Simplifying Life - Mark II

mary43

All quiet here at the moment so can only assume folk are busy 'simplifying' or relaxing in the garden

Have done a bit of clearing out here - my son and baby grandson, plus girlfriend and her mum called on Wednesday so Tuesday was major clear up of 'hot spots' everywhere..............lol Made me wish I'd kept more on top of it all. But its done now. Son took afew of mums bits, plus dads, his girlfriend had some bits of jewellry and they picked out a few bits for teenage grandchildren so the load is a little bit lighter.
Finished the cross stitch I was doing for MIL - finished sticking the paper in the scrapbook for mums photos (can't bring myself to do photos yet)
and done some tidying up in the garden. Lad who used to live here called up on Monday and did a bit for us, plus scrap man came and took some rubbish off our hands. Gave me an empty corner in the back yard -can't have that (hate empty corners) so its not home for the hydrangea mum gave me. Veg in pots area all sorted, spuds poking through and should be getting runner bean plants this weekend...........pots all ready for those.
So, bit by bit I'm getting there............still seems a lot to do -cleared out and re-organised two shoe box size storage boxes for card making stuff so at least I might know where stuff is.

So, hope you're all well and enjoy the bank holiday:j

pagangirl

Hi Mary - glad you are feeling better - don't worry about the photos, you'll get round to them in time - there's no rush is there? It took me ages to sort my mum's stuff out after she died. I think you are doing brilliantly.

I did a bit of simplifying today - well 1 bag to charity shop this morning, then I went to a fleamarket and bought an ornament (hangs head in shame) well it was only a small elephant !

Hope everyone is ok, haven't managed to get on here much lately. Happy Bank Holiday to all :hello:

ceridwen

Happy Bank Holiday from me too.

Yep - its been green-centred today again - Saturdays tend to be for me one way or the other. Environment group green-centred this morning and garden green-centred this afternoon (we've got a lot of environmental group activity going on in my area). A friend took me out to a garden centre I hadnt been to before - so we had a good old look-round/drink/further lookround and she's been busy passing on the benefit of her greater knowledge of how to look after plants. Errr....I hadnt been giving them enough water:o - I coulda been done for "cruelty to plants". Think I'll have to plead guilty - with mitigating circumstances - ie ignorance... whoops! Still learning by trial and error - and a bit more error....I'll get there.

Oh well....at least said friend said "I'll take my hat off to you for how much you've done so far out here"....so maybe I'm at least en route to getting it right.

firework

hi everyone, mary you sound very on top of it to me! well done jsut for having all your veggies sorted out - my plans to plant out in pots this year have just not happened so far. still going to have a try though - might help if i actually had the pots ... and the soil lol!!! bit to do on that one then!!

been very busy rebuilding my store cupboard stocks over the last week, had quite a bit of stuff in at one point but had let it dwindle and as had a bit spare cash this week decided to use it to bag up some bargains at Netto. plenty of stuff we use that was on offer so stocked up nicely. off to focus later today to get meself a heavy duty plastic shelving unit so i actually have somewhere to put all this gear !! will be setting it up in the spare room (now known as the bunker). anyone explain why i feel so pleased about this???

mardatha

Giggling at your "bunker". So we are Prepped and Ready to Bug In then ? LOLOL! So would I be. If I had any money to get anything with... !!

ceridwen

Mardatha

...bug-in...as opposed to those American "bug out bags" you mean? Everything one might want to grab and go - all there in a bag by the front door?

Think we might be cocooning here in Britain instead:D

mary43

Hello all and happy bank holiday !:j

firework - I know that 'smug' feeling when you've a hoard nicely stashed away. I get the same feeling with the spare room full of bits and pieces all ready for birthdays and christmas. When everyone is in a panic and last minute rush I'll know that mine were bought (very cheap from charity shop) or 'created' eons ago..........my purse can stay fairly closed come the pre-christmas months. Even got my cards done.............lol:rotfl:
Pantry is well stocked too, not as much as I''d have liked but OH is in charge of that side of shopping so its down to him.

Lovely sunny day today but very windy - hence me being inside and not out ! Been blown to bits twice out there this morning thankyou !
But time hasn't been wasted...........I've totally finished MILs cross stich coaster to put with her birthday stuff -first time I've done it and I'd never have started had I not be in my 'recovery' period. I''m amazed at the little things I've finished off.............all crafty type stuff due for christmas pressies and has saved me a quid or several.
Even got my water colours out just to do a little something for my son.Haven''t done that in a while.
I seem to have cleared my head if not my house which must be worth something and feel more relaxed than I did earlier this year.
Glad I kept a diary............never thought I've have much to put in it but so far I'm filling the pages with ease. One day I'll be able to look back and have a laugh at what has been a dreadful start to the year............still it has to get better................keep thinking positive..............:j

mary43

All seems quiet on the 'simplfying' front.................can only assume everyones busy or enjoying the sunshine.

