Jo's blog

I spent a day away up north recently, at a day long meeting of a group I belong to, and we had a bus tour around the area. It was one of those places where you think, I could live here . Quiet and beautiful, with the harbour and the sea not far away, only an hour down the motorway to the big smoke. We learnt about the history of the area: a group of settlers from the UK who were promised land, came out to New Zealand, only to find the promised land was covered in bush and the land unsuitable for making a living. Some of the settlers decided to go elsewhere while some persisted and their descendants are there today. It's hard to imagine getting off a boat and trekking days through bush with your belongings to find the promised acres, as we sat in the comfort of the bus. We visited an old school hall that a very generous benefactor had given money for to completely renovate it, and  a chapel, overseen by a board, who are hoping to get more weddings in the cute old church. It's on...

 I have been tweaking with the website and changed it up a bit. I found a lovely picture which describes reading fiction to me. A book and a cuppa!  As we are in autumn here and the weather is cooling, this picture sums it up. I noticed that in the picture, the cup has a woollen cover on it, which I thought was cute. I wonder if they actually keep your coffee hotter for longer? In our household, that's what the microwave is for!

I have discovered the Travellers notebook. I had no idea these things even existed but now that I do, I am setting one up. Now, I like planning and diaries and calendars but I'm not a terribly organised planner. Well, I start off nicely, but deteriorate rapidly. I love the BulletJournal idea and I love the creativity of the spreads and all the pretty colours and themes for the month, the calligraphy, and all that, but the bullet journal does kind of require an element of neatness and tidiness and order. (Which is the point of it in the first place, to have the stuff written down in one place where it is easy to find when you need to.) I bought and read the book on the bullet journal (I have it somewhere), although I never took to the ticking and crossing and stuff. It was too neat and tidy for me, so I made my own system which actually kind of contradicted the idea of a bullet journal, as it was messy and blah, but fun. But as one place to store lots of notes, really good.  I'v...

What a  lovely time of year. Happy times. Autumnal. Winter is coming!!!!! Yuss! So wonderful, and the nights are starting to cool.  Now, I have been a bit MIA a bit of late, including some ill-health which is a pain in this antipodean arse/ass, but it is what it is. I mentioned on Facebook a while ago that I had discovered Junk Journaling and I am fascinated by it. So intrigued by it. I've been watching videos of these crafty creatives (Thrifty Day and Rebecca Hoot mainly) and they are all so different in what they do. I love what they do because as someone who hyperventilates when I watch a house-themed TV show and there is nothing in the house of any interest or personality, not books or rugs or ornaments or stuff, it is all pristine and so tidy - truly, I feel I am in a prison when I see these places -  well, junk journaling really appeals.  I've been trying out a few things and I might even show pictures! It seems to me a nice creative thing to do to accommodate ...

It is starting to get cooler, praise be. There was a heap of rain one day this week, and by the time I got to work I was damp, to put it mildly. Soaked is overstating it but uncomfortably wet. Have you ever tried to dry off your trousers with a hair dryer?  I would have been there forever! If only, I thought, I had a spare anything at work, like a skirt even, but no. Nothing to change into. There was only a pair of pantyhose in case I ripped them, although I had stuffed spare socks and boots in my bag so I could have dry feet at work. It is worth noting that the very next day I went to work, I had completely forgotten that thought about spare clothes altogether and did not take spare anything for future weather events. In fact, I only remembered as I was thinking about writing this blog post. Hopeless. Given I’m trying to keep up my walking part-way to work to get in a good 40 minutes/steps, I should take along spare clothes to keep in my locker just in case. It really was uncom...

 I have recently been a bit obsessed with the practice of junk journalling. Junk jouraling! I love it so far. Its been around a few years and seems to have taken over a bit from from the scrapbooking of yore, but the thing I like about it is you use up all your stuff that is lying around. You can use all your rubbishy bits and pieces of paper and things. I like the tutorials of a lady called Leah with a channel called Thrifty Day , and I've had a go at it and I kind of really like doing it. Sometimes I feel a bit out of sorts (I blame hormones... or perhaps it is, rather, the lack of them!) and so I decide to cut stuff up and stick it on a page and I feel better. Therapeutic! I also think that because it is play and there are no rules and you can be as messy as you like, and start again if the page looks like utter rubbish, well, it is just so good for you. It's like being a kid and let's face it... we got to do all the cool stuff when we were kids. Why not , now we're ...