Resolutions in review

April has proven to be yet another hectic month, but neither-the-less awesome!  In previous years my New Year resolutions have been vague and I had made them knowing I was unlikely to maintain them so I'm really happy that this year my resolutions are achievable, here is how I've been doing:

1. Be in the moment.  I find it's easier to be in the moment in spring and summer, it feels like there is so much to notice and appreciate especially on the allotment as you are surrounded by new growth and lush foliage.  Whilst the first quarter of the year was spent travelling about April has been more home based.  (Having said that I did squeeze one London visit in.)  The allotment has needed a lot of our attention which is a great opportunity to spend time with MozzyMr.
2. Take every opportunity to exercise.  Oh what have I become?  I never thought I would be the person to say this but... I love going to the gym.  I love the classes I do, and the netball I play, the people I go with and the people I've met by going.  On top of that all the digging on the allotment is certainly improving my upper body strength (which is good because frankly I had none).
3. Be organised about lunches.  Well I am consistently failing at this, I have no motivation to make soups, salads or sandwiches at the moment and work have started stocking some amazing wraps which are sooo delicious.  Must try harder at this resolution in May.
4. Reconnect with friends.  I have had two amazing trips to London, the first with my lovely friends Mel and Bonny and the second with my equally lovely friends (although I doubt they would describe themselves that way) Iain and Derfel.  I took all four of them to The Drowned Man, two are now complete converts and two are neutral leaning towards mildly interested.  On Good Friday I got to spend time with my childhood friend, there was cider, sunshine and the cutest dog called Maggie it was a great afternoon.
5. Allotment time.  We've been doing well on this one, lots and lots of digging, whilst the plot still looks overgrown it is certainly improving.  We have our broad beans, garlics and onions in already and we have spinach, broccoli, tomato, pumpkin, butternut squash, cauliflower, beetroot, borlotti bean, runner bean and spinach beet seedlings on the way.  Over the weekend I am going to get the parsnips and carrots in the ground.
6. Seek out culture.  In addition to what seem to be my monthly visits to The Drowned Man we also went to see the musical Billy Elliot, I don't normally choose to see musicals but I really enjoyed this one and would recommend it.  We were in the cheap seats high up in the gods, the view was great but the leg room was spine destroying!
7. Be more efficient with chores.  I now have those antibac wipes in almost every room in the house so that when I have a couple of spare minutes I have do a quick dust or give the shower a quick wipe.  The big chores still bunch up towards the weekend but to be fair my chore routine is becoming more streamlined and time efficient (fun huh?)

Resolutions in review

Keeping a monthly check on my New Year resolutions is definitely helping me to keep them and to be mindful of them when I make decisions.  Here is how February has been going:

1. Be in the moment.  I have really failed at this in February.  It has been a busy month and by the time I get home, have done the washing up or cooking I flake out on the sofa and surf the internet.  Surfing the internet isn't even something I find that interesting but it's easy to do and I just switch my brain off when I do it.  Having said this I am 25 days into my meditation programme and finding it really beneficial.  Looking forward to March I am going to unplug more and do more drawing or planting (we are on the cusp of seed season!).
2. Take every opportunity to exercise.  BOOM!  This one is going well, netball has been continuing and I've added a weekly Body Combat session to my regime.  I'm loving it, and loving the results.
3. Be organised about lunches.  Damn I'm still rubbish at this, whilst I do make the odd blindingly awesome soup I don't do it on a regular enough basis so find myself still buying sandwiches at work which are never that healthy.  It's always easier to cook more veg-tastic food when we're yielding the results from the allotment but with the weather being the way it has not much is growing.  I did read there is a 75% chance of the summer of 2014 being the hottest on record... we'll see shall we?
4. Reconnect with friends.  Combining my socialising with my exercising has been a big win and really motivating.  I don't groan at the thought of going to a class because I will see my gorgeous friends there.  Not only that but I have discovered a mutual love of cinema going with my friends Derfel and Iain, it is becoming a weekly treat, one I enjoy more than just sitting in a pub :)
5. Allotment time.  Not a chance.  Seriously?  These storms are a joke!  To keep our hand in though we have been planning which seeds we need to plant and when, and the windowsills have been filling up with trays of seedlings.
6. Seek out culture.  I think my cinema visits count for this resolution.  I've seen The Lego Movie, 12 Years a Slave, August: Osage County and Dallas Buyers Club most of them I've really enjoyed, my favourite being The Lego Movie.  Not only that I took my friend Mel up to see The Drowned Man on Sunday, it was her first visit and she seemed to enjoy it, in fact we're already planning a return visit (another convert!), perhaps with a trip to the Harry Potter Studio Tour while we're there?
7. Be more efficient with chores.  I've been trying hard to tidy up a little every day and do one or two chores each day rather than having to make a big effort at the weekend.  On the whole the house has been a lot tidier and therefore a nicer place to be.  This weekend I'm going to tackle the boxes of MozzyMr's childhood fodder which have been on the landing for months, I'm sick of sidling past them, grrr.

