Monthly Archives: January 2025

Engagement Rings.

With Youngest & Partner getting engaged it got me thinking about engagement rings and how personal they are. This is the new ring, below, and it is very pretty. Mine was designed by DH and has a diamond in the centre with a ruby each side of it and is set in 18ct gold band with the stone settings being white gold. It is in fact at the moment being repaired as I have broken a claw on one of the rubies and did not want to lose the stone. It is now thirty seven years old and over the years I have had it cleaned and maintained but when we took it in to the jewellers they said they could repair the claws or actually take all the stones out and re-set them completely. This worried me because obviously it would be my ring and the stones would just be re-set but I was concerned that it would look exactly the same and I was assured by the Jewellers it would.

The above ring is Meghan Markle’s when she became engaged to Prince Harry and it has been reported today that she has altered this ring for the fourth time since this original one above! Apparently she has had the band changed from the plain gold to one which is much thinner with diamonds in it and the central stone has changed from this shape to one which is now an emerald cut and apparently a few other alterations have been made, picture below.

However this is not the ring she got engaged with! Would you change your ring so much that it does not resemble the ring you were first given? I know I wouldn’t. I do know of other celebs who have kept the original engagement ring but then had others bought for them, since the marriage, which have bigger or different coloured stones. Apparently Victoria Beckham has fifteen engagement rings varying from diamonds to rubies, sapphires, emeralds and a moonstone! Nice I suppose if you can afford it but again it is not the one you got engaged with!

I will have to get some pictures of mine when it is back having been repaired. Talking of repairs a clock which was inherited by DH from his family which sits in our sitting room, is off being repaired at the moment. He took it in to the Clock makers in Ashbourne before Christmas and we have not heard anything from them since so we are hoping that it is not so bad and they can fix it! It strikes the hour and the half hour and I really miss hearing it strike during the day, it is so quiet without it.

Today is home jobs day and tomorrow I have to go to the Dentist in the morning to get a small filling! I hate going to the Dentist at the best of times and especially don’t like getting a filling but decided I should get it done as soon as! At the weekend DH is out all weekend at the County Swimming Championships so I have two whole days to begin the two quilts I need to get done for May this year! Our weather over the last few weeks has been dull and grey although we did see the sun a little bit yesterday and it has been very cold with the odd day of rain thrown in for good measure! Hey ho, hopefully Spring will soon be here.

Have a wonderful weekend you lovely lot.

Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco xx

Decluttering Begun!

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So DH and I began the decluttering on Saturday and I will say that probably January in Derbyshire is not the best time to spend several hours in our garage which is, in effect underground! It is actually underneath our home but it is very cold as well as the weather being cold too.

The Big brown door behind my old Jeep is the entrance and as you go in to the right is the storage room off the garage which we had built to put all our things in so Eldest’s car could go in the garage at the time. Our home doesn’t look very big at the front but it goes a long way back. The small window on the left is our dining room, the window on the right is our sitting room. The top windows in the roof, the left is Eldest’s room whch I camp in as my sewing room, the right one is Youngest & Partner’s room and our room is at the back with our dressing room and the bathroom window looks out on to our pathway. The kitchen and our den are also at the back looking out into our garden at the back.

I, of course, did not get any pictures of the decluttering due to being very cold and trying to get everything completed in the room off the garage. We did, however get rid of a lot of things and actually took most of it to the charity shop and then the rest to the tip. We also tidied up the room so it looks very neat and tidy. The main garage needs a tidy up too but that is a DH and The Boys jobs as it is all their “stuff”!!

Next weekend we have one and half days to do things in, so we are going to continue with the attic. We have already done quite a bit of decluttering in there but can still do some more. The aim is to get this all done and then bring the boxes of things I have saved from the Boys childhood and other keepsakes of ours back from our storage unit (which has all the compere equipment in) sort it all out and then store it in the room off the garage and the attic. It is this year’s project and will be done throughout the year.

I also need to go through things in each room as well and get rid of things we do not need, want or use. I go through our book shelves twice a year and get rid of books that I have read and do not want to read again or books that I no longer want to keep. Our den, which is our office is another room which gets a regular decluttering and I did it not long before Christmas so I can tick that off as being done. I need to do the kitchen again but I also did do a declutter in there last year so may just need to have a quick look to make sure nothing has slipped through my net. The understairs cupboard is another job and the dresser in our dining room, but again I think it is mostly sorted.

This was the sun rise the other morning when I went out with DH to visit one of the companies we work with! It was stunning.

The dressing room in our bedroom is another room which needs re-doing again and I have tried to stick to the rule of one thing in, one out which has worked quite well. I am also going to go through the sewing room and have a sort out in there too. The Bathroom does not need much doing to it but always worth a quick look and I did our outside shed at the end of the summer so know that that is all done. Hopefully I will get a few pictures as I do things.

