Monday, 2 January 2012

Last years successes

OK so on the 3rd January last year I blogged about my New year resolutions for 2011. I set myself 5 targets to achieve over the year, here's how I got on with them;

  1. to be more organised, I set this target with the intention of following an American site called FLY. I decided FLY was not for me somewhere around March, I just don't have the time at home daily to follow it. However from trying I have fallen into a sort of routine. I definitely have become more organised over the year, however there is still room for improvement during 2012.
  2. To spend more time with the children, again I feel I am getting better at spending quality time with the children. By organising my routines I am able to focus on the children when I am with them and do my paperwork etc outside of our family time, I also do not spend as much time worrying about when I will get my work done as I am focused on the designated task of the allotted time.
  3. I have so far redecorated the living room, the downstairs bathroom and both children's bedrooms. I have some work to do on each of these rooms still but they are definitely beginning to show our personalities more. I am planning on beginning the kitchen next.
  4. I made several outfits for Stephanie last year, I also managed to make myself 2 dresses, this is an improvement on previous years, I am aiming to continue this in 2011. I have already bought a length of material with the intention of turning it into a dress/skirt for me. Lets see if I can manage 3 items for me this year!
  5. Debt reduction. Definitely getting there, I have reduced a large debt by 1/2 and am working towards clearing it hopefully by the end of this year. I have cleared one smaller debt. Also in the transitions from student to unemployed to employed, there have been confusions over household bills such as rent and council tax due to ever changing then disappearing (thankfully!) benefit needs. I have cleared the back log from these. Also the confusion over the water bills from when we moved in to this house- I didn't receive a bill for over a year of living here, Thankfully this was a difficulty at the water company not mine as I had informed them when I moved in. So in getting the complications with the muddled water meter serial numbers unmuddled I had a large water bill in August, which I managed to clear by Christmas. In short I reduced my debt in 2011 considerably, however am not debt free yet I will continue working towards this through 2012.
In short I did not complete any of the resolutions from 2011, however I am pleased with the progress I am making towards them. I am aspiring to continue working towards them over the next year. Did you spot that I have changed from resolution to aspiration? It is part of my new positive look on what I am achieving. I am trying out a new positive mental attitude which I am hoping will carry me through 2012  and help me continue to work towards becoming debt free and having a degree of self-sufficientness. Expect to hear more about these aspirations over the coming year.

Want to see what I have achieved so far in 2012?

Well I hope so cos it's coming next in this post;
I have completed my repair pile, in it was a school shirt needing a button, a cushion with a split seam and Hello kitty with a slit throat! All now fixed and ready for use again. A monkey ear headband  from school which was broken in half, I made a small slit pulled out the broken headband and inserted one of Stephanie's unwanted ones before stitching the hole back up.

I also made these two bags for the children in my class using some of my stashed fabric. They are destined for use as rhyme bags. One will have transport in it, you can see some of the modes of transport thrifted from one of Dylan's old toy boxes. The other will have animals in, I have lots of these in the classroom already so will be able to easily acquire some of these tomorrow morning. We do have lots of transport items but I wanted some that are different from the everyday ones the children have so that they are easily recognised as mine when put in the wrong place.


This is my new note book. In it I am planning on keeping any project notes for things I make throughout the year. Details of things I read and find interesting, mostly things I find from various sources on the Internet as I see things I would like to do/ind more out about but then can't remember where I originally got the idea from in order to see it through effectively. These 2 pages are detailing tonight's thoughts. They include information on the bags I made. The roman blind I am planning to make (I'll tell you more of this at a later date.) As well as thoughts around veg growing and foraging plans for the year, again I will write  a separate post full of these ideas later in the week. Now though I need to go and make the lunches as it is back to school for all members of the littlefamilyof3 in the morning and getting up is unlikely to be a fun experience as we have all got used to our lay ins!

Wednesday, 28 December 2011

Turkey, Turkey and more turkey

For Christmas I ordered a 15lb turkey back in October. It is ordered through my aunt who's friend has a small holding. I ordered a large turkey as my sister, niece and husband were coming to stay over Christmas. However circumstances changed (when don't they?!) and it ended up being me, my brother and my two children. So I have had a large amount of turkey to use up, even more so as the children go to their Dads on boxing day for 2 nights and my brother had to go home for work on boxing day.

