Happiness & Joy – Page 22 – Antony Simpson – Author, Blogger, Nurse & Witch.

Count Your Successes (no matter how small)

By AntonyBooks & Authors, Friends & Family, Happiness & Joy, Inspiration, Life, ThinkingNo Comments

We should all count our successes (no matter how small) and occasionally take time to reflect and contemplate them. So here’s a list of my recent successes:

Watched I Love You Phillip Morris, a film about a gay serial con man and prison escapee who finds love in prison. Based on a true story, staring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor.
Installed a printer/scanner/copier on an painfully slow computer running Windows Vista.
Found some single-piece deep silver jar lids for some mason jars. The jars will make up part of some Christmas presents, as well as be used for my next batch of candles (more information in the new year).
Gift tagged my homemade candles, ready for Christmas.
Caught up and reconnected with my family. We gathered, ate (a chicken dinner and wine), talked and laughed lots.
Finally caught up with my friend Sye. We all have that one friend that never fails to inspire us. For me, that’s Sye. I talked through a major problem with my idea for my next batch of candles and he solved it like that (*snaps fingers*).
Celebrated Samhain in style with my friends Simon & Chrys. Great food, drink, fire, music and company.
Come off Facebook for the beginning of the week. I made the decision to come off after seeing two major spoilers about The Walking Dead on my news feed. I’ve been amazed how much time I’ve saved by coming off Facebook and realised how much time I used to spend ‘checking’ Facebook.
Come up with titles for a series of blog posts with a Mental Health Focus. I’m thinking of releasing one a week (once they’re all written) on a Monday and calling it #MentalHealthMonday.
Shared my post 15 Lies That Depression Would Have You Believe on a number of Facebook pages. This has increased visitor traffic, but not only that, someone commented stating: ‘Thanks for posting that today, I really needed to read/hear that today, really made a lot of sense and was comforting to read (if that makes sense).’ It’s always wonderful when you write something that resonates with someone and helps them.
Watched series 1 and 2 of Zoo.
Started and finished reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.

Here’s a random upbeat cover of The Edge of Glory by Walk off the Earth & Roomie, which makes me feel good:

Click here to display content from YouTube.
Learn more in YouTube’s privacy policy.

Always display content from YouTube

Keep counting those successes,

Antony

Share on Social Media:

Saturday 5 November 2016

The Finished Product

By AntonyFriends & Family, Happiness & JoyNo Comments

Well here it is…The Finished Product. Here are photos of my homemade hot cinnamon candles that will be Christmas/Yule presents for family and friends:

The Finished Product: My homemade candles look great.	The Finished Product: Just 1 of the 22 completed (unlit).
The Finished Product: As I have only made 22, each one is numbered.	The Finished Product: Of course I had to light my trial jar to test the scent throw. As it happens it’s awesome and smells amazing (1).
The Finished Product: Of course I had to light my trial jar to test the scent throw. As it happens it’s awesome and smells amazing (2).

A lot of hard work went into them. The results are spectacular, even if I do say so myself. They look great and smell amazing – both when not lit and lit.

Blog soon,

Antony

Share on Social Media:

Saturday 8 October 2016

Trial Run

By AntonyHappiness & Joy, ThinkingNo Comments

Trial Run – The 1st Batch of my homemade hot cinnamon candles.

Here (photoed left) is the result of my trial run of making homemade hot cinnamon candles for Christmas/Yule presents. It needs some finishing touches: a final wax top up, trimming of the wick and then some possible design/patterns using glass marker pens.

Learning from the 1st batch:

I will need three times the amount of paraffin wax, red dye and hot cinnamon scent I thought I would need in order to complete all of the 24 jars.
They have come out looking great and smell amazing.
I probably wont need to use the glass marker pens to add designs or pattens on to the jars, as they look fantastic as they are.

I’ll be sure to share some photos when I have the finished products.

Blog soon,

Antony

Share on Social Media:

Monday 3 October 2016

A Visit to York and Knaresborough

By AntonyAdventures, Friends & Family, Happiness & JoyNo Comments

Yesterday my good friend Simon and I visited York and Knaresborough.

York is a brilliant place to visit. It is architecturally splendid and has more push bikes than I have ever seen in my life. The great thing about York is that it has both indoor and outdoor things to do.

The weather was great, considering the time of year. High temperatures and dry. So Simon and I saw York’s Abbey, York’s Museum Gardens and the ruins of St Mary’s Abbey. We walked along York’s wall, went shopping (York has a wide range of shops, selling a wide range of things) and generally explored York.

Here are some photos from our visit to York:

Simon and I visited York for the day.	York Abbey (from a distance).
York Abbey (close up).	A York Church with an interesting bell tower.
York’s Museum Gardens. There were loads of squirrels in these beautiful gardens.	The ruins of St Mary’s Abbey in York (from a distance). You can read more about St Mary’s Abbey here.
The ruins of St Mary’s Abbey in York (close up). You can read more about St Mary’s Abbey here.	Simon and I walked along York’s wall.
Simon with a funky statue we discovered.

Then Simon and I travelled on to Knaresborough. Knaresborough is a small town with ruins of a castle. We walked around the ruins of the castle, took in the spectacular view and then went shopping. The shops in Knaresborough were mildly disappointing, however there was a pagan/witchcraft shop and spirituality shop.

Here are some photos from our visit to Knaresborough:

We drove on to Knaresborough.	Ruin of Knaresborough Castle wall.
Ruin of Knaresborough Castle (1).	Ruin of Knaresborough Castle (2).
Stunning view from the Knaresborough Castle ruin.