26 at 26

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Life is finally starting to calm down after a whirlwind start to the year, and I’m planning to get back into a blogging schedule again. What better way to get back in than a birthday! I turned 26 at the weekend and as usual I spent some time coming up with my 26 at 26 list, a list of 26 things that I would like to complete when I’m 26. This year I have used GoMighty (thanks for the suggestion Kam) to help me document my list:

  1. Complete a Color Run
  2. Take a bouldering class
  3. Swim in the sea
  4. Complete a year of Project Life
  5. Read 1 book a month
  6. Bake a loaf of bread from scratch (something I’ve wanted to do for ages!)
  7. Decorate a room from beginning to end
  8. Plant the back garden (I’ve got some grand plans!)
  9. Make compost
  10. Watch Sex and the City boxset
  11. Volunteer at a Walk the Walk event
  12. Complete Lego Batman on the xBox
  13. Get 2 walks in a week
  14. Grow my hair long
  15. Read “Daring Greatly”
  16. Complete all One Little Word Assignments
  17. Read 4 comic books (I got one for my birthday!)
  18. Buy a new piece of furniture
  19. Make a traditional scrapbook layout
  20. Take a photo a day
  21. Get back into tap dancing
  22. Take a silhouette photo
  23. Release a chinese lantern
  24. Dance in the rain
  25. Start a daily exercise routine
  26. Lay/seed grass

You can see that there are a number that can be “grouped” together. I looked at what I had coming up in the next year and where my priorities are going to lie. This year my priority is house and home, plain and simple. I’ve got a great job that I love, I’ve got hobbies that inspire me and continually challenge me, and now we’ve got a house to call our own. This year is all about focusing on making it a home and somewhere that we can say “Yes, this is where we belong”. They are small manageable goals and I already have planned how I’m going to complete about 75% of them, I’m excited for my 26th year!

Lots and lots of changes…

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There’s been a whole lot of change around here, a LOT of change, I think I chose the right word for my One Little Word this year!

We’ve moved out of our old house, which was my childhood home of 24 years. Everything has gone into storage (boy was that a fun and stressful few days right there!). We’ve temporarily moved into the in-laws house for a month or so. The in-laws have gone to Spain for a few months because six people in a very small 3 bed house doesn’t bode very well. We’ve signed all the contracts and exchange don our house. We get the keys in exactly 7 days time to  our house, a place we can finally call our own (this is it below).

The past few months, and specifically the past fortnight has been a time of stress, joys, tears, heated discussions and worry. Not forgetting the little snippets of excitements interspersed in there. It has been worth it though, in the end we will have a place that is ours, a place where the Mr and I can start to create our own memories and our own changes. In all honesty, I cannot wait for this journey of changes and memories to start.

For the time being we are having a few days of breathing space! Blogging has taken a back seat, scrapbooking has taken a back seat, looking after myself has taken a back seat (much to the annoyance of many people!). I will slowly be sharing updates on here of the house and the progress that we hope to make on it.

I remember – house edition

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I remember running through the house, carefree and so small
I remember learning how to bake in this kitchen, the smell of cookies wafting through the house
I remember Dad roller blading across the hall and kitchen, and us laughing uncontrollably on the stairs
I remember having friends round for dinner, fitting 8 round the table, someone had to have the wheely chair and steal the doritos
I remember the dancing, the practicing and the performances for people in the lounge, with it’s large windows and lights
I remember getting locked in the bathroom when the light broke and I thought my world had fallen apart around me
I remember the ladder falling from my feet and dangling from the loft hatch
I remember the Christmas mornings when we’d sneak into each others bedrooms and open our stockings
I remember the sleepovers, when friends pretended not to be drunk whilst reading the glowing alphabet stickers on my ceiling
I remember Saturday morning, creeping into Mum and Dads room, sitting at the end of the bed and watching kids TV
I remember sitting in my bedroom with my first computer and typing up my first word document
I remember the bath times and never wanting to get out of the bath
I remember the cat, doing a slinky down the stairs to greet everybody coming into the house
I remember the water fights in the garden, setting up the hose inbetween garden chairs
I remember catching the frogs, and never succeeding very well
I remember painting the garden furniture, whilst Hannah sat and read a book
I remember my 18th birthday party and the fun had with friends till late in the night
I remember the pain in trying to work out how to park on the drive when I was learning to drive
I remember roller skating up and down the road, and falling over, a lot
I remember welcoming new friends and loves into this house, and saying goodbye to old ones
I remember boxing days in this house, the whole family here, curled up round the fire

