Appreciating the small things

Have you ever found yourself having the loveliest day, even though nothing particularly eventful has happened? Maybe you were already in a good mood, and lots of small things happened and made your day more than the mundane. The weather was beautiful. The parcel you ordered arrived a day before you expected it. You didn’t run into that person you were avoiding. A friend said something that made you feel really valued.

Life is made up of those little moments. When I’m away from home, I find it’s sometimes the little things I miss most. Sitting in my favourite chair in the conservatory on a sunny day, with a coffee and a good book. Being able to have a bath. My white bedroom walls that are so much prettier than my uni room’s red wall and orange curtains. The thing is, I never fully appreciated those little things until I had to leave them. Similarly, I didn’t realise just how fortunate I was to have some wonderful friends here until I went home for Christmas and missed them. Being at university is definitely teaching me to be grateful for the seemingly insignificant things, because there are times when those things are enough.

Someday I want to see the world, to have an awesome job, to have a family, etc. I’m not saying we shouldn’t want things or have hopes for the future. But there will be points where we can’t have those things that we want, which is why it’s so important to treasure what we do have. In the film American Beauty, Ricky says ‘There is so much beauty in the world’. And as important as it is to be aware of war and poverty, corruption and suffering, it is also vital to look for the good in life. For me, taking note of the good things can really put my life into perspective; I realise that things are not nearly so rubbish as I thought. I know that sounds awfully like Maria Von Trapp- “I simply remember my favourite things, and then I don’t feel so bad”- but I’d rather be cheesy than miserable, let’s be honest.

We can get so wrapped up in minor problems that we lose sight of the truth, which is that there is still plenty to be thankful for. Last week we had an awesome joint small group meeting, and during the worship time we sang one of my favourite songs. The lyrics are so true- “Every blessing you pour out I’ll turn back to praise…. You give and take away, my heart will choose to say, Lord blesséd be your name”. This song demonstrates what it is to have a joyful, thankful heart, despite the circumstances being less than desirable. It’s not always easy to have this thanksgiving attitude, but I feel so much more joyful when I take the time to appreciate the good stuff and thank God for it, and thank God anyway even when things aren’t quite going as I’d planned.

I’ve been wanting to write a post about this for some time now, and on Friday I stumbled across this lovely website- www.justlittlethings.net . Every day they update with a new example of a small thing that brings us joy, from a hug from a family member to the smell of fresh laundry. It really made me smile, and I hope you all find some pleasure in it too, even the most jaded and cynical among you!

That’s all I have to say for this week; I have two exams in the next couple of days so I’ve been revising like crazy and haven’t had much time to write for the sheer fun of it! Hopefully next week my brain will be a little clearer.

Have a great week everyone! To those who have exams, may they be manageable, and may you never forget that they are not the most important thing in your life.

Love,

C. 

Photo Friday (25/05/12)

Hope you've all had a lovely week- if you're from the UK you've probably been enjoying the amazing weather!

Loads more Canterbury pictures this week, enjoy :)

Yes, the above is the view from our campus. For you non- UKC readers, you are allowed to be jealous ;)

Why buy second hand?

Why buy second hand?

Some of you will know that I have a bit of a thing for charity shopping. It’s not really a ‘cool’ thing to admit- most people seem to prefer Topshop or Republic, which is understandable. I’m sure a lot of you don’t find anything appealing about trawling through rails of frumpy old jumpers only your grandma would wear (no offence to your grandma, let’s be honest she probably had great style in her day), just on the off chance that you will find something that is a) in your size, b) good condition and c) something you’d actually wear. And I’ll admit, a lot of the time you won’t find anything. But I’ve found that if you’re persistent, sometimes the search pays off!

Read on for reasons why I like to shop second hand!

It was never between you and them- thoughts on focusing on yourself

Hi everyone, here’s hoping you had a good weekend and you’re feeling refreshed and ready to take on the week. If you aren’t, you have my full sympathy; I’m up to my neck in revision at the moment and I’m less than full of energy, which is why this post is a little shorter than previous ones.

Photo Friday (18/05/12)

Hey everyone,
So I hope you've all had good weeks despite the pressure of revision/exams, or simply the pressure of everyday life. As you know I am back at uni now, trying (and kind of failing) to get lots of revision done. Alas, social life has gotten in the way somewhat  ;) In all seriousness though, it has been lovely to catch up with everyone after about 6 weeks. The last couple of days I've been wandering Canterbury's pretty streets, so if you're not living here and want a glimpse of my uni town, this is it. The weather was a bit pants so photos could have been better, but never mind.

Music recommendation- The Civil Wars

Hey everyone,

So things have been a bit crazy since getting back to uni, and I’ve barely had time to think, let alone write. I’ve had no opportunity to come up with anything particularly insightful, so I thought I would let myself off the hook slightly here and do something a little different: a music recommendation!

It’s not often I come across modern day music I really love, but discovering The Civil Wars was such  a treat! The American duo John Paul White and Joy Williams are truly musical soulmates, with the most beautiful voices that harmonise effortlessly. Their music is best defined as folk/country, but don’t expect any banjos or bluegrass- this is music at its most pure and simple, White’s guitar often being the only accompaniment.

Their songs are relatively low-key- there is nothing particularly elaborate about them, except perhaps for those harmonies I mentioned- but the lyrics are smart, narrating the complexities of human relationships; of love and life. I won’t say anymore- I’ll let the music speak for itself. It’s the perfect antidote to the auto-tuned, overproduced, and overblown stuff that’s dominating the charts these days. They’re like chocolate for the ears!

