Angel Jem's City Cottage

Wednesday Wind Up :  How glad am I that I started these posts, a couple of years ago? I have been rereading some old ones and it's such an easy way to keep tabs on life. I'd forgotten buying a watch for playground duty (that watch, like the rest, didn't last). Or how many books I used to read. Any how, I'm back, and this time it's personal. As in, this is my personal blog, my online diary. I'm still hyggering away with How To Hygge The British Way, but that's not a family blog. I can't share things at a whim, I find it more of a thinking space than a chatting place. I need both. I have missed you all, and after I posted on Monday I had two beautiful replies saying welcome back. Thank you. I have been to the Emerald City, and it was all very well, but there's no place like Home. So my plan is, even if only on a Wednesday or Thursday for the Wind Up, to post regularly over here. Just for me. I don't expect people to follow or comment, a...

Happy Mother's Day so far. I hope if you have children, then you've organised them rather better than I have my own. So far I have made my own breakfast, bought my own present, written the shopping list and even read an Improving Book. I'm feeling weary and wondering what to do with the afternoon. It's a good job there's no football on this afternoon or I'm sure the pressure to watch it would be the last straw. As it is, I've been told that I will not be able to Finish Off the Bedroom Clean that I was doing yesterday because there is Important Work for DH to do. So my list for the weekend has sort of gone South. I think I shall alter it. The sun is shining, and the meal I'm going to make for my parents is an easy slam in the oven one, so I may set off for a walk in the woods to clear my mood.And any spare time I have left, I'll get on with my Hygge CAL. I'm well behind with it. The idea of crochet with embroidery was irresistible, but ...

I can't believe how far behind in Christmas shopping I feel this year! Normally by now I have lists ready and I'm well underway. I think part of the problem is that I haven't been able to get a sensible word from the Lads about what they want, and I am just not prepared to have a go at guessing myself. That, and the money flow is not the best. We are doing well, thank you, but working for oneself as a business, especially one like solicitor, means that you never know whether this month is a feast or a famine. I thought I would be giving up tutoring, but I still need to keep it up for the next year at least, if only to pay for Christmas. Having a small amount of cash every week just gives me the freedom to know that I will have x amount to spend on y day. It helps. Like Tesco says... every little helps. But this weekend I finally sat down, notebook and Evernote to hand, and planned the shopping. I still have no idea what the lads want, but they'll have to mak...

It's funny how you can have waves of shopping, isn't it? There was a year when everything I got was black... or red... or had squares or circles on it. I took Sarah off to Yarndale again this year, so I suppose it shouldn't have been too surprising when the shopping ended up having a common theme to it. But first... Yarndale . Sarah and I were both shattered after a week in school/work (and following on from a weekend away last week) so we cancelled the planned weekend away. We were due to Yarndale (that's a verb, it means spending time browsing yarn and stroking a lot of alpaca) yesterday, but had a pootling day at home instead. My living room is clean and smells nice again now. That only lasts until tomorrow, when the guineas will do their worst. So we decided that today was the day. We were up and out at 10.30, and at Skipton for 12.30. Last year we went on the Saturday and it was packed, like standing room only packed. The fact that we drove straight i...

I hope you are all having a lovely day today? Somehow when the sun shines everything feels a little bit better. The warmth of the sun isn't the hot, burning heat of June or July. I swear I can feel a breath of Autumn coming on, even though today is supposed to be the hottest day this week. At the very least, I got my copy of September's Country Homes and Interiors last week and I've been luxuriating in the colours and patterns of the season. I'm looking forward to apple pies, a proper stew when the weather grows colder and the smell of decaying leaves when they start to fall. Last year at around this time I was busy making my Autumn Ripple blanket, as you can read if you click on its name. I still love all the colours I used, and how they worked together. It sits with my pile of blankets in the corner at home and when the nip in the air moves in and before we turn on the heating it will be my knee warmer of choice. And I made a cushion to match as I told you i...