I remember this house, and I smile from the bottom of my heart

 

Project Life – Week 9

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The observant amongst you will notice that I’ve skipped six weeks of project life. Yes, I am miles behind, and I am totally OK with that. I’m in the midst of moving house, re-arranging my life and making some pretty big changes. This would be the perfect time to document it all in Project Life but time is precious at the moment. I’m still taking photos, I’m still journalling, I’m still documenting and I know that when I have time I will get round to catching up. For now though, I’m happy if I just manage a spread here and there, I don’t feel the need to be all caught up. As usual you should be able to click through to see them in Two Peas.

I am loving the colours in this spread, I think they really pop. I didn’t have many photos this week and was a bit light on journalling so I used some filler cards. The bottom right is an instagram photo, I always struggle with how to include a square photo in a rectangular space but I’m getting the hang of it. The bottom left photo was one I took from my sleeping position in bed, sometime a different perspective makes for an interesting, and memorable, photo.

Lots of journalling going on here. I wanted to include that Facebook status but it didn’t fit well into one of the smaller pockets so I spread it across two. I also included a QR code, scanning that should take you to a Facebook event, I hope (please let me know if you try it out). The top and bottom right cards are the bi-fold cards from the Seafoam kit, I just used them to journal straight on as they are. I had a lot of roller derby this week and I love that Millie took a photo of me teaching, even if it’s not a great photo, it’s better than nothing!

How do you feel if you’re not caught up, do you get stressed out or do you just let it go?

Going on right now…

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There’s lots of change at the moment here. We are packing up one house (that I have lived in for 24 years) and getting ready to take the big step to buy our own house. More on this to come…

Which means that our rooms are currently looking like this, these are JUST our DVDs, videos and half of my bookshelf. I appear to have more stuff than I first thought!

It also means that I am finding all sorts of treasures. On the left is the book that I couldn’t put down in Lower School, on the right, my main dissertation text for my undergraduate degree. I keep finding old school reports, old school photos, bits of dance costumes and too many dance shoes to mention.

The UK celebrated Mothers day last Sunday, we had half the family round at Grandmas for the day. Left to right is my Mum, Aunt, Grandma, Sister and then me. It was a welcome break from dealing with banks and estate agents and boxes and tape.

I’ve been craving healthy home cooked food lately and as part of my healthier changes I am trying to make more healthy dinners for the Mr and I. Monday night we had fajitas, packed with lots of veggies that the Mr didn’t realise were there, success!

My sleeping pattern has gotten a little off beat lately and I’m averaging about 4 hours a night for 4 or 5 days in a row. Luckily this little beauty is more than happy to come and snuggle with me when I’m awake in the early hours. I suspect it’s more to do with the fleecey blanket than wanting to be with me though.

I’m loving that the sun is coming out more now, even if it was -2c yesterday at 10am and snowed for most of the day on and off. There’s something about bright natural light that just makes you feel better about everything.

The bulbs in my garden are starting to flower, crocus’s, snowdrops and tulips are all showing their heads. I’m upset that I have to leave this house with it’s garden, even if it is a really high maintenance garden when it is looked after and in bloom it is beautiful.

What are you up to right now?

Harry Potter Studio Tour

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Back in June the Mr and I visited the Harry Potter Studio Tour. I realised that I hadn’t shared the photos since I had to re-do the blog! I really love Harry Potter. I was a teenager when the first books came out and it wasn’t really the “in” thing for my age to read, but who am I to follow the social norm? I read them as soon as they came out and the films are always on repeat in my DVD player. So when the Mr asked me what I wanted for my birthday last year I knew there was only one thing I wanted, to go to the Harry Potter Studios. He has never read any of the books, seen any of the films and doesn’t really have any interest in them, but he was a good sport and played along for me.

So, without further ado here are some of the photos, the full set can be found on my Flickr account. My sister and I also went again a few weeks ago for her Christmas present (we had to re-arrange it twice due to the snow!).

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March’s changes

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I can’t believe it’s March already, we’re all ready two months into 2013 and it’s been a whirlwind of a year for me so far. At the beginning of the year I set out plans to make monthly aims and goals from my One Little Word intentions. I’m taking Elise Blaha’s I Choose and this is really helping me to set goals which I really can achieve.