How have your resolutions been going?  If you are blogging about them leave me a link in the comments I would love to read all about them.

Anna x

New Year resolutions in review

Well January is almost over and in years gone by it's about this time I have given up on most of my New Year resolutions.  To keep myself motivated I thought I would review my progress from time to time just to check things are on track!  This is how things have been going so far:

1. Be in the moment.  You know what, this is the resolution I thought I would be TERRIBLE at I double, sometimes triple screen all the time but I have really been putting in the effort to leave my phone or ipad upstairs and focus on the here and now.  In addition I am on day two of the Headspace Take10 programme involving ten minutes of mindfulness meditation a day, so far so good I will let you know how this one pans out!
2. Take every opportunity to exercise.  Progress is a bit 50/50 on this one.  On the one hand I have taken up netball once a week and there is talk of starting spinning classes as well.  On the other hand I have been driving to work instead of walking because it is so damn rainy!  Progress for sure but a lot of room for improvement as well.
3. Be organised about lunches.  Again... yes and no.  To be honest MozzyMr is being organised about lunches, cooking up batches of delicious food for us to take to work.  From my point of view I'm being organised in the sense that I am packing my lunch the night before instead of running around frantically gathering bits and bobs in the morning.  Yesterday I cooked up a batch of sweet potato, garlic, ginger and leek soup I can't wait for 12 o'clock!
4. Reconnect with friends.  This one has been great fun.  We had our lovely friends Ruth, Dan, Laura and Matt around for dinner and drunken catch-ups, I've been to the cinema with my lovely friend Mel, I've reconnected with long time friend Bekah and lovely ex-colleague Sarah at our new found netball practice.  There has been a lot of fun over the best month and more planned so I can't wait!
5. Allotment time.  Well the weather has royally screwed me over for this resolution.  Every weekend it has rained and rained and rained.  We did manage to snatch an hour or two last weekend and worked on the bed in the polytunnel but apart from that we just have to wait.  Next Saturday is a bonfire day at the allotment.  MoMa and MoPa have given MozzyMr and early birthday present of an incinerator (think metal dustbin with a chimney) which means come rain or shine we will be doing a burn next Saturday!
6. Seek out culture.  Oh my days the tickets are stacking up!  I have another Drowned Man visit booked it, tickets to see comedian Jon Richardson as well as tickets to the Craig Charles Funk and Soul Show!  This Thursday MozzyMr and I will be see the live streaming of Coriolanus at our local Picture House... all very exciting! 
7. Be more efficient with chores.  Nah this hasn't really happened at all but then there is still time to improve on this one!

So how have your resolutions been going?

Happy New Year!

Well hello there 2014.  I gotta be honest 2014 I'm not keen on the weather you've brought with you, it is blowing a gale out there, the cat has cabin fever and MozzyMr is discombobulated.  BUT I already feel more positive about you then I did 2013, I didn't make resolutions last year but I thought I would make a couple this year just to keep in mind the good stuff.

1. Be in the moment.  Eat fewer meals sat in front of the television, put the computer down more, read and well, be in the moment.
2. Take every opportunity to exercise.  Yeah, yeah everyone says this one right?  I'm not too bad with the exercise thing but there is always room for improvement; don't hit the snooze button so many times I have to drive to work instead of walk, walk to the shops rather than driving, cycle and start swimming regularly again.
3. Be organised about lunches.  In 2012 MozzyMr and I were pretty hot on making soups, salads and delicious lunches to take with us to work, but in 2013 that went out the window.  More and more I would grab a sandwich at work which are always completely overpriced and lack the vegetables our homemade lunches do.
4. Reconnect with friends.  Last year all too often I would go for a quick drink after work rather than taking the time to organise different activities with old and new friends alike.  MozzyMr and I have seriously neglected a lot of our old friends so I aim to do lots of visiting, camping, hosting and generally catching up with the good folk I know and love.
5. Allotment time.  OK so spending time at the allotment isn't something I really fail at, 2013 was a good year allotment wise for us.  But with a full plot now it's time for MozzyMr and I to plan our plot and our growing season properly.  Bulk is the key word, we've dabbled with growing this and that but this year I plan to grow the veg we know we like and use and grow it by the bucket load.
6. Seek out culture.  Oh yes that's right I'm going to mention The Drowned Man again (!!) but it really unlocked a keen sense of wanting to engage with more culture.  Whether that be going to the cinema more, seeing more exhibitions, going to the theatre, reading more widely, going to the studio and embracing opportunities.
7. Be more efficient with chores.  Yeeeeeah I let things pile up and then have a major mission to get the house tidy.  Little and often is the go for 2014.

Well that's probably enough to be getting on with, what resolutions/goals have you set this year?

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.)

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.