There's an app for that!

Hi everyone!

Isn't it a beautiful day out there? The sun is shining and the sky is blue. The birdies are tweeting and the kids are out playing too. It's a day that makes you glad to be alive!!

There is only one downside to beautiful sunshine streaming in through the windows..... yup, you guessed it, the state of the windows themselves! As the sun was shining in yesterday I suddenly noticed how many little fingerprints and streaks there were on the window, and how many spills had happened on my carpets, and all the furballs that were hiding under the sofa. Okay, so I'm not the worlds most houseproud woman. I will freely admit it! However, the sunshine really highlighted to me what a bad job I'm doing at cleaning.

Last night as I was sat in bed, I decided to have a look at some Android Apps and I happened to type in FlyLady. I've tried FlyLady before but felt completely overwhelmed by the number of emails you get from her site! I felt like I was spending all my time reading her emails and no time, at all, actually doing what they prompted you to do. I got discouraged. I unsubscribed. My house is still a tip. So, when I randomly searched for FlyLady last night, I was pleasantly surprised to find that yes, there's an app for that! It's an UNOFFICIAL app, but it uses all of FlyLady's principles/techniques without all the demoralising and highly annoying emails! Whoohoo! The best of both worlds!

So, this morning I have put it into action... and boy, do I feel better for it?! Ok, my house is still a tip but I've done my first 15 minutes and rewarded myself with some bloggy time. It feels good to have my carpets vaccumed and with the knowledge that I can now be prompted and reminded about what I need to do next to get myself out of CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome) and into a nice clean house, even if the kids mess it up as fast as I go!

If you're on Android and need to get out of CHAOS too have a look here... and if you're on iPhone or Blackberry I encourage you to have a search for FlyLady on your marketplaces. PLEASE NOTE: I'm don't get any commission or anything, this is simply an app that I'm loving so far and I think other people might like too. I am not, in any way, affiliated with the makers of this app!

Right, I have to go rescue a child from the mud she's playing with. That will be another load of washing to do today!

See you soon!

Blog Prompt #3: 5 Favourite things!

So today Shimelle has us thinking about lists. Mostly lists of our favourite things, places or people. Favourite aspects of life, our kids, food, landscapes, tv programmes, clothes, colours, scrapbook pages, books, movies, CD's, concerts, plays, colours of nailpolish, pizza toppings...  Well as you can see the list of all the lists could be endless!  So thinking about my list of favourites, I started thinking about all the bits of life that are good right now. So 5 things that I love about life at the moment: 

1. I love our new house! OK, so its cost us a fair bit more than we had expected. We've had to do stuff that we didn't think needed doing. Like replacing the entire fuseboard because the vendors had tampered with it and it was unsafe as a result. Like having to replace the oven - which had looked perfectly ok, but wasn't. So the ensuite needs completely replacing because the previous people bodged it and the garden drainage needs sorting because a tiny bit of rain turns it into a quagmire. BUT! And here's the big BUT, I love it. The house feels more like home in the few weeks since we moved in, than our previous house did - even after all the work we did to it. We've all settled in well and most of the boxes are actually unpacked!




2. I'm loving how both the girls are playing so nicely on their own now! Both herself and the little one are enjoying taking themselves into their own corner and playing. No interference from me! Herself is currently dressed in a Stephanie costume (from LazyTown) and playing with her little sisters toys. The little one on the other hand has crawled between the bookshelves and sofa and is happily unpacking and re-packing her older sister's bag of Baby Annabel accessories. Both girls are happy playing with each others toys, and peace has ensued. Long may it last!

3. I'm enjoying my little scrapping space! So himself finished building my new scrapping space inside the spare wardrobe, all the rails and flatpack have been assembled and the stash has been unpacked and sorted... and then re-sorted again! Now that its all accessible I am really enjoying my crafting again. I'm trying to make time every evening to sit and do a little bit of scrapbooking and also some altering. In fact, I'm in the process of completing a project that I bought the pieces for 2 years ago! I shall post piccies once I've given it to the recipient.


4. I love that the Christmas preparations are underway! I love the festive period every year. The days getting shorter, the air is getting that cold bite, the councils are putting up the christmas lights, we're drawing up pressie lists and making our purchases (slightly later this year!), menu's are being created, christmas cards crafted (or bought!), christmas cakes baked,  the decorations will soon be taken out of the loft and then christmas trees start appearing in every window on the street and soon we'll be sitting down to eat a meal and open presents with family and friends. I love it all... including the mulled wine!!


5. I'm loving the thought of setting up my own business! BUT, the reality of it is quite scary actually! There's so much to think about! Wholesalers, ebay, website, premises, funding, business plans, bank accounts... and then the elusive name for the whole lot! Definitely having problems with that one! Each time I think I've got a name that's suitable I discover that someone else has beaten me to it. Suggestions on a postcard please! 


Phew, that's enough for now I think! Thanks for reading!

Mojo Convention

I recently asked a question on UKScrappers: "Is there a mojo convention somewhere? Cause mine seems to have disappeared to sunnier climes to meet up with other mojo's!" My scrapping mojo has gone. Well, actually, its not just applicable to scrapping... unfortunately my mojo also influenced my ability to type stuff on my blog too! So, my most sincere apologies to all those people who have been looking at this page eagerly for an update, only to find the longest silence in the history of blogs.

