A New Year Begins.....

A New Year brings a new This Year I Will list.....

• Kiss and cuddle my little babies at least once every day. 
• Welcome a new baby in to our family.
• Find something to smile about each day. 
• Have a minimum of 30 minutes every day of ME time, no children, no TV, no computer, no telephone, just ME.  As selfish as this may sound, it needs to be done for my own health, both physically & mentally. 
• Make Fridays (my day off) part housework/errand - frees the weekend to spend time with Liam & Freya - and part 'me' time.
• Go out in to the fresh air every day, even if it is only for 5 minutes to sit, I will go outside and to clear my head and relax. 
• Actively join in with A Monthly Make.
• Eat 5 portions of fruit & veg a day.
• Get organised; The last 2 years were really not a good years for organisation and this year I will get back to the place where I am in control of what is happening and not depending upon others, who quite frankly let me & my children down. 
• Choose carefully those people I let into our lives.  
• Start organising presents for Christmas - Its going to be a handmade year.
• Lose 2 stone in weight.
• Have a professional family photo shoot.
• Finish decorating my scrap space & bedroom.
• Decorate Liam's room.
• Decorate the lounge.
• Decorate the hall, stairs & landing. 
• Finish the roof on my garage.
• Replace Kitchen roof
• Finish the laundrette.
• Sort out the plumbing.  
• New window in bathroom and landing.
• Complete Project Life.
• Complete 'One A Day' on crochet projects.
• Catch up on unfinished scrapping projects from 2011; JYC 2011, Document 2011 & Summer Holiday album.
• Complete a Document 2012 album.
• Use more scrap stash than I buy. 
• Finish all the crochet projects I have started before I begin anything new.  
• Bake lots and lots of yummy things.
• Win the lottery (got to have one thing that won't happen on the list).  

The list is 30 items long this year and I hope to do far better than I did last year.  I am certainly going in to this year in a far more positive frame of mind which can only be a positive.

What are your aims for 2012?

This Year I Will.....2011 Round Up

This is my 2011 end of year update:

• Kiss and cuddle my little babies at least once every day.  A big Yes.
• Find something to smile about each day.  Most of the time.
• Have a minimum of 30 minutes every day of ME time, no children, no TV, no computer, no telephone, just ME.  As selfish as this may sound, it needs to be done for my own health, both physically & mentally.  Really think this can be nothing but a big huge whopping fail.  Sadly health issues have totally taken over and this goal went out of the window quite a few months ago.
• Make Fridays (my day off) part housework/errand - frees the weekend to spend time with Liam & Freya - and part 'me' time.  Too much of the housework/errand stuff last year!  Health issues meant that Monday to Thursday consisted of getting up, going to work, eating evening meal and going to bed.  Everything else was squeezed in to Friday in order to try to keep the weekends free for family fun.  Sadly some weekends were spent catching up on sleep and chores.  Not much fun at all.
• Go for a walk every day, even if it is only for 5 minutes, I will go outside and walk to clear my head and think about life.  Been on crutches the majority of this year with planter fasciitis, broken leg/knee and then DVT.
• Eat 5 portions of fruit & veg a day. Most days I managed 4/5 but other sometimes only 1/2.
• Have a wonderful Summer holiday; a 3 1/2 week tour of Europe to include my Brother's Wedding in Lithuania.  Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes.  So much fun we have drawn up next years itinerary.
• Get organised; 2010 was really not a good year and this year I will get back to the place where I am in control of what is happening and not depending upon others, who quite frankly let me & my children down.  Do you really want me to answer this one?
• Choose carefully those people I let into our lives.  On the whole I think this is a yes!
• Start organising presents for Christmas - Its going to be a stress free one this year unlike the mayhem of 2010!  Everything purchased by the end of the first week in December.
• Have a professional family photo shoot.  One shoot paid for and then I won another.  Love the photos from both shoots.
• Do something new every month. I managed a fish ped in January and a scrapping retreat.  Fail I think!
• Finish decorating my scrap space & bedroom. Moved the desk and storage unit in plus all my stash sorted and stored but no decorating.  Purchased new bedding and curtains in the pre Christmas sales.
• Decorate Liam's room.  Nothing done apart from Liam make a huge mess but I suppose that is 9 year old boys for you.
• Decorate the lounge.  Chimney breast stripped, paper and paint chosen and brought 2 new canvas' of the kids photos for the chimney.
• Decorate the hall stairs & landing.  Striped some more paper off but nothing else and still more needs to be stripped on the stairs, you know the bit that needs a ladder.
• Finish the roof on my garage, laundrette and downstairs toilet.  New roof on outside of toilet and launderette.  Garage still completely roofless and need to do the ceiling inside.  However where it joined the kitchen has got damaged and now the kitchen roof needs replacing plus a new ceiling inside!
• New laundrette cupboards.  Ceiling needs to be done first, then walls re-plastered.  Have started to strip the old wallpaper and sort the contents of the cupboards.  Decided what doors I want.
• Decorate down stairs toilet.  Nothing done.
• Sort out the plumbing.  Nothing done.
• New window in bathroom and landing.  No new windows.
• Find a baby sitter so I can go to Bromsgrove Crop on a Saturday.  Achieved, thank you Daddy!!!
• Attend a retreat.  Went to Sarah's Cards Retreat in November and booked to go next March as well!
• Complete 12 LO's a month.  I'd say on average I have got pretty close to 12  a month.
• Complete 12 Granny Squares or stripes a month.  Probably averaged about 6 a month in the early part of the year but since joining Gingerbread girl have completed one a day for the past few weeks so certainly caught up.
• Catch up on unfinished scrapping projects from 2010; JYC 2010, Document 2010, LSNED 2010 & Liam & Freyas Year In The Life Of albums. Zilch, nil, nothing, nowt, probably best not to ask if you get my drift.
• Complete a family scrapbook for 2011; something on the lines of Document 2010.  On track for Document 2011 & completed the first 6 months of the year.
• Complete Liam's and Freya's '2011 Year In The Life Of' mini albums. Nothing started but I have scrapped 12 x 12 pages to go in their life albums but no specific mini album for 2011.
• Use more scrap stash than I buy.  Was this ever going to happen????  But have stopped Scrapagogo monthly kit and not brought as many extras but still the stash mountain has increased.
• Finish all the crochet projects I have started before I begin anything new.  More yarn than at the beginning of the year and more WIP's.
• Knit myself a pom pom scarf.  Eyed the wool in my LYS.  Does that count?
• Take time to rediscover cross stitch.  Probably spent less than 10 hours during the whole of the year.  But not brought any new kits. 
• Bake lots and lots of yummy things.  Baked more than I did last year but not as much as I would have liked to have done. Having said that having chickens and lots of fresh free range eggs has been a huge boast to my motivation. 
• Win the lottery (got to have one thing that won't happen on the list).  Spent £2 per week, won nothing.  Not one single £10 win.

34 Goals; 10 Green, 7 Amber, 17 Red

Not too great eh?

One A Day Tuesday Tallies (27 December 2011)

Despite all the madness of the past week I have managed to complete 12 rows this week on my Rico Cot blanket.  I have completed the 6 stripes from the denim blue. I have now done 17 stripes and  I think I need to do another 20 stripes (40 rows) to complete the blanket.

Really should start sewing those ends in soon!

Merry Christmas.....

.....and may all your dreams come true x

One Not So Happy Little Girl

On Wednesday we went to Birmingham Children's Hospital for Freya to have 5 steroid injections in her knee and ankles.  She was not really impressed with the procedure:

With the help of her new teddy, Lou Lou she is now a little less in pain and hopefully come Sunday should be fighting fit and well.