Issue 61 - 12 gems of 2023
TWELVE GEMS OF 2023
Before we begin 2024, I wanted to look back at what made me happy in 2023. Here are some gems.
Wishing you a very happy new year x
Getting real joy out of learning to make new things with my hands, including:
beautiful natural dyed eggs, stencilling my tiny bathroom (pics soon), drying my dad’s dahlias and hanging them in my windows, hand-dipping beeswax candles with an excellent friend in mid-Wales, learning to set letters on an old press in the shadow of Caernarfon Castle
Receiving a box of highlighter poppies from Petalon
Being a small part of a Clothes Swap that has toured the UK this year, given me countless new outfits, as well as an excellent group of women who make me laugh so much that sometimes I cry. Find out if we’re coming anywhere near you.
Becoming a trustee for a charity that is changing food education in the UK for good. If you like the sound of the website and think we could work together in your school, I’d love to talk to you
Working with a beautiful manoir which offers rest and gentle encouragement to look after yourself a little better
Working with one of my favourite photographers on a book project that is the beginning of (I hope) many more projects to come
Learning that Champagne chills very well in Scottish waterfalls, and tastes especially good when drunk whilst dipping yourself too
This by Oliver Burkeman: “Productivity is a trap. Becoming more efficient just makes you more rushed, and trying to clear the decks simply makes them fill up again faster. Nobody in the history of humanity has ever achieved “work-life balance,” whatever that might be, and you certainly won’t get there by copying the “six things successful people do before 7:00 a.m.” The day will never arrive when you finally have everything under control—when the flood of emails has been contained; when your to-do lists have stopped getting longer; when you’re meeting all your obligations at work and in your home life; when nobody’s angry with you for missing a deadline or dropping the ball; and when the fully optimized person you’ve become can turn, at long last, to the things life is really supposed to be about. Let’s start by admitting defeat: none of this is ever going to happen. But you know what? That’s excellent news.”