Simple living in the country - back to basics

beanielou

Fingers crossed for the big thaw.

Cheery_Daff

Thanks Beanie 😊

It has indeed warmed up considerably. No ice at all, I've not even turned the heating on yet, and I'm sat on the sofa without a blanket (I do still have hot water bottle and dressing gown, it's not the middle of summer 😂)

Meeting some local chums for a cuppa this morning which will be nice 😊 Going to try and do most of the last of my Christmas shopping today too. 

I also want to get that next blind finished and up, and do a general clean round. That's probably enough for today - I'm quite enjoying generally slowing up a bit this week! 😂

EssexHebridean

It was 12 degrees as I was coming along the motorway this morning - I was quite impressed - and nearly al our snow and ice has gone too - there were still a few little patches on the cycle track this morning as I came from the car but nothing too bad. Oddly enough it doesn't feel as warm as I'd hoped though - probably because it's so flipping damp, I think! 

Cheery_Daff

Yep, pretty soggy here too, but definitely feels almost balmy (well, autumnal anyway 😂)

So, I have the house to myself this evening, so that of course necessitates a wildly overambitious list 😁😁

4.30-5.30 - SEWING
* finish sewing next blind

5.30-6.30 - SUSTENANCE
* make and eat tea (got some pasta left from yesterday, but it's literally just cooked pasta, so will need something with it)
* clear up kitchen and do washing up
* cut up cooking apples and get them stewing and into the hay box ready for the freezer

6.30-7.30 - HOUSE
* flylady home blessing hour

7.30-8.30 - SEWING
* cut out next blind and get layers glued together

8.30 - COSINESS
* nice long soak in the bath 😁

beanielou

Good luck!

Cheery_Daff

Thanks beanie! 

Needless to say, it's not all going to be done 😂

First blind is done, and I've cut out one layer (of three) for the second, and had tea and done the washing up... but that's it 🙄😂

Just going to tuck the chickens in, and then I think a revised plan:

* apples cut and on to heat up (then into the haybox once they're up to the boil)
* cut and stick final kitchen blind
* into my dressing gown and curl up on the sofa to sort some photos out - I was meaning to make a photo book for Christmas which won't now be done of course, but it would be good to make a start.

Tomorrow I want to head out to do the last of my Christmas shopping, then Mr Cheery is out again tomorrow night, so me and Flylady will whizz round then I think - not sure I can be bothered tonight...

greenbee

ooh... exciting... you're nearly there with the kitchen blinds. I bet it will feel lovely and cozy. What's next?

LadyWithAPlan

Your blinds look great! I need to do something similar in the new year.

Liking your budget chat - I have lots of actual bank pots that do the same - so I divy my budget money at the beginning of the month into my pots and as I spend it I move it into main accts so I can see what I have left It works for me but YNAB looks good for those who dont have a budget in place already.  
My main issue is I always keep a float in my bank accts that can get drained by overspend so I need to tackle this next year.

Cheery_Daff

greenbee said:

ooh... exciting... you're nearly there with the kitchen blinds. I bet it will feel lovely and cozy. What's next?

Christmas! 😂 And fitting the bedroom blinds - they're made, so might as well get them up while we've got a blind-fitting system and all the right tools out.

Next DIY job will be painting the kitchen - it's had a single coat of paint for a year now, so it'll probably need two coats now to spruce it up 🙄 Planning to do that while I'm off. 

Alongside that, putting the bed back up in the new bedroom - we're still on a mattress on the floor 🙄😂 Need to wait for the fence posts to properly dry out for that though. 

Then we have to turn attention back to bigger, more annoying, more disruptive things - like the kitchen floor, skirting boards, and windowsills. And smaller, also annoying things, like bits of missing architrave etc.

Oh, and bookshelves in the study, painting and setting up the craft room, and at some point we need to do something with the bathroom - we'll have been here 5 years in Feb and we've still got hideous green carpet in there, and the new bath is in the garage 😂 Oh, and the ridiculous plastic ceiling in the offshot has been propped up with a bit of wood since Mr Cheery put his hand through it fixing a leak in the loft over a year ago so we should probably do something about that at some point too 🙄

But one thing at a time - blinds are first and then we'll go on from there!

EssexHebridean

You've reminded me - I was going to find out what my Mum had used on her floor tiles to bring them back to looking good wasn't I...I'll ty and remember to ask her! 

Definitely just one thing at a time on the jobs front, too! It absolutely makes sense to get all the blinds up while you've still got the tools etc out, but how about a bit of a rest for a few days after that?!