A busy start to a new decade

Hello,

Finally, my first blog of the new decade! I had a lovely Christmas with family (seems like SO long ago now!) but was back at work on the 28th of December, worked right through New Year until the 10th and then went away for a few days so it’s been non-stop since then. After such a busy period it was great to get away – we went to The Dolomites in Italy for a long weekend.We don’t ski (I’m so clumsy I’d probably break a leg within ten minutes, and not in the showbiz sense!) but it was lovely spending a few days enjoying the snow, the sunshine and that fresh mountain air. My white Centigrade coat from QVC kept me nice and cosy too! Here are a few pictures – some gorgeous scenery and some rather unexpected and rather wonderful wood sculptures we came across on a walk.

So now a new year and a new decade. I’m not one for making New Year resolutions as such, but I do have lots of plans and intentions for the coming year and beyond; I won’t bore you with them all here, but instead will tell you about some of them as I make them happen over the next little while!

One plan though is to continue sorting out the garden of our “new” house –  not so new really now as we moved last March, but we had a lot of work to do in the house first so the garden is an on-going project. I want to attract as much wildlife as possible and I was so happy to see the “new” birds loving Richard Jackson’s bird food just as much as our “old” birds did! Mr J has, if possible, made it even better this year with whole sunflower hearts, higher energy suet pellets and easier to eat oat groats (which also means less dust in the bag); the food is QVC’s gardening pick of the month for January so I’m stocking up.

I’ve already tried a sample of it (or, I should say, the birds have), and I made a little video. The quality isn’t the best because I had to film from the other end of the garden so as not to disturb my feathered friends too much but I let the camera run for less than ten minutes and had all these visitors. I love watching them so much – it makes me happy. Enjoy.

[Having trouble viewing these videos? See YouTube’s Help page]

A couple of other picks for January: first, I’m a massive retinol fan so was delighted that the beauty pick of the month is a double strength retinol night serum from Skinsense. Now at 0.6% strength instead of the previous 0.3%, it’s best to use this if you’ve already tried a lower strength retinol product and want to upgrade a bit. The reviews so far are fantastic!And finally a quick mention of something coming up from Nina Leonard on Friday 24th – this colour block, elbow sleeve trapeze dress will be the Today’s Special Value offer. In a choice of five colours and in sizes XS to 4XL, it’s super comfortable and a great transitional piece to wear with tights and boots now and bare legs later.

A belated happy new year and see you soon!

Love Jackie x