Little things

Thank you for your kind comments on my posts!

As my working days have continued to be long and tiring, I've had little energy for new projects at home, but have savoured all the more the elements of a simple life which are already built into my surroundings.

The flower seeds I sowed last week have germinated with a much higher success rate than the herbs earlier this month - the sunflowers in particular are racing upwards and will very soon need planting up. The herbs are just about showing their first pair of true leaves - although several oregano seedlings feel afoul of a pest I identified thanks to t'internet as fungus gnat larvae, which I suspect are due to overwatering. (When I noticed the dead seedlings and the transparent wormy-thinks, and then found out what they were, I became a bit paranoid and spent longer than is healthy stooped over my seedlings with a tissue in one hand and a wooden toothpick in the other, removing and squishing all the larvae I could see.)

Though the days are warming up, the evenings are still cool. Most of the blankets are now in the linen cupboard but this one is draped over the back of the sofa. It makes me smile everytime I see it. This is the first blanket I ever made. There is a bit of a story - when my mother was little, she started making a crochet blanket to give to her grandmother. She never finished it - she gave her grannie a bag of squares, the rest of the yarn and the pattern - so making up a whole blanket with the pattern felt like finishing something inherited. It's mostly made from scraps from never-finished projects which I carried up to uni with me, all different weights of wool and totally different colours, but I love it.

My knitting and cross-stich tablecloth embroidery sit by the sofa in their new basket, which means they are tidily collected together but easily to hand if I feel up to a bit of crafting in the evenings. Somehow, I've still been able to put aside a few bits and bobs (spare coffee mugs we never use etc) for decluttering, and every day I am grateful for Project 333, as staying on top of the laundry and ironing, as well as getting dressed every morning, is kept manageable.

Finally, the daily tasks of doing the washing up and making the bed keep me grounded, reminding me that the stress at work is (hopefully) transient while the rhythms of home and family go on. (Don't ask that me about the rest of the housework.) 

How about you? What is making you smile today?

Singing the praises of curtains

Last night Brussels saw its first snow of the year. I love winter. I love the snuggly-ness you get inside, with blankets and hot water bottles, cocoa and mulled wine, and lots of pies and stews and solid, hearty, wholesome food. I love listening to the sound of the rain and wind outside, while burrowing deeper into the duvet. Inside seems even cosier when outside is so inhospitable.

However, keeping inside cosy while outside gets colder and colder is not easy. Or cheap. This is our first full winter in our new flat, as we moved in last January, and the one thing I have to say is: Curtains make a HUGE difference. First snow last night, we still haven't turned on a single radiator. This is inducing a probably appalling level of smugness - ooh check us out, we still haven't turned on the heating. I need to tone this down, I think. Of course, this is not a massive feat of endurance, as we have occupied flats above, below and either side of us, so the insulation is high from the start.

So. Five things we are doing to keep the heating off, and two things I want to add.

1. Curtains.

Curtains curtains curtains. I can't stress enough even how much difference hanging a thin pair of net curtains made when they finally went up last spring. Lined curtains are orders of magnitude more effective yet. Hang curtains. Ours are homemade, and cost me a total of €350 for four pairs of wall-to-wall floor-length curtains, two of them lined. And €120 of that was the first curtains, before I figured out the shortcuts.

2. Blankets.

I know I'm all about the decluttering these days but I still think you cannot have enough blankets. Heaped on the bed or draped invitingly over the sofa, snuggle under blankets anywhere and everywhere. Soft, warm, and a warm glowy feeling of 'I made that'. I have several crocheted blankets and the warmest by far is the one using Lucy's Ripple Pattern (from Attic24), which has the added benefit of being super easy.

3. Jumpers.

An old but a classic one. Put a jumper on over that t-shirt. Or if you're already doing that, add a vest underneath. No picture unfortunately - but it's on my to knit list.

4. Feets.

We lose much heat through our feets. House shoes, slippers, woolly bedsocks. Keep your tootsies warm and the rest of you will be fine.

5. Opening windows.

Yeah, might sound crazy, but make sure you open your windows at least once a day and get a good air flow through. Cleaner air means better lung health for you, less moisture creating mould you'll just have to clean off, and lower moisture levels also mean that it takes less energy to heat the air in your home. I know, the heating isn't on. It still makes a difference - the impact of the warm water passing through pipes to the bathroom, of having the oven on etc are magnified.

Still to do: Rugs.

I've been looking around at rag rugs and so on for a while. Definitely something I want to have a go at. Even with socks on, I can feel we're losing a fair amout of heat through the floor especially in certain places (ie where you can't feel hot water pipes serving as free underfloor heating).

Still to do: Draught excluders.

This is something I hope to get around to sooner rather than later. I can't feel a draught under the door to the rest of the building, but I can see light under it. Just not yet sure which side is warmer... This is an important point to ascertain before adding insulation.