Blissful Mornings

    I am up at the crack of dawn, or sometimes before....4 AM-ish on most week days.

I  have three students to get out the door for early morning classes. I make breakfast,  pack lunches and help locate missing items like keys and hats, all in a rushed flurry before they are all suddenly sucked out the front door as if in a whirlwind, by 6AM.  I wave to them out the top of the dutch door one last time, shut it, and take a deep breath.

   At that exact moment, it becomes calm and peaceful, with just me, my watchful cats and a quiet house.

That's when my day begins for myself.

One of my New Year's resolutions is to take more time for myself.  Create a more relaxing space for myself to dwell in.   Eat in a prettier space, read more and do more art.

One of my new habits I have been developing in January is to not sit at my computer and wolf down breakfast, but instead, sit at the table and eat slowly, in a relaxed attitude.

Its quite dark out this time of year so I light the candles (which we light every night at dinner, so they are always conveniently on the table), and begin my day with the most important meal of the day - breakfast.

I happened to have plenty of flowers on the table today - left over from my Winter Tea Party I hosted on the 20th, and they add to the ambiance.  Its nice to sit in front of flowers to dine, when outside the typical Seattle winter day is dark, gloomy and wet!

My only "guest" at the table this morning was my tomcat Sushi.  He eased up onto the edge of the table and watched me patiently.  Shortly after taking these photos, I went to the kitchen to get something and came back to find he had inched closer and was about to set his tail on fire as he laid it down over a tealight!  Indeed, the smell of burnt hair rose up in the air as I chased him away.  LOL  Those who live with cats will understand - you cannot keep them off ANYTHING!! 

 Sushi waits, ever so patient...

 Musee Blue Toile chair pads, vintage 1940's Irish linen tablecloth and Royal Copenhagen's Blue Flower's Curved china.

 I light the fireplace sconces up too - with minimal modern electric lights in the dining room, candles light our way through most of the year and makes for a more relaxed, special meal each time.