Weekends that Revive

Hello out there in Blog land. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and are taking full advantage of all this great weather. It’s so cosy and warm-albeit a wee bit blustery, but who am I to complain?

It really cheers me right up to have days like this as they are so unexpected after last year, I really keep saying to myself as well as all that will listen, “we are so lucky it was this year we didn’t go on holiday and not next year.” If we had been staying in the UK then I’d be outside getting my bulbs in the ground, however that isn’t the plan this year. Because TH’s company is now saying they will organise everything we are presuming someone will knock on the door with a couple of boxes one day and somehow everything that needs done will get done. However, for now, I am enjoying this weather.

I met up with one of my dearest friends who lives far away and we laughed and chatted and made a great deal of noise late into the night. It was one of those evenings that lifts your soul right up and manages to fill you with lightness for no particular reason.

On Saturday we did the usual chores like tidying up and getting groceries as well as sorting out clothes that we’re putting into charity shops. By accident I managed to set my alarm for bright and early so ended up having a late afternoon nap right before The X Factor. I, by the way, can’t wait until Strictly starts again…you really know that the countdown to colder seasons has begun!  (Did you notice I didn't say any particular event in this cold season?  Much more of that to come anyway!)

 On Sunday we had the family round for Sunday dinner. It was so blustery and cold that we got a fire going as soon as we got down to the living room. We had about four massive packets of chicken browning at one point to make 2 dishes for fussy eaters. At least we could all appreciate and agree on pudding which was a giant strawberry/raspberry/banana Eaton mess.

TH had been a bit poorly all weekend and so we went to bed exceptionally early...although that didn’t stop Daisy Dog jumping up into bed at 3 in the morning only to stretch out and start barking at my feet…now if I could only have a nap on the grass..

September

Oh my goodness, can you believe it’s September already? What is happening this year? We’ve had an amazing Summery Summer (which, quite frankly, we could have had last year!) and now without me even noticing we’ve pounced right into September and Autumn. If I had a garden to be taking care of I may have been more aware of these things. Perhaps if I were looking at all of the clothes and décor catalogues I may have had a heads up. But alas twas not to be and I’m left playing catch up.

Despite all of this September is still one of my favourite months. When it gets a bit colder outside and the sky gets bluer I am happy. The air is crisp and if you are up early enough you can catch some frost. This is my favourite time of year. There is a paragraph from The Magic Apple Tree by Susan Hill where she describes her lifelong love of autumn and I agree whole heartedly. I implore you to read this book, it really is one of my all-time favourites.

September is fabulous because it is the start of the time when all of the meals prepared at home start to change. For breakfast I love to change to porridge instead of yogurt. As we’re having a pretty great Indian Summer this year I may move slowly into this and make some compote or have muesli with my breakfast. When lunch rolls round I normally just have soup and some homemade rolls if it’s the weekend. Tea time is the best though. It is normally something that has spent the whole day in the slow cooker making it like a true nursery meal and exceptionally comforting, or something that reminds you of childhood. I love toad in the whole or bangers and mash with proper butchers sausages. Toad in the hole reminds me of Danny Champion of the World and so really does help you feel cosy from the inside out.

Normally in autumn there are beef and ale pies or lots of mince. Chicken is normally for Sunday dinners and pulled pork sandwiches are what Saturday nights were made for. The most humble of all dinners is sometimes the best and that is a baked potato. I love them with a hint of bacon and sour cream with lots of cheese, though TH loving lots of protein as he does normally wants an egg in his. Not the healthiest of dinners but a real treat. If we have this it will be on a Monday as I wouldn’t ever put the oven on for just one thing. No, these need to be organised around the time the oven goes on for the roast at Sunday lunch time!

I’m already keeping my eye on some brambles in the area so as soon as they turn I will be ready for them. Everything in Autumn tastes strangely of brambles, apples, cinnamon and nutmeg when you come to my house. I never really eat much game although The Husband loves it and I know it’s autumn when I see new advertisements at the butchers stating that the more seasonal meats can be ordered in.

I feel that when I look back at last year’s posts they were about moving and now we’re in the same position again this year. Oh well, we’re always up for a new adventure!!

Seaside Walks

My friend has recently bought a house on the north coast of Aberdeenshire.  It is a very old fishermans cottage that looks absolutely picture perfect.

