Simple Pleasures: Finding Happiness in Faffing & Seemingly Pointless Things

Plus - Let’s play ‘Guess the amount of beads in the jars’ - WIN a year’s subscription!

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I’m never happier than when I’m faffing with pretty things just for the sake of it. I don’t need any company, the day’s chosen paraphernalia, be it blooms, beads, baubles or bedding is enough to make me as giddy as a kipper.

Styling a shelf, building a flower cloud, adding bursts of seasonal colour from the garden, or simply draping a throw seductively over a lazy armchair, brings me more pleasure than any party, concert, or fancy dinner.

To me, it’s a bit like playing dressing up for the home. As a child I could get lost for hours secreted away in my mother’s wardrobe, exhilarated to find a big-buttoned tartan cape, or a spangly shoe. Now I’ve swapped the costumes for my ‘Drawer of Throws’ and collection of cushions.

There is much rapture to be had from a day rearranging furniture, swapping out the finer details, and curating little tableaus of interesting artefacts. If you haven’t succumbed to its pleasures then I urge you to do so at your earliest convenience.

One of my favourite things in my home is a set of vintage wooden bobbins wound with varying shades of blue thread from cornflower to Forget-me-not. I’ve treasured them for years and they always find pride of place, where I can admire them daily. They make me smile. They reach something deep inside me when the world spinning around leaves me weary.

Each one is mounted on a six inch nail hammered through a rustic wood stand. It’s a simple idea, a seemingly pointless one, actually. But, I’m of the mind that if something brings you joy, even if no one else understands it, then that’s a thing to be prized. As Mama Cass once sang: ‘You gotta make your own kind of music.’

My rather bemused mother-in-law came to stay some years ago and spied said bobbins on the coffee table.

“What are you going to make with all that thread J.P?”

I told her I’d already made it and she was looking straight at it. I could see the question marks floating from her mind, each one bursting like a bubble when she realised there was no meaning. She had absolutely no understanding that something useful could also be beautiful just as it is, no purpose other than to delight.

The same perplexity would ensue at the sight of an utterly perfect little bird’s nest I saved and displayed in a china cup, or the two deep chestnut shiny bowling balls sat on wooden curtain rings to keep them steady at either end of a console table made up of old printing drawers.

“You have the strangest taste J.P”.

I said thank you, what a lovely compliment.

In a time when it often feels as though the world is falling apart, when a tiny crack of hopelessness can so easily creep in, I take solace from simple pleasures and I truly believe it’s the key to staying jolly and contented.

I couldn’t give a rat’s arse what it is that melts your butter, only that you love it. I think we should all care far less what anyone thinks. I have a friend I met through Instagram called Alex. She’s a maximalist through and through, and loves nothing more than clashing colour and pattern with wild abandon. She can spend many an hour creating a tablescape just for the sheer joy of it and her happiness shines through in everything she touches, from what she’s wearing to what greets you in her downstairs loo. She exudes a comfortable confidence that only comes from doing exactly what you want and not giving a damn about what anyone else thinks.

A little example of my friend Alex’s joyful styling.

My husband gets kicks out of ‘sorting things’, ticking things off his list, pottering around the barn and garden for hours on end, seemingly doing nothing of much importance with a hammer or drill. But the smile on his face when all is complete is priceless. It doesn’t matter that I have no clue what he actually did. His simple pleasure is spending time faffing, just like me. A very different type of faffing for sure, but no less important.

I should imagine he often wonders why I’m dangling from a ladder hanging a Nordic spruce from the ceiling, or arranging dried flowers in an old cigar press (can’t wait to show you that next week btw). He knows though that it brings me inordinate amounts of joy, and even though he may not ever actually say, I think it pleases him to live in a home filled with oddly pretty things.

My cancer diagnosis in 2010 taught me that none of us ever know what’s around the corner. There was a time when I truly thought I wasn’t long for this world. You’d think that would make me want to use every minute I had to do ‘important things’. Yet, I found myself doing utterly pointless activities because they made me smile. In fact, it’s the main reason why I do everything I do now, the writing, styling, designing and decorating. There’s not enough time to be doing things I really don’t want to do.

So, on that note I’d like to show you a little something I’ve been working on just for the heck of it. I have two glass lamps, which can be filled with anything you can dream up that might fit inside comfortably. The ones I have are no longer available, but these are half price at the moment at just over £27 each, you just have to fill them upside down.

At Christmas it was pine cones, faux snow and fairy lights. In one of my many waking hours, whilst the rest of the western world slept, I decided the spring/summer edition of my fillable lamps must involve beads. I have no idea why, but I was a man possessed. I used shades of blue, obviously, and creamy white with varying shades of fudge, coffee and burnt toast. It’s a delight and it has absolutely no purpose whatsoever. Hoorah!

To celebrate I thought we would play a game of ‘guess the amount of beads in the jar’. I used to love that so much at church fetes, where the beads were swapped for sweets. Whoever guesses closest to the total number of wooden beads I used to fill both lamps will win a complimentary year’s subscription to HOME & HORT. Yay!

Make sure you’re at least a free subscriber and then just leave your best guesses in the comments and be sure to like this post too. A restack will get you my undying love. I’ll announce the winner on Sunday’s post in a few days time.

It’s a serious business lamp filling!

Don’t forget ‘Post It and Smile’ this Friday at 5.30pm UK time.

Now in its seventh week and going strong over in our private chat, it’s a chance for us all to get together and say hi, unwind after the week and share one thing that has made you smile. It could be a photo of a plant in your garden, a new lamp you’ve just bought, something that made you laugh, a place you visited, a room you’ve just decorated, anything you like. I start with something that has made me happy and then everyone takes over from there.

It’s lots of fun and a chance to meet other members who love interiors and gardens. Everyone is super friendly. You just need the Substack app. Then just click on speech bubble in the bottom left of your screen and then on HOME & HORT.

Hope to see a lot of you there. Our private chat is one of the many perks of being a paid member and you can ask questions, get advice, or just chat there any time you like, not just Fridays. There is always someone who will answer.

I’ll also be back on Sunday with another post for you. Speak soon.

I’d love it if you could leave a little heart ♥️ and a comment. If you really want to melt my butter then Restack it (that’s the recycle symbol below) as well. It get’s this post out to new lovely people.