For the third year running I'm taking part in A Buyer's Archive inspired by Elise, to keep track of my spending on clothes and accessories.

THIS YEAR


Floral maxi dress  |  £13.00
This dress is something I've been looking for for a while. Long, floaty, floral, buttons. It could only really be improved with the addition of pockets. It'll be a while before it's warm enough to wear it but I'm looking forward to that day.

Black flip flops  |  90p
Of everything I bought this month, these are the only purchase I really needed, to replace those of last year.

Navy flip flops  |  90p
Because sometimes navy works better than black (this is certainly true of my wardrobe anyway), and these have already been worn quite a lot.

Pre-loved  Chatham pink brogues  |  £9.75
Spied on the shelf in my local charity shop, I think I did a little happy dance when I discovered that they were my size.

Pre-loved H&M grey jumper  |  £4.75
Because you can't have too many grey jumpers. This one is a loose fit so I think it'll sit over the top of dresses nicely.

ASOS green dress  |  £15.00 (£20.00 in the sale, originally £40.00, but I had a £5.00 voucher)
The website didn't show the colour of this dress accurately, but luckily I liked it even more in the flesh. The sleeves were an odd length so I shortened them, and I've removed the polyester lining from the bodice (I don't know why it was there, the fabric isn't at all sheer). And now I think it's set to become one of my favourites.

Then I went on a charity shop jaunt with Sophie.

Pre-loved Phase Eight cardigan  |  £2.49
I like a cardy and this one felt really warm, it's heavy, but feels thin to the touch. It has nice long sleeves (nice to keep your hands warm on a cold day), and a nice shape. I'm going to pop it away for autumn.

Pre-loved Monsoon dress  |  £8.00
I have a feeling I saw this at the same time as another shopper, but I got my hands on it first! I love the pattern, the colour, the length, and it has pockets! A perfect summer dress if ever there was.


LAST YEAR


I had a spendy month in April last year.

The two stripe tops, three vests, grey socks, silver bag, sunglasses and case, red scarf, and hello gorgeous tote bag have all been used a lot.

The black flip flops were worn all summer until they fell apart in late autumn, which doesn't sound like a lot but they were worn almost everyday.

The white pumps, tan sandals, and necktie were only worn a handful of times.

The black ra-ra dress was only worn once, to Latitude. But it's not going anywhere, I love it too much to part with it.

The white dress and Laura Ashley skirt were never worn and were popped into the charity bag. The dress was from a tall range and didn't fit well, and the skirt was too snug around the waist.

The earrings have yet to be worn but will remain, and the coral top was purchased to replace an identical one that had holes I couldn't repair. It hadn't been worn until recently when I put it in my spring capsule, I wore it for the first time when the sun came out (remember when the sun come out, wasn't it lovely?).


At the end of March I'd leveled the new vs pre-loved count and it's still equal at 12 pieces each. Jotting down why I bought an item (i.e. I wanted it or I needed it) has really highlighted how much I buy because I simply wanted it. It's not a surprise, I've always known I buy too much, but I didn't realise until now, how much fell into the 'I want it' category. Will that change? I doubt the change will be obvious, but who knows? Maybe.

Total for April £54.79

Total so far for 2018: £147.02

Total at this time last year: £229.26

Left of £600.00 budget: £452.98

What have you been buying this month?

Look out for the #buyersarchive hashtag to see others taking part. 

I've fallen a little behind with these weekend posts. I think I'll make them monthly from May onwards, they might be longer but at least I can keep on top of them (probably).

I hope you don't mind another list. I seem to post a lot of lists - what I do, what I want to do, what I buy, what I wear...  but my bio does say I'm a writer of lists so it's not like you weren't warned ;-)

Anyway, weekend no.13 was Easter weekend, and therefore a four day weekend. It seems like such a long time ago now. Sadly though Andy and I both felt dreadful. For two people that don't get ill very often this year is kicking our asses!

On Good Friday we planted our remembrance tree. It was covered in the tiniest beginnings of buds and now it's covered in leaves and blossom about to bloom. It's beautiful, and it makes me smile.

On the Saturday Andy and I both felt worse than we did the day before, but we had errands. Errands of the cow muck variety - fun huh? We filled the back of Andy's truck with muck and delivered it to my brother for his veggie plot. I've never seen anyone so pleased to receive a huge pile of poo. After that we went to my Mum's house to fill the truck with soil she needed to remove from her garden. This is the curse of having a truck. We don't mind helping out of course, but I can think of nicer ways to spend a Saturday when you're feeling poorly.