It needs quite a bit of work but she is willing, able and very ready to make this beautiful building her home.  It has a little courtyard with an overgrown garden-however this gives her the chance to pick out all of the best flowers and shrubs, and get rid of the rest.

The windows look out onto the sea and you can open the windows wide to feel the sea air flowing through the house.

The coast of Aberdeenshire is gorgeous and I've already had quite a few trips up north to visit her and see all of the work she has already done.  Some of the things are getting done by builders or the kitchen is getting put in by a very skilled group of people, but quite a lot is being done little and often by friends and family and helpers who pop in to visit.

I love the scent of the sea and she is so very close to it.
We walk past the harbour and out to see the fishing boats, and take drives to other villages.  We walk along beaches and the dogs run until they decide they will come to us to get water.
This is how we spend our weekends, i wonder what it will be like next year?

Time to Hibernate!

I am beyond excited that we are now into proper Autumn viewing and all for the lovely adverts for all of the best shows are starting again.

I know the Bake Off can put me in a great mood!  It is most certainly time to start moving back indoors and getting cosy as it gets darker earlier each evening. 

A Girls Night Out

Last night my friend Holly and I went to the show...oh my gosh it was so funny, it made me want to get up and dance!!  Now it did mean i had to stay out late on a school night, but once in a while wont hut, will it?

It was so sweet and really great that we ended up listening to disco all the way home in the car, then Holly came in for a coffee to try and wake up a wee bit before she had to drive for another 15 minutes home.  I ended up getting to bed at 3.15 in the morning...this just does not happen to me anymore.

I think i will be having early nights for the rest of the week to catch up on myself.
x

Bennachie day trip

How we're Saving

I haven’t done a post about how the saving is going for quite a while so I thought I would do an update. The original plan was to fill all of the ISA’s we could between us which would take us to early Summer and we would hopefully be able to go to the bank and talk reasonably about getting a mortgage. This would give us a 10% deposit for a small cottage on the out-skirts of Aberdeen which we would pay off as quickly as possible. Because we have been saving up my salary as well as paying off rent we were hoping that this plan would be very achievable should nothing go awry.

Now that there is a plan to move abroad we aren’t saving to get our own house next year as we aren’t able to own property in the UK while living in a government house abroad. However we are still living with ‘Thrift’ as our watchword. There are great things happening because of this move – mainly that we are getting rid of all of our excess ‘stuff’ and car boot sales as well as selling things on eBay are really helping us top up the ISA’s.

I really enjoy being ‘in charge’ of the money and give The Husband an allowance every month which he can spend on whatever he likes. Out of housekeeping he still gets all work clothes and packed lunches if he wants them as well as his own phone contract paid, so that’s quite a large sum for just frittering away. The housekeeping gets spent on all of those bills that are set in stone and never change and then the bills and things that need to be paid that we can change by either getting rid of the services or cutting back. I take my allowance and then the rest gets saved. Below is a list of the things we spend money on with a percentage sign to show how much each month gets put on it.

Things we can’t change:

1. Rent (17.25%)
2. Council Tax (5.6%)
3. TV licence (0.51%)
4. Subscriptions (0.34%)
5. Contents and Car Insurance (1% each)
6. TH’s Phone Contract (0.69%)

Things we can change:

1. Sky TV (0.75%)
2. Petrol (5.52%)
3. Groceries (6.9%)
4. Gas (3.45%)
5. Electric (3.45%)
6. Allowances (5.17%)
7. Phone and Broadband (1.03%)

I had been saving my allowance for the Girls Trip I had been planning for Edinburgh, but seeing as that has had to be cancelled I am just putting more into savings until I see something I would like. We aren’t saving any money for the gas tank right now as we probably won’t use a full one before we go so we’ve decided we can get by using the wood burner until then. Also because of this great weather and late sunsets no lights have been going on for ages and ages.

Menu planning and shopping around has saved us quite a bit of money and we should be able to save a bit more as we have started to run down the pantry and freezers. I have better lunches that are cheaper than I ever bought in shops as I eat quite a lot of leftovers now. This doesn’t mean we eat fatty or cardboard-like food. It’s a bit easier now that it’s getting colder as we had make more stews, casseroles, or things like toad in the hole. More mince and tatties or Sunday dinners served with a plethora of veg, dumplings or pastry.

