The Happiness Project | Weeks Thirteen and Fourteen

I'm not sure how I feel about this particular blog series at the moment.. on the one hand, they always feel like kinda a chore to write, and I know they're not my most popular posts.. but I so love reading back through them and remembering all the stuff I got up to, and I love love that it makes me make more effort to take photos of things and moments that would otherwise be forgotten..

So for want of a better format (for the moment), here's a list, in no particular order, of my top seven moments from the last two weeks.. 

One -  My dad and I decided to make the most of that random summer day we had two weeks ago, and had a lovely picnic for lunch. I was genuinely afraid that I might burn it was so hot! 

Two - I've been trying to fix my mammas record player for a while, and was just waiting on one teeny, tiny little part, which finally arrived!! I've been blasting mumford and sons round the house ever since. :) 

Three - Breakfast with the best girls. My sister was home for the weekend, and our lovely friend Flo dragged herself out of bed and all the way across town so that we could have a brief but lovely catch up before they both headed back to their respective Uni's. The food was good, the company was even better. It was perfect. 

Four - bake off! My sister and I settled down with blankets, and the compulsory tray of tea and cake to watch the drama unfold. I couldn't have asked for a better mid-week respite. 

Five - GBK with my lovely friend Alice from school. We ate delicious burgers and chips, and she caught me up on her life in London, and I was not at all jealous. not one little bit. honest. 

Six - Birthday drinks for another of my old school friends. It was so nice to see everyone again, and I had a delicious -and super cheep- non-alcoholic mojito, and it was a really lovely evening. 

Seven - A weekend off with Joe! Weekends off have been few and far between lately, so we made the most of it by doing pretty much nothing, and it was so so perfect. 

Much Love, 

Jess

xxxx

The Happiness Project: Week Twelve

This week has mostly been about work, but it has had its happy moments nonetheless.

This lady headed home on Wednesday, but not before I'd snapped a photo or two. 

Monday - Spontaneous lazy bank holiday mornings with the boyf. At least till 11 when I had to go to work.. :P

Tuesday - I downloaded 'Read This If You Want To Take Great Photographs' in an attempt to make the most out of the fancy camera I own, but hardly know how to use. I know 'the eye' isn't something you can really learn, but I'm excited to try anyways!

Wednesday - Fresh bright Autumnal mornings fill my soul with so so much Joy. I wish I could have bottled Wednesday mornings air and breathed it in forever.

Thursday - Unlike so many of its predecessors, this Thursday was very memorable; my happiest moment was running back to the car after work for the first time in forever, but late night cattle chasing comes in a close second ;)

Friday - Post-work shopping. I really wanted to buy a new book for the new season. New book shopping is the best.

Saturday - I cooked dinner for my cousin and Joe. I get pretty stressed in the kitchen, but it all came together in the end, and a good evening was had by all. I think.

Sunday - Joe experienced his first family Sunday-breakfast (kinda an institution in our house, and something that is very dear to my heart), and it made me so happy. Worlds collided in the very best way.

Much Love, 

Jess

xxxx

The Happiness Project: Week Eleven

This week was a weird one.

At one point I didn't think I would have much to say here, but with hindsight, there we're still plenty of little happy moments.

Monday - Attempting some yoga for the first time in an age! It felt good to stretch and exercise in a gentler way than my usual Pilates.

Tuesday - Visiting to Bristol to see my favorite Uni Ladies. :)

#ihavethisthingswithfloors

Dinner at Cafe Kino 

Breakfast at Katie and Kim's ♥

Wednesday - The sight of a chap out for a run with his puppy made my sad heart sing. I think dogs with runners always look happier than dogs out for a walk. His legs we're flapping around all over the place, and his face was full of joy!

Thursday - Thursdays are so nondescript. Once again I have no idea what I did.

Friday - Ditto about Fridays apparently..

Saturday - Catching up with some extended family. The wine and conversation flowed, and it was lovely.

Sunday - Date night! Joe and I went for Sushi, and then drinks at The Thief, and Velo Lounge, and then walked home, and fell asleep in front of Parks and Rec, and it was perfect.

I hope you have all had lovely weeks, and managed to find some happiness in the small moments.

Much Love, 

Jess

xxxx

The Happiness Project: Week Ten

What a week it has been!

I took four days off to spend some time with my sister and our friend Flo before they head back to their respective Uni's, and have made the most of every moment I haven't spent at work!

Monday -  New blog love. That feeling when you find a new blog, and have hundreds of back-posts to binge read.  ♥

Tuesday - I got that friday feelin'! After an eight day stint at work, and a shift that finished at 8pm, I was super happy to to head back to Joes for a brief hour. We literally did nothing, and it was perfect.

Wednesday - The heavens opened, so I spent a very happy afternoon in my attic with the radio on, in my favorite cashmere jumper, listening to the rain pitter patter against the roof. I was feeling very content and autumnal, till I remembered it was AUGUST!

Thursday - London with my favorite ladies. After hundreds of wattsapps across three different time-zones, our girls-holiday-turned-camping-trip eventually morphed into a day out in London.

