Why not cheat and be happy?

This blog post is brought to you courtesy of Evri and Royal Mail, even though they don’t know it.

You see, the nice people at Temu pay you £4-00 if your parcel doesn’t arrive by their estimated delivery date, and I’ve been revamping the house, especially our bedroom to match the person I am working on becoming. The first couple of times they didn’t arrive, I got annoyed. Then I got sneaky and started making minimum orders, and then using all those £4.00’s to add cosy touches and things got better still when one parcel took so long that Temu refunded it, so I was £60 up. That meant guilt-free fleece blankets with seasonal patterns on and a gorgeous selection of stamped cross-stitch kits along with stretch covers for the wicker chairs that are more than 40 years old and are now so much comfier.

My birthday money became USB lighting, which means my sewing corner can be amazingly bright or snuggly and cosy. My silk flower collection is best not mentioned, because my husband might just read this, but it makes me happy and it’s better for me than chocolate. I’ve just arranged some in the garden close to the house, and pictures will follow when I’ve finished swapping them round. The cross-stitch kits that the parcel firms gave me are good for me too because they woo me away from doom scrolling and too much news, which isn’t good for me or anyone else.

So Friday afternoon was perfect for my first proper test run. Forty miles-an-hour winds, heavy rain slapping against the bedroom window, dark skies. A cup of vanilla tea, my cross-stitch, and one of those YouTube videos about people who live idyllic lives in perfect cottages. (Okay, I didn’t say I was giving up time-wasting videos. I’m just giving up gloomy ones and imagining all the things that could go wrong, some of which you will see in future books.) Anyway, I can’t say that I was totally watching because I was also working on my first heart cross-stitch. It’s an autumn one, and I’m afraid you’ll have to see a picture of one that reminds me of Shore Road, where Harbourside is in my imagination because it’s not finished yet. I’m hoping to show it to you next week instead, along with the outdoor cheat flowers.

All the candles and task lights were on, and half an hour’s sewing felt as luxurious as being on holiday, exactly as I hoped it would. So roll on autumn and winter. I’m looking forward to you! I’ll carry on with the transformation at the times when I can’t get out for walks, but soon there will be leaves to scrunch through and squirrels and water voles to watch and overwintering birds to marvel at.

And that, my friends I haven’t met yet, is why I feel that simple pleasures are the best, and here’s that picture I promised you of the seaside cross stitch. See you on Wednesday, and I hope that you have your sort of fun as much as you can while ignoring anyone who wants to tell you what that ought to be. Why not silk flowers? No shipping costs, no problems with bad weather. Just brightness against the dark and I think it’d be a better world if we all had more of that.