Cluckingham Palace

Resolutions !!!!!!!

We all make them.

We all break them.

You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em; Know when to walk away, know when to run.. WHAT?? get outta here Kenny.. wrong song.. and I don't even like country music.   Anyway... as I was saying.   This year I have lots of things I want to do/change/be/start/end etc.    So instead of standing there at midnight making rash promises - I have spent the last couple of days making a board.

So I present - My 2011 Resolution Board

I took a large piece of tin (left over from an old project) and punched a couple of holes (good ole cropadile) and hung it by wire.   Because the edges of the tin were a tad sharp, I wrapped the edges with 7gypsies tape.   Over each hole where the wire came through I put two buttons as added stability to stop the wire pulling back - and as luck would have it I had two buttons with the #1 on them so it is for Year 11!     Then I grabbed some el cheapo wooden pegs and glued magnet strips on to the back of each one (which came with a message board and will never be used).   Then I painted the pegs in different colours.

Peridot - Daily

Periwinkle - Weekly

Aquamarine - Monthly

Red - Year

Then I set to, and made the actual resolutions for each peg.   Some are just visuals, some are words, some are a combination.   Scrappy items came in handy here!   The whole time I was making it - I was thinking about all the things that I wanted - and even before it was finished - I had/have already started to implement some of them.    This is hanging in my little office area so everytime I walk in and out I see it.  

So here is a close up of the different areas.

DAILY

These are things I want to change on a daily basis. 

I found some fun images in a recent magazine and some I had on my computer.

No that is not moisturiser on the moisturise label but liquid pearls - looks realistic though!!   

My personal fave - Stop letting it - with the visual of  time slipping through my fingers

In making the actual board - I already started on the save money part by using items I already had.   You might laugh at the "dressed before 9am" - but let me tell you - working for yourself from home, it is so easy some days to get up and start working - and suddenly it is nearly lunchtime and you are still in your jimjams!!   Enough I say!

 

WEEKLY

The 2lbs down goal - that is my minimum - I think I can do better - but that is my weekly aim.  

Some of the exercise goals will change to daily. 

The SWIM is swimming don't you think?

Fix Something refers to the house.   We all have little jobs that need a bit of DIY - that always seem to get put off - no more!!

 

MONTHLY

My poor old Vespa has not been ridden in yonks.  With the way petrol is flying up - I need to get back in the saddle! 

1 layout a month might seem paltry - but as I have done NONE layouts a month over the past year, well!!   It seems as though since I started *working* in the scrap industry my own scrapping has become a thing of the past!

Something for me - a little AB FAB dahling - or a little putting me first.  Might be as a simple as a pedicure, or lunch with friends, or as involved as a weekend away.

I am changing my albums up - pulled the layouts all out over a year ago - they still sit... sadly waiting for a new home.

DATES!!   I want some!!   Not just a night at the movies either!

 

YEAR

These are goals I want reached in 2011.

The bath - that actual bath (and tap) is sitting in our garage - in a box - waiting to be installed. 

We bought it last year along with a new basin unit.  

We want to totally redo the main bathroom which is 70's kitsch small YUK horrible nasty.  

It is going to be a big job - everything ripped out - along with an adjoining wall (cupboard) to make the room bigger, and a skylight pushed through - as it is an interior room and dark as a coalmine with the lights off.   But this year it is HAPPENING!

I love the font for learning something new - and I know what it is I want to learn - and no I am not fessing up.      The other image is very self explanatory and I won't be commenting!

 

So there you have it - the Board.   I am thinking this should be the topic for the layout I do for this month!    I have a few other items to go on the board - need more pegs - and over the year some of the items will change their status to daily, weekly, monthly.    Some will be bumped up (exercise) and some will be bumped down (dig photos) as situations change or get completed.

How does your garden grow???

Well for us... we live in a city... the burbs... but that does not stop us having a garden.   There is nothing better than picking your own goodies - they taste 1000 times better than even the stuff from the Farmers Market.  Plus you know exactly what went into them, on them, around them!!

We don't have lots of garden space for vegetables and fruit - but we still get a pretty good haul.    You just have to be smart about what you plant.   Just look at this bowl of apples I picked yesterday and there are just as many if not more to come.  

We have a dwarf tree with three varieties on it - so we get a good selection.

The same with our cherry tree - not a dwarf but three varieties on the same tree - so we get early, mid and late season cherries - well when we are not fighting the damn squirrels and birds for them that is.

Not a bad haul this year of these either, it is in a great position in the backyard - we ate a lot while lounging in the pool - just reach up and pick.

We are now heading into harvesting and eating veges!!

