So here I am, all of a sudden; end of my Summer holidays. Tomorrow I'm back to work. After weeks of progressively later and later nights and longer and longer sleep ins, I need to drag myself up and out to work in the morning.

I think I'm typed that last sentence for my own benefit so I remember to actually do it.

Good Reads 2015 Book Challenge

I've signed up to read 24 books this year. My son Simon says I'm crazy, and that I should've gone for 12 because that was more achievable. My counter-argument is that I never finish anything so I could say any number, and I wouldn't achieve the goal. 

Off to a great start though, with the completion of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn which I enjoyed well enough. Afterwards I took a look online for reviews and blogs about the novel, and saw that there are some pretty avid (rabid?) Gone Girl fans. I wouldn't rave about the book but it's a good summer read.

How's *that* for a review?

So for my Good Reads Book Challenge I'm going to alternate between fiction and non-fiction. With that in mind, I'm about to start Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg.

The January Cure

Apartment Therapy website has an online/email "clean along" for January. I worked my first email task today: Floors and Flowers. Sounds nice doesn't it? until you realise that "floors" means "clean all the floors in your house". 

"All the floors" is a lot of floors.

I did it but it wasn't pretty. I have a hate/hate relationship with vacuuming in ordinary circumstances, but throw in a Kirby vacuum machine as my only option and you've got one grumpy, pink faced, perspiring grump-fest crawling 'round every nook and cranny, hovering where no man's ever gone before. But I did it, and the floors look good. That's the trouble with vacuuming and sweeping, the results are so satisfying and worthwhile.

The flowers part was easy enough because my rose bush is exploding with pinkly scented blooms that are cherry on the dining room table and I hope tomorrow's task is a little less strenuous.

Sketchbook Skool

The other course I signed up for to kick the year off was Sketchbook Skool - a six week online course to introduce sketching into my day. 

Again: started - so that's good - making a point of *actually* doing all the parts of the course, and not just skipping forward to the 'good bits' of drawing. 

This week we've been asked to document our week with drawings so that'll give me something to think about as I ease back into my work life from tomorrow.

Now that's you all caught up. I hope your holidays go on much longer than mine - but if you're like me and back to the grind tomorrow, take it easy, and I hope everyone is nice to you.

Associated links:

• 2015 Book Challenge (Good Reads)
• Gone Girl (Amazon)
• Lean In (leanin.org)
• The January Cure (Apartment Therapy)
• Sketchbook Skool (Online course)