First Quarter Review

I have been doing a lot of blog reading lately, a selection of house renovations, books, sewing and a couple of baking ones.  I've noticed that quite a few of these have been doing first quarter reviews of the targets they set themselves for the year, and I thought that this would be a nice way to keep a check on my own progress.  So I decided to pinch the idea :)

So here are the resolutions that I set myself at the beginning of the year and where I'm up to or not up to as the case may be!

1. Take part in Water Wipeout.

Yay I have registered for this (a good start to reviewing my list).  It takes place in mid June, so I will let you know how I get on.

2. Do more running.

This ones not quite so good.  I started off with good intentions in January and then the man flu and laryngitis struck :( I did complete my first 10k of the year during the Bank Holiday weekend, it was hard going due to my lack of training, but I'm so glad I had a go :)  I'm back at running club now, just need to keep it up, my next outing is Race for Life 10k at Delamere Forest in May.

3. Put up my house planning board.

Done :)

4. Increase my core strength (should help my running).

I did buy a balance board earlier this year, I've been on it a few times but find it hard.  Balance isn't one of my strengths!  I'm about to give Boot Camp sessions ago, they are being organised by my running club, hopefully this will help.  I need to do something to build my strength for Water Wipeout.

5. Do more things that take my fancy.

This one is going well I went to a vintage fair earlier this year with my Mum & Dad and has a great time, have been to the Oxford Literary Festival for a talk and book signing by Diana Gabaldon, she wrote my favorite series of books - The Outlander series - this day was awesome and thanks to my Dad for driving a 4 hour round trip to have coffee and cake in the library and then queue for 2 hours in the cold for a book signing that he didn't have a book for (Mum and I had a great time) :)  Mr A and I went to the Home Building and Renovation Show at the NEC a couple of weeks ago, it was great to be able to pick the brains of people to see what would be required for some of ideas.  The outstanding item from the day was wireless speakers!  We have also been to a number of gigs so far this year, some big and some small, some outstanding, some great, some mainly focused on coughing and blowing my nose! and some not so good - Steel Panther - just saying!

6. Do a photo a day photo diary

I think this is going the best of everything that I challenged myself too. I'm currently on photo 108/365!  I originally wanted to use this to improve my photo taking skills, but it has ended up being more of a daily photo diary, but I don't mind as I like being able to see what I have been up to - check me out on Instagram (netty_armstrong).

7. Make my Vogue 1419 coat pattern.

Ooops - so far epic fail!!  I haven't even cut my pattern out yet - must try harder!

8. Finish unpacking the boxes!!

Also another epic fail, but in my defense it was on the to do list for my time off in Februry - cue man flu, laryngitis and lots of sleep!

9. Loose weight, we've got three weddings to go to this year and it would be good to look at the photos and think, I look nice!

Hopefully getting on to item 2 a bit more should help this.

10. Put up my year wall planner, I need this to stop me loosing my mind and so I know what's going on.

Yay, although I think it needs up dating!

11. Dress up more when we go out. I have a surprising number of dresses and tops, but never seem to wear them. I need to make more of an effort.

I trying!

12. Refurbish the Living Room

We have sorted most of the big decisions, there are a few things that we need to look into, but there is still plenty of time till the end of the year.

13. Refurbish the Master Bedroom

We have brought the paint (three different colours and a special little tin of magic), curtains complete with a separate black out lining (what can I say, I like my sleep), curtain pole and funky bedside lamps.  But you will need to wait for the details!

14. Get to grips with the washing pile!

This is endless as most women will know!  Hopefully as the weekends brighten up, I should be able to get more through the machines and dry outside.

15. Do a tour of the house on my blog ;)

Part 1 The Long Awaited Ground Floor Tour! is done and Part 2 the first floor is to follow soon!

16. Read for at least 1 hour a week.

This has been a bit hit and miss, it has probably evened out as when I have been reading its been for a couple of hours so should hopefully make up for the weeks I've missed.  I've also just started reading before I go to bed at The Hut, I always find this a dangerous balance as I'm good at convincing myself that I can't sleep if I'm enjoying a book!  On the plus side, I think it's helping me sleep better!

