Looking back at January

As i said earlier on, it's hard to believe that we are already through January... time really does seem to pass faster as we get older! I remember when i was little, January was the worst month of the year.. there was absolutely nothing to do, no new toys were to be had as i had gotten all i asked for at christmas, ok we were lucky in Germany in that we always had tons of snow (for you british girls.. thats fluffy white stuff that normally arrives on this beautiful island around about easter time) so there was plenty of outside play, but other than that, January was always a very slow, dreary, horrible kind of month.

I have outdone myself this year though! If 2012 carries on like this, I will not be complaining and will put it down as a GOOD year (i hope i have not jinxed it now)! I have stuck with the photo a day challenge, i have stuck with my decluttering challenge and i even made a start on my project life book for this year! Even a month ago i would not have put the next photo out here for you all to see, but i am so proud of my neat, decluttered, organised kitchen and crafty corner... i just need to show you all! You never know, i may overcome my CHAOS (a very serious, recognised mental condition also known as "cant have anyone over syndrome") and not feel embarrassed to let visitors into my house.

Feel free to tell me what a great job ive done :D :D

And just for fun, here is an entire review of January's pictures....

The puzzle is solved

Ok either i wasnt as clever as i thought or you girls spend way too much time at your computers :D but yes you guessed right it was the wheel that makes my cyberworld go round and round!!
But this was good fun so i may try it again soon, i just need to get more creative with you lot, you're too good!

Day 31 - Wheel

Wow... it is hard to believe that today is the last day of January already! I am quite chuffed with myself, in past years, i had already lost interest in the challenge by now! This year, I can proudly present at least ONE photo for every day! Thank you to Suzie for providing me with an inspirational word every morning, and encouraging me to carry on taking photos and (even more shockingly for me) sharing them as well!

So, today's word is WHEEL.. i wanted to do something really, really clever and artistic for this one, unfortunately i don't seem to be anywhere near as creative as i had hoped.. i dismissed the most obvious choices as "cheating", i mean sure, i could take a photo of our new (to us) car, or even just one of its wheels, or the steering wheel, even the spare wheel entered my mind at one stage (and was just as quickly pushed aside).. next i was going dismantle some clocks.. perfect right? i mean wheels of time turning and all that, a whole new artistic MEANING. To my utter dismay i had to find out that modern clocks do not have the fascinating interiors and workings one would expect... one tiny little wheel (i may yet take a photo of it just to show my disappointment when this most excellent idea fell through).. Next up in line were the old car toys we managed to rescue when we came up here, but those looked a bit naff as well... so i have been spending the morning scouring the house for WHEELS... not as easy as i thought at first and quite hard to be fancy and artistic with.

I finally spotted one wheel i use so often, i had never even noticed it was there... ill make a game of it.. see if you can figure out what it is by just looking at the wheel :) i will come back later tonight and put the entire picture up!

Day 30 - Collection

I have quite a few collections... but i decided to show off my newly organised and neatly sorted collection
of STASH! I just need to get round to using some of it now... to think that I had nothing crafty when we came here, I have done quite well in rebuilding it all...

I was tempted to just take a photo of my external harddrive, the one that holds my terrabyte worth of digital stash, but i figured that you guys would find it far more interesting to take a peek inside my crafty corner. So, here you are.. my craft collection (oh and the rubbles' house)

Day 29 - kitchen utensil

Favourite kitchen utensil ... Its got to be the phone!! I hate cooking and trist does most of it, if it does fall to me i am always relieved when the budget allows a take away.

Day 28 - Fluffy 2

And, as promised here is our daughter's little petal... she puffs herself up and gets all fluffy at times (Petal that is, not darling daughter, although she puffs herself up too at times)...

Day 28 - Fluffy

Ahhh today was a nice easy word :) fluffy i can do.. its just a matter of choosing which fluffy i put on here! We don't only own exotic and weird pets, we also have a couple of garden variety ones, youve already met Cooper, Becks and Holly so, today i think it is going to be Rob's and Petal's turn. Rob is a proper "O'Malley", he is strictly speaking not ours, he came with the house as it were... we tried to reunite him with his previous owners, but neither Rob nor the owners were too keen on THAT particular idea, so it was decided that it was probably best for all parties, that he comes and lives with us. He shows up on the dot every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner and generally hangs out with us on the dark, dreary wet and cold days. In the summer we find him hitting around the neighbourhood, chatting up the ladies before heading for his self declared home. Here he is in all his ugly but charming glory, having a well deserved nap after his latest adventure out in the wide world.

Day 27 Amazing

The word today is "amazing"; i am probably getting this prompt upside down because i want to document how amazed i am, at how much damage and pain a tiny litte pill like this can cause! On my journey to "getting better" my doctor has now put me onto the fourth anti depressant, with just the same horrible side effects as all the other ones. It never ceases to amaze me, that we are expected to live with the side effects in order to feel better. Well, i am putting this little guy back into its box as i am not putting up with feeling ill anymore,

Day 26 - NO Word

Ohhh now this is cheating! I was all excited to find today's word and i find out its all down to me now. Its like asking me which chocolate bar id like!! Ive taken plenty of photos today, so i suppose that is one good thing, but which one to choose?? Ive changed my mind 1000 times now and its almost tomorrow but still i cant make up my mind!! What is a girl to do? I think Holly shared my views on the "wordless day", then again, she always looks this grumpy...

