Starting the week by writing the Happy List is something I’ve been doing for a while over the last few years. It is my chance to sit down and reflect on the things that made me happy in the previous week, as well as to record some of the adventures we have as a family.

Five Happy Things {Week 493}

Last week my son turned 14 years old! I can’t believe he can be 14 already. He received money and parts for his computer, and thankfully an expansion pack for Carcassonne which gave us all something to do together.

It was also my own birthday last week. I received a new book from Persephone Books, Random Commentary by Dorothy Whipple. I recently read High Wages which I really enjoyed. Random Commentary is a selection of extracts from her diaries and notebooks, chosen by her. It’s really strange reading her innermost thoughts, especially after enjoying one of her novels. She is very honest and self-deprecating and therefore strange hearing her own thoughts about her novels, almost as if she didn’t always like the characters and stories she wrote. I’m not sure if I’m going to carry on reading it, or put it aside until I’ve read her other novels.

I was able to spend Friday at The Stitch Festival at the Business Design Centre. This is somewhere I’ve wanted to go for a while and finally took a day off to go. As well as the exhibition I booked two workshops and had fun trying Italian corded quilting and making a fabric badge. It was lovely to sit and make something different, not that I’m not enjoying working on my Liberty tumbling block cushion. I found the cushion pad this week and was surprised how large it is – much larger than I remember!

Over the weekend my son was busy with the practice expedition for his Duke of Edinburgh Silver award. He didn’t enjoy the experience as it was badly organised and they cancelled the overnight camping element! The weather hasn’t been particularly bad lately so we were surprised to hear the ground was not suitable for camping, especially as when we picked them up there weer hundreds of other groups camping there.

Have a great week!