This year I'm making my resolutions at the start of each month, hoping that this will make the year a productive one. Obviously anything I do this month will be based at home.

It was hard to think of things to do this month. Whenever I thought about what I wanted to do the answer was always 'see my family'. Not knowing when I can see them again is upsetting. I imagine you all feel the same, it's hard isn't it? I know we're more connected than ever but nothing beats seeing someone in person. I'm going to hug my family so flippin' hard when I see them next.

It's a worrying time for everyone, and my worries are not as bad as for some, in the grand scheme of things I'm very lucky.

So, here's what I decided I would do in April.

1. Mend my green skirt
I'm going to give it a go, zips aren't my strong point but it can't be that hard, and it's not as if I've never sewn a zip before. I think I'm just being a bit precious about it because I like the skirt so much. My motivation is that if I don't mend it now, I won't be able to get it professionally mended for a few months and I want to start wearing it again.

2. Fill the greenhouse
I want to plant as many seeds as possible, I've already made a start. I have loads of packets, some veg, some flowers, and I want to grow more this year than ever before. Getting outside and pottering in my greenhouse is one of my favourite things to do, so I'm going to get out there as much as I can. If there is one thing that will keep me sane during lockdown, it's this.

3. Pick at least four DIY jobs and get them done
I always have a DIY to-do list, some of them are fiddly little jobs that in all honesty would only take a short time, and now's the perfect time.

What do you have planned for April?

Stay safe and take care.
xx

This year I'm making my resolutions at the start of each month, but March didn't quite go to plan. Coronavirus put a bloody great - if absolutely necessary - spanner in the works.

Here's what happened

1. Get my green skirt zip professionally mended
I'd found a place to take it but hadn't managed to do so before social distancing kicked in, and now, lockdown.

2. Get out
I'd been hibernating over winter, and wanted to get out and about a little more (Ha! if only I'd known). My plan was to visit the Ed Sheeran Exhibition at Christchurch Mansion, and the new (and only) independent bookshop that'd just opened up in the town centre. The Ed exhibition was closed due to coronavirus long before it was mandatory, but I did get to visit the bookshop.



It isn't huge but it's lovely. It has bowls of sweets, plants, and a wonderful selection of books. I might have fallen in love with the Macmillan Collectors Library, and made the first of what I'm sure will be many purchases. The bookshop has since closed it's doors for a while, just three weeks after opening.



I can still get outside into my garden of course. My greenhouse is very welcoming at the moment, it provides shelter from the chilly wind, and allows me to enjoy the warmth of the sun. It's not the same as getting out to do things and see people but it'll be the thing that keeps me sane over the coming weeks.

3. Get listing
On the first Saturday of the month I listed a number of items on ebay, most of which sold. I'd planned to list several things every Saturday morning throughout the month, but decided not to after the first week. I cancelled the listings of the things that had relisted automatically so that I didn't have to go to the Post Office again, keeping my public appearances to a minimum.

It's hard to believe that only a few weeks ago life still looked so normal, and here we are on lockdown, I'm trying to keep things as normal as possible, taking note of all the things that haven't changed. The birds are still singing, the signs of spring are still emerging, life maybe a muddle but it carries on regardless.

I hope you're all well. What are you doing in the 'new normal'?
xx

This year I'm making my resolutions at the start of each month, hoping that this will refocus my attention and make the year a productive one.

1. Get my green skirt zip professionally mended
I tried to replace the zip on my favourite skirt but made a really bad job of it. I haven't worn it for months but I want it fixed and ready for Spring.

2. Get out
I've been hibernating, it's time to get out and about a little more. At the very least I want to have visited the Ed Sheeran Exhibition at Christchurch Mansion, and the new (and only) independent bookshop that's just opened up in the town centre.

3. Get listing
With an ever growing pile of items I want to sell on ebay, I need to put aside some time to get everything listed. It's part of my plan to make 2020 a year of decluttering.


