New Year New You?

 Happy New Year!
I hope you were able to ring it in just the way you liked.

 We're well into the second week and I think it's safe to say that most people's resolutions have either taken hold... or not.  If not, eh who cares, people are far too hard on themselves.  I for one refuse to burden myself with gadgets, insane regimes, "cleanses" or the like.  I think it is a natural time to pull back on a holiday lifestyle because we've run out of brandy and other seasonal treats anyway.
  As far as exercise, well you know my feelings on that: walking in nature for the pleasure of the outdoors is one of the best things you can do for your health, and as far as strengthening and toning muscles, I rely on my daily dose of Miranda.
I do go to a gym as well for a bit of running, and let's face it, mostly for the sauna.  If I was sensible and/or Finnish I'd have one of those in my house.
I have set up a couple of little stations to keep me better organized in the kitchen.  For one, pencils and bits of note paper so that I stop going to the market without a list: that is a ruinous habit for me.  My mind goes completely blank in the grocery store and I need to clutch that list and stick to it so that my dinners are easier to throw together.

Note-making station in the kitchen.

 I'm also cooking through Jamie Oliver's new book these next weeks, it's so good.  This book is based on healthy foods and the recipes have that signature Jamie Oliver flavour.  He also discusses issues of diet and health in a very reasonable manner, with interesting chapters on sleep, sugars, the protein/carb/fat mix, the amount of vegetables we should be taking in each day and alcohol intake.

Jamie Oliver does it again.

 He also discusses longevity.  I've been thinking about this topic quite a bit because we lost Grandma Jean last week and she lived a good long life.  She would have been 94 this coming May.

My Dear Grandma Jean
She was very well-loved.

 The thing about Grandma Jean is that she wasn't exactly a champion of healthy living, yet she still lived such a long life.  She smoked (you can see the ciggie in her hand in the picture above, yes she was handling a giant mackerel and a cig at the same time), she drank alcohol every day (beer mostly) and her favourite foods were sausages, fish fried in Crisco, and ice cream.
I remember about twenty years ago she said to me "the Doctor wants me to walk because I'm fat, but I'm too fat to get up and walk, so hmmmph".  And that was that.  She spent plenty of time outdoors (without sunscreen) but she never exercised a day in her life.
She was happy though, always laughing.  She read loads, she could talk about anything.  She was an American (living in Canada), and damn proud to be so.  She was also proud to be Irish, and when my youngest daughter was born with auburn hair and green eyes she was thrilled to bits: "she could wave the flag for Ireland" she yelled.
She had lots of friends, many through her job at the town library, everyone loved her.  She was honest as the day was long and hated disloyalty and back-stabbing.  If you proved to be such a person heaven help you.
I loved her so much and I'm going to miss her forever.  I'm happy she had a long life but her health problems these last years were really becoming unbearable, it was time for peace and quiet to find her.

 MrBP arranged for flowers to be sent monthly as a Christmas present and the January bouquet arrived just when I was grieving my Grandma Jean.  She would have loved them.

In honouring someone in our life who shaped us it doesn't hurt to try to channel some of their joy, some of their wishes for us.
Grandma would have wanted us to be happy every day, to set gloom aside:

Last winter was very gloomy indeed, as evidenced by these grey sweater pants.
I wore them all last winter, very out of character.
They've been chucked and Grandma Jean would have said "good thing Dani".

 I'll think of Grandma Jean each time I visit a lake or Georgian Bay.

At Berna's island cottage August 2015.

 Grandma always wore lots of blue (to match her beautiful eyes) and white.  I'll think of her when I wear blue in all shades.

 I'll think of her too this week as I pack up to go to Florida with my girlfriends.  This trip does seem perfectly timed, it's the sort of thing she would have approved of: the sun, sand, the water, laughter, boozing and the company of good friends and hilarious conversations.

Already packed up: Brora cropped cardigan in foxglove pink,
JCrew silk dress 2005, recent ebay find.

She'll be with us in spirit I know.

In anticipation of my trip I'm planning to post a packing-up colour story: From Snow to Sun.  These are my favourite posts to put together so I'm going to go for it, even if I am behind on the early-winter colour story I've been working on.

I hope you've been well, happy, not hard on yourself and that you've been having lots of laughs.  Let's have fun this year and do our best to celebrate the important things in life.
xoxDani