Christmas presents

While I am awaiting the delivery of our shopping, I thought I would catch up on the gifts I made for Christmas...



For the daughters of one of our MD's who I get on really well with I made bath bombs. They are a lot of fun to make, if not a little like doing a science lesson at school!



For the ladies at work the first part of their present: a candle.




The second part: Peppermint sugar scrub. I HEART this!



Then using my super fab second hand Craft Robo, I made these great boxes using a free template over at UKScrappers. I had so much fun making all these. There's just something about homemade gifts!

Getting Organised

I think it was purely coincidental. I still don't quite know how I managed to stumble upon a few sites which have just given me a new outlook on this year. I was convinced long ago that 2011 was going to be a write off, but during my usual blog reading I came across a few blogs which have given me renewed hope that I can turn things around; my husband suffers with depression (and the fact it's his dad's funeral tomorrow is taking its toll). On his bad days even getting him out of bed and dressed is a huge undertaking in itself. I need to get him motivated, I need to change our routine, the way we go from day to day. I need to change our lifestyles to better suit us. I need a change, and I need a better life for us both than how we've been trying to cope with how things are.

My "household folder" above, is still a work in progress, but for a while I've been on the right track. I was nearly there. Now that makes me feel proud that I did that all by myself *pats self on back* but if you want to join me on this journey, I would check out this Organized Home: Printable sheets for your Household Notebook. I can clearly see I need to add a few more tabs to my own folder LOL.

And as I have some time to spare I shall list some of these amazing Links I have found:

http://unclutterer.com/
          One of the first links I stumbled upon, and has given me the urge to sort through everything. I cannot get into our attic for all the junk that's in there and I have been saying for the last couple of years that we need to do a carboot sale. This site has given me that motivation to get to it. So far I have been tackling things a little at a time.  The "unclutter your life in one week" video series by tasra Mar is worth the watch: I have finally figured a system to organising my small and overflowing food cupboard by watching this (a future blog post once I finally get it done!)

http://life.yourway.net/
          Just. Wow. This site is a HUGE inspiration, with things in life from Finances, Organising, Food, Productivity, and even blogging (I have gone through this category already! LOL) this site covers all the aspects in life that you could really use the hints and tips for. I have literally sat and spent HOURS pouring over the content and just feeling so much more positive on things.

http://www.bemorewithless.com/
         Though I'm not going for a completely minimalist approach, the "Living in the land of enough" posts were very interesting reading, and made me think. I especially love the idea of "Project 333" too. I have far too many items of clothing, and I can easily say there's a lot of it that I've not worn in a long time too. This is something I'd like to do, especially as space in our 1 bedroom council flat is very limited.

So that's all for now, I will catch up with you all soon.

Life doesn't go to plan

I know what you're all thinking: "I know you. I think I know you. Didn't you say you'd blog more...?" If you're reading this in a rss feed reader and I've just popped up...

I'm sorry.

I have already decided I'm having a New Year do over. Come 1st February I am starting 2011 over again, as both myself and my very strong, trying his best to keep it all together husband, have just had a bad start to the year.

His father passed away on the 10th of January. We were thankful we got to go to Cardiff on Christmas Day and spend his last Christmas with him. We still have his Christmas card to us sat on the fire place as he wrote in it (something that was hard for him to do) We were thankful we got to Cardiff on the Saturday 8th and saw him while he was awake. We left the hospital and carried on with Gareth's youngest brother (just 16), and got home late that night. I was tired and headed to bed. We had a phone call to head for the hospital after midnight, so gareth had to get me up out of bed, so there I was in the car, half asleep and in my PJs. We were back and forth from his mother's home to the hospital, before heading back home Sunday night as I had work Monday morning and not a whole lot of sleep over the weekend. We got a call at around 1.45am Monday morning to say he had gone. It was then manic as I had to call work and book emergency holiday for that week, cancel dentist for Gareth, he had to ring his own work... and this is why I have been missing in action.

of course because of all the snow and the Christmas shut down there is a back log of people to bury (that sounds so harsh) and so we've not had the funeral yet. Then there are the numerous other things that need to be sorted out and problems we have encountered.

Generally 2011 is not our year.

I do have some blog post ideas lined up. We shall be back to Cardiff for a few days for the funeral, so please bear with me. We plan to be back on track as soon as possible, but even so we've learned that things do not go to plan!

New Year

We've been without internet for about a week, it's been insane. Turns out it was the modem, but just mere hours ago our provider finally came out and sorted the problem out and we're back online.  This was the scene at my parents house on New year's day. Happens once a year, and as we never really spend Xmas together we have our Christmas dinner on New Year's day.

I've not had the best of breaks either. I got NOTHING that I wanted to get done, I've been very sick and averaging just a few hours sleep a night. I'm now on sleeping tablets, I'm on cold & flu capsules, strepsils and cough syrup. I was meaning to get the Christmas Decorations down today but I'm lacking the energy and I'm too tired to want to do it. Best of all, it's back to work tomorrow.

2011 is not going to be my year, that is clear.

I'm rooting for 2o12 myself, so please forgive my lack of enthusiasm for the New Year.  I got the book "Baking Magic" from gareth for christmas and I have the urge to bake up some goodness, and there are still lots of festive food around that needs to be eaten up, so to cure my New Year, "I've got to go back to work after a week off" blues, I will start my goals come end of January.