Hello!

I used to semi-regularly write these posts about things that had brought me joy which included everything from life events like preparing for my wedding last year to enjoying a good old slice of buttered toast!

With lots of changes going on in my life at the moment, my mental health feels a little bit like a sinking ship that’s trying to drag me down, but in an effort to try and enhance those thoughts of gratitude, I’m bringing back ‘things that made me happy’! For all the big and wonderful and small and mundane things that are worth celebrating.

• buddy reading a new book release with my husband because we both loved the first book in the series
• spontaneous kitchen dance parties
• the festive menu is back at McDonalds and I intend to eat enough cheese melt dippers this season that my blood will become cheese (too far?)
• seeing Christmas lights and decorations outside people’s houses
• when the fridge is empty but not in a ‘we don’t have any food’ way but in a ‘we haven’t wasted any food’ way
• my creative writing doc for the year is now over 100,000 words long (if only it was all on one project lol)
• I finally put some of our wedding pictures up on the wall and I’m really excited about putting more up!
• it’s cosy blankets and sweater season and I’m honestly living my cosy dreams
• I’m really looking forward to all the goal setting and new journal set up that comes with New Years
• the chicken, stuffing and cranberry Christmas sub that’s in the Tesco meal deal slaps
• I’m being less precious about using the candles in my collection and it feels like a real luxury to actually use them
• recently we moved all of my books into a different room of our house and I’ve organised them in a way I’m really happy with how everything looks in there
• part 2 of library happiness – I’ve been keeping all the books I bought this year separate because I thought it would make a cool instagram post or something but I’m really looking forward to putting them in with the rest of my collection
• chocolate M&MS.
• pasta. All pasta.
• I hope this isn’t a really pretentious thing to say but I’m so happy I have a therapist I like so much, honestly don’t know whether I’d be functioning without her rn
• long walks playing Pokemon Go with my husband
• the fact I’ve had a husband for over a year and I still feels really weird to say – I don’t feel old enough to have a husband or be a ‘Mrs’
• I feel like it goes without saying because I’ve tailored all my content to it and made it my whole personality, but I love reading
• when I get time, I really love having a cosy evening under my blanket watching some YouTube and doing one of my cross stitch kits
• potentially controversial, but I love that it gets dark so early – it makes me feel so cosy and festive
• I’m working really hard on listening to my body and trying to give it the rest it needs when I can
• I’m definitely getting better at deleting things off my to do list when they’re too much to achieve rather than letting it build up and stressing me out even more
• as I write this, there’s a Christmas Market in my town for the weekend and I think it’s really sweet and I love seeing the community coming out to support it
• catching up on YouTube videos to get out of my own head
• setting up my new reading journal for 2024! I’m so excited to start using it
• sometimes I think about how many books I have to read in my house and I get so excited to finally get round to them all. It will take me forever and I will almost certainly never get through my entire backlog, but that is more exciting than overwhelming to me
• Christmas. I always get so excited for Christmas
• there’s been quite a few new book releases I’ve been really excited about recently – Wildfire by Hannah Grace came out in October and I rated it 5 stars, in November Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros (4 stars) and Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood (I’m reading it next!) and the next volume of the graphic novel Heartstopper by Alice Oseman comes out next month so I’m definitely doing well for new releases this year!
• having a tidy house (I’m not very good at this, but when I can do it, it does make me happy)
• watching the Great British Bake Off with thematically appropriate treats has been a wonderful way to start the Autumn season
• however cliche, my husband makes me happy

And I think that’s probably a good place to wrap it up!

Thinking of some of these was more challenging than I thought, but it’s definitely a good exercising in appreciating the small things and making time for the bigger things that bring us joy!

Thank you so much for reading,

Sophie xx