Commuting...

My car died a few months ago, and since then I've been car-less and reliant on lifts and public transport.

I've invested in an iff Card to use on Cardiff Buses and get a weekly rail pass to and from work - this saves about £20 a week on fairs, which isn't bad!

Here are a few pictures of my morning commute..most days I don't mind it at all, as I get to people watch and read, either Metro or my book...sometimes just my phone...some days it's wet, the buses are full and slow, I'm running late...it can be a bit of a drag, but it's no worse than sitting in traffic in the car.

Lovely old tiles and my platform

Rush hour at Cardiff Central

On the platform

Glad to be out of the rain

Weekly ticket

What I'm reading

Money...

This month I've set David and myself the challenge of a cash budget.

I have budgeted for the following essentials:

• Food (roughly £50 per week)
• Petrol (£120)
• Travel (public transport for me) (£37 per week for 3 weeks - I'm on AL for the last week of June)
• Hobbies (Skating) (£5 per week for David - I don't need to pay as I'm off skates from now on)

We have then also had £50 each for the month to spend on ourselves - going out, sweet treats, clothes etc. (Would you be happy to only have £50 for a month?)...

We have done OK so far, but it definitely makes a month feel like a loooong time!
It's only the 12th today, and I'm already thinking about next month...18 more days to go, so we're not even half way through yet!

We have spent a bit of money from our Family account, which we pay into monthly and also have Ada's child benefit money paid in to. This pays for family days out (entry fees, ice creams, Ada's pocket money, clothes, treats etc).

Also, I hadn't budgeted for any unseen coasts - for example, yesterday David had to spend £150 on new tyres for the car!

I have left a bit of spare cash in our bills/joint account to make sure we don't go overdrawn unexpectedly, which happened last month - we don't have an overdraft on this account and so if we do go over drawn we get charged, which is annoying!

We are doing OK so far, we will be tight by the end of the month, but if we manage to keep to £50 week for food and don't need too much more petrol we should be OK.

It's hard, but it'll definitely be worth it in a few months when I'm off for Maternity Leave and we get to not pay childcare! Woo!


Anyway, on a brighter note, here's Ada being cute!

Little girls...

Ada loves Thor, Spiderman, Batman, the Hulk, Superman....The Avengers in general...but she also likes Ballet.

Her friend has recently started in her ballet class which had made it all the more fun for her to get up on a Saturday morning!

They go to Mandy and Shirley Morris' School of Dance at Chapter. While the girls are dancing we have coffee, breakfast and a chat.

Here they are in all their Ballet glory!

Photos from our friend Liz x

While I'm on the subject...

I have a plan for how our dining room will be, when we can afford a few things like removing the radiator and replacing it with a lovely column one, moving the dresser, building a fitted cupboard/shelves in an alcove and having a bench and dining table...along with the chalkboard wall I mentioned in my other post...

Here's what I have in mind...

Bench and dining table along the wall as you walk into the room.

Photo from Gumtree

Tall column radiator and antique dresser on other long wall leading to the kitchen.

You can just about see our dresser under all the mess here!

Bella bathrooms

 Built in shelves and/or cupboard...for toy storage or food or both (depending on damp issues!)...

From here

 I would love to get a new floor for this room too, probably the same slate tiles we have continued from the kitchen with a nice rug for the play area.

Our almost finished kitchen

Eventually make the back window into a door into the garden and block up the door in the kitchen, and open the kitchen door way a little to make the rooms feel more like one.

Here's the floor plan to make it a bit clearer...

Organising/nesting...

I am keen to get the house organised most of the time, but now and then I go into overdrive...David is convinced I'm 'nesting' ready for the baby...maybe that's true...

Here are a few more organisation inspirations!

From here: Jen Loves Ken

I think this would be great for us, David and I are quite busy with gigs, skating, deadlines etc. and I think having this in front of us would be great. We're planning on a blackboard wall in the dining room when we can afford to re-do it, so this could be an addition...we could also use it for our food planning..what do you think David?

