No 13 – Try new Local Restaurants. Last night I was wined and dined by my lovely DH. We went to The Blue Bicycle (www.thebluebicycle.com) which has a good reputation. It was a lovely evening, and my main course was fantastic – sea bream with brown shrimps and watermelon. I have never heard of having water melon cooked before but it was gorgeous.
No 19 Postcrossing. Got my second Postcrossing card yesterday from Italy so going to send another one this weekend.
As work today :( but should be able to get lots done as only me in and the phones are quiet. Plus it is a bit of overtime which will go into the pot.
Hope everyone enjoys their weekend xx
Saturday, 27 June 2009
Wednesday, 24 June 2009
Update
Sorry haven’t posted for a while so just thought I’d give a quick update.
Have managed to keep up with no 10 “Be more girly”. My nails are looking good after a bit of looking after and have worn jewellery to match my outfits to work every day since last week – I have felt nice making a bit of effort.
Am trying to not buy bread this month but it hasn’t worked. However did make some bread for a guy at work – sun dried tomatoes and herbs – in return he gave me some of the veggies from the box he gets delivered. Also baked a loaf for me and 2 colleagues to have for breakfast this morning and got nice comments from them :) . Am going to keep making it when I can and have a go at some other recipes.
Finally got rid of the old sofa plus a couple of old push bikes we had. Choose the vanity unit for the bathroom today and have been looking at all the different types of taps and plugs – very exciting bedtime reading – I never knew there was so much choice. Will let the guy who is fitting it know we are good to go.
The NSD are not going as well as I had hoped but I have cut back. Yesterday all I spent was money on aerobics which I go to each week and today at work we had a cake stall to raise money for Cancer Research which I don’t really count as spending as the money is for charity – plus the sponge cake was yummm.
I am so excited with my veggies in the garden. I swear I can see some of them growing! We now have potatoes, lettuce, courgettes, radishes, tomatoes and carrots coming through. Have decided what to do with the area which I was going to use for veggies until DH pointed out it doesn’t get much sun! I would like to have a bbq. We have some old paving stones that I think will fit and have seen a reasonably priced bbq. Our next door neighbours invited us round on Sunday for one and I enjoyed just sitting outside, chatting, making the most of the weather.
Things are going well at work and am still writing a list of weekly/daily jobs to be done. As this has worked well I’m going to transfer this to home life as I think it will help me to keep onto of things.
Love reading all your blogs, seeing how you are all getting on – keep up the good work! xx
Have managed to keep up with no 10 “Be more girly”. My nails are looking good after a bit of looking after and have worn jewellery to match my outfits to work every day since last week – I have felt nice making a bit of effort.
Am trying to not buy bread this month but it hasn’t worked. However did make some bread for a guy at work – sun dried tomatoes and herbs – in return he gave me some of the veggies from the box he gets delivered. Also baked a loaf for me and 2 colleagues to have for breakfast this morning and got nice comments from them :) . Am going to keep making it when I can and have a go at some other recipes.
Finally got rid of the old sofa plus a couple of old push bikes we had. Choose the vanity unit for the bathroom today and have been looking at all the different types of taps and plugs – very exciting bedtime reading – I never knew there was so much choice. Will let the guy who is fitting it know we are good to go.
The NSD are not going as well as I had hoped but I have cut back. Yesterday all I spent was money on aerobics which I go to each week and today at work we had a cake stall to raise money for Cancer Research which I don’t really count as spending as the money is for charity – plus the sponge cake was yummm.
I am so excited with my veggies in the garden. I swear I can see some of them growing! We now have potatoes, lettuce, courgettes, radishes, tomatoes and carrots coming through. Have decided what to do with the area which I was going to use for veggies until DH pointed out it doesn’t get much sun! I would like to have a bbq. We have some old paving stones that I think will fit and have seen a reasonably priced bbq. Our next door neighbours invited us round on Sunday for one and I enjoyed just sitting outside, chatting, making the most of the weather.
Things are going well at work and am still writing a list of weekly/daily jobs to be done. As this has worked well I’m going to transfer this to home life as I think it will help me to keep onto of things.
Love reading all your blogs, seeing how you are all getting on – keep up the good work! xx
Friday, 12 June 2009
Bit of bad news
Bad news is both companies where I and DH work are making redundancies. Where I work we were all told on Monday of the cut back’s and saving the business has to make, and obviously there will be job losses along the way. I’m not a worrier by nature – DH does enough of that for both of us – and tend to think what will be will be but it is a shame as I do really enjoy my job, it’s defiantly the best job I’ve had, and work with a great bunch of people. But if it does happen to the both of us I hope its not at the same time, that would be hard.