We caught the train up early, and saw the Carsten Holler Exhibition on the southbank, drank copious amounts of coffee, pottered round Liberty's, and finished the day at Byron Burger.

It was excellent.

Friday -  After a leisurely morning at Flo's, and some delicious breakfast (yogurt granola topped with perfectly ripe nectarines, served in tiny glasses anyone?), we headed home for a lazy day of photo editing -I took waaay to many snaps in London- before heading to Joe's for the evening. Perfect.

Saturday - Saturday was exactly how Saturdays should be.

We enjoyed a late brunch, did a spot of shopping, and poped to Waitrose for some grocery's before heading to The Thief (a recent discovery of Joes), for a pint and a pizza.

We then headed back to mine to create Jamie's M'hanncha, which we took to Flo's for dinner.

Flo cooked up an absolute storm! A spicy, salty halloumi starter, a delicious chicken cous-cous dish, followed by our desert (recipe here), and a picture perfect cheese board.

The company was excellent, the wine was flowing and we left feeling full and content. And sleepy. Very very sleepy.

Sunday - After a very late night, Joe and I had a lovely lazy morning eating pastries in front of the telly before I had to head off in the rain to work :(

Much Love, 

Jess

xxxx

The Happiness Project: Weeks Eight and Nine

Wowsers! How are we on week nine already!

Anyways, these last two weeks have been a total blast. I've gotten older (but probably not wiser..), had a little holiday, been reunited with both my sisters, and eaten lots of cake in celebration of my baby sister getting into uni!

In fact, I was so busy having fun, I totally forget to write a happiness project last week..

So here's my favorite seven moments from the last two weeks.

One : Birffdays! Who doesn't love a Birthday! I got to eat all my favorite food, see most of my favorite people and got lots of lovely presents, I was happy happy happy! :)

Two : Lisbon! We ate lots of delicious sea food, drank too much wine, and just generally basked in the sun, and it was the best!

Three : Being reunited with my lovely, but disgustingly tanned, middlest sister. She's been traveling round Italy for a month with the boyf, and I missed her face!

Four : Long post-breakfast chats with the aforementioned disgustingly tanned sister. ♥

Five : Celebrating A-level results day with my littlest sister. She's a brainy little one, and we're very proud of her! (And not at all annoyed that she got better grades than me, honest.)

I don't suppose I can call her my baby sister if she's old enough for Uni..

Six : Determined to save money after my flight kerfuffle, but keen for a new top to wear to London next week, I decided to make one.* I downloaded a pattern from Grainline, and I'm super excited to have a new project to get my teeth into!

Seven : After all that busyness, I hardly saw Joe all week, so it was super nice to head back to his after work on Saturday and just chill with a curry. Though I'm not sure this can fully be counted as a happy moment, as we watched Grave of the Fireflies, which is the most heartbreaking film about a young boy forced to take care of his little sister in the aftermath of the bombing of Kobe.  I'm still not over it..

Much Love, 

Jess

xxxx

*though I dont think I'll have it finished by then..

The Happiness Project: Week Seven

So I'm running a little late this week..

I'm off to Lisbon for a long weekend on Thursday, and have been suuper busy trying to get everything ready to head off. Isn't that always the way??

Anyways..

Monday: On Monday I spent a really nice evening enjoying a lovely dinner with my favorite with Aunt. ♥

Tuesday: Productive days off are the best aren't they! On Tuesday Dad and I dug mums old record player out of the cellar (Mamma's a hoarder for sure!), and spent an evening trying to resurrect it. Its missing a drive belt at the moment, but hopefully I'll be blasting out some Mumford and Sons at some point next week..

Wednesday: I spent some time in the sun picking some flowers for a blog post. I am so in love with the way that blogging gets me up and out and doing things I usually wouldn't!

Thursday: Pay Day! July has been looong! But the day came at last! I've got my eye on this top from Deliciously Ella, when it eventually comes back in stock..

Friday: I was in town a little early for work, so went for a quick browse in Jack Wills. Just to be curious you understand. I am over my obsession. Honest.

Anyways, I spotted this little dress in the sale, and decided it was too nice to miss (I wanted something new to wear in Lisbon next week!), so I picked it up at 10% off the sale price! Bargain!

Saturday: The boyf was hungover, so we got a pizza and ate chocolate pudding, and vegged in front of a movie and it was literally perfect.

Sunday: All of Sunday was happy! But probably my happiest moment was riding shot-gun with dad on the Combine Harvester.

I shared a snap from the evening on Instagram, but this is really my favorite picture.

As a picture its probably not great. The lighting is probably out. The focus is probably wrong. And I will never understand the rule of thirds. But I am so in love with it. I love how I have captured my dad in this shot. His hands have been cracked, and grubby for as long as I can remember.* Farmers hands. And I never ever want to forget that. I think you can tell a lot about a person from their hands, and dads tell me that he is hard working, and outdoorsey, and never afraid to get stuck in. And I think that's awesome.

