Smashbooking and Decluttering!

Next month I have a 'big' birthday coming up, although of course I am still only really 36 years old!  At least that is my story and I am sticking to it.  I am away for my birthday visiting my parents in New Zealand so my friend thought she would surprise me with an early birthday present which arrived today.

A scrap/smash booking journal.

She knows just what I like and picked the 'botanical' theme.  

Love this - on so many different levels.  Of course 'Come Fly With Me'  written for Frank Sinatra is pretty well known and I have played it many times with various bands I have played in. 

Books and a cup of tea - the perfect combination!

Butterflies - I love butterflies and we have a couple on our house.

Beautiful pages with flowers and designs.

I am going to have fun with this journal.

It has been years since I have done any scrapbooking, and this is a slightly different, looser approach and might give me the inspiration I need to get creative again.

Decluttering:  

I am taking part in a 'Minimalism Game' for the month of February with some friends.  

The aim is to help them finish their decluttering projects and for me to start, getting rid of at least one item on the 1st, two on the 2nd, three on the 3rd and so forth.

I am finding this very difficult and quite overwhelming and never know quite where to start.  Today I had the 'bright idea' to clear under my side of the bed.  Goodness knows why as most of what is under there has no where else it can go so will need to go back again.    I promptly burst into tears at what on earth I was going to do with it all.  There was music, photo albums, books, and other 'stuff'.  I managed to pull myself back together again and made a start.

I emptied one of the plastic boxes and discovered three of the older albums that had belonged to my grandparents were unused, so they have gone in a box for the charity shop along with a plastic leaf folder and a little pencil & pad 'thing'.  

A load of papers went into the recycling and other stuff went straight into the rubbish.

The music has been transferred from an open top plastic box, to the one with the lid (that held the above stuff), so now it is protected.  The remaining photographs and slides fit in a smaller photo box I already had.  So that is one less big box that needs to go back under the bed.  Only small progress, but progress, so I guess it has to count for something.

Five on Friday - on Saturday!

Yes a day late to join in  with Amy's  'Five on Friday' 

I have had a pretty rough week health wise coming down with the dreaded lurgy.  Generally I never get ill, and yet this is the second time in four months!  Not good.  Anyway I think I am on the mend now so hopefully can get back to my 'plan' of things to get done before my trip home to New Zealand to visit my parents and family.

1:  Knitting

My week has been spent either in bed, or sitting in the lounge with a blanket round me while knitting and watching Netflix!  What have I been knitting?  Dolls clothes!

2:  The Garden

The little Blue Tits were very active the other morning and I caught this one while sitting in the lounge - not the best of pictures as taken through our very dirty patio window.  

The NZ Magnolia has buds on it.

3: Books

I finished another book.  I really enjoyed this.  Written in a time where children could really be children, all the bells and whistles and hoops and 'health and safety' rigmarole was not yet in force this couple offered holidays on their farmlet for young children.  They say it how it is and as such it is quite a laugh.  I understand a TV programme was produced lightly based on it.  I have never seen the TV programme and don't think I would want to as I would imagine the BBC or whoever would produce it would 'PC' it.   I picked this one up in a charity shop.  Toying with whether to get any more in the series or just lave it with having read this one.

I'm currently reading this book:

I had to venture out today to get some groceries.  Our supermarket has a second hand book rack and they ask that you donate £1 per book you choose for a local charity.  Sometimes I am able to pick up a book or two that looks interesting. I haven't seen any for a while, but I did pick up two today.

4: Snacks!

While on the Whole30 way of eating my husband has been bemoaning the fact that he has been missing crisps (potato chips) and so I made him some - the healthy way.  

Very simply done in the microwave they turned out surprisingly good.

I also made some sweet potato crisps as well.  Needless to say they soon disappeared.

5: Dinner

Finally I decided to cook something a little different tonight:

Cod with citrus-ginger glaze

Grilled Asparagus with lemon zest

Baked sweet potato

Glazed carrots & parsnips

Broccoli - to add some green!

Okay so I am not so good on the 'display' part of the meal, but it tasted pretty good.

It Starts with Food.

