fEAsible…February review

I thought January went quickly but February was also a bit of a whirlwind.

I was a little disappointed with my accomplishments in February – I can see now that I set myself too many tasks for the time available partly due to not allowing enough time for the planning of and attending the funeral – but the main reason for my lack of action must be to do with the fact that we had a sudden notification of our Legal Aid audits at work and to cover all this additional work that an audit entails I had to do extra hours and also go in on one of my days off so we could meet the deadlines.  But I will not bore you anymore with the details – it is just enough to say I found February challenging.

So a quick round-up of how I performed with my February intentions –

• appEArance –

I can only own up to the fact that I failed miserably on my appearance category and my attempts at self-care, such as booking an appointment with the optician and exercising after work, did not materialise in fact I have been so tired this month I have caught myself a few times asleep on the sofa supposedly watching TV but actually recovering from the day.

 

• mEAndering –

Our meandering this month took us down memory lane as we doubled up our sad trip to the funeral in Cirencester with a visit to Cheltenham – a real treat and we plan to go back for a long weekend as soon as we can. So this intention was fulfilled and enjoyed.

Unfortunately we have run out of weekends to go up to North Yorkshire and with all this snow it won’t be any time soon.

• crEAting –

Nothing exciting to show on the creating side – I was really disappointed not to have started my hen print tea cosy by now – this will have to roll over to March – but I did get to make a Valentines card (it was a bit of a cheat though – a heart stamp, a blank card and some red ink) still it is the thought that counts!

• rEArranging –

My main decluttering and simplifying projects were to get rid of the accumulation of ‘stuff’ in the downstairs toilet that we are turning into a pantry and to make a start in our main bedroom prior to decorating.

The big news is (and I am very pleased with myself for this) that I actually, with the help of dear hubby and advice from a few bloggers, managed to get two items listed on eBay  – one has already sold (some bathroom fitments that we had for the cottage but no longer need) and the other (a brand new curved shower screen to fit the bath we no longer have since the flood) has an interested enquirer from Surrey –but I have no idea how we would get it to him – so may have to relist this one.  Anyway now I have gone through the procedure and understand it a bit more I just need to repeat!

In our bedroom I wanted to improve on the space and reduce the contents before giving it a good spring clean.  I have put all my hubby’s clothes into the new wardrobe in the spare room and he has taken all the natural wood hangers because I decided that DH finds things easier if everything is hung.  So now everything is hung – jumpers, t-shirts, shirts, suits and jackets.  His jeans are the only items of clothing that remain folded and these are in one of the pull out Muji  drawers within the wardrobe fitment, together with a drawer for his working clothes for gardening and DIY.

His underwear and socks are presently in the bedside drawers on his side but I have plans for these.

So now I can spread out and have the whole of the wardrobe in our bedroom for myself – but I had no hangers.  I know it is lavish to buy hangers when they come free with garments but I like nothing better than opening my wardrobe doors in a morning and having uniform hangers looks more orderly to me.

After debating with myself whether or not I should buy the space-saving skinny velvet hangers (and I can see the merit in these) I finally decided on the white wooden IKEA ones for two reasons (well maybe three)

• The skinny velvet ones in TKMAX come in packs of different brands so might not be repeatable should I need more.
• The packs I looked at all seemed to have a few  damaged hangers in them and some had missing hooks so I questioned how long they might last as I wanted this to be a once and forever purchase like my natural wooden hangers that I have had for donkey’s years.
• They never seemed to have white ones and for some reason I just fancied white.
• Although the white wooden ones take up more room the clothes keep their shape better on them and I just like them – so good enough reason to buy them.
• They are wood and not plastic so environmentally friendly.
• Having the wooden ones meant fewer hangers will fit in the space and therefore I will have to limit the number of clothes I can keep so I will always know when I need to stop buying.
• They are cheap for the quantity I needed – I bought 7 packs of 8 hangers – so I can hang 56 garments.

Actually that is seven reasons!

I will post some pictures soon of my wardrobe rearrangements.

• fEAsting –

  Valentines – with the unexpected audits at work I had to work on Valentines day so it didn’t happen for us – we did exchange cards and a small gift but no special meal. Pancake Day was the same but I am not going to stress about it we will just celebrate it another day instead – I can always eat pancakes anytime of the year!

 

• trEAsury –

My intentions for February on financial matters was to start looking at our pensions and getting some advice, continue to limit the grocery weekly spend, save some money on cards and gifts and replace some of the money I used to buy the car.