We always do well with tomatoes

- they love the area we put them in, and grow like triffids. 

Every year we like to try out some different varieties - this year we have this little miniature pear shaped one - that grows in clusters and it is cropping like mad.

We also like to try out the different heirloom ones - and this morning picked the first of a new one - and had it on toast YUMMY.   Talk about a meaty tomato!!  

You can be clever too with your placement - have a climbing rose???... then add a climbing bean....

and of course we are growing zucchini... cos we love them.   However we learned our lesson a few years back that ONE plant is more than enough *LOL* and this year, even that one plant is being a little overzealous!!

So what are you growing and eating??

I thought it was Spring!!

so why the hell yesterday was it BLOODY freezing and did we get a hailstorm which made it even colder!!   Oh yes the rainbow afterwards was pretty - against the thunderous BLACK sky!!   But if I thought it was cold before then - it was even FREEZIER yes it's a word afterwards.

Worse - I was working at the storage unit unpacking and pricing some product that had arrived for the store, and getting ready for the scrap retreat this weekend.   It is as cold as a witches tit in there at the best of times - by the time I got home last night - I looked like a witch - well my hands did anyway - cramped into a frozen claw!

Yes yes I hear all your northerners, easterners etc saying oh it's not cold there - but you keep forgetting this is CALIFORNIA and the main thing is NONE of these houses etc are designed for the temps we have been getting PLUS I don't have the clothes for this!!!

Anyway... to remind myself it REALLY is spring - here is a pic from my garden taken in the weekend - on one of the few days we have had some bloody sunshine over the past 8 weeks!!

Hummingbird - just amazing!

just took this picture - we have hummingbirds all the time around here - but this is the first time we have had a nest in a really obvious place.    It is lucky we even noticed it - it is on our Plumbago - and on a part of the bush that had flopped over and we were about to trim it back - lucky Mike noticed the nest!    To give you some perspective the leaves of this bush are at most 1-1.5 inches long.

It is just SOOOO tiny - maybe 2.5 inches across and the egg is even tinier!

UPDATE - survived Day 2 yesterday!    And guess what - North is doing it too!   She signed up for the same camp - so I have a comrade in arms!

Mounds ......

are what I am dealing with at the moment.

Mounds of Mail - and this was taken after I had thrown out all the crap and advertising

Mounds of Upacking - this photo taken after 4 large suitcases and 3 carryon bags had been unpacked.. this lot is still to be dealt with

Mounds of Email - my inbox was full to overflowing even though I had dealt with a lot while I was away in dribs and drabs.  Slowly getting it down to a manageable level

Mounds of Leaves - I think every tree on our property dumped all its leaves in a week, and of course the bloody oak tree next dumped most of its leaves onto our property and into our pool!  This is just the lot from the backyard that I got this morning - not counting the ones in the pool or the ones Hannah had already got rid of.   Still have the sides of the house and front of the house to do - I think it will be several trips to the dump.

Mounds of Pounds - 5.5 lost in the first 12 hours of being home, mainly all the water out of my swollen ankles and feet!  Hoping by the end of the weekend I will get a true reading of whether I gained, lost or stayed the same on my holiday.

Mounds of Preparation - for the retreat which is just 7 days away!  Most of this weekend will be spent over in my storage unit - going through orders which came in after I left - sorting and pricing!

Mounds of Planning - for CHA Winter - decided I would go, so registered this morning, signed up for a couple of workshops and booked the hotel.   So I am off to Los Angeles at the end of January!

Mounds of Orders - ok I am not complaining about those - but I have had quite a few including 1 the day I landed back in the US!!

Mounds of Accounting - trying to finish up all the 2009 stuff, so I can do a year end - so I can actually input 2010 - including said orders - before 2010 accounting becomes a Mound of its own!

At least we got the mounds of washing out of the way yesterday!

I need to get Mounds of Exercise into my daily routine.   Today is the day we started back, I am counting leaf raking as my cardio!

oh yes and obligatory whineMOUNDS OF COLDIES which I am not enjoying!!!

Normal posting hopefully will resume next week!!!

Hold out your hands to feel the luxury of the sunbeams.

and we have certainly been feeling them the last few days...  phew it has been hot hot hot!   As a result my garden has just gone wild.  

The roses have all burst into bloom madly.. the smell is just gorgeous... unfortunately.. the heat has also beat into submission many of my spring flowers.   The daff's were pretty much over but all my tulips from Amsterdam were coming into their own.     Hopefully the cooler more normal weather which is on its way back will let the rest of the tulips bloom as normal.

Took this photo on Monday - it is a daffodil out of the last lot Mike brought back from Holland - this bag had a mix of very unusual daffs!