Morning at the Park

It's a beautiful morning here in Doncaster. Lovely sunshine, blue skies but very cold - the perfect Winter's day.

We took the girls and the dog to the park this morning. It was Abby's first time on the swing, while Freya's a seasoned pro!

Wishing you a wonderful weekend, whatever the weather.

xxx

Home-Cooked Curry

Tonight I made us a lovely turkey curry for our dinner.  I got the recipe from Lucy's blog.  It was soooo easy, quick & tasted delicious.

I can highly recommend it!

xxx

Niggles

I wonder, is it just me who gets really annoyed at the thought of a bed not being made "properly"?  I usually have to come upstairs at some point during the morning to re-make it so that the pillows that we sleep on are put underneath the "decoration" pillows & that the bedspread covers the bed.  Ok, maybe that sounds a bit OCD but I do it nonetheless & I don't complain about it - I like to come upstairs at the end of the day to a "welcoming" bed &, seeing as I'm the one who comes to bed first, it actually only affects me.

Unfortunately today, with doctors appointments, playgroups, food shopping etc today I did not come upstairs to check to see how the bed was made.......

This was what greeted me when I came up to bed.........

Crafty Morning

Yesterday morning the girls and I spent some time getting crafty.

I think another relaxing day is in store for us today.

I hope you're also having a lovely weekend.

xxx

Crochet

I have done some crochet over the past year or so. Of course, as I mentioned in my previous post, I made this cushion for my mum for Christmas:

I have also made 2 blankets. The first was my crochet version of a knitted one that I saw in Mamas and Papas:

The second was one that I made for Hubby in my quest to give him something more "manly" to wrap up in during the cold winter evenings!

Here are a couple of close-up photos of some of the squares:

I am also making really good progress on the blanket that forms the Art of Crochet series. I will take some photos of that soon and will post them another time.

xxx

Ps.  I would like to thank Kelly for the mention on her blog today

Zone 2 - Kitchen

Well, week 2 of FLYing full-time has nearly passed and I am soooo pleased with myself. I've been working on the kitchen this week and am amazed at how much I've been able to do just 15 minutes at a time. Here are the "before" pictures:




































Here are the "after" ones:

I even managed to clean the oven!!!

In other news, both of my girls have dreadful coughs & colds, so we've spent the past 2 nights having to get up what seems like every 5 minutes to sort them out. Freya didn't go to nursery yesterday or today & already I'm noticing the difference in her - she NEEDS to get better & get back!!!!!

Have a lovely weekend.

xxx

Family Day

We've had such a busy week!  Freya started nursery on Tuesday morning so it was a real test for me to be able to get us all up, fed and ready for Freya to start at 8am. I used to work full time and be out of the house by 8am every morning but since being home I've become out of practise!  Don't get me wrong, my girls usually don't let me sleep in past 7am and I am always dressed before I come downstairs but knowing that there is a time deadline makes a huge difference.

Having 5 hours Freya-free for 3 days this week has been odd. It's been so quiet! I did miss having her around chattering about random things but I didn't miss the squabbling that usually accompanies any length of time that Abby and Freya spend playing together! I also managed to get my housework done during this time and that meant I had the afternoons to devote to playing with both of my babies.

It'll be back to the grindstone on Monday (next week my focus is going to be on my kitchen - yuk!) But for now we're enjoying our family time playing.

Have a lovely weekend.

xxx

Home

Well the decorations have come down and our lounge is back to being a clean, tidy, "adult" space. Our mantelpiece and bookshelves had become a real hot-spot for clutter (paperwork, remote controls, headphones, mobiles, keys etc - stuff that doesn't have a home straight away). I'm so pleased that these areas are clear, they look lovely - I have posted the photos to remind myself & get out of the habit of dumping stuff there!!!

As per FlyLady's zone cleaning for this week I spent yesterday morning cleaning the dining room. I took out all the crystal glasses, washed them and put them back into the nicely polished shelves in the cabinet. The glass doors were cleaned too and it all looks very sparkly and shiny now, as you can see from the photo.

Unfortunately the same can't be said for the rest of that room as the girls' Christmas presents have well & truly taken over!!!





Plus, there is also a corner of paperwork, boxes & all manner of junk that we have dumped.....







We will get there slowly but surely!

xxx

Happy New Year

Wishing you a very happy and healthy 2012.

One of my "resolutions" (I use the term loosely!) is to try to post on my blog more often. When I first posted I was so disorganised, had mountains of ironing, stuff everywhere etc but I do feel like I've come a long way since then - mainly thanks to FlyLady - so I think it would be nice to try to keep a record of what I do as it would be something to look back on when I feel like I'm slipping to show that I am making progress.

2011 was a mixture for me. On the bad side Hubby is still off work and doesn't seem to be getting better (it will have been 2 years since he was signed off this month). On the other hand, we had our gorgeous number 2, Abby, moved to a new area, which we're already feeling much happier & more settled in, and Freya is loving her new "social life" with all of the playgroups that we go to.  Scarily she turned 3 at the beginning of December & is starting nursery on Tuesday for 15 hours a week - it will be lovely in a way to have a bit of a break as she really needs more activity and interaction than I feel she gets at home so she does tend to play up a bit, but on the other hand I think I will feel at a bit of a loss to start with!.

On the crochet note, I feel like I've been doing well with that too.  I haven't got loads of finished projects to show but I'm happy with the couple I've done, most notably my Mum's Christmas present, a Union Flag cushion to go in her bedroom.

Here's to health, happiness, more domesticity and crochet in 2012!