Flylady-ing my ass off

Over at GS, we have our very own FlyLady, ready to haul-ass on the cleaning side of life.


If I am left to it, without any organisation, I get all of a dither and not much gets done. I need to split my day up into work time, play time, cooking time, cleaning time, chill-out time, wine time...


Today was cleaning the hallway. So I did. It's all sparkly and dog-hair-free with nicely polished bannisters, although not by doing this:





I even managed to tidy my crochet basket

It probably won't look that neat by the morning; already a naughty small pixie has been fiddling and twiddling with my wool.


I am running a half-marathon next month, to raise money for Help for Heroes and I have been struggling with shin-splints. My Army days have seen my pretty little pins pretty much buggered, but hey-ho, it's marathon training we go. I'm running the NYC marathon next year so my legs will bloody well have to keep up. I have rested for a few days now, but am on a 10-miler tomorrow evening. Ice at the ready :-)


I have lists-a-go-go today. Lots of planning going on for work. Because I work from my little desk overlooking the garden, I do find it much harder to stay motivated. Oh look, the hens are out again...


See? So I *need* my lovely lists to retain brain power and stay driven.


And I do need to transfer the remaining herbs before we change the hen pen yet again. We're getting another four girls, some cutesy little ones with fluffy heads. We're extending the run onto the veg patch over winter, so they can poop and fertilise the patch for next year. 


Must add that to my list...

Vintage beauties

I have been lucky enough to acquire a gorgeous 1960s vintage Liberty of London silk scarf. It's so elegant! And unworn. Still wrapped delicately in tissue paper.

It reminds me of a unicorn, with its silvery and cream flecks.


And what's more, it even came in the original box, date-stamped and everything!

There is also this

A vintage pearl collar choker. Not very me, but still very pretty. I am off to the Manchester Opera House this evening, so I may wear the scarf on its first outing from its box in almost 50 years!!!

Cakeage and craft

*That* time of the month has arrived; see picture above. Nothing more needs to be said.


A grandma-knit beret and scarf for a small girl (delightfully modelled, accompanied by pyjamas)

I made a padded notice board last year for the children's room, but I needed something smaller for my desk. Because my desk is in our lounge area, I wanted it to be unobtrusive. I had a bit of an urge after spotting this from my Pinterest board, but well, I have to do things right *now*, and I had no clips etc, so I fashioned this:

A stiff piece of picture framing card, covered with some left-over golden raw silk. I attached some silver elastic (with glue, pins, safety pins - whatever it took - seriously, I'm not gonna show you the back because it's a true bodge job!)

Perfect for little notes to remind me of all the crap I know I'll forget.

I look pretty organised now, don't you think?!

Buttons and birthdays

We had two children's parties yesterday; pure torture. Think of a squillion wailing and noisy monsters running amok, hopped-up on candy and sugar-infested treats. Bliss.

So to chill out, I played with my vintage buttons :)

Twisting them into wiry flowers, inspired by the bridal bouquet of last weekend. 

(And also harvested the remaining lavender this weekend too)

And the bride wore...

Doc Martins! The groom wore some rockin' red and black biker boots. Our nephew's wedding = an awesome weekend.

And the bouquet was made up with...

...buttons! Vintage buttons collected and donated (some by me) and she made her own bouquet. Truly handmade :)

The men's button holes were, well, button holes! All co-ordinating vintage buttons.

A very rock 'n roll wedding - even the tables were named after bands the newlyweds had seen together. 

We were on Biffy Clyro's table!