As usual I’m joining with Emily of Ms Emily’s Home for Full-Grown Nerds (and others) for Three Things Thursday. As she says…
*three things that make me smile: an exercise in gratitude – feel free to steal this idea with wild abandon and fill your blog with the happy*
First, the lovely blanket that I knitted earlier in the year has been coming into its own now we’re having some cold weather. It is just the right size for snuggling under whilst I work
Second, making plans. Over the past couple of weeks I have been busy making arrangements for some trips in 2017: taking my mum to London for a few days so we can go to the ‘Undressed’ exhibition at the V&A; another holiday to Cornwall, because we had such a great time this year; a weekend of permaculture in Birmingham; and a trip to Manchester to spend a day crocheting in public at The Make It Shop to promote the Sixty Million Trebles project. I had to buy a diary so that I could write everything down!
Third, presents through the year. As you may know, here at Chez Snail, we don’t do Christmas. We don’t give gifts and we ask people not to give them to us, and we don’t send cards any more. It’s not that we are mean, we’re just not into all the waste and overindulgence. Instead, we give gifts randomly at other times of the year and so I’ve just sent a hat to one friend and I’m currently making a little toy for another friend who tends to feel blue in the winter. I can’t share a picture of the latter as it’s gong to be a surprise, but here is a picture of some baby hedgies that went as a surprise to some friends earlier on in the year:
hoglets
Finally, if you are waiting to hear the results of last week’s give away, you’ll have to hang on for a bit as I haven’t had time to do the draw yet… soon, I promise!
So, those are three things making me smile this week – what about you?
The Snail of Happiness 
w1nt3l
/ December 1, 2016The hoglets are super cute. My cat would have a field day with them and I doubt they would survive the onslaught.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ December 1, 2016They reside in a cat-free house, fortunately!
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nanacathy2
/ December 1, 2016What a lovely set of three. Plans, blanket and gifts. Wonderful. Making me happy this week, wonderful sunsets every night, my son and partner getting the keys to their first house and homemade soup and bread for lunch.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ December 1, 2016Yes we have had some lovely sunsets… and I too love homemade soup and bread… talking of which, it must be lunchtime now…
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Wild Daffodil
/ December 1, 2016Your post makes me smile!!! 😀
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The Snail of Happiness
/ December 1, 2016Aww, thank you!
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fullgrownnerd
/ December 1, 2016Oh, what I wouldn’t do for some hoglets! They’re adorable! 😀
As much as I love, love, love Christmas (and babble about it incessantly on the blog), we actually tend more toward your version of Christmas. We do give gifts, but, for the most part, only for people who are physically in our home on Christmas…and even then, we’ve been doing “stocking only” Christmases, so no gift wrap is used and excessive buying is automatically prevented. 🙂 I, like you, much prefer to do presents throughout the year…it’s so much more fun to give someone something that I saw or made just because I thought of them (or thought they could use it) than to give something out of the “it’s-Christmas-and-we’re-supposed-to-give-gifts” obligation.
Your plans sound awesome…I hope you have a blast on every one of your trips!
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The Snail of Happiness
/ December 1, 2016And as a result of this, another friend has asked to join us for our crochet day – yay!
I like your ideas about Christmas – a lovely way to celebrate with fun but not excessive consumption.
As for the hoglets, you never know…
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lucyannluna
/ December 1, 2016Lovely purple colours they look fantastic
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The Snail of Happiness
/ December 1, 2016Glorious yarn from the wonderful Colinette, which is alas no more 😦
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lucyannluna
/ December 1, 2016It’s very pretty, I do love purple
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thecontentedcrafter
/ December 1, 2016Your blanket is absolutely luscious!! My hedgies have just migrated from the living room to the art room – which has been given a HUGE tidy up and some new shelves – and the hedgies and dragon now grace some of those shelves. The HUGE tidy up covers three wonderful things for this week, last week and the week before 🙂 I’m almost ready to start painting again!!
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The Snail of Happiness
/ December 1, 2016woohoo… looking forward to seeing your creations soon. Your picture is still one of the highlights of my work room and always greatly admired by visitors.
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katechiconi
/ December 2, 2016I know, I’m late! But we were on the road most of yesterday, doing a mad dash to pick up something we’d bought in an online auction. It saved us literally thousands of dollars, so I’m grateful we won the auction and could squeeze the time to collect it. I’m grateful for aircon in the car and house in the very hot and dry weather we’re having just now, and I’m grateful for mango windfalls from our trees; not ripe and sweet yet, but deliciously tart and tangy in a salad.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ December 2, 2016I wondered where you were… glad to hear you weren’t laid up in bed suffering. The mango windfalls sound fab.
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katechiconi
/ December 2, 2016Sadly there’s going to be a bit of bed rest tomorrow, it’s migraine time. Like clockwork… but at least I can plan around it, so that’s another thing to be grateful for, I suppose!
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The Snail of Happiness
/ December 2, 2016oh dear… hope you feel better soon
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katechiconi
/ December 2, 2016I really need to see the doctor to get my medication reviewed. Next week sometime, hopefully.
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davidprosser
/ December 2, 2016The baby hedgies look very cute Jan. I quite understand about Christmas presents and cards.It can be a very wasteful time. I recycle my Christmas cards to a crafter over the road.
xxx Massive Hugs xxx
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The Snail of Happiness
/ December 2, 2016Great thing to do with Christmas cards… I’m very lazy and usually just recycle them!
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Born To Organize
/ December 5, 2016Your blanket is absolutely gorgeous. Those are all my favorite colors, and my, it looks so soft. You are a whiz with your needles.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ December 5, 2016It is a very snuggly blanket and I’m really pleased with the way it turned out
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Born To Organize
/ December 6, 2016🙂
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