Promptvent - Day 13
25 days of winter prompts to thaw your writers (ice)block - and this year it's all about being Cozy.
Hello and welcome to day 13 of Promptvent!
If you’d like some wintry musical inspiration whilst you write, why not try listening to ‘White Winter Hymnal’ by Vanessa Khan on Spotify.
Listen to me read the guided invitation via audio below or if you prefer to read the transcript, that is also available for you underneath the audio.
Welcome back to our Promptvent village advent calendar where you find yourself standing once again before the cozy Christmas window.
Bundled up in your warm woolen mittens and thick scarf, you are eager to to know what wintry word of the day awaits you. What world will you step into and discover today? You lean closer, and can feel the eagerness in your fingers as you pull off your mittens and reach for the iron latch on the window, lifting it with care.
Your eyes are met with a luxurious yet cozy bedroom, with a huge double bed underneath a large skylight opening up the indigo night sky. The carpets are soft and plush and there is low ambient lighting via the two table lamps either side of the bed. You start to feel yourself growing sleepy and relaxed just looking at it.
All of a sudden, the red wreathed door to your left slowly opens, inviting you further. You step through the door, stamp off the snow from your boots and hang your winter coat up on a golden brass hook. Your feet sink into the soft faux fur rug and it feels like walking on clouds. There is something sitting atop the bed, it is a note with a key. It reads ‘pick out your favorite’. You turn the large brass key over in your hand and look around to where it may lead to.
You notice a double door with an elaborate paneling over the doorframe. You pad over and try the key in the lock just under one of the golden shiny door handles. You hear a click and turn the key fully round. You open both doors at once and can’t help but say, wow.
Before you is the most beautiful walk in wardrobe you have ever seen. There are items hanging, items folded by material and color. Draws open out and reveal more luscious fabrics. As you venture further you notice with glee that this wardrobe is full of nothing but Pajamas. Blue, green, white, teal, multi-colored. There are fluffy dressing gowns too with slippers to match each item. You begin to recognize some of the pajamas, the brightly colored ones you were gifted three years ago. The silk ones you bought when you entered a new relationship. The flannel pajamas that lasted you a decade and then became bits of fabric for other uses. You walk down memory lane, taking in the individual scents of each of them, until you come to a set of pajamas that were your favorite for a very long time, long sleeved, with trousers that went in at the bottom to stop you tripping, perfect to keep warm in the winter.
You take the set from the shelf and begin change into them. The fabric is soft on your skin and you begin to feel a warm fuzzy feeling as the pajamas envelop you in memories and comfort.
You pick a pair of slippers and a matching dressing gown and head back out towards the bedroom. You smile and fall back onto the bed like you used to when you were a child, laughing to yourself. Bliss. You climb on the bed and look around you, there is a book on the side table and you reach for it with anticipation.
It is in fact, not a book, but a notebook, in the same flannel fabric as your old favorites. You open the notebook, which reveals one word in large cursive script written at the top of the first page.
It reads: PAJAMAS
You reach in the drawer and find a pen, take one deep inhale into the collar of your pajamas, snuggle under the cotton duvet and then you write.
PromptVent Day 13 Pyjamas
How I love my pyjamas. To me they are say comfort, warmth and home and I have pretty much spent the last ten days wearing them. Not the same pair, I might add. I have many different ones and always get a new pair for Christmas. But since I had an operation on my knee I have only worn the softest of pairs. My operation went well but I have felt exhausted and ill since then and haven’t been able to bear anything against my skin but loose cotton pyjamas. In these past days, I feel as though I have been living in a cocoon all cosy and warm here in my little cottage but it feels like just what I need at the moment. I have been content all cuddled up in my pjs with my notebook and pen and my little dog snoring beside me. Listening to Louise’s lovely voice reading out her little Christmas stories with the accompanying beautiful music is so very soothing. I’ve been in my own little world and in some ways it’s been special and I have felt very grateful to have been so well looked after by my wonderful husband during this time of recovery. I might even feel inclined to extend it a bit longer (just joking). I am beginning to feel a bit better now and soon my stitches will come out and I will be able to venture out into the big wide world, but for now I am going to enjoy this time snuggled up here in my pyjamas.
Prompt vent 13
Pyjamas
An early childhood memory is me wearing pyjamas and the bottoms kept falling down . I patiently pulled them up and the same happened again. The elastic had undone and was quickly repaired . I was only 4 so wasn’t embarrassed. What a lovely reflection of those days lacking in inhibition .
This incident didn’t scar me for life but I have always preferred nighties . They have been thick flannelette from the influence of Nellie , my Nannie . She was insistent about being warm enough and wrapping up . I am eternally grateful that I was not expected to pin my hair up and cover it in a hairnet . Doing so for ballet was enough . Perish thd thought . However adorning a silk scarf might be beneficial for my hair now I abuse it in the swimming pool . I refuse to wear a hat .
The last pairs of pyjamas were purchased at the hospital. I found a longish nightie with matching bottoms . This was a helpful set, better for modesty while I stayed with my son on a camp bed beside him . He had been hospitalised with
Orbital cellulitis and could have died . My marvellous family Doctor and her quick diagnosis enabled a set of marvellous professionalism that resulted in a steady recovery . I kept these pyjamas for years , not because I wore them , but simply because of what they represented . Grateful thanks and an everlasting thankfulness which I will never forget .