On the Sunday we had a much easier day. I sat knitting whilst Andy caught up with some laptop based work. So it turned into a bit of a sofa day and neither of us minded one little bit. Oh, and we also ate some chocolate, we weren't so unwell that we didn't indulge in some Easter treats! I gave Andy some Ferrero Rocher eggs, which lasted approximately 3 minutes. Try them if you ever get the opportunity.


Andy was back at work on the Bank Holiday Monday and I, feeling a little better, pottered in the greenhouse. I planted my Dahlia tubers, two sorts - Pom Pom and Cactus - and am ridiculously excited to see them grow and bloom. Then some spinach, rainbow carrot, and radish seeds were sown. The spinach and radishes are already off to a flying start. I'm often amazed at how quickly things germinate and grow.


I hadn't made many plans for Weekend no.14 as sinusitis had taken hold after the illness of the week before. I knew I'd need some downtime, to take it easy. So I settled on taking photos for my Bookshelf Scavenger Hunt post. I'd selected the books ages ago but knew I needed a good chunk of time to get them taken, it was lovely to immerse myself in the task, it was thoroughly enjoyable.

The next day I drove to Aldeburgh to have lunch in Prezzos for an Aunt's birthday. Lots of family, chaos, good food and arguing over the bill preceded a slow walk (small children in attendance) on the beach.

We'd planned to walk to the Maggi Hambling shell sculpture on the beach but this was a silly idea with a two year old who wanted to stop and examine every pebble. I had a conversation with a 5 year old that went a little like this:
5yo: Where is the shell? I can't see the shell
Me: We're not close enough to see it yet, it's over there (pointing in general direction)
5yo: I can't see it
Me: That's because we're not close enough yet, and it's a little misty
5yo: Where is the shell?
Me: Over there (not bothering to point again), we're not close enough to see it yet
5yo: I can't see the shell
Me: We're not... (pause) Wanna throw stones in the water?
5yo: Yeaaaaaah!


Weekend no.15 saw my local branch of Sue Ryder re-open. It had been closed for a 'major refurbishment' but it didn't look all that different to my eyes, not that it matters. I found a lovely pair of pink suede brogues, a(nother) grey sweater, and the next three books in a series I'm reading (bye bye book ban!).


On the Sunday I had to work to get a design ready in time for Monday morning. It doesn't happen often but sometimes deadlines are tight.


Weekend no.16 was when I met with Sophie in Bury St Edmunds for our bi-annual charity shop rummage. We had tea, we rummaged, we made purchases, we had lunch in the lovely Edmundo Lounge, we shopped a little more, and then headed home - all in glorious sunshine! It was a lovely day.

Sunday was indeed a sun-day, the weather was flippin' gorgeous. I spent some time in the greenhouse pottering, planting two trays of lettuce leaves, some more spinach, and some baby leeks. I had a general tidy up and once that was all done I sat reading in the sunshine. I even got to spend some time with Andy, I asked if he was able to take me to our local garden centre to pick up some more compost, he didn't really have the time but obliged anyway. Sunday's don't come much better than this.

...................

It was my wish at the beginning of the year to avoid that Sunday night feeling of a weekend wasted. My goal was to have a plan in place for the coming weekend by each Friday evening. And despite illness trying to thwart my plans, it's working well. I don't work full time, and unless I absolutely have to, I keep my weekends work free, it gives some structure to my otherwise very unstructured week.

What have been up to recently?

I'm 365 days into my Day Zero Project with 636 days remaining.

Writing the list really made me think about things I'd like to do. I felt energised after I'd written it, and ticking things off a list is something I always find immensely satisfying.

This list helps me put together my seasonal to-do lists, and has pushed me to do things that I would otherwise put into the 'one day' category. For example No. 92 Sleep in an overnight train, and No. 82 Attend the midnight premiere of a movie are the kind of things that I'd say 'we should do that' but never make a plan to actually do it. Now I think about the how, when and where.

No.85 on the list is to Visit seven restaurants in seven days and I've decided that's how I'm going to celebrate my birthday in August. I'll rope in my friends and family to help. I'm looking forward to it already!

I have several goals in progress, but here are the ones I've completed since my first update.

004. Decorate the kitchen
I went from a magnolia sort of colour to one called Natural Hessian, which is an equally pale shade of beige. Most people haven't noticed the change, but I prefer it, it looks fresher and really suits the kitchen.