We find and cut all of our own wood and only bought a chainsaw when we saved enough PayPal money from selling things online-making it ‘spend neutral’ in my mind. This meant we could cut larger logs in a shorter amount of time so we have been stock piling for autumn for a while now. We cuddle into a soft hot water bottle to keep cosy, just like we did when we were little. Water cleans most tables and worktops and cheap homemade solutions clean most of the rest.

We don’t have a pot for emergencies, although when we do have a mortgage we’ll have to keep one. When we had to get the brakes on the car fixed last month we just had to not save as much that month, but because our money is hardly locked up in stocks and shares we can get to it if there was a big problem. Also, although we rent which can seem like dead money, we also know that if something breaks we can get it sorted without us parting with any money.

When you see it written out like that I think you’d be forgiven for imagining we could have always saved money, however it really was only recently we thought about it. I feel so ashamed. When I think of money that was just ‘blown’ it makes me crazy! Oh well, onwards and upwards! I just have to keep acting like those of my grandmothers generation and save every penny I can.

Swallows in the Garden

Way back in Spring we found some swallow nests being built on the side of the house.  We left them to it and they left us to it also so there was no need to go out and stare too much.  We soon heard the noise of little swallows and were thankful that the weather was warm-not thinking too much of it.

Then one morning we came out of the house to find that the nest had fallen.  We could only find two birds, both of which were alive, but they were quite little.  There still seemed to be lots of adult birds flying around overhead, but the little ones were firmly planted on the ground.  So we were very worried for them.

I phoned the SSPCA who told us to put them in a box and take them inside as they couldn't fly and feed.  We were told to put a little bit of water in with them and we made the box comfortable.  A man from the SSPCA came out quickly and took the birds away and told us that there were many little birds that had fallen during the hot weather. 

He told us that our little ones had a good chance of surviving as they were so very close to flying away themselves.  The other day he looked in whilst we were at home and said that all of the little birds he had collected that day survived.  TH is now planning a fishing trip with him and the rest as they say is history!

Another Swap

I have recently been over to Blueberry Hearts fantastic blog where she has been planning another swap!  I've copied out what you can see below from the blog post about the swap so get your thinking caps on people!  I have put my name down for the Hocus Pocus one so can't wait!

Hocus Pocus Hallowe'en - a Hallowe'en themed parcel to thoroughly immerse yourself in the wonderful black and orangeness of the occasion. Some ideas for this are bat shaped bunting, Hallowe'en themed cushion or sweets for trick or treating. So many options with this one I think...

Autumn Glow - an autumn themed parcel which could include anything autumn themed that you like. For example an autumn themed wreath, some cosy hot chocolate or even a handmade scarf or hat. Possibilities are endless!

Awesome Autumn Plans

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how much things will change when we move to a new country. One of these things is ridiculously simple and so impudent that I am even thinking about it. We are being shipped off to an amazing place on the other side of the world and my little worry…oh it was just about how I love autumn and winter. My worry was that I would be sad missing golden crispy leaves falling to the ground. My sadness was that I would be missing snow covered branches and twinkly lights I associate with my journey home in Advent.

I felt that if things weren’t the way they always were then they would automatically be bad, or I would perhaps become sad. Fear of feeling sad in the future is something that I’ve only just learns terrifies me. I have had some really tough times in the past and I guess I am subconsciously very worried about being like that again.

To overcome this (or at least in part) and hopefully move forward I am planning an Autumn Adventure with The Husband. I would like us to have a slow and leisurely drive down to Dundee taking in two lovely shops I always HAVE TO stop at. We will then set up camp there for the night and then travel on to St Andrews to walk around the prettiness there. They have so many cute little independent shops and I always feel so at home in University towns as I think they are some of the most inviting and welcoming places.

So there we go, that’s my plan. I will have a last hurrah to autumn and then I will attempt to move forward and embrace and love the new.

Whatever happened, happened well

the Bhagavad Gita

“Whatever happened, happened well. Whatever is happening, is happening well. Whatever will happen, will also happen well. For what are you crying? What did you bring with you, for you to lose? What did you create, for it to be wasted or destroyed? Whatever you took, it was taken from here. Whatever you gave, it was given from here. Whatever is yours today, will belong to someone else tomorrow. On another day, it will belong to yet another”.

Looking for Jobs for the move ahead

The move to Singapore has The Husband and myself planning what we need to arrange and sort out before we get there. Because of TH’s job I will get a full visa and will be allowed to find work, however how easy it will be is another thing. Singapore is so full of people at the top of their game that it’s going to be quite hard to get something, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try. Any money that I am able to make will still go into a pot for when we come home so that we can buy our own home.