Here's how I got on in February

1. Make a start on my office blind
This is underway. The problem I had was the sun coming in through my office window and blinding me, but, being an awkward sort of person, I didn't want to put up blinds and sit in the dark. I have voile curtains that keep out the sun about as much as a fine mist would, so I needed an alternative.

After some pondering I came up with a solution.

Step 1. Buy a spring loaded shower rail (easy to install without the need to drill holes) to go inside the window recess.

Step 2. Temporarily hang a large scarf over the rail to create a panel that I can slide across as the sun moves round over the course of the day.

Step 3. Create a handmade panel, using either patchwork, lace, felt, possibly some simple embroidery, or a mixture of some or all of them.



Until I decide on how I want to construct the panel Step 3 will remain on the to-do list. As it stands the problem is solved, the solution just needs to move from temporary, to finished. For now I'm just happy that I can sit at my desk and work without being blinded by the sun.

2. Bathroom improvements
I had only three tasks on the list. Install a towel ring, replace the shower head bracket, and reseal the bath. I spent a cold a blustery weekend getting these things ticked off the list.

3. Plan eco friendly crackers
I have a collection of items to use as fillers (kept from crackers of days gone by, all collected during my decluttering in January), along with the snaps, the hats, and the jokes (all recyclable), so now I need the cracker part. I've found some on Amazon - don't judge me, I haven't found any elsewhere - that are plain white recyclable card that I can decorate according to the season or occasion.

One month down, 11 to go.

This year I'm making my resolutions at the start of each month, hoping that this will refocus my attention and make the year a productive one.

1. Make a start on my office blind
I need a blind for my office so that I can sit at my computer and not be dazzled by the sun. But if I had a blind I'd be sitting in the dark most days, which I don't fancy much. I dislike Venetian and vertical blinds which would allow me to let in a little more light, but, yuck.

My solution for the last few years has been to sling a blanket over the curtain pole and move it as the sun moves round, blocking out just enough sun to allow me to work without burning my retinas.

But it looks a bastard. And it isn't exactly a permanent solution, although I have been using this method for at least 4 years. Finally I came up with a solution that will not only work but will look awesome too (I hope). I'll be needing my sewing kit. Watch this space...

2. Bathroom improvements
The bathroom to-do list has been patiently waiting it's turn for some time now. There are only three tasks on the list, it shouldn't take much time at all...

3. Plan eco friendly crackers
We love a cracker but so often the metallic finish or glitter on them means they can't be recycled, so I vowed to make my own this year, thinking that I'd have plenty of time before Christmas. Then I remembered that we also have crackers at Easter...


Here's how I got on in January

1. Eat the pantry
I wasn't particularly organised with my meal planning at the beginning of the month, and this helped me clear some space on the pantry shelves, because we had numerous 'stuff teas', which consisted of a random selection of any food that could be found. Once I'd got myself organised, I used the contents of my pantry to plan meals. Why is it so satisfying to use things up?

2. Get stuff on the walls
We now have the start of a gallery wall in the dining room. It's something I'd been planning to do for ages. Now I just need to keep adding to it.

3. Declutter the cupboard under the stairs, pantry, kitchen, and possibly my wardrobe
I started with the cupboard under the stairs on the first weekend of the year when I took down the Christmas decorations. We cleared out loads of old junk - some left from the previous owners - and made enough room to actually be able to walk in, which makes using the space much easier.

The pantry and the kitchen were done in tandem. It seemed like a huge task so I broke it down into small parts, first I cleared the odds and sods drawer in the kitchen, and the odds and sods box in the pantry... once started it was easy to keep going, doing a cupboard one day and a shelf the next. It's not entirely finished but it's well on it's way.

An added bonus was that I found a number of cracker fillers that I'd kept from previous years, which will help with my eco crackers.

