Memos, Mail and Me

Ever since Sian introduced Memos, Mail and Me for the New Year, the postal fairies have hidden any interesting mail and I'm at a loss to know what to post to join in.  (excuse the pun)

In fact, nothing of interest arrived on my door mat this week and I can see that I'm going to have to resort to ordering something on the internet, just to be able to join in.  This is clearly a very thinly hidden ruse to do a bit of retail therapy and blame someone else for it! 

But instead of anything interesting arriving, I am preparing my envelope of postcards to be sending out to Kat for the Liberate your art project.  Hopefully, sometime after March I will have lots of new post to share!

I did like Sian's idea to try and post something hand written for every day in February, and may join in with this idea.  After all, I only needed 5 postcards for my swap, and Moo's minimal order is 20 so I have plenty of supplies!

Wedding planning going on here this morning, lots to discuss and share at a later date!

Memos, Mail and me

Last week was the first of Sian's plan to share the best bit of post from the previous week, and I pre-wrote my post when there had been nothing of interesting arriving on my door mat.  I scheduled the post to publish and half an hour later the postman arrived with a rather lovely surprise of a small premium bond win.  Cue late minute editing of the original post!

 

This week it was much easier to choose!  My monthly subscription of 'the simple things' arrived on Saturday just at the point when the coffee machine was on.  Ah, nothing better on a Saturday morning to sip a cappuccino and browse though a good magazine.  There were a million and one things I should have been doing, but it was lovely to take a half hour out of a busy day to relax and recharge my batteries because we had a busy weekend ahead (more of that below) and there was much baking and cooking to do.

 

How about the rest of the weekend then? 

 

Well it was party central here yesterday.  We were celebrating Paul's mum's 90th birthday.  I guess that getting to that age and having your family gathering around you, you would assume that you would be the centre of attention wouldn't you?  Not with this little cutie stealing your limelight ...

 

 

Memos, mail and me

I knew that there'd be a twist in the tale for Sian's Memorandum Mondays in the new year.  And there was - the plan is to share our favourite piece of post from the previous week.  A great idea - except - this was probably the only week of the year that I didn't receive much post!  This was the week where the only mail addressed to me was a credit card bill (definitely not my favourite) and a bank statement.  Even Coco got more interesting mail than me - Pets at Home sent her some vouchers to spend on food.

Which makes me think that it's time more happy mail was circulating - but happy mail is not a one way street, in order to receive, you have to send so I have a cunning plan.  Last year I took part in Liberate your art and received these lovely cards through the post

I've signed up to take part again and am in the process of choosing my postcards to have printed.  Minimum print order is 20 and I only have to send 6 for the swap ... I think that's the perfect excuse for sending a few random 'hellos' through the post in the near future. 

I bet I'm the only person who only received boring post since Sian's Memos, Mail and Me idea, so I'll be popping over there to see what exciting things have dropped through the letter box for everyone else in the last week.  Surely I'm not the only one to only receive bank related items

But wait!

Look what's come through the post box

Now that's more like it !

 

Memorandum Monday

Thought for the day

As normally happens at the start of a new year, the press is full of what is, and what isn't, good for us and the more I hear, the more I realise that that old saying 'a little of what you fancy does you good' is more true than we realise.  You just need to make sure you put the emphasis on the word 'little'! 

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I've written this post to join in with Sian in advance to publish on Monday morning because I won't be near a computer then as I will be

at the dentist 😢

Yes, that same dentist that text me on Christmas Day, emailed me on Boxing Day, made me feel guilty enough to make an appointment the following day, emailed me to confirm the appointment, and then text me on Friday to ask me to confirm that I hadn't forgotten I had an appointment today.  He's very keen to see me it would seem!  This will be my second visit to this dentist.  My previous surgery stopped offering NHS services and so I had to move to a brand new practice.  It's all very high tech, brand new building, super smart surgeries, all manner of services offered, on line booking and open 7 days a week.  Doesn't make me look forward to going any the more though - I'm a bit of a dentist phobic and it's only the fear of something going horribly wrong and causing me pain that makes me go every six months.  Let's hope all the biscuit eating hasn't taken its toll ... (Yes that tin in the photo is now empty)

There is something new going on today though - this is ...

... the first week of my new reduced hours which mean I don't have to work on a Monday any more!

Oh happy day.  And where better to spend  the beginning of that lovely extra day off?  Needless to say I have something much nicer planned for later on, lunch out with a friend!

I've also

signed up to Liberate Your Art 2017

Are you in too?  Check it out here.  I joined in last year and received some lovely postcards from all over the world.  It is so easy to do and costs very little, even for people not living in the US (people from 12 different countries took part last year) Kat makes it really easy to pay postage fees via paypal.  It's fun and you can interpret the word 'art' in so many ways. Don't be put off if you aren't an artist in the traditional sense and don't know one end of a paintbrush from another!  I'm concentrating on using photos that I have taken this year, but your art could be collages, sewing, knitting, words, scrapbook pages, cards - all you need is a little imagination!  Just look on it as releasing 'happy mail' out there and making new connections.









Memorandum Monday 2017

I've kind of got into the habit of blogging on a Monday as part of Sian's Memorandum Monday and I'm not sure if that is continuing into the new year but I'm here anyway!

Not that there's been much new happening around here, in fact it's quite the opposite - continuing the normal post Christmas activities.  Today is the day I've earmarked for taking down the Christmas decorations.  There goes my excuse for not dusting regularly!  As I'm looking around the house I realise that my favourite parts of the decorations this year were the more simple ones

and whilst I'm not planning any New Year resolutions, I do have a New Year intention, and that is to try and make things more simple in a general way.  I guess I'm planning to embrace my inner 'Hygge' - I know it's a bit of a buzz word at the moment but it's true that we should make the most of the little things that we take for granted a lot of the time.  And just to take time.  I'm sure I make life more busy than it needs to be sometimes.  A little more forward planning may be in order.

I'm sure I'm not alone in having been bombarded with emails from companies I've bought through on line this year, amazing discounts and bargains and I must admit to being guilty of having clicked on some of their links to see what wonderful things I need to buy in the sales.  And here's the thing.  I don't need to buy anything.  It's always nice to have a few new bits and pieces in the wardrobe, but I don't desperately need anything.  I'm planning on waiting a week or so until things calm down and then if I go into town, and I go into a shop and I see something I really like, and it's in my size, and it really is a bargain, then it's meant to be and I may buy it.  But if one thing comes into the wardrobe, one thing has to go.

I'm really happy to be able to say that as of now, I do not work on Mondays anymore!  I've been wanting to cut my hours for a while now and due to someone else part time leaving, I was able to ask for my Monday hours to be tacked onto their new job description and for me to only work Tuesdays, Thursdays and Friday mornings.  It's all part of my master plan to retire at 60.  My line manager doesn't seem to think I'm serious but I am.  And now we are in the new year, I can say that 60 will be next year! 😊

My other intention is to get back into the blogging habit more often.  I've become very lax about that this year and I want to get the blogging mojo back, because the blogosphere is full of lovely people.  This year is going to be so busy, I know it already.  Two weddings to plan and more to the point, two wedding outfits to buy!  Any recommendations on where to start looking for Mother of the Bride outfits will be most gratefully received because as soon as the sales are over, I'm going to be a mother on a mission!

Happy New Year to everyone and thank you for your kind comments over the past year.  I wish everyone good health and happiness with time to relax and take care of ourselves, not just everyone else.  OK 2017, let's see what you've got in store ...