Pensions –this has moved forward a bit – but only a teeny bit and it is vital that we get moving on it – we have now booked an appointment with the government ‘Pensionwise’ free advisor for some initial advice and are then also looking at a seeing another IFA that has been recommended –  if we can afford him!  We have always gone for ethical investments and they have, contrary to advice in the past, done better than the ordinary investments that have been imposed on us by various employers – so we are quite pleased but now it is a gamble when to start drawing on them and how to get the best from them.

Grocery shopping –this worked out at £57 a week for the month so £7 a week over the budget I have set but I did buy quite a few offer items and we now have enough coffee to open a coffee shop.  Prices in the shop are continuing to rise so it is a bit of a battle to keep the weekly spend down.

In general I have been making my birthday cards but whilst here at the caravan I actually bought 2 birthday cards from WH Smiths with the 25% off discount card – I find making birthday cards for men much more difficult and gave in and bought them!  I have done much better on the gifts side and managed to get a number of gifts in the sales at very reasonable prices.

The Flexclusive saver account has only just matured so as soon as the interest is added I can now move this into my long-term savings to build this up again after the hole the purchase of the new car made.

 

So that is everything for February accounted for – we didn’t manage much of a tidy up in the garden at home but a good start on the woodland garden in Scotland and only the weather being against us has now delayed this.  I have set my intentions for March and will be posting these in a day or two.

Kalo mina ~ Have a good month!  (An expression the Greek people use to wish each other well at the start of every new month – so my daughter tells me).

 

 

 

 

 

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decluttering my inbox…

My intention today was to have a really good clean in the house but by the time we had seen the man who came to measure up for our new sliding wardrobes in what will be the guest room, when we have decorated it, the urge to get scrubbing had waned and I became sidetracked by checking my emails.

Then somehow I have managed to spend most of the afternoon clearing out old emails from my inbox all 755 and doing a bit of reorganising of folders.  I now have zero emails in my inbox (but that won’t last long) and anything that needs some further consideration is in a follow-up folder at the top of the folder list.  I have fifteen follow-up items to deal with, some of which require an email answer.  Anything I need to keep goes into an appropriate folder.

I have also unsubscribed from a number of those emails that arrive in my inbox and I find that I never open them – just delete them – but often they begin to stack up if I don’t log in to read my emails everyday and especially when we are at the cottage and do not have an internet connection.

I actually feel much better in myself for doing this task – it was prompted by something I read yesterday in the book How to Get Things Done by Richard Templar

Basically he suggests that you don’t work a week behind and gave emails as a prime example.  You can deal with today’s emails or last Wednesday’s emails it takes the same amount of time but one keeps you on top of the game and is more efficient.

 

This made absolute sense to me as I find I am often reading last weeks emails and sometimes last months.  In the big clear out I unexpectedly found an email received in August and still unread from my insurance company which had got lost amongst the many subscription emails that come in daily.

So now with less junk I should be able to spot the requests for the meter readings or the insurance renewal more easily.

Yes, I definitely feel good tonight after that major declutter- all I need to do now is make sure I leave 10 to 15 minutes a day to check on my inbox and read and deal with the new items.

I am looking at other areas of my life where I might be working a week behind – do you have this problem?

Have a good weekend. x

 

 

 

 

my love affair with clipping…

Thank you for the lovely comments on my last post with a few helpful suggestions which are noted about dealing with my affliction addiction.

I have been trying to think why I like my clippings so much – I suppose they are like my best friends, a bit like my Journals, they are a visual representation of who I am and what I like or aspire to just like my Journals are a written record of my life – I don’t think I could ever be paperless as much as I might want to be to save the environment.

It would be my one minimalist stumbling block.  I think I am beyond help.

Another reason is I hate waste and I would only buy a magazine if there are features that catch my eye or an article or two I might want to read.  The only regular magazine I have is by a subscription to Country Living magazine (a regular Christmas present from my OH) and I am trying hard to economise and avoid buying additional magazines as I feel bad that I have to eventually throw them away and that feels like a waste of money.  With the cost of a magazine these days I find it can be more costs effective to buy a cheap book in the Works to satisfy a sudden urge I might have.

My clipping habit started years ago when still a teenager with my 60’s Petticoat magazine.  I would tear out pictures of the latest fashion I liked and articles on beauty routines.  This then continued as a  fashion student at art college always tearing out bits and pieces that would generate future ideas.  Then when we bought our first house I bought magazines for decorating and gardening features.

One idea from Alys at Gardening Nirvana is to use Pinterest to cut down the amount of clippings.  Good tip Alys –  I do use Pinterest as well to capture interesting bits and pieces and  I agree it is a good way to keep ideas and not have to provide the storage room that clippings demand I should use it more perhaps and buy less magazines in future.

