

And as I probably won't be able to write until next month....

 

 

 

I wish you all a wonderful day...and weekend.

 

 

Autumn season

So have autumn finally found its way to us to stay it seems. At least for this year. Colder weather is coming they said in the weather forecast this morning, strong winds and rain are on its way to visit us. But as September is on its last week, it is only natural that the temperature drops, in fact it is the way it should be this time of the year.

 

The weekend was slow, and peaceful, and relaxing...just as it should be in a village far from the big towns and cities. Mostly I like this peaceful and quiet life, but now and then I long for a little bit more of activity and life. I'm not the bar kind of lady, more of a café kind, and there are only one café and it closes early, so... But for now it is good enough. There are other things that make it a nice hideaway right now, like it is walking distance everywhere you need to go. 

 

It seems like I do a lot of complaining today, and I guess we all have days like that, don't we? Maybe the weekend was a little too quiet after all... But for now that is okay. It gives us a chance to gather energy to make Changes...

Sudden change in weather...

 

 

Today autumn really hit us with a temperature drop that made the walk a bit more chilly than it's been the past week, despite wool sweather and heavier shoes. But the crisp air feels clear and refreshing, and it is the middle of September, after all, so one shouldn't complain I suppose. And I do love to live with the change of seasons, not fight it. So I'll be spending the weekend bringing out the warmer clothes and put away the summer clothes ~ for this time.  And I'm looking forward to it, believe it or not. This over night weather change calls for a cozy weekend indoors. So changing seasons in my closet, lots of hot tea, a stack of magazines, and maybe a movie or two....looks like a plan to me.

 

Take care everybody and have a wonderful weekend!

 

 

Autumn quote...

And the birch trees have all started to turn yellow over night... The clouds fly low today, not even making it over the hilltops that surround our village, and there's a kind of wet chill in the air that only autumn brings. A day for hot tea and a good book, and for watching the leaves dance in the wind outside my window... Today I feel like being lazy, as so often during this season when nature prepare to go to sleep. Well, at least there's tea....and a book...and a moment to relax and drift away to another world found in the pages of a good book.   lol

The meaning of Autumn for me...

This is my kind of lazy weekend morning. I'd love to have breakfast in bed, read for a while, maybe write a long letter to a friend I haven't been in contact with for some time...but unfortunately reality doesn't look quite like that. But I'm still hopeful that it may happen, one morning, in a close future. As the hopeful romantic that I am I do prefer the quiet, cozy autumn mornings, and nights, spent indoors in the company of good books, old favorite movies ~ and a pot of tea (or coffee if morning). Why deny ones true self and her wishes and needs?

I found this picture online, and I think it is a pretty accurate checklist for autumn. At least the list of my kind of autumn. As we approach mid September, it feels a little bit strange to have summer weather outside still. Even though the evenings and mornings are crisp and chilly, I do long for a tiny bit of autumn in the air during the day too. Or maybe it's just that I, as nature do, are feeling autumns place in the natural rhytm in nature and life ~ a time to prepare for the winter rest? 

I say bye-bye with this picture by my favorite artist, Thomas Kinkade. This weather feels far away right now when its over 20C outside, but I will get here...and part of it long for the excuse to curl up with a great book, or a stack of magazines, and a large cup of cocoa...  

Now have a wonderful magical autumn day everybody, and we'll meet again soon.

The meaning of Autumn for me...

This is my kind of lazy weekend morning. I'd love to have breakfast in bed, read for a while, maybe write a long letter to a friend I haven't been in contact with for some time...but unfortunately reality doesn't look quite like that. But I'm still hopeful that it may happen, one morning, in a close future. As the hopeful romantic that I am I do prefer the quiet, cozy autumn mornings, and nights, spent indoors in the company of good books, old favorite movies ~ and a pot of tea (or coffee if morning). Why deny ones true self and her wishes and needs?

I found this picture online, and I think it is a pretty accurate checklist for autumn. At least the list of my kind of autumn. As we approach mid September, it feels a little bit strange to have summer weather outside still. Even though the evenings and mornings are crisp and chilly, I do long for a tiny bit of autumn in the air during the day too. Or maybe it's just that I, as nature do, are feeling autumns place in the natural rhytm in nature and life ~ a time to prepare for the winter rest? 