I was going to leave my wardrobe purge until I'd finished the other tasks, only doing it if I'd completed everything else but it actually was the first job to be tackled. I stored away anything that wasn't going to be worn this season, found a few items to go to charity, and organised my wardrobe to the point of it being unrecognisable. Damn that felt good!

A promising start, I think.

I've been here before, at the start of another year, studiously making lots of resolutions, only to forget about them by the middle of February.

This year I want to make my resolutions at the start of each month, it can be anything, e.g. always have fresh flowers in the house, or focus on working my way through my never ending TBR pile, or get as many little DIY jobs ticked off the list as humanly possible.

The important thing is to decide at the beginning of each month what my focus will be, because having a limited attention span means I forget all about my good intentions after a few weeks, and things fall by the wayside, and another year passes and I still haven't painted those bloody radiator pipes in the hallway.

An added bonus is that I can make them seasonal, and relevant to what else is happening in my life at the time. There's no point deciding now that I'll go all out in the garden and start a huge landscaping project in June when I could find myself inundated with freelance work. It's more flexible, and will keep bringing my attention back to the changes I want to make.

By the end of 2020 I want to look back and see progress, I want to be able to point to things and say 'I changed / improved / implemented that in 2020'.

The first installment of my Monthly Resolutions is all about getting organised and doing things I've had on my to-do list for ages.

Eat the pantry.
Instead of ignoring the tins of food that have been in there for months, and constantly adding to the freezer stocks, I want to use up what we have. I know we have some items that I don't usually cook with, so I might discover some new recipes in the process.

Get stuff on the walls.
I've been planning a gallery wall in the dining room for ages, I have a small collection of photos to get me started, and what nicer way to start the year than with some new smiley photos to brighten up the place once the Christmas decorations come down?

Declutter
Starting with the cupboard under the stairs (good timing as this is where the Christmas decorations are stored), I'll then turn my attention too the pantry (see no.1), and then the kitchen.

If all this gets done, I'll turn my attention to my wardrobe.

What are your plans for 2020?

A new year's resolution of mine was to make a bee bath and plant some bee friendly plants in the garden. With the weather warming up I've been spending more and more time outside and I'd started to ponder how I was going to go about it.

I decided to start with a few small additions - the bee bath and a plant or two that bees are known to love.

I'd purchased and potted up a lavender, and was spending the afternoon pottering in the garden. It was then that I discovered an old bird bath languishing in our hedge. The base was hideous - adorned with squirrels and ivy - but the top was the perfect thing to create a bee bath.


I scrubbed it (almost) clean and placed it on an old pot to give it a little height. I'd already purchased some glass pebbles in readiness, and I had a pot full of stones (used in some of the table decorations at our wedding), so I popped a few of these into the dish and arranged it next to my newly potted lavender.


I wanted some more glass pebbles, and found a seller on ebay selling a selection in different sizes and colours, they were exactly what I was looking for and I was able to convert my Nectar points into ebay vouchers, so I got them with parting with a single penny!

I keep it topped up with rain water, and I'm really pleased with how it has turned out. And I love that I could re-purpose an ugly old bird bath and make into something new.

The first time I see a bee using it I'll be chuffed to bits - "build it and they will come".

Moving forward I'd like to plant some flowering thyme, I have some seedlings currently doing well in the greenhouse, and I'd like to plant some different lavender varieties, and cotton lavender, with it's pale foliage and bright yellow flowers, in other areas of the garden.

One day I'll plant a lavender hedge around one side of the greenhouse, but first I need to dig out an old gnarly rosebush that's claimed the ground as it's own.


I'm also planning to plant a Californian lilac with it's clusters of gorgeous blue flowers at the side of the house and in the front garden. And a common myrtle with it's delicate white flowers some where else, possibly on the other side of the house. They're ready and waiting in the greenhouse.


I've read that bees are particularly attracted to blue, yellow and white flowers, so with luck these will bring the bees humming and buzzing about, and in time I'll add other plants that will further entice them.