Sunday 16 March 2014

Progress


 
My first daffodils!!! They always make me feel like Winter is nearly over, Spring is finally on its way :-) I have no idea what's in my garden so these were a lovely surprise.  I love wee tete a tetes, they're so delicate. 
 
 
It feels like I'm finally making progress in the house.  Here's my new kitchen cupboard.  Just MDF which will be painted with Annie Sloan chalk paint and waxed.
 





It was designed round my need to have somewhere to store my Dyson and ironing board.  Seriously!!


 
It's not this empty now!! So far I've got my breadmaker, mixer, steamer and slow cooker in there plus some dried foods.  This will be my central storecupboard. I'll gradually move everything in it that should be in a kitchen that's currently residing elsewhere in the house *rolls eyes*
 
 
 
I've not been lucky with my yellow stickers recently but did find these in Sainsbury's freezer section yesterday.  Should be £2.99 but reduced to 50p, beef in gravy and chicken in sauce.  Use by date is November 2014 so will last.  I got 3 boxes.  Haven't tasted them yet so don't know what they're like.  I also recently picked up a couple of frozen stuffed turkey breast joints and wee sausages wrapped in bacon from their frozen section.  Both massively reduced (can't remember exact prices) and well within use by dates.  I guess they're clearing out their Christmas stock.
 
M&S were doing it too the other week so I got hugely reduced vacuum packed chestnuts (LOVE these!) and brandy sauce which is just fancy custard.  The chestnuts will go in a nut roast.  Yum yum!!

Saturday 8 March 2014

Pretty in pink


This week I made an effort to be creative for the sake of my sanity!  As well as making an apron from an old white sheet for my Alice in Wonderland costume (for World Book Day, sadly no pics of me) I saved this pink cardigan from the recycle bin.  This cardi had 2 wee holes in it (Emma's work, don't ask!!) but had only been washed a few times so was too good to throw out.


I used 2 wee circles of felt (size of a 2p and 1p coin) and a teeny button to make some felt flowers.  I painted some nail polish around the holes to stop fraying then stitched these on.  Dunno how they'll stand up to being washed but I wore it to work and everyone commented on it :-)

 
Continuing the pink theme, I won these lovely suede shoes on ebay for 99p.  Worn once apparently they are in great nick. Ideal for work as they're flat but a wee bit different.  They're M&S Autograph ones so would have been expensive when new. They made me smile :-)

Thanks for the lovely comments on my last post.  This week has been even more manic with a very long parents' evening.  It's only 4 weeks until the Easter holidays so I can keep going and then make some decisions when I'm not so tired.

Saturday 1 March 2014

Something's Gotta Give


This is kinda how I've been feeling this week (btw I love this film!!)  My life is so jam packed atm that unless I take a proactive approach the universe is going to do it for me and I'll have no control over what gives.

The one big thing I learned about myself from my counselling course was that I'm a control freak and it's actually very common in women especially working mothers.  It's not the need to be in control of other people but the need to be in control of the things happening in your own life.  Well, that's just impossible as it's interaction with other people that make life unpredictable.

I've stumbled into a full time job that I absolutely love.  I was expecting a short term contract that would ease me back into teaching but the opportunity to extend it to a year was too good to pass.  But it's meant that my home life has been chaos ever since and being ill over the Christmas holidays meant I didn't get myself as organised as I could.

So, this weekend needs to be a thinking and planning one.  How can I give my job 100% whilst keeping on top of housework, food shopping, cooking, going to the gym, my OU course, DS's school stuff etc?  I still have unpacked boxes despite moving here 6 months ago and don't even get me started on decorating!!

Right, I'm off to start writing lists.  Lists always help me focus. I always find answers there :-)