52 projects

In the beginning, I spent quite a lot of time trawling through other people's blogs. It was fascinating for me to see how others had simplified and enhanced their lives. One such blog is "Dreaming of a Simple life" and I loved reading her posts about walking the dog, home cooked meals and making do with a lot less money. One of her posts in particular caught my eye - Liz wrote a list of 52 projects to complete across the year. They were a mixture of creative projects, DIY tasks that she had been putting off for a while and learning new skills. I loved the idea of actually sitting down and thinking of all the wonderful things I could achieve across a year, so I began to compile my own.

Some of the entries in my list are:-

Make my own yoghurt
Bake my own bread
Learn to knit
De clutter the shed
Make a mosaic table top
Make my own limoncello
Up cycle a chair
Take a bag of items to the charity shop
Introduce a Gluten Free baking day each week
Sort through my wardrobe
Start a blog

There are many more items on the list even though I've only got to 47... Some are short tasks, completed in a week, others may take longer, but it's great to have such an exciting "To Do" list to refer to! Perhaps you could try writing your own?

The meaning of home

What does 'home' mean to you? I think I've always been a home bird. My Mum used to say, I could make a home out of a cardboard box!

For me, home means a place of sanctuary, a place to relax and be whoever I want to be, but most importantly it is a place for me to nurture. Home is where I care for my family and friends, but also where I nurture my own spirit.

I look after my home not because it's the biggest investment I'll ever make in my life,  but because it is my favourite place to be. I love to keep it clean and well presented because my surroundings are important to me. Every room contains memories of the life this home has had - they comfort me and make me feel whole.

It's unimportant where my home ends up being because once I shut the door, I can retreat into the cocoon that is home. Good job really because living in a suburban street with houses all around me isn't my idea of an ideal location! Our little house has grown and developed to meet the needs of our growing family. We love to entertain here - even the dining room table has grown to meet our friends growing families!
This house has supported a 22 year marriage, four children, a dog, a rabbit, 2 guinea pigs, 3 cats and 2 chickens, plus of course a myriad of friends and family members along the way. I consider that quite an achievement!

The journey so far..

You'll remember I'm a list person, well I'm also a target orientated person. I like to delineate a plan preferably on paper. It helps me remain on task and also helps to refocus me if I waver and gives me a sense of achievement when I finish something. As I am on the start of my journey, I set myself goals for each month.
September lead me to focus on gaining control of my house. I de cluttered, cleaned and completed smaller DIY tasks. I worked on calming myself down and improving my physical and mental health. I walked as often as I could, learned to meditate and took lots of time to focus on me. I slowed down my pace of life and took notice of my surroundings.
I set up a system of allocating my self  a small number of tasks each day, but included in that time for reading, relaxation and creativity. I rejoined the local library and dug out my iPod. All in all, I began to recover and heal.
In October, I continued to be creative and my system of writing down tasks AND relaxation time helped me enormously. I felt in control and I was very aware of the improvement in my mental and physical health. I knew I was becoming a better person to be around. I started my volunteering course and it felt good getting to know new people. I enjoyed learning new skills and re-igniting my creative side. After reading another blog ( Dreaming of a Simple life ), I wrote my own list of 52 projects which I will post about separately. I also tracked every penny we spent for an entire month - terrifying and enlightening in equal measure!
Throughout, I have kept a journal. It's fascinating to look back on how I felt when I started and the differences, subtle or more obvious, that have appeared along the way.
I have not only regained control of myself and my emotions, but so much more - my weight and general health, my home and perhaps most importantly my future. I know what I want now and I am going all out to achieve it!
November's targets are:-

• Pay off the mortgage
• Work from a cash only system for food and miscellaneous items and socialising
• Work on reducing our waste by composting more
• Set up a blog
• Continue to de clutter
• Make packed lunches to save money
• Spend less generally
• Reduce electricity/gas/water usage
• Don't acquire any more plastic bags
• Start a small change savings pot
• Read and skill myself up on growing my own veg, upcycling furniture, crotchet,knitting, patchworking, embroidery
• Use fewer cleaning products and if they run out, use natural products.

