Tuesday

Just to warn you .... there may be swearing today! The reason? It's this ...

... I'm assembling the IKEA bedside cabinets I bought last week. I've only just started the first one so am still feeling enthusiastic and nothing has gone wrong so far ... long may that last! I usually get on okay with this sort of thing but it is one area of life where I'm missing Ced as he would have done this, not me. I'd have gone into the kitchen to make a coffee and in that time he would have had the first one almost finished, whereas it's taken me that long to get the box open!

It's book group tonight and I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone and to hear what they thought of the book. I've known everyone long enough to have some idea of their literary likes and dislikes and I think this book (The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams) will be a 'dislike' for the majority ... it'll be an interesting discussion.

In between finishing the cabinets and trotting off to book group I'd like to do some music practice; there's a possibility that I can get to the piano for the first time in ages, but this is dependent on the cabinet building going smoothly. I need to go and get on with it ... no more procrastinating!

Monday

Today's excitement is the delivery of the armchair! My worry about it being a completely different shade proved to be unnecessary and it is a good colour match to the existing sofas (it's just the light from the window that's putting the yellowish tint on the armchair!).

I've moved the furniture around and the Davenport has been returned to its original place at the other end of the room as this means that I can see Ced's photo every time I walk into the room and also when I'm sat in any of my chosen spots, without the bother of reflections. I need to find one more small side table and sell the other two larger ones, and then the room is finished in terms of furniture. The last task will be to decide on and purchase the art for the walls.

Sunday

After another restless night today's plan is to do very little ...

... maybe some TV, but definitely reading with a steady supply of food and coffee! This is the latest book group choice and I need to finish it for Tuesday night, but I'm a bit bored by it and I'm only a third of the way through it! It's 'The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul' by Douglas Adams - has anyone read it?

Saturday

Band practice was good fun this morning. My beginners played really well, so well that we are trying them with the junior band next week ... just on the pieces they have played so far. 

My plan for this afternoon was to assemble the new bedside cabinets but I’m too tired to even think about it, so instead I will be doing this ....

... trying to work out why the laptop has frozen. 

Friday

I slept well last night despite the wind, which raged all night and is still blowing a hoolie out there today. I was woken a few times by the noise but each time, went back to sleep quickly. My retail therapy tired me out!

So as promised, here's what I bought in IKEA yesterday ...

For the kitchen | a splash guard for the frying pan, three pots for herbs (but now think I should have got a bigger size!), pasta bowls to match my plates, and some silicone muffin cases. My impulse buy was the paper napkins ... they weren't on the list but I don't have any, so will be used.

For the living room | a pink and cream throw.

For the bathroom | three white face cloths and a loo brush.

For the bedroom | coat hangers and shoulder shapers for when I get round to sorting out my clothes (this may encourage me to get on with it!).

and a fitted single sheet for the spare bedroom. The four smaller boxes belong with the two larger boxes and will be assembled into two bedside cabinets for my own bedroom. The cabinets are white and the only choice of the smaller boxes was this brown or dark blue, neither of which are correct. I can use the small boxes for gifts or maybe somewhere else in the house so will look around for alternatives in the correct colour. 

Thursday

I had a 'me day' today, hence the late post. I bought my ticket months ago when the tour was announced and today took myself off to Bristol to see Matthew Bourne's 'Swan Lake'. It was brilliant!

I went to the afternoon performance, which finished just in time to drive across Bristol during the rush hour ... not my favourite place to drive at the best of times let alone when it's so busy.

Anyway I survived and my next stop was IKEA for a bit of retail therapy. I'll show you my haul tomorrow but you'll be proud of me .... only one impulse buy!

Now to get something to eat and then it's an early night for me. 

Wednesday

A very quick post as I want to save the laptop battery ... we've had a power cut since yesterday afternoon. I thought it was as a result of Storm Gareth but a neighbour has said that it's due to something that workmen in the next road have done. I have no idea when it will be sorted but the sooner the better ... no heat on a cold windy day isn't much fun.

I managed to get out yesterday and buy some more boxes for the bedroom cupboard ...

... (apologies for a really grainy phone photo) ... there wasn't a great choice of colours so I opted for four with matching handles, the thinking being that I can easily cover them to make a matching set if I want to.

Back tomorrow, hopefully with power restored!

