I had a nice quiet New Year's myself. The boys were at Mark's and were only one week into a three week stay with him and I rang the day before New Year's Eve to ask how they were and to have a chat about what we'd been up to. We were planning on going to a bbq at a friend's place up at Bundamba, partly for New Year's and partly for Donna's birthday on 1 January. I ended up taking an old timber letter holder thingy that hangs on the wall and has hooks at the bottom for keys. I didn't give it to her cruddy of course!!! I painted it a nice sage green, sanded it back and used antique white paint and Making Memories foam stamps on it and she was very happy with it. As it turned out, the boys blew Mark off faster than a New York snowstorm when they found out what we were doing so we picked them up at lunchtime New Year's Eve and took them with us and they went back to Mark's yesterday for the rest of their visit. It's soo quiet with the bigger boys gone and the littlies don't have as many people to entertain them either. That always spells trouble. Like yesterday when HRH put our cordless phone into a large cup of soda water - yup, dead as a doornail and she was sorry enough but it doesn't fix the phone! I did however take a picture for a nice forensic legal type layout. The picture will have to be exhibit A I think.
Christmas was also really quiet, just how I wanted it. Lunch was simple and enjoyable and the kids were all really well behaved too. The MIL came and had lunch with us and after Doug and I had cleaned up she took the littlies to her place for a sleep over. The bigger boys went to their dad's for Christmas night dinner with his family so Doug and I had the whole house to ourselves!!! We had a nap in the afternoon with the air con on and then we had supper at about 7 o'clock Christmas night with chilled prawns and a couple of cold beers. It was just heavenly!
I've spent the last week doing lots of sleeping in, scrapping and not much of anything else except the usual end of year tidying up and decluttering. I have so little room in my house that anything not absolutely loved or needed is just wasting space and either it needs to be given away, donated to charity or dumped. It helps that Cass loves a dump run!!! Oh I have to tell you, the last week of my work when it was a mad house and I was getting so little sleep, Cass actually came over to deliver a mattress for us. Ours was quite decrepit and they had been gifted one from a friend that was moving overseas. It was almost new and theirs was in great condition too so Cass gave us their mattress. She not only came over and brought the mattress, she took the old one away, spent an hour on my front patio removing rubbish and clutter and took that to the dump too and she even left me with a packet of Tim Tams. You are the best on earth girl!!!! It's amazing how something like that, an hour of her day, made such a huge difference to my day. My front patio is tidy now, I can even sit out with a coffee if I want to and when my surroundings are less cluttered, my brain feels less cluttered IYKWIM. So huge thanks to her for her help. I'm sure she doesn't know how much it meant to me but I'm sure that's the way it is for most people. The smallest gesture on our part can literallly change the life of someone we help. We never know when that small gesture or favour comes at a time when someone else thought their life was bereft or not worth living, or just lacked love from anybody. It's the whole pay it forward theory so I will have a look around my life and see who needs a helping hand. I hope I can bring them happiness like Cass brought me that day.
I'm in the second week of holidays and it feels so strange not having to type every day. I'm trying to scrap and the other night I sat down and really scrapped for myself in the first time in ages. I try to "multi-task" my scrapping if I can - a layout for Cyberscraps done in a current page call theme if at all possible!!! But I sat and decided to do something totally for myself. It's not for a page call but I will definitely submit it anyway because it's the best layout I have done in the longest time - it has more of my heart in it than most things lately, maybe because I'm not juggling the whole world at the moment. No work. Two of the four kids are away. Doug is at home doing most of the housework (he's a keeper that one!!!). It's a nice feeling to scrap for the sake of doing something and it was an idea that had been floating around in my head for about six months so I'm glad I made myself sit and have a go because the results surprised me. I'll post it as soon as I get a chance to scan it.
I went to Dad's on NYE and picked up my old rollerskates!!!! ha ha giggle giggle They are a tight fit now and I'm a little rusty but as soon as I put them on I felt years drop away and now I can't wait to drag the kids to the skating rink. There aren't many around but I'm determined to have this outing!!! It's something I haven't done since I was about 14 so I'm a bit excited. I promise I'll post pics if I end up in plaster!!!
I'm off to do some much needed grocery shopping and then I'm going to come home, grab a cold Coke Zero (I refused to make a resolution but am determined to shift the kilograms I have regained in the last couple of months) and again delve into my stash and scrap. For me. And about anything that grabs my fancy. The big three can keep their submission themes for a while because I get the feeling my mojo starts to turn on me a bit when I'm scrapping for someone else all the time and not for me. Your best work always comes from within.
Have a wonderful New Year full of all the best stuff!
Kisses, Lu
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