Winter cleaning

The current weather here in the south of England is dreadful. It's cold, wet and windy, and just utterly miserable.  There are only a few hours of proper daylight, then it's back to drawing the curtains and turning up the heating!

As job hunting is something I can mainly do from indoors (searching online for vacancies, sending off application forms, I know my CV off by heart) I've been spending a lot of time in my flat.  I love this little flat, and really enjoy living here, but spending so much time here has shown how much stuff I use, and how many things I own that I rarely use, if at all.  Which brings me to question why I have all this stuff in the first place.  Obviously, some things like Christmas decorations are seasonal (although there's a gingerbread man garland I love so much it hasn't yet been put away, and there's a sock snowman I made at a Girlguiding district meeting which I'm so proud of it's been on the mantlepiece since 2012) but there is a lot of stuff which is just there.  So I'm trying hard to use the things I have, if I don't have a use for them then I plan on selling them/donating to charity.  I like having space in the flat, I don't want it to be taken over by stuff. My boyfriend's also (finally) getting into the idea of using or losing things, he's downloaded lots of audio/kindle books, mainly classics so he can donate the paperbacks he owns, thus creating space.  He's also working his way through his collection of computer games.  Space is being reclaimed!

When I watch the television, I'm not good at just sitting and watching it passively, I feel a bit better if I'm doing something with my hands, usually knitting or crochet, but I also enjoy puzzles.  A few years ago my mum bought me this book of Musidoku.  It's sudoku puzzles, but with musical symbols rather than numbers. And it's really hard! I love sudoku puzzles (especially samurai sudoku) and am reasonably good at them, but these are hard because it's difficult to quickly see what's missing.  With normal sudoku, I find it quite easy to see one row needs a 4 and a 7, it's much harder to see if a Musidoku row is missing a quaver or a semiquaver. Having said that, I did a few puzzles last night and was gradually getting the hang of it.  So I'll work my way through this book, it's been on my bookshelf for ages (and the bookshelves of a few other places in which I've lived) so it's about time I got round to using it!

In keeping with using things, I want to be more efficient in terms of sewing badges on to my camp blanket. I love badges and these photos are of my second blanket.  One side is entirely full, and the back is probably almost half full.  I'm keeping badges associated with the Big Brownie Birthday to one side for the time being, as I don't yet know what I want to do with them.  But before I went to Butlins, I made the effort to sew on some badges from my seemingly ever-growing pile.  The more I sew, the more I seem to have remaining!  I saw on Facebook a fellow Brownie leader was making and selling camp blanket straps, a simple yet ingenious strap with buckles which keeps your blanket neat and tidy.  For £10 I got to choose my fabric choice (owls, obviously) and the colour of its backing.  It was then posted to me just in time for going to Butlins. Bargain!  I think I know a few people who would appreciate one of these as a birthday present...

Finally, my little alarm clock finally stopped working this week.  I've had it for at least 17 years (I remember dropping it off my top bunk on my year 6 residential trip, the second hand has been bent ever since, and it probably wasn't very new then) and it has done me well. But the alarm stopped working a while ago, and I realised it wasn't keeping time anymore, despite a new battery.  But not many things last for 17 years, so I didn't feel too bad about letting it go and getting a new one.  My new green one was only about £8, has a not-too-scary alarm, and it ticks! I adore ticking clocks (the louder the better) but you never know if a clock is going to have a loud tick or not. I am pleased that mine does!  It is most satisfying to be all cosy and warm in bed, and drift off to the sound of ticking...although I know many people can't stand it!

Right, time for another cup of tea, and to curl up with a book. Making more room on my shelves, oh yes!