Brrrrrrr. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, my heating isn’t working!! It’s either on or its off and there is no in-between, so having it set to come on in the morning isn’t a possibility and keeping it on throughout the night might kill us all dead.  These then are a collection of Vintage Brocante tips and tricks to make falling out of bed that little bit cosier. For my own benefit and yours…

* Set the alarm for an hour before you need to be out of bed. There is nothing worse than having to throw your chilly self out into the day so allow your woken self to gently adjust before you have to haul your body out of bed. Use the time to read, to day dream or to meditate…

* Go on a creative excursion in search of a teeny tiny, just for your tooties only, little rug, so your cosy feet never have to experience the shock that is a cold wood or laminate floor.

* Keep your dressing gown or a large, cosy cardi lying at the end of the bed, under the blankets or duvet so that you don’t have to make a shivery dash across an icy bedroom. Keeping it inside the bed will mean that is cosy and warm when you pull it on, and it is almost like taking a little bit of your bed with you when you finally have to leave it.

* Ask Father Christmas to pop a  light therapy alarm clock in your stocking. It will help you adjust to the very horrible idea of getting up on those dark mornings and prevent the body jolt that is waking up to a loud alarm.

* Set your bread-maker to bake overnight so the scent of fresh, healthy warm bread drifts up the stairs. Scent is a peculiar thing, and some work really rather deliciously on convincing us that we ARE warm.

* Keep a lovely notepad on your bedside table and use it to jot down a to-do list for the day as soon as your eyes are open enough to write. Having the motivation to get out of bed is half the battle.

* Really go to town on having a long indulgent evening bath, instead of a shivery, horrible morning shower. No one ever died from not showering in the morning.

* If you really struggle to wake up in the mornings, keep a little pot of peppermint oil on your bedside and take a few, long, nasal clearing, wake-me-up-right-now sniffs before springing out of bed…

* Make a cup of scrumptious Mexican Atole to cosy up the cockles of your heart in a vanilla flavoured instant: morning heaven.

* Buy a length of white fairy-lights and put them on a timer around your headboard. Set the timer for half an hour before you need to get up and gently wake up in a magical grotto…

* Keep a tub of warming Winter handcream by your bedside and scoop a little bit into your hands as you get out of bed. The very act of vigorously rubbing it into your skin will immediately heat up your body. Look for creams containg ginger, cinnamon or orange and you will create a scent memory you will associate with Winter mornings for ever more.

* Play Josef Hassid’s  –  Meditation de Thais – a classical recording perfect for early morning wake up calls…

* Bake a batch of Heidi Swanson’s oatcakes at the beginning of the week and serve them warm from the oven with a rich marmalade for a quick and cosy breakfast…

* Treat yourself to a really pretty flask and fill it with boiling water before you go to bed each evening. By morning time it will be just lukewarm and make the perfect sippy start to a cold winter morning.

* Set lamps throughout the house on timers, to switch on just before getting up time. Visually this convinces us that we are warmer and cosier than we are.

* On very cold days make sofa and blanket breakfasts the norm so that no-one has to shiver around the breakfast table…

* Buy the cosiest, snuggliest slippers you can find and pop your feet into them, the minute you get out of bed.

Happy, cosier mornings Housekeepers!