29th October - 4th November

This week I have been

Enjoying - the flame red colour of the leaves on the trees. There is a line of half a dozen of these trees in the car park near my place of work and they are a delight to see.

Loving - the fact our bathroom is another stage nearer completion. The lino was laid on Tuesday which means it's an awful lot warmer in there now. I really love the differing shades of grey and silver.

Having the floor down also meant that the new to us piece of furniture which has been sat in the dining room for the past couple of weeks could be put into place.
We found this pine child's size wardrobe on Gumtree for £35. The seller very kindly agreed to deliver to us for an extra £5. G painted it a shade called Stormy Blue and it's now home to our towels, bathroom cleaning products, loo roll and other odds and ends. Perfect.

Celebrating -Halloween with friends. This year we invited our friends G and M over with their two children J and G. S was in charge of helping them dish out the sweets to our treat or treat callers. It was a slow start to the evening but in the end I think we had somewhere between 70 and 80. 
S made these gruesome looking eyeballs for us all to eat

and whilst she did those I used a tube of black icing to paint faces onto marshmallows which I took in to work so we could have a sweet treat there too.

Trying - out a couple of new recipes for breakfast time. During the week it's always two Weetabix but come the weekend I want to have something a bit different. With G on the Slimming World regime I have been looking at ideas on various websites and baked oats is a firm favourite. I made these on Saturday morning, they are flavoured with lemon fat free Greek yogurt. I served them with a blob of jam and natural flavoured Greek yogurt. Warm from the oven they were lovely.

Then on Sunday I made this jammy dodger french toast inspired by sarah_sw_recipes on Instagram. I didn't put in enough cinnamon so I know to increase that the next time I do these. This really filled me up.

Going - out in our, new to us, car.
Yes we are car owners once again. I detest the whole looking for cars thing. Both G and I have zero knowledge when it comes to cars. We have been half heartedly looking for a few weeks but the time had come to make more of an effort. 
The result is that we are now KA owners.
We are in the incredibly lucky position of not needing a car to get us to work. With it just being the three of us these days we now don't need a larger family size car.
Most of the things we need to do can be accomplished (with a bit of forward planning) on foot, with public transport and online shopping, so it is a bit of a luxury having a car sat outside for the convenience of being able to pop out and get us from A to B when we need to do just that.
Considering all of these things we wanted to buy something small and cheap to run and fingers crossed this will fit the bill just nicely.

Loving It

I always have lots of bits and bobs with hearts on decorating the dining room mantle for the month February.

 At the start of the week I added to the decorations with a paper garland strung across the dresser.

I bought a book of differently patterned papers from The Works, cut out hearts from the three prettiest ones and threaded them onto a length of red ribbon.

G and I don't exchange cards and presents on Valentine's day but I wanted to make a little gesture.
I bought a little net bag of chocolate hearts and ladybirds and popped them onto this heart shaped plate with a stamped note saying 'happy valentines day my little love bugs' for G and S to share.

This evening T is coming round to stay with S so G and I can go to to the theatre to see The Shadow Factory. 
Look at us going out on a school night, very much looking forward to it though.

On the Button

One of the more unusual days is Count Your Buttons Day.

I haven't counted mine but

I have sorted out a handful in black, white and grey which I am going to use in a little craft project. I will share it with you once it's been completed.

To be honest these are the kind of buttons which I would prefer to count.

Count them as I eat them that is.

The 21st is also Apple Day and so I have made a couple of rosy red apple tea light holders. 
I saw this idea a few years ago in, I think, a Christmas edition of Country Living magazine and I liked the simplicity of it.

Weekend Snaps

Saturday morning breakfast was banana and oat pancakes.

I am a little undecided about whether or not I liked them, it was a texture thing rather than the taste.

G liked them.

One of the recipe options has a chocolate chip variety, I may give these a try.

I decided to paint the key cupboard red, then decided that actually it really needed to be pink.

The decorating of the utility room has stalled. The hot weather has sapped my energy when it comes to painting. When G toddled off to London for most of Saturday (he went to see Bat Out of Hell with his sister) I decided I really needed to be a bit more proactive and so phase one of the key cupboard makeover was set in motion.



A new A4 sized notebook has been purchased.

