Slow Living 2014 - January

Better late than never... This year I am again joining Christine over at Slow Living Essentials for her Slow Living Month by Month series. I've found it a useful way to reflect on how much I have really achieved in a month - slow progress can be easily overlooked - while highlighting the areas I really would like to do more. This year she's changed the name slightly - Slow Living Monthly 9 - but it's the same principle, a look back at what I have or haven't done in a few key areas.

{NOURISH} Oh so much fruit salad! So much fruit salad for breakfast with organic yoghurt and homemade toasted muesli, such a yummy start to the day. And I have been taking in more lunches from home, which had rather tailed off towards the end of last year. Soups, leftovers from dinner, and freshly prepared salads - with some variety and some new discoveries such as yellow beetroot. I've also been baking more - bread and cookies.

{PREPARE} Erm not so much. I did mean to pickle some beetroot but I missed the season and there's very little left in the market. 

{REDUCE} Project 333 paving the way for epic clothes donation. I'm also making a skirt from a mpair of my boyfriend's old trousers - and absolutely loving the fact that this is totally free, so I don't feel any pressure to get it right. It's an experiment.

{GREEN} Not sure if it counts but I've started sweeping the kitchen floor regularly, meaning less frequent hoovering needed of this area.

{GROW} Still nothing... I really ought to order some seeds soon...

{CREATE} I finished the curtains in January, finished the buttonholes on a charity shop shirt, made a tablecloth and knitted most of a cardigan from my stash.

{DISCOVER} Can I put Project 333 twice? This really seems to have transformed my wardrobe, my morning routine and my whole attitude to clothes. It's making me think totally differently, and now I feel well on the way towards a pared down, simple wardrobe made of well-fitting, versatile and largely handmade items using natural materials and traditional techniques.

I've also discovered a nature reserve about twenty minutes away by bus - thanks to some friends who suggested going for a walk there. Unfortunately I didn't take my camera but it was glorious. And they have working horses (oh my god those guys are HUGE) and sheep and a little tea room and craft workshops and it's really really cool.

{ENHANCE} Besides the odd trip down to the local market, I think most of my energies in this have been put into blogging more regularly and discovering yet more simple living inspiration in the blogs of others.

{ENJOY} Lots of it! I'm having a lot of fun with all this. And we've had friends over for rugby afternoons - the pub wouldn't let us book a table, so we decided it would be easier, cheaper and more fun to have our friends here. And it was.