trimmingthesails

Wishing ...

... you all a very Happy Christmas from the cold and bleak hills up here - and this comes with warm regards to you all. Illness and chaos and the need to attend to both have prevented my posting for a while, but I am hoping to be recovered on all fronts soon. Thank-you for reading, contributing and being part of my life, and letting me be part of yours ...
with very best wishes,
alexa

On the sixteenth day before Christmas ...

... my true love said to me:

16 days of panic
15 presents unbought
14 packs of cards to write
13 phone calls to Ikea
12 cupboards still to build
11 mugs cluttering up the sink
10 plus some noughts to fix the damp
9 piles of carpet-grippers
8 tins of Dulux paint
7 days till your parents arrive
6 workmen on the site:
5 gold stars!
4 builders' vans
3 carpet-fitters
2 painters and plumbers
1 extension closer-to-done
and a pair of adults
keeping fingers crossed!

No December pages to show, alas - intermittent electricity due to alterations. But here's a quick pic:

Hoping you have a lovely weekend, and see you on Monday?

WOYW Wednesday

 What's on my workdesk ... Remember that very 90s phrase "cash-rich and time-poor"? And its soul-mate "cash-poor and time-rich?"? Well, I was thinking today that I am probably not the only one pitching their tent in the "cash-poor and time-poor" camp this December. Not one to think about Christmas until the week before, but spooked a little by the sheer number of major things which need to be completed in the run-up to it this year, I found myself nodding in its direction by laying on my desk the three rolls of Christmas paper I have managed to buy so far: soft taupe-grey with white, and sprinkled with very pale pink sparkles. If I put together now (my thinking ran) ribbon, tags and pens, then it will be less stressful closer to present-wrapping time. Not that I have bought any of those either, yet.

Ribbon. Hmmm... None of what I have left over matches, or would look even remotely good. (I still have some pride in how my parcels look, after all). Then I spotted the ball of cotton string, a perfect soft white match, and added that to my desk. A quick rummage in the button-and-bits box unearthed a bundle of beads and a handful of eyelets. My favourite stamp, silver and pink ink-pads, some scraps of white card and a couple of punches joined them. Done in less than five minutes and no money changed hands.

Did you know that you can pull string apart, like embroidery threads? That five minutes later you will be rewarded with fine, delightfully wavy cord? Slip a bead on the end, tie a knot, and you're done. A quick stamp onto card, a firm couple of presses of a punch or two and - wey-hey - a satisfying pile of parcel-wrapping paraphernalia begins to grow on my desk...

Perfect. I am liking this! Perhaps "cash-poor and time-poor" equals "creativity-rich"... Anyone else discovering the upside to Frugal, Thrifty or even Austere? I'd love to hear from you, so please feel free to share below or leave a link!

(Oh, and for the wordsmiths among us, the origin of "paraphernalia" is here ...)

 

December Days (minimally ...)

Morning from the cold and snowy hills, on the 6th of the 12th - lots of multiples of three today!

• 36 centimetres of snow and counting
• 6 days of longed-for decluttering disappeared into fire-fighting and emergencies
• 3 occasions of despair, when the should-have-been-lagged pipes froze, the new radiator in the kitchen leaked, and a large area of damp appeared in the newly-laid floor in the extension for my parents
• 1 week since the painter has been able to get here: will the new build ever be finished?
• 18 Ikea base and wall cabinets put together
• minus 12 degrees centigrade at night midweek, and minus 6 by day
• 3 full days left until the carpet-fitters should be coming: with the as-yet unfixed wet floor, this looks increasingly unlikely
• 1 delightful daughter whose visit home to give us a hand cheered my soul

And I wish it were three, but at least two pages for my Book of December Days are off the starting blocks. My life may not be as uncluttered as this yet, but minimal scrapbooking is winning the day:

 

Looking forward to visiting you all this week to admire what you have been creating so wonderfully while I have been awol. Just bear with me while I find the fingerless mittens so I can keep typing a little longer, otherwise the starting blocks are liable to become the finishing line and there will be nothing on my desk on Wednesday. A minimal step too far, perhaps!