Back in 2015 I finally figured out a page a day diary set up which worked for me. This served it's purpose well but over time I began to miss the option of having a whole week on view, I just find this easier when trying to plan the week. 
Over a few weeks I trialed some new layouts and have now settled on going back to having an A5 week to view diary for my handbag which I can scribble the day to day stuff in. This A4 book stays at home, close to hand, and on a double page spread for the week contains the master list of all things which need to be done or are happening.



Whilst doing the above along with some more general pottering I finished watching The Gilmore Girls.

I bought myself the first season a couple of years ago and since then G bought me series 2 through to 7 as either birthday or Christmas presents.
From what I've read I'm not sure I want to watch the four specials they did last year to bring the story up to date.


Sunday morning we went to the car boot sale.
I spent half an hour with G and then when my mum and sister arrived I went wandering with them whilst G was happy to go and do his own thing. He gets bored waiting for me as I dawdle round whilst he prefers a more speedy approach.
My sister spotted this brand new M&S dress for me. The seller was only asking £3.00 which I thought was very reasonable and I was going to buy it until my mum offered to buy it for me as part of my birthday present. As it's only a few days away she suggested I took it on home with me, which I was more than happy to do.

Slow Work

In our house there is an itsy bitsy space between the kitchen and the bathroom that we refer to grandly as our utility room.

Walking into it, from the aforementioned kitchen, you will find on your right our freezer and some shelving as shown below.

For a few years the whole space has been painted this sagey green.

Well some of it is still that colour but now most of it is Dulux Jasmine White.

Opposite the wall shown above is the back door and to the left of that is a wall mounted shoe rack. 
I can't seem to find the post I did at the time but a while back I took an old blue polka dot tablecloth and stuck it to the wall behind the shoe rack to stop it getting covered in dirty marks from both the rack and the shoes. This served it's purpose well but it was starting to look a bit tired and I wanted a lighter feel to the space. 
Plus I had seen this glittery PVC cloth and decided it needed to be used somewhere in our home.
It's really difficult to get a good photo of but I hope you can get the idea from this one below.

This little alcove was originally a window before we had our bathroom extension built on. I used some of the paint we had left over from decorating S's bedroom a few years ago and am really pleased with how it looks.

See that blue tray on the left. It originally looked like this. One Sunday at the car boot I bought a tray of cherries and kept the tray because I thought 'oh I'm sure it'll come in handy at some point.' 
And now it has.

It's now home to my bottles of laundry stain remover and soda crystals. My, how glamourous!

I lined the shelf with a small strip of the glitter PVC to stop the paintwork from becoming scuffed, you may be able to make out the glitter from this photo.

It's taken a good few weeks to get this far, which let's face it isn't that far, but I'm not in any hurry and I'm enjoying the little extras I can faff over as I go. There is a key box which needs a makeover and I need to decide whether or not I'm going to line the shelves. 
Nothing mind blowing but it keeps me busy and makes me happy.

Sorting.....

....... edge pieces from the middle pieces.

My sister gave me this very festive jigsaw for Christmas.

I'm looking forward to making a proper start on it at the weekend.

....... out the first aid box. That round wicker box on the left is where we keep our first aid supplies. Granted it's not the most interesting job but one which certainly needed doing judging by the amount of out of date items it contained.
It will need replenishing as now it mostly contains plasters and indigestion tablets.

..... through the gift bags full of presents and making sure T and S send out thank yous to the appropriate people for the appropriate gifts.

...... as I repack the Christmas decorations into their storage boxes. Not everything has gone back in the loft. I've already got one carrier bag full of odds and ends from around the house which needs to be donated to the charity shop.


........ S's wardrobe, with her help, which resulted in a black bin liner of clothes which also need to go the way of the charity shop. I may try and keep a list of the amount that leaves the house destined as either a charity shop donation or for the textile recycling bank, for no other reason than my own curiosity.

Without...

It's been 11 days since my last post. 

I had hoped my December blogging would have been a bit more frequent than this.

Of course I've been busy, working my way down a never ending list of Christmas prep, just like everyone else is I'm sure.

Something else has made blogging difficult, being without internet access for nearly one week.

It was all to do with Windows 10 and our internet supplier.

No big deal in the whole scheme of things but a bit frustrating and so I am way behind in reading everyone else's news.

Another frustrating situation followed once that one was solved.

We ordered a new cooker on the Sunday, it was delivered on the Tuesday, the electrician cancelled on the Wednesday but arrived on the Thursday to wire it in, he told us it's kilo wattage was incompatible with our electric socket.

What?????

I didn't know this was a thing I should know about.