Friends have asked why I am doing this and keep doing it and although it is a big thing all over social media, it is mainly because I had to clear my Parents and Grandparents homes out when they passed away and it was the biggest job in both homes! In fact my Great Grandmother had lived with my Grandparents for quite a few years before she passed away so there were, in fact, two homes in one and they owned a big Victorian home which they had moved to in 1930 and not moved again, so there were 64 years worth of living in there! My mother had always said that she dreaded clearing out Grandma’s house but sadly she died first so it was left to me to do both homes. My parents had moved into our family home in the 1960’s so there was 24 years of living there and again there was a lot of things that had never been sorted.

I am therefore determined to not leave that sort of mess for our Boys and their other halves to deal with. They will still have to do the clearing but at least they will not have to got through millions of things trying to decide if they need to keep them or not and what they actually want of our things. It took DH and I three months to do my Grandparents home and took me a year to do my Parents home, as I was still living in it. I would urge you, if you have not done this, to definitely think about doing it.

Next Saturday evening we are helping at one of the swimming gala’s that our Club are competing in and we are hosting, so DH is compering and my friend Sue and I are doing the results as usual. It is over in Bingham, Nottinghamshire where DH used to go to senior school, so going home for him!!

Have a wonderful week you lovely lot and keep warm.

Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco xx

Coco in the sewing room on the chair I have in there and stool. She loves sitting on it.

Engaged!

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It is with great pleasure that DH and I announce that Youngest and his Partner got engaged yesterday!

As the picture says; She Said Yes!!!

DH, Eldest, Partner & I all knew what was happening yesterday whilst we were all at work and on tenterhooks waiting for them to get home and it was a relief when they did and she had said yes!

Here are a few more pictures of the day, The weather was absolutely amazing which was a relief because when I was driving to Eldest’s work early yesterday morning it was thick fog here in Derbyshire!

Next weekend we will all be going out for dinner to celebrate. It will be quite a while before the wedding as they are busy saving for their own home and other things but they are engaged.

Today, back down on earth, I have home jobs to do and tomorrow DH and I are starting the de-cluttering of our home! He keeps putting it off but I am determined that by this time next year it will all be done and we will have a very tidy, less cluttered home with nothing in it that we don’t absolutely love, want and need! This has come about from seeing other people doing this on Instagram but also having had to clear out my Grandparents and my Parents homes when they had passed away, know how much of a difficult, time consuming job it is. One which I am not going to pass on to our Boys to do when the inevitable happens.

I am hoping to get pictures of how we do as we go along. My aim is to donate as much as possible, recycle things and if not those two, then it will go to the tip,

I hope you lovely lot have a great Friday and lovely weekend whatever you are up to.

Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco xx

Coco’s Corner!

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I know it is Wednesday but yesterday I had one of those days and did not get around to doing my Corner on Tuesday!

I had a slow start to the day yesterday. Mom and Dad were up but I did not want to get up at all! It was cold outside but nice and warm on the bed!!!

I did eventually get up and prepared to start the day and one of my jobs is to keep an eye out in the garden to guard against those pesky squirrels and cats. I have also recruited Blaze into the Watch!

Here we both are scanning the garden!

After that we both had our lunchtime treats and then I retired to my basket and Blaze went upstairs to Mom & Dad’s bed!

I did go out later on in the day and as you can see it is extremely frosty in the garden and it is very cold on my paws! Here I am stood on the deck where the den used to be, although the fence is still too tall for me to jump over, much to Mom’s relief!!!!

I hope you had a wonderful Woofy New Year and a great week.

Woof, Coco xx

National Rubber Ducky Day!

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January 13th is National Rubber Ducky Day! Who knew? Apparently it is when Rubber Ducky first appeared in Sesame Street in 1970 (below), however they were originally created by a gentleman called Peter Ganine in the 1940’s to help children who where afraid of water and especially the bath! Having had two sons, they were definitely allergic to water and would protest at having a bath every evening but they both had a rubber duck.

Little Man loves his bath and when he is ready to get in his little legs are already paddling before he even gets to the water! Below is one of the toys he got from Santa Claus because both of my Boys loved trains and they had to have the rubber ducks in as passengers, so this was a definite must have for Little Man. He also had a set for Halloween with ghosts and pumpkins in!

I remember having a rubber duck but he was not yellow he was white like the famous Aylesbury Ducks below.

Although I think the yellow ones are better!

