Reasons To Be Cheerful-ish

Yay! It's the 1st of December! (Yes, you knew that).

And it's week 7 of Planet Penny's Reasons To Be Cheerful! I don't think I've done seven weeks of it yet though - have I? I think I missed the first week.

The wind has dropped a bit and it's not actually raining - at the moment anyway. It was sleeting as I dropped the kids off at school (bitterly regretted forgetting my woolly hat). And I've just gone round the house and changed my many calenders over to their new pictures! I love turning to a new calendar page. So that's my first reason to be cheerful. Do you like our Santa Claus in that picture? Miss Mouse made it yesterday - the schools were closed due to the strike, and we were stuck inside due to colds and grim weather, so apart from bickering, telly and the Wii there was a little making going on. I like his curly beard!

Reason number two is a much delayed ta-daa! Finally, finally, the item fondly known as Bogroll Barbie (though she's not a Barbie, she's a cheap pound-shop 'fashion doll' equivalent) is FINISHED! Hurrah, huzzah, rejoicing in the streets!

I painted the base yesterday, and there she is in all her glory, on her little pedestal! Loo-roll dolls are just the most bonkers creation aren't they? I sometimes wonder who first thought 'You know, that toilet roll really needs a crinoline!'

I like this picture a lot - it's pleasingly strange..

Reason three - well, I don't want to jinx it, but we should, fingers crossed, touch wood, being cautiously optimistic here, be getting our cavity wall insulation done tomorrow. I'm being very cautious about this because we've had people out three times to do this, but this time.. well, let's hope. In any case, we're reasonably well-prepared for winter:

This time last year we were up to our oxters in snow - well, slight exaggeration but looking back at my 365 blog, this is how things were on the 1st of December 2010. Chilly. I'm working on my mum's premise which is that if we're well-prepared for winter it won't be such a bad one!

You know what? We forgot the advent calenders this morning! Something to look forward to once the kids are home from school :-D.