Saying goodbye to 2015 with a good book

What better way to say goodbye to the year than by settling down with a nice book? I spent the morning in the garden, checking that all was well; bird feeders full, bird baths topped up, gave my chooks clean water and filled their bowls with some extra snacks, cleaned the wildlife pond's pump and filter, saw to it that the patio was clean and washed, the pathways neat and free from debris and that all the pot plants had enough water.

I've prepared a light meal and some snacks for hubby and I for tonight, and now I'm looking forward to settling down with that good book, a cold glass of Rosé, some snacks nearby and soothing back-ground music. Although that might be trumped by hubby wanting to watch some TV. That's also OK.

No noisy party or get-together this year - in fact, we have not attended noisy parties or get-togethers for quite a few years now (and it's not an age thing!) Smile! I've always been partial to quiet evenings at home on New Year's Eve, even as a youngster. Sometimes I stay up to greet the new year at midnight, yelling "Happy New Year!" to all the garden birds, much to their consternation! Then it's time for a midnight snack and off to bed.

However you spend your New Year's Eve, here's wishing that you enjoy it immensely and that your new year is filled with abundance, peace and lots of good books.

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right!

.

Merry Christmas 2015!

Here's wishing you a good book and a cup of coffee this Christmas day! May this festive season be filled with LOVE, JOY, INSPIRATION and lots of reading!

My pet peeve - a dog ear

One of my pet peeves is the dog-earing of books! And yes, underlining and highlighting passages, scribbling in the margins and crumpling dustcovers! When I get a new book, I spend several minutes caressing it, gazing lovingly upon it, and eventually hugging it to my chest in unabashed glee and just the thought that someone could desecrate it by folding pages or scribbling in it has driven me crazy for years.

Why would one want to dog-ear a book? I know it's meant to mark a section or phrase in a book that one finds to be important or of personal meaning, but why harm the page? There are so many innovative ideas of marking a place or keeping your place when you stop reading for a while. This shops are full of beautiful book markers. Anything from metal markers with beautiful dangling silver charms to fabric corner bookmarks that you slip over the corner to plasticized cardstock with magnets.

 

Narrow sheet of paper with inspirational words and laminated for durability

And the sky's the limit if you use your imagination for making your own bookmarks. There's so much you can do, from tearing a piece of notepaper to place at the page (and you can scribble on it!), crochet something, cut out magazine pictures or creating something something unique like inspirational words on a long narrow piece of paper and laminating it. I'm always making some like the one above and below, not only is it sturdy but it also gives me a daily dose of some really inspirational thoughts.

I think books are sacred. Well, you know, not really sacred - The intrinsic worth of a book belongs to its content. Most books aren’t sacred in and of themselves. A book is only sacred for what you get out of it. And then, of course, there is the beautiful printing. Anything in printed form can highly excite me, from a magazine to a lady's journal to beautiful greeting cards and, of course, books. Hard cover books, with or without a dust jacket - they feel so firm and heavy in your hands...

But now, here's the thing. I also have trouble throwing away books. Even 'rubbish' ones like cheap soft covers or promotional or advertising booklets. However, those I have found a use for! Those destined for the dustbin, I now keep on a special shelf and often use them for sketching and painting in, like the image above - the words behind the painting lends a certain charm and these little books can become artwork in themselves.

However, whether you dog-ear or not, love your books. Allow them to look loved by adorning them with beautiful silver charms and always cherish them, not for what they are, but for what they say.

 Image credit

.

Do what you love - curl up with a good book!

Nothing is of more importance than our mental and physical health - if you're not well, you are of no use to those around you. In fact, you might be a burden.

I have this special little corner set up in my dining room where I can disappear into my own little world, doing the things I love - journalling, sketching, making notes of new birds visiting my garden and where I keep some seeds ready for sowing. Here I often also plan my week, it seems to bring order to my life and reminds me to not fill my day with too many things and to leave some moments for just being quiet...

A corner in the lounge where I curl up with one of my favourite books

Another favourite is my reading nook (actually, I can read anywhere!), but nothing beats a comfy sofa or daybed for curling up with your favourite book, a cup of steaming tea and maybe a snack or two.

My reading corner in the lounge before I got the comfy yellow sofa.

A daybed in my bedroom where, in winter, I often snuggle up under a throw to enjoy a good book. Originally built as a spare bed in my bedroom for when my 3-year old grand-daughter came to visit (she was scared to sleep in her own room), it is now used as a daybed to read.

Doing what you love is one of the most important steps to mental and physical health. It has been proven scientifically that people that feel passionate about, and enjoy, what they're doing, live a longer, happier and healthier life than someone who struggles to get up in the morning because they hate their job, or what they're doing.

Put a spring in your walk, get your skin glowing and exude vibrancy - by doing what you love! And if you want to make a difference in the world, the single most important thing you can do is consciously and deliberately choose to do work that you are passionate about.