Currently reading:

Home Book - Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon

This is my third time reading, the latest book - Book 8 Written In My Own Hearts Blood - has just come out so I'm re-reading the series

Hut Book - The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I had heard a lot of good things about this book and am really enjoying it, it's surprisingly funny!

17. Do more on my family tree.

Ooops!

18. Make a patchwork quilt.
I have two quilts in mind, the first is a quilt made up of band tshirts to add a little bit of funky to our current TV watching blankets.  I have a design that I like and just need to have a look through our tshirts to see which can be donated towards it, I already have one only 35 left to go!

The second is from Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine and it is made up of their Block of the Month's.  I have all the back issues that I need now, but I think I might do the tshirt one first.

Well that's my first review done!

If there's anybody out there, bye for now!

Netty :)

Resolutions & Good Intentions

Sorry it's been a while again!! My slow start to the year has not gone to plan, as January had other ideas.


I've been doing a lot of thinking about my plans, resolutions and intensions for 2015, I always like to have some form of targets for the year as I find it gives me something to aim for and gives me focus on what I want to do with my year.


So here it goes.....
1. Take part in Water Wipeout.
2. Do more running.
3. Put up my house planning board - Done :)
4. Increase my core strength (should help my running) - balance board bought.
5. Do more things that take my fancy - Went to a vintage fair today with my Mum & Dad.
6. Do a photo a day photo diary - Started, check me out on Instagram (netty_Armstrong).
7. Make my Vogue 1419 coat pattern.
8. Finish unpacking the boxes!!
9. Loose weight, we've got three weddings to go to this year and it would be good to look at the photos and think, I look nice!
10. Put up my year wall planner, I need this to stop me loosing my mind and so I know what's going on.
11. Dress up more when we go out. I have a surprising number of dresses and tops, but never seem to wear them. I need to make more of an effort.
12. Refurbish the Living Room
13. Refurbish the Master Bedroom
14. Get to grips with the washing pile!
15. Do a tour of the house on my blog ;)
16. Read for at least 1 hour a week - Going well so far and I'm enjoying it.
17. Do more on my family tree.
18. Make a patchwork quilt.


Well I think that's it for now, next blog post the house tour, I promise!



If there’s anybody out there, bye for now!


Netty :)

The Update, The Plan & The Random Sewing Alteration

The past couple of weekends have been busy as usual and I have been trying to cram in too much, as I do!  I’ve have also been having issues with connecting my phone to my laptop for internet so haven’t been able to get onto the Blogger site to write my blog L But as of next Tuesday we will have fancy new internet complete with wifi! Wahoo J

The Update

I thought I would do an update about what we have been up to the pass couple of weeks.

We are still slowly shuffling through the boxes to try to find / unpack stuff as we need it, this has jumped up the priority list as it is slowly driving me mad every time I want to find something….do we have envelops? Yeap there were on the printer shelf, look in the printer shelf box, denied! Do we have any string? Yes somewhere…oh it must still be in a box, Doh!  You get the picture!  There are still loads and I must get on with it L

On a happier note, my Mum, Dad, Little Sister and nephew the Little Bean came round one Sunday, so that me and Little Sister could have a good luck at the Vogue 1419 Pattern (I’m totally shitting myself!).  We had a good morning and it was fun showing the Little Sister and the Little Bean around the house, and the Little Bean even had ago on Mr A’s drum kit J

He is so cute (I might be slightly bias).

Last weekend was definitely a music based weekend, I had the Friday off work and on Thursday after a drive home, a quick change, dinner by a certain Ronald on the go in the car and picking up the A-Laws, we made our way to Chester to see Tony Wright (from Terrorvision) and Milly (not our cat Milly) for an Acoustic set at The Live Rooms.  It was a small intimate gig, but it is up there in my top 10, the atmosphere was amazing and Tony was very funny.  One of our friends (Simon Dunkerley) who is also a photographer was there and very kindly took our photo with Tony.

