Project Life 2012 Day 5 - Crafting Goal

Jan 5-- Take a photo of one of your crafting goals for the year.

I am constantly trying to get my stuff organised. Ever since owning "stuff" of my own I've found it gets everywhere and lots of it never has a permanent home. Finally, when we moved to our current house in 2010 I had, at last, a home for my all my craft stuff. Admittedly it's in the downstairs toilet, but we all have to start somewhere, right?

Now that it has a home, it just needs sorting (again!) and storing in a slightly more usable fashion than the current "piling" approach. I know where everything is but it doesn't exactly allow for easy access! I'm thinking some sort of Ikea shelving/storage solution may be in order. And with only 139 days until my birthday I better get planning!

Project Life 2012 Day 4 - New Toy

Jan 4-- Take a photo of someone in your house playing with a new "toy".

Slight cheat today, on two counts: I didn't take the picture and it's not strictly new, or a toy! But it was a good photo so shame to waste it!

Obviously once she's settled into her new office I'll be completing a DSE Assessment for her!

Project Life 2012 Day 3 - Packing Away

Jan 3-- is time to take down the holiday decorations. Take a photo of all decor getting packed up & put away.

Please forgive the Americanisation there!

So today I actually decided to go for two photos.

First of all.....naked tree! Poor little thing has had all of its decs removed and is now sitting out rather sadly in the rain waiting for green waste recycling day next week.

My second picture is like saying goodbye to an old friend. I bought this little tree for Steve as a pre-Christmnas present in about 1998 and made him an advent calendar where each day's gift was another decoration. It's seen us through about 10 Christmasses before we finally pensioned it off last year in favour of a real tree. Our love of real trees is definitely here to stay so we've now said goodbye to the old plastic tree. As you can see it's from a very exclusive shop and was very pricey(!) If my calculations and dates are right, I think that means it cost us about 50p per Christmas. Maybe I am starting to remember the benefits of fake trees over real ones after all....!

Project Life 2012 Day 2 - Resolutions

Well, I've managed to keep this up for two days - not bad so far!

Jan 2-- needs a New Year Resolution photo. Take a pic of something you want to change & let it serve as a "before".

Today's prompt was a tough one for me. I rarely make resolutions because when I do make them I rarely keep them. I suppose it's a self-defence mechanism to save myself from the inevitable feeling of failure. But after much hard thought I have made two this year. The first I am doing right now, keeping up my blog. The second....

Our lovely Beetle has been languishing in the garage since we moved house in June 2010. He's a fabulous old car and is really my pride and joy, but being stuck in a garage with two other vehicles in front means he doesn't often see the light of day any more. So I am going to resolve to take him out more often. Just the small matter of an MOT to get through. We've not encountered any major MOT issues in the last 7 years so fingers crossed for this one!

Project Life 2012 Day 1 - Bags

Well it's been a while, hasn't it? I've been a bit of a lazy blogger over the last few months, thinking of things to post but never quite committing fingers to keyboard! I have resolved to try and improve matters in this respect and I've enlisted some help.... Whilst browsing Facebook the other day I spotted a link to this thread on the Two Peas in a Bucket forum. I've always fancied having a go at a photo a day project of some sort so this has been my inspiration. My track record at completing these things is not great but we'll see how we go!

Prompt 1: Jan 1-- is First Foot Day. Take a photo of the first person to come visit you this year.

OK, so first confession: I failed on the very first day. I was more interested in entertaining our guest that taking a picture of her. So here, instead, is a picture of the lovely bag she bought me for Christmas.

Emma did mention when she handed me the gift that she'd not been sure what to get me this year, but she knows me well enough to know a she can never fail with a bag!

Rollercoaster of life

I'm not really a cliche user if I can avoid it, but I've got to say this last week definitely comes into the category of "Rollercoaster of Emotions".

Last Monday was my first day back at work after 10 months of maternity leave. For weeks I've been swinging between dreading it and looking forward to it (although, to be honest, dreading it was more common!). I wasn't scared of not remembering what to do (not sure I knew in the first place!) or feeling out of touch with my colleagues (as I've managed to keep up with them via pub lunches, facebook and the odd email here and there) but I was just so nervous about leaving Lily with anyone else. I realised that for her whole life the longest time we had spent apart was about 4 hours - what a scary thought.

We are very fortunate to have found a fantastic childminder and my equally fantastic mum has also offered to spend some time looking after Lily, but that didn't stop my (another cliche coming...) feeling of a heavy heart when Monday morning finally rolled round and the time actually came to part with her for the day. I think the thing that hurt the most was not being able to explain what was going on. She's a bright 9 month old, but not quite that bright yet! Although she'd met Michelle a few times before, she definitely looked a bit confused when I left :(

I found the best way to cope was just to keep busy at work and being the first day back there was plenty to do. The wheels of administration grind very slowly where I work (sorry, another cliche!) so there were plenty of phone calls to make and people to chat to. The day passed surprisingly quickly and I was really pleased to collect Lily in the evening and hear about what a good day she'd had. Although we only had a couple of hours together in the evening before bed, I found myself making the most of that time trying to find out how she felt about her first whole day away from me. I did feel a sense of relief that she still appeared to be talking to me!

The rest of the week passed off similarly and I could see Lily's confidence at being without me growing even in the space of a few short days. Part of me feels sad that she can manage without me, but of course it is better for her development to interact with others.

I think being away during the week makes you savour what time you do have together and make the most of the small moments that might otherwise pass off un-noticed. This weekend, for example, has been a busy one, but the most fun was had this afternoon A walk to the local shop for an ice cream:



Followed by Lily's first ever go on the swings in the local park:



Oh yeah and I had to have a go too:



Then back home for a splash in the paddling pool and a home grown strawberry as a snack! It's amazing how much fun you can have so close to home. Hopefully next week will be even better than last week ready for more fun and games next weekend!

10 Things on the 10th

1. The issue of Mollie Makes I am still reading. Must get on to issue 2 soon!

2. Consecutive dunkings Lily managed at swimming today. And no tears :)

3. Ribs in the bag of starters with our Chinese tonight. So how come I only got one?

4. Dads who made it to Dads and Babies Rhymetime last month. Will there be more tomorrow?

5. Numbers that would do on the lottery tomorrow. I am not greedy...

6. Unfinished craft projects in the living room. This obviously does not include those in the bedroom, spare room or utility room.

7. Solid hours for which Lily slept last night. Can she do the same again tonight....?

8. Minutes by which I missed the Sainsbury's delivery man today. On the plus side, when he came back we had a good chat about VW campers.

9. Whole days left until I return to work (booooo!).

10. Things. On the 10th of the month. Will I keep this up? Who knows but it was fun today.