I rang the company we bought the cooker from and they said 'no problem, choose another'.

So I did.

Saturday morning the wrong cooker was collected and the right cooker was delivered and then Sunday morning the electrician came back and wired it in place.

Again no big deal but it just throws things out when there is already so much else going on.

I have been cracking on with the present wrapping though and am nearly done.

I thought I'd share

the gifts I bought for my sister C for Christmas as I know some of you like to see what I amass for her, so here are the ones she'll be opening this year.

I can't quite remember the prices for all items but they do total just under £10.

Each of these tops were £1 a piece.

C chose the pink long length sleeveless top herself and this was another £1. I love the dark blue fluffy top in the middle photo. The polka dot items will look good in her kitchen, these were 30p each and  the robin candle was £1 also.

The bag was brand new and £1.

These little house decorations were 60p.

No present for C would be complete with a mug and this 50p one is perfectly decorated for the winter season.

The most expensive item is the one I think she'll like the most. This little Kiss sign was £1.80 and bought from a branch of Cargo which was having a closing down sale.

As well as conventional wrapping I've been doing a bit of origami.

My nephew has gone part time at work as he is studying with the OU.

This means his income has dropped.

So I thought a voucher for him to have a little treat would be a good idea.

I didn't want to just give him a voucher in an envelope so I bought a pack of J2O drinks and labelled this as 'for a night in' and then following origami instructions online I made a Christmas tree and slotted a Wetherspoons voucher in the back and labelled this as 'for a night out'.

My sister says he and his girlfriend like going to the cinema and as there is a Wetherspoons close by they'll be able to have a meal before the movie and make an evening out of it.

Festivities

One of the reasons I rested up last Sunday was because I needed to have the energy to get me to an appointment in Salisbury on Monday.

For the last couple of years I've been having an issue with one particular tooth and am now at the stage where I needed to consult a specialist about it.

Extraction or a reworking of a root canal are the options.

Neither choice is great.

I managed to squeeze in tiny amount of Christmas shopping before heading home and buying the Christmas edition of the Radio Times certainly cheered me up.

Tuesday was a quieter day than normal at work and for that I was very thankful.

Another new set of festive bedding this week.
Again this was purchased in a sale after last Christmas.
Love the little houses and the colours are very CK.

I've had some lovely little gifts from my sister in our advent swap and this pumpkin brooch is one of my favourites so far. It's going to be a while before I get to wear it though!

By Wednesday I was feeling loads better than I had been at the weekend, which was good news as I was due to go Christmas shopping with my mum and two sisters. 
It was good fun being out with them and by the end of the day I had lots more things ticked off my list.

With spending Monday and Wednesday out and about I haven't had chance to get much festive decorating done around the house, just the odd item here and there.

Each evening I've spent a short time wrapping up a couple of presents and am loving making stars to decorate them with.

Stars made with drinking straws.

Who'd have guessed it was possible.

Thread them together and form into a pentagon.

Give them a twist and hey presto a star appears.

We were due to put up our Christmas tree Friday evening but it's been postponed until Sunday as S had a friend round for a sleep over.

So instead of a decorated tree to finish off this post here is how I've hidden the £5.00 inside a box of chocolates which I will be sending over to each my friend's 2 teenage sons.

Remembering November

As the month draws to an end I need to write up the rest of what we've been up to in November and then my aim is to try and be a bit more on top of things in December.

We'll wait and see if that happens.

My sister T has her birthday on 25th November. I don't find her as easy to buy for as my other sister but whilst out shopping with her a couple of weeks ago in M&S T showed me a mug she was coveting. It's a delicate shade of pale blue, is the perfect shape for cupping hands around and has the cutest bunny ever in raised decoration on the front. I understood instantly why she loved it so much. 

Thankfully she didn't buy it and so a couple of days later I did.

I then teamed it with a woodland animal canvas shopping bag from Store 21 and a notebook from The Works. She was thrilled with it all.

Phew!

You may remember back in the summer we took mum out for her 70th birthday and as an extra little Christmas gift we thought we would print off some of the photos from our day and pop them into a keepsake album.

When the three of us got together to choose which ones would make the cut (and so veto any that were too unflattering!) our youngest sister C presented each of us with a bracelet.

Being the eldest mine says Big Sis.

T is next so hers said Middle Sis.

And yes you've probably guessed it, C's says Little Sis.

You maybe able to tell from the shape that all slot together around a heart.

