…there’s a Jenni with a nice, clean tidy house and finished garden who has no ‘official’ job and instead spends all day designing and writing about anything she chooses.

I do like my job and my life, but there is a small part of me that wants a break for a few months right now, because I literally have no time. Ideas, things to do and plans…but no time and no energy. It’s even more frustrating now because I’m writing descriptions for Adobe products, and it just makes me want to download Illustrator, Fireworks and Photoshop CS4 and just spend hours playing around with them and my new photos. It’s frustrating that I have no energy to do anything. My day starts at 7:30am, I spend quite a bit of time planning to go to the gym or do some yoga or clean – but by the time I get home at 6:15pm, I just want to flake out in front of the TV.

We are definitely cleaning and tidying everything today though as New Housemate Theo is moving in very soon – a few days in fact. The problem is, I have good intentions, I’m just tired. Need to kick the energy drink habit and start eating proper, home-cooked mainly organic meals again…not that I have time. Grrr. Hopefully it will all work itself out in the end, especially when the bathroom and garden are finished and everything can be cleared away and sorted out properly. I need to sort out my council tax, bills, rent, paint part of the bathroom, buy plants and pots, call a guy to take a load of rubbish away, sort out the back garden, tidy my room, clean, do some kind of web design before I go mad, do some paid review writing, catch up on emails…I know it’s bad when I don’t even have time to spend money. My salary from last month went mainly on house-related stuff, but this month’s is going to be sitting here for a while I feel. I have a £20 gift card for Borders, a £10 survey pay out and a £3 gift certificate for Amazon and I haven’t even thought about what I want to buy yet, let alone actually spend them. Crazy.

Blessed are the things that sort themselves out, though. The Twitter Plugboard has really taken off, and someone’s added it to Stumble Upon, which is fantastic. Looking at the referrals, a lot of people seem to come via Google, and then there are a couple of people plugging it on Twitter which is great. I need more time to extend the functionality and add a few more bits though. Hopefully Monday will give me some time to catch up since it’s a Bank Holiday and I don’t have anything planned (and don’t intend to).

Well, my lunchtime’s over so it’s back to the daily grind

Nothing much to report – I’m busier than ever if that’s even possible.

Spent time working on the bathroom with my dad, sorting out tenant stuff, watching TV with Ben (my new housemate), then went home on Friday for Em’s wedding. My friend Faye got married the same day as well, so congrats to both of them – they now have lovely husbands Em’s wedding was very simple, which was nice, and it was great seeing the ‘old people’ from college and catching up. Sunday I was back to Notts to carry on with the bathroom, and my dad stayed Monday to work on it more whilst I was at work. So I have a lovely new shower, bath and new tiling now – there’s still lots to be done but I tried the shower out last night and I love it.

Tonight and tomorrow night I’m working on getting the house sorted whilst Ben’s at his parents’. I need to sort out my stuff in the garage, finish working on my room etc. Hopefully I’ll have a chance for a break too Then Thursday I’m going to Tabi’s for an hour or so and then Joe’s coming to stay for a couple of weeks which I’m really looking forward to.

The weekend is going to be really busy because I’ve got a few friends coming and my sister gets her exam results on Friday so my family might come down (and my dad still wants to work on the bathroom). I’ve got my fingers crossed it’ll all work out ok in the end – I always seem to end up double (and triple!) booking these days…but it’s lovely to see everyone, as I keep saying!

My job is still wonderful and I love it – one of my uni friends started here yesterday and we’re going to have lunch sometime this week. She’s a really nice girl and she’s enjoying it, which is great I have to say, my sceptical self is wondering when everything’s going to all fall apart – but so far, so good.

I get paid next week and so I’m setting aside money for the garden, which is going to be re-decked with much better quality decking. It’s so small it’s not really worth doing anything with, but a proper seating area and some low maintenance potted plants will make it nice for bbqs again. And Theo, the guy who’s moving in in September, has three cats. The cat flap at the moment is kind of suspended in mid air because the raised decking has pretty much disintegrated, so that definitely needs sorting before he moves in.

I was also going to start having driving lessons again, but I’ve decided to do them quite intensively, so I’m going to save up and then do three or four a week. And I’m also saving up for laser eye surgery, because I’m sick of wearing glasses part time and constantly taking them on and off – but I’m still thinking about it and researching it. Because of the time I need off as well, I’m looking at January for a possible time.

Today I’m sitting at my desk with a lovely graze box, which today contains a mix of dried fruit named ‘apple strudel’, chocolate beans, chocolate peanuts and chilli rice crackers. I’m still not able to adopt the whole ‘graze’ thing, as I’ve eaten most of it and it’s not that far into lunchtime, but at least it’s tasty I’m still writing about MacBook Pros – so far I’ve written about 12,500 words

Finally, I’ve found my USB connector for my camera (although the charger remains lost), and so uploading photos from the past few months is looking more likely. There must be a few hundred to sort through…trips to Oxford and Bath, the Riverside Festival, my leaving bbq and more things I can’t remember.

But for now, I’m off to check if my AOL webmail’s back up yet, so adios

I’ve been so busy recently it’s been crazy! Moved back to my house last weekend, and only started unpacking my stuff last night. That’s mainly because the house was so dirty and disgusting…there’s also quite a bit of damage to stuff (nothing too bad). But the house is getting old anyway and a lot of stuff needs sorting out.

Today we’re fitting a new bath, ripping the wall tiles out and replacing them. Nothing too exciting, but I’m picked out some small blue tiles to break up the white, and we’re having fancy wallpaper stuff underneath to protect from mould and anti-mould sealant. How exciting…I’ve also picked out a new floor, but not bought it yet, and we’ve sorted out the plans for the garden.

Downstairs will be painted, the stair carpet replaced, and then there are lots of things I want to do but can’t really justify with so much else on (painting my room, the front door and garage door and random fixing of a few bits and pieces, plus a new kitchen).

It’s definitely fun working on stuff, it just takes a lot of time, and in between seeing friends, working full time and other life stuff, I’ve barely even been on the Internet in my own time for the past week.

One thing I have found is graze.com. Signing up with that link will get you your first box FREE and your second half price. Basically, you can have a small box of food delivered to your home or workplace. It will fit in your letterbox, and you can choose what they send and the days they send it. They have a whole range of stuff, from dried fruit to chocolate to fresh fruit, savory crackers and a lot more.

I did about it a long time ago, but never signed up – mainly because a lot of the complaints about it are that you can buy a lot more fruit etc. cheaper in a supermarket or grocers. However, I’m glad I took the plunge to try it out, because it’s definitely worth it. The boxes are normally £2.99 including first class post (and with the code, who turns their nose down at free food??). However, the food is excellent quality. If you’re a family with similar tastes then yes, it probably works out cheaper to buy elsewhere.

But if you’re like me – buy food only for myself, shops aren’t that easy to get to, and can’t buy a variety of fruit because it all goes off and/or there’s no space to store it – then graze.com is a great alternative.

Additionally, it’s quite ethical with card packaging, British sourced food where possible and the option to donate money to the Rainforest Alliance if your friends sign up. I did sign up just to get the free box, but now I think I’ll carry on with it – it’s a nice healthy treat, something to look forward to, and makes for good snacking during the working day