My weekly exercise in gratitude – three things that are making me smile – feel free to steal this idea with wild abandon and fill your blog [or Twitter account or Facebook page or diary or life in general] with happiness.

First, crafty time. Although I have still had (paid) work to do over the festive period I’ve found time to do quite a bit of crafting … this always makes me happy. Here’s one of my completed projects:

Last completed socks of 2017

Second, unexpected beauty. Yesterday I went out to the compost bin and looked up to see this:

pretty in pink

I came in to get my camera and when I looked again, I realised this cloud was part of a beautiful skyscape:

looking skywards

Third, a perfect pudding. I’m always delighted when a steamed pudding comes out of its bowl intact and this one behaved very well:

Apple flapjack steamed pudding

So, that’s some of what’s been making me happy this week. How about you?

In fact, that’s it for Three Things Thursday as a weekly feature here on the blog…. it’s been a great thing to do and I’ll continue to think of my three things, but not necessarily to write a post. My plans are to direct my writing elsewhere in 2018. I want to thank Emily of Nerd in the Brain who originally created Three Things Thursday and I hope that you will continue to look for the positives in your life too.