I say bye-bye with this picture by my favorite artist, Thomas Kinkade. This weather feels far away right now when its over 20C outside, but I will get here...and part of it long for the excuse to curl up with a great book, or a stack of magazines, and a large cup of cocoa...  

Now have a wonderful magical autumn day everybody, and we'll meet again soon.

Thomas Kinkade autumn...

I must admit to being a great admirer of Thomas Kinkades work. It speaks to the old-fashioned romantic in me I guess. There is something very comforting about his paintings of these old villages that speak to my soul as well as to my heart. I'd very much like to find a place like this and live a peaceful life there for the rest of my life. Don't we all wish for a peaceful, slower pace of life..?  Really..? Well, I do!

This post is a bit short, but I hope you all have a blessed and peaceful autumn day!

Septemer

The first day of September, and the sun is shining and it's warm as a summer day...and I feel grateful for these sunny days after a rather wet and chilly summer. And yet I long for the dark nights when candles light up the room with their soft warm light and the rain give me an excuse to cuddle up with a good book, or a stack of magazines, and a huge cup of hot tea. I wish I had a fire place, but I don't ~ yet ~ so I daydream of that home looking into the flickering flames of the candles... 

What is autumn really? To me it's the time when nature prepare itself and get ready for the long sleep during the cold winter months. It is woods set in flames by the bright red, orange, and yellow leaves. It is crisp, chilly air in the morning and star filled midnight blue sky at night. It is also a time for soups and stews that warm and comfort, and hot tea and cocoa before bed at night (and you definitely not have to be a child to enjoy that!). It's a time to slow down, relax, read and prepare for my winter rest...more or less. Whatever your view on what the change in season means ~ enjoy it and let it restore your energy, lift your spirit, and have fun with it.

Take care and enjoy the season...

Goodbye August, Hello September.

It's been the kind of summer that makes one long for the change of season and the bright colors of autumn. But I'm not complaining. Not much anyway.  lol   But it feels good to settle into a mood of rest now that nature does the same. And the crisp, chilly air in the morning feels fresh to breath and the nights are still warm enough to sit on the balcony for a while... Anyway, I feel the best when I follow the natural rhythm of nature and life. And that means to adapt to the changing seasons as well. And I found out that I actually love them all. 

The passing of time

It's the end of July already, and I can hardly understand how fast this year has gone by. The days passed us by so quickly that I feel like I almost feel dizzy when trying to remember where they went. Or maybe that's something that comes with age? But I'm not old. Vintage perhaps, and old-fashioned, but never old. Whatever the reason, more than half of this year has gone by, and we're approaching autumn too fast for my liking.

To be perfectly honest, it is a tiny bit too quiet and peaceful in this village, at least for me, but one shouldn't complain.  I just wish there would come a few more tourists, and that there would be at least one more coffee shop ~ that are open after 6 pm ~ so that one can have a latté and relax now and then. I'm not made for a life this peaceful, I've come to understand. But as I said, one shouldn't complain. And yet we do, don't we, when things don't feel right in our heart or our souls? It's a bad habit we have, isn't it? Maybe it's time to change..? There are so many things to be grateful for, starting with our families and friends, and the little things in life. But I still want a place for people like me, who like to just pass time and watch what goes on from the chair in a café ~ after 6 pm.

Happy Summer!

Today isn't the sunny day I may have wished for ~the sky is dark grey with clouds, and the wind is a a bit chilly ~ but it is summer still. At least the start of a great summer...in my mind. 

Miracles...

The weather is absolutely wonderful outside, at least for another day or two according to the weather forecast, and daughter and I have spent as much time as possible outdodors in the sun and the warm winds. It's amazing how much a little sunshine does for ones mood!

This is also the time for my favorite flowers, lilacs, lily-of-the-valley, and later roses. The spring brings wonderful fragrance and colors to stimulate all our senses and bring us joy. And I do feel joyful, despite all the terrible things that are going on in the world. I do believe that we become our thoughts and feelings, and so does our world. So I try to stay as positive and joyful as I can to bring joy and positive events back to my life. After all, miracles do happen every day ~ even if we don't always see them. And it's not always the big headlines that speak of the true miracles, no, most miracles happen on a much smaller and quieter level and may not be seen by the eye to most people. They are most often felt in the hearts of the reciever of the gift that the miracle is. But it is still a miracle even if only noticed by one heart.