From here: REMODELISTA

I love the white minimal feel to this simple (rather large) hallway. I would love to have something like this at home, but with the prospect of 2 little ones under 4 in the house soon, it's not going to happen. We are planning on a white and black hallway with this lovely tree wallpaper (see below), white walls and antique cream woodwork...I'm looking forward to that!

Cole & Son 'Woods'

Our 'office' is our tiny boxroom.third bedroom. Eventually we hope to open this room up to our large-ish landing to accommodate a staircase up to the loft and have it all open plan, for now we just need to be able to get into it and use it! We have David's PC in there along with my crafty stuff - a sewing machine and all the fabric etc that comes with it...the plan is to put up some shelves to display our camera collection, and paper at least one of the walls in comic book pages! I also want to fit one long table along one wall for David and I to be able to work side by side on the PC & sewing machine, or maybe laptop...if that time ever arises!

From here: Awesome Wallpapers

And, I'm really keen to get our stairs painted and sanded....this will be a messy/dusty job, but somebody's got to do it! hopefully our stairs will look something like this in the near-ish future!

From here: Ali Par

Ah, if only!

The long road to maternity leave....

You know that when you have a holiday coming up...the time from now until then drags...

I have 11 weeks left in work until I finish for my maternity leave. Two weeks of that and a few Fridays are also AL, so I haven't really got that long left at all....but in between now and then we are really busy...lots of things to plan and deliver and get ready before I go...

It will get done, it always does. It's just that I am sooo ready to just stop and relax now.

Soon!

I have to say that the lovely weather we're having at the moment doesn't help, I'm not enjoying sitting in the office 'working' while it's sunny outside...I'm also finding sitting at my desk pretty uncomfortable at the moment and that's only going to get worse!

At least this weekend was relaxing and fun.
We managed a trip to the park and ice cream, lunch with family and a relaxed Sunday afternoon with friends, as well as Ada's usual ballet class and David and I both going to Roller Derby training on Friday.

I also managed to get some sorting done in the dining room, and it is usable again! Yay! David and G went to the tip with the fridge and freezer, as well as clearing the front 'garden' of most of the old kitchen - at last.

Roller Derby update...

So, even though I'm pretty much 6 months pregnant now, and getting bigger by the minute, I'm still skating! Yay!

I help train the newbies each week at our Friday evening sessions.

We've also recently got our new kit, which I think looks excellent!

David (my lovely husband) came along to last weeks training session with Ada to take some action shots of the team, here are some of my favourites...

That's me in red training the newbies (a bit of footwork)

Our house...

Our house is still giving me a headache...everytime I go home I feel like I should be doing something to it, at least tidying if nothing else...but I don't and then more wasing piles up, dishes in the sink....jobs left undone.

I really should try and get some more things done before the baby comes along, so here are a few of my current house inspirations:

This house from Making it Lovely, is lovely!

Photo from Making it Lovely

I am always inspired by Amanda at Soulemama, I love her way of life, her 5 amazing kids and their perfect little homestead...this is something David and I aspire to! The house isn't bad either!

Photos from Soulemama

 And finally, a blog I don't know so well, but a lovely, soothing, calm family home from Skunkboy Blog

Photos from Skunkboy Blog

So, there you go. I would like a clean, spacious, white (in some places) light and airy house....not going to happen folks! (well, maybe with a lot of work!) x

Some me time...

I have a week off work. But I'm really not the best person at spending time on my own productively.

I have so far spent 2 half days in bed. Done some washing up and putting things away in the kitchen. Watched lots of Criminal Minds and spent ages looking at historical pictures on Pintrest...random I know.

I need to get out!!

Ada the glitter monster x

Missing out...(Roller Derby)

Being pregnant means I have had to step back from Roller Derby training, which is rather gutting!

We're just building up to our teams first private bouts and I'm not going to be able to play. I have been voted in as Head NSO (Non-Skating Official) for the team and so I will be organising the NSO team along with the Head Ref ready for when we start regular scrimmages and bouts in a few months....

I really can't wait to get back into it after the baby is born, it'll be a great way to get back into shape again!

Anyway, here are some of the very few existing pictures of me at CRG (Cardiff Roller Girls) training.

Photos courtesy of Richie and Sara.