I know January is supposed to be the time for reflection, resolution and making a fresh start, but in terms of shopping I think the real fresh start comes around February. The sales are finally drawing to a close, the shops have all their fresh new exciting stock and fashion ranges in and rather than thinking what we’re going to buy for all our relatives, we can start to turn our attention back to ourselves a little bit (it may sound terribly self-centred but we all need to treat ourselves once in a while). Combined with the days starting to get longer, all the bright vibrant colours in the shops always help to lift my mood, because you can think forward to the spring and summer and I know it won’t be too longer (although you never can tell with British climate) before I can put my chunky jumpers to the back of the wardrobe for another year. The shops seem to come to life again and everything looks so appealing. It sometimes coincides quite nicely with the fact that the Christmas debts are finally beginning to be cleared and we suddenly feel there’s a little more disposable income for treats (depending on how overboard we went at Christmas). Then there’s all the Easter eggs and things starting to clutter up the shelves, which does drive some people mad, but as long as they’re not on display in January I always see them as indicative that we’ve turned a corner and we’re on the way to bigger and brighter things!