Living a LAGOM Life

The word 'Lagom' is a Swedish term for 'just enough', IKEA have had a 3 year program of the same name to encourage their staff and customers to become more sustainable and I have been lucky enough to be chosen to take part in 2018.

The participants have been challenged to work towards a sustainable new year's resolution of our choice and Ikea are very kindly working with us to provide £100 of their products to help us succeed.

I have chosen the resolution to reduce our families waste.

I am planning to do this by tackling a few different areas of our home:

Reusable Batteries - LADDA
(I was shocked when I took a quick inventory of how many items that we have use batteries). This also prevents me having to have safe storage for both new and used batteries to keep them out of my son's reach.

Food Waste
My plans for tackling this are three-fold (and two were specific goals in my 101 in 1001)
Meal Planning and better preparation
So I chose two more glass storage containers - FÖRTROLIG to add to the ones I already have, but this time small ones perfect for meal preparation and pre-chopping vegetables ready just to add to any dishes.
Growing our own, so a beautiful watering can BITTERGURKA to sit on our kitchen windowsill, a kitchen rail system SUNNERSTA to add to the side of our kitchen cabinet to grow some herbs and salad leaves for easy access. I was really lucky to come across some large grey stacking pots JORDGUBBE that have sadly been discontinued, but I chose 4 to go on our patio to grow some larger vegetables.

Unfortunately the container that I had chosen that would work best for our compostables (ÖNSKLIG - it is actually a nappy bucket, but is the perfect size and I can clip it onto a kitchen drawer while chopping/peeling lots of vegetables)was out of stock at the time of my personal shop, as were the containers that I wanted to get for my collection of weird and wonderful flours now that I am moving more towards a Paleo style diet. However that meant that I was able to purchase a rug for my front room HODDE. Although this rug does not look particularly cuddly or cosy, it actually makes a big difference to the feel of our living room and as it can be used inside/outside it is very hard-wearing and perfect for life with a toddler (I love that I can just sweep it off at the same time as the laminate flooring).

I am feeling really motivated and the batteries and food containers were put to immediate use. I will post some photos of all of my items around our home over the coming weeks.

What would your households new year's resolution be? 

101 goals in 1001 days

Earlier this year I made the decision that I had to make some changes in my life. I had started doing some bullet journaling a couple of years ago and while looking through some ideas for layouts I learnt about 'Day Zero Project' after lots of consideration I decided to challenge myself to 101 goals in 1001 days.

I decided to start this challenge exactly 1001 days before my 35th birthday. I will list my goals here and will come back and edit this post to create links to any future blog posts about them.

1. Take vitamin tablets every single day for a whole month.
2. Complete the Whole30.
3. Start eating 'paleo'
4. Drink 8 glasses of water per day for a whole month.
5. Lose 2.5 stones - and keep it off.
6. Exercise 3x per week for 6 months.
7. Only use DivaCup and CSP.
8. Improve dental health - floss and mouthwash.
9. Reduce time spent on social media.
10. Set a complete some monthly challenges.
11. KonMari the whole house
12. Help Mum KonMari her house.
13. Redo both bathrooms.
14. Plant fruit and vegetables.
15. Finish the back garden.
16. Finish the kitchen.
17. Finish the upstairs rooms.
18. Finish the downstairs rooms.
19. Redo front garden.
20. Set up garden railway.
21. Finish hexagon quilt.
22. Make all Christmas cards.
23. Make all Christmas presents.
24. Finish knitted socks for Michelle.
25. Make B a toy.
26. Make covers for front room lampshades.
27. Finish dressing all windows.
28. Start front room huge hexagon quilt.
29. Sew a new front door curtain.
30. Pimp up all planned board games.
31. Complete TKGA basics basics basics.
32. Complete Master Knitter Level 1.
33. Complete Master Knitter Level 2.
34. Start Master Knitter Level 3.
35. Finish Technical Editing course.
36. Watch all purchased craftsy classes.
37. Blog weekly for 1 year.
38. Read 1 book per month.
39. Start teaching knitting classes.
40. Capsule wardrobe (as much handmade as possible).
41. Meal Planning.
42. Pay off credit card.
43. Become as zero waste as possible.
44. Write a budget (and stick to it!).
45. Pay back Mum.
46. Cash in all change in the house.
47. Sell all unwanted items.
48. Start homeschool savings pot.
49. Do 6x no spend weeks.
50. Takeaways limited to 1 breakfast, 1 lunch and 1 dinner per month.
51. Scan all negatives.
52. Organise all digital photos.
53. Get up to date with photobooks.
54. Write up family history research.
55. Finish baby books.
56. Finish answering 'life story' questions.
57. Sort a memory box for each of us.
58. Type up/scan all grandparents books.
59. Have a name necklace made from Grandad's handwriting.
60. Have a hair/milk charm made to celebrate breastfeeding journey.
61. Grow out pixie haircut.
62. Try a new hairstyle 1x per week.
63. Have a daily morning routine.
64. Have a daily evening routine.
65. Start wearing some make up.
66. Keep nails long and decorate them.
67. Wear something I have made everyday.
68. Try the curly girl method on my hair.
69. Try to get at least 6hrs sleep per night.
70. Get ears pierced a second time on the lobes.
71. Potty train B, whenever he is ready.
72. Write a homeschooling plan.
73. Keep a homeschooling journal.
74. Take B to stay in Durham.
75. Take B to stay in Oban.
76. Day out to a sandy beach.
77. Day out to the zoo.
78. Day out to Legoland.
79. Take B to the cinema.
80. Take B to London museums.
81. Take part in a scavenger hunt.
82. Have a birthday party for turning 35.
83. Weekly movie night.
84. Weekly games night.
85. Plan and book Disneyland Paris trip.
86. Go camping.
87. Play all the board games that we own.
88. Make bento lunch 2x per week.
89. Go on 2x dates per year.
90. Start anniversary holidays again.
91. 1 random act of kindness per month.
92. 15mins mindfulness per day.
93. Clean up email inbox.
94. Start a YouTube channel.
95. Write a will.
96. Learn to drive (again).
97. Keep in touch with friends and family.
98. Go on a steam train trip once a year.
99. Follow the Flylady programme.
100. Start Bullet Journaling again.
101. Put £5 into a pot for each completed goal.

Wish me luck, I think I am going to need it!

3 years and a quick catch up!

I'm not quite sure why I stopped posting in 2014, the longer that I didn't post the worse I felt about starting again, but I am back!

Just to catch you up, we are still living in the same house (and still haven't finished working on it, but that is a whole other story - and probably blog post), I had my son B who is now 2.5years old - ah yes I stopped blogging because I was very ill when pregnant... how could I forget... I have left my job and am now a stay at home.

I have been through a difficult period of anxiety and depression, but am working on making changes to start changing my life and I think this will be an excellent place to document that.