Forever Starts Now

starnac

twinklie said:

Glad it’s not just me with the milk bottle collection issue. 🤣

Ha! Thanks for making me feel better about it too  

starnac

7 things decluttered today along with a big box of paperwork I sorted from the office two days ago. 

I patched a pair of well loved jeans too. I am very fussy with the style of jeans I wear and usually you can buy that style in supermarkets. However, after chunky thighs wore a hole in my last pair of jeans, I haven't been able to find any. Skinny jeans everywhere, but with my thighs? No thank you! I looked everywhere before Christmas and couldn't find any. I pretty much live in my jeans though so I patched them. 

It's funny how you put off a job thinking it will be a big one only to be finished in 10 minutes! They can now go back in my wardrobe ready to be worn again. Hooray!

starnac

Items decluttered now up to 11. I sorted out our shopping bags which have been added to thanks to Christmas. I will take the extra ones to church tomorrow for the food bank to use. 

Today will be a pottering day. I've started taking down the Christmas decorations, doing bits as I pass. The tree is still up and will be the biggest job. I might take the decorations off it though. Plus take down the garland and wreath from the front door. I was very impressed by my wreath this year. Every year I buy one and they cost a fortune. This year I left it a bit late and all the nice ones were gone. So I found a woven wreath in my craft things and went out to the garden to collect "green bits". I stuck the greenery into the woven wreath base and kept adding til it looked okay. It wasn't the best I felt, but it was good enough. I hung it on the door and had so many compliments on it, and people asking where I'd got it from. So I was really pleased I'll save the woven base and do the same next year! 

DD is out on a driving lesson. Should be home soon. We've had such a nightmare finding her a driving instructor. I am really hoping she'll like this one so I can book more lessons for her. The last one was so unreliable she had 1 lesson in two months! 

DH is upstairs finishing off some painting that dried a bit patchy. 

I would like to have a bit of a tidy up, go for a run before it gets too icy, and crochet a bit more of my cardigan. Oh I also need to make some sort of "afters" for Sunday dinner tomorrow. 

Greying_Pilgrim

oh starnac - I am intrigued, with your needlework prowess, do you (or have you), instigated the 'Sashiko' art of visible mending?

I can't believe your council's attitude to waste collection - and that doesn't encourage more fly-tipping?  I don't believe it I'm afraid.  Precisely the same comment was made by our council when they instigated changes, and it's not proved correct here, either.

Greying X

EssexHebridean

I can’t get my head round your DD being old enough to drive - talk about time flying! 😆

As for getting the snug back - easy fix, each time you and DH want to watch TV, invade DD’s space - I bet she’ll soon decide it’s time to relocate! 😂

starnac

Greying! It's so lovely to see you, I literally found your diary about 10 minutes ago! Unfortunately it has increased fly tipping and I feel we will see more this month after the Christmas period. It's such backward thinking, and without any help to encourage people to cut down on their waste. Just a straight up "we won't collect it" 

Not pretty enough for Sashiko I'm afraid. I have chunky thighs and so jeans always thin where beauty magazines tell me my thigh gap should be. Even at my thinnest, I have never had (nor will I ever have) a thigh gap. We are naturally big thighed in our family. I just patched the hole from the inside and sewed over it in a criss cross pattern from the outside. It's a subtle mend and to be honest no one should actually be looking there anyway  

EH oh I know! We've been looking at universities too! I am officially old! 

DD did allow her dad to move her bed upstairs so she's been sleeping up in her room for 2 nights now. First time in almost a year. I honestly can't believe it's been 11 months since her surgery! The problem we have now though is that her belongings are all over the place. Some still in the snug, some in boxes on the landing, and some in her room. 

She went back to school yesterday then had her evening class last night so hasn't really had time to sort it out and that's fine. She can do it slowly over the week. I am hoping that she will sort some of her stuff out before it goes back into her room but we'll see. I would like everything out of the snug so that we can move the settee back in which will make the conservatory tidier. 

It's funny how one thing affects lots of different things isn't it. We needed to have DD downstairs as she physically couldn't climb the stairs and she needed to be close to us so that we could help her sit up/roll over etc but to put her bed in the snug meant we have to move the settee out into the conservatory. It didn't quite fit with the furniture we already had in there so it was piled in a corner. Once she went back to school, her school work was everywhere in the dining room as her desk was upstairs. It's been chaos. It will be nice to get back to some sort of normality. For her as much as for us. So much of last year (rightly) revolved around her surgery and subsequent recovery that it was almost all consuming! But that's life! 

Cheery_Daff

Welcome back! 😊 lovely to see you here again 😊😊 

Gosh, that's quite an upheaval for a year. Glad DD has been able to make it back upstairs, and I hope your house is back in order soon! X

starnac

Hey Cheery, welcome. 

Yes last year was quite the year!!! DD was very reluctant to move back upstairs which I find unusual. Doesn't seem to be any particular reason and she has slept in her room since her bed was taken back up. She has spent quite a bit of time downstairs with us though so maybe she's missing the hubbub of being downstairs where the dog would barge in her room or she could hear me pottering around in the kitchen. I really don't know. 

We went to a university open day on Saturday. I was not impressed in the slightest. Thankfully neither was DD. As much as it's her decision and I wouldn't influence it at all, I was so relieved when she said a very definite "no" Unfortunately for me, that was one of the closest and she would probably stay at home if she went there. The favourite one so far (by all of us) is the one furthest away. Which is sad for me, but great for her as she will get the full university experience. I moved away, and I would not stop her, but my heart hurts a little bit at the thought of her going and not being here full time. 

I've got another year yet so I can stop being silly about it. 

I took down all the Christmas decorations over the weekend. The house looks pretty sad and empty now! Few decorations that we never use will be decluttered to the charity shop. Once they are dropped off I will update my decluttering total. 

Right I need to go and get changed as I need to go run and get back for a meeting this afternoon. 

starnac

I did actually go for a run, and really enjoyed it. I had 2 significant injuries last year causing DNF's in 2 big races, one of which has led to me only now being able to get back running since August! But I went, I did a hilly 4 mile run and it was great. I have a full race calendar this year so need to get back to it asap. 

Money wise, DH went shopping yesterday using vouchers we earned over the end of last year so didn't spend much actual cash. So far this month I have only bought 1 thing that wasn't essential and that could be argued that it was as it was the book DD needed for her English course. I tried to find it second hand but couldn't so had to buy a new copy. I am not stressing over that though. She needed it for her course. One blip in my buy nothing January isn't bad!

We did go to the big mermaid coffee chain at the uni open day on Saturday but only because we were given vouchers for a free drink and biscuit. The kids had a bottled drink and DH and I had a hot drink. I'm not a fan of that particular chain of coffee shops and this experience didn't do anything to change that. But it was free!

DD has mock exams this week so she will be home around 10.30am. It's her last one today so she has the rest of the week off - alright for some ey? - I might gently suggest that she starts moving some of her stuff back into her bedroom. Over the weekend DH finished building the new wardrobes we bought her so she could start there. We'll see. 

EssexHebridean

I think that book can definitely be classed as an essential buy - you are still on track I reckon! 

Great news on getting back to running - I'm still not, which is annoying/frustrating. I am starting to think that a decent compromise might be to get back to cycling though -albeit at this point in the year my opportunities to do so will be limited to weekends. In reality though there's nothing to stop me, and the big bike definitely needs an outing, it's barely been unchained from its lodgings at the front of the house since we moved in!