I'm no more 'simplified' than I was...........in fact I seem to get myself in a bigger muddle with so many things 'half done' !!!
I've a list of things to do or deal with but somehow I keep coming across little hurdles that throw me in another direction...........phone calls that need to be made,..............no reply several times and I wander off to start doing something else ...............and so on..........so at the end of a day/week I've more things started than finished !! Get so mad with myself.

Did manage to get some more gift boxes covered -can't believe I started them and finished the same day !!
Did finished MIL's cross stitch coaster -or was that last week ??
Not to mention any form of serious housework..........!!! Thats been a definite 'I'll do it tomorrow'.

Oh well.............one day tomorrow may just arrive and I'll get stuck in and get things finished off.

Plus side...........mums affairs are in the process of being completed.......one more lot of papers to sign and 2 weeks should see me knowing which letters I can shred and which I may need to hold on to just in case they're needed..........be such a relief to reduce 3 box files to maybe one small folder that I can tuck in a drawer.
Maybe when thats sorted and I'm no longer staring at them all when I come in this room I'll feel more motivated to get everything else done.
Garden at least is fairly organised and I've even got some flower seeds coming up -doesn't normally happen and me and seeds just don't seem to gel right but looks like this year we are.

Hope everyone's ok..................take care:j

Aril

Hello virtual friends:j:j
I know, I know it's been ages. Having been popping in to keep tabs but not signing in:o Not had much to say for myself lately.
All been very busy here and have started on a fettling and decluttering project for the whole house. Have got about 1/4 of the way through but have been needed in the garden the last couple of weekends to hopefully get that looking pretty from now through to the autumn. I've had a go at planting some annual seeds but it waits to be seen whether they'll actually thrive. I'm rather forget about watering and other such things. Have been pleased with how all the sorting's gone and have another bag out for the charity collection tomorrow. Hmmm...now just got to find an allocated spot for the wine making equipment that we got at the car boot sale. Another new project to increase the amount of homemade bits we can produce.
We've had a lovely afternoon today playing marbles with the small person. Not something I've ever done but we were lucky enough to have an English Festival in the town yesterday. One of the stalls was run by a local chap who organises the world marble championships every Good Friday. He had the most stunning range for 10p so we flashed our £1 and threw caution to the wind:rotfl::rotfl:The small person already has a collection with some lovely examples but it was great to actually use them. I have to say that I was completely rubbish but very successful in knocking out both OH and the small person's tolley [the marble you play with]. To do it deliberately is called "cabbaging" [cheating] but chance would have been a fine thing. When you actually flick the marble it's called knuckling down. Funny where everyday phrases originate. Anyway if you want a cheap and simple entertainment I can thoroughly recommend it:D
I went down to Littlehampton a few weeks back with my Mum and raided the charity shops. One of the items I bought for the princely sum of 50p was an anthology of Norse folk tales. Although it's a children's book I thought you might enjoy some of the pearls of wisdom that Odin [one of the primary Norse Gods] has to share:
"It's an unwise man who sits awake worrying all night. When morning comes he will be too tired to think and matters will be still more tangled"
"Men die, cattle die, you yourself must dieone day. There is only one thing that will not die- the name, good or bad, that you have made for yourself"
Arilxx

mary43

Aril - so good to see you...............you're de-cluttering puts me to shame. Mind you, I might get motivated later in the year -we want a downstairs loo put in and reckon it could be a sort of cubicle in the 'downstairs shed' that lives off the kitchen. Have to get a builder in to suss it out but I'm sure its possible. That'll mean a really good clearout -everything that we don't know where to put ends up in there............lol

Marbles takes me back a few years............me and my brother had a lot of them but I never have actually played with them so wouldn't know where to start.
Searching through a drawer the other day for something I came across a set of 'five stones' - 'jacks' we used to call them. The idea, in case you don't know, is to throw one in the air, pick up the remaining four and let the one throw land on the back of your hand. -least I think thats how we did it,.................I was trying to explain to my son about it the other week. Maybe something I ought to 'google' in case I got it wrong.

Love the quotes Aril - beautiful as ever and very true :j