hello everyone and welcome to my home my name is paola i live here in the pacific
northwest in a rural cottage surrounded by forests and public lands few people live
here and there are a lot of mountains all around sometimes that get closed off during the winter
it is indisputably a beautiful place i wouldn't want to be anywhere else but
nowhere is perfect i love all the seasons each is stunning in its own way but winter
offers something quite different from the others this time of year has a unique set of challenges
many of them you can guess in regards to dealing with so much snow and freezing cold temperatures
oh
january often finds many experiencing cabin fever even though i love pursuing my creative hobbies
and doors i miss being able to traipse through the forest barefoot with the ease of the springtime
especially when it's negative 15 and being outdoors can feel so painful and risk frostbite
i've always had fairly poor circulation in my fingers
and toes and so i need to be quite careful this time of year during the very cold snaps
this week had blizzards and i found myself for the most part stuck at home longer than i wished
snow plows were delayed and rural roads stayed untouched for longer than usual
and sometimes it was quite dangerous to drive and my electricity went in and out i am used to this
so don't get me wrong i love to watch shows and movies and read books as much as the next creative
but after a while without being able to go back to my normal routine things started getting a bit old
i found myself for the first time this season understandably and temporarily feeling a bit
lonely a bit bored and out of spirits i know this is a relatable feeling i think a lot of
people feel those winter blues especially after the holidays when things get very cold i think we
often associate feelings like this as something we need to cure or see as negative and i understand
though i do think sometimes these feelings can be a wonderful opportunity to learn about ourselves
and to assert that self-control and believe that this too shall pass this week i definitely felt a
bit low i've had so much family visiting over the holidays and saying goodbye to my sister was hard
as i rarely get to see her i really do enjoy my time alone and need it every day to recharge
but it's funny how your feelings surprise you sometimes
i am a great believer in distracting myself when needed so i got busy cleaning the house
reorganizing things and creating a very lovely and cozy atmosphere
that made me fall in love again with my home life i do know that i've deeply needed some
time alone to recharge so even though i don't feel as well as i do usually i am embracing this time
i love doing practical little things that make my life easier
over the next several weeks in this case finishing a much needed project for my wedding
we needed to make tapers and jar candles and thankfully i got some help from my fiance
he could finally visit so we enjoyed a lovely evening together
hello everyone i am sorry in advance i i'm tired i'm so tired i don't know i just didn't
sleep well last night so anyway hopefully that um does not affect my voice so many
people kind of experience the blues this time of year i think especially if you're in an area
that has so much snow so anyway i have kind of used it as an opportunity to just you know get
all those little things done around the house that i've been meaning to do and really create a cozy
atmosphere that that makes me feel very welcomed and at peace so that i've time to recharge it was
a wonderful december i received many many socks as gifts so i also got a rechargeable hand warmer
which um was really important i struggle a lot with keeping my toes and fingers warm this time of
year i put on gloves and i use the hot packs and i do everything but still sometimes it can just
get so cold when it's in the negatives negative 10 negative 12 15 it you know it really affects
me and i guess i just have poor circulation but um yeah anyway it's it's always a bit
tricky this time of year i do find that once you know chill veins set in i really need
to stay inside for a little bit until you know my extremities start to heal
yeah so i've been uh reading a lot i've been trying out some spooky stories i read coraline
last a couple weeks ago and i'm now reading a brand new book that's a collection of ghost
stories which i'm quickly realizing is a horrible mistake i usually don't like scary stories i'm
very afraid very easily you know but um i don't know why i just decided i should try out books
like that because i never read books like that and so far i'm i'm a big wimp the other thing i've
been doing a lot is lighting a lot of candles even more than usual i found some beeswax candles at my
specialty store recently and i just really like these one is in the shape of a pinecone and one
looks like a just whimsical old winter fairy in my opinion he's just the cutest little wisest
looking guy and i just really like it they are definitely too pretty to burn as you guys know
i really enjoyed the mythology candle company and i bought some candles for my family who are also
all readers and all love fantasy and fairy tales and that's what the can candles are inspired by i
purchased three candles for december but then they sent me three more which was really kind of them
it was very very sweet and unexpected the camelot collection which was really exciting because not
only i enjoy the arthurian legends but my sister grew up just obsessed with king arthur and camelot
and all those amazing legends so i'm definitely reserving one of the candles for her anyway i
have slowly become more and more obsessed with candle collecting i don't know what's happening
it's definitely unnecessary but i find myself with more candles all the time and it's wonderful um
it's definitely becoming a little bit of a hobby to try out new candles so i've been having a lot
of fun it's it's such a simple kind of silly thing but it's brought me a lot of joy i really love
when my cottage smells really nice especially when you have a dog that loves to run around
outside and roll and pretty much anything smelly he can find it's really nice to just let candles
and kind of cleanse the space a little bit anyway i am enjoying it this time i actually
do hope that the snow will stop soon so that i can get out a little more and it's a little easier to
drive i am definitely a nervous driver so i don't like to drive if it is too much snow or too icy
especially because there are a lot of wild animals here and you have to be very careful on the roads
anyway i hope you all have a wonderful day i'm gonna go take a nap i am so tired
i don't know what's going on um anyway i'm sending my love and i wish you all the best goodbye