Thursday 26 March 2020

Unmentionable

Do you know what? I'm pretty over hearing about the Coronavirus. I don't mean that in a glib, dismissive way. I just mean that it's everywhere in the media, all everyone is talking about and thinking about. I think I'm going to stop mentioning it here unless it's absolutely necessary.

Maybe it'll be good for me to focus on what this blog was about in the first place. I'm stuck in our home for the foreseeable, so I might as well make the most of it. Thankfully, since I started writing this blog many moons ago I've actually turned myself around, home wise. I'm not a neat freak, and if you show up to my home unannounced (let's just pretend that's an option) then you'll definitely see pots by the sink and toys on the floor (and probably pee on the floor in the toilet...I mean, I have boys...) However, I'm so much more organised in general. I just have low standards.

Let's face it, with 3 kids I can't afford to have high standards, can I? Or maybe I can. But I don't. I prioritise way more stuff over cleaning and tidying, but I definitely get enough done so that I don't feel like I live in a crap hole. Most of the time.

In the last few years, we've made a few changes, including a house move, which I'll tell you about at some point. I think I was still pregnant when I was writing before and obviously, Youngest arrived things got a bit cray cray for a while. I swear, am I the only one that thinks it takes a good 3 years before you feel halfway normal after having a baby. Schedule-wise I mean?

So I'm going to go and plan some non-virus blog posts and I'll see you soon!

Quality Outside Time


The weather is improving, despite the current state of the world's population. Huzzah for quality outside time! The garden has been sorely neglected over the winter, so we all went out to trim and tittivate.

Eldest decided she wanted to mess about with wood, so she made a cool little guinea pig toy, which I'll show you another day when I remember to take a photo.



The boys ran around being crazy, taking it in turns to shoot some hoops from off the top of the slide. Social distancing hasn't yet affected the ice cream van, so when the kids heard the chimes they sent Scott out to chase it down.




While the kids were playing happily in the sunshine, Scott and I got busy trimming hedges and bushes, weeding paths and sweeping up mess. We now have a lovely little patio area for the kids picnic table to go on to and the whole garden is looking much nicer. Yeah, we know that fence needs fixing - it's on the list!




This was the last weekend before the schools officially shut. Things have been quite a bit different since then...

Saturday 21 March 2020

Coronavirus UK, 2020


Well, it's now 2020 and the robots aren't here doing my housework. Nor are there hoverboards or replicators. Instead, we have a virus running rampant, causing untold amounts of hardship and thousands of deaths. This is not the future I had in mind, thank you very much.

But since it's the future that we're stuck with for the moment, I decided to resurrect my old blog so that I could wile away the hours doing something that I enjoy - prattling on to no one in typed form, about nothing in particular.

Except. I guess this isn't nothing. It's a pretty humongous something in fact.

As it stands today there are over 300,000 known cases of Coronavirus worldwide with almost 13,000 deaths. Here in the UK we have over 5,000 cases and 233 deaths.

We have all been told to stay in our homes as much as is practically possible. Schools closed at the end of last week and so did all pubs, restaurants and cafes. Well, they were told that they have to close. Schools have been working out who are the "key workers" needed to keep up vital services such as NHS, food production, schooling and tons more. The children of those key workers may still go to school if no other option is possible, but only as a last resort.

People in certain higher risk groups such as those over 70 and those with underlying medical conditions have been told to self-isolate at home for at least 12 weeks in order to protect themselves.

The supermarket shelves are bare of many things, most notably toilet roll, pasta, bread and hand sanitiser.

It's a truly crazy time to be alive, it really is! I know that there will be plenty of people documenting this, and I'm certainly not going to be a stand out correspondent of the time, but I would like to get down some thoughts and events for our little family.

Plus, in keeping with the spirit that this blog was created in, I am going to use this time to simplify and get back to basics at home. Let's face it - there might not be much of an option except from simple. With hoards of people being laid off across the nation and having to self-isolate for 14 days with little to no pay every time one of us runs a temperature or gets a new cough! We're all skint! But we are all in this together.

Sunday 8 November 2015

DIY Minions Initial Art


Just a quick one. I had to show you these Minions prints I made for Korben's room. Like probably most five-year-old boys he absolutely adores minions - thinks they're hilarious!! I have been looking all over for some Minions artwork for his walls for months to no avail.

