Busy, busy, busy

Well there have been another two trips. The nice man, who helps me unload my car, at the recycling centre and I are now definately on first name terms and he's even been telling me his 'bad' jokes. Trust me they're bad! LOL

This morning a friend called round to collect the home gym that the ex bought years ago, used twice and very 'kindly' left behind along with a whole other load of cr*p that I'm having to work through or maybe he thinks he can just leave his stuff here forever? I'm thinking after two years I can start insisting things leave right?


I did ask him to take the gym but he said he didn't want it and to do whatever I wanted with it. So I have. I made a half hearted attempt at selling it a while back but it was more trouble than it was worth and with my new clearing out rules firmly in my head it was time it just went.
So it is now living at my friend's house ready for when his son is home on leave so he can keep up with his training. :D


Then it was off to town to collect the two desks that I reserved online last night from Argos. Both reduced in their Spring sale and because I also bought a much needed lockable filing cabinet and my bill went over £100 I got a £10 voucher back. Result!
Before I picked them up though I quickly ran into good old Farmfoods to see what bargains were to be had. Is shopping at Farmfoods the same everywhere I wonder? You see loads of bargains but you can't buy too much as you can't park anywhere remotely close and those bags are heavy!

So a quick shop in FF's and a stop over at Lidl's and that's our meals sorted for a good wee while.

Then it was home to begin the build...



I think there must be something wrong with my technique as every single chuffing time I build a flat pack I end up with a blister on the palm of my hand. I obviously grip too tightly ;)

So wee one is now the proud owner of a new desk and is very excited to fill up all the drawers with all her art stuff and fill the pots on the wall hanging thingy I bought in Ikea yonks ago with all her pens. :) Yes I put that up too AND a mirror AND I took down an old tv stand that I think the ex had welded onto the wall as it was near impossible to get off but off it came. Hmmm actually I think that might actually explain the blister on my hand.

Tomorrow's job is to build up big one's desk who desperately needs it as she's cramming like mad for her upcoming pre-lim exams (mocks to those of you south of the border) and subsquent Highers (A Levels) and I'm sure she'd find it much better being able to work at a desk, well her back will thank her in years to come anyway LOL


Another job will be to tell you about the award I have been awarded by the lovely ME no not Me but the ME you'll get to meet if you click on the link ;)

Four years on

Well today marks four years since I started this blog and my how things have changed or not as the case may be.

How old!

So today I rolled up my sleeves and tackled the dreaded airing cupboard.

Now, of course because it's me, my airing cupboard isn't your traditional kind of cupboard with a door or where the hot water tank used to hide out.

No my airing cupboard is more of a box. A great big thing that's been built in between the wall space between the two front bedrooms. Imagine a chest freezer style wooden box full of years of sheets, towels, blankets. The lid doesn't stay open so you have to constantly hold the lid up and it's a blinking heavy.

I have tidied and sorted it several times over the years but now that I have finally been smacked around the head with the realisation that I don't have to keep everything just incase I decided it was time for a proper sort out.


So I emptied out the whole box and sorted and sorted and sorted.

Sometime later.....

I had

One big bin bag full of stuff to go to the charity shop

and

One big bag of things to be cut up and used for cleaning rags.


The box is now practically empty. There are two changes of duvet, sheets etc for all the beds in the house. One on and one off.
And two each for either gender of foster child I have staying.

I've kept the wee blankets that were handmade each for the smalls - one each.

I've also kept the two big crochet blankets my Nanna made and the big heavy duty blankets for those cold cold nights we tend to have up here.

The title of the post was for the two towels I found right at the bottom that my Mum made for me when me and the ex were setting up home many many moons ago. They will be used for the dog's next bath then disposed of.

I'm all fired up to keep going but this weekend I'm here there and everywhere running everyone around, oh and taking the smalls to see McFly.


Now where did I put those 'just incase' ear plugs?

Too much stuff

I'm on, what feels like, a constant decluttering spree.

When we moved into this house some 9 years ago we didn't have enough furniture to fill it.

9 years on and some pretty miserable times and it would seem I have surrounded us (with some help I might add) with too much stuff.

There always seems to be piles of things, everywhere.

I sort through things and make a pile, then move that pile to another place.

Then another pile materialises.

Then I take bags and bags of things to the charity shop, to the skip, to the recycling centre.

I come home...

There are piles of stuff still.

It doesn't help that the ex still has a lot of stuff here but I'm hoping he can be persuaded that after two years of us being apart it's time for him to get it shifted - either that or he'll be getting billed for skip hire. ;)

A psychologist would probably have a field day telling me lots of different theories as to why this is happening but I pretty much know why it happens, I just need to keep going so one of these days there will only be two small piles.

An In pile that is dealt with on a daily basis

and

An Out pile.

For my house and for my head let's hope this time I clear it all.

I really should send more letters

I'm sure everyone's already seen and used these new Royal Mail stamps but for me.



Magical Realms Stamps.

How cool are they?

Unfortunately the post I do send out is usually in big boxes so the postage is printed off on a boring white label.

