My November purchases

In November I had to slightly bend my rules to accommodate my growing belly. I wrote about my maternity capsule here (I also posted some pictures of these items). I bought more items then I said I would per month but I did manage to stay well under budget. I hope that these items are sufficient to carry me throughout my pregnancy and I will not need to purchase any additional items. 

1.       2 x White Tank top. Mr Price R35.95 each

2.       1 x Grey Tank Top. Cotton On R125

3.       White Shirt. Mr Price R115

4.       Navy shirt. Mr Price R115

5.       Black shirt with light grey polka dots, Mr Price R99.95

6.       Soft grey marled T-shirt. Cotton On R224.95

Total number of items = 7

Amount Spent = R751.80

No Buy Day

The 29^th November is Buy Nothing Day. A day set aside to combat the rampant commercialisation of the Holiday season. It is the same day as Black Friday in the States, their biggest buying day. We don’t have anything like this here but I thought it would be cool to take part even though most of my days are buy nothing days these days :)

Black Friday craziness

Since it is close to the holidays I decided that not only would I not buy anything I would also take the time to think about the gifts I will be giving at Christmas.

Firstly I summed up who I thought should be on my gift list. This list is actually pretty short since most of my family is in Europe and we work on a gift exchange system there (like a secret Santa, which is great as you only have to buy one gift then). Since I will not be joining them this year I have been excluded from the gift exchange.

So on my list; My sister, my parents, my husband. Usually DH is at a bit of a loss for gift ideas so I often include his parents, two brothers and one sister on my list.

Non-commercial gift ideas (and by that I mean DIY gifts or entertainment stuff);

1.       Tickets to movies, plays or music shows

2.       Memberships or subscriptions. Ie My sister bought us a year’s supply of organic vegetables for our wedding. We receive one packet every other week containing a random selection of fruit and vegetables that are in season. I thought this was fantastic!

3.       Lessons, ie last year DH paid for me to go to an Art course. If you know that someone has a particular interest you can support them in their pursuit of it.

These first three items are especially well suited when your recipients are living far away as they can easily be organized online.

4.       Food or drink, as consumable items these are always great gifts. Buying someone some posh chocolate or a fancy bottle of wine is always appreciated (just try and check beforehand to be sure they are not on a strange diet or have any food allergies). Bonus for anything you made yourself (provided it’s edible of course)

5.       DIY items – these can be great but approach with care. Not everyone will appreciate cork board coasters and since you went through the effort of making it yourself they might feel obliged to hold on to said items. Do you have any skills instead? Maybe your friend has always admired your art so you feel pretty confident to paint her something. Or maybe you’re good at IT and your friend needs some help with their blog layout. Can you garden? How about volunteering to help plant a mini garden or small section of someone’s yard. Everyone has some talent that can be utilised in some way. My contribution is usually fixing light fittings, helping design logos/cards, painting or just plain old assembling IKEA furniture (somehow everyone in my family seems to think they need an engineer to assemble anything from IKEA or maybe it’s just a clever ruse to get me to do the work).

So those are the lines I’ll be thinking along.

A Junk Drawer

A junk drawer, doesn’t everyone have one? Mine is not in the kitchen but rather the top drawer of my bedside cabinet. Even while aspiring to a more minimalist life I have to admit the ease of a Junk drawer. It collects all the odd bits and ends that usually just float around the house and means that at least any mess is restricted to one place. 

Normally my jewellery and hair ties get stashed here but it is also where I empty out my handbag when it gets a bit full and so ends up collecting lots of scraps of paper and other random items.

I decided it was time to tackle this drawer. Sometimes de-cluttering can be a bit overwhelming and it’s a good idea at times like that to limit the amount of area you want to tackle. A single drawer is enough. 

Heres mine pre-clean:

 

 

My husband has a similar drawer in his desk. It is the spot where by mutual agreement I tend to dump all this stuff that seems to float about the flat, ie screws, batteries and till slips. It makes me happier as I don’t have to figure out where to put his stuff away (I just sweep it all into the drawer) and he’s happier since it is easier to find things again after I’ve cleaned up. Whenever he misplaces something ‘check the drawer’ is my first response.