It was a really lovely gift to receive out of the blue.

We've had 2 more birhtdays this month, G's mum and sister. A family lunch out was had and tentative plans made for a gathering at Christmas. This year will be a little different as G has to work on Boxing day. My shopping is nearly done and the wrapping has been started. I enjoy all the elements of festive hustle and bustle involved in getting ready for Christmas, but there can be a fine line between that good type and the starting to feel stressed type. So one of the things I've done to help towards not feeling too over whelmed is devising a wrapping schedule. With a bit of luck I'll be sat on Christmas Eve with a bottle of Baileys and not the scissors and sellotape.

Talking of devising new schedules and making time for things, I have been trying to stay away from the internet and my phone as much as possible over weekends.
I have also tried to limit my online time during the week too and one of the things I have started to do is divide up across 5 days all the blogs I follow so I visit everyone once a week. I am finding this much better as I find I am focusing more on what I want to read and do online rather than just flitting around and before I know it an hour has passed and nothing much has been accomplished. I'll see how it goes but as there are other things I want to do and try to make I need to get the balance right.

I'm working myself up to cleaning the dresser in the dining room ready for it's festive makeover. One new addition may be my new toadstool candle holder, 50p from the charity shop I popped into at the weekend when dropping off some items. One of these days I'll develop the knack of just walking out and not being distracted by pretty things on my way to the door.

G and I had a fab night out at the weekend. We went to see Mozart's Requiem performed by the Southampton Philharmonic Choir and the New London Sinfonia. This was a new experience for me. I much more enjoyed the Requiem over the other piece they performed first called I Sing, And Ever Shall, but over all I preferred our night of polkas and waltzes in January 2014.

After the performance we headed out into the cold, took a silly selfie by the Christmas tree and then made a bee line for stall in the market selling cinnamon sugar churros.

This week when changing our bed I put on a new duvet set. It has Christmas trees on one side and snowflakes on the other and is the softest cosiest set we have ever owed. G and I keep talking about how nest like it has made our bed feel. It's made getting up in the mornings just a little bit more difficult.

Melvin seems to like it too.

Mostly a Mess

Finally our little home is looking a lot tidier.
Why is it that when one room is being decorated it affects the whole house?
Yesterday was spent putting S's room back together.
In order for that to happen new furniture was needed which was why last Friday G and S met me from work and we went for a spot of late night shopping in IKEA.
A new bed, wardrobe, chest of drawers and shelving unit were purchased and delivered the following day. I did make a couple of other purchases which you could argue weren't strictly necessary but let me tell you that once home again and sat with a cuppa, a couple of those cinnamon rolls certainly went down well.
Also coming home with us was one of their gingerbread house kits, the construction of which has become a favourite festive activity for S.

So this week has pretty much been taken up with S's room in one way or another. The sorting of the contents has resulted in umpteen bags of clothes, books and toys being donated to the charity shop. I've made three trips in all. There was painting to do and of course furniture assembly to complete and then everything had to be put into it's new home after which there was the chaos in the other rooms where items had been stored to deal. Fun, fun, fun!
The room isn't 100% finished, new curtains and bedding need to be chosen and S would like a full length mirror on one of the walls, plus there are hooks to be hung, but it's looking good.
It's difficult to get a good photo but you can get a good idea of the new wall colour from this photo. We spotted the lampshade at the car boot last weekend. S has a real thing for owls and the colour match for her room was perfect and so I was more than happy to part with the £2 asking price.

Down here in the south the weather has been remarkably mild and so I've been lucky enough to still be able to eat my lunch in the park each working day. It's been such a treat sitting in the sun admiring the golden colours of autumn all around me and then kicking up the carpet of leaves as I walk back to work again.

Another small thing which has made me happy this week is cracking open my first bottle of winter spice washing up liquid. I wrote about my love for this last year and I know there are plenty of others out there who share the winter spice love.

One evening when we couldn't face anything to do with decorating we decided to watch a movie instead and plumped for The Trouble With Harry which I had bought a while ago on the recommendation it would be a good one to watch in autumn because it's set in the autumn of a beautiful sun filled Vermont countryside. It's an off beat comedy, not what you would normally expect from Alfred Hitchcock, but it was very funny and just what we needed.

My Mucha jigsaw has been completed. She was tricky to do but she was well worth it as I think she's beautiful. I'll break her up in a day or so and then she'll be donated to the charity shop for someone else to enjoy and I'll start another.