I'll let you know how many I achieve at the end of the month and set Decembers' targets too. 

Home made gifts from the kitchen

I am fortunate to have a large enough back garden to grow a small quantity of fruit and veg and keep chickens. If I had my own way, I would turn the whole thing into an allotment with polytunnel, but we don't plan on staying here forever, so I'll make do with squeezing in as much veg as I can in between ornamental plants. We do however have two apples trees, a pear, a quince and some very productive loganberry canes trained along one fence. I absolutely love the smell of stewing loganberries as it always reminds me of my Dad who very much enjoyed their tart/sweet flavour. They make excellent jam with a lovely soft set.

For the first time this year, I had enough quinces to make jam too. They are an odd fruit, inedible when raw, but stew down to a soft pulp. They have a mild flavour and set very easily so make a firm, pale orange jam. Pleasant enough, but I still prefer the loganberry!

I also made some orange and cognac marmalade. I have to hold my hands up and admit to making it from pre-prepared orange pulp. I made a lemon one last year and they are excellent value so I don't feel too guilty. Finally, we had about 2lb of tomatoes left on the plants at the end of the season which were unlikely to ever ripen as I don't have a greenhouse. I decided to try my hand at green tomato chutney. It's tart and tasty, but not as nice as my nonogenerian aunt's, who has been churning out chutney for the last seventy years!

More home made gift ideas

My youngest daughter often wants to give small presents to her friends at Christmas and even if you set yourself a £5 budget, it can soon add up. This year I have made button earrings. I bought backs from Amazon and sourced some nice buttons. It would have been great to have painted my own and I may yet buy a multipack of coloured Fymo and create some. These simple little ones will certainly do for now though. I've presented them by piercing through a square of card.

For one special little girl, I have made a personalised memory board. This was an old photo frame, sprayed white. I have glued cork on to the backing board, then covered with some wallpaper. This has then been decorated with buttons, sequins, cut out butterfly shapes and ribbon. The concertina flower was made with an off cut from the wallpaper - waste not, want not! I also found some pretty pegs on sale in Hobbycraft which I may add. She can then decorate it with any mementoes or photos she wishes. The idea for this came from a wander around a gift shop in Woking. A similar, less personal frame cost £25!

Simple Christmas gift ideas

I love being creative and now that I have the time to make things, I have loved sitting in my little, light-filled conservatory putting together some small projects to give as gifts this Christmas. To start with I made small wire and button hanging decorations.

They were so incredibly easy. I used a reasonably fine craft wire and bought buttons. Obviously if you have a lot of spare buttons - feel free to use them! I bought my buttons in the sale at Hobbycraft, but Amazon also sell them by the bag very reasonably.  It's very simple to thread the wire through the button holes ensuring you pull it taught between each button. Once you have all your buttons on there, it can be bent to any shape you like, the wire ends can be bent to form a hanging loop and a small bit of ribbon, finishes it off nicely. I'm going to try to make snowflake shapes with white buttons too.

Project Me - part two

This is a picture from my journal of 'Project Me'. I'd completed  project house and was ready to move on to the next stage, so this was what I drew up from my discussions with Rachel. Looking back on it now, I can see that already my priorities have shifted since July. I am no longer interested in manicures, pedicures or buying new clothes. All of that means spending money, which I don't want to do anymore. I'm no longer looking for 'the job' either. My role now is too look after myself and my family and lead a much simpler life, lessening my negative impact on the environment.
Everything else on there however still stands and I am pleased to say I have been able to follow my plan to fruition, making a huge impact on my health. In fact, a friend I saw last night, described me as 'radiant' - a compliment indeed!
Talking of surrounding myself with beautiful things ..... Next week is craft week, so expect lots of posts about creativity!