A busy week – When stress accumulates and there’s not much you can do about it

This week will be very busy; in fact it already started this weekend! We had builders over on Saturday to replace all our back windows (kitchen, toilet, bathroom and bedroom) as well as both the front door and the back door. They came in around 10am and weren’t finished until 7.30pm. During that time there were about 6 guys in various rooms in the house, everything was covered in plastic and once again the air was full of dust. They also knocked out the old windows which meant that although they did sweep up afterwards I am still finding bits of glass on the outside walkways. I have told my neighbour to make sure his kids wear shoes for a while as I know they like to play there.

At one point when they pulled out the old wooden door frame (which was rotting a bit) a section of the wall above came down which then needed bracing and fixing. At that point I was exhausted by the noise and dust and I made a hasty retreat to meet a friend for coffee down the road. DH stayed to oversee the work. I am glad he is handling most of the details as my tolerance for stress these days seems minimal (the fact that I had an exam on Monday to prepare for probably didn’t help either).

Sunday we spent cleaning and checking all the details of the windows. I especially love the bedroom window since it seems so much brighter than before and I can now open it to ventilate (before we had glass blocks).

Monday I had the exam, which went passably but not up to my usual high standard. Then in the evening we had to measure up the new partition walls and prepare drawings as well as decide on where exactly to position our new bathroom basin and tap.

Tonight someone is coming to replace the security gates (which were taken down when the new doors were installed) and to put some burglar bars on the bedroom window so I can feel safe when I leave that large window open. The contractor who is re-painting the flat and putting in the partition is also coming over (hence our push to get all the partition drawings done last night). We need to discuss a lot of items with him tonight so I think that will pretty much take up our whole evening.

Tomorrow we have a host of people coming around. Firstly the carpenter needs to put in the second section of the bathroom cabinets. He won’t manage to finish tomorrow (the door panels are still being sprayed) but he can position everything so that the counter top people who are coming in the afternoon can make a proper template (they need 10 days to make the counter top but DH is pushing to have them install it before he’s away. He’s leaving on the 28^th Nov so pretty soon!). Lastly the window people are also coming back to fix up a few minor details they missed on Saturday (we asked for frosted glass in bedroom they gave us clear, the wrong door handles were used etc). Wednesday night we also have a 2.5hr antenatal class (which DH finds too long) and after all that we are usually completely knackered and just grab some take away on the way home.

Our bathroom so far:

Thursday night DH will install the burglar bars on the bedroom window (the guy on Tuesday will do the prep but can’t install yet until the new frosted glass is installed on Wednesday). I will probably spend quite some time packing away (depending on what contractor says tonight I might even have to pack up the kitchen items etc). We will also need to pack for a weekend away.

And so on and so on! I am really looking forward to 5 weeks from now when we will hopefully have our home back with everything done and can spend a more leisurely time unpacking and re-organizing without the constant dust and shifting things about depending on where work needs doing!

At this point in time I have to admit to being quite stressed and not really knowing what I can do about it. As it is DH has already taken most of the coordinating work upon himself and all I really do is pack away stuff (DH has barred me from moving furniture) and mop up floors afterward (which with so much dust in the air you end up doing 5 times as it all settles). I swing between wanting to know what’s going on and being so overwhelmed I just want to forget about it all and get out the house. Every time I am in the house I also think about all the stuff we still need to pack away and my to-do list is getting longer and longer. I worry I will forget something and I dont really know what to do to relax since all I think about then is how I am wasting time and could have packed up some more stuff instead. *sigh*

At least this weekend we are getting away for 2 days (we are going up the coast with some friends) and I am determined to try and not think about the renovations AT ALL!

Minimalism for me: My watch collection

I own 5 watches. Just putting it out there. This may not sound very minimalist but I can’t imagine getting rid of even one of them.

