Welcoming a New Year

This New Year, I was very much looking forward to welcoming in a fresh year. 2024 had thrown up a few difficult challenges, the main two being losing our lovely dog sooner than we expected and the loss of OH's dad after a long illness. (I've mentioned these things in order of the timeline in which they occurred, not their significance.) 

As a consequence, I was looking forward to turning the page. We will continure to think about and miss our dog and OH's dad throughout this year, and we can't really change anything about this, but there are areas of our lives where we can make changes. For me, personally, I am particularly looking forward to a fresh financial start in 2025, as my spending habits got a bit out of hand in 2024 for various reasons and I am looking forward to getting them back under control.

I'm not doing a no spend year or any such thing in 2025, as for me this is totally unsustainable and there are still unfinished and ongoing projects that I need to spend money on, such as the garden, but I do intend to try to spend more intentionally, rather than participating in impulse shopping, which I've done a lot of this year. I also want to curb my thrift shopping habit a bit this year, although I'm not going to completely stop, as I prefer to buy things in a circular economy, rather than buying them new. I just need to be a little (lot) more mindful about it.

New Year's Day here was a bit of a washout. The weather was rainy, which meant that I didn't get out for a planned run. I spent the morning in my nightwear contemplating the consequences of LB's disappointing New Year's Eve incident, as mentioned in my previous post. I then decided to all park that in 2024 and move on to the New Year ahead.  

Before moving forward, I just had one more backward looking task to complete, which was to empty and re-read my Happy Things jar and start a new one. It's a habit that I started last year, where I write on a post it note whenever something good happens or we enjoy a happy event or day out. I put the note in the jar and at the end of the year it enables me to look back at all the good things that happened that year and not dwell on the bad.

With that task done, I could start to think about the New Year and what I want to try to achieve. I came to the conclusion that I mainly just want to spend my money wisely, save more, keep working on the garden and decluttering unwanted stuff. Other than that, I just want to be kind, supportive, grateful, resourceful, creative and productive, give more to charity, look after myself and enjoy the good times. Simple as. I have no firm plans, but so long as the things I do work towards these aims I'm happy. 

What are you looking forward to this year?

Our Festive Season 2024

We had a lovely Christmas this year.  We didn't need to go anywhere or have to do anything. We just stayed home, ate, drank, watched TV and just generally enjoyed one anothers' company. Perfect in my opinion. We enjoyed opening our presents. OH had bought most of his and I mine, so we got exactly what we wanted. LB seemed to like hers, most of which were from her list. 

We watched Die Hard on Xmas Eve, my first ever time watching it, Gavin and Stacy on Xmas night, which we really enjoyed and Outnumbered on Boxing Day night which was also good. In between, LB and I watched the Devil Wears Prada. I've watched it before several times, but it was still good.

OH cooked Xmas dinner for a change this year, so I had a break from that responsibility, which was nice. The day after Boxing Day, OH headed up north to see his mum. I decided not to go as I wanted to spend as much time with LB as possible whilst she was home and she was working that day, so couldn't go.

I started watching The Empress on Netflix whilst OH was away. It's the story of Empress Elisabeth, wife of Emperor Franz Joseph of the Habsburg dynasty in the Austrian/Hungarian Empire, set in the mid 1800's. It's subtitled, but very good. I binge watched three episodes in one night. I then googled the Emperor to find out more about the history of this era, which was interesting.

Anyway, LB had a day off on the Saturday between Xmas and New Year, as did I, so we both headed out for the afternoon/evening to a local independent cinema to watch Spirited Away, a Japanese anime film. She'd seen it a number of times before, but it was my first time watching it. It was nice to have some time out and about together, first chance of the holidays. We dropped into a couple of thrift shops before the cinema, which was fun. I know I'm supposed to be curbing my spending, but I did buy a couple of things in one shop. One was an organic cotton blouse for my holiday in Tenerife and the other a colourful pillow case that I'm going to use for gift wrapping large presents. (LB's birthday is coming up very soon, so this will come in useful)

We then went to a Turkish restaurant for supper. By this time, it was time to go to the cinema, so we headed there and enjoyed the film. It was unusual, but entertaining. Later, we caught the bus home and OH was home from Yorkshire when we got there. He'd had a nightmare two days travelling there and back due to heavy traffic. Bless him.

On Sunday, I was due at work for 12 noon. I had a bit of a lie in before breakfast, then went to get ready for work. Work itself was very busy. I didn't stop from the minute I clocked on till the minute I clocked off. It was good for business though and it helped the time pass quickly, so I can't complain, but I wasn't expecting it to be so busy.