021. See a psychic
Psychics fascinate me, I swing between believing it and thinking it's total bunkum. I had my first psychic reading when I was 30 and it blew me away, the lady told me so many things that were either true or came true over the next few months.

Anyway, this time I had a one-to-one reading with a chap called Ryan Gooding. It'd been booked for months and I was a little hesitant, but I needn't have been. I won't go into details but I was impressed.


028. Go on a picnic
My sister-in-law organised a picnic for my birthday at Framlingham Castle, we had Buck's Fizz, smoked salmon and birthday cake - complete with candles. And my nephew H made a heart shaped cheese scone especially for me.


029. Grow something edible in the greenhouse
I've grown mixed lettuce leaves, lambs lettuce, 2 varieties of spring onions, garlic chives, cucamelons, and a few raspberries and strawberries. This year I've got spinach, radish, and rainbow carrots sown, and have lettuce leaves, baby leeks and sweet peppers to sow (and soon!). On a side note, the greenhouse is about to receive a bit of a make-over - replacing broken glass and new benches.

041. Find and master a dessert recipe that will become my signature dish
I found a recipe for Malteaser cheesecake on Pinterest and made it for Andy's birthday last year, I got up early so it had time to set and smuggled it over to his parents house later that day. It was delicious!

I made it for a family gathering on Christmas Eve, and then again when visiting my brother and his family a few months later.

048. Bake and decorate a chocolate cake for Andy's birthday
Having discovered that Andy isn't actually that keen on chocolate cake I decided to make him the cheesecake above, which also gave me the opportunity to tick two things off the list.


050. Find seaglass
I picked up my first bit on a beach clean in June last year, and since then I've found a good handful.


054. Take part in a beach clean up
I've actually done this three times now, the first of which you can read about here, and the third time here, as part of a Photo An Hour day. I'll be doing another one in June.

087. Visit a lavender field
I couldn't believe my luck when I found a lavender farm in Suffolk, so I went along and it was charming. 

Completed: 13
In progress: 17

What's on your list of things you'd like to do?

My Day Zero page

I usually post a load of outfit photos for these capsule round-up posts, but I didn't take a single photo over winter. I just wasn't in the mood. Winter is probably the least exciting season in terms of outfits as I tend to hibernate in jeans, jumpers, and lots and lots of layers. And the idea of standing outside in the cold taking photos really didn't float my boat.

What I did do over winter was keep a tally of how often I wore everything in the capsule for the three months it lasted. I was intrigued by the idea after promising myself I'd follow the #30Wears rule when buying clothes i.e. if I don't think I'll wear something 30 times or more, I won't buy it.

But that does beg the question, how long does it take to wear an item 30 times? Do I ever wear items 30 times? Do I wear my 'favourite' items as often as I think I do? I decided to find out.

The only item I wore 30 times or more were my wide leg jeans, found in a charity shop in August last year, photographed here in October. I wore these 31 times during the first three months of the year.

It came as no surprise to me that jeans were worn most often. If they're a good fit, my jeans are worn until they fall apart. Of all of the clothes I own jeans are the only things I can say, without a doubt, that I wear more than 30 times.


Next up was long cardy that often served as an extra layer in the evenings, this was worn 27 times.

My long sleeved striped t-shirt was worn 18 times, and shows my penchant for layering in the winter months.

My skinny jeans only got 16 wears, possibly because I've fallen out of love with them. The stretch has gone, so they'll be going off to the rag recycling, but I do know that in the time I've had them (three years) they would've been worn far more than 30 times. I practically lived in these when they were new.

One of my wardrobe staples is this navy jumper, which had 15 wears.

My newly re-discovered leather jacket came out 14 times.

And my bootcut jeans (which have possibly been in my life longer than Andy, and repaired many, many times), and my wax jacket each racked up 13 wears.

My black long sleeved t-shirt had 12 wears, the pink jumper, purchased in December, had 11 wears (and is not faring too well, truth be told).

A March purchase, a pair of pre-loved Gap cords, were worn 11 times (and 5 times already from my spring capsule!).

My beige jumper, another navy jumper, and stripe jumper each got 8 wears. My khaki skirt 7 wears.

An old cowl neck jumper 6, my green jumper 5, and 4 wears for my cocoon cardy, Joules top, pink check shirt, heart print shirt, and red floral skirt.

My floral shirt, grey jumper, green skirt, and black jumper had 3 wears each.

Two wears for my grey coat, twist top, khaki trousers and newest grey cardy.

