Louise Pentland - Life with a Sprinkle of Glitter

First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2015
A CBS company

Copyright 2015 by Louise Pentland

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.
No reproduction without permission.
All rights reserved.

The right of Louise Pentland to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

Simon & Schuster UK Ltd
1st Floor
222 Grays Inn Road
London WC1X 8HB

www.simonandschuster.co.uk

Simon & Schuster Australia, Sydney

Simon & Schuster India, New Delhi

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Hardback ISBN: 978-1-4711-4972-6
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4711-4973-3

The author and publishers have made all reasonable efforts to contact copyright-holders for permission, and apologise for any omissions or errors in the form of credits given. Corrections may be made to future printings.

Design and illustrations by Corinna Farrow

Printed and bound in Italy by L.E.G.O. S.p.A.

My very first book is dedicated lovingly to the two most important women in my life, my wonderful mother and my sweet daughter.

I lead a happy life.

What a marvellous first line for the first page of my first book.

I lead a very happy life.

I lead a happy life because I choose to. I choose to fill my days and my mind with good people, kind thoughts and positive experiences. Naturally, just like every other little soul out there, I have the days that are dark and dreary and I encounter experiences that I wouldnt want to treasure forever, but I choose to deal with them in such a way that they do not put a dent in my joy. I choose my life.

In the last ten years, my life has gone from depressing and frightening to gorgeous and glamorous, and after sharing my experiences on my blog and YouTube channels, I wanted to take the next step and write a book. Not an autobiography (Ive still got so much living to do!), but a guide to taking yourself from bad to good, or from good to great. A guide to adding positivity into every area of your life, whether its as big as your very best friend or as tiny as the things you display on your dressing table all these things matter.

Happiness is not measured in size but in significance. The trinkets I have dotted around my home matter as much to my well-being as the nights I have out with my friend Clare, who usually orders one too many cocktails and dances on velvet sofas. All happy things, all worth noting.

Imagine you are in one of those glorious vintage shops where every surface is laden with treasure. Cut glass, pill boxes, old cameras, pendants, chests of drawers and stacks and stacks of books. This book is like that. Each chapter is one of those gem-encrusted tins that you can open, peep inside and enjoy. You can either methodically wander the entire shop, looking at each item in order, or you can dance around with wild abandon, opening and closing whatever you like, whenever you like, and enjoying the contents at your leisure. This book is for you to consume and enjoy. You can take in tiny bits of it at a time or you can devour it all in one go. I dont mind. I dont mind how you go about it; all that matters to me is that you take something from it.

I want you to walk away from this book and feel uplifted. I want you to feel as though you are equipped to deal with something in your life and deal with it in the best possible, positive way. I want you to feel as happy as I do.

Im not saying that to be sickeningly twee or to feel superior to anyone, I say it from experience. I have felt what they call rock bottom. I have felt that very desperate sadness that hits you when you need it least and when you feel so far from love and joy that you cant quite recall what they felt like in the first place. I know that, in those times, its a very tall mountain to climb to choose happiness.

This is not a pity party; this was the first chapter of my life. It was called childhood. I grew up in a happy, affluent, suburban family with a stay-at-home mother, businessman father and an array of local children to play outside with. We had a lovely house, a pet hamster called Celeste and a swing in the back garden. It was idyllic.

When I was five, my mother was diagnosed with cancer and our lives were shattered. She fought bravely for two years, undergoing treatment after treatment, losing her beautiful hair, the use of her body and eventually her life. It was devastating. Nobody should have to watch their mummy die in such a slow and drawn-out way, and her passing left a huge hole in my heart.

It was a horrid time in my life and as I entered my early teens things at home were incredibly difficult, for a number of reasons that I wont go into here. In that period, I experienced what it is that the bottom really feels like. But from it I learnt an important lesson, which is that things wont always feel that bad. Having survived all that pain and come out on the other side of it, I gained a sense of perspective that many people have to work on for years to achieve. Lucky me.

Ive done it though. Not by magic, but by addressing each area of my life and having a serious think about my attitude.

Something I talk about a lot (and I mean a lorra lorra lot) on my blog is changing the way we think. A lady I once knew used to say, The mind is a very powerful thing, Louise, and she wasnt wrong. Your eyes might be your window to the world but your mind is the power station where everything is processed and worked out. Your mind can control your moods, your moods can control your actions and your actions have big consequences on you and those around you.

You can choose to have a mind that finds the good in things or that offers love and support, or you can choose something else. There are times when it feels like there are no choices or that all the choices are bad ones, but this isnt the case. We simply have to look at things in a specific way to really see what we are looking for happiness.

Happiness is there for everyone. There are no limits or quotas. You cant buy it, or trade it, or earn it. You just choose it.

I hope that by exploring topics like comfort zones, beauty and pampering, setting up home, and boys and love, I can show you how I find so much joy and enrichment in my life and how you can too.