The soft pastel days of life.

Today I feel like...soft pastells. I love the pale pink, green, lilac, blue, yellow, apricot...the soft tones of the color scale. Because sometimes we do need the soft, the less visible, the more quiet shades in our life. We don't always have to shout our existens in bright, strong, vibrant, loud colors ~ or voices ~ to be notices. Some days we need to stay in the background and watch. And today is one of those days for me. Today is a soft pastel colored day, a day when I prefer to notice without being noticed, and contemplate life without participate in the action.

Soft pastel days in life are the days when I gather energy and strength and concentrate on just being, instead of doing.They are the days when I make wishes and dream and meditate on the life I see myself create for myself, and my family. Soft pastel days are days for curling up on the sofa, and listen to soft music while I daydream, or flip through an old magazine (yes, I collect some favorites, like Victoria magazine) and sip Green Earl Grey tea. And when the evening comes and the sun sets behind the hills, I light candles and watch the flames flicker and dance ~ and feel energized and calm and grateful for just being.

These days don't come on any special time of the year, they can appear in the summer just as easily as in winter, or spring, or autumn. They arrive when we need them, when we have worked ourselves too hard to keep up with what we believe we have to achieve to be "good". And when we feel one of these days coming on, we need to listen and follow the guidance from our inner true self because she always knows best in this case. 

If you never allowed yourself one of these days, you really should try it. It's a lot better than driving yourself into a state of fatigue and depression because you think you have to do it all ~ at once! And you don't have to call it a soft pastel day either. You can call it anything you like that resonates with your true self and the way you need your lazy day to be. For me it feels like the faded soft pastel colors in the pictures above....and I just love them. 

Take care and I'll se you later...

Love you...

Everything coming up roses...

Roses are the flower we most often believe represent love, and their delicate beauty and lovely aroma do lead our minds to feelings that stem from our hearts. But today, I'll settle for the love of self. And that is a very good place to start. After all, how can we expect anyone else to love us if we don't love ourselves and treat ourselves with respect? 

Let's start with making a nice cup of tea and find a comfortable place to sit down and think about what we truly want. Don't forget a notebook and pen. We want to write this down. 
What do I really, really want in my life right now? 
What do I really, really love?
What do I really love about my life? And what have I attracted that I may not feel so hot about?

I have a feeling that this will take a big pot of tea. And maybe a piece of cake too. Why? Because I actually enjoy to have a piece of cake with my tea, especially when doing some hard reflection on myself and my needs and wants. And besides, what lady doesn't deserve to have something tasty in her life now and then?  I definitely am a strong believer of that truth.

Take care and I'll see you later...

Love you...

Hello April ~ Hello Spring!

It's spring in the air. Even when rain is falling outside like a soft mist, or maybe especially because of the rain, I can smell the fragrance of spring as I breath in deeply. I love the milder weather, the daylight that stays longer and longer, and the islands of soft colored spring flowers that pop up almost over night it seems. And most of all, I love that spring is the time for new beginnings, fresh starts, as Mother Nature show us the way when she bring nature back to life after the long winter rest. Much like a good old-fashioned spring cleaning bring our home into the new season looking its best, so does a mental and emotional spring cleaning bring us into this wonderful season feeling refreshed and ready to begin a new life. 

Beginning anew doesn't have to mean you pack up and move away to another part of the world, you know. That's how it's pictured in romantic novels. To begin anew with what we have is what spring is all about, to use what's already there and make something new, or improved, is what spring is all about. At least that is how Mother Nature communicate it to me. And so I am about to go ahead and make a fresh start, begin anew and create the life I am intended to live. That's a pretty wonderful goal, don't you agree? I think I'll do that right now...

Take care and I'll see you later...

Love you...

Life is a journey to be experienced...

Winnie the Pooh is right, life isn't a problem to be solved. Life is a journey to be experienced and enjoyed. But too many of us have to live too long before we realize that, and that's really sad, I think. We shouldn't take life so seriously. Really. We benefit so much from being more like Winnie and look for the good things in life and expect the best. 

