Hello, and a very happy 2012 to you!  Have you taken down the decorations yet, or are you waiting till Twelfth Night?  I must admit to taking mine down after New Year’s Day.  The tree was in the window, right in front of  Higgins’ look out point and I got fed up with things being swept off by a waggy tail and then secreted behind the sofa to be dismantled.  (I got my own back when he stole a cracker, put a paw on one end and then delicately tried to remove the interesting long thin piece of card poking out of the middle… BANG!!! Gosh, I didn’t know he could jump quite that high!)

I find the first week of the New Year a bit strange…I end up a bit like Higgins trying to settle in a newly washed bed, I seem to spend a lot of time shuffling and scrabbling trying to make it all the right shape.

We definitely need a bit of cheerfulness with this awful weather, I hope you haven’t been swept away in this wind, or suffered power cuts or cancelled travel arrangements.  I  feel for Tim, who is stuck in the middle of the North Sea at the moment, I’m just glad that he’s on something with it’s legs firmly planted on the bottom of the sea…

Higgins has been to the sea, he went with his Boy…

He really loved having his Boy to stay over Christmas and probably the Christmas tree incidents were down to the fact that the Boy went home and left him feeling very bored.

I removed all the holly, which had more berries this year than I had ever seen before and hung it with the mistletoe in the cherry trees so the birds could polish off the berries…

Something which made me very happy was a crafty Christmas pressie from my friend Kit, who knows how much I like stationery…

But the best bit was the bit Kit painted herself…

How on earth am I actually going to use those labels…and part with them?

I’ve been shopping on Ebay…

…and talking of buttons, how about this for a Christmas present?

 I’ve got so many possible crafty bits of inspiration all I’ve got to do is actually decide what I’m going to do next!

So what are your Reasons to be Cheerful in this first week of 2012?  Do join in, either through the Linky below, or via the comments, it’s lovely to find out what every one is doing to get through the gloomiest wintery bit.  And if you are in the southern Hemisphere, your sunshiny, Springy bits are most welcome!

See you soon! xxx