This weekend has been a chance to take a breather out from work and rampaging and doing so much to do a lot of little things that needed doing. A little crafting, a little reading, some planning for Christmas and some housework. Next week will be a week from hell, with parents evenings (both doing and attending) evening events that I need to go to, and a list of things to do ready for half term next Friday. And breathe....... Ninjabread men cookies. Sarah made them, and they were delicious! Can you tell they're all doing different kung fu moves? Such a simple idea! I bought the kit from Dobbies and brought them home, worrying that they were too childish for my sophisticated teenagers. Not a bit of it; James (15) has claimed the patterns as his own. Apparently I must have bought the kit for him, because he is my Ninjaboy! The Cherry Heart CAL; this week I have gone slowly. I have until next Tuesday (the 25th?) to complete these parts. I'm hoping to sit and do s...

How much of my life do I spend looking ahead? I've worked hard since I was young to not look back and to regret nothing (and guilt, darling; that isn't even in my vocabulary. Je ne regret rien) but I can't stop looking forward. To the weekend, to the summer holidays, to September, to Christmas..... I feel sometimes that I am so not in the moment; that I'm always looking ahead. And sometimes I like looking ahead, but other times I don't. This year September will be fun; a new job, a role that suits my abilities and projects galore to do. 2015 = good. But 2016, well, that's a different kettle of fish. My first little baby will be 18 and ready for university. And I don't know if he'll go far or near. Whether he'll escape to adulthood or stay in his bunk bed for a little longer. And today we joined other bloggers like Winwick Mum and Jo at Through the Keyhole  who have both blogged about Uni spotting. We went to look at a possib...

I love my birthday present. I ordered it off Etsy, from a shop called Strawberry Notebook. I saw it on This Bug's Life, where Janet waxed lyrical about the service and the communication and the kindness of Diane, the shop owner. It's all true, Diane is lovely and she does keep you informed as to what and where she's up to, but it was the concept that got me. Because I thought with this in my bag then maybe, just maybe, with the right pair of shoes I could be just a little like a middle-aged (and slightly over weight) version of her.... No, not Amy..... her... River Song! The product is called River Song's Journal . It's handmade in Florida by Diane, and based on the Midori Travelers Notebook elastic system, the system where you use elastic bands to keep a few notebooks together to organise your life. People use them as planners, or journals, some even use them as wallets, but I haven't tried to yet! I have moved into the system instead of my Filofax ...

I have read (and listened to) The Secret recently. I think I can see the reasoning behind some of it, like you get what you focus on, you create your own luck through self belief and that you can achieve what you want to. There's a whole element of the book that talks about manifesting what you want; that you talk and act and think as if you already have the job, house and other attributes of the life you want and they will be manifested i.e. made real. I'd like to think so. I want to believe that my life can work out and be as good as I want it to be.The Secret says that something as easy as a parking space can be manifested if you only believe that it is there for you and, I have to say, the space I want is usually in the space I want it to be either straight away or within a short time. I've always been a bit Pollyanna-ish, always expect the best and see the good in every situation and I am still seeing the positive where I am now, but I'm beginning to feel th...

The bank holiday is behind us, and we are fast approaching the next break from school. I'm not doing a proper Wind Up because not a lot has happened since last week, but I wanted to share with you something that the Princess made me make. My daughter takes after me (a lot) and when we browsed Pinterest and really enjoyed some of the summer activity lists we saw, She went off to her bedroom and brought me one she had written. My daughter has dyslexic tendancies and spelling is a big issue for her, so any writing she does is special. I love it, but She wanted it to be smart and readable and to be Pretty (because what is life for, if not to be Pretty?) So I tweaked it, and fluffed it, and here it is. A beautiful PDF that you can use as well. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5BYpKO-OK3cQ09kOW5FdElCMlU/view?usp=sharing

It's New Year's Day!! A new year of optimism, hope, joy and fun lie ahead of us.... At least, I hope so. I'm not a natural lover of New Year. I tend to enjoy the family madness of Christmas and then try to ignore the wild celebrations of the future. Perhaps I see the Future too much as like one of Dicken's phantoms; a black hooded faceless fear-filling creature of the unknown. Certainly I am too inclined to fear the future rather than grab it and kiss it at this particular time of year. It's as if the love and comfort of a Christmas is followed so closely by a sudden change. You really liked 2014? Well, tough, because that's gone and will never be back. All you have are the photos you grabbed between stuffing the turkey and spilling the red wine. And being employed as a rolling contract is probably not helping me feel more secure this year. I'm sure I'm employed until Easter. 3 months of security. It will do for the moment. It has to. But I am a...