Simplifying Life

mary43

Made some christmas cards ceridwen - which makes me sound more 'organised' than I really am...........such a lot I should have done instead of taking over the kitchen table with paper card and glue.........but it was fun.............lol
Never had one of those carousel thingys.........always thought they looked like they'd be a nuisance.........having said that my kitchen cupboards are still a mish mash of 'stuff' and the pots and pans/larder ............well, words fail me. It's a day long job really to have everything out, clean the shelves and decide what goes back........OH keeps putting it off as much as I do.......I think we're both secretly hoping the other one will do it..............lol

Well, new lad arrived complete with baggage and tears...........thankfully our older lad came back from work in time to rescue the situation, put him at ease and a smile appeared. They've now gone into town so our lad can show the new boy where things are in the town and meet a few people..........(bit of a worry who he actually gets introduced to but think our older lad recognises a bit of himself in the new one - always been a 'jack the lad' sort.
Still, we'll see how things progress.
New boy has a shoe box complete with trainers and I think........if I'm lucky, I just might get the box when he eventually unpacks his stuff............been after a decent shoe box to recover ready for christmas pressies....................lol

(OH bought yet more loo rolls today as they were so cheap -they can go in the spare room with the hundreds of others stacked up........just in case!
Slight exagerration on numbers there:rotfl: )

lightisfading

shaz_mum_of__2 wrote: »

Hi there

I live in scunny too, well messingham actually i think i saw your ad on freecycle did you have any luck?
...
I use the hospice shop and the help the aged shops in ashby a lot ,the hospice book only shop is great too

Shaz

Hi Shaz

Yes, i always recycle things where possible Just made a really strong lined shopping bag from a charity shop £1 tablecloth - my first ever project too and it came out great At the moment as I'm learning I don't want to spend much on fabric in case it gets wasted!

No joy on freecycle unfortunatly, but I've got some bargains from charity shops/carboots recently.

It seems to be closed a lot at the moment but S!!!!horpe scrapstore (opposite the multistory entrance) is a great place to pick up crafty bits n bobs

Nice to meet you anyway

mary43

Looking at my diary for the next week (and several weeks after !) my time is going to filled with endless meetings, paperwork, soc.work visitors etc. Every day there's something -except Friday when I get the day with my friend !
It'll be anything but simplified until I get into the swing of it. Lots of different issues with this young lad, hence more work involved.
Still, he went off today with the older one and they're on their way back now so my 'me' time is about over !
Still, got a load more Christmas cards made -in fact think I've done enough for us. I;m thinking of carrying on and making enough to take to the care home where Mum is. A lot of the folk there can't get out to buy cards so the care home can sell mine to the residents and raise a bit of cash for activities. At least then I won't feel guilty about sitting at the kitchen table playing with glue and paper..................lol

Greenshieldstamp_2

Hi there,

Thanks to Mary 43 (the pepper mill tip worked a treat) and Ceridwen (She has been blogging away and I popped across to wish Weezl congratulations on achieving her challenge on feeding her family so cheaply - The USDA thread). They all sounded like they were having a lovely time mixing the virtual, the real world and a few cocktails!

Busy day today - delivered one large box of decluttering to the Charity Shop; have transplanted some herbs which are growing well - I now have the beautiful smell of lemon thyme in my kitchen; and have reorgainsed a large cupboard which finally works. Getting the hang of things at long last.

Hope you are having a good day with your foster family Mary43 and that things are going well.

Take care and have a good weekend,
Greenshield

Aril

Hello virtual friends:j
Hope everyone is hail and hearty. It's lovely and sunny here again in Sussex so am hoping for a dry day...there's something about washing that's been dried outside. The smell is gorgeous...other smells that always cheer me up are freshly mown grass, frying onions and bacon and for some obscure reason tar and a freshly struck match. The last two are hardly poetic are they!!!
I've done absolutely nothing on the decluttering front this week as have been busy organising birthday cards and presents...I definitely find it more time efficient [and in my case cost] to buy a whole load of cards in one go rather than here and there. I was able to stock up in a local shop that was having a sale which always appeals to the frugal side of me:D
Yesterday I pottered across to Hampshire to catch up with my old room mate [we were at college together in Winchester a century or so ago]. She and I are book lovers and I invariably buy her a book for her birthday. We all went out in the afternoon with the small person for a pootle around the town and took a tour of the charity shops en route. It's amazing how far I've come though because books are definitely my weak spot. I was always buying books [latterly 2nd hand granted] but then not reading them and then 6 months later having to declutter them. Yesterday I found a copy of Affluenza which is one I want to read...I was sorely tempted but I amazed myself and put it back. I have vowed to borrow it from the library and then if I feel it's a worthy addition to my bookshelf I shall ask for it as a pressie. Besides I know that I still erm have 20+ books in a bag in the garage from a freecyler waiting to be read and I picked up a Jodi Picoult from the library yesterday Perhaps I still have a way to go but I do so love them. Tbh I have always been a person who would rather have books than new shoes.
This quote comes directly from the lovely Bails on the Living on £4000 thread on the DFW board so I hope you don't mind me repeating it here Bails for anyone who missed it:
"Beaten paths are for beaten men".....so if you have an idea even if everyone around you is poo pooing it if you believe in it find your furrow and get ploughing!
Aril
PS Ceridwen...loving the blog. Will leave a comment but have been off the pc more than on of late.

