One, Two, Three

Sunday 1st July was Build A Scarecrow Day and I took inspiration from Worzel Gummidge, the greatest scarecrow of them all, and enjoyed a cup of tea and a slice of cake.

A few weeks back I bought a new diary and spent a little time on I Forgot Day to write in all the birthdays and other such important dates which I don't want to forget!

Once home from work today I settled down on the sofa for a spot of tennis watching. A cuppa in one hand and a Chocolate Wafer in the other.

Remember, Remember

Thursday was All Soul's Day.

A day to remember those we have loved and lost.

A candle on the mantle was lit for both mine and G's dad.

.

Friday was Fountain Pen Day. 
Last year I bought one of these disposable fountain pens in Peacock Green for writing out my Christmas cards.
I like to make card writing into it's own little occasion.
There should be nibbles and a Bailey's to hand and Christmas music playing, all helping to create the right kind of atmosphere.
I have a set of alphabet stamps and some festive stamps for addressing and decorating the envelopes and for this year I have chosen a new pink ink pen. 

Saturday was the birthday of Marguerite Patten. My brother-in-law bought me this set of cookbooks for Christmas a few years ago and they really make for interesting reading. I have made a few things from them and they really came in useful when both the children needed to take in food for a WW2 tea party when at junior school.
My plan had been to do a spot of baking yesterday but I'm trying to do some decorating as well as everything else and, well, something had to give and in the end it was the baking.

Talking of decorating I was painting our bedroom floor today and in the background I had on the movie Leap Year, which I know I have mentioned on here before.
Today is Love Your Red Hair Day and as Amy Adams is a natural red head and I love this movie it seemed like a good choice to go with.

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.

Rest of June Round Up

My last post was just over a fortnight ago.

That wasn't part of my plan for June.

Then again when do things go to plan?

Everyone's ok but I'd be fibbing if I were to say that the last two weeks chez Jumble and Jelly have been plain sailing!

Enough of all that though, let's take a peek at some other news.

After a little discussion me, G and S have booked to go away to Amsterdam for 4 nights in early August.

Excited? 

You bet.

Amsterdam has been on my wish list for ages.

I went to the library and took out some books.

One is on self guided walks around the city and also for places such as Delft and Haarlem. We're not quite sure yet where else we will visit but Haarlem is definitely high on the list.

We need to go places and do things of interest to all 3 of us.

Last week I took S to Cambridge for her annual eye check up. The day was a hot, long one made all the more tolerable for S for our stop off at Five Guys so she could have one of their milkshakes.
The check up showed a minuscule cataract in S's left eye. It's something which can happen at an early age because of the condition she has, but it's nothing to worry about and is not likely to grow or require surgery for years and years.

My 90 day chuck out challenge failed after I reached 30 days. It started well enough when I had a really good clear out from our bedroom drawers and then went through the kitchen cupboards. I'm not too bothered as I regularly send items off to the charity shop. We may get a little cluttered at times but I'm not a hoarder.

A few weeks ago one of my school friends posted details on Facebook of an open evening at our old secondary school.

The reason for this special event is our school will soon be no more.

It's going to be demolished, it needed too much money to maintain the poor state it was in and so it was cheaper to construct a new one, which has been built on the school sports field.

The site the current school is standing on will then be converted into a sports area. 

Eventually.

The thing was the event was being held between 4 and 6.

How disappointing, many wanted to go but those hours are when lots are at work or travelling home from work.

Then just a few days beforehand they extended it by an hour until 7pm.

Hurrah.

I didn't want to pass up the opportunity of one last wander down those corridors and luckily neither did R, so he and I went together.

This is the door to my English classroom.

Our teacher used to have the girls and boys line up separately along here before going into class.

So many memories from just this one spot.

I left in 1984 and as you would expect during that time things have changed, but not as much as you may think.

Words can not describe how familiar it felt to once again be walking down the staircase (in what was known back then as the 'new block') as if I had just finished my maths lesson.

I will never forget that feeling.

Somewhere I hadn't set foot for over 30 years and yet it felt like I'd been there only yesterday.

We saw half a dozen others from our year group, the last time we had seen each other was the reunion last September.

We reminisced some more, took more photos and marveled over the fact our former headteacher was also visiting that evening and looking extremely sprightly at 86.

We had an entertaining afternoon out one Saturday in Eastleigh at their annual arts day.