My One Little Word intention for March is “Healthier changes”. This is something that I struggle with at times and other times it comes very naturally to me. It’s all about small changes this month, it’s the small changes that will be easier to keep up and in turn form the big changes. I’ve set some healthier aims and goals this month:

  • Eat breakfast each day
  • Go for a walk at least twice a week
  • Take one lunchtime each week out, away from my desk and my computer

It’s not just about my physical health but my mental health as well. Taking time out for me, away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Taking time out for me to sit and think, without the distractions that everyday life brings.

Here’s to a healthier March…

One Little Word – February

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I will admit that my One Little Word (CHANGE) hasn’t been at the forefront of my mind this month. Well, that’s not completely true. Change has been around me this month, it has completely engulfed me this month, what I haven’t been doing is thinking about how I’m documenting this change. I haven’t been focused on the One Little Word assignments. This months assignment was to make a vision board for our word. I thought long and hard about this, and then decided that it didn’t appeal to me.

I use Pinterest, a lot, and to me making a vision board isn’t that different to making a board on Pinterest. So I utilised Pinterest and did some updating of my different boards on there. I already had one set up for my One Little Word 2013 and it conveyed my word pretty well I felt. Cutting and stick out of magazines is difficult for me, mainly due to the lack of magazines I don’t own, and the fact that our house is currently in the state of starting to be boxed up to move.

I am taking time out to journal the changes though and these will go into my One Little Word album, along with maybe some photos and scrapbooking if I feel like it. I feel like choosing a word to focus on throughout the year is really helping me to think about what’s going on and how I feel about things.

How are you getting on with your One Little Word project?

Project Life 2013 – Week 3

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I’m playing catch up which means that there’s quite a few Project Life posts in a row, I’m sorry! I do have some different posts planned over the next few weeks though. This week is pretty journalling heavy given everything that happened and a lot of it has been removed or blurred out for privacy. This is what week 3 looked like for me. You can click through on the images to go to the project on Two Peas website.

I am loving the Seafoam Project Life kit for doing my layouts. It makes it so much easier, no picking colours or cards. I just dip into my Seafoam folder, pick what I want, resize it if needed and ta da, it’s all done. It also gives me a great colour base to chose from, and they’re the perfect colours for me.

The blank space at the bottom is a page of journalling that I didn’t want included, as it the top right. Middle right is an instagram photo, on a scaled down paper with some washi tape brush added in for effect, I love it! I wasn’t sleeping much this week and my cat was keeping me company when I was up in the wee hours of the morning. It was also the Mr’s mum’s birthday and I made her some birthday cupcakes to celebrate. The title was done on my iPad using skitch and then imported via Evernote.

It was a snow week this week, we had loads of snow and it stuck around for about a fortnight in total. Apparently we’re still expecting more! Our guttering is blocked so it was dripping down and it was so cold that it was building this ice bush, which the Mr very kindly photographed for me when he was out servicing my car at the weekend. I also took some time out to work on my One Little Word bits which I really enjoyed. The middle right is more journalling.

Do you find that some weeks are photo heavy and others are journalling heavy?

Project Life 2013 – Week 2

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So, better late than never! With everything that’s been going on round here I’m currently playing catch up with Project Life, but I’m fine with that. This is what week 2 looked like for me. You can click through on the images to go to the project on Two Peas website.

This was a really difficult for me, a lot happened in the 7 days and I sturggled with how to document it as most of it was upsetting. I opted for lots of photos and no journalling. I have done a lot of journalling about what happened but that’s staying private in my journal for now. Later down the line I may make some of it public but I doubt it.

This side was the week in general and what happened. I left my old office as our department was re-shuffled (which I struggled with, a lot!). I also struggled a lot with my sleep and worked from home a couple of times that week to help me get through, which really did help. The photo in bottom right is of our office all boxed up (I stole it from Sharon as I wasn’t in on the day we left, thank you!). AS for the quote from Kam, it made me giggle on a day when I just needed to laugh!

At the end of the week my very good friend Karen sadly passed away. At the time I couldn’t bring myself to write anything in here so instead I filled it with photos of happier times and took a screenshot of our roller derby page, showing the sheer love out there for her. The top photo is our team at the last game we played showing her some love as she was in hospital in London receiving treatment for the cancer. The bottom right is an awesome drawing done by a friend as we prepare for our marathon in May.

How are you getting on with your project life?