it's a rollover, this could be the one!

so did i do it that one thing just one thing?

oh i did, with the help of him indoors or at least with the chrissy pressie he got me.

a fresher, shinier, brighter and better version of myself is on its way, i am booked into a new gym it's taken 10 months for me to get off the sofa and i was a little reluctant to make the move. i'd been building myself up for it all week in my head and i got up this morning feeling it might not be the day.  anyway just to ease me in i checked in with my membership to start next weekend, it gives me some more time to get my head round it. it may seem a little dramatic but i have been out of fitness levels for over 2 years, last year i thought i would drip feed myself into it with some yoga and it was working until it all came a little non-zen for me and became a discussion of money. i stopped as mentally the whole thing just upset my mind set.

so the lovely hubby bought me 10 personal training sessions at the local gym for christmas, with all good intentions, we are going skiing in march and with the issues i have had with my knee and back in the past it would be crazy not to be fit before we go. 

so with voucher in hand, (i even dressed for the part this morning to make me feel like i had to get down there)

Me today, ready for the shinier self (Jan 2016)

i descended on said gym to start my membership and book my first pt session. lovely folks at the reception advised that i get myself comfortable with gym team before i choose my pt as its an expensive gift that may go wrong if i choose the wrong pt.. i agreed it seemed very sensible advice, i want this to work, anyway it would seem you get 3 free personal sessions with the membership, i booked myself in with the lovely lady at the reception nadine, so lets see how that goes!

feeling lucky i dropped in on the petrol station for two lucky dips for today's lottery , so hey that may be one more thing that puts 2016 into a better place... now that would just be too funny, so fingers crossed it's a roll over and we have as much chance as anyone, you have to be in it to win it!  the independent gives you a couple of tips to boost ones chances but being in it is the biggest one tip one should listen to ;)

one more year on

last year i thought it would be good to not let the year slip away and do one thing each week for me.

i failed miserably on that front and indeed 2015 slipped away into a year which was full of ups and downs.  i felt i was constantly drowning in everything else but something for me.  i spent most of it internalised and i stopped doing most of the things i enjoyed. i do wonder looking back on it at the start of a new year, that it may have been me counteracting the emotional year i had in 2014 with my mum and dad.  instead of getting out there and making something i locked myself away from everything, i seriously can't do that this year i live now in a beautiful part of the world, i have a fab hubby and anipals and i need to split my cocoon and do that one thing for me each week. i need to stop feeling that i am nowhere.

my hubby bought me 10 personal training sessions for christmas (the expectations are they are to help me to get ski fit for march) and considering the total lack of exercise and get up and go i exhibited last year (i spent most of my free time on my couch) it may be the kick start i need to do one thing for me each week at least for 10 weeks and then i may have enough endorphins pumping through my system i will be motivated enough to do it myself the exercise thing.  i will simply feel better and hopefully look better and more importantly be doing something for me.   

it's important for me in 2016 to feel good, i know for sure my dad would be telling me to get on with things and stop making excuses. 

so if for anyone i will do it for him as well as for me.

Photo courtesy of Emma Case Photography

just one thing a week for me... 2016 your on!

HAPPY NEW YEAR FOLKS

wet and windy in't north but we are still here

it has been a weather wicked end to our year here in the lake district.  but it has not made us regret our decision to move here lock stock and barrel.  i currently have the benefit of taking myself off to the smoke for one night a week to be in the office for two days out of four and i am still wondering how long i will do this, but for now it suits and it's a financial bonus until i decide what to do with the next chapter in my working life.

anyway it has been none stop grey skies here for the past two months, we had been hoping for a little snow but it has been too mild and instead we have had none stop rain and wind.

the county has indeed been hit hard, so far so lucky for us being up on a hill and out of reach of any overspilling brook or beck, but i won't count all my chicken's just yet, we may not be out of the woods yet as we are yet to feel the brunt of storm frank which is due to hit our doorsteps this week, so we will see.  but to be honest we haven't been completely out of the force of all the the other 5 of this years aptly named storms, our walls in the cottage here up in hoo lane will need a good treatment once we get a chance to dry up, it looks like someone spat at it with a blow tube and 18inthecorner our newly made holiday cottage looks as though someone poured a bucket of goodness knows what down the adjoining walls in our attic rooms, apologies to all our recent visitors have been made, as we won't be able to get anyone out to it, until it really gives up raining here.

so with christmas out of the way (it was a nice easy one with mum and dad) and before the new year madness gets hold, we decided yesterday, to get ourselves out and have a walk around grasmere.  it was a still calm day so we decided to walk on the lower flanks of loughrigg and down to the stretch of water. later on we hopped in the car and had coffee down at the garden centre and had a mooch around the village.  it's amazing what a small amount of the outdoors does for one's spirit.  considering all the flooding grasmere got, it truly was open for business, we even got to bring home a little bit of ginger heaven from sarah nelson's gingerbread shop that will indeed do nicely!

we sort out william wordsworths family grave spot  and found that it was well protected by a fine tree and looked out over onto yonder fell. 

grasmere and its local environs is a beautiful corner of our lovely county cumbria and well worth a visit and even if it's a bit rainy too!

so i wish this lovely county that we now have the pleasure to live in, all the luck and good wishes in the world for 2016 and here's a little help towards that...

see you all again in 2016

xx

so its sunny and its saturday so it must be time for a sonnnnng!

so i am really going to be on the look out next weekend at #kendalcalling for this little lady.  such a haunting voice don't you think?

in the meantime as i live in this lovely part of the world the #lakedistrict and its sunny i am off outside to sit and just relax in wonder

18inthecorner.com

so lots of things have happened since march, tim has stopped work, i only work 2 days in london now and the rest i work from home. we live in our forever place the lake district.   importantly our little holiday home in the little bustling lakeland town of windermere, is now getting ready to be a holiday cottage for others. i am pretty excited about this as this was our getaway and now others will be able to enjoy the same feeling we did each time we came back.

so we are slowly putting back some more character into the house with new carpets, coving, fixtures and fittings.  it's even had a new lick of paint.  i am proud of what we have achieved so far and it truly will be a home away from home for all those who come to stay.

we will be sourcing "lush cosmetics" bathroom products which guests will be able to use while they stay or take away with them if they choose and the bathroom will be filled with plump fresh christy towels, always a favourite of mums.

the cottage may be small but it is perfectly formed and once inside you will think you are in the tardis.

we are aiming to be up and running when the 2015 summer holiday season really kicks in, so all the late holiday bookers may just find this gem in windermere, right up their street or even in the corner of their street!

a website will go live the minute it's ready

www.18inthecorner.com

but we are already social

this country life was made for us