natjtan Welcome to another Weekend Friday Favourites that’s hopefully more regular. I have no excuses other than plain laziness the past few months.
Weekend Friday Favourites is a favourite post to post so I’ll get straight into what’s been making me smile or caught my eye recently.
Visiting a friend I couldn’t stop admiring her rug in the living room lounge. It was so nice to sit on (she has a 1 year baby so you’re on the floor playing) I got thinking that’s what’s missing with my sofa. I had a look at some, saw the price and left it for when there’s more pennies at the end of the month until I went to HM Home. Knowing it probably wasn’t going to be big enough I got it anyway as I liked the texture and colour. It’s more or less the size of a yoga mat, way too small for the sofa so I added to my ‘office’. Checking online HM Home have the same version in larger sizes however maybe too big and on the pricier size. I wasn’t prepared to pay €99-199 for a rug when the first one was €29! I decided to wait until the sales however I found by chance looking again in HM Home the next size up at €39. It’s not the perfect size as it does doesn’t go. I’m happy and that’s the main thing. It feels so nice under my feet and separates the room into a living room from the bikes. In the office/spare room it again separates the room and while the desk can get messy, it gives it a bit of luxe feeling. HMHome España currently only sells the 2 larger sizes here.
Spring
The first official day of spring, winter returned but as quickly as it returned it disappeared with almost a week of blue skies. This winter has been grey with few fully sunny days. I’m not sure if this is due to climate change as usually winter’s here are sunny. The temps are going up and that makes me happy feeling warm sunshine, seeing trees getting dressed, changes in light. This time last year Spain was in it’s 5th week of lockdown with only being allowed out for work unless can work from home, food, pharmacy, doctors. I could only watch spring from the balcony and while the light was getting brighter and spring warming up, inside was dark.
Gyms Reopened
Back in February Catalunya allowed gyms to reopen! While the whole of Spain has a curfew, the central government gave regional governments the power to reduce covid-19 transmissions bar total home confinement again. Catalunya I think was one the strictest, but we were allowed out. Some weeks only in our towns although exercise we could travel further. Gyms were closed for a while October to December to be closed again in January. For now they’re back open with restrictions but I’m so happy to be training in a gym again and back climbing indoors (this girl is a bad climber for outside climbing. It’s complicated, gym climbing’s easier to get to).
DIY Dreamcatcher
Malls were closed for a long time with shopping only in your municipal meant sometimes the supermarket was my only shopping outlet. I explored isles bar the meat and milk isles I wouldn’t usually go down! Wandering down the stationary and craft isle, I found a dream catcher kit. Having bad dreams I thought lets make one and see. YouTube has everything you need to learn things including dreamcatchers. I added butterflies which in some cultures help take away bad dreams and tried to leave the centre as open as possible to let the good dreams though while the web caught the bad ones. I didn’t like the lace dolly it came with as the centre was closed and it was always my idea to weave the web myself. Maybe be it’s all subconscious but I have had fewer bad dreams or less f’d up ones. It doesn’t get the first easy of sunlight to take way the bad dreams so I hang it on the laundry rack on the balcony for an hour hour or two. Some cultures the first rays of sunlight destroy bad dreams caught up in the web. The feathers or ribbons also help bad dreams slip down from the web and taken away in the wind. Malls are back open, larger shops can open so it’s almost as normal pre covid! I got a few more sets to make as presents.
I’ve been trying to work on my posture a lot recently. I work my back every workout, always including suspension training exercises to help open up my chest. I try and fail to have better posture sitting. My phone is the biggest culprit. Another culprit is my laptop. I have a gaming raiser for stop it overheating however it doesn’t raise it much. I wanted to see them first and try them out before buying but hardly anywhere sells them or they sell out quickly. Mediamarkt doesn’t and El Corte Ingles had sold out. Amazon had raisers with a fan however they pricey for not trying it out before hand. Then I remembered AliExpresss. My go to for cheaper than Amazon as 80% of the time it’s still shipped from China if you go by delivery dates. Similar or the same raisers as on Amazon but way cheaper! Probably better is a box raiser with the separate keyboard however I couldn’t find a keyboard I liked.
This one is okay. It has various raising levels and folds up making it easy travelling if you don’t travel with the fan, although fan is small. Unfortunalty the highest setting while it’s okay to type on I can’t open my screen wider for a better view (this is down to the laptop screen angle) so I’m still looking down but no where near as much without it. It has a fan which is perfect as I have so many photos the laptop can overheat. The fan setting you can alter and is quite quiet. The only cons is the keyboard support resters. They sometimes dig into my inner wrists which can be uncomfy if typing a lot, however I feel I have better posture so I can probably pad them out with cotton wool or something. I think with shipping it was around €14. Not the same colour, however this is the only one I can find on AliExpress the same here.
The fan is detachable and the stand easy folding for travel and storage!
What’s been making you smile or caught your eye this recently? Please share in the comments below!