The group of four acrobatic dancers showed such controlled strength as they threw themselves around this cage during their performance.

I loved watching the group of women all dressed in grey perform together. They are called Ceyda Tanc Dance and you can read about them and watch videos here. It was so inclusive, women of all ages and physical ability joined together in one rhythmic gathering, it was entrancing to watch.

Our favourite was definitely the couple on the left from Glasshouse dance who performed a classic boy meets girl tale with a twist or two along the way.

At the end they encouraged the audience to join them and dance along to Love Train. 

Some resolutely refused to get up and dance, I have to say that when the female performer approached me I jumped up and was happy to bop away with them. It seemed like the polite thing to do seeing they had entertained us so well.

I'm still settling into being at work for four days.

I have been trying to get a better handle on shopping and meal planning.

When the children were little it was so much easier.

Now with T sometimes being in for meal times and sometimes not, which can mean an hour before dishing up he'll say 'yes I'll be here to eat with you' and then suddenly his plans have changed, or saying he won't be in and then turning up, it seems I need to have an unending supply of meals which can instantly be adapted to suit.

And do you know what, I don't a limitless supply of food, time, money or patience to cater for each scenario and I've been finding it quite frustrating.

I am cooking from scratch so much less these days and I don't like that either as I have always tried to provide my family with a variety of foods. Then again I suppose this is just another change that our family is going through as the children are growing and doing more outside the home.

Only a couple of days left in June now but just enough so I can finish my posts for the month. If things go to plan of course.

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.

A Rubbish Challenge

I'm taking part in a challenge set by Alison over at Brocante Home.

The idea is to throw out one thing a day for 90 days.

Always looking for ways which will spur me into being tidier and more organised I thought I'd give it a go.

I decided to start with the chest of drawers in my bedroom.

One drawer a day would just about get me through the first week.

In the first drawer I found a blister pack containing 2 anti-biotics.

Oops I'd obviously missed taking the last day when I had a tooth infection last year, these will be disposed of at the local pharmacy.

Next day I inspected my sock drawer and found one pair which had definitely seen better days and so they went the way of the recycling.

Today two old photo frames which haven't been used for a couple of years and I've been keeping 'just in case' are now sat in a bag ready for the charity shop.

A good start.

Three things found very easily and three drawers looking tidier.

I wonder if I'll manage something for each of the 90 days.

Come back mid July and I'll let you know.

Half Term, Birthdays and Beyond

I must have uttered this every year since we became parents but for me February whizzes past in the blink of an eye.

When the children were younger and there were such things as birthday parties to sort as soon as the page on the calendar was turned it was head down and on with the planning for 2 birthdays on 23rd.

Throw half term into the mix as well as a sprinkling of other birthdays and these things combined ensured there was 4 weeks of busyness.

Let's go back to half term and then bring things up to date.

Monday to Wednesday T and S were busy with friends, sometimes in and sometimes out.

I pottered over those days catching up with jobs around the home.

Nothing interesting just sorting the junk drawer in the dining room, tidying the bookshelf outside our bedroom and sourcing some new butterflies for my earrings so they could be worn again.

I read this book in a few days. It was a quick read. I didn't much care for Tressa one of the main characters. I found her grandmothers story of her marriage much more interesting than Tressa who was trying to work out what she wanted from her new marriage. Again this book has been sat on my bookshelf forever and is now on the way to the charity shop.

Wednesday saw us going to the vets with Melvin. Can you see the left hand side of his face is swollen? Long story short the vet popped it, he had an antibiotic injection and was much happier and we were £153 poorer.

Thursday was birthday day with cards, presents and (unfortunately) disappointing news at breakfast. T has been counting down the months, then weeks, then days and hours until his first driving lesson. At 7am he received a text to say his driving instructor was ill and so she had to cancel. He was very disappointed as you can imagine.
My mum, G's mum and her partner J came for lunch and cake.
T went out to meet a friend for hot chocolate and then it was time for us to take S and two friends trampolining, then for food and then back to us for a sleepover. Meanwhile T had gone bowling with friends and then on for food. Once home his friend J came to see him and so although his day didn't have the best start he got out and about and it ended on a better note.
Next day we took S and her friends to town for shopping and ice cream. 

