A chilly walk

At last, the weather here on the west coast has been pretty dismal since the start of December, I'd almost forgotten what outside looked like!  Today was frosty and clear so this afternoon the Habbie's decided to go for a walk. 

We had a wee look round the garden first and Tinkerbell had a go on her own wee skating rink.

We set off just after 3 and the clouds were starting to look quite atmospheric

I'm not sure the camera did it justice.

A lonely tree, the only one in the middle of  a huge field.

We stay near an old railway line which has been turned into a footpath - ideal for a toddler, nice and flat for running along, or walking along with big sis and Dad.

Mr H is not a fan of the cycle track - a bit boring - but I quite like it.  The old cuttings mean you are down in a wee dip a lot of the time, but there are lots of birds, flowers in summer and lots of different varieties of trees along the way.  The winter lets you see views normally hidden and I like looking at the trees without their leaves, you see such nice shapes.

This tree was very wiggly!

As we headed for home the sun was setting behind us, it peeked through the cloud just for a moment,

About 10 seconds later a tractor went across the bridge, it looked great in silhouette with the sun behind it but....my battery went flat!  The morale being to check your batteries before you go out.

It was so nice to be out and about, I'm so looking forward to being outside again, going for walks, planning the garden, roll on Spring, I'm ready for you!

Making curtains - Woo hoo - so excited!

I realise that making curtains may not be many people's idea of fun, but believe me, the mere thought of it is exciting at the moment.  Our wee house has had no curtains since we moved in.  The girls' bedroom has a bit of wrapping paper tacked over one window and a fabric remnant over the other.  Our room has a Star Wars bath towel to the front, and a piece of cardboard box over the back.  Stylish it ain't!!

I know I've mentioned the house project a few times so here is a wee pic.  The top one was taken when we originally planned to buy the house.  (4 Jan 2010)   Life threw us a curve ball the sale was put back.  The bottom pic is from 5 Jan 2012, we have had the house 15 months and been living here for 10.

Downstairs there are no curtains whatsoever so anybody walking down the lane can nosey in.  However, Mr H has finally decided what kind of curtain rail he is going to put up (and we have even purchased said items) so now all we need is for them to be attached to the wall and we're in business!  (Still no decision on upstairs, but it has been 10 months and you can't rush these things ;-)

Here are some of the lovely fabrics at the local discount fabric place.  All were under £9 per metre,

Liked this one, but maybe too much white between the patterns

 

 

I really liked the combinations of colours here in the top fabrics,

And liked the shapes in this design

 So which one did we go for?

 

A nice mix of colours, light blue and brown.  We have some turquoise in the room and lots of wood, so it goes quite nicely.  It may be a bit pale, need to live with it and see, but at £1.95 a metre, if I hate it in 6 months, it's no great loss ;-)

So here I am typing, when I should really be pinning and ironing, but the light is bad and my back aches and tomorrow is another day.  Hopefully by the end of the weekend we should have some curtains hanging - one to deduct from the to do list!

Ps, my peg crafts are looking good.....except I have lost the stampers for 'm' and 's'  as soon as I find them and get some magnets, I'll post my January craft pics,

Goodnight

Blogging

I'm new to blogging but one of my friends (Andamento)

 

has had a blog for quite a while, so I like to pick her brains.  She said, read other blogs, link to them, comment lots and get your face known.  I have had lots of fun the last few nights flicking through other blogs.  I like to pick one of her favourites and then look at one of their favourites and so the trail goes on.  New gems discovered, great ideas spotted.  I now feel the need to make some new things having seen so many pretty things.  As I have mentioned before, we have been rennovating (or rebuilding the interior) of a house for the last 17 months.  Crafting has kind of gone out of the window as general house maintenance and housework have taken over.

But I have decided 2012 is the time for change.  I plan to be more organised and get my butt in gear (so to speak!)  I'm a slacker but do have will power if I'm being stubborn about something.  Dressember was a case in point.  I could have worn trousers, but had decided to wear skirts and did (I even pushed the boat out and wore one on New Years Day).  I have been flitting along with Flylady in an effort to make housework less of a chore and more managable.  The general idea is that by de-cluttering and getting into a bit of a routine we can do great things and have time to ourselves to do what we like.  Sounds great, so I'm going to give it a shot.  Her mantra is that in 15 minutes you can achieve a lot, do the big jobs you put off a wee bit at a time and then they don't become big jobs.  I'm embracing it and already little things are becoming easier.


I may also join in the 'A Make a Month' challenge from The Felt Fairy.  Maybe that way I won't feel like I'm missing out on my crafting.  I already spotted a wee make that can be used as a tidy up, thanks to Annaboo's house.

 

I know I have alphabet stampers somewhere, if I can just find them...

So all in all 2012 is looking to be pretty busy already.  Mr H (Mr Habbie, the hubbie) gave me The List tonight.  We start one every year - all the jobs that need to be done around the house.  We pin it to the fridge and then ignore it till November, do a couple of the easy ones and then rename it, changing the year at the top.  Our last flat had the same, relatively unchanged list for 3 years.  It was like an old friend ;-)  I've just scanned The List and so far it just has people I need to phone on it, plumber, roofer, floor guys, local council and a van rental place.  Maybe I should have a leaf out of Fly lady's book and have an anti-procrastination day.  I realise there are only a few pics in this post.  Lets just say I'm trying out the links bit tonight (hope it's not been too boring - I do ramble sometimes) It do feel that by writing what I intend to do here, it may get done.

So there we are, no pressure!  all in cyberland can nag away

The wind is getting up again, let's hope we have no more flying sheds!  Another one for the 2012 List - put shed back in garden!

Goodnight