With winter weather right around the corner, it makes me think of ways that we can stay cozy and warm as the cold settles in for a stay. When it’s nasty outside, some people can also find themselves falling into what I call the “winter funk.” This is when you feel confined, your mood can sometimes be depressed, and it is hard to find the motivation to do things and find joy in life.

When the weather turns cold and nasty and the days start to get shorter I love nothing better than curling up on the couch under a warm afghan, sometimes with the fireplace glowing and emanating warmth throughout the main area of the house. I have a variety of personal pleasures that I like to engage in to occupy my mind and provide entertainment and contentment when it’s not nice enough to be outdoors.

There are many ways to stay warm, but here are a few of my faves.

Curl Up In Front Of The Fireplace

A great way to relax and get cozy is always by a fire!! I know my favorite time of the year is that first day that it is cold enough for us to build a real fire in our fire place in the living room. There is nothing like coming home from a long day at work and relaxing on the couch with a blanket, a hot cup of tea, my husband’s company, and a fire crackling and popping in the fireplace.

I normally have to wait for my husband to build the fire which takes a while with newspaper and lots of blowing! With the Pine Mountain® ExtremeStart Fire Starter I am actually able to build a fire on my own. They immediately catch fire and light wood or even charcoal. I love that they come in individual packages so that I can take them on the go if I need to or keep them dry and ready by my fireplace.

Anyone can use these whether you want to use them for camping, grilling, or just starting a fire at home! I was even able to take a few to my sister in laws as a gift for cooking dinner for us. I knew she would love trying them, and also be able to build a fire without depending on her husband.

When we do build a fire in our house sometimes the smell can become overwhelming and I feel like my clothes and blankets smell like I have been by a campfire. With the American Home™ by Yankee Candle 3-hour Fire Log you get all the great benefits from a fire, without the smokey smell.

These are scented logs and they literally make your house feel so cozy and refreshing. I can smell them before even lighting them just by keeping them in a bucket beside my fire place.

I normally start a fire with our regular logs and add one of these on top just for the fragrance and it last 3 hours! These are great and I can’t wait to have them burning on Christmas day when we have family and friends over just to make it that much more cozy!

Have a Warm Bowl Of Soup

One of the quickest ways to warm up for me (aside from a hot bubble bath) is a bowl of soup, preferably with a melty grilled cheese sandwich.

I like to go organic whenever I can (and when it’s not too expensive to do so). Soups are a great place to do this because there are more and more options available all the time.

The delicious bowl I’m enjoying here is the new Progresso Organic Minestrone soup. Minestrone is one of my all-time favorites. My daughter is partial to Lentil Soup and who doesn’t love Chicken Noodle?

I would’ve made a grilled cheese sandwich to go with this bowl of soup, but somehow (don’t ask me how) I seem to be all out of cheese at the moment. That never happens! Ugh.

Snuggle Up In A Comfy Blanket

Sometimes I don’t really want to be doing anything at all. At these times grabbing a comfy blanket and looking out the window while the leaves fall and the squirrels scamper about gathering nuts is all I need.

It’s a great way to quiet my mind to allow for the opportunity to reflect and think. The solitude can be a great help to me as I plan things in my mind such as what to do/buy/serve for the upcoming holidays and the family gatherings that will entail, what to read or write next, or what new crafty project I’d like to try. Plus, I just like keeping my own company once in a while — and that has nothing to do with depression or anything like that, I just like having a little bit of privacy and quiet on occasion.

Read A Good Book Or Start A New Crochet/Knit Project

These gorgeous skeins of yarn are going to be made into a scarf. I love finding craft supplies of all sorts and being inspired by the look or feel of them to create something. Whenever I take time out of my busy life to visit any of the local craft stores I always pore through the clearance areas to see what speaks to me. That’s where I found this yarn. It exerted a pull on me so that I just couldn’t leave it behind. Anybody else ever feel that?

This year, somehow, I’m a little behind on my reading. I set a goal of reading 50 books, last year I got really close though I think I may have been a few books short of my goal. This year, I’m only halfway to this goal. However, a lot of the books I’ve been reading are very long so I think that’s why I’m behind.

