Surprises

I am not a winter person. Every year I tell myself it will be different, I will enjoy the fresh bracing air, and the coming home to a warm house, and getting all crafty and cosy while its grey and cold outside. But every year I go all listless and gloomy and fed up and lose motivation for pretty much everything. However. The mornings are lighter and its around now that I feel like I am waking up, just like spring.

The weather this last week has been a lovely surprise. Feeling the sun's glorious rays always helps to lift the spirits.

Spring is arriving and there is new growth everywhere.

The first few days of my mood lifting is also a lovely surprise. I waken up and something imperceptible has changed. I can't even remember what my train of thought was, but on Monday I was pondering getting more organised and generally feeling a bit more in control off general day to day stuff when I vaguely remembered Lucy's Attic24 post (http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2015/03/keeping-track.html). I think I'd read it previously but not really absorbed it, you know ? Anyway the gist of Lucy's post is about using a new-fangled (ish) personal managementy type thing called Bullet Journalling (http://bulletjournal.com) to record calendar dates, to-do items, ideas, anything really. I won't waffle on about it here but suffice it to say it's a method that really appeals to me. Probably because it meant justifying the purchase of a nice new notebook.

When I was little I LOVED notepads. I was never happier than when I had a new notepad and new pens. The start of each school year, with all the new stationery it entailed, was pure joy. A new notepad and/or pens still has the same effect to this day, so off I trotted to find a suitable notepad for my new journalled bulleted organised life. I bagged an absolute Bargain with the notepad above. I spotted it in our local newsagents. It was marked at £7 (about $11US). £7!! For an A5 (half US letter sized) notepad! Scandalous. Argh. I tried the supermarket too. Nope, they were all just wrong. Back to the newsagents. Ummed and aahed and argued with myself, put the notebook down, picked it up, put it down, argh, it's way too expensive, oh but it's so nice, I shouldn't really, oh what the hell let's just do it. So I took it up to the till, the lady rang it up - £2. Really ? Are you sure ?? Yes! £2!!! How brilliant! I am sooooo glad I decided to get it after all the dithering. Gotta love a bargain :)

Back at home I set to the actual Getting Organised part. I spent most of the day at my desk with pens and paper and scissors and glue. I nicked Lucy's calendar sheet, Ihttp://www.calendarpedia.com/2015-calendar-word-templates.html), printed it out and stuck it in. Like Lucy had done, I made up and printed out a page for just March, and stuck that in too.

I also nicked Lucy's idea of alittle mantra-y motto-y thing in the front page, so I did a quicky doodley drawing and stuck that in too. I'll never be the world's greatest artist but it makes me smile :)

Yes I know I copied all of Lucy's ideas (thanks Lucy!) but I find that I often spend so long dithering about what to do that I don't do anything, so when someone else has presented you with an excellent solution, why think of something else just for the sake of it. I'm sure Lucy won't mind :)

I did that mad thing that we list makers do. I wrote out a whole heap of tasks that I'd already got done this week, just so I could cross them off. Very pointless but also very very satisfying "look at how organised my journal has got me already :)".

There have been a couple of other lovely surprises this week too. A win at a school fundraiser raffle. You can still see my lucky raffle ticket attached. A trio of cute boxes filled with fruity smellies for a bit of pampering, lovely :)

Crocheting with normal yarn over t-shirt yarn is proving fun and surprisingly easier than expected :)

And a final surprise, I was lucky enough to win Gilly's, from gillymakes (http://gillymakes.blogspot.co.uk) giveaway recently, and my lovely parcel arrived last weekend. Look how beautiful it looks, a pretty card tucked into some funky bakers' twine.

... and inside, a pack of scrumptious patriotic yarn, and a really sweet little National Trust book by Nicki Trench .....

Thankyou so much Gilly, its a fabulous prize :) I look forward to making something out of the book with my new yarn :) No, idea what yet, it will be a surprise :)

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