Friday evening we were fit for nothing and flopped on the sofa to watch Far from the Madding Crowd. I've never read the book and wasn't 100% sure of the story but I loved this movie. I now want to read the book.

Saturday got off to a slow start with a bit more movie watching, this time inspired by our trip to the theatre the other weekend, we watched Easter Parade and sang along, very badly in my case,to the songs we knew.

Sunday was all about the football. Saints were in the EFL cup final. Sadly they didn't win, who knows what would have happened had their first goal not been incorrectly disallowed.

On Monday I went and did a grocery shop and popped a few little Easter chocolate treats into the trolley in readiness for the hunt in April. Couldn't resist this little Lindt sheep, apparently he is exclusively available in Tesco stores only.

After a busy return to work on Tuesday I came home and spent an hour or two finishing off my next read, Holy Fools by Joanne Harris. Within the first few pages I was hooked into the world of the Juliette and the other nuns and their life on their little island. I loved Chocolat and The Lollipop Shoes and now I love this one too. I have more JH in my to be read pile and I can't imagine not enjoying all those too.

Wednesday was St David's Day so I made sure there were daffodils in the vase, no hardship as a bunch of these cheery flowers are always very welcome.

I'm pleased to report that T finally had his first driving lesson on Thursday of this week and he LOVED it. He rang G afterwards who said he was bubbling over with excitement and the praise he received from his instructor. Phew, I'm glad after the false start it went well.

Now here we are at Friday evening with the weekend ahead, hope it's a good one for one and all.

Top Tip

I'm not sure where I first saw this idea, it's been gleaned from one of my too numerous to mention, visits to Pinterest.
Such a simple idea and it costs very little too which is an added bonus.
On a trip to IKEA last week I picked up a couple of these plastic bag dispensers and they are now home to all of my rolls of wrapping paper. 
The dispenser is tall enough to keep the rolls standing up straight and with it's flat back it can easily be stashed in a cupboard/wardrobe or hung up on a wall and takes up very little room.

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.

Saturday Shopping

The top of the wardrobes in our bedroom is my storage area for all the gifts I buy during the year.

I try and keep it as neat and tidy as possible and have been through various size/material/colour varieties of boxes and baskets to try and get the right combination.

As I buy so many items for my sister I wanted to buy something of a good size which I could use just for her bits and bobs.

I scoured the internet and found this white wicker underbed storage box from Wilkinson's which fitted the bill.

I ordered it online and requested it be delivered to the store and on Saturday I went to collect it.

Once home I took everything down from the wardrobes, had a re-jig of the storage and it's contents and put it all back up again.
I was in Ikea during the week and had bought one each of the green and pink Tjena boxes so there is a good splash of colour to go with all the plain white.
I'm really pleased with how it looks and the amount of storage it gives me. I hope I've got it right now.

Of course we had a quick whizz around the charity shops whilst we were out. G bought a couple of albums which he was happy with and on a £1 sale rail S saw this tiger top.

S has already got her sights set on using this 50p reindeer dish as her breakfast bowl during December.

My only purchase were these Pyrex pots in beautifully subdued tones which are a very welcome addition to my dresser. They were only 20p each. Looking online I found a set of 3 selling for £8 so I think I found a bit of a bargain.

Dear Diary

I've finally cracked it.
Looking at my new diary it is ludicrously simple and I wonder why it took me so long to get there.

I've tried many different sorts of diary over the years and none of them really worked.
I like the page a day format, but with the notebook size diary I prefer, when it comes to the weekend Saturday and Sunday have to share a page.
This is no good.
I like to keep a note of different events going on at weekends which we may want to go to and once these get jotted down along with all the other day to day things I want to record there just wasn't enough room.

I really do try to be organised, I have to write stuff down or else it gets forgotten.
I am a list maker, always have been, always will be.
Trouble is I ended up with lists for different things in different notepads and so my handbag was always weighed down with far more assorted stationery than was sensible.

No more is that the case.
I have one notepad in my handbag which contains everything I need.
EVERYTHING.
It has meant I need to write out the whole year myself but doing a little at a time is no big deal and now it's complete I have a diary which looks how I want it to look and will work for me.