This was followed by a well deserved lay-in (for me anyway, poor Mr A had work) and a day of rest on the Friday.  Saturday started to ramp up again, after a nice visit from our friend and his Dad, and then some boring house stuff, it was off to another gig in the evening.  This time it was Soil at the Manchester Club Academy, and it was yet again another awesome gig J  and may again have been followed by a visit to a certain Ronald (yeap there’s a bit of a theme to our eating habits but in our defence it was late and we were starving!).

Sunday saw me massively over estimating how much I can fit into a day.  I’m very good at this over estimating both at home and at work, which leads too much frustration on my part.  This is probably unnecessary and if I was better at estimating I would likely save myself from a lot of self imposed stress!

So my Sunday target was to peel the windfall apples from the weekend before and start to sort through some boxes.  I though I would put my lunch in the microwave (not Ronald related this time) and go to see if there were any more apples on the ground….three large baking bowls full later!  I managed to fill the sink, the little drainer sink thing and the bowl was still overflowing, I wish I had taken a photo!  After lunch around 2pm I made a start with the peeling and chopping, which I though would take an hour or two, at 3:50pm I stopped to have a brew and rest my feet.  When I came back I had a count of the apples that were left (it’s always good to have a target so you know you’ve made progress) and stopped after I got to 30 apples as it was looking like a mammoth task!  Finally after about a total of 70 apples and at 7pm, I finally finished!! As you can imagine after this nothing else was done!  If anyone knows of any better way to store apples over winter, rather than peeling and chopping for freezing please let me know!  Also if you have any good apple related recipes that would be good, as I have quite a few apples ;)

And then there was the surprise Trick or Treat visit from my nephew and niece (the Little Man and the Cheeky Monkey) this Friday J

The Plan

During the time Mr A and I have been together, there has been an overarching theme of us mostly spending time together in the car.  We seem to do a lot of travelling around, visiting family, going to H9 gigs, going to other gigs, shopping, etc.  This is where we do most of our catching up (ignoring the daily military style debriefs), organising, future planning, discussing ideas and now house planning.  So while on a journey to somewhere, we agreed the start of an outline for the house plan.

There are some ideas that we are currently toying with that effect what happens to certain rooms, such as do we pitch the flat roof or do we build up another storey.

There are also certain refurbishment works that affect the whole house, electrics, windows, etc.

So working through these and thinking about the rooms that would be least effected by these decisions and the ones that we are using most often, and would put a smile on our faces if they were tidy, finished and relaxing!  With all this in mind, this is the current starting point for the plan:

-          Electrics

o   We need a survey of the whole system, the fuse board is a little on the old side and there are sockets in the house that don’t have on or off switches!

o   This is the whole house and should be completed before any redecorating and such like.

o   If the house needs re-wiring that is our whole pot of renovation money blown in one go and we would need to start saving again before anything else major was done.

-          Windows

o   We have a range of original sash windows, wooden frames and uPVC framed windows.

o   The plan is to restore the sash windows, although the actual condition is extremely good and they are very well balanced.  Then the remaining windows we want to replace, most likely with black or grey aluminium frames (this is still under discussion, as we haven’t really looked properly yet), but triple glazing will be a must!

o   There might also be a bi-fold door in the plan too!

o   If we don’t need to re-wire the house, then we will be looking to do the windows, again this would be a massive chunk of the budget!

-          Master Bedroom

o   This room is only affected by the electrics so once that is sorted we are ready to roll for redecorating.

o   There is no ‘extreme decorating’ as Mr A likes to refer to it, in this room.  Just choosing paint and what sort of theme we want, and we can restore the sash window in the summer without causing any damage to what we have achieved J  Also it should be on the cheaper end of the scale to sort out.

-          Living Room

o   So this room needs the electrics looking at like the rest of the house, and there are also two windows that required replacing as well as the restoration of the sash windows (I love the sash windows, they are one of my favourite features!).

o   The plans include a photo wall, a wood burning stove, underfloor heating, bi-fold door, funky lighting, a feature wall and reclaiming Mr A’s piano from the A-Laws.

