This is NOT a New Years Resolution!

I DO NOT MAKE NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS.

If you have to wait till New Years Eve to decide to change something about yourself, then the amount of time it will take to break that resolution will be directly proportional to the amount of time it took for you to decide on that resolution in the first place. i.e not very long at all.

With that in mind, and given I have spent the largest part of 2012 frustrated with my lack of umption to get on and DO something, and preferably something that will pay the nursery fees, I am determined that within the first month of this New Year I will DO SOMETHING.

And it will involve craft, making, mending, fashioning, slap dashing, creating.

And I will sell my wares, my services or my knowledge.

And I will be happy.

There.

Happy New Year to you all and may it bring new and fulfilling opportunities x

What I have learnt about Christmas - The 2012 edition

Two days left and I will have completed my 365 project (ok, technically 366).

What I have learnt about Christmas - The 2012 edition:

• Adding a dash of homemade trimmings to a present generates a satisfying amount of oohs and ahhhs on Christmas day.
• You can have too many lights but too few just looks lame. *adds lights to the sale shopping list.
• An 8 year old likes to think they they are too cool for toys, but they love them and will happily play with a toy garage bought for the three year old.
• Boxing Day at Burghley for a brisk stroll is a Stamford tradition (especially if you take a flask of coffee laced with Baileys.) *cough
• It is never too cold to walk on a beach.
• Window shopping is not just for grown ups and you are never to young to appreciate quality cookware.
• It is possible to buy three pairs of shoes for three children in the sales without tears or too much damage to the bank account.

I'll be back again next week with the start of my new 365 project!

I'm joining in with my fellow 365'ers who never let life get in the way of a good photo over at The Boy and Me.

My photos are in my album on the 365project site. I'd be so happy if you went to take a look.

Silent Sunday

365project Week 51

With one week remaining I have been looking back over my project and have identified some highs and lows. I would say they are about equal in quantity and each can be counted on my fingers. So I consider that a success. The remaining 345 photos are ok.

But that proportion is probably pretty good. I know professional photographers take hundreds, thousands of photos to find that really good shot so I'm happy with my tally.

I'm planning a round up of the year before I embark on my next foray into a photographic marathon. I'm not sure yet what it will be. Another 365? Something with more of a theme? Either way, expect a year of photos condensed into a monster collage ;-)

I'd love to know whether you are going to start a project, or carry on. Do let me know and where you are going to publish it so I can watch out for it.

In the meantime, here is week 51. For the record, my highlight this week was the bottle top and my low was the Christmas lights on my bookcase.

I'm joining in with my fellow 365'ers who never let life get in the way of a good photo over at The Boy and Me.

My photos are in my album on the 365project site. I'd be so happy if you went to take a look.

Silent Sunday

Saturday is Caption Day

So when you come face to face with a rocking horse your first reaction is to...

...obviously.

Caption that!

And then don't forget to visit Mammasaurus for more photos begging for your captioning skills.

365project Week 50

This was the week when we were (almost) late for school.
And it wasn't because the children were dawdling, it was because Mummy wanted to take just one more picture of a frosty gate, or leaf, or glove, or wall, or grass.

Mummy!!! Come on!!!!

Sorry. Just coming.

Now if I had a pair of gloves with a touch screen finger tip then that would save a bit of time ;-)

I loved watching the wee one eat his spaghetti. Who needs cutlery?
I drew, I sewed, I ticked off another present from the Christmas list.
I crunched across the frosty lawn to capture this cobweb.
I papped a front door. Because if I had a tiled path, a twinkly lit up hedge and a wreath, I would want is show off too.
I managed to find one of the few remaining frost covered fence posts at school. All the kids had been rubbing the frost off the rest.
Uncle Martin came to visit and deliver cuddles.
A Christmas lunch out and Jenga blocks will always end in a tower competition.

Only 2 weeks left until I have completed my project.
Should I do another year though? That is the question.
Are you carrying on? Or have I inspired you to start your own project?


I'm joining in with my fellow 365'ers who never let life get in the way of a good photo over at The Boy and Me.


My photos are in my album on the 365project site. I'd be so happy if you went to take a look.

Silent Sunday

Saturday is Caption Day

I can go weeks without the children doing anything worthy of a #satcap and yet this week I was spoilt for choice. Thank you Grandma for visiting and giving the Wee One and great excuse to show off in the middle of town, thus providing this photo for your captioning delight!

#nomnomnom

Would you like a caption with your ice cream sir?
Yes please!

Our host with the most is mammasaurus so be polite and pop over.

Tis the season to be thrifty...

Tra la la la laaaa
La la la laaa.

Sing along now!

What thrifiness can I impart on you today in the run up to what will be a thrifty Christmas and a nifty thrifty New Year?

First of all I want to share two awesome finds in my new favourite shop Wilkinsons. I went to a different store than I normally go to and found some amazing stuff to help get Christmas swinging and thought you may want to see my finds so that you can hop along there before I buy all their stock!

This heart door hanging (can't call it a wreath really, on the basis that it isn't a wreath) was only three Great British Pounds! How incredibly good value is that?