In later years we have started to see that we truly need to find more joy in life, add more of what makes us happy, makes us feel good, and there are an ocean of books to tell us how to do that. The simple truth is that the Law of Attraction, be it told in books like The Secret (Rhonda Byrne) or in seminars, works, whether we like it or not. What we focus on is what will come back to us and create our experiences. The same knowledge was well known by our ancestors, even if they may have called by another name. What we focus our thoughts and feelings on ~ is what we will receive. 

It took me a long time to find my way back to that ancient knowledge, but now that I have started to learn what it is and how it works, I am amazed that I didn't make the connection earlier. My life wasn't going in the direction I wished it would, and the more frustrated, disappointed, and angry, I got ~ the more worse it got. It got really bad (but that's another story) and I ended up in a very scary situation where my life took a turn I never had expected. And it wasn't until I was at risk of loosing everything that I stumbled of the knowledge of how these things are connected ~ and I understood how my negative thoughts and feelings had started a chain reaction of negative responses that had led up to where I was at that point. This is not modern "new age nonsense", it is very old knowledge about how life actually is built to work. My grand-parents knew it, their parents and grand-parents before them knew this "secret".... Whatever we focus our attention on will create our reality ~ and our journey through life. These days I agree with Winnie the Pooh, life is a journey to be experienced ~ and enjoyed ~ not a problem to be solved. So today, start thinking about what you focus your attention on, and make sure your life story is a bestseller.

Take care and I'll see you later...

Love you...

Words...

I love to read ~ and I love to write. There is something relaxing in sitting down with a good book and let the mind drift away to the make-believe land on the pages. And there is something very rewarding in putting words to ones experiences and feelings by writing them down in a journal. So I read, and I write, both on a daily basis. Just for the fun of it. Because, let me tell you a secret, when one spend time doing things that make one feel good ~ it has an effect on every area of ones life. Add a gratitude to the mix and you can create a wonderful magical life, the wonderful life you dream about. Sounds great, doesn't it? But honestly, you can learn that from any number of books and websites, so I won't go into that further.

Writing is a great way to keep memories alive. When one write something down, it's easier to remember it, and one can go back years later and bring back those memories to life again. Being me, I also prefer a hand-written letter to an email as it feels more personal and special to think about that the other person took time to sit down and write those words with a pen on a paper instead of on a computer. It takes thought to put those words down on the paper, knowing that there is no button to click to undo misstakes, and that's what I appreciate.

Writing also includes keeping a journal, and I especially love to sit down with my first cup of coffee in the morning and reflect on the day that is waiting to begin. I write down my dreams and wishes, but even more important, what I am grateful for ~ both what I already have and what I wish to recieve. That's how one make dreams become reality, by making a wish and then believe that it is already present. It is my way of sorting my mind out, one can say, contemplating over the things that goes on in my life, and sometimes in the world around me, without judgment or prejudice. And of course, it is also because I love to put words to my thoughts and feelings in a beautiful notebook.  ;-)
Anyway, I believe that keeping a journal is one of the best things one can do to keep ones mind peaceful and calm...and to keep memories alive. If you haven't tried it yet, please do. It doesn't really matter if your spelling or grammar is correct as a journal is private and meant for your eyes only.

Take care and I'll see you later...

Love you...

Just for fun...

No, the picture isn't mine, I borrowed it from some page a long time ago, but it pretty much represents my style ~ vintage, classic, romantic... Some say there comes a time when one doesn't look very good anymore in these kind of clothes, and they are probably right, but I like the old-fashioned classic romantic look, and so I stubbornly continue to look for things that are in my taste. Right or wrong.

This is another picture I've "borrowed" because I like the look, and colors. There really in nothing wrong with being a bit old-fashioned ~ if that is what makes one happy and suits ones taste.

Going on a weekend trip? I'd be more than happy to pack this ~ and everything in the pictures above ~ in my suitcase for a journey... So now that you know my style, I guess you'll recognize me if we ever meet? Well, one never knows. We may stumble into each other one day, and I hope we'll have a wonderful time when we do.

Take care and I'll see you later...

Love you...