There is, happily, a very good reason for this sudden lack of mojo.... I'm pregnant! Yup, #2 is on the way and is expected on or around the 3rd September. Which when I first intended to tell you seemed ages away; but now is far too close for my liking! Unfortunately for me, lack of mojo goes hand-in-hand with being pregnant... as I found out with #1. I was doing a Fine Arts course when I fell pregnant with herself, but found it impossible to complete as I kept just staring dumbly at the paints and canvas. Now this time, my scrapping has completely stopped, my writing has stopped and all creative thought has completely failed to materialise. Its only in the last week or so that I've picked up my knitting again and made a very feeble attempt at scrapping - which has yet to be completed. Someone on UKScrappers mentioned that they had checked on here and found it quiet, so I figured I needed to somehow get typing again. Well, at least for long enough to update here!

The second reason for my lack of updating is that my PC has been packed away. We have converted the study/scraproom back into a usable bedroom and all the study stuff; including PC, books, scrapping stuff etc has all been put into storage. This is because we have put our house on the market. There is a long, involved explanation/background to this decision - but the upshot is that himself has transferred with his company to Glasgow and we are moving back up to Scotland. Himself has already started work and we are currently living with my parents while our house sells. We are hoping for an offer any day now as we have had a fair amount of interest and viewings. I'm trying to resist looking at houses here in Kilsyth until our house has been sold. I just know that if I start viewing houses I'm going to fall in love with one and not be able to do anything about it until our own house has sold. However, patience is not one of my virtues so I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be able to resist! I shall have to tell you the whole story of our move up here at a later date, but as its incredibly long it will have to wait.

Other than that, I'm afraid all the rest I have to report would be mundane, boring, everyday stuff. Our focus so far this year has pretty much been to get ourselves out of Bradford and up to Glasgow, so everything else seems to have paled into insignificance.

I hope your life is a little less hectic than mine is at the moment!

Connections

Just a quick note to say that I'm not going to be posting much over the next two weeks or so.  This is due to us finally starting the decorating process on the room that will be known officially as "The Study" (and un-officially as "my Scrapping Space"). Himself is most determined that this is NOT my scrapping room even tho' I will be doing my scrapping in it... it's a STUDY.  LOL.

So far the room has had it's cupboards ripped out and our PC is currently in a pile in the corner of our bedroom awaiting the day it can finally be put back together on it's new desk (which is currently sitting in the garage waiting to be assembled).  I'm planning a trip to IKEA for some other bits and bobs (including the 'scrapping' desk) to finish the room off.  All Hail the Glorious Empire of IKEA!  We shall make another pilgramage to the hallowed halls of flat-pack shopping sometime next week, so I'm hoping the room will have had it's wallpaper stripped and walls painted, floor carpeted and new light fixtures installed in readiness for flat-pack assembly to commence as soon as possible after the shopping trip.  Anyone want to volunteer to come and help??  Thought not!

Until, then I shall have to make use of his company laptop and some very kind friends computers to get my daily fix of UKScrappers, ebay and blogs!!

Watch this space for before, during and after pics... they should be good. Can't wait to get rid of this 80's wallpaper!

The last 6 months!

Wow.... so much has happened!
To start with Robert got a new job in Leeds with Carl Bro Engineering which meant a move back down south from the beautiful Highlands! New challenges faced us as we tried to find a house to buy within our limited budget. Luckily for us house prices in the Highlands had risen enough to give us some cash to play with for any modifications that needed doing. Boy did we need it! We found a house in Thornton, Bradford which belonged to an elderly lady that had been committed to a home due to her Alzheimers. It needs loads of work, but is a lovely property in a good area. We moved in on the 31st of May even though we had to rent off the vendors for 3 weeks while the paperwork was completed! During those 3 weeks I made use of the time to get quotes from builders, electricians and plumbers. We discovered that the house still had it's original wiring from 1938 with round pin sockets included for free! Also original was the tiny kitchen which couldn't accomodate 2 adults. A huge dining room next door was just begging to be turned into a kitchen diner! So we proceeded to knock the wall down between the two rooms, remove a chimney breast in the dining room, rewire the whole house and replace the entire central heating system. The latter had to be done due to the existing central heating system consisting of a backboiler which was in the fireplace we wanted to remove! OK so it's a bit drastic - but the modifications, building work, dust and expenditure have been worth it as we now have a really big Kitchen diner!
This week the plumber has been turning the understair cupboard into a downstairs loo!! This will be a welcome addition to the house as I'm finding it difficult going upstairs to go to the loo all the time. Especially as Erin doesn't want to leave her toys downstairs but doesn't want to be left behind either! Robert and I are off to Pilkingtons tomorrow to choose tiles for the bathroom as our friendly plumber is ripping out the Lilac 1970's bathroom suite next week. We are needing to remove the tiles on the walls before then!
Other than the house.... the only real thing that has happened in the last few months is that I've started scrapbooking! Really enjoying this as a new hobby and I'm hoping that over the next while I'll be able to share some layouts with you!
Will update this later again with some photo's of the house just so you can see what a state it's in!