ceridwen

'Morning Aril

You're more awake than I am then! Glad you like the blog - am still feeling a bit amused at t'new blog on the scene (Lazy Faire) wondering if I am male or female (well... its quite clear on seeing me in person folks - no doubts there then whatsoever - short, not exactly flat-chested and usually got a bit of make-up on ...yep, ceridwen is definitely female!). (Nudge - gonna spend a bit of time today doing that reorganisation of my food cupboards I mentioned - does that qualify me as female? Homemaking tendencies....er well...ignore the housework...lack of)

Books are my weak spot too - I manage to prevent myself actually buying new fiction ones - I wont allow myself that (though once or twice I have sneaked in a charity shop fiction one). But - non-fiction ones - I do wonder if my ideal house would have a specific room set aside as a library:D - well, I would likely have one wall in a room specifically laid out as floor to ceiling, side to side bookshelves - instead of scattered round the house in various rooms, as at present.

Well...as for Bails' quote....that about sums up my personal philosophy in one shot!
(speaking of which....has Bails started up the blog they were thinking about doing? - I was only clicking on their name this weekend to see if a "home page" came up - or are they one of the new blogs I've recently realised have appeared - when I spot my name coming up on their blogroll - and perhaps I havent made the connection that one of them IS Bails?)

ceridwen

Update on the food storage cupboards - duly done that bit of reorganising. Well - never mind doing it for stocking-up type purposes - its proven useful to see just how much of some things I already have (whoops!) - errr....7 kilogrammes of rice anyone? I think I could just be eating an awful lot of curries to avoid wasting any of that (but I'd got my stocks of that in 2 different cupboards - so hadnt quite registered how much I had).

So - thats the undersink cupboard in the kitchen cleared out of the other stuff that was in it - being a good cupboard for "serried ranks" of storage type purposes. So duly organised into row of canned fruit/row of canned tomatoes/row of assorted grains (in best before order)/rows of canned beans (whoops - overstocking)/row of dried beans. All I have in that carousel now is oils, vinegars, some flavourings and pastas - I really dont like that darn thing and peering through to the kitchen wall behind its worse - much worse:eek: than I thought - so am now wondering if I could just unscrew the carousel from the cupboard and take it out and throw away. I will be left with a noticeable gap where the 2 carousel cupboard doors meet (as they have a bit of carousel "facing" sitting there at present) - but there will still be sufficient space in that cupboard - on the floor of it - for what little I now have in there - and I'll be able to get at that wall to clean it off (any good - natural - remedies for mouldy walls anyone?).

I've had to store the undersink cleaning materials and casserole dishes in cupboards elsewhere on the ground floor - but reckon it will work out better this way.

These smaller British houses arent designed to have suitable storage are they (even the older ones like mine)?

boredofbeingathome

lemon, tea tree oil, and water...sometimes salt helps as well....it depends on the type of wall. for painted ones, you sometimes can't beat sterilising solution.

ceridwen

sterilising solution....as in what one sterilises baby bottles with? Or is that summat to do with home boozemaking?

Greenshieldstamp_2

Just wanted to say thank you today.

To Ceridwen - I think it was a lovely thing you did yesterday being involved with Weezl's party on the USDA thread. Thank you also for starting the Simplifying Life thread - it is great source of thoughts, ideas and shared experiences for me and I am enjoying being a part of it.I am also enjoying your blog.

To Aril,
Thank you for your timing. You always seem to post just at the right time, with ideas and quotes which trigger things off in my mind.

Shaz-Mum Of Two
Your cake baking picture on the USDA thread is brilliant. What a lovely thing to have done for your son. he must have been thrilled.

Mary43
I enjoy hearing about what you are doing (not in a nosy way by the way). You do so much and are very inspiring.

It is lovely having a set of people here who are interested in the same things, but also lots of different things too.

I'm off working again so will catch up with everyone when I get back.
Thanks once again everyone.
Greenshield