We *heart* books too (warning: picture heavy post!)

Posted by louisa on Wednesday 4 May 2011 in meta | 18 comments

Last week, Swirly Arts’ Lynsey wrote a blog post called “we *heart* books” and included photos of the many, many books around her house. Well, we *heart* books too so I thought I should do a similar post ;)

It’s a very picture heavy post so people on slow/expensive-per-MB connections may want to skip it! People who like perusing other people’s bookshelves though should probably settle in for a long session (all the pics, except for that first one, can be expanded if you want to nose properly ;) )

(And probably much to the annoyance of my mum, I didn’t tidy or dust at all before taking these pictures ;) )

Bloomin’ lovely inspiration

Posted by louisa on Thursday 24 March 2011 in meta | 8 comments

I’ve just been catching up with some blogs in my feed reader and read this wonderful (short) article on Simple Green Frugal by Notes from the Frugal Trenches.

Titled “Bloom where you’re planted”, FT explains she hears a lot of “if only”s (for example, “if only we had a bigger kitchen, we would make jam”) but she’s realised:

in almost any circumstance, you can choose to bloom where you are planted, or choose to stay underground. Listing all the reasons you can’t simplify, or make frugal, green choices, will never let you break through the barrier to a purposeful life.

A great sentiment, very nicely put – especially at this time of year when we’re thinking about stuff sprouting & blooming and starting anew.

By nature, I’m a pessimistic procrastinator but I’ve been trying optimism on for size recently – I’ve become the silver lining girl at drama (two weeks until the first performance and the prompt still has by far the biggest part…) and I’m trying to be a bit more go-getting too – getting on with stuff rather than leave it until the world is perfect and stars are aligned or whatever. I’m going to keep the “bloom where you’re planted” sentiment in mind next time I find myself saying “if only” or “I can’t do x“.

(Speaking of blooms, our across-the-road neighbours bought us a lovely Spring-flowers bouquet for keeping an eye on their house while they were away – tulips, narcissus & daffodils, hyacinth and two types of purple flowers I can’t identify. We have flowers in the house so rarely that we don’t actually own any vases any more: these are in an old nutella jar on the office window sill, with an old pickle jar holding the overflow daffodils on my desk. I’m enjoying the novelty of having them but glad it’s warm enough to have the office door open – those hyacinths are rather aromatic!)

Jealous

Posted by louisa on Tuesday 15 March 2011 in anti-consumerism, meta | 13 comments

As well as learning how to screenprint, we fed our neighbours’ cats this weekend – both the ever-so-friendly white cat next door and the two huge timid-but-getting-friendly black & white chaps next door but one. We feed them quite regularly because our neighbours are social divas & jetsetters – but don’t mind a bit because it only takes five minutes and we get lots of cat hugs as “payment”. I always come back covered in white fluff and get sniffed accusingly by the dog & our (black) cats.

But feeding the cats does have one negative aspect for me: jealousy.

Next door’s house can only be described as a show home. They bought the rundown house cheaply before the boom and spent a huge amount of money refitting it completely. It looks like something from a magazine – the seamless granite worksurfaces buffed to perfection, the wet room sparkling, the guest bedroom like a suite in a boutique hotel. A lovely combination of pristine modern design and wonderful reclaimed vintage items.

Next-door-but-one’s isn’t as expensively polished but my, it’s lovely. It’s more shabby chic – which is more my preferred style – with the emphasis on the chic not the shabby. Muted red & white lino squares set on the diagonal in the kitchen, mismatched dining table chairs, pale walls with coloured woodwork and original (Victorian) features up the wazoo. It feels cosy but relaxed, like a home should.

Can you see why I feel jealous?

A number of my friends have really nice homes but there is something about our neighbours’ houses, particularly next-door-but-one, that really gets to me. I think it’s because, while the layouts are surprisingly different and we have a side extension, the houses are structurally the same so it feels like we could have such gorgeous houses if we threw enough time/money at it. … But what we’ve got – and especially what we’re slowly working on making our own – is fine, more than fine, great in fact.

It feels a bit like what happened with the Kindle a while ago – a desire for something being built up through repeat exposure, not because of a genuine need but it’s shown me what’s possible. Because I generally avoid the broadcast & print media, don’t enjoy browsing/being in shops, and shy away from “stuff” blogs or websites (the only blogs about pretty “stuff” I read are ones showing you how to make said lovely things), I’m not regularly exposed to things that provoke desire in this way. It scares me that these houses, which are not using psychological tricks to sell me things, provoke such a strong emotion: it makes me realise how vulnerable I would be to advertisements, or style magazines.

I find myself thinking about what our house is not – stylish, polished, finished – rather than what it is (a place for us to be happy together, and we are very happy here).

I’m not sure how I’ll get over it, or at least learn to deal with it. Perhaps I should do the self-esteem building/depression-beating trick of writing a list of positive aspects, things I like, about our house to review whenever I’m feeling jealous of the other people’s houses or whatever.

Any other suggestions on how to deal with it?

