Everyone has that after Christmas lull, the decorations are down, you’re back at work, its cold and dark and you feel the same.  Well there are a few things you can do to help make you feel a little less yuck.

Although red and green are very much associated with Christmas it is a colour which can be used all year. Our dining room is painted deep red, I always wanted a red dining room and apparently it is a great colour in this room as it aids digestion!!!  Anyway I digress, with low energy light bulbs now, lights can be left on longer so having small lamps lit in rooms makes the day feel less drab especially if it is very dark outside.

Using red items around the home also brightens it.  This cloth for the table I got on sale and I love the look (Treacle had to get in on the action!).

 

Our sitting room with all the decorations down, but still with pops of red colour around and the table lamps on to give it a warmer feel.

I have kept a string of warm white lights up in our den, where I work all day, sorry it is a blurry picture but it is very dark outside today so low light but you get the idea.

I also have pops of red colour in the kitchen and I also open the curtains only a little bit to obviously keep it warmer and if it is dark outside then do you really want to open the curtains anyway?

I love these red and white spot mugs and they do brighten up the kitchen dresser.

My red mixing bowl with oranges in and red fruit.

DH and I were watching Home Alone over the holidays and I pointed out to him how the set designers made the film feel even more Christmassy by using lots and lots of red and green in the house and Christmas lights everywhere.  The next time you watch it look how the kitchen is a very deep red with pops of green and all the other rooms have lots of red in.  Also if you look at most scenes there is always some red in each scene, including the lady on the plane with the baby who is wearing a very red jumper!  When you actually look you won’t believe how much there is, but it makes the viewer completely associate this film with Christmas and also why I think people sometimes think they fail at Christmas, when their homes don’t look like the movies.  Let’s face it no one would have that much red and green in their home all year round.

I hope you like my suggestions to help the transition from Christmas to the New Year and hopefully it will soon be Spring!

Anyway we had a very long and tiring day yesterday at the swimming Open.  Here is the pool before the storm!!!

DH, Youngest and I got there at 6.30am to check all was okay with the sound system and to get ready. Warm up started at 8.00am and the event started at 9.00am and even with all the checks we had some problems with the timing system which seemd to plague us all day.  The pool and centre had its own problems as the heating was on the fritz so we had told all the swimmers to bring extra clothes, jogging bottoms and tops to wear between races to keep them warm and we had a heater in the control room to keep us warm.  After a while we switched it off as it was nice and warm but it soon started to get very cold so we had to switch it back on.  Because we had so many swimmers it was a long day and the event did not end until 6.45pm and we were all ready to go home.

The blocks ready for the swimmers.

DH and Youngest before everyone arrived. The picture is a bit blurry as it was taken through the control room window where I spent the whole day!

I got home at 8.00pm and then DH and Youngest got in at 9.45pm.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the day and there were some great swims, but I am glad it is only once a year!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  No quilting got done unfortunately but I am hoping to do some later this week.  Next weekend Youngest and DH on Saturday are visiting one of the University’s he has applied to and in the evening it is another swimming event (!) and on Friday night DH has to be at a hearing which he previous chaired when he was President of Derbyshire ASA last year.  The protagonists were not happy with the outcome so have complained to the ASA who now have to interview everyone including the panel which DH chaired.  If you told all our parents at the swimming club, who are potential volunteers to help at our club, that this sort of thing happens, we would never get anyone to volunteer ever again!  Saying that a lot of our parents think we are paid to do the jobs we do for the Club even when we tell them that no we do it for the love the of the sport (!!!!!!!!!!). 

Happy Monday everyone, have a great week.

Hugs, Susie xx