Champagne Lifestyle on a Lemonade Budget - 2021

MrsPorridge

Those lights are amazing Phoebe, I love them.

My champagne moment today was going for a walk to collect my prescription - was only out for 20 mins as its very windy and squally here.  Came home and felt so much better for having made the effort - it really blew the cobwebs away.

Willow1983

I just love the colours you use in your home Pheobe ❤️ I love colour in other peoples houses but I tend towards natural/neutral in my own with small touches of colour thrown in.  Thank god for some brave people like yourself lol.

sheilavw

My champagne moment yesterday was completing my 31 day challenge for the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) association. I had to walk 15.000 steps each day in January. I walked 504.984 thats 239.1 mile and raised £195. It helps working in a busy school so weekends were actually harder, many days I was doing home exercise! my best day was over 22k.  I am very happy with the amount raised considering many family and friends have donated before.

sugarbaby125

Sheila W Congratulations on completing your 31 day challenge and for such a worthy cause. 

Wednesday2000

Well done Sheila!

phoebe1989seb

Well done Sheila 😊

Thanks so much for your lovely comments about my new lights, Sugarbaby, Mrs P and Willow 😄

helensbiggestfan

Hello everyone.  Phoebe, you have been working hard, it's all looking fab.  

I'm trying shopping small too, ever mindful of trying to support local businesses and of course sustainability, so vintage and preloved where suitable.  Champagne yesterday, some great bargains from the chazza.  Took in 5 bags of kitchenalia and came out with a gorgeous black real leather overnight/bag shopper and three lovely art works. £10 the lot so well chuffed.  

I'm currently tackling some kitchen cupboards and another sweep of my wardrobe.  Will have another few bags to drop off later in the week.  I am being really strict and quite ruthless.  I am determined not to take a lot of stuff with me when I move.  

My second son has his eye on some of my furniture and kitchenware, some will go to the ymca. I'm only going to take my absolute favourites and a few necessities to tide me over.  Of course I will keep anything of sentimental value.  I'm not entirely heartless.  

It might not sound like much of a champagne moment but I am loving the decluttering this time round.  I am finding it much easier to part with things now, probably because the impending house move is helping me focus.  Each bag that leaves seems like a weight off my shoulders.💃

Nice bright sunny day, a bit breezy but quite mild.  Going to walk to the local shop in a minute.  

I'll take the scenic route to increase my step count. 😂🤣

Suffolksue

Will you try and stay near the grandsons?

phoebe1989seb

Thanks Helen! You've been very busy with all that decluttering - it's amazing where we put it all, especially when we already believe the wheat has been separated from the chaff, lol 😂🙄

Having done a few downsize moves - and one back upwards (ha!) - I feel as though what we are left with is the important stuff, that all has special significance for us.... actually there's quite a lot we both regret parting with, but it's too late for those kind of recriminations now!

Great charity shop bargains there too 😉

My champagne moment today was planting the mixed daffodil bulbs - in pots as the area they are intended for isn't yet ready. Out of 220 bulbs, 184 were viable/sprouting...not bad for £3.98, whoop whoop 😀

Tbh, I'm not actually much of a fan of the Welsh national flower, finding all but the palest, tiniest types a little too brash - but the garden has looked so dreary lately that I just couldn't resist when I saw the final two bags reduced to clear in The Range! Hopefully they'll bring some welcome sunshine to the dullest corners 😄

Next gardening job on my agenda is to finish clearing the extended *hot beds* area (only red, orange and yellow plants allowed, lol!) in readiness to plant up DH's mahonia charity and pretty euonymus both purchased for half price last autumn. As this area was used as a dumping ground by the POs and is currently full of rocks, broken tiles, large tree branches and brambles, it will take a while - hence the daffs going into pots for this year!

phoebe1989seb

Today's champagne moment (actually last night's, as that's when DH brought it home!) - taking possession of another free, unwanted window from the gothic gatehouse refurb job. This one is a tiny, arched, non-opening type that will make a characterful statement wherever we decide to use it 😀

I'm feeling a bit of a fraud with all the talk of decluttering, as anyone visiting our home would struggle to see evidence of it here! But....I've said previously that we're proud maximalists (I've been the same since childhood, always accumulating vast collections of *stuff*) and, whilst I shudder to think of going minimal, we definitely have way less than we did five years ago (which was when we began prepping for our most recent - and most drastic - downsize).

Back in the Spring/Summer of 2017 we sold several small van loads of furniture and decorative items at fleamarkets and antique fairs across England as well as selling some of the more valuable pieces to a specialist dealer we'd got to know. Despite this, we still needed three large storage units when our house sale completed before we'd found somewhere to buy 😮🙄😂

For me, certainly, surrounding myself with stuff is probably a comfort blanket scenario, but I do adhere faithfully to William Morris's maxim when it comes to what we have in our home...it's all beautiful or useful (imho, most of it's both, lol!).

Although, a few weeks back I did discover a huge bag full of partly used  tissues I'd kept for make-up removal purposes, believing that to ditch them would be a waste 🙄 They'd been bagged and boxed up since we sold our old house over four years ago. Gross!!! I chucked them, obviously! Ditto old lipstick, concealers etc - which I always used to keep if there was the tiniest scrap left in the tube. No more. They've all been disposed of 😂

Currently I'm struggling to get DH to part with some clothes. Till recently he still had several suits, smart jackets, ties, shirts etc (the best of many he used to own, the rest having been charity shopped long ago) - reminders of his days working in a design studio, meeting with clients, architects etc. I managed to persuade him those days are gone and it's unlikely he'll wear them again. All but the best couple of designer jackets and shirts went to the charity shop.

Now I'm onto his coats. He hasn't worn a 'winter' coat for years, preferring layering gilets and hoodies etc. One was termed the 'funeral coat' kept for winter funerals. I think he wore it twice - to his mum's in October 2006 and his dad's (February 2013). That was the first to go.

Then there's the black, bomber jacket style purchased from the Chichester branch of Next in December 2014. Probably last worn in 2016. And the fleecey lined, parka that I remember buying in Colchester Debenhams when we lived in East Anglia. We sold that house in 2011. He briefly wore it for dog walking during 2012/13. Don't think he's worn it since. Yet he resolutely refuses to part with either....

He also continues to buy more, in November purchasing another very similar coat to the parka. It would have been very useful during the cold weather. However he announced that he's keeping it for the Gary Numan Wembley gig.....in May!!! I give up 😂

I can't complain though. We're all different, obviously and I recently realised that the more of our treasured possessions I surround myself with, the more the mill begins to feel like home. I need clutter....albeit carefully curated clutter, lol 🤣