100 Day Spending Ban 2014

Things have become a little excessive of late, in the purchasing arena, spurred on by even more excessive blog reading and youtube watching. My love of make up and all things sparkly, along with a penchant for accessories and an almost unhealthy relationship with Paperchase means that our little house is bursting at the seams. 

A week away with no purchases and a New Year makes it the perfect time to take stock (literally) and try and rein it all in a bit. So here comes the 100 day spending ban. My oh my 100 days is a long time though taking us up until the 10th April.

I do want to use this time wisely - a big clear out and charity shop drop along with more focus on diet and fitness after the festive season and a holiday saw this all come to a grinding halt - to ensure that I see the new year started in a healthy and practical way. 

Whilst this is my idea my husband is 100% behind it - obviously!

So I think that I need to set some rules.

THE RULES

1. Simples. Do not spend money on unnecessary purchases. 

2. Unnecessary means anything new make up wise unless replacing a crucial item for which there is no viable alternative already within my stash. 

3. This does not include personal hygiene products like deodorant, shower gel and shampoo/conditioner which will only replace what I am currently using when it runs out and I'm sure is something my nearest and dearest will be pleased about. 

4. Unnecessary also extends to clothes, accessories and stationery products. 

5. I will also stop the pre-work Starbucks habit and when possible take a pre-prepared lunch. 

6. The 100 days started on the 1st January and will continue until the 10th April. 

So far it has been easygoing as I have been sat on a sun lounger in Egypt with very little to no spending temptation or desire to spend money. So far so good! I'll keep you updated ...

If you are doing a spending ban at the start of 2014 then please link your blog in the comments below and follow me on Twitter @mrsnicholls33 so that I can follow you back and keep up to date with your progress.

Learning something new

So last weekend, on a rather chilly and damp Sunday I made a quick trip down the M5 to Weston-Super-Mare. Let me tell you, it is as glamourous as it sounds. I was heading to Loves Cafe, to meet with Hayley from Lovely Craft Works who had promised me that she would be able to teach me crochet in 5 hours, and not only that I would leave with something I had made. 

I learnt to knit a long time a go but can't remember how to do it at all, and I have never crocheted (not even sure if that is a word). 

We started the day learning the basic single chain, and then how to add to this with double chains to make rows. This would make a basic square. I choose pink wool and have kept my first 5 rows of crochet.

Pink wool and my first hook

My first 5 rows!!!

Once we got this far, we swapped and started again. Choosing colours to make our first product, a draw string bag that would house our valentines themed key chains. Hayley was keen to show us how to make something simple, but also learn how to change colours. 

I'm not going to say that it was really easy, as I had to think all the time about what I was doing to ensure I got straight and flat chains. Hayley was so patient with me, at first I was all fingers and thumbs but eventually you do get into a rhythm. It becomes all engrossing and is a great place for some escapism. It doesn't play well to my perfectionist tendencies as I became more and more obsessed with how it looked, which was basically wonky!

Row on row of crochet

Managed to actually do 2 colours

My finished article

One day I might be able to make all these lovely things

My practising hasn't gone so well I'm afraid, so I am looking forward to my next meet up with Hayleys' loopy group on the 1st March and finding out what other little delights I can try and make. I am really enjoying learning something new and my friends and family can rest assured that they may well end up with crochet birthday and Christmas presents for years to come.

Katie x x

Giving something up...

So have we all gorged ourselves on enough pancakes so that we most definitely do not have to eat one again until next year? Whilst helping ourselves to the third or fourth little golden wonder (in my case sprinkled with sugar and lemon) do you remember that pancake day bears its tradition from using up all of the eggs, milk, flour and sugar before a period of fasting and abstinence for 40 days and 40 nights, to replicate the time spent by JC in the desert.

 I have never been one for Lent, while other friends of mine will agonise for hours, days and weeks over what they will give up for 40 long days and nights, it has never really interested me. Now I'm not actually one of those religious types, and so I hope I can be excused from swinging on their coat tails, but I have done a little research and the modern equivalent (because I am not fasting for 40 days!) is also to give up a luxury or abstain from something.

So the reason I have been thinking about this is because over the last 6 weeks or so I have been slowly but surely falling out of love with a certain social media site. Yes, I'm talking about you Facebook. It wasn't until I read a post by Nickie about her journey to de-activating that account that I finally confirmed to myself that I would do it.  Many of the reasons I want to do this are similar to her. I luckily have never been the victim of a 'facebook attack' with horrible people posting horrible things on my wall, and when I look through my timeline I see only happy memories. But that is half the problem isn't it. No one posts about the s**t times that are having, and if  they do, lets be honest it's because they want to provoke an outpouring of sympathy from their 'friends'. I log on now, and see advert after advert, sponsored posts, invitations to join app after app, sprinkled with the odd post of someone doing the most amazing thing in their amazing life. 

I am just as guilty of this approach to my online presence and as a result want to cut back. Not a day goes by without checking this site, I check it almost as soon as I wake up, on the train to work, in my breaks, on my journey home and at various points in the evening before my last check when I go to bed. What am I looking for...I'm just not sure anymore?

Am I nervous? Yes. I'm in the midst of organising a big trip to the States and Canada to visit family all of which is being organised via Facebook, but I will be sending them my email address and hopefully we can pick up where we left off using another medium. Am I going to miss announcements of births, engagements, parties? Honestly, probably not, if these people want to tell me personally then they will. Will I be liberated? I hope so.

I'll maybe update you 20 days in, but if you'll excuse me for now I'm off to de-activate my account.

Ambitions & Goals for 2013

Picture credit from My Pretty Pennies

I don't really want to make resolutions for 2013, as like everyone else I will break them within a couple of weeks, if not days, so instead I have been thinking more about the ambitions that I have and the goals that I want to achieve over the next 12 months. 

I wanted to document them here on my little blip of the internet, so that I can keep you updated with how I do, and hopefully it might make some interesting posts for you all to read...

• Do more and see more - I'm really excited to get under the surface of Bristol and build up a greater appreciation of my new home town!
• Increase my followers on the blog.
• Organise, Organise, Organise!!!!  I want to get posts written up and scheduled every week, with tweets! Need to make some room for power hours during the week to do this.
• I would love to learn some basic HTML so that I can get to grips with a bit of editing and make my page look pretty.
• Learn how to use my sowing maching...and then make something on it (see goal below).
•  I will do one thing from my Pinterest Board "For When I Have Time..." every 3 months.
• Reading is one of my favourite ways of relaxing and for my birthday my friend brought me an amazing moleskin book journal, so I am going to start making notes on books that really inspire me or become a part of me. I sometimes feel like I have totally lost track of some of those stories that I found really special and I think this will make a great keepsake. 
• Become photo happy :-) The last few years I have been rubbish at taking photos, so I vow to take lots more, display more and organise them so that I can find them on my computer. Apologies to all of you that follow me on instagram, you might be bombarded.

I have loved reading everyone's resolutions, ambitions and goals for 2013 so please link your posts in the comments section below.