The only things that didn't get worn are my black mini skirt, my black skinny jeans, and my beige maxi. The later I think wasn't worn due to it being an odd length after I had to take the hem up to repair it. I think it needs to go from maxi to midi in order for me to wear it again... back to the mend pile it goes.

Of course some of these items have been worn before, as this only shows what I wore over three months, from a 33 piece capsule, but it does show how some items can take a while to be worn 30 times.

The idea behind the #30Wears rule is to wear the clothes we have more, and for longer. You can find out more about the idea behind #30Wears here, and I'll leave you with this one statistic, if clothes stayed in active use for nine months longer (extending their average life to around three years), this would reduce their carbon, water and waste footprints by 20-30% (source).

I read this scavenger hunt tag over on Confuzzledom and knew before I'd finished reading that I'd take part. I don't normally keep many books once I've read them, preferring to pass them on to be read and loved by someone else. But last year I kept all the books I'd read as I'd planned to take a photo of myself standing by the pile for my Books of 2017 post. And then I forgot.

I'm using this pile as my main hunting ground, so it's kinda relevant. Here's the photo, complete with a grumpy cat. Now I can get books back to their rightful owners and donate the rest.


Having looked through the books again I'm feeling rather nostalgic about most of them, passing them on one by one is easy, but to get rid of a huge pile all at once feels really hard. I am keeping a few, but I don't have space to keep them all, and even if I did I probably wouldn't read them again anyway. I've always thought that a book that is read only once is a sad thing indeed. That's probably why I prefer second hand books, well, that and the price saving.

Anyway, I tried to find out where this tag originated, it's possible it started on YouTube, but I failed to find the author, however in my search I did find a few more items for the list.

Here goes...


Find an author’s name or title with the letter Z in it
I though this would be tricky but as it turns out I had five in my pile. I enjoyed all of these books, having a Z in your name obviously makes you an interesting and imaginative person, ha!


Find a classic 
Why didn't I read this sooner?


Find a book with a key on it
This is in my TBR pile.


Find something on your bookshelf that’s not a book
There aren't many things on the shelves that aren't books. This little fella was given to be by a friend years ago, he's survived four house moves, and makes me smile as he sits there silently guarding my books.


Find the oldest book on your shelf
Oliver Twist, this belonged to my Dad, he was going to give it to charity but I snagged it from the box without him noticing.


Find a book with a girl on the cover
The Girl With All The Gifts. Excellent book. Now I just need to see the film. Do I get extra points for having the word 'girl' in the title too?


Find a book with a boy on the cover
I read a review by Char and was delighted to find it on one of my charity shop jaunts soon after. It's funny, uplifting, informative, and touching. Such a good book.


Find a book that has an animal on the cover
I like a bit of post-apocalyptic fiction.
 

Find a book with a male protagonist
"It follows a teenage boy named Seth who, after drowning in the ocean, wakes up alone on a desolate suburban English street in what he believes to be hell" classic Patrick Ness.


Find a book with only words on it
The Road was an exhausting read, it was so good. I was genuinely worried for the main characters at times, sometimes I had to read way past my bedtime to find out what happened next, other times I had to stop reading for fear of something awful happening. I wouldn't say it's an enjoyable read but one that, once started, you have to finish.


Find a book with illustrations in it
This is The Power by Naomi Alderman. It's peppered with illustrations throughout. This was given to me at Christmas, and was recommended so fervently that it was one of the first books I read this year.


Find a book with gold lettering
Another on my TBR pile.


Find a diary (true or fictional)
The Diary of Samuel Pepys. I remember learning about the Great Plague of London, and the Great Fire of London in primary school, and being fascinated. I don't often read non-fiction but I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into this.


Find a book written by someone with a common name (e.g. Smith)
Brown is the best I can do. This has been on the TBR pile for ages, it was recommended to me but I didn't get into it after reading the first chapter, I have too many other books vying for my attention, but I hope to get to it one day.


Find a book that has a close up of something on it
Close up of a face. This book was so interesting, it made me want to visit Guernsey.


Find a book on your shelf that takes place in the earliest time period
Set in 1527, in Rome and Venice, I really enjoyed this tale of a sharp-witted dwarf and his beguiling mistress.


Find a hardcover book without a jacket
Cute cover, and lovely illustrations throughout. I often dip in and out of this.


Find a teal/turquoise colored book
This is another on my TBR pile, isn't it a beautiful cover? I'm saving this for winter, and it'll probably take me that long to read everything else also on my TBR pile!


Find a book with stars on it
The Forgetting Time. I picked this up for 50p purely because I liked the cover. I know you should never judge and all that, but it was an enjoyable and interesting book.