But I am definitely an old-fashioned paper girl too – I don’t have a Kindle because I like to hold a book in my hands – there is something very tactile about the feel of books like the feel of cloth.

 

Once a week I love nothing better than to browse the lengthy magazine aisle in Sainsbury’s before I start the weekly shop and this is where I might be tempted to select something that appeals.  It might be anything from Top Sante to Self Build, Coast to English Garden or even our local magazine called Down your Way with memorable and humorous stories of people’s lives in Yorkshire in past decades.

So when I have a pile of magazines that I have read I go through and first of all pull out the recipes, then any gardening features that I want to keep – (in Coast magazine they are useful because they feature other people’s seaside gardens), then I might tear out any decorating ideas for future reference it might be anything from a cushion to a paint colour or furniture.  On the way through I might see something for my craft folder or save an article on improving my diet and health.   After this I clip snippets of information on new products like supplements or face creams that have been tried and tested.  From the Woman’s Weekly my mum passes on I save those crossword puzzles at the back to do at the cottage as we do not have ready-made entertainment like a TV!

Finally, after all that clipping I tear off the very front or back cover on a glossy magazine and I use these to punch out multi coloured butterflies and flower shapes to make my recycled paper cards.

Tania at Frugal in Essex mentions that she uses her smart phone so I will take this on board Tania though I will have to find mine first.  I will do anything on a computer – at work I train colleagues on our softwear programs and am called on to solve a range of technical issues but phones and me have yet to gel in the same way.

Lyn at Everyday Life – sounds like we are on the same page as far as magazines and cuttings – next time you have a throw out throw them my way.

before and after a guided tour…

Remember Dolly and Ted – they have had their baths and are now clean and presentable and ready to invite you to have a peep around their new home…

This room was our younger daughter’s bedroom, part of the extension we had built above the garage in 1997, and pine was fashionable back then together with red check fabric and stencilled walls.   So this is a guided tour of the before and after.

I made the curtains from a duvet cover to get the look she wanted – notice how they had faded over time.  After she left home it became a bit of a dumping ground and a handy place to dry the washing.

We even had a settee in here for a while waiting to transport it up to the cottage.   I can’t believe it got this messy – I took this picture after Christmas one year – I obviously didn’t know where to put all the new presents!

                       Before we started we had a good clear out and now…

…it is light and bright – the walls are a soft grey called Amonite by Farrow and Ball and the woodwork All White Eggshell.

I decided not to put curtains back as I love the simplicity of the window and chose a plain white roller blind.  Little L, my granddaughter, will eventually be using this room so I wanted it to be inviting for a little girl to sleep in so there are a few toys about…

The new fitted wardrobes are from the PAX range at IKEA they are the 30cm deep ones with plain white shaker style doors and we added the white-painted wooden handles which OH lovingly made!

There is enough hanging space and drawer room for a few clothes when little L comes to stay

and the double side of the wardrobe is my new linen cupboard…

and I have designated one of the drawers for my fabrics and sewing projects…

The corner had an overburdened bookcase and became another dumping ground…

but has been pared down considerably to make this reading corner with a new smaller, lower bookcase and a couple of narrow picture shelves that display some of the most cherished books…

Remember the pine ‘samba’ style staircase that some bloggers told me they rather liked…

– it leads to the mezzanine sleeping platform above…

well yes we did paint it and no I don’t regret it…

The carpet is a little too creamy now but we have laid it back down until we finish the other rooms after which we will buy all the same colour throughout the house.

Upstairs on the mezzanine –  the Lloyd loom bedside cabinet belonged to my mum-in-law, a definite keeper and so the colours had to work around this.

We decided not to paint the pine bed for the time being as you cannot really see the pine colour until up close.  OH made this bed in our first house in 1979 so it does not owe us anything only a new mattress which we will try to find in the sales.

The quilt cover is from Next it ties in the blue of the cabinet and the blue snuggly throw I found in IKEA for only £4.

I am pleased with the way this room has turned out the soft grey has proved to be better than paining the room all white and in some lights actually can look white.  It may not be to everyone’s taste but I love the clean spacious look – it is not too minimalist but I have been careful not to overfill the room.

So two rooms finished now, we finished the family bathroom a while ago, and only four more rooms to go upstairs.

Next on the list is the middle bedroom once the residence of my older daughter.  This will become our main guest room and will be mainly used by my mum when she comes down to stay.  At the moment we have a single bed in there but will change this for a double.  There is a considerable amount of decluttering to do in here too but having already started to rid ourselves of any excess I am quite enjoying all the new space.

Have a good weekend x