Hope you enjoy.

This is probably the hit that made them famous, Barton Hollow (and yes, before you say anything, he does bear an uncanny resemblance to Johnny Depp).

And their other single Poison and Wine- much more pared down, and incredibly beautiful.

20 Years, the first track on their album- I really love this one.

And finally a live cover of You Are My Sunshine- just to prove that they are just as good live as in the studio. I never realised how dark the lyrics to this song were until this cover.

If you want to hear more, they're all over Youtube, and you can listen on Spotify. And of course you can buy the album on Itunes.

C. 

Thoughts on Gossip (because I can't think of a more interesting title right now)

Evening lovelies! Hope your Mondays are good.

Today’s post is going to be on something that was spoken about at my home church a few weeks ago- gossip. It’s something that really winds me up but something we all do instinctively. It’s so easy to do, but why do we do it? My guess is that we are curious by nature, we like to hear about someone else so we can feel better about ourselves, and we often forget just how harmful it can be. Thankfully I don’t come across gossip as often at uni as I did when I was in school, but it still happens. And I really can't say just why this bothers me so much; I suppose we all have those pet hates or gross injustices that we react strongly to.

I’m not suggesting for one second that any of you have a problem with gossip because honestly I have no idea, but I do think it’s good to be reminded of its consequences sometimes.

ETA: I realise that this post definitely carries a somewhat angry tone (if you're surprised, please don't be, I'm not always sunshine and rainbows cheerful). But equally please don't be offended.

Photo Friday! (11/05/12)

Hope you have all had a good week- if not, here's hoping the next one will be better!

Last Sunday my family and I finally made a trip to one of our favourite spots, Burghley House. The house itself is one of Britain's great Heritage sites, completed in 1587, and was featured in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice movie as the fictional Rosings Park- its definitely an amazing building and worth a look if you're ever in Lincolnshire! Anyway, having seen the house before we were there for the gardens and the cafe, and so most of the following photos are from the beautiful grounds. Enjoy :)

How to make the most of your revision!

So, it’s that time of year again! If you’re aged 16- 21, you’re probably in the middle of revising for exams of some sort, be it for school, college or university. If you're like me, you probably hate revising, because lets face it, there are lots of things you'd rather be doing instead. You might also find it difficult to get your head down and study, and maybe you're finding the whole thing waaay too stressful and you just want to bury your head in the sand.

As much as you might hate revision, it really is necessary if you want to achieve the best grades you can get- which you probably do if you’re a) reading this and b) a normal person. So I thought I would write a mini post with some (hopefully) helpful tips on how to make the most of your revision.

Disclaimer: I am NOT a revision expert. Admittedly, I am actually quite lazy by nature and find concentrating on studying difficult, so I thought writing out some tips would benefit me as much as you. Also, this is not meant to be patronising in any way- I'm sure you all have your own methods of revising and know this stuff already. This is just a reminder :) So without further ado, here are the things I find help me most. 

Less like them, more like you: Thoughts on comparing

Hey everyone, hope your Mondays have been good and you all had a lovely weekend! First of all I want to thank you for sticking with me so far, hopefully these posts are not getting annoying just yet. I appreciate every one of you who takes the time to read my ramblings.

Anyway, today I feel like writing about the issue of comparing ourselves to others. We all do it whether we want to or not, and I definitely do it far too often. We can tend to measure ourselves based on how other people look, how much money they have, what they’re good at. And depending on the person we’re comparing ourselves with, we either feel better or worse about our own appearance, our finances and our abilities. This is made to seem pretty normal in today’s society. The media is constantly comparing celebrities to one another- which one is hotter, which one looks better in that dress, which one makes the biggest headlines. Magazines even compare us to celebrities. They tell us we can have Beyoncé’s body if we do this workout or buy that brand of diet pills. They tell us we can buy the same handbag that Kate Moss was carrying- which of course, automatically will make us just as cool as she is...
While this kind of thinking can inspire us to work harder to improve on ourselves, it can also be really damaging to the way we view ourselves.

It's Photo Friday!

Hey everyone, it's that time of the week again! On Monday the sun came out (hooray!), so I went for a walk down the country lane, and went a bit picture crazy. Lots of lambs and flowers this week, hope you enjoy them.

DIY storage solutions

Hey guys! Hope you've been having a good week so far despite the miserable weather (I think we have had 2 days of sunshine in about a month... needing some vitamin D right now!) Anyway, here's another project for you all- DIY storage boxes! I actually did this a while ago when I came back home for Christmas and realised that my amount of stuff to amount of space ratio was way off. (I swapped rooms with my brother so he could finally have the bigger room). I had a clear-out to provide the much needed space, but found I still had a lot of little bits and bobs that were scattered all over the place. The solution- use old gift-boxes! I found a couple of the boxes you get with perfumes and toiletries and covered them with spare craft and wrapping paper, and here are the results:

Aren't they cute?

This one holds my scarves- building quite a collection from my vintage shopping trips!

This one holds hair accessories/creams etc.

And here they are making my things at least slightly more organised than before! 

Next time you consider buying storage, maybe you can do it on the cheap instead! Hope you enjoyed. 

C. 

Wise words from Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn has always been one of my very favourite actresses, not only because her movies are so charming, but because she was a beautiful person inside and out. Whenever I'm having an off day and feeling insecure or down on myself, I find this quote helps me to keep the right attitude- that real beauty, as cliche as it sounds, really does come from the inside, and helping someone else to feel beautiful is the best possible way to make yourself feel better.