I was lined up to do some training with work, but because of this move everything im involved with will be winding down and work will be slowly taken from me. I look forward to being able to help with the training of somebody else and can’t wait to get into that role in the coming months. I was looking forward to all of the training that was lined up for myself. I had been accepted to a university course which would have been a great asset for my CV and would have been free as an employee. I was also lined up for some Project Management training which would have been great, but as it is I would have to pay for it, and I really don’t want to even start something I can’t finish right now.

What I have been looking at is getting other sorts of training under my belt so that when I look for a job abroad I will be able to get something half decent. I’ve been looking at lots of courses which I hope will help to set me apart-even if it is just to prove that I can do things off my own back.  Train the trainer training courses are for those who want to get into training others in organisations, so I hope that I can build on the times I tutored with computer training through the library. They do all sorts of courses and this will hopefully build on my skill set to make me look like a good future employee! The courses are mostly under £500 so are something that I am more easily able to get involved with and I seriously look forward to getting my teeth into something new. They do all sorts of things but right now I am looking at getting into something to do with education as we know people out there that run their own school. I hope that this does make me look a better candidate as I think it will be easier to meet new people if I have a job too.

This is such an exciting time and I am really trying to focus on all of the positives as I can be really averse to change so part of my looking at these courses is something to do with preparing myself for the move…. All we need to do now is pack up all of our worldly possessions, sort out all direct debits and bills, sell the car and excess furniture etc…. Hmm, not much then!

Singapore

Can't wait to get over there!

So excited for the move to Singapore

Sorted for Leaving

Sky has always been my go to TV package as it was the one I grew up with when I was little, but when trying to get my Mum the best deal I was keen to look about for a really good package. The point of these packages is to bundle together two or more services in order to make things more convenient and cheaper. This means that Mum would only have to pay one monthly bill rather than several and deal with only one company. With us moving away I was really keen to get my Mums broadband sorted so looked at some of the sky broadband offers available.

While looking up deals I noticed that you can either go for pre-made bundles that are aimed at people who are interested in different things, whether that’s sports, broadband, talking or watching films, or create your own so it’s tailored exactly to what they want from a multi-service bundle. Obviously, the more that is included, the more expensive the bundle will be and when trying to sort this out I found that my Mum is into the widest range of shows possible!

We are getting closer to the mark and with 15 weeks before we go we do have a bit of time. The list of things we have to get sorted ourselves is a bit scary, but I keep telling myself it will be worth it!

Make it Home

Hi everyone, we’re going through such an exciting time here so I haven’t been on the blog much. This year has been crazy, it’s made me crazy, and I’m only half way through it. So far we have unpacked half the boxes after the move as we only got heat a couple of days before Christmas (we still have loads of stuff in boxes). We battled through snow that eventually ended up coming up to my waist (sliding off the road is never how I want to start my day). We had power cuts and broken ovens, broken showers and disconnections, a wrecked garden and a bump to the car.

TH and I have been to the Doctors over stress and infertility. I took over the budgeting, stressed some more and then got things in order. We started to save, and boy have we saved (on average 60% of our take home pay!) but this has been hard.

My goal was to get out of the place we were renting. We wanted an actual contract and to feel safe and secure. We started to like where we lived more. It was about freedom to move about the beautiful countryside which we are surrounded by. I felt so alone not having neighbours, but I started to enjoy our home in a different way. We started to deal with stress and we felt better that we had medical professionals to help us through the infertility. We planned ahead. I booked a weekend away in Edinburgh for Christmas, we started to make more money by selling things and doing odd jobs. TH has taken up a bit of photography and I have a second job with getting And now it’s all change again.

I am changing the blog title to ‘Make it Home’. This is going to reflect the change that I’m no longer a homemaker full time and as a result I have less time to do the homemaking things I used to take for granted. It will also reflect the change to the type of home we will have in the near future. We have lived in a flat, a coastal cottage and a little house in the middle of a field in the time that I’ve been writing this blog. Now we’re moving again. I want every house we have to feel like home, to make it our home. I want this blog to chronicle our journey to our eventual home.

What I want this space to convey is the journey to the place you feel safe, I want this space to be about making things that make me feel like I have a proper home.

