Argh too much stuff!

I own too much stuff, and MozzyMr is worse he won't throw anything away which means I have to throw/donate/sell twice the amount of stuff to stop our house becoming overcrowded, claustrophobic and a bloody nightmare to clean!  I've reached breaking point, it's time to get rid of stuff and get ready for spring.

First to go: magazines.  Love em.  Buy far too many and whilst I do pass many onto friends I keep loads, sometimes for just one picture or article so I searched the house for all of the stashes I've hidden away.

Cue ruthless ripping out of pages, editing and throwing the chaff in the recycling...

Follow this with lots of cutting out and sticking in a scrapbook, I can't say I've created a work of art here but at least all of those bits that I've been saving to look at one day are in one place and in some sort of order.  Plus I can keep adding to it and have it as a journal of all the things that caught my eye.

Further Allotment Geekery

So this Saturday we extended our allotment empire by one raised bed, a mere raised bed?  Yep, but this bad boy is in a polytunnel which means tomatoes, chillies, and peppers galore!

We're plot 16 on the right in between two experts: Rodney and Liz (they already have seedlings on the go, this may not sound much but I haven't even finished digging over the rest of the plot).

Mmmmm new top soil (yeah you heard me).

And finally garlic (ignore the weeds they've gone now), just waiting for a frost to split the cloves. 

Well that's quite a lot of excitement for one day...... ta ra for now.

Real Ale Beards

We went to a real ale festival last night, and with real ale a beard is somewhat compulsory.  The beard made us thoughtful and reflective, the real ale however did not.

In an attempt to make life more colourful

On New Year's eve I made a number of resolutions for the coming year, one of which was to wear more colour.  Here are my attempts so far....

Very much getting into wearing coloured tights, personally I blame Mary Portas. 

The red dress, a January sale purchase from ASOS.  It's almost a bit too short, when I wear it at work I have to be very demure when picking stuff up off the floor.

The mustard yellow jumper.  This was a Next sale purchase, I'd been toying with buying this jumper for yonks but at £30 it was much more than I would usually spend on a jumper.  But lo!  During the post Christmas, pre-New Year lull I found it in the next sale for a mere £14, happy with that.  (The maple brooch was a £1 car boot sale find, oh and I don't usually wear a stripy t-shirt underneath it.)

Mum makes!

I'm sure I've mentioned in this blog before how my parents moved from the family home to a flat last year and in all of the downsizing ALOT of things were thrown out or sold.  We went over to their house to help out with a garage sale before they moved and I found this doll in amongst the toys to be sold.  Now I can't remember her name because she was mine when I was very, very young but I do know mum made it for me and I'm glad I had the opportunity to save her from being sold.  She sits on my chest of drawers where I get to see her everyday.

Any ideas what I should name her?  I honestly don't know what would suit her!

Indulgent Pigga Post

Ok, ok I get this is a little bit of a crazy cat lady post, but little Pigga was having a snooze in the late winter sun on her favourite blanket and being all cute.  She's an old maid now so we indulge the little beast far too much.  In fact MozzyMr and I would both admit she plays us like a fiddle.

Allotment prep for spring

Saturday was great.  Every first Saturday of the month after 12 noon we're allowed to hold a bonfire at the allotment.  Being the first of the year we thought we would make a bit of a celebration of it, so we prepared homemade soup, rustic bread and a cheeky tipple or two...

MozzyMr got the fire going with some of the weeds and general detritus we've gathered up whilst preparing the allotment for spring.

Once the fire got going and the sun started to set we were grateful for the warmth it was pumping out!

A number of friends and their children joined us so there were plenty of shouts of "Train!" (as we're right next to the track and they go by every half an hour or so), sticks and digging holes in the mud.

Of course there was a little something for the adults to help keep the cold at bay, the hip flask; most useful allotment item to date.  Having said that next Saturday the scarecrows mum and dad bought us for Christmas are going to go up, at the moment they malevolently guard the hallway and freak the cat out.

So excited to be preparing the allotment for sowing hopefully as early as February.  Having crossed the "old" line some time ago I have no qualms settling down with a hot chocolate and a fruit and veg seed catalogue.  So far we've ordered golden beetroot, zebra and black tomatoes, purple potatoes, butternut squash, yellow courgettes, sweetcorn, and lots of chilli's.  Nom nom.

Drawings (things can only get better)

As you may have read in my New Year resolutions post I am attempting to draw everyday to inject a bit of creativity back into my life.  The drawings are.... not as good as I would like but practice does make perfect.

I've been dismantling Christmas so the tree has been a bit of a focus especially when naked, still very beautiful though:

The downside?  I now have a living room full of needles and a cat that insists on rolling in them, cue lots of rummaging in the cat's fur to stop her doing herself a damage.

House and acorn bauble (I know the acorn isn't that recognisable but I'm still new at this!)

Benedicts Bittermint regret!  I ate them like they were going out of fashion, they've gone now I can have fruit and veg again:

New allotment must, hip flask!  When you've done a lot of digging on a frosty day nothing is better than a slug of whisky (MozzyMr's choice), port (my choice).

One of the things I've enjoyed most over the Christmas holiday is hanging out with little pigga, she has been a sofa and lap stable these last couple of weeks.  When she realised we were going back to work she got all sulky and wouldn't come near us.  Tuna soon fixed that.

Is it Spring yet?

I love, love, love winter. 

Until Christmas is over and then I get antsy to see the first signs of spring.  It being a mild winter the bluebells in my garden have started to come out, but so I can keep an eye on the progress of Spring I brought this one home for the kitchen.  Something nice to look at whilst doing the washing up!