Actually now would be a good time to go stock up on some stamps as on the 4th April First class stamps go up by 5p to 46p and 2nd-class 4p to 36p.

Eh up

Hello Walter's the name


The lady of the house has been routing about in the Charity shop again and bless her heart she rescued me from the shame of being reduced.


Apparently it was my face that made her heart go all oooooh. When she spotted my reduced label she had me turned this way and that trying to see why they would do such a thing to such a handsome chap as myself.


I mean what's not to love about this face? Eh?



Then she spotted this wee toadstool and she thought it would make a nice arrangement with the big one she already had at home.



So off we both went to a new home full of weird and wonderful things. The woman has heads on her mantlepiece you know? Not real, used to be attached to a body kind of heads but a glass one and a budda one and the like. Strange really but I'm too much of a gentleman to say such things out loud - oops!



Unfortunately the wee toadstool has since been consigned to the box in the hall waiting to go back to the charity shop. She says it's just not right and then starting mumbling something about not keeping too much clutter anymore, in, out, loved, used. I think she might be a bit odd but she's my hero and I now have a lovely new home in her fancy new bathroom. You should see it apparently it's not finished cos the man who did it STILL hasn't come back to fit the fan - yeah she went off on one of her rants again. Bless her.



Anyway nice to meet you, best be off. I can hear her coming down the stairs with yet another full bin bag. She obviously means business with this de-cluttering lark, I best keep in her good books.

A Special if a bit late Thank yoooooou

A certain young lady decided to take Valentine's Day by the horns this year. Valentine's Day was normally a day when her letterbox didn't rattle and her other half seemed oblivious to the romance of the day.
So she sent out some beautiful Valentine packages instead of sitting at home not enjoying Valentine's Day and as luck would have it the Karma fairy decided to give the said other half a switch kick and lo and behold this year her letterbox fair fell off. ;) Well done that man.

I was one of the very lucky friends who she chose to treat...




Alex, thank you, you are a sweetheart and everyday should be Valentine's Day for you. xxxx

Yes well

to make up for probably scarring a fair few of you for life with that poor piggy on my last post I thought I'd share some photos of the lovely Tapas big one and I shared while we were down in Glasgow.
Hopefully this will help bring any lost appetites back ;)








The food was absolutely gorgeous and as you can see from the last photo we were struggling to finish it. The lovely waiter urged us to keep eating but we just couldn't force anymore into our very full tummys. You have to like a restaurant where the staff are obviously of Spanish descent AND they encourage you to eat. :D

I'm thinking of reasons why we need to go back to Glasgow really really soon just so we can go back the restaurant again and again. :)

They don't make them like they used to

Just think of the complaints if they still ran ads like this...


I'm not sure about stimulating them but I imagine Mum and Baby would certainly sleep well!!




Ummm well beer goggles do have a lot to answer for. LMAO




I think there might be a fair few more vegetarians in the world if this was on the butcher's door.

Mother Earth

is surely telling us something.



My thoughts are with those that have been effected by the earthquakes and subsequent tsunami over in Japan and other parts of our dear planet.
I've been practically living on my Facebook as I have a friend that lives over there with her young family. Her updates are duly pounced on by all of us that have been worried. Sometimes modern technology sucks but it's times like this that I'm really grateful for it.

As always when these horrific things happen we all tend to pull those we love close to us and have tears in our eyes imagining what we would do if it was to happen to us.

(((((Hugs to all)))))

Free Art anyone?

Well everyone likes pretty pictures don't they?

Feed Your Soul
is the project ran by Jen Wallace the writer of the blog Indie Fixx. Be sure to check that fab website out too ;)

Anyway Jen asks artists to contribute pieces of their artwork for free and you (the reader) can then download them, print them out and stick them on your walls to make your home feel like a proper art gallery. Of course you must not sell them or use them in anyway for your own financial gain. And hopefully you will be inspired to save up your pennies and buy a proper original



Now go, go see, lots and lots of lovely pictures by very talented people to brighten up your day. See how nice I am to you lot?

Bizarre

Last night I went out with a pal.

I drove as she doesn't drive.

But she doesn't drink so it was a very sober evening.

We had a lovely meal then went to a couple of pubs but there is really only so much fizzy pop a girl can drink.

So we had a coffee.


The town was really quiet so we hatched a plan.

And found ourselves in Asda doing some late night shopping.


My pal has never been late night supermarket shopping before so she found it all rather exciting.

My other pals are finding it hysterical that on a Saturday night out I was driving and ended up shopping.


At least that part of the evening was entertaining as later on I had to cope and deal with an extremely upset Big One. Let's just say it was very hard remaining civil to her Father this morning when he came to collect her. Grrrrr

Yesterday

marked nine years since I packed the smalls and all our worldly goods up into a van and drove us all up to Scotland to join the 'as he was then' him indoors to start our new life.




We worked out that big one has lived in Scotland for over half her life so far, wee one has lived in Scotland for 99% of her life so far and I've lived up here for nearly a quarter of my life so far.

Nine years later and a few things have changed in our lives, some good, some bad, some great and some bloody awful but me and the smalls keep smiling. :)

Dydd Gwyl Dewi Sant Hapus