Crinoline Robot's vintage week

The brooch Sarah gave me is light enough to wear on the lapel of a blouse

Well, we're one week into 2016, and I hope yours is going well. My plan to wear different jewellery every day is working out. It'd be a bit rubbish if I couldn't manage it for a week.

 So far I've worn: my midcentury coral necklace and earrings; a pair of carved plastic rose earrings that came in an Accessorize multipack; Avon pink diamante stud earrings; fake pearl studs plus the delicate, clear diamante midcentury brooch my friend Sarah gave me; the silver and fake opal (fauxpal!) pendant and earrings I got for Christmas 'from the kittens'; a midcentury monster that I believe is Coro; and today a heavy gold leaf. I'm trying not to wear all my favourites in rapid succession as that will make things tough later in the year, though I should probably get more of my weightier brooches out of the way while the weather is cold enough for coats, jackets and other things made from sturdy fabrics.

Monster Coro (?) and today's heavy gold leaf. Both chazza finds.

The break over the festive season gave me a really good chance to think about what I do – not work, but the things I do in my spare time. I realised there were things I was doing that were no longer fun, and that there were things I'd been putting off doing because I never had time for them. I've stopped doing burlesque, which is something I'd been considering for months, but the break really convinced me that I wanted my Sunday evenings back. I'm also going to stop pushing myself to blog so frequently, so I have time to actually enjoy my knitting, embroidery or whatever, without feeling like I'm letting you down by not talking about it.

I've also been thinking about house things. The House of Robots was a rental property before we bought it, and it needed a lot of work. We got the damp treated, put in central heating, replaced the kitchen and painted the walls, but after that it sort of ground to a halt till we got the front door and windows replaced a couple of years back. Now we're getting the back door and windows done, and we're looking at revamping the bathroom – we've lived with a crack (sealed with rubber bathroom tile sealant) in the sink for over a decade, but finally it's going to be replaced.

Bathrooms seem to be one area where getting a vintage look isn't particularly easy, as only white suites are available in my price bracket. Mr Robot is also keen to keep the current terracotta colour on the walls. I'll make a Pinterest board for inspiration, but I suspect the room will end up looking neither modern nor vintage, just our usual eccentric 'explorer' style. Terracotta and white makes me think of Spanish, North African and Spanish Colonial design, so maybe I'll pull together inspiration from our travels. (We inherited loads of cream towels from my mother-in-law, and those would be easy to dye in Spanish tile colours like cobalt, turquoise and saffron.) We're planning a trip to Spain later this year; I could pick up some ceramics in Triana while we're in Seville.

Sometimes I do look at people doing up their homes on social media and feel slightly envious – but, as always, I remind myself that if having/doing/being [whatever] was important to me, I'd find the time and energy to acquire/do/be it. The things and life we have are, mostly and for most of us, the results of our choices. However, a lot of the big items in the house are from a time when we simply couldn't afford to choose what we wanted, and had to settle for the cheapest sofa or low-quality chipboard bookcases, the hand-me-down furniture that other people felt was too shabby to keep but we were grateful for. I'm generally reluctant to replace things that are perfectly functional, feeling it's better to make do, but after getting rid of our old dining table because Boycie lived on it for her last couple of weeks and it reminded me too much of her I've been so pleased with the replacement that I am thinking hard about getting nicer bookcases too. Maybe I'm finding the enthusiasm to have a more attractive house after all! You'll just have to forgive me for the lack of vintage styling...