May 1st!

The months have flown by, I didn't think I would pick up this blog again. Hello!

Nothing has changed and everything has changed. I've needed a good long break from everything to sit with my thoughts and reevaluate my life - which is a good habit in this day and age, isn't it? We are constantly bombarded with advertising, 'influencers' and messages about who we should be from so many quarters.

Internally so much has changed - I've rediscovered bits of myself that I had forgotten existed, or that I found terribly inconvenient to acknowledge as I was trying to make my way in the adult world. After a deep dark brooding winter of the soul (coinciding with the deep dark winter of the year, just to add to the grimness) I've started to flourish again, rooted in my own hard fought  battles, needs, wants and values. And now I need my lifestyle to reflect those changes.

Out: fear, choices rooted in fear, stinginess, drab white austerity, clutter, constant second guessing, other people's opinions and values, flightiness.

In: joy; choices rooted in joy; (joyful, earth friendly, creative) thrift; colour; an organised cosy home; self confidence; self advocacy; peace and quiet; raucous fun; consistency; worthy goals. Also, some flowers, whiskey and cake would be nice occasionally ; )

I'm raring to go, but the changes to be made are so numerous that it feels overwhelming! And so I'll write about my struggles and triumphs here, in the hope that it will help me as much my 1st blog did, all those years ago.

Dear Diary

So, its been a while. I am an unreliable confidant, as fickle as this spring weather we are enduring. I get on a roll, and then I roll right off again.

I have a touch of the blogging blahs. Normally I solve this by shutting everything down and coming back a year later. I am not enamoured with this blog - the name, the design, the tags - any of it. I love writing but I am not as good as I once was - not so much from lack of practice, but practice in the wrong direction. When I started my first blog 7 years ago I was full of enthusiasm and was gradually uncovering my 'voice' - I know because I've just read through some of my archives on ye olde blogs. I felt a pang of nostalgia for my lack of self consciousness and the enthusiastic belief I had in simpler, greener living as an antidote to all the crap going in in the world.

Somewhere along the way, I decided my voice was not good enough and I stifled it. At the same time I decided my life was just a bit too interesting with all the DIY, self reliance projects and ensuing mess, so I decided to pare everything down to greyness. Who could have foreseen that going badly eh?

So here I am with a very boring blog and a very dull voice, pondering what to do next; regretting roads not taken and wondering if there is the slightest glimmer of hope that I might recover that enthusiasm.

In other news, I found a huge hole in our budget - I remember the threat of poverty was very inspiring back then, so perhaps I've found my most potent muse again?





Ramble over.

Autumn is here!

I'm back, just in time for autumn:

I really wanted to write something, I did, but I've been struggling to find the words quite frankly, or at least words that will be interesting enough to publish.

The past few years I've undergone massive personal changes, mostly good and needed ones. I'm a very different person to the young mum that started her first frugal and simple living blog seven years ago. I've cut out so much deadwood these past few years - clutter, activities and ideas about the world - I'm gradually deciding which seeds to plant in their place. Cutting out the Internet chatter has been wonderful for this - its hard to decide what you want and what is important when you are bombarded by 'influencers' and other peoples opinions and lifestyles all day. I thoroughly recommend unplugging once in a while.

September always brings me around to fresh starts. The temptation to abandon this blog and start over is strong, but I'm resisting my inbuilt fickleness and perfectionism. This place needs a fresh lick of paint and some new category tags, which I'll work on over the next few weeks. I have plenty of ideas to work with, I just need to get back in the swing of things.

Stew and dumplings for dinner - it feels like a storm is coming. I love this time of year.

Pottering

I'm still living the low-tech life here. When the current charge for this bodged old laptop dies, that's the end of it - the charger fell apart last week. Perhaps that will light a fire under my rear to find a new laptop or netbook. I loathe shopping and always put ot off until the last possible moment - and truth be told my low-internet life has had it's perks. Back soon x

Apologies

That was a little longer blog break than I expected - we've had a tech meltdown here.

I hope that you and your loved-ones are safe and calm after the terrible events of the past few weeks; and I hope that you are keeping ahold of your sanity during this political campaign.

I can't believe we're nearly at the solstice already. The California poppies are blooming and they really are this vibrant. Little things are just the tonic at times like these.

Normal service will resume shortly.  

P.U.P.

I didn't intend to disappear for the best part of a month, but my brain collided head on with the half term break and it wasn't pretty. Things fall apart, but tomorrow it's back to school - things will be rebuilt again.

What happened during the interval? A camping holiday was had, a budget overreached, housework and laundry spilled over. Out in the wider world wars raged, elections were called - and a most glorious thing happened:

Pompey were promoted and a pitch invaded. I heart this club.

K.I.S.S. - blog design edition

Blogger introduced some new templates last week which have been taking my blogroll by storm. They're fully reactive, have drop down menus and featured posts and a thousand and one other options to make your blog zing. I've struggled with a look for this blog since I returned, and thought a shiny new one would be the solution.

I backed up my template and got to work fiddling with a design. Golly gosh, the options! There were 14 different text widgets, for each of which you can set individual colours, fonts, sizes, backgrounds...I got bored quickly; and saved what I had.

And that, dear reader, lunched my blog. I had to do a restore of everything.

The importance of knowing who you are, eh? I like the simple, pared down, uncomplicated life. I blog because I like 'scrapblogging' my days, musing about simple living, reading other people's 'scrapblogs' about simple, frugal living - and just perhaps I can be a bit useful to someone somewhere, just as the blogs I read are to me.

We're back to the aptly named 'Simple' template. I will tweak it a bit in the coming days, and that will be that. This doesn't need to be a slick operation, it just has to be readable, navigable, and pleasant enough to look at. Just like life really!