We had, as always, a very busy weekend trying to get some jobs done and the swimming event on Saturday night which because of some things was delayed so we didn’t get home until 9.30pm! We got to see Eldest, Partner & Little man too over the weekend, so a good one all in all. This week is busy with work, everyone has seemed to come back from the Christmas Holidays raring to get on with things which is good news. This coming weekend we are free so will be able to get quite a few jobs done then.

I have been keeping up with two of my Aims so far this year, Aim 1 which was to do more reading. I am making time to try and read a little bit every day and am really enjoying that time. Aim 2 is to do more quilting and although I have not got any actual quilting done yet I have sorted out the material for the two quilts that need to be done before May and also tidied my sewing room as well. Aims 3, 4 & 5 which is the de-cluttering of our home, sorting out the garden, garage and attic will begin next weekend and will be an on-going project for the whole year. The rest of my Aims 6 to 10 are again a whole year project so I will keep you up to date how things go.

Our weather over the last week and into last weekend was extremely frosty, like the trees above and cold but this week is supposed to be a little warmer, ie just freezing not -6 like it was here in Derbyshire! It looked very pretty!

Have a wonderful week whatever you lovely lot are up to.

Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco xx

Susie’s Friday Book Club!

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This is my book which I have been reading at the end of December and into January and one of the many that I have had on my TBR shelf! I love reading the Christmas mystery books before Christmas and at this time of year too.

Roz Parker has just retired from the Police Force after thirty years and is leaving London on the sleeper train to The Highlands of Scotland, her original home, to be with her daughter and partner as they are expecting their first baby, a Granddaughter. However as with all good mysteries the weather is not co-operating on the run up to the Christmast holidays with heavy snow causing a lot of cancellations. They are waiting in the First Class lounge and Roz is intrigued by her fellow travellers.

One young couple are semi-famous being reality TV stars, she an influencer and him a arrogant reality TV wannabe. There are also a family of five in the sleeper bit, a son and his mother and four young students going North to compete in a quiz to see who will be picked for a university course. A very mixed bag.

They think their journey is going to end before it begins with the sleeper train being cancelled but it fights its way through the weather to London for the return journey to The Highlands and they all board, however not all of them will be getting off at the end! Roz will have to take charge and find out who the murderer is before they strike again before she can begin her retirement in earnest!

I am on Page 209 of 326 and will probably finish it this weekend. I am really enjoying it as it is not too taxing but Alexandra Benedict does move the story along well and you feel engaged with the characters without being annoyed.

Here is a sneak peak of my next book, which I have been carrying around with me just in case I finished the one above!

Molly the Maid is busy with her job at The Regency Grand Hotel getting everything ready for Christmas but her boyfriend, Juan, keeps disappearing and the corridors are wispering things and someone is keeping a secret, will they manage to solve the mystery before Christmas? It is only 128 pages long but I think it will be a lovely little story.

Been out all day today with DH visiting customers and companies we work with and a few personal jobs. This weekend we are beginning the 2025 de-cluttering of our home and tomorrow evening is another swimming event. Have a wonderful January weekend.

Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco xx

New Year Jobs.

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I know it is New Year but I cannot resist one final picture of our Christmas Tree. We have taken our decorations down and cleaned our home from top to bottom, all the washing & ironing is up to date and put away and I am even up to date with all my work. I hate taking the decorations down as each room when it is back to normal looks really drab after all the fairy lights and Christmas things are put away. I know we have to do it and we get to put them put later this year but still!!!!!

Youngest & Partner out for a walk and it was snowing!

I did go out at 7.15am to go to work at Eldest’s but overnight we had had really low temperatures, with ice and frost. Long story short I could not get any of my car doors open as they were all frozen shut!!! The only way to get them open is to use warm water but this, of course, instantly freezes on the driveway and road which I was not prepared to do. However a neighbour, who is very awkward and no one likes, did exactly this and left a swathe of ice outside of his house and going down our hill! He did not even put salt on it to get rid of it! Anyway I decided to go back into our home and get warm and I contacted Eldest who said that it was really very icy where they are and then he had to go on a call out with the FIre to a road traffic accident so I am glad I did not go in the end. To be fair there was not a lot to do because of being off for Christmas so I will catch up next week.

A couple of pictures from the Fireworks at New Year in London.

So having a day extra at our work I got some jobs done which I had put off and tomorow it will be home jobs again and Friday I am out with DH visiting one of the companys we work with. At the weekend we have another swimming event on Saturday evening but during the day and Sunday we will be able to get some de-cluttering done. We will begin with the garage and also tidy it up and then move on to our attic and go from there.

This is the fabric for the double bed quilt.