I am now torn between hanging it on my front door for the next 30 days or install it as a permanent feature in my living room.

And this cute pack of magnets which should be adorning every single fridge in the land was only £1.2(something). I've lost the receipt and there isn't a price on it but the website says £1.50 so I think mine was discounted! (Double Yeah!)

Not only was I wowed by the Christmas and gift ranges but I have a further dilemma and need to decide between these two wallpapers for a feature wall on our stairs.

I am a great believer in good value and I have to applaud Wilkinsons for 1) managing to delight it's customer this week (me) and 2) for coming up with fresh and desirable products in what was a fresh and clean store.

I am only writing this post because I was so impressed and have not been paid or received any products to review.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

Well not quite. You see it isn't Christmas until it snows (according to those wiser than myself and of younger years) and so far this year we have avoided the white stuff.

Two Christmases ago, we woke up to a good old dump of snow, and as is traditional in our house, we set off for a quick walk with the dog between a late breakfast, and round two of present opening. We donned our wellies, new Christmas hats and gloves and carved a path through the snow drift at the end of the drive. (Of course that is an exaggeration but we always exaggerate about snow in Britain.)

As we turned the corner at the top of our road, we came across an ice castle. Nothing so humble as an igloo. An actual, 7ft and still rising, ice castle.

The architect and builder had even fashioned ice windows.

I was supremely jealous of his snow skills right up to the point when my toes went numb and the lure of a log fire and mulled wine drew me back home.

I can't wait to see if it snows again this Christmas and to see if our snow architect has submitted plans for his ice castle again this year.

I'll keep you posted.


Joining in with The Gallery and the theme of Christmas at Sticky Fingers.

365project Week 49

Morning.


What I love most about winter is that the sun rises late which has two advantages. The first is that the children don't get up at ridiculous-oclock with the sun rising. And the second is that I don't have to get up at ridiculous-oclock to see the sunrise and snap it.

Two mornings this week I have been in a position with my camera to catch it's early rays glinting off my frost dusted car and through my (on close inspection not so clean) windows.

The sun sets early too. So on an afternoon walk you can catch it's warmth shining from behind a grazing pony.

And because it hangs low in the sky, not quite summoning the energy to rise any higher (I know how it feels) it shines straight through the bathroom blinds into your eyes.

Should it not shine, you can always retreat: Into a coffee shop for a a well deserved break; Into the kitchen to make red onion marmalade; Or for a play with some Playmobil.

May the sun shine on your week x


I'm joining in with my fellow 365'ers who never let life get in the way of a good photo over at The Boy and Me.


My photos are in my album on the 365project site. I'd be so happy if you went to take a look.

*Sigh* That's better

GreyBeGone

Once upon a time, I found a grey hair. It would defy gravity and stick up and wave at me in the mirror, brutally resistant to hairspray, gel or superglue to keep it in check. This stubbornness was a new concept considering every other hair on my head was fine and skull clinging despite all my attempts to create that elusive 'volume'. Why was it that I would spend hours on trying to create a little height, a little air space between my brown fine hair and my scalp and yet I would also spend hours trying to reduce the air space of this one solitary grey hair?

Actually, not grey. White. brilliant white. Of course it is white, given that every other hair on my head is dark brown.

Oh, I look back on those hours of tending to that one white hair fondly. I long for that one white hair. Actually it's still there but now indistinguishable from all the other white hairs.

There comes a time when instead of trying to straighten each hair, tease it into submission or just pluck it out (we've all done it so don't give me that look), I just reach for the bottle. No not that bottle, the other bottle. The one marked permanent, with promises of soft tumbling curls and flicking silkiness just because you change it's colour.

Except those stubborn gravity defying hairs, are still stubborn and gravity defying. Just a slightly different shade of annoying.

Joining in with The Gallery and the theme of Colour at Sticky Fingers.

365project Week 48

I am not the person I was four or five years ago. I do not have the disposable income I had four or five years ago. I have discovered a love of crafting and upcycling. My Christmas shopping list this year hasn't been compiled from the great gift guides of our favourite retailers.I am on a thrifty mission. A mission to craft my way through Christmas. Yes, I will save some money but I will give what can't be measured. My time and love and thought.

And a lot of time and love and thought has gone into my week.

My Bagpuss mouse, unearthed at the school Christmas Fair, sings "We will find it. We will bind it. We will stick it with glue, glue, glue." This is my new mantra.
My paperback Christmas trees sold out at the fair.
Sometimes the greatest pleasure is free: watching the wee one squeal as he runs.
A cup of tea. Cheap as chips and oh so perfect.
Handcrafted (squished and squashed) salt dough Christmas decorations in production.
A fast paced walk to school burns as many calories as a custard cream biscuit (probably). Who needs a gym membership?
Crocheted snowflakes experiment turns out better than hoped.

I'm not a Bah Humbug kind of person, but the exuberance of Christmas is definitely looking a bit tacky this year.

Hope your Christmas preparations are coming on nicely x

I'm joining in with my fellow 365'ers who never let life get in the way of a good photo over at The Boy and Me.


My photos are in my album on the 365project site. I'd be so happy if you went to take a look.

'Ello 'Ello