He's also super sweet and kind and funny, despite what his grubby exterior might suggest..!

Bonus Happy Moment: We spent the week dog sitting this absolute cutie, who I ended up falling completely in love with. She made this week just that little bit more awesome than usual :)

Much Love, 

Jess

xxxx

*its a constant joke on holidays that his hands juust get clean by the end of the week, just in time to go home..

The Happiness Project: Week Six

Fair warning: I pretty much spent the whole week obsessing about a camping trip that didn't even happen, so that features pretty heavily in this weeks happy moments..

Monday: In the first of only two non-camping related happy moments, I baked a carrot cake. Carrot cake was one of the first things I ever felt really confident baking, so I always feel happy when I make it. Also, it tastes awesome, so there's that too.. :)

Tuesday: I didn't start work till 11, so spent the morning nosing round some of my favorite shops (Rossiters, Bloomsbury) looking for some camping essentials.You know, important things like a cafetiere, and candles..

Wednesday: Having been on the very edge of purchasing a three meter bell tent, I got to visit a four meter tent, which confirmed that my colleagues had been right all along, and really, if I'm going to spend all that money, I need a four meter tent. And thus the bell tent fund was born. Contributions more than welcome ;)

Thursday: My Happiest moment on Thursday was the sight of my dad, arriving at the hippodrome mere moments before the start of Jesus Christ Super Star (he made it by the very skin of his teeth having received an urgent call about some escaped cattle just forty five minuets before curtain up..!)

Friday: After a week of panicking about the weather and trying to organise in every spare second (which were few and far between) we decided to cancel the camping trip, and just day-trip on the one nice day of the weekend. Having decided not to leave on the Friday night, I spent a lazy evening baking cookies, and headed over to Joes at 9 for still-warm-cookies and a movie. A much way better way to spend a rainy evening than in a tent in a field..

Saturday: Day-Trippin! The weather was beautiful, so we headed to Lulworth Cove, one of my favorite places in the UK. We made it there by half past ten, and settled down on the beach for a few hours to read and people watch. I tentatively paddled in the shallows, but the sea was freezing!!
We enjoyed a very civilized picnic before heading up the hill to catch a glimpse of Durdle Door.

 I bullied him till he let me take this photo.. 

 Windswept but happy ♥

At about half past three we figured we had probably exhausted all the things to do at The Cove, so headed out to Corfe Castle to have a nose about. 

Having finally extricated ourselves from the very pushy national trust lady, who desperately wanted us to sign up, we headed up the hill to explore the ruins, and enjoy the views over the surrounding countryside.

Those shorts were my mamma's jeans in the 90's!

During the drive home, we discovered that our favorite little pizza place -Yammo- do deliveries!!! We immediately ordered a couple of pizza's and some arancini for dinner, which we wolfed down before I could snap a picture!

After a long day by the sea, and with bellies full of pizza and cider we fell into bed at ten, and slept for a full eleven house. It was perfect.

Sunday: After the laziest of Sunday mornings, I headed for lunch at my Aunts, the company and food were both excellent, and I left feeling very content.

Roll on next week :)

I hope you've all had lovely weeks, and managed to avoid all that rain we had on Friday and Sunday!

Much Love, 

Jess

xxxx  

The Happiness Project: Week Five

This week has been a good one! The sun's been out, and I've been busy busy, which I love! Happy Happy Happy! :)

Monday: On Monday I suddenly felt better from my cold and the world literally looked a thousand times better (I had been aching to go travelling all of last week just so I could run away from life and responsibilities and decisions, but after Monday everything all looks so much more bearable!)

Tuesday: After an 11 hour shift I came home to find a beautifully packaged roll of fabric waiting for me! Keep your eyes peeled for Dressmaking Mark II, on the blog soon!

Wednesday: I spent my day off writing about my favorite local indy business, and was totally inspired by how much support there is locally for independent producers and crafts people!

Thursday: Seriously. What is it about Thursdays. I can't remember what I did on Thursday. Again.

Friday: I got totally hyped up on endorphin's after running back to my car after work. I've been skipping the run recently because of the cold (in my head, not the weather obvs.), but Friday really reminded my how much I love that post run feeling. And I get home way faster, its basically just a win win situation.

Saturday: I got that Friday feelin' (on a Saturday. Obviously. #RetailProblems)

Sunday: Sunday morning was the best; dippy eggs and latte for breakfast with dad, surprise visits from the boyf and holiday planning, and testing Rosie's Spelt Risotto recipe, which we enjoyed with several cold glasses of wine and followed with homemade red current cheesecake.
It was a perfect morning (followed by the afternoon from hell trying to organize a Glamping trip for Mid-August, but that's a story for another day I think).

I think we might need to invest in some more grown-up looking egg cups.. ♥

Much Love, 

Jess

xxxx

The Happiness Project: Week Four

This week was a write-off, because I got a cold, and became the most pathetic child the world ever saw.

Have some pictures of flowers I took instead ;)

I hope that you're all well, and that your weeks have been less sneezy than mine!

Much Love,

Jess

xxxx