A Bit of Fun

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Jessie: In New Hampshire where the rain looks a lot like sleet!

I don’t know about all of you, but I am in the mood for a bit of fun. So much of life has felt heavy and serious of late and although I feel capable of shouldering life’s responsibilities, I am ready to turn my attention to those things that lighten my heart.

So, I’ve been looking for ways to add a little sparkle back into my days. I’ve started a list and have even managed to check a few things off of it, like visiting a hat store with a friend and booking a trip to a museum with an exhibit I am excited to attend. Here, in no particular order is a sampling of items from the list:

  • try a new recipe from each of my cookbooks
  • visit a yarn shop that is new to me
  • make a watercolor sketch each day for 30 days in a row
  • teach my dog, Sam, a new trick
  • attend an online webinar on a topic of interest
  • telephone my sister
  • drive with the top down on a bright, sunny day, even though it is chilly
  • order flowers for a friend, just because
  • dress up in a formal gown and jewelry for a day of work in my home office
  • make a batch of membrillo from fruit from my own quince bush
  • take on online class in a topic of interest
  • cast on a new knitting project
  • frame a piece of art and find the perfect spot for it on the wall
  • take the record player, some of my favorite records, and a glass of wine out to the screen house for an evening of fresh air and beautiful music
  • look through an album of photos of my husband and children
  • walk my dog in the evening as the sun is beginning to streak reds and pinks across the sky
  • take a kite to the beach and watch it soar
  • blow bubbles in the backyard for my dog to chase
  • look online at trips I would love to take in the future
  • spin the crystal prsims hanging in my office windows so that rainbows dance all over the walls
  • head to a fragrance department and smell all the perfumes
  • pull out a notebook and start dreaming up a new novel

So readers, what about you? Are you in the mood for some fun? Do any of the items on my list tickle your fancy? What would you put on your own list?

Published by Jessie Crockett

Jessie Crockett wears a lot of hats, both literally and literarily. As Jessie Crockett she is the Daphne Award winning author of Live Free or Die and the nationally bestselling Sugar Grove series. As Jessica Ellicott she has received starred reivews from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal for her historical mystery Murder in an English Village. As Jessica Estevao she writes the Agatha Award nominated Change of Fortune Mysteries. She loves the beach, fountain pens, Mini Coopers and throwing parties. She lives in northern New England where she obsessively knits wool socks and enthusiastically speaks Portuguese with a shocking disregard for the rules of grammar.

30 Thoughts

  1. JESSIE: I agree that we need more fun to cheer us up as the winter approaches.
    Less daylight really gets me down, so I definitely go for a walk most days.
    I like that a few autumn leaves are hanging on the trees, giving a pop of oranges and reds to a gray/brown landscape.

    After a cooking rut/drought, I am back to trying some new recipes each week.

    And I visited the National Art Gallery and the Canadian Museum of Nature for the first time since 2020. All Ottawa museums and galleries have been closed to in-person visits for most of the pandemic. They are starting to open up to timed visits on Thursdays-Sundays.

    But one thing I am NOT doing yet is to look at future travel trips. Too scary with the COVID cases surging again in Europe and the US, and that’s where I want to travel in 2022. By comparison, most of Canada has squashed the fourth wave due to high vaccination rates (85-89% of people 12+) and continued use of masks and social distancing rules. So I have taken baby travel steps by plane and train to Toronto and Montreal, respectively in October. And I just booked a 4-day getaway to Montreal for early December. They have the BEST Christmas markets (like in Germany) and fabulous food.

  2. What a great list, Jessie! I love the idea of sending flowers to a friend for no reason. I would put “Go birding with a group” and “walk on the beach” to my list. And I’m overdue for a phone chat with my sister.

  3. Excellent list, Jessie! When stuck inside, I had on my fun list “Learn how to make a video.” Turns out it was easy with Canva. After creating one for my home page, my wife made one for her blog. Her efforts inspired me to make another for my next Wednesday’s post. BTW: I’m adding your list to mine. Thanks!

  4. I enjoy going online and finding exotic places that I would love to visit. I need to get a portable record player again so I can take my 45 collection outside like I used to do when I was a teen. I see that they are getting popular again. I think I will add it to my wish list for my husband to get me for Christmas.

  5. I really like the call your sister item on that list! Maybe you could call her and the two of you could schedule a trip to a yarn store neither of you have been to, two birds, one stone!

  6. I’d add:
    Go some place new to photograph both landscapes and critters,
    Read a book from a new to me author.
    Try at least one recipe each week from all the recipes I’ve saved on Pinterest that sounded so good.
    Reconnect with a friend that I haven’t gotten to see in ages.
    Do something special for a senior citizen that isn’t able to get out and about on their own. That could be taking them some place or doing their shopping so they don’t have to hire someone to do it.
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

  8. What a lovely list, Jessie! I am going to “borrow” a few of your ideas. And I want to do something creative like making my own cards to mail to friends or even just watching a video tutorial about watercolor painting and actually doing a watercolor of my own. What I am doing right now is reading one chapter a day, to make it last, of Edwina and Beryl’s latest adventure. Reading is ALWAYS on my “for fun” list!

  9. Fantastic list, Jessie – I’m adding a hike through the woods to mine, and now I’m shopping for crystals to hang in my window.

    1. I will add hiking to mine, thanks to you! I hope you have fun with the crystals! I added tension curtain rods to the top of my window casings so that I had plenty of room to hang them from. At present I have 14 in my windows; one for each book I have written and 1 extra for all the novels to come.

  10. Great list, Jessie! Bill and I are having fun going to restaurants for lunch. Many places in Portland have brought in heat lamps and we’re going to do it as long as we can. We don’t have a designated day or really plan. It’s more spontaneous, when our schedules show an opening. We weren’t going out for so long now we have a mental list of places to get to before the snow falls.

    2. The Ottawa restaurants set up tents and heat lamps this time last year since indoor dining was not allowed. But this year, all the patios closed on October 31. Indoor dining is allowed for fully vaccinated customers using Ontario’s vaccine passport system. I am going to my first two dine-in dinners this week (gulp).

      2. Thanks. Fully packed indoor dining has not been allowed since March 2020, so it feels a bit weird. Baby steps towards normalcy here in Ottawa.

  11. These all sound like stop and enjoy type of things. Sounds lovely. Half of them appeal to me just for that reason alone.

  12. Jessie, I love your list and it made my day! A lovely gift from you today that we can all use and think on!

  13. I always keep fresh flowers on the dining room table. Just the cheapies from the grocery. Makes my husband and me smile every day.

    Send a funny email to everyone on your email list and see how many folks respond. It’s amazing who you hear from.

  14. It was a great list, but wore me out thinking of doing all of that. SO I will just start a new jigsaw puzzle. Also go and mail all of my Christmas packages as I am done! Any more will get them mailed direct to them. No more wrapping and mailing here.

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