One of my new year aspirations is to cook more from scratch at home, I also want to waste less. So turkey seemed like a good place to put my good intentions into practise. With the left over turkey I have eaten dinner for the past few days, I have a little for our picnic lunch on our long drive tomorrow and I have made these;

Turkey chilli based on This Jamie recipe I adapted it slightly to suite the ingredients I had left in the fridge and what was in the store cupboard

5 turkey pies, also using the leftover gravy I had in the fridge leftover from the big day.

Sausage rolls, using unused sausage meat and leftover pastry from the pies.

I also made curry, the three pots on the left hand side, again using leftovers and bits from the store cupboard


Once I was finished stripping the turkey off the carcass I made some stock.

All of the yummy turkey goodies are stashed in the freezer, providing me with some lovely ready meals when I start back at work on Tuesday. I am hoping that I will get into the habit of cooking this way each month it's a frugal way of living I am aiming towards.

I also had a little wander around the sales, well it would have been not to. I got some little knick knacks to put away for stocking fillers and birthday presents. Not too much this year though I was very restrained. I couldn't resist these though;

The four little pots hanging by the window. They were the grand total of 74p each!

So cute and just the green I want to decorate my kitchen in. I am planning on growing my own herbs this year and though these would be ideal for some to be grown indoors. I am planning on organising this when we get back from my sisters house after new year. Currently they are holding the rosemary and bay leaves I collected from the allotment and am drying out.

Later on I will add the recipes I used for the turkey leftovers onto my recipe page.

Friday, 23 December 2011

Christmas baking

The past few days we have been busy doing our Christmas baking, have a peek at what we have managed so far;

Our Christmas cake made from scratch. Very proud of this as it is the first time we have made our own.

Working together to make peppermint creams

These are destined to become part of some Christmas presents we will finish making tomorrow.

Still on our list is;
1. Ice the fairy cakes (they were baked this afternoon before we went to the pantomime)
2. Mince pies
3. Yule log
4. Pork, sage and onion stuffing balls

As well as going to the farm shop for our Christmas veggies, and preparing the Christmas dinner.

Thursday, 22 December 2011

A new quilt and a Christmas surprise

Yesterday I found I had a little time to myself whilst the children were at their Dads houses. In the couple of hours I finished Stephanie's Winnie the pooh quilt I began a few months back;


In the summer Stephanie asked me to make some bunting for her bedroom, I finally managed to do that as well;



But ssshhhh! I have decided to keep it a surprise and wrap it up for Christmas.

I have a couple of other homemade gifts planned for various family members- I will post as I complete them.

Tuesday, 20 December 2011

lists

I have always been a little on the forgetful side, however I seem to be getting worse lately- maybe I'm getting old!

So to help me along a little I have been using one of these more and more;


I have had two lists today; my to do list and my shopping list.

I managed to complete my shopping list, what do you mean you are not surprised. My to do list is not quite finished, but I can get it finished tomorrow.

I could really do with some tips to organise myself- what do you do? Leave your solutions in the comments below.

Saturday, 17 December 2011

Christmas day out in London

We started the Christmas holidays with a bang today! We went up to London we went to Hyde park for Winter Wonderland, we went to Zippos Christmas Circus, to Hamleys, and to Trafalgar Square to see the big Christmas tree before a treat in Pizza hut and heading home. It has been a fantastic start to Christmas for us, here are some pics of our day to give you a little glimpse into the fun we have had.

The lego Christmas tree at St Pancras International- absolutely fantastic

Dylan pretending he didn't really want to go on this ride

Baby went on every ride with Stephanie

Frosty

This smile was mirrored on all of our faces all day

Stunning!


Wow what a start to Christmas, tomorrow we are off on another surprise the children haven't a clue where we are going. I'll let you in on the secret tomorrow, don't want them getting any clues until we get there.

Sunday, 11 December 2011

December so far


Most of December has been spent preparing for Christmas. A mix of laptop issues, work and illness has meant that I haven't managed to blog yet. Here are some pictures to show you what we have been up to so far this month.

Card making

Decorating

School nativity

Dickens Christmas festival

Favourite dinners

My nephew's 5th Birthday

Chatting with Grandad

Beginning to make Christmas presents


Special Christmas shaped chocolates


I have a ew homemade Christmas presents planned, I will post them as we get them made.