 Isn’t this just the most inspiring reading nook with a view?!

When you follow your bliss, it seems like the rest of the world orchestrates things so that your life is easy. It becomes effortless. 

 

A niche to dream in

"Plain shelves filled with good editions in good bindings are more truly decorative than ornate bookcases lined with tawdry books."
- Edith Wharton, 1902



Adults love inviting nooks just as children do; such spaces seem protective, made for the imagination. A place apart, where you can gather notes, thoughts and plans. It's simply the idea of a silence in one's self that allows one to think or to feel. Creating a corner where that silence can happen - even in the busiest of households - calls for beauty like the shelf above.

Setting up a reading nook or dreaming niche for yourself is as exciting as building a new house! Lovingly storing your favourite books and stationery in one place where you can relax with a cup of coffee, snuggling under a warm throw, is one of life's blissful pleasures.

Reading is one of the great pleasures of life and an important part of nurturing our soul, gaining knowledge and finding pleasure in fiction. As such, we must make special time for ourselves to pursue our pleasures and make it high on our list of priorities.

Whether you are lucky enough to have a library filled with books and comfortable couches or choose to use a bay window area, filled with light, or a special corner in your bedroom, your reading nook will be YOUR private hide-out where no-one is allowed in except by invitation.



Your first consideration should be a comfortable chair or chaise lounge embellished with all the luxuries like cushions and throws. A coffee or side table will come in handy for a reading lamp, tea pot, some fresh flowers, reading glasses and some extra books.

Incorporating some shelves or a bookshelf for storage of your books and favourite collections is next on the list. Be creative and innovative with your bookshelf - fill blank spaces on the shelves with candles (in case the electricity goes off!) and some of your favourite photo frames. Fill a vintage jug with some pens and pencils for making notes and have a dictionary at hand for reference.

Some extras like a footstool and magazine rack always come in handy and a soft rug underfoot adds a luxurious touch. Also give some attention to the wall colour - find a soothing theme and hang some of your favourite paintings and artwork as a finishing touch.


A corner in the living room used as a reading nook.


A bookshelf and a comfortable chair on one side of the dining room denotes this as someone's dream corner.


Storage for some favourite books


A perfect reading nook
- image from decor8

So settle in with a creamy cup of coffee, your favourite book or your daily journal and enjoy the simple pleasures of life - don't get to the end of your life and find that you have just lived the length of it. You want to have lived the width of it as well.

 

The pleasures of life!

A cup of coffee and one of my Nature Journals – two of the great pleasures of life! I’ve been journaling since child-hood, when I wrote about and sketched little things I found in the garden, about my pets, and important dates like friends’ birthdays and little poems I would add to birthday cards I made for them. When I became a teenager, my journals were my solace for broken hearts, my miseries and joys and ‘important’ happenings in my life, always accompanied by sketches, collages and leaves and grasses I found in nature.

In later life my Nature Journal recorded dates and sketches of my animals, the plants and insects in my garden and any interesting info I learnt along the way. I found the coffee to be important during ‘thinking’ spells, always reaching out for the cup when I paused in thought. And oh! how many times don’t I put my paint brush in my coffee in stead of the water bowl, adding a bit of interest to the sketches!

In the noisy confusion of life...

… keep peace in your soul

It’s been so long since I’ve taken the time to just sit and read.
Curl op on the sofa with a nice cup of tea and just read.
I’ve realised that it’s a choice I made and that I now have the choice to rectify this.
Just another gift to be grateful for.

::

Wishing you a week filled with time to read.

Is a bookshelf just a bookshefl?

Beware of the person of one book. 

–Thomas Aquinas

Is your bookshelf “just a bookshelf”? Somewhere for your books to be shoved into together with some other odds and ends you don’t have place for?

How about beautifying your bookshelf? Books are objects of beauty and look great displayed with some of your favourite objects. It doesn't matter what sort of bookshelf you've got, it doesn't have to be an expensive wall-to-wall creation, but what does matter is what it looks like. Newly married in the early 70's and with not much money, a large, fancy bookshelf was out of the question, but my books needed a home. They were suffocating in the boxes. A few wooden shelves and some bricks solved the problem and also provided space for some of my treasures that I'd collected as a young girl.

.

Show off the things you love and a plant goes a long way to enhancing the look of your bookshelf. And something green and living gives your books someone to talk to! lol! (Just remember to put a holder under the plant so that no water leaks onto your shelf!) A few well-placed baskets with lids look beautiful on the shelves and also solves the problem of all the stuff we need to put down somewhere until it can get sorted out.

Books are a thing of beauty, almost sacred in my eyes, and shoving them around is similar to crumpling up money in your pocket or purse - how can the Universe supply if you have such disregard?