So there we go, the outline of a plan J  In other news, I’ve decided exactly want I want to do with the laundry room, but that will have to wait for now!

The Random Sewing Alteration

I was sorting through the sales at Tesco a few weeks ago and spotted what I thought was a top, which I liked and thought would be a good addition to my work wardrobe (I struggle with work clothes, but more on that at another time).  On closer inspection it was a playsuit, I am reliably informed by the Little Sister that this is what they are called….

….. I still really liked it, just not the shorts part of it.  On considering what to do, I thought to myself, I’m supposed to be making a coat, if I can’t alter this into a top I don’t stand a chance!

So very slowly I have measured, cut and machine sewed (the sewing machine is a scary creature) and Ta Da!!

Suffice to say I am very chuffed with myself J

If there’s anybody out there, bye for now!

Netty J

P.S.  Don’t forget to let me know if you’ve got any apple ideas

Work Done So Far & The Vogue 1419 Pattern

Although we haven't started the main renovation yet (we are thinking about ideas, I promise!), we have done some things around the house & garden.

The first thing we tackled was the fruit trees in the garden. When we viewed the house back in February we were aware that there were a lot of trees, but didn't realise just how many of these were fruit. So this summer the garden was starting to look like a raid in the Tesco fruit aisle!  There are currently two pear trees, one of which the pears grow so high there was no hope in hell of us managing to reach them.  There’s a greengage tree, but unfortunately the squirrels are rather fond of these so we didn’t get a look in!  Apple tree wise we have a selection of both eating and cooking apple trees, and there are seven of these in total two of which didn’t fruit this year.  So as you can imagine it was like apple wonderland.

We have some friends, Rob and Sarah, who have started there own business (The Kitchen Swanscoe) making juices, jams and biscuits (the fudge is amazing).  So we asked if they wanted to come and help us collect the apples in return of some of them, as there was just no way that we could use / store them all.  By a random coincidence they had just started an initiative called The Random Apple Company.

So on the last Bank Holiday Monday in May August (I appear to be losing my mind and track of time!!), they appeared all ready to go to pick some apples and pears.  We decided to start with the largest tree (which was a fantastic idea as we were totally knackered after this!!).  The first thing was to pick up all the apples from the ground and put the rotten ones in a spare water butt that had been left with the house, this was to stop us picking up the same ones all the time.  Due to the size of our largest apple tree (estimated at 150 years old), we couldn’t shake it by pushing and could reach to ‘poke’ the apples.  So Mr A and Rob from The Random Apple Company tried to get higher into the tree using a ladder….

…. This didn’t fully work, so Mr A gamely climbed into the tree and started to ‘ride’ the tree, which worked much better and it started to rain apples!

It was a most productive day’s work and we got as much as possible off the trees, there’s still a lot left that didn’t want to fall off.  So I’m still going out at the weekends to collect the rotten fruit and am still trying to pass apples on to anyone and everyone that I know!!

So the photos below show the outcome of the day in relation to apples and pears, the first is the volume of rotten fruit we managed to collect from the ground…..

…. and finally the fruit (and Rob) in the trailer waiting to go to back to The Random Apple Company base.

In other non-renovation related news, my little sister has encouraged me to take part in a sewalong for the Vogue 1419 Coat!

I am a total beginner when it comes to sewing (I can do minor repairs) but am so very taken with the style of the coat I’m going to give it ago, so we shall see how I get on.  I’ll never keep up with the sewalong but hopefully I will manage to get it finished.  Although time could be a massive issue - work, travel, Hybrid 9 band stuff, house renovation, normal day-to-day house related stuff and running (I did the Chester half marathon this year and am hoping to do another next year)!!  The way I see if, if you’re not maxed out to the edge, then you’re not doing life properly!

If there’s anybody out there, bye for now!

Netty J

P.S. Hello to my first follower on BlogLovin you made my day on Thursday! J

P.P.S.  We took the stud wall in the music room out this weekend, but more on that later!