Day 25 - motionless

Today's word is motionless... Not an easy one to catch in this family of fidgeting, always on the gogo, generally hyper beings. I suppose the lizard and the snail are motionless at times, but they seem to be posing too when i get the camera out. So, on my hunt of something that didnt move for at least a considerable amount of time, the only consistent thing was that huge black horrible cloud sitting right above our house. I watched it and it just hung around all day.. Typical british winter weather i guess.

Day 24 - Motion

I almost cheated for today's prompt and use a lovely photo i got of cooper during the summer. Then I felt guilty and had a look around me, i don't think my 2 kitchen fish have made an appearance yet and they were happily chasing each other around their tank. Their tails look all delicate and fancy when they swim about and they keep me great company when im working in the kitchen.

Day 23 - Hot

Soooo.. today's word is HOT.. i had an idea from the minute i saw the prompt this morning.. but i had to carefully time my chance.

I thought that with this turning out to be a theme along the lines of the Year Of The Dragon, id snap a photo that is definitely up there in the top 5 of "HOT"... my very own welsh dragon cooking dinner!!

How much hotter than that can it get? But shhhhhh everyone, dont tell him i said this, or his head will swell to enormous proportions and well need the fire brigade to get him out of the kitchen.

Day 22 - Glow

Ok this was one of the harder words for me!! I just could not think of anything that i wanted to record as important for this year, until i spotted the candles we always have burning downstairs. We all love the smells scented candles give off, my favourites are the foody smells, especially vanilla, cinnamon, fruits and cookie dough!

Day 21 FIre

Well i must admit im not being very original today and took the prompt literally. One thing i loved about this house from the moment we walked in, was the fact that previous owner had kept the original fireplaces in all the rooms, the kids thought it was strange at first, but soon got used to them too. I hasten to add that the ones in their bedrooms are not in use other than being ornamental! We also have a proper fire in the living room, theres nothing quite like curling up in front of it with a cup of hot cocoa and a good book (ok so throw a husband in there too).

An update from earlier

Remember my panic about the kitchen? Well, finally i finished all the jobs i started this morning! All cupboards and drawers are decluttered and neatly organised, coopy's box is back to normal, the laundry is done, dishes washed and put away, floor and surfaces scrubbed. Now im so tired, im not tired anymore!

Ok i think its time to call it a day now, ive just tried to declutter the cat :&

Day 20 Sign

I had originally hoped for a different kind of "sign", but this situation i found myself in a little while ago screamed SIGN at me. I am trying to follow the decluttering challenge this year and my panic about my parents in law coming in romorrow has me cleaning and tidying in a frenzy. When i looked into the kitchen from the living room i was greeted with this right chaos. I started decluttering the drawers, realised there were so many little things to sort, i thought i'd have a break and start the dishes. I then saw how full the bin was, took that out and, when i came back, noticed the mess in cooper's box. Ok while i'm here i may as well sort this out... Only i didn't realise that someone had put a bag full of veggies in there MONTHS ago. Yup, the bag split dripping veggy goo all over the floor. Sigh, ok retrieve mop and clean, but wait i may as well sweep up and do the entire floor, so off i go to get the broom. On my return i notice that the washing machine is finished, of course ill just quickly see to that. When i go to take the washing out i run into cooper's box. Ohhh i forgot i was clearing THAT out. So ive been working all morning and have achieved nothing. This is clearly a sign that i suffer from some sort of ADHD when it comes to housework.

Playing catch up

Thanks to my great project365 app and my blogger app, i can actually show all the photos i have taken this month after all. They don't all follow the prompts as we had cj's birthday and some days i simply felt something else was more important to me.

Day 19 - Bad for you

Now i know im probably outing myself with today's photo but this is the biggest bad thing for me ever. Please do not leave long lectures for me, i know it's bad for me and so on and forth. Those of you who know more about me may be more lenient and understanding. And for the record, quitting once and for all is on my
2012 to do list.

Day 18

Pleasurable

So... i was asked by my cyberfriend Anne to put my daily photos onto a blog... ive never done much with this space, so i guess documenting my 2012 photo challenge is as good a reason as any to fill it up.

I have taken a photo every day so far, but i dont think i will bother to go all the way back to the first, i have those on my iphone in the fabulous 365 app.. maybe ill put a monthly overview on here.

Anyway, today's word is "pleasurable"... something i kind of struggled with for various reasons. For quite some time, ive not been in the happiest of places mentally, and somehow i feel like i overindulge if i enjoy anything. I feel guilty about saying out loud, or even just to myself, i quite liked doing that. Somehow it feels like i dont deserve the little pleasures life brings, but today all that changed! I took a deep breath, grabbed a cuppa and my beloved viewpad and it struck me that i DO enjoy some things and that i DO deserve them too. I do not have to worry about what ifs and maybes and what tomorrow may bring ALL the time, i am allowed to take down time and ENJOY MYSELF.

My photo shows my favourite blanket and pillow, my favourite mug filled with coffee, my ereader and my crochet hook and wool. I should have put my camera in there as well, but i was using it :D