Back to health

Over Christmas I've changed my eating, and drinking, and sleeping and moving habits quite a lot. Some (no surprises) have increased, others have decreased.


(if one celebration is a bite of a regular bar basic maths suggests I have eaten 7mars bars, 4snickers, at least 12 milky ways and a huge, cinema sized bar of galaxy)

Tuesday I didn't leave the house at all, not even to put rubbish out or feed the birds. It's been lovely, and cosy, and relaxing; the kind of space rarely found in my busily modern do-it-all life. Now the freaky dreams have started (waiting two hours whilst my old music teacher loads an elf train onto the school bus and I can't ring for a lift home because the school's 'beautiful people' have my phone charger?!) a clear sign its time for fruit, water (that hasn't been turned into wine) and to actually leave the house and do exercise (I know, its a day early to be talking about this).

I'm not planning 'resolutions'. Many many years ago my resolution was not to make resolutions any more, and its the only one I've ever kept. The creative dreaming is a wake up call that its time to get back to normal. Like the lovely March sisters I need structure, I revel in it. I love to plan and organise, in fact it does me good to practice going with the flow for a while. But "you gotta have a plan" so this morning I got up, had a healthy breakfast, did some house work and am now being productive (yes, blogging counts). Hopefully it'll be enough to make the dreams stop.

Bandwaggony post about 2010/2011 to come, in which I break down the five year plan (garden, not world domination, worry not). Bet you're wondering already, there'll be pictures!

Quiet day in

Today is grey. There has been drizzle and no sunshine, the ground looks soggy and sorry for itself and inside seems much nicer. There were parts of my part of the world being freezing cold that I didn't like, but at least it was pretty...



So I have had a relaxing, cosy inside day so far. A late get up, bimbling with pressies, reading the internet, wobbling on the Wii board trying to learn yoga




(i have a routine!)

And then some scribbling and sketching




We haven't been to the shops, and I agree with Rach (over at www.placidly.com) that time spent enjoying company with friends and family is much better value.

Tomorrow we're going to see the voyage of the dawntreader. My inner child is excited already! Gratitude is due to the BBC for showing the first two films round Christmas (lion, witch&wardrobe and prince caspian). So now they are all fresh in my mind and seeing them got me excited in anticipation.

Christmas prep

We've been working hard to get the house ready for Christmas. This morning I've prepared the dining room...

Does it look ready for6 people and3 border collies? Notice I've left as much room as I can between the table and chairs since excited dogs need space!

Also, here is tree number 2...


This afternoon I'm planning to tidy the rest of the place, make up the spare 'oom and then carve out some time to think about God, what with him being the reason Christmas happens. After that narnia is on the tv and all together today's turning into a lovely Christmas eve.

Ps. Yes, those decorations are *real* branches and ivy from the garden. They had snow on them and snow is *very* cold when it drops on you out of a tree, fills your hair and goes down the back of your neck! (wash my hands and face in snow! Snow snow snow!)

Tis the season

Mince pies for breakfast!

Christmas!

I finally got the decorate, and its so sparkly!




Now just the rest if the house to tidy

Christmas!

I've *finally* decorated, and its so sparkly!






now just the rest of the house to tidy!

Cold and snow and ICE

I don't like to whinge about 6inches of snow and a touch of shiver because in a lot of the world that's *nothing*. Round here its starting to become the norm as well, and I actually like snow. I love the delightful crunch of stepping into it, and being the first person to walk in it makes me laugh inside. It's my own personal moonwalk.
Right now though I am not happy about the 8inch high sheet of ice on the *inside* of my bedroom window, or that the bath water wouldn't drain until I poured extra hot down because the pipes were freezing up.
I'm going to make porridge and tea. Warmth!

cold and snow and ICE!

Kitchen!

There are worksurfaces, there are cupboards, there are doors, on the cupboards...

there are still little bits of things to finish off, but since I've got things in the cupboards and I cooked a whole meal in there this evening to my mind it.is.done!

I will organise some before and after pics for you all to have a look at, hopefully in the next few days.

Next it will be the living room, which we've just emptied so the plasterer can work in there tomorrow.

In other news, work keeps getting in the way of my quest to acquire christmas spirit. I'm working on a solution. As a collegue said recently, it's too late to marry a rich man. Thankfully I married one who is rich is every essential area so loadsa money is an extra that we dont miss.

time for snuggly warm bed, in my new slippers that were my bonus bran tub work christmas buffet gift. No pics, but my toes are toasty atm :)

Shiver!

Andy and I have been away since yesterday, staying at my aunt and uncle's house. In a burst of eco-consiousness I turned the heating onto standby, so it would only kick in if the pipes were going to freeze. I set it so it would come back on properly at about 10am today to make the house warm for when we got back. Or so I thought I did.





It turns out that I haven't quite mastered the timer system on the (fairly) new boiler yet and the heating didnt come on before we came back. The radiators had just been on though when we arrived home, because the temperature *inside* our house had fallen to less than 10 degrees.





After three hours of full blast heating the general temperature is up to 16 degrees...I've lit lots of candles, so at least it *looks* warm!





We were visiting my aunt and uncle to catch up with them, which we try to do at least every couple of months. They had also offered to do us a photoshoot, as they are photographers (amongst many talents and business ventures). They have a lovely warm house, including a studio at the back of the living room and we spent an enjoyable few hours pretending to be models.





Strike a pose, it's the beautiful people!

and would you like to see my wedding dress?

We had a really lovely time, were made to feel relaxed and helped to enjoy ourselves as neither of us are keen about having our pictures taken generally. There are loads of beautiful pictures that look amazingly pretty and capture little glimpses of our personalities. I know that Trish and Bill are happy to do informal photoshoots during evenings and weekends, so if any of you are interested let me know and I can put you in touch to talk to them about details and charges.

Trish and Bill are going to come for christmas at our house as well now. So it will be the two of us, my parents, their dog, Trish and Bill and their two dogs. Six people, three dogs, half renovated house.

I'm actually quite excited about it. I may be crazy but a whole house full of family, hectic movement, warm lovely food and fairy lights seems a great idea to me.

Now I need to go and work with Andy to make it happen!