Have got so much I want to do this weekend and hopefully the weather is looking good (hope I’ve not spoken too soon!) Gardening – need to cut the back lawn, well I say lawn more a patch of weeds. Also have some more seed I’d like to plant. After sorting out all our paperwork I found a chart which shows when veggies should be planted, picked etc. I’ve put on the inside of a kitchen cupboard door and I’m going to try and follow it. Also a bit of shopping but not sure if I want to brave town on a Saturday, plus all the normal chores.
Have got so much I want to do this weekend and hopefully the weather is looking good (hope I’ve not spoken too soon!) Gardening – need to cut the back lawn, well I say lawn more a patch of weeds. Also have some more seed I’d like to plant. After sorting out all our paperwork I found a chart which shows when veggies should be planted, picked etc. I’ve put on the inside of a kitchen cupboard door and I’m going to try and follow it. Also a bit of shopping but not sure if I want to brave town on a Saturday, plus all the normal chores.
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
June Targets
Made a start on paperwork today. Put all statement from last year in a box ready to put in order and then to store. I labelled up the file’s and put everything in the correct one. So much has gone out ready to be shredded. My aim is to keep on top of this by filing and dealing with everything regularly. I never know how long to keep things for. I got rid of old gas etc bills but have kept payslips and bank statements.
Had one NSD yesterday, should have had to buy myself lunch but my colleague treated me, which was nice of her.
Have been using my bread maker over the weekend. It so nice to have the smell of baking bread wafting through the house. I want to practice with different recipes so going to the health store this week to get some difference flour and seeds.
One step closer to getting a new bathroom fitted. One of the men from work came last night and gave us a very reasonable quote, and came up with some good ideas. He also said that he could to most of the work in one day and as he’s quote was good hopefully we can look to replace the shower as well. Once we get the bath suite fitted I’d like to look at having it re-tiled too, just depends on the pennies!
Had one NSD yesterday, should have had to buy myself lunch but my colleague treated me, which was nice of her.
Have been using my bread maker over the weekend. It so nice to have the smell of baking bread wafting through the house. I want to practice with different recipes so going to the health store this week to get some difference flour and seeds.
One step closer to getting a new bathroom fitted. One of the men from work came last night and gave us a very reasonable quote, and came up with some good ideas. He also said that he could to most of the work in one day and as he’s quote was good hopefully we can look to replace the shower as well. Once we get the bath suite fitted I’d like to look at having it re-tiled too, just depends on the pennies!
Sunday, 7 June 2009
Recycling and Reusing
I was laid in bed this morning thinking of the list – god I’m obsessed! And my thoughts turned to Recycling and Reusing. We have a kerbside collection which every fortnight picks up glass, paper, tins, cardboard, plastic bottles and garden waste. I’ve started to take foil to a recycling bin at the tip and we have a compost bin in the garden for kitchen and garden rubbish. We recycle these automatically now. but still seem to have a lot going to landfill. I try to reuse where I can, e.g. margarine tubes become tupperware boxes, old sheets to cleaning rags. These are things that my mum use to do and I have just followed her. A lot of our rubbish comes from food packaging. We don’t have a car and I tend to do a supermarket shop online about once a month and know a lot packaging comes from that. I need to look at how we shop. A new butchers opened in the village where we live and they only sell locally produce. I went yesterday and they are so friendly and helpful. I’m going to try to get our meat from there or our local farm shop. The next step is vegetables. I do like to use the market but Saturday’s are the only day I can go and I work some Saturday’s. A friend has sent me details on a veggie box scheme he has just started using. He love’s it, getting different things each week and trying out new recipes – sometimes not knowing what type of vegetable it is but just bunging it in and making a soup or stir-fry. I defiantly want to give it a try. Also I think it’s important to support local shops and suppliers.
I did a new recipe for dinner last night (no 12). I did tweak it a bit but it was very nice. I fried some onion, garlic and mushrooms for a few mins, put chicken breasts in (from new butchers) then added white wine and chicken stock, put lid on and cooked in the wok for around 20mins. I took the chicken out and stirred in some cream cheese and cr̬me fraiche. I served it with mashed potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli and carrots with the sauce over the top. It was very nice. We had homemade celery soup to start and I used up some old homemade bread as croutons Рyummy.
I did a new recipe for dinner last night (no 12). I did tweak it a bit but it was very nice. I fried some onion, garlic and mushrooms for a few mins, put chicken breasts in (from new butchers) then added white wine and chicken stock, put lid on and cooked in the wok for around 20mins. I took the chicken out and stirred in some cream cheese and cr̬me fraiche. I served it with mashed potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli and carrots with the sauce over the top. It was very nice. We had homemade celery soup to start and I used up some old homemade bread as croutons Рyummy.
Saturday, 6 June 2009
What a busy Week
I had a good and busy week, with something on every night. Monday our new TV arrived – it’s like having a mini cinema for us after the old one.