I said that we are moving, and we should be leaving our current house within the next three months. We are leaving the UK as The Husband has been told he has the job in Singapore. They want us out there for the beginning of November. We are getting a relocation agent to help us get organised and we will either get a house out there that is already owned or we will have to find a place to rent ourselves. TH will be working in the D10 area, so we are hoping to live around there. So far we have looked into taking Daisy Dog over, but that seems like a long process because of the wait to get air conditioned carriage for her.

So we are having an even bigger ebay clearout and more car boot sales, things are starting to get put back into boxes and packaged up. I am starting to get my CV organised and find out about banks and credit cards abroad. We have a super busy 3 months ahead of us, but we will get there.

Little Friends

The sun is extraordinarily sunny. The breeze is deliciously warm and sweet and I am so looking forward to the weekend. We’ve had seven weeks of sunshine and it’s just so wonderful to wake up to a clear blue sky. The garden has never been so used and I have been spending plenty of time laying on the grass reading my books.

The Husband loves the bigger garden for all of the ‘man jobs’ he can do out there and is in the process of making a garden bench from an old bed. Daisy Dog has also been spending her time luxuriously propped on an old duvet that we’ve dragged onto the patio where the sun spends most of the day. She intermittently wonders back into the house to cool off, but it’s so sweet to see another little soul doing what I wish I could do.

On a wee bit of a sadder note we are having our friends little girl to stay for the weekend as her parents are separating and need to get on with some of the stuff that just needs to get done. It is very lovely that we can take care of her for a little while or give her some TLC when she is down, but we know that there is an awful lot that must be going on in her head. We know that we can’t make the world a better place all at once, but we can make the little part of the world we inhabit better by trying to make lots of tiny little changes.

So, although I can’t give her what she wants the most, I can give her a bit of a break from thinking about what’s been pulling her down.

Smile

The Happiness Project Part 2

I am still in the middle of reading the wonderful Happiness Project and have felt that this book more than any other book of this kind has got me asking really important questions of myself. I said in the last blog post that I was going to read the whole book and then re-read it again slowly. I said this because it is one of those books that I love in which the sections are divided into months with an aim for each. It begins in January and January is all about aiming to get the most energy, then each month has a new aim added to the past months aims. This means that little by little things will change.

The book isn’t about a certain path being followed but shows the writers experience as well as asking lots of questions of the reader. I was reading the book in our back garden last night when I started to think about how my own happiness project would go. What things would I want to work on? What would my aims be? This is from the Happiness Project website and shows you how to get started (I’ve written my own answers next to each of the questions):

“Identify your aims
The First Splendid Truth will help you identify areas to tackle in your Happiness Project.
Ask yourself:
▪ What makes you feel good? What gives you joy, energy, fun?
Going for a walk. Reading. Chatting for hours over delicious food. Making others happy.
▪ What makes you feel bad? What brings you anger, guilt, boredom, dread?
Rudeness, unfairness and cruelty in others. Being unmotivated and lazy makes me cross at myself.
▪ What makes you feel right? What values do you want your life to reflect?
I want to be someone who is fair and helpful. I want to be able to look after children in my life. I want to show that education is important and that working hard is how to get what you want from life.
▪ How can you build an atmosphere of growth—where you learn, explore, build, teach, help?”
This is a much more difficult question and the reason that I am trying to read up a lot on this subject.

The author also made up 8 Splendid Truths and wrote little notes beside them:

1. To be happier, you have to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.
2. One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy;
One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself.
3. The days are long, but the years are short.
4. You’re not happy unless you think you’re happy.
(Many argue the opposite case. John Stuart Mill, for example, wrote, “Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so.” I disagree.)
5. I can build a happy life only on the foundation of my own nature.
6. The only person I can change is myself.
7. Happy people make people happy, but I can’t make someone be happy, and no one else can make me happy.
8. Now is now.
So far all that I know in my own project is that I need to start in the same way. I really want to start generating some energy within myself. I need to do things and eat things that make me more energised so that I can take more on and squeeze as much out of life as I can.

I hope this gives you a little insight into the book or at least gives you some questions you maybe feel you should be able to answer. Now get to the library!

So Happy

I've been reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin recently.  I'm only on February at the moment, but can't wait to get all the way through it in one go and then hopefully go back and re-read it properly with the hope of following through on a lot of what it says.

I love getting new books and have been reading more and more like this.  So although i can't say too much about it at the moment i can defiantly tell you that this is a really good read...so get to your libraries!