Plans for Christmas and a sewing room...

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the lack of posts, but now things are a bit better, I will try harder.

I completely lost all interest in cooking and baking and felt that it became a chore. This is not me and I've been looking through my cheap recipes to inspire me again into cooking from scratch. It's not all been bad, I just couldn't be bothered! Stress does horrible things to you, both physically and emotionally and you have to snap out of it and start thinking positively about stuff.

For me, Christmas is my favourite time of year and making plans for this is helpful to my lack of motivation. Christmas Day is going to be very simple and Boxing Day is when I will entertain my small family. I love creating a buffet table for a calm and relaxing meal that you can revisit as many times as you want. We chat, we watch the tele and play board games. This year Daisy will enjoy it more as she loves it when  her Aunties and Uncle are here.

I have done some shopping, but need to make a list and stick to it now. I still have to embark on my Christmas baking etc, but it definitely won't stress me out because we keep it simple. I no longer buy pointless novelty presents just to fill a stocking, I make sure everything is wanted or useful. Obviously we will be concentrating on Daisy and looking out for toys for this next stage in her development. She is walking well now and curious about everything - cupboard locks are essential!

My initial plans are to work through the food we have in the freezers to make room for a few Christmas goodies that we wouldn't normally treat ourselves to. I have quite a lot of packets and mixes from Approved Food that need using too. This will free up space on top of my kitchen cupboards for our savoury treats and a little bit of drink! I make snowballs on Christmas Day evening and we love to drink port at Christmas too. We rarely drink at any other time of the year and even then, it's only a little - Daisy still doesn't sleep through the night :(

This year Christmas will be relaxed...

we will watch Christmas films

we will eat food we don't normally treat ourselves to

we will enjoy a little drink

we will enjoy each others company

we will sit down and relax

we will play with  Daisy and whatever Father Christmas brings her

That's my plan!

Now to other plans...

I have been working hard trying to sort out the house. My utility room is going to be a proper laundry room, not a dumping ground! Charlotte and I did another bootsale on Saturday - It was a bit rubbish because it was so cold. People with babies were sensible and stayed at home, so I didn't sell my baby items :(

What I did sell, is the little bits and bobs for 20p, so I did clear some crap that has been hanging around for a while. I have now boxed up and packed away everything into the garage for next year. There it is not in the way and I don't have to look at it. As I continue to tidy, I will add to this pile with stuff that we can easily live without. It makes it so much easier to keep a room tidy and clean with less stuff to move around. I already spend a lot of my day with Daisy, but I want to be able to restart my hobbies while she is having her nap. I have lots of plans for this and my lovely husband is currently decorating the spare room. It is going to have a bed in it, but the rest of the space is for my sewing room!!! A place where I can have my sewing machine set up, all my fabric stored where I can see what I've got, a space to relax, enjoy and create. I'm really excited about it and I will show you when it's finished..

Plans being made and positive thinking...

a new year means new beginnings and hopefully better times ahead.

Does anyone have any tips or advice for a relaxed Christmas???

Please share your tips in the comments.

Thanks for reading,

Mandy x

When things don't go according to plan...

Hi everyone!

Well things have definitely not gone to plan...

We had trouble over the weekend and this meant that I was stressed and pre-occupied, so I didn't meal plan for our fortnightly shop :-(

There was no list :-(

I had to think hard and remember what I had in the cupboards, fridge and freezer...

I didn't forget anything important but we spent more than we wanted to.

On the plus side... we are lucky...

my husband is self-employed and has work and is well enough to work

we have enough money to spend on groceries

we have food in the cupboards, fridge and freezer

we have afforded to buy Daisy-May some lovely presents, cards and wrapping paper for her 1st birthday

NO MORE NEGATIVE THOUGHTS...

WE MOVE ON AND TRY TO DO BETTER NEXT TIME

Daisy is lactose intolerant and her food is more expensive. We buy lactofree soft cheese which is £1.74 a pack and alpro yoghurts which are £1.50 for four. I have bought other dairy free products in the past but they are slowly disappearing off the shelves. I have to really think about what she eats so I am quite good at remembering her shopping list.

Blogger is now allowing me to reply to comments in the comments section! So from now on, if you leave me a comment, I will reply there rather than posting my replies within a blog post.

More positive news - I have changed Daisy's room around and got rid of the bed in there. She has room for her cot (but not yet because she is too restless in the night and we want her settled first before this big change) and I made her a lovely book corner with mats, blankets, cushions, teddies and her book basket. She loves it because she is able to select books and enjoy them independently. She can crawl around safely too. I just have one area to sort out for the loft.

I have started to sort out my utility room and have lots of papers to get through (a chore that I do a bit each day). I completely cleared my ironing, although I have a small pile now because obviously I have done more washing since.

The living room has been decluttered so that some of Daisy's things are in her room now and she can access her toy boxes independently and safely now too.