The date on each page is written in ordinary black biro and each different catergory has been given it's own colour. This way each sections stands out when I refer to the pages. 
Under the date I have a line for our evening meal. I meal plan on a weekly basis and so once that job is done I just write them in.
The space underneath is for events happening we may want to go to, dentist/medical appointments, activities at the children's schools we need to be aware of, dates for meeting up with friends, all that kind of thing.
Next is Home week 1,2,3, or 4. Since getting my act together on the home front with the help of Brocante Home I have divided certain tedious jobs over a 4 week period and do them on a rota basis. Some may think this is ridiculous, but I NEED a routine to keep a reasonably clean and tidy home for my own sanity.
Next comes Shopping. This covers anything which needs to be bought. It could be food, toiletries, school shoes or pillowcases. Anything.
Then comes the To Do section. This is for phone calls which need to be made, bills which need to be paid etc.

I use the space at the very top of the page to record  birthdays or any such occasions which require a card.
The very bottom of the page is used to record what day it is from www.daysoftheyear.com. If I think I can incorporate the day into our lives somehow whether it's a weekend craft as in ballet day or an excuse for a picnic midweek then I do try to do it. It all helps towards making the best of every day.

It's all so basic and took no time at all once I sat down with pen and paper and clarified exactly what it was I needed and wanted to remember.
I'm so glad to have got there in the end.

Random

The weeks of the school holiday are slipping past and so it's about time I made a quick record of the things we've been doing.

Last weekend G, S and I went for a walk round the Common, we've been to visit friends who have recently acquired three chickens, I've been out for the evening with friends having a good catch up, G's mum and sister and family friend J came to visit yesterday, me T and S went to a mid week car boot sale where we sold lots of their unwanted bits and bobs with varying degrees of monetary success and G's been to hospital to have two teeth removed.

Ouch.

T has been going out and about with various friends and last weekend he went and stayed with Grandma, so he's been off doing his own funky thing and keeping busy.

S has had friends D and M over and gone to play at R's house twice. She spent the night at my mum's last Sunday due to G's aforementioned early morning hospital appointment. 

So there has been plenty going on, but not many photo opportunities.

Instead I'm going to share some random things from the last week and a bit.

I read ages ago, possibly on Pinterest, about how if you store your jumpers and cardis in drawers in a rolled up fashion rather than a piled on top of one other fashion it's easier to see what you actually have when you open the drawer. It sounded like a good idea and something I always planned to do but never got round to.

Until now that is.

 I sorted through my three drawers in about 10 minutes.

An unexpected bonus is that I now have more room so can buy more cardis.

Our walk around the Common also included a pitstop in the cafe for lunch. The staff are friendly and helpful, the food is reasonably priced and tastes good and if you have a milkshake you get rainbow drops sprinkled on top.
What's not to like.
As you can see S liked it so much she couldn't wait for me to take a photo before she demolished half of the topping.

Last Saturday G and I played this trivia quiz.
I read out the questions he answered them. There was some really obscure stuff in there. One answer he gave made me laugh so much my tummy and sides ached, I could not stop laughing.
The question was 'Which actress played the part of Alf Garnett's daughter in Til Death Do Us Part and what was her character called?'
G answered (with absolute certainty) 'Well the actress was Uma Thurman'
I know it doesn't sound like something that would set you off laughing so much you felt like you'd never stop but G saying Uma Thurman instead of Una Stubbs and the difference in the two actresses just set me going. 
One of those 'you had to be there to appreciate it' moments I suppose.

I like the smell of cucumber, it is one of the smells of summer, but I can't stand eating it. I feel like I would enjoy it because it smells so fresh but I am a fussy eater and textures as well as tastes are an issue for me.
When I saw this in Tesco I thought I'd give it a go.
Verdict : Let's just say I won't be buying it again.

A birthday brooch sent to me by G's niece.
The next best thing to real cake, one you can wear.

One afternoon S had been playing with her Barbie styling head and as the hair had become a bit tangled she washed it through in the bath and left it in there to dry.
Only T didn't know about it and when he went into the bathroom later on that night and turned on the light all he saw was a head in the bath.
Apparently it freaked him out a bit!
Maybe I'm just cruel but I would love to have been a fly on the wall to have seen his reaction.

It was one of those boring jobs this week, taking the car for it's MOT. Whilst it was being tested S and I went over to the park and that's where we found our first conker of the year. Not very brown and shiny but still a happy find if you like conkers as much as I do.

Lastly another brooch and another birthday present from another member of G's family. This one was given to me by D when she visited yesterday.

Lucky me.