Find a non YA book
Having visited the Elephant Sanctuary in Nairobi I wanted to read this autobiography by Daphne Sheldrick about her amazing life in Africa surrounded by and caring for animal orphans. Such an absorbing read.

And these are the additional categories I found

Find the longest book you own
Based on the number of pages this is the longest on my bookshelf. I have the Twilight series but I think I've only read the first three books. I can't remember, it's so long ago. I keep them because I feel I should read them all, but I might need to go back to the beginning and start again.


Find the shortest book you own
Unboxed by Non Pratt is the shortest book on the shelves. I read it in one sitting and it was utterly delightful. It has a lovely cover too.


Find a book with multiple PoVs
The story alternates chapters between Zak's story and Ana's. It's a lovely YA read, sweet, funny, utterly enjoyable. And the book itself is deliciously floppy, I like that in a book. I dislike stiff spines that need cracking in order for you to be able to read the pages comfortably.


Find a shiny book
It's hard to tell in the photo but the blue bits are metallic.

Find a book with flowers on it
This is Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver, the sequel to Delirium, the flowers aren't obvious on the cover but that's why I like it. It's a good series, the first and second books are the better of the three but all worth a read.

Let me know if you take part in this tag, I'll pop over and have a read.

The first quarter of the year went by so fast that putting this together was a bit last minute (as in started and finished on April 1st!) Looking at it now I've realised that I've only included one coat, and that's a denim jacket so this might not be my most successful capsule to date.

I have two spaces 'free' because I'm going on a charity shop rummage with Sophie soon and we always come home with armfuls of pre-loved items.

I have some old favourites here - my yellow maxi, my khaki trousers, my khaki mini skirt and some new purchases - a red floral skirt, a floral skater dress, and ditsy print shirt. It's a real mixture of old and new, new and pre-loved. And hopefully a good mix (if we ignore the lack of a proper jacket) to see me through the cooler days of early spring and the (hopefully) warmer days of late spring.

This time around I quickly put together a chart of possible outfits - the things you do on a wet Sunday afternoon! I'll be ticking them off to see how many I wear. I hope it'll be warm enough for me to wear the 23 different outfits with shorts here - we can but hope, right?

How are you ringing the changes for spring?

My winter list was a simple one, with just ten things to tick off. As always some things didn't get completed but it just means I can add them to another list for another day, another season. Here are the ones I did complete.

Read 12 books
I ended 2017 reading The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder, a book I picked up in a charity shop to read for Rosalyn's Instagram prompt #AdventToShare. In January I kicked off my reading challenge with The Two Faces of January by Patricia Highsmith, and since then I haven't been able to resist the urge to read in colour order, just like last year.

Plan my greenhouse growings
I have seeds ready and waiting to be planted out soon, starting with rainbow mix carrot, spinach, and radish. A bit later a lettuce mix and baby leeks will join them. My brother has given me some strawberry plants. I'm also growing some marigolds from seed for my Dad, and for me I'm planting as many dahlia tubers as I have pots for. Sophie tells me they're easy to grow and need minimal care, so I've got high hopes, and visions of vase upon vase of colourful, fluffy dahlias come the summer months.

Mend
I set myself the task of completing half the pile one weekend in March. I did pretty well, even if I didn't get to the half way point, but I did mend the things that I was most likely to wear. I think some things in my mend pile will end up in the charity bag, thus saving me the bother of altering them. But the pile is definitely smaller. Progress.

I was going to list everything mended here but I might do a separate post instead?

Donate to a food bank
My local Tesco has a collection point and I've started to add 'food bank' to my shopping list to remind me to pick something up each time I go in. I don't go in to the store very often as I have my groceries delivered but, as they say, every little helps.

Get into the woods
In late December we went for a walk to blow away the Christmas cobwebs. The following weekend we planted our small Christmas tree and chopped some wood for the fire. Winter is when Andy has the most free time for such activities, it might be cold but when you're chopping wood or carrying armfuls of it to the truck you soon warm up.

Go to the beach
I took part in my third beach clean organised and run by Adnams in Southwold. It's something I really enjoy, it's very therapeutic, and I'm always amazed by how much we pick up.

Turn off the TV and do a jigsaw puzzle / play a board game
This is how we spent New Year's Eve. We didn't fancy going out, but I didn't want to sit in front of the TV, just like almost every other night of the year, so we played games. And at midnight we swept the hallway, opened the door, swept out the dust, and welcomed in the new year.

How was your winter? What did you get up to?