I’ve decided to take the principles of minimalism and adapting how they apply to me as I want. This means I don’t strive for an absolute minimum of items (which I personally think is silly anyway and still shows an obsession with objects, just in the other extreme then). Instead minimalism for me is cutting out the things I don’t use or wear and making sure every item I do own has a story and a unique part to play in my life; be it functional or sentimental.

So while I only own 3 bras (but all well fitted) I do have 5 watches.

My watch collection has grown over the years. Most are pretty old and were gifted to me. I also wear a watch every day, everywhere. I like to match up my watch with my outfit or how I am feeling that day. In that aspect I guess I use them not only as functional items but also as accessories I can use to express myself.

Here is a break-down of my watches:

1.       Neon green with yellow trim Time Force

This is my oldest watch. I was gifted it by my grandmother when I turned 12. I even remember going to the jewelers and getting to pick out the model I liked myself. I was so proud of it and wore it pretty constantly for the next few years. When I was 18 I had to go back to the same store to have a few links added as the band was getting tight. I misplaced this watch for a year or two but found it again last year during my massive purge/re-organizing stint at the bottom of an old jewellery box. I was very happy to start wearing it again.

This is my happy, colourful watch. I wear it on days I need a pick me up and when I am feeling good. I also like to wear it when I am sporting brighter colours and I have a citron top that almost exactly matches the yellow of the watches trim so will often pair them. This watch makes me smile and I think part of that is because of all the things this watch reminds me of; it’s been part of my life for so long.

2.       Black face with silver link cK

Another gift from granny. This one I received as a graduation gift after university. I was 23 and we went to the same jewelers as where I got my Time Force piece. Again I got to pick it out, my grandmother pushing slightly into the more formal/classic looking pieces.

This is now my fancy, going out watch. I do not wear this watch every day and I do not wear it to work. I do wear this when I want to feel especially pretty. I can wear it with my black dress and then I am all set for a night out.

3.       Light blue plastic Casio

This is my most recent addition. It’s about a year and a half old now. This is also the only one on the list I bought myself. Me and DH have an English couple as friends and we always admired their matching Casio watches (she had one in pink and he in silver plastic). So when she said they could bring us back a set from the UK the next time they were there we jumped at the opportunity. I choose this light blue and DH his favourite colour orange.

I love how retro this watch feels. I like that it also harks back to a childhood time. It is also my only digital watch so I have used it to time things as well. This is the watch I wear to exams and most often at work. It is also the one I sometimes place by my bedside at night since it has a light-up screen if I want to check out how late it is.

4.       White with silver strap art deco Kangol

I own two Kangol watches. My aunt used to work for Kangol as one of the senior buyers and would often travel all over the world (she would often jet off to Japan which we thought was very exotic). When I was in my mid-teens (13-15years old) she would often bring us back samples. My sister and I loved it, we used to get make-up, watches and tonnes of hats, once or twice we even got a bag or a T-shirt. These two watches are still from that period.

This white one is my favourite watch to wear in the summer. It has a slightly art deco feel and has a date on it of 1934 (apparently the date of the original design). So while it is more recent then that it does have that old-time classic look. I am appreciating this watch more and more and I would say this is the one I wear most often.

5.       Large white face with black strap Kangol

This watch is old but feels brand new to me. Why? Though I received it when I was about 14 I never actually wore it. I always packed it away as I found the face too large and thought it looked out of proportion on my slim wrist. I did keep it though, through all these years. After last year’s purge it re-surfaced with my Time Force watch and I wasn’t sure what to do with it. I offered it as a gift to a friend or two but no-one seemed interested. I figured I would try and wear it for a bit and then donate it if I still didn’t like it. I have now been wearing this watch on and off for about a month. I am starting to like it. I like that it seems tougher then my other delicate watches. I wear it mostly paired with a black leather bracelet strap. I’ve decided to keep this watch now.

So that’s my collection. I like how all these watches are quite different from each other. It gives me the opportunity to select exactly which one suits my current mood/outfit best. They vary from playful to sophisticated and I like how all of them have some history or back story.