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Moving on.

I’m currently surrounded by a myriad of boxes, bags and piles of belongings. Our belongings because we’re finally entering the grown up world of being home owners.

If all things go to plan (cross your fingers and toes for us!) we should be completing on our house this Friday, to move next Tuesday.

I’m excited beyond belief at the prospect of having our own space to decorate as we wish after a decade in rented houses/flats/bungalows.

Leaving our current house will be a bittersweet experience, however. It was my Grandad and Nana’s house. There are plants in the garden that my Grandad planted (and which he would check on my progress at keeping them alive!) I have so many happy memories from this house that it’ll be strange to leave it.

Memories of trips to visit Nana & Grandad. Memories of my Grandad having the brightest garden on the street. Memories of the first house that Jonny and I lived in together.

It’s the house we came back to after Christmas 2014, newly engaged. It’s the house I got ready for our wedding day in.

It’ll be odd not to live in the house where so many amazing memories were made. I’m excited for a new chapter now though, in a new house making many more future memories!

A new house which’ll be a HUGE relief to finally get in to after what has felt like months of faff with solicitors. It’ll also be amazing to not be packing anymore. (Jonny is away in the Himalayas with work so I’ve been tackling it alone so far until family reinforcement arrives!)

Any tips for making a house move go smoothly are very gratefully received!

Comparison Is The Thief Of Joy

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Oh how true it is that ‘comparison is the thief of joy.’ I, like many people, am often to be found with my phone close to hand. Given a spare minute or two I find myself, more often than not, reaching for my phone and idly scrolling through social media sites; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and reading through my Bloglovin’ feed.

Whilst this doesn’t sound too horrific, it becomes more of an issue when it happens regularly. Definitely too regularly in my case.

I find myself whiling away the time looking through images and hearing about others’, more perfect, lives. Now I’m not a stupid woman, I’m well aware these posts are edited to within an inch of their lives to only show that perfection. I can’t however stop myself from comparing myself to them.

My living room which is filled with trinkets and vintage knick knacks (and is definitely overdue a hoovering) doesn’t look like the immaculate white Pinterest-worthy offerings. My thick, frizzy hair doesn’t compare to the shiny, sleek tresses presented on screen. My wardrobe is filled with one too many stripey items (and, if I’m honest, a bit of broken glass from a nail polish based incident earlier this week.) It doesn’t look immaculate with designer items sitting side by side in a colour coded manner.

If I force myself to step back I know that I’m happy with my cluttered, less than perfect life. I just need to remind myself of that when I get sucked into the comparison trap.

I need my internal voice to give me a kick up the arse on occasion, to tell me to, “Pick up a book, Rebecca. Stop comparing yourself to others, you’re doing just fine.”

And I am. Bloody online comparison, it sucks me in every time!

Too Early To Plan Christmas?

I love Christmas. Everything about the season building up to it to the day itself makes me happy. As a result I start to get a little overexcited way before most sane people.

Deciding that some of my presents will be homemade gives me a legitimate excuse to start planning early. If I want to squeeze in crafting time around working full time I need to be thinking about making a start soon.

Last Christmas I gave handmade presents to some people and they were well received so I’m planning to do the same again this year. Pinterest and my stash of craft books are my allies whilst doing this. I have a board specifically for handmade gift ideas which is slowly starting to fill up.

Fingers crossed I manage to get everything I’m planning to make completed on time!

How about you? Are you an organised planner for Christmas, or do you prefer to leave things to the last minute?

Garden Progress

Our garden has the potential to be lovely. At the moment it’s a little lacklustre. We inherited a mature garden with the house we’re renting and it was basically an overgrown jungle with four separate lawns.

Since moving in 18 months ago we’ve been lazy with regards to the garden, letting nature take its course and being pleasantly surprised when things managed to bloom. This summer I decided it was time to try and tame the wilderness. I wanted to be able to plant my own bulbs, in the hope that the borders will be daffodil-tastic come next Spring. To be able to do this the borders needed some serious clearing.

With the help of a couple of friends we painstakingly pulled up grass/dug up weeds/were ruthless with existing plants to create the clear borders I was hoping for. I’m now waiting until October when my very green fingered mothership is going to come and visit and assist/supervise my bulb planting.

I’m excited to see how the garden continues to progress, it’s a new hobby I’ve found surprisingly enjoyable and relaxing (all my hobbies are the sort that Nana’s love.)

My gardening knowledge is still fairly rudimentary, I’ve next to no clue what I’m doing. Any tips or hints would be very gratefully received!