Spring?

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I did parkrun this morning, for the first time in a couple of months.  Between the move and the weather, I’ve just not been feeling like running at all since late January, so it was nice to get back to it.  Lovely day too, and it was perfect running conditions.

I’m hoping that we’ve seen the end of the bad winter weather now, though there are a lot of ominous rumours about a white Easter next weekend.  I sincerely hope it’s not, as Geth and I are visiting the in-laws and the last thing we need is Christmas-style travel disruption.

With the clocks going forward tonight, it would be nice if it could just be spring weather from now on.  Fingers crossed!

2018 Ciders #14: Samuel Smith’s Organic Cider

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Yup, it’s another of my birthday ciders.  I drank this one the Tuesday after we moved into the new house – there was a lot of cider that week.

Samuel Smith's Organic Cider
Samuel Smith’s Organic Cider.

What I liked about this one was that it tasted quite rough, a bit like real cider, but sweeter than real cider usually is.  It was quite strong as well – very nice after a day of house stress!

 

Phone Box Thursday: West Richmond Street, Edinburgh

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I spotted this phone box with its door missing on the day I first did the Great Edinburgh Winter Run.  Because the event is so busy, Dad had parked further up the Pleasance while I did the race, and so I was able to grab a picture of this one as we went past afterwards.

Red phone box
Red phone box, West Richmond Street, Edinburgh, 9th January 2016.

(Coordinates 55°94’58.9″N, 3°18’20.0″W.)

According to Google Maps, this one was still there as of June 2017!  It needs a bit of TLC, though.

Update from a December 2021 revisit: the phone box has a door again!

New shiny things

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After a couple of days of dribs and drabs of small deliveries of house stuff, the big Ikea order arrived today!  Most of it (I’ve already assembled the replacement lamp) is still sitting in the middle of the living room, as there’s no space to assemble the units or put them in their eventual places yet.  And just when I thought I’d reclaimed that bit of living room floor.  Oh well.

I also finally finished the wardrobe cull.  It’s amazing how much stuff I realised I just didn’t like or want to wear, and in total I’ve probably got rid of about 75% of my clothes.  To be fair, I am now spending a lot of time online, fantasy shopping for replacements, but I’m trying to be good and only (mostly) buying things I actually need.

Now that the Ikea order is here, one thing I can do is start putting stuff into its proper storage boxes.  Hopefully I’ll have a properly functioning dressing room, at least, by the end of the week!

2018 Ciders #13: M&S Devon Farmhouse Cider with Raspberry

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We’ve finally got to the last of the ciders I drank the night we moved in!  Not to the end of my birthday ciders, though.  Not yet.

M&S Devon Farmhouse Cider with Raspberry
M&S Devon Farmhouse Cider with Raspberry.

I remember this one clearly, despite my tipsy state.  It tasted exactly like raspberry yoghurt, which was really interesting and no bad thing at all.  I think out of all the M&S ciders, this is the one I’d most like to try again sometime.

On with the cull

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I spent today getting on with my wardrobe cull.  I got rid of a lot of dresses, underwear, scarves and hats, and a lot more shoes – I’ve now got the previous total down to 59 pairs.  That’s a pretty big drop, and it means my new shoe shelves will look really neat and uncluttered.

Well, at least until I replace all the thrown-out pairs with new ones!

No, I’m kidding.  Like with everything else in the house, I’ll be instituting a one-in one-out rule once my shelves are full, in order to avoid things getting back into the chaotic hoarding state that has made this house move so stressful.  Neither Geth nor I have ever been in the habit of throwing things away, but that has to change from now on, for my own sanity.

I’m quite looking forward to seeing what it’s like to live without mounds of stuff everywhere!

(Justified) excessive spending

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I spent a lot of money at Ikea and other homewares suppliers today.  There should be lots and lots of shiny packages arriving this week.  It’s all stuff we need for the house, though, so I don’t feel guilty about it (I know I shouldn’t ever feel guilty about spending money on stuff I want as long as I can afford it, but broke girl habits die hard!).

I bought new shelving (the Kallax units for the boardgames, plus a couple of things for upstairs), a new kitchen bin (I’m fed up of the ridiculous balancing act required by our current small one), a lamp to replace one of the ones that packed in earlier this week, a magazine rack for the downstairs toilet, hanging shoe storage for our tiny hallway, a wardrobe rail to replace a broken one in the wardrobe that came with the house, a new rug for the dressing room, a chair and mirror for my dressing table (my old director’s chair that I got for my ninth birthday has sadly seen its last days), hooks and other stuff for making jewellery storage, and approximately 1,000 pretty storage boxes for the various shelves in the house.  I’m so excited about the packages.  All the packages.

I’m not done with homewares buying yet, but I definitely think that’s enough for this week.

De-hoarding

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Well, I didn’t want to start doing the mega wardrobe cull until I’d hit my Slimming World target, but after weeks of chaos upstairs with having to clamber over stuff and not being able to find anything, I admitted defeat and started putting stuff in binbags and donation bags today.

I’ve come a long way with my hoarding problem over the years, but I still find it hard to let go of stuff, especially clothes.  I think it’s partly because I was so broke for so many years post-graduation – during that time, even a £5 Primark top was a hard-earned purchase, and it feels almost disrespectful to my struggling younger self just to toss the item away, even if it’s old and full of holes.

I’ve been trying to mitigate this by using the digital hoarding method – taking a photo of each piece so that I still ‘have’ it.  I’ll probably never look at these photos again, but knowing they’re there makes getting rid of the physical stuff a lot easier.

I threw out a lot of shoes today.  My previous total of 91 pairs first went up to 95 pairs, because I found four pairs that I thought I’d previously thrown out but it turned out I hadn’t.  I’ve now got it down to 77 pairs, and I reckon I’ll be able to get it down further when I finish the cull job tomorrow.  It’s especially tough to get rid of shoes, because I love shoes, but I’m trying just to keep thinking about the lovely neat shoe shelves I’ll be able to have up in the dressing room (not to mention, I must confess, the shiny new pairs I’ll be able to buy).

The biggest motivation for all this de-hoarding is the fact that I can’t wait for the house to look nice and uncluttered, so that I can finally relax and properly feel like this is home.

Storage junkie-ism

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We’re having to buy a lot of new stuff for the house anyway, so I’ve just treated myself to some new makeup storage:

Sorbus makeup storage
Sorbus Acrylic Cosmetics Makeup and Jewellery Storage Case X-Large Display Sets. I had to copy ‘n’ paste that ridiculously long name off the Amazon website.

It’s going to sit on my dressing table, once I unbury the dressing table.  And buy a new mirror for the dressing table.  And buy some new lights for the dressing table – well, it’ll live there eventually.  In the meantime, it’ll have to perch precariously on the bathroom windowsill.  I don’t mind, though, ’cause it’s pretty, and I’ve been desperately wanting to organise something pretty – everything else is so functional and crammed in at the moment.

Also, all my lamps have decided to pack in at the same time for some reason, so I’m currently sitting in the dark.  I will be doing the giant Ikea order this weekend, so hopefully there will be more storage organising (and light) soon.

Phone Box Thursday: Wood Hill, Northampton

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This is another phone box set I spotted in Northampton on Hallowe’en 2015.

Red phone boxes
Red phone boxes, Wood Hill, Northampton, 31st October 2015.

(Coordinates 52°23’71.8″N, 0°89’55.7″W.)

I think these ones are very pretty with the flowers, autumn leaves and memorial in the background.  It’s nice when red phone boxes are still a feature of town centres.

Update March 2022: added coordinates.  These ones were still standing as of November 2020.