The carboot pile is growing! Everything there has been labelled and boxed ready to go when we decide to do one. As I tidy each room, I seriously consider whether I need things or not and the house is beginning to look better for it.

I have several scrapbooks, where I stick in cuttings of craft projects or ideas that I would like to recreate. I had a flick through yesterday and found loads of things that I am capable of making and have the right materials for. This is my motivation to get sorted so I can have my sewing room/spare bedroom. I have loads of ideas to make it pretty and would love to have my jobs done in the morning so Daisy and I can have free time in the afternoons to have fun! That's my aim!!! This also means less time spent on the computer, so I will need to be more organised in preparing blog posts that are useful. I want to share what I do to be thrifty and also my homemade achievements. For me, it is mainly new recipes that I have developed to be cheap, quick to prepare and easy. In time, hopefully I will have some sewing to share with you too!

I won't put too much pressure on myself though because like my title says, sometimes 'things don't go according to plan' and my priority will always be Daisy-May.

I will post up our weekly menus from next week (what we've eaten this week) and eventually get around to my menu planning post. I want to write it properly, instead of rambling on. I have found these posts so useful so would love to pass on how I save money now. Please feel free to share what helps you save money as we go. I would love to hear from you!

I'm off now but all being well, I will be back soon...

Mandy x

The perfect housewife???

Hi everyone!

Just lately I've been watching my 'The Perfect Housewife' DVDs when Daisy wakes me at 5am to feed and I can't go back to sleep because she's awake and ready to start her day! These dvds involve Anthea Turner teaching messy people how to be the perfect housewife. I have been in great need of inspiration and motivation in sorting out my own home. Since we found out a baby would be living in our house, we planned and prepared for her arrival. The house slowly filled with 'stuff'. Initially, everything went in the nursery and that was fine, but once she arrived, Daisy slowly took over the house! She has baby things in most rooms, which is fine, because they are needed, but everywhere looks cluttered because of the things I already had. The baby stuff has to stay, so my things have to go. I am a terrible hoarder and I find it hard to let things go, particularly sentimental memories. I am getting better as you know, but there are specific dumping grounds within our home which I want to sort and stop dumping!

The kitchen table - a have a fruit basket, s&p and table mats that should live here. In reality there is normally folded laundry waiting to go upstairs and a mountain of papers/post. I find it hard to carry laundry up during the day because I need to take Daisy with me, so I'm sorting this while she is asleep now.

The kitchen worktops - I need the kettle, toaster, bread bin, microwave, utensil pot, tea, coffee and sugar pots, steam steriliser and mixer out all of the time. In reality, the longest worktop is a dumping ground for what ever I have put there and not put away.

The utility room - because this room is not a 'living' space, I tend to put anything and everything that does not have a home in there. It is constantly a mess! One corner houses my carboot pile, which hopefully will be reduced in a couple of weeks time. My beautiful worktops (handmade) are covered in ironing and more papers and the rest is junk and my sewing stuff.

The problem is that I don't put things straight away when I've used them and I seriously lack storage in this house. Our house is quite large, it's a four bedroomed detached 1970s built house with a huge drive and garage. The garage is full because my husband is a self-employed builder and needs to store expensive power tools securely. My washing machine, chest freezer and old fridge freezer are in there too. When I've sorted the utility room, the washing machine can be moved into it's space. The decluttering needs to continue to get more stuff off the worktops. The paperwork needs sorting and then dealing with as and when it happens - I find this hard. I am getting there... the last few days I have been throwing away things I have saved to do craft projects, because realistically I have Daisy to care for and I don't have the time. I would rather play with Daisy than make something to entertain myself and then creating more stuff to find a home for. On Sunday, I emptied two large drawers, which meant I could store fabric in there. I have decided that the best way forward is to do the necessary household task daily and obviously Daisy's routine, but when Daisy's asleep, I will tackle one small job a day and keep that area tidy from then on. My bathrooms are clean, ours and Daisy's bedrooms are clean and tidy too. Charlotte is in her newly decorated bedroom (Ashley's old room) and still has stuff in her old room. Hopefully a carboot will sort that and we can start work in the now spare room. This will be a guest room incase Alice comes to stay, but very minimal in furniture because I would like a sewing room! Then the utility room can become a laundry room! You see I have a plan but it's going to take time. My job is to declutter so I can tidy easier and then clean better - it makes perfect sense. OHs job is to create a space for me to house my sewing stuff. Charlotte's job is to empty her old room. It all sounds simple, but we are all so tired all of the time. Charlotte has a long day at work, travelling to Northampton. My OH works six days a week and gets woken every night by Daisy, and me... I should get off this laptop and declutter!!!

So am I the perfect housewife?... no, probably not ever, but I would love to be a good one, with a clean and tidy house, home cooked meals everyday and freshly baked bread and cakes. Then I will be free to  have some me time - learning to sew.

Are you the perfect housewife?

Thanks for reading,

Mandy x