Tuesday

That wind last night! To add to the noise of the wind, British Rail are doing maintenance work on the tracks at night and we had the added accompaniment of the noise of heavy machinery; we were notified about it, but this is the first time I've been disturbed by them working. Anyway, I didn't get much sleep so it's probably going to be a 'take it reasonably easy' sort of day!

It's still blowing a gale outside and is raining from time to time, so my planned 30 minutes in the garden is unlikely to happen today. Which means I'm looking for something easy to do indoors. It might be a good day to sort out one of the kitchen cupboards, and then get my act together and start placing adverts for some of the things I want to sell.

I'm not a tidy person by nature so am pleased to report that I am rocking the 'keeping the living room' tidy rule I've imposed on myself. In the past the thing that made the room look untidy was the piles of stuff on the side table(s). If I'd been asked I'd have said it's all things I'm using and which I'd put away when I'm done, but the reality was that it was mostly things I hadn't bothered to deal with properly on a daily basis. Each time I got round to sorting out these piles of clutter there was very little that I actually used daily, and was mostly things like admin that I'd forgotten about, penfriend letters waiting for a response, recipes torn out of magazines, competitions I was going to enter ... you get the idea?

In my newly furnished and decorated living room I don't want these piles of clutter on all the surfaces - without them the room looks tidy and I don't need to rush round to make the place look presentable when visitors are expected. So this is my new approach ...

... a small basket to hold the things I genuinely want by my side when I've settled in the room - diary, latest book, magazine, planner, pen, pencil, puzzle book. With everything else I have adopted the five minute rule, so if it will take five minutes or less to deal with it's done straight away. Anything that takes longer to complete is added to the to-do list and the associated paperwork or note-to-self is placed by the bottom stair and taken up to the playroom on my next trip upstairs, ready for later action which depending on the urgency may be fitted in as soon as possible or dealt with during my Monday admin session. So far it's working well and I feel on top of things. As part of my night time routine I take a couple of minutes to collect up the stuff that have been dotted around the room during the day and dump it in the basket ready for the next day, which has the added benefit of always coming downstairs in the morning to a tidy room ... I think this is the most important part of the new tidying regime.

The basket was a B&M bargain, cloth covered and fully lined for £3.99 ($5.27). It's 35mm (L) x 28mm (W) x 18 mm (H) and also fits the shelves in the new bedroom cupboard perfectly so I'll be going back to get some more to help sort out storage of undies and the like.

Monday

There's a load of washing in the machine, the slow cooker is filled with the ingredients for a vegetable chili for my meal tonight, and I've nearly finished the admin for today. When the washing is finished I'll drive down to the bank to deposit the busking money from Saturday, and will pick up some bread, fruit and potatoes on the way home. Then the day is my own until 3:45 pm, when the teaching starts.

a new leaf on the peace lily

I had a wander round the garden this morning to see what's happening out there. There are plenty of shoots appearing which, I think, are the summer snowflakes and the crocosmia, but time will tell! What isn't happening is me getting out and finishing the clearing, so that needs to move up my priority list - half and hour a day (minimum) will soon get it cleared. 

The trellis on the back wall which the clematis grows up has broken in last night's wind so a decision has been made for me! Before this happened I was debating whether to remove the trellis to place the table and chairs against that wall, and move the clematis to the side of the garden instead. Now seems to be the ideal time to do that, I just have to decide where exactly I want the clematis to be - somewhere where I can see it from the living room window as I'll get more enjoyment from it then. I need to do it soon as the clematis is waking up and producing its new growth.

Sunday

Well, for all my self imposed ruling that the weekend should be 'my time', this is what the music room looks like after an hour's effort this morning ...

I was running through what I have planned for tomorrow and realised that I'd used my temporary teaching space, otherwise known as the dining room, to organise some of the boxes. With the music room and the dining room unsuitable for teaching, I was left with the choice of sorting out a space in one of those rooms or using the living room instead. Well, there's no way I want to teach in the living room so it made sense to clear enough space in the music room.

The things I have moved out are either upstairs in the spare bedroom (the things that need to be photographed and sold), or in the dining room (the things for the skip, the charity shop, plus the audio equipment). Hopefully I can deal with the charity shop and skip stuff tomorrow morning and then I'll be back to just the audio stuff stacked on the table. The company buying the audio stuff has responded to say they will visit within the next two weeks so it shouldn't be too long before the table is clear again.

I'll need to consider suitable seats for the teaching but for now the dining room chair and the folding chair I use when we go busking will do and I'll use the room for a while before I make a decision.

Now for the rest of the day, doing very little except enjoying myself!