Well, the other day I thought sod it! I'll just make my own! I had bought some frames already for the cheapo price of £1.99 each from Home Bargains. All I needed was some patience and a free vector image downloaded from Google.

Korben is thrilled to bits with his new bedroom artwork and to be honest so am I!



Tuesday 2 September 2014

Bloglovin


I've been following a few blogs on Bloglovin' for a while, but I've never claimed my own on there before! So that's what I've done tonight. I really hope you will follow me there! Please click the link below!


Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Tuesday 31 December 2013

The End of The Big Unit


This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end. 

Actually, you weren't that beautiful Big Unit and you're certainly not my only friend. Cause that would be remarkably sad of me, and I'm sure there will be a medical name for people who personify and feel affectionate towards furniture.


Although you were an amazing gift of storage, you were an imposing, dark hulk. The Ikea Besta TV and Storage Unit overshadowing our living room with your large squareness and never looking tidy for longer than half a minute. You became the ultimate catch-all for clutter, your shelves being so far out of the reach of children. It was too easy to place things atop your tallness rather than seek out the proper, neat placement of items.

So we took you apart.


Each time we took a section away we had to wait until that piece was in its new location AND find a temporary home for all the mountains of stuff that was contained therein before we could take the next section away...


 But we persisted until there was naught but the little TV section in the middle left...


Aw, isn't it cute! This is the only section we got rid of - we just gave it away. The rest of the sections were used in other parts of the house. After all, good storage is as vital as breathing! Well, it is in our house where clutter seems to breed of its own accord. 

But look! When I painted the living room I didn't move the Big Unit, I simply painted around it. And when we took out the fireplace Scott just screwed a big piece of plywood across the hole. In fact, part of the reason why the Big Unit was so big was because we needed a unit that would cover that fireplace hole so we didn't have to sort it out properly. 

Alas, these things have to be dealt with eventually so we got a professional in to plaster it up for us. 


Yes, that is a patch of mismatched carpet where the hearth used to be, but thankfully the new unit covers that up. Also, Scott patched in the skirting board. 


I have an actual real office space now with an actual DESK and everything

So my beautiful friend the Big Unit is no more. Former office in a cupboard, ironing pile storage, crafting stash holder and clutter catch-all. Gone. And in its place...


Why it's an Ikea Besta TV and Storage Unit of course!! 

Wasted Space to Memo Place


I had this completely wasted space right at the end of the high kitchen units. I have always thought I could do with doing something with that area but never knew what exactly. The main thing was I didn't want to screw anything into the unit itself to spoil it, so many of my ideas fell flat.

Then while I was browsing Amazon I came across this stuff - Adhesive Chalkboard Wall Sticker. Ah-mazing! It's a blackboard sticker! And it doesn't leave a mark when you take it off. Genius!

I already had a chalkboard that I used for menu planning, but it was just stuck on a shelf and I was irritated with having to keep taking it down and putting it back and stuff. 


Anyhoo, I forgot to take a decent "before" photo, but here's one from a while ago where you can just about see the edge of the unit on the left.


And this is what I did with it.


The clipboards were also from Amazon here: A4 Brown Clipboards, and they were a bargain at £1.69 each when I got them. I mainly put those there to get rid of the paper clutter from our cooker hood. Because the cooker hood is the only visible magnetic surface in the kitchen it was getting overloaded in invitations, Lyric's school menu, leaflets, etc. I guessed it was a bit of a fire hazard too with it being directly above the hob... 


I used the super-awesome Command Hooks also from Amazon (no I am not an affiliate, but maybe I should be, lol!) They stick to surfaces without leaving a mark when you want to take them down. I use the little clear ones for all my Xmas decorating and these larger ones can hold up to 1.3kg apparently! 

Don't mind the bit of graffiti on there, it's just what HAS to be done to christen every writing surface. It sat there as a place holder until I did this week's menu plan. 


And the great thing is that because the double doors to the living room are glass we don't have to worry about not being able to see what is there.


Nope, there are no Friday meals planned! I got bored and figured I'll have to go shopping again for LooLoo's birthday shizzle, so I might as well save me the brain effort of planning Friday as well.

I hope you all have a fabulous New Years' Eve! I will be staying in with my Chicken Pox riddled kiddos, getting grumpy when the fireworks wake me up at midnight. Pretty similar to the last three New Years then! Ha ha! :)
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