I will also be busy cutting out one of the quilts that I need to get on with and start making the blocks for that. I am also keeping up with my first Aim of the New Year which is to do more reading. I have also sorted out my TBR shelf which has now turned into three shelves as I have spread them out a bit so I am able to see them all and have put them into categories. I don’t know about you but when I finish a book I then decide what sort of book to read next be it a mystery or a history book etc. At the moment I am busy reading all my Christmas mystery books which I love and I don’t mind reading them even at the height of summer!!!!

It has been so cold at night, when our heating is turned down, over the last few days that Coco has been tucked up on our bed between DH and I. The other evening when I got up she was really cold so I put the blanket we have at the bottom of our bed over her and she loved it and was fast asleep.

I hope you lovely lot have had a good first week of January (most of us have been back to work this week). Thursday tomorrow, it will soon be the weekend!

Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco xx

Little Man on Christmas Day amidst all the presents!

A Little Bit of Quilting!

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I did get a little bit of Quilting done before Christmas for presents for my family and best friends.

I decided to make for the ladies in my family and best friends Market Totes. Basically a patchwork bag but huge for shopping!

I loved how they turned out and am going to make one for myself when I get a minute!

For My Boys Partners, I call them my Daughter-in-laws although they are not married yet, I made them a mat each of a present block.

I have a plan later in the year to make a single bed quilt with present blocks but that is after I have made two quilts that I need to begin now which are required early in the year. In fact DH is taking me down to the Quilt Shop in Northampton on Friday to get the material. I don’t know about you, those that quilt, but sometimes you just have to see the material before buying it, especially as one of them has a particular colour request.

Sadly the two quilt shops in Derbyshire closed and the one in Northampton, The Bramble Patch, is the next closest with a great selection of material but it is only about an hour and half away so it will be a nice little trip and we will get some breakfast beforehand.

I will hopefully get to show you the material after Friday. They are forecasting snow for the UK over the next few days and the weekend again and we are hoping that it will be okay for Sunday and the Swimming Club Open which is in Matlock and could be interesting getting there. The first time we ever ran this event it snowed the night before but everyone got there which was a relief! We shall see how things play out. This morning it was very cold and frosty with the windscreens all covered over! I have a few home jobs to do today.

I hope you lovely lot had a wonderful New Year and a great start to 2025.

Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco xx

My Aims For 2025!

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Happy 2025

Quite a few years ago I moved from Resolutions on New Year to Aims, because I used to make Resolutions and then promptly forget them! I now write the Aims down in my Filofax and try and check in with them each month to see how I am doing. As an aside I still have a written diary and notebook in my Filofax, although I do use my computer as well, but I find writing things down and especially my To Do lists and then crossing things off works really well for me. Anywho here are my Aims for 2025:

1. Do More Reading and clear my TBR Shelf!

2. Do More Quilting!

3. De-Clutter our Home and get it organised.

4. Our Garden & Garage to sort.

5. Attic to sort.

6. Reach my Health Goals.

7. Maintenance in our Home.

8. Cleaning our Home From Top to Bottom.

9. De-Clutter my Wardrobe/dressing table/chest of drawers etc

10. Continue with my other Hobbies.

The first five are pretty self explanatory and Number 4. and 5. go along really with Number 3! Number 6. is one I have been working on for a while now and will continue into 2025 with the aim to be healthier and not catch as many things like I got in 2024 which began at Christmas 2023 when I had shingles! I don’t think any of our immune systems are as strong since we spent two years wearing masks etc for Covid, so I am hoping to make 2025 a better health year.

Number 7. is because we have some rooms to decorate and some little jobs that need to get done but they will probably be done during the Spring and Summer. Number 8. sort of goes along with Number 7. and will be done along with Spring Cleaning although that may not be done in Spring this year due to some other issues. Number 9. is sort of on-going and I did start this in 2024, but again needs another go at sorting out.

Number 10. I do have other hobbies including cooking & baking which I love and am determined to do more of this year, especially trying new recipes out rather than just cooking the same things all the time. I also used to do embroidery, before taking up quilting and I have one project of that which I have not touched in a long while, so I would like to do that again.

I have not written it down but one thing I am more determined not to do this year is read or listen to the news! I never watch the TV news but I do read The Daily Telegraph. However over the last few months I have found myself more and more cross with the articles so have cancelled my subscription. I know it is probably taking the “head in the sand” approach to news, but I think I will be better off.

Although I don’t like New Year, especially after all the lovely weeks leading up to Christmas and spending time with family and friends, I do like January & February as it is a time I like to think of as hibernating. The weather is usually dreadful and we are not able to get outside in the garden and it is not a good idea to be painting at this time of year, so I can spend the weeks reading, quilting or cooking, along with getting some of my Aims completed too! DH has not got too many dates pencilled in with swimming announcing so he will be busy helping me, especially with the de-cluttering!

Have a wonderful start to January and 2025.

Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco xx