Full Service Blonde by Megan Edwards is the most recent book I’ve finished reading. It’s about a young woman who moves to Las Vegas and begins working at a newspaper there. She has ambitions to be a journalist, writing articles and investigating issues and feeling important. By chance, she is drawn into a news story that ends up including a murder, fraud, and more all while the Christmas holidays approach and her fiancé comes to visit.

I enjoy a good suspenseful novel probably more than any other kind. And I’m always looking to read works from authors I’ve not read before. I highly enjoyed Megan Edwards’ writing style as well as the plot. The closer I got to the end, the less I wanted to put it down!

Spend Time Doing A Craft

I found this Halloween cross stitch design while browsing a craft store last month. I’ve been doing more reading than anything else lately, so I kind of forgot about it. Since I’m in between books right now, I really need to devote my down time to this if I want it to be done by Halloween. I’ve only got a week!!!

I’m thinking I might not get it done in time because of the fact that every bit of the square design has a cross stitch. This is part of the reason I chose it, because many other cross stitch projects have stitches over part of the material but not over the whole thing. It intrigued me that this one is covered completely.

Rediscover Your Inner Child

I used to color when I was young, as many children enjoy doing. I fell out of it as I got older, instead choosing singing and writing as my preferred mode of expression. However, I found that when I had a child that was old enough to draw and color with crayons that I would often find myself sitting down and coloring with her. Even though I was not that into the typical kids’ coloring book themes, I’d still color just for the fun of it.

I was never so excited as when I first started hearing the buzz about adult coloring books several years ago. My kids are old enough now that they don’t like coloring with dear old Mom. My youngest is fourteen, and an artist much more advanced than I ever had the ambition to be. And she has definite preferences when it comes to art tools and mediums.

Still, I enjoy a little coloring on my own every now and then. I’m really interested to introduce her to the Prismacolor® art items I’ve found. I used Prismacolor® Premier Fine Line Markers and Prismacolor® Premier Colored Pencils in an adult coloring book full of mandala patterns to test them out and see what I could do with them.

I find it to be really relaxing to just let my mind wander off in whatever direction my thoughts want to take me. That said, life is full of errands to run and stuff to take care of, so it can take a bit for me to disengage from my mental to-do list and feel carefree. But when I can manage to find the time to sit down with a cup of cappuccino and color, it’s something I really enjoy. And at the end of it, I have a pretty little piece of art to look at.

For illustration purposes, I used these new Prismacolor® tools on a coloring page (above). The left half of the photo was colored with the fine line illustration markers and the right half was completed using the colored pencils. (Note: The blue line in the center is only there so you can see where the markers on the left changed to the colored pencils on the right.)

Both tools are easy to use, and each set has its advantages. The colored pencils came in a larger set than the markers, so there was more choice in colors. That allowed me to choose a closer color for the giraffe that looks a little more on point, in my opinion. But, I really liked the smooth strokes and vibrant colors of the markers a little better than the colored pencils. The markers are acid-free, lightfast, and archival quality while the colored pencils have high-quality pigments for rich color saturation and soft, thick cores for ease of blending and shading. Whatever your need, I think these are both great options to explore.

My daughter loves both sets and has been online looking at other Prismacolor® products to add to her Christmas list. Well, she is the artist around here. So, if she likes them then I will defer to her expertise in the matter. But, speaking for non-artists, I say they’re pretty awesome, too.

Have A Cup Of Hot Tea/Hot Chocolate And Engage In A Little Aromatherapy

No matter what form of relaxation I’m participating in — reading, writing, crafting — a hot cup of tea, cappuccino, or hot cocoa always gives me a warm glow. And a little bit of aromatherapy doesn’t hurt, either. I currently am enjoying a bit of lavender scent in the air diffuser. It’s so calming.

There’s no right or wrong way to find peace when you need a little escape from the cold weather and the hectic pace of everyday life. These are a few ways to do it, but everyone has different interests and tastes when it comes to relaxing.

What are your favorite ways to find peace and joy?

Learn More:

Pine Mountain®/American Home™: Website | Facebook | YouTube

Purchase: ExtremeStart Fire Starter | 3-hour Fire Log

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Progresso: Website | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest

Available at Kroger, Amazon, in Walmart stores and many other retailers

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Megan Edwards, author: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | Goodreads

Find Full Service Blonde: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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Connect with Prismacolor®: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Available at: Amazon, Dick Blick, Target, and many other retailers