I have embarked on my 'Whole30' in the hope that it will make a difference and that I can discover if something I am eating is contributing to the inflammation in my body that is causing so much pain.

It is not a diet as such, you cut out some core food items for 30 days and then reintroduce them, one day, rest for a few days and then another.... to see if they have any detrimental effect. (A very basic summary)

I have drawn out my 'body' chart, highlighting all the areas that are problematic for me and also written out a list of 'symptoms' and will compare that at the end of the month after having cut out:

Sugar

Alcohol (not a problem for me as I don't ever drink any)

Grains

Legumes/Pulses

Dairy

Carrageenan, MSG, or added Sulphites

I won't post everything I eat on here, but thought I would post the first day...

Spinach/Chard from the garden - love how I can still pick fresh greens at this time of year!

Chopped up with some tomato and then mixed in with two beaten eggs.

Scrambled egg, spinach and tomato breakfast.

Cold chicken, salad and freshly cooked beetroot for lunch

Salmon, sweet potato, potato, brussel sprouts, beans and cauliflower for dinner.

Also had a couple of apricots and nectarines during the day.

Fresh clean sheets on the bed.

Percy basking in the sunshine yesterday which was quite a contrast to New Year's Day when it absolutely poured down with rain.

Summing up October.

Well it has been a month since I last posted!  Where does the time go?  We had a lovely week on the Isle of Wight with our older son and his fiancee at the beginning of October.  They then left to spend three weeks in her home, Nepal. Our son comes home briefly for a couple of days in a couple of weeks before joining his next ship.

We couldn't have hoped for better weather for our week away - it was a first for us to have good weather on holiday on this country - the last time we had nice weather on holiday in the UK was 2000!  Just a few of the photos I took while there.

I have been enjoying pottering in the garden, sewing and knitting the last couple of weeks which has been nice.

The garden is of course in constant need of attention at the moment, raking up leaves, and bringing in the apple harvest.  One of our trees produced especially well this year.  Bug free, very tasty apples.  I picked them all a couple of days ago.  I will cool store some and probably lightly stew the rest and maybe juice a few and freeze into cubes for smoothies.  Some of the roses are still producing some beautiful blooms.

To my delight we got a flock of Gold Finch visit the garden the other day.  First time we have had more than the odd lone bird.  This is just a few of them.  I would guess we had about 10 - 15 birds..  I hope they come back again!

Our Maple is changing colour.

What a difference a couple of days makes!

While raking the leaves I saw this fellow

When we got back from the Isle of Wight this flower had made an appearance in my salad vegetable box!

My pain levels have been pretty bad, but they are the same regardless of what I do, so trying to just get on with things.  Not always easy and some days I let it get the better of me, and other days I can just get on with things.  

I had a big change round of our lounge today as our settee just isn't giving me the support I need anymore - we either need to get it re-sprung and re-upholstered, or say goodbye to it, which we are actually reluctant to do as we can sit in it nicely whereas a lot of the new ones we see today you can't sit in them properly - the seat part is too long, backs are often not high enough, or feet don't touch the ground.

Rather an eclectic mix of things!

The guinea pigs have also had some long needed attention the other week, baths, nails clipped and I am slowly working on clearing out their shed which has become somewhat of a dumping ground. Still work to do, but trying to pace myself and work in stages.  

I have also been working on clearing and sorting cupboards in the kitchen.  The first corner cupboard was done yesterday.

I found some more Tupperware containers in the local charity shop for 49p each, and they match some of my others so they came home with me.  The next cupboard will be the 'baking' cupboard, so I can fill these containers. 

Our spa pool has stopped working - the pump seems to have malfunctioned which is a bit of disaster for me as I was using it pretty much everyday before we went away.  Not sure what we are going to do yet...it is out of warranty because it took so long to set up!  

The clocks changed back yesterday ... I am not a fan of winter, cold dark mornings and afternoons...but am going to 'ignore' the change in time for a while and continue as before, I wake up at silly o'clock anyway when it is pitch black which is hard, but once awake, the pain kicks in so I have to get up.

Well need to get on with dinner now, so over and out until next time!