White and Wintery

Whilst making a comment on this blog I thought - that's a good idea for a post.

Instead of a dreary start to the new year, which January tends to be, I decided to liven it up a little with a white and wintery decorative theme. It started with these plates which were a birthday gift (bargain price from TK*) from DD. They will now be my January plates and will lead me from the excesses of the festive season to the simplicities of the new year.

Flowers this week are poinsettia amaryllis (Silly me put poinsettia. I have been duly chastised and will endeavour not to make mistakes again! At least I now know people read all the way through my posts!), which is now in full bloom ...

and my other poinsettia (Whoops!) amaryllis, which is whitish.

I tend to have a green and white theme anyway in quite a few areas of the house.

So, white and wintery but with a hint of colour to come.

xx

52 list Week 1

I'm joining in with Dreamer's 52 list and already have about 26 small tasks that I'd like to do/finish. I'm choosing tasks that I've been avoiding. My list is written in my organiser and I hope this will give me a kick up the backside and spur me on. We'll see. First cross off my list is:

1. Do the brass on the front door. You've left it long enough and it looks a right mess. Grandma would not be pleased. From now on please polish the brass every Sunday and don't lapse!

These old rags were thrown away and replaced with
clean ones.

Oh my - what neglect!

Now that's much better!

I know it's week 2 but I'm hoping to catch up!

Today ...

... is the first day this year of wearing my flip flops.

A quick walk down the road - no cold toes - so looks like the flip flop season is now upon us. Thank goodness, I hate socks.

xx

PS A very warm welcome to my new follower.

Guided Tour ...

... (as requested by Jo), of the personal organiser. My goodness, there are a host of people out there who rave over these organisers and even put videos on Youtube to show you how they use theirs! (I have not done a video and this is only an overview of what I've got and how I've used it so far.)

Being a 'saver of the earth' my organiser is new to me and came from the CS. It's a microfile wallet with filofax inserts.

Hey, hey, handy zipped wallet.

Hey, hey again - handy calculator. I don't know what I'll keep in the little pockets. Advice welcome.

First off are pages of months so I have used these to note down birthdays.

Following these are diary pages. If you look closely the year starts with 19__,  and there are no dates so I've had to go through and write them in. I've shown you the pages I've labelled correctly!

There are some timetable pages and I've used these to put in dates for dancing, jollies and gym.

There's a section for notes ...

and some handy little post-it notes.

The next sections are different ruled papers - white lined,

squared,

pink lined

and blue lined. On these lined papers I have notes about freezer contents, the money I've spent, the Christmas card list and cards I have to make.

I don't think I'll put addresses in as I have these elsewhere.

I like this Action section and I can have the joy of crossing out tasks achieved (if I achieve any).

At the end of the organiser is another book of notes which I may use for shopping lists.

There's my tour. Hope I've not bored you to tears and if anybody out there has other uses for the pages please share. My NYR is to keep organised and I want this to help not hinder me.

xx

Edit : After watching a few Ytube videos I've now personalised my organiser and brightened it up a bit with colour coded felt tips - e.g. green dots for no spend days, purple for birthdays. I've made some month at a glance inserts and added some colourful address cards. I've also made better dividers so I can find each section easily and I've crocheted a dangly page marker in sparkly wool.

Oh dear!

xx

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to me,

Happy Birthday to me,

Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday,

Happy Birthday to me!
:)

xx

The time has come

The trimmings are down, slowly, slowly, bit by bit and the last to be put away is the tree. First of all the baubles and tinsel are taken off and finally the lights. Once the tree is completely bare (and thanked for being so wonderful over Christmas) and back to a tree again, it is then recycled into the council compost bin.

The branches are trimmed and the needles hoovered up. Back to simplicity now.

xx

PS I did find some bargain garlands and baubles at the CS and JS so they've been put away for next year.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year and a very warm welcome to my new followers.

Much preparation went into the fancy dress costume for DH. My old slob around dress was cut up,

the Christmas decorations raided,

the CS scoured and the Christmas felt around the tree trimmed.

Bits of material and crepe paper were cut up, sewed, pinned, tucked and battered into submission ...

to produce this ...

and finally - oh no, not yet!

*

*

*

*

*

I had to decide between a New York showgirl, (Hmm, not quite got long enough legs!)

or  Nineteen twenties' flapper type lady. (The beaded dress came from the JS.)

So, decisions made we welcomed in the new year. I hope it will be better than last year.

DH's emu really enjoyed himself!

Pusscat was very struck with the feather and kept having
a quick swipe.

Sparkly, sparkly!

Here's the original emu. Do you remember him?

xx