Hi friends.  Welcome.

How are you all?

Anyone else glad it’s Friday? I feel like I’ve been burning the candle at both ends this week and today I’m feeling it. A bit of a sleepin is on the menu tomorrow and some time with friends. 

First things first though – – – 

As always I’m here with a few good things that I hope will get your weekend started on a relaxed note.

A Good Word

A Good Look

Flowers can’t solve everything but their a great start

A Good Idea

Enjoy Your November

Anyone else feel like November gets relegated to a non event as the volume goes up and up on Christmas and the stress levels along with it.

So I’m just gonna offer this little insight.

You and I still have seventeen perfectly good days left in November every bit as valuable and precious as any one you’ll find in December.

Your allowed not to rush through them,

Your allowed not to be doing more than your doing.

Your allowed to slow down and savour them because your pace is your pace and your life doesn’t have to match up with anyone else’s.

And you don’t have to be in some hyper mode of preparing and planning and overthinking,

November’s a great month just for living

You can

• Head out on a picnic
• Sit on your verandah in the evening
• Lose yourself in a book (any suggestions?)
• Steer clear of the shops
• Get outdoors
• Clean down a surface, free up a corner
• Watch something hilarious
• Create a soothing (or fun) November play list
• Potter in the garden
• Cook up something delicious you haven’t tried before
• Enjoy it with friends
• Light the good smelling candle
• Take a mini break, a half day break or even an hour break just you and yourself and listen to what your hearts saying
• Keep a craft project, a puzzle, or some scrapbooking, on the go. Anything soothing will do. It’ll keep your hands busy and your brain nicely distracted when your feeling a bit stressed or over wrought.

What would you add to the list above?

What’s important for you this November?

A Good Read

Three in fact this week

No Memory is Ever Alone. A Photographer Reimagines Family Moments Using Her Dads Old Slides

Jamestown, New York-based photographer Catherine Panebianco compresses the space between family memories and her life at present through her series, No Memory Is Ever Alone. The moving collection features vast landscapes and unoccupied rooms with Panebianco’s continued intervention: in each shot, she holds up a photographic slide of her family in a similar location, juxtaposing the decades-old visual against a current-day backdrop.

Beyond capturing loved ones in moments of joy—many feature her mother, who died in recent years—the film reminds Panebianco of a holiday tradition. Her dad “used to bring out a box of slides that he photographed in his late teens and early 20s every Christmas and made us view them on an old projector on our living room wall telling the same stories every year,” she writes in a statement. “It was a consistent memory from a childhood where we moved a lot and I never felt like I had a steady “place” to live and create memories.” Imbued with nostalgia, the new images bind the threads of family memory and tradition with the histories of her parent’s lives and now, her own – – –

Keep reading

The Scent That Takes Me Back Home, Wherever I Am

Some of my earliest and sweetest memories involve sitting on the sofa in my best outfit, alongside my siblings in a tidy living room, uunsi burning in the background, waiting for our guests to arrive. When uunsi burned it was a warning of sorts: The meal was made, the guests were on their way, the day had begun, and, sometimes, mamo was going to a wedding.

Uunsi, the Somali word for frankincense, is largely sourced from Boswellia trees across East Africa, and for Somaliland, where I am from, it is one of their most important natural resources. Uunsi is often burned in a dabqaad, a burner pot that is usually made of white clay. Traditionally, uunsi is used after meals, in the evening, or during special occasions, with different types of bukhoor being used. According to the elder Somali community, uunsi is used to lift your spirits and make the house smell clean with its powerful scent that lingers for hours  – – – keep reading

And this one seemed appropriate too 

From  Courtney Carver at Be More with Less 

10 Gentle Reminders to Help You Prioritize Self Care

We know we have to take care of ourselves but when considering everything and everyone else that needs our attention, it’s hard to prioritize self care. Consider these self care reminders a gentle nudge to put yourself first.

Self care may sound selfish or indulgent but when you remember how much better you feel and how much more you have to give when you are taking good care, you’ll realize that it benefits everyone around you too.

1. That moment when you think you don’t have time to take care of yourself is the exact moment you have to take care of yourself

Self-care can’t be a “when I have time” thing or something extra or indulgent. It’s essential. Please, take care of you (especially when you don’t think you have time).

2.  You don’t HAVE to stop. You GET to stop.

Self-care doesn’t always mean adding something. Taking away a habit or something else that isn’t serving you is powerful too.  Give yourself permission to stop. You don’t have to stop. You get to stop     – – – Keep reading

Remember you can browse through the  previous articles and posts linked to in The Friday Recliner right  HERE.

And if you enjoy The Friday Recliner would you be kind enough to copy the link and send to a friend to enjoy as well.

Till next week friends, have a beautiful weekend, rest up, do something you love xx