Cheery's country living adventure

Cheery_Daff

I'm not sure my oven has ever got mucky enough to warrant cleaning? Or maybe my standards are just really low 😂😂😂 When we moved out of our old house we left the cooker (one of those free standing things with a hood that we'd got for £50 from a charity shop) - my neighbour came round the night before we moved and helped pack and did a really quick clean of the oven so I didn't even do it then!  😂

We don't eat meat though, and rarely cook anything splattery...

themadvix

The lack of cooking meat is key Cheery. Ours would be immaculate if it wasn't for the cats' chicken - all that fat spitting, it's gross!

rtandon27

We do eat meat but to be fair most of our oven cooking is of the dutch oven or tented with foil type - clean up is kept easy and minimal in this house!

Cheery_Daff

Very wise RT! 

So. We are winding down towards Christmas, and slowly deciding that things that seemed vital last week now seem inconsequential and so aren't getting done 😂

I had a lovely meal out with a pal last night, and then an early night in the spare room as we've both been disturbing each other for various reasons lately and both needed a decent kip. I had a good 9 hours and feel much better!

Cafe breakfast today, and nipped to a different town so Mr Cheery could get me a couple of small things. I picked up a couple of small neighbour presents. We've decided that this year our presents to each other will be the bar stools for the breakfast bar 😂 We've never done that before, bought a joint household present instead of individual ones, but we're both just so worn out we can't do our usual pottering round the charity shop for inspiration. We've got each other a couple of other small things to open but that's it. 

Foggy today, and I am very much enjoying having lunch (scrambled eggs on toast) at the dining table. I hadn't realised how much I'd missed having a table to eat at - ever meal for 2 years has been on my knee on the sofa (or at my work desk) and it's so nice to just prop a book in front of me and sit here! 

Been plotting and scheming for next year, one of my favourite activities for this time of year. Not going to write out plans yet though!

EssexHebridean

I've got table envy now - ours spends most of its time folded down because it's in the dining end of the front room, so we fairly rarely sit at the table to eat anything other than a sunday roast. I LOVE eating breakfast at the table when we're in the Hebrides though! Lunch, at the table, with a book just sounds fabulous though. 

You've reminded me I need to pack my journal to take with me - I also love plotting and planning at this time of year!

Fortune_Smiles

We usually do a joint Christmas present Cheery - this year it was a staddle stone 😆  Last year it was the trees for the orchard.  Other years it's been the promise of a day out to somewhere we particularly want to go or something for the house we can't justify buying from every day budgets.  We sometimes do a joint Birthday present too as our birthdays are only a week or so apart.  Always have a couple of small things to open on the day though.

For the last couple of years we've done group birthday presents too as all the Younger Fortunates have birthdays around the same time as ours.  They've been days out or group activities.

Fortune x

Cheery_Daff

That sounds like an excellent idea Fortune! We usually do lots of little charity shop presents, nothing fancy, and we've still got a couple of those. But our new bar stools are shiny and red and seemed appropriate for Christmas 😁

Cheery_Daff

And yes EH, remember your journal! Plotting and scheming is my favourite activity over Christmas 😁😁 Some of my plans even come to fruition! 😂

I did actually get round to a bit of painting of the bedroom ceiling earlier. Not much, just one of the oddly shaped bits that's on its own. We're not going to get in there for Christmas now, but definitely by new year. 

I sent Mr Cheery to the supermarket and came to stand in the massive queue in Arg0s for our bar stools - except by the time I got here there was no queue, so I'm now stood outside guarding two giant boxes cos I can't carry both at once, and don't have the car key so can't even leave one with the staff while I dump the other 😂

South_coast

themadvix said:

The lack of cooking meat is key Cheery

I was going to say the same - so much nicer since sausages have been removed from the equation!

Cheery_Daff

Well our stools are a disappointment sadly! They look great, but they feel quite flimsy and wobbly to sit on, and the backrest is just in the wrong place and uncomfortable. So they'll be going back, which is a shame. We'll look out for some we can try sitting on first. 

Took us ages to take the damn thing apart again, and I even rang to make sure it would be OK to take back with some bits still attached together! But YouTube came to the rescue in the end. It was a push fitting, we didn't want to exert too much force given we were returning them, but someone explained exactly where to bash and it was fine.

We never got round to sorting out windowsills, so I've covered the downstairs ones with festive fabric and they actually look pretty cheerful 😂 Will certainly do til we can find some stone.

Kitchen geezer just texted to see if I'd got his invoice, and if everything is ok. Everything's fine except granite guy has clearly got the hump with me and presumably won't be bothering til the new year now. Bit annoying. Will pay the kitchen guy cos I just don't want that hanging over me, and tell him to give granite guy a kick up the !!!!!!. Quite frankly at this point I don't want to be !!!!!! about waiting in for him over the holidays anyway.