(Photo by namida-k)

February – end of month review

Posted by louisa on Monday 28 February 2011 in chickens, frugal, goals, growing, less than 12 clothes challenge, making, meta | 9 comments

February seems to have flown by and has been a lot of fun — a good balance between work, household/growing/making productivity, crafting, and future planning.

Goals in 2011 progress

I’ve started making progress on some of the more long term goals – started sowing seeds which will hopefully turn into homegrown veg and again, I’ve made things with wood which will help with my “make a piece of furniture” goal. I haven’t baked each week but I’ve tried a few new recipes – including some lovely cinnamon biscotti – so at least I’m doing bits. (We’ve not been baking much bread recently because it’s still a bit too cold for yeast to rise properly.)

From my secondary list, I’ve also tried making soap, although I’m not sure it’s been a success yet (the soap in the moulds is still very soft). I also made a notebook (above) from scrap paper and a curtain sample, which wasn’t on my list but I had so much fun doing it that I think “learn different book binding techniques” should be on there now! Finally, we’ve been working to reduce our food waste (and save money/our sanity) by preparing meal plans – we’re not sticking to them 100% but they’re working well in general.

Buy less than 12 items of clothing in 2011

In my no more than 12 items of clothes in 2011 challenge, my tally is still zero — I’ve not bought anything this month either. I have though started looking at stuff rather than just shutting myself off from the possibilities – partly because I need to develop willpower rather than just avoiding temptation and partly because I feel like it’s time I had something new to wear (I’ve not bought any clothes since November – and that was only replacement jeans). It’s when I’m getting ready to go to drama – the classes I teach or rehearsals etc – because my suitable clothes are such a subset of my wardrobe — they not only have to be neat enough to wear outside the house, they can’t be too cleavage-y (which is a problem with a lot of my clothes because my body is too cleavage-y!) and they have to be suitable for wearing as a supposedly-responsible adult in front of teenagers. I have plenty of plain t-shirts to wear but a limited amount of warm clothes so I’ve been getting a bit bored – and as we’re preparing for a production at the start of April, I’ll be there a lot more regularly which will mean cycling through them more. So long story short, I might break into my quota in March.

Growing stuff & the chickens

Toothless Thursday

Posted by louisa on Thursday 10 February 2011 in meta | 1 comment

Everyone else does “Wordless Wednesday” photos. Thanks to my old man, Mr Boron, I’m doing a “Toothless Thursday”.

It’s lovely in the garden today – sunny and still. I stood amongst the bare beds thinking about where everything will go this year. My to-make list grew longer with plans.

Things from yesterday and today

Posted by louisa on Tuesday 8 February 2011 in growing, meta | 3 comments

I started my potatoes chitting yesterday. Well, they’d already started chitting all by themselves but I took them out of their nets and put them in egg boxes. Now to remember which is which…

Today is the first time in about a week when it’s not been blowing a gale so I’m tempted to spend the afternoon away from my computer and sow some seeds. Weee!

I collected six eggs this morning – we usually get five max. Being realistic, I think it was probably just a late one from yesterday and today’s five – but one was a little small, so maybe Lime’s coming out of moult.

(Buff has yet to provide us with a single egg (she’ll lay white ones, the rest lay light to mid brown ones so it’ll be clear when she does get around to it) and is getting noisier. From what I’ve read, it’s not uncommon for Leghorns to be late starters, and I guess winter will exacerbate that, but I’m worried she thinks she is a boy – or actually is a boy. Nothing obvious yet but *paranoia*.)

Our meal planning made it to Day Two before failing completely. Yay us. There is a reason though – we had both completely forgotten that John’s attending a talk in Manchester tonight so not only will be out for dinner but will need more substance at lunchtime than soup will provide (he’s unlikely to be eating dinner until after 9pm). And also half his company came for lunch today either en route to the talk or just because there was mention of fish and chips and everyone loves fish and chips. I will probably still end up making the sausage & lentil casserole because the sausages will go off otherwise, but I’ll freeze tonight’s portion instead.

I made the spicy butternut squash soup before we realised the change of plans so I’ll have that for dinner tonight. I made approximately 3litres of it. I might freeze some of that too ;)

A book on vegetable-oil soap making that I’d been umming and aahing about buying for ages arrived this morning – can’t wait to give that a go.

Some embroidery fabric (bought on eBay) also arrived so I can start on my next big stitchery project. Going to wait until I’ve finished the blanket (which is now wide enough to keep me warm while I’m crocheting it :) ) rather than get distracted but I’m working on my pattern. It’s going to be an evolving piece actually – it’ll never be finished-finished – which makes planning interesting!

We shaved & bathed the dog last night. (Not a euphemism.) She feels like silky velvet at the moment and while it’s not a perfect job, it’s certainly passable. It would have cost us at least £45 if we’d paid someone else to do it. She slept through all the clipping and got an egg afterwards for being a good girl.

There has been a few clumps of small brown mushrooms growing on the garden steps (covered with wood chippings) recently and I picked one to identify yesterday. It looks very much like a Deceiver (Laccaria Laccata) but it seems far too late in the year/early in the next one to be those. I will keep looking through my books to see what else it might be but any other suggestions would be gratefully received :)

What have you guys been up to?