Tuesday saw me at aerobics – I go each week but god she worked us hard this week and it was so hot. I know women aren’t supposed to sweat but we glow well I was “glowing” buckets.
On Wednesday I went to the hairdressers. Was just going to have my normal trim as have been growing my hair for a while now and it was the longest I’ve ever had it – half way down my back. At the last minute I decided I wanted a change and had 4 inches chopped off. Initially I wanted to go shorter but I’m so glad my hairdresser didn’t let me. But I love my new “do” and feel it is more me. Of course when I came out it was all lovely, bouncy and flicky but the next day one side was stuck out and the other in ringlets!
Thursday I meet a friend for drinks and food. I don’t often drink especially on a “school night” but it was cheaper to get a bottle than two glasses of wine and of course trying to be MSE I had to get the bottleJ. It was great to catch up. She has such a fun outlook and we laughed lots. Of course we had to have another bottle with dinner but ouch my head yesterday morning! I told her about the challenge. She said that when she gave up smoking a few years ago she blogged about it and it helped her. Also she got me to “Twitter”, I don’t really get it but hey-hoe I’ll give it a go.
Yesterday I was already to come home for a night in but DH met me from work and treated me to dinner. We went to an Italian and it was perfect. I had brochette with red peppers, onion and goats’ cheese to start then scallop risotto, followed by tiramisu. It was all so yummy, the brochette and risotto tasted so fresh. It was also good to chat to DH. I think I’ve mentioned before that he works shifts so sometimes it can be days before we see each other.
I know we are a week into June but I’ve decided to set some targets on things I want to achieve by the end of the month. They are:
Tidy/Clear top of fridge. I’ve used it for a dumping ground for broken things, bills and just general rubbish
Loose 4lbs. I’ve got a lot of weight that I want to loose but its too big to look at all in one go so am going to break it down
Sort paperwork out. I’ve brought another file as my other was over flowing. We have stuff all over the house and I want to have it all in one place and be able to know where everything is
Sort books out. I want to sort out which one I want to keep, sell and read
Have a min 7 NSD (no spend days). For the first time I’m recording what we spend from our housekeeping account. Think I maybe shocked at where it all goes.
Hope everyone is well and keeping up the good work. I really enjoy reading all your blogs and get inspired by them.
Tuesday saw me at aerobics – I go each week but god she worked us hard this week and it was so hot. I know women aren’t supposed to sweat but we glow well I was “glowing” buckets.
On Wednesday I went to the hairdressers. Was just going to have my normal trim as have been growing my hair for a while now and it was the longest I’ve ever had it – half way down my back. At the last minute I decided I wanted a change and had 4 inches chopped off. Initially I wanted to go shorter but I’m so glad my hairdresser didn’t let me. But I love my new “do” and feel it is more me. Of course when I came out it was all lovely, bouncy and flicky but the next day one side was stuck out and the other in ringlets!
Thursday I meet a friend for drinks and food. I don’t often drink especially on a “school night” but it was cheaper to get a bottle than two glasses of wine and of course trying to be MSE I had to get the bottleJ. It was great to catch up. She has such a fun outlook and we laughed lots. Of course we had to have another bottle with dinner but ouch my head yesterday morning! I told her about the challenge. She said that when she gave up smoking a few years ago she blogged about it and it helped her. Also she got me to “Twitter”, I don’t really get it but hey-hoe I’ll give it a go.
Yesterday I was already to come home for a night in but DH met me from work and treated me to dinner. We went to an Italian and it was perfect. I had brochette with red peppers, onion and goats’ cheese to start then scallop risotto, followed by tiramisu. It was all so yummy, the brochette and risotto tasted so fresh. It was also good to chat to DH. I think I’ve mentioned before that he works shifts so sometimes it can be days before we see each other.
I know we are a week into June but I’ve decided to set some targets on things I want to achieve by the end of the month. They are:
Tidy/Clear top of fridge. I’ve used it for a dumping ground for broken things, bills and just general rubbish
Loose 4lbs. I’ve got a lot of weight that I want to loose but its too big to look at all in one go so am going to break it down
Sort paperwork out. I’ve brought another file as my other was over flowing. We have stuff all over the house and I want to have it all in one place and be able to know where everything is
Sort books out. I want to sort out which one I want to keep, sell and read
Have a min 7 NSD (no spend days). For the first time I’m recording what we spend from our housekeeping account. Think I maybe shocked at where it all goes.
Hope everyone is well and keeping up the good work. I really enjoy reading all your blogs and get inspired by them.
Friday, 5 June 2009
Re-capping
I've re-jiddged my list, putting things into categories such as home, health etc. I want to then try to have mini targets and to pick a task then try to break it down into how I am going to achieve it. I am one of the best procrastinators and this list is making me focus on what needs doing. I will post my June targets over the weekend.
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