Cheery's path to fulfilment - finishing the DIY, looking after myself, appreciating the garden 🌻

Watty1

I agree with rt here - my cafe habit has been reduced of late, but i dithered about cutting it out on my thread and after some excellent input decided actually the cafe habit was such a joy it was worth cutting something else out for that.

Cheery_Daff

Ha, glad to see you are all happily defending our cafe habit 😂😂 you'll be pleased to know we have literally NO intention of cutting it out altogether. We just probably don't need to be in one every single day...

Having said that, we have actually been in one today 😂 And had a good root through the charity shops, which I hadn't done for a couple of weeks. I treated myself to a little bedside lamp for £3.50 - there's one there already but it's large and awkward, and so bright that Mr C keeps putting it on the floor. This one is far more suitable, and that one can be repurposed elsewhere. 

We also got an unexpected reduced hall in the tiny Mr S shop. Bags of three peppers, reduced from £2.10 to 60p! There were quite a few left so we had two, plus a bag of lettuce reduced to 40p, and a small reduced panettone for £1.25 which we shared at home over a cuppa in lieu of a second drink in the cafe 😂

A restful afternoon looking at my Christmas craft books and trying not to get too overenthusiastic. Then Mr C cleaned the kitchen, and I spent 40 minutes with a podcast cleaning the bedroom.

Can't remember who recommended The Organised Method (I think there used to be a 'mum' in there but not any more) - perhaps @dawnybabes - anyway, thank you whoever it was, I wouldn't have bothered if I hadn't got someone talking me through it, and the bedroom is now lovely - clean sheets, all detritus (washing, cups, tissues, empty painkiller packets) removed, feather duster swiped, proper duster out. Lots of cobwebs evicted, all clothes put away. It's actually a pleasure to go in there now 😊 I found three ladybirds hibernating in a corner of the ceiling and decided that they are by far the least offensive wildlife living in our house at the minute so they can stay 😂

We also talked and decided we'll aim for a new mattress next year 😮 Mr C bought this one in the year 2000 😱 and it is rather worse for wear, having survived the time I left the skylight open right above it in a rainstorm in our old house 😬 I've attempted to repair the cover several times but one whole side of it is shredded now, and the other is grimly patchy 😬 an absolute embarrassment if anyone saw, and more importantly it's not quite as firm as it was...

Anyway, they still make the brand, and the cheapest I can find it online (although I've not looked too hard yet) is £1500 😱😱😱 it's guaranteed for 15 years and we've had at least 25 out of this one so on a pay-by-night basis it's cheap, but still 😱 So I think we'll be adding a line to the budget for next year and seeing if we can get it sorted at some point. 

Don't necessarily need to replace like for like of course, but Mr C bought this one after he had a slipped disc and finds it beneficial, so it's probably not worth us experimenting. We'll see.

redofromstart

It was @Sun_Addict over on my diary who mentioned it I think? I must have a try and see if it helps. 

Cheery_Daff

redofromstart said:

It was @Sun_Addict over on my diary who mentioned it I think? I must have a try and see if it helps. 

Aha, thank you. I'm not even trying to follow along with the whole thing at the minute, just going 'the bedroom needs tidying, I'll play a bedroom podcast' 😂 it's a 7 day free trial then you have to pay though.

Humdinger1

EssexHebridean said:

I've just got enormous admiration for ANYONE who can do "stuff" before heading out to work in the morning - it's as much as I can cope with to get myself up, washed & dressed! 

Yes, your mission - should you choose to accept it - is to get up and get dressed.  How often do I say that to myself while scrolling through diaries in bed...

Sun_Addict

Pricks up ears at the mention of my name 😆 Yes it’s me who does the cleaning podcasts. My friends think I’ve lost the plot but I really think they help. Gemma does a podcast to suit any occasion, there’s even an unpacking your holiday case one. Every week the theme changes, last week it was the Big Festive Reset Challenge. I think the £3.60 a month to subscribe is worth it. I’ve also got the app which was a one off payment of £5.99 a few years ago and this has tick off lists for each room but I prefer the guided cleans. 

beckstar1975

We need many new mattresses after youngest brought bed bugs back from a school trip. Our infected one was v expensive as DH and I both have various back/joint issues. 

We hat to replace 5 people's worth of beds at once and really didn't have much money still we bought one from Ikea. Which was OK but we were both sore so we got a Simba hybrid topper which is amazing. No menopausal aching waking up as no hard surfaces, yet not horrid (and stifling hot) like all memory foam. 

Was a good compromise that cost about £700 all in, half the cost to replace the old mattress like for like.

You do need extra deep sheets though 

Cheery_Daff

Thanks @beckstar1975 that's useful to know. Will certainly be doing considerable investigating before we buy anything. 

@Sun_Addict I did the festive bedroom reset yesterday, really helped and actually that's all the bedroom needed really. I downloaded the app, which was free for the checklists etc - the podcasts are incorporated into that, and it seems it's £3.99 now. I've paid for December and will see if I find it useful enough to keep. Certainly cheaper than a cleaner (and I'll be taking it out of the household budget, not my treats budget!!)

Right. A leisurely morning so far (cuppa and Call the Midwife in bed - I WILL catch up with all 14 series before the new one comes out on boxing day, damn it! ) Getting up for morning yoga in a minute - I'm going to swap round tomorrow's 45 min session with today's scheduled 14 minute one - makes more sense to have the longer one on a leisurely weekend morning. 

And then I'm off on an adventure, using my National Trust pass from the Octopods. I paid £8, which is a bargain for a family ticket - unfortunately I haven't been able to find anyone to come with me to use it! I could have tried harder, but I was trying to keep it simple... So I'm going by myself, which is excellent, as I love a nice solo day out. I'm going to Lyme Park, which costs £18.70 so still a considerable saving even just for me. Hopefully it'll be decorated for Christmas so I can feel nicely festive! If you're close by and fancy an impromptu day out, send me a message - I'll be there in a couple of hours so you'll have to be quick   

rtandon27

In my half awake state, I was going to say 'I'll see you there' but then had a peak at directions and realised its a 4 hour drive each way - 😆 

teapot2

Sadly my helicopter 🚁 is in for repair otherwise I'd be right there.  Have a lovely seasonal day x