On Monday, LB and I had our last chance to have a day out shopping out of town, before she goes back to Uni. She's working for the remaider of the holidays, so there wasn't another time we could do it. I also needed to do the weekly shop, although we didn't need a whole lot, as we've got a cupboard full of food we can eat. OH's mum sent him home with a couple of hampers of food items that she'd packed up for us. We mainly just needed fresh things.

We didn't actually set off until lunch time. It was very busy everywhere we went. We started off at Home Bargains, where I needed to buy some toiletries and household items. I bought a few food items here too. I didn't spend as much as I normally do, just £24 or thereabouts this time.

Next, we headed to Tesco, where I bought more food items and more toiletries, followed by a look around TK Maxx where I purchased a few Xmas things for next year which were on sale. These included a couple of fabric sacks for gift wrapping and some brightly coloured cord for the same purpose. I'm trying to build up a stock of reusable wrapping items, which I'm going to add to by making some of my own this year.

We also paid a visit to my favourite large charity shop, where I tried on a number of things. I was looking for very lightweight items to take on holiday next month. I found a couple of things I liked, which included a skirt and a dress. This will probably be my last thrift shop this year and I'm hoping to severely curtail my thrifting next year. I might give myself a £25 per month thrifting budget and try to stick to that. It will definitely be a challenge though. I will need to be uber selective what I buy, which is fine as I have been fine tuning my choices lately.

I then went to Lidl for the majority of the groceries, as I had a 10% off my shop voucher to use, which saved me nearly £7.

Later, after supper, I decided to trawl through my finances for the month. It wasn't a pretty sight. I'm so ready for a new financial start in January. My payslip was live too, so I downloaded it and was happy to have been paid more than I expected after a very basic month at work. Next month will be a lot less I think, as I will have done very little in terms of extra hours outside my contracted hours, so February may be a month where I need to be very careful with my spending. Luckily, it's the shortest month of the year.

On New Years Eve, I went to my usual class at the gym. I was in desperate need of doing some exercise by this point in the holiday. The class was good.

In the afternoon, OH and I spent a few hours heavily pruning the cherry tree in the garden. It hadn't been tackled for a number of years and had got way out of hand with way too much growth.  We were very ruthless with it I'm afraid. I'm hoping it will recover in time and that we can keep it under control in the future.  It was a weight off my mind to get it done, as it's been on my to do list for the whole of the year. Here's a before:

and after:

It was a brutal chop, and we'll miss the cherries this year. I felt really guilty for it, but it had to be done, as it was growing very high and also growing over the fence into our neighbours garden. Living in London, in such close proximity to others and with such a small garden, it's not really a good thing to let trees grow too big, as they can cause disputes and problems. Our neighbours were away, so we could do it whilst they weren't around. They'll get a shock when they get back, but they may be happy that we've done it. I'm going to use many of the pruned branches to keep the local cats off our beds, as they are still a popular place for them to do their 'business'. Hopefully, making it a less comfortable place to do this will deter them.

On New Year's Eve we all went out for supper to a local restaurant. LB was heading out afterwards to spend the evening with friends at a local pub, so we dropped her off after we'd eaten and then we came home and had chilled for rest of the evening. It was the first year that we didn't have to stay home to console our dog, who was terrified of the fireworks. We miss her terribly though and would have her back with us in an instant.

New Years Day didn't get off to the start I expected. Firstly, I wasn't too well all night due to the meal at the restaurant, which was meat that I suspect was defrosted and then cooked in a microwave. My upset stomach kept me awake most of the night. 

LB got in very late, but safely and then on New Years Day we found out that she'd not had an altogether great night. Her card holder was stolen from her handbag in the pub just before midnight. The perpetrator then used one of her bank cards at a corner shop. Luckily, she didn't have much money in her account, as she transfers it to other places, so they couldn't steal anymore from it, and she did get it refunded by her bank. But sadly, all her Xmas gift cash from relatives was stolen (£90), her provisional driving license, which she uses for ID, other cards that are difficult to replace and her Vivienne Westward card wallet, which I'd bought her for her 18th birthday.  I'm really disappointed for her. It's a cruel lesson when it happens to you, but it's not going to spoil our day or our year. 

I hope you had a good start to the New Year.

Calculating My Expenditure in 2024

Every year, I try to track my expenditure over several categories from food, household expenditure, gift buying, home/garden expenditure in addition to personal expenditure on myself and this year has been no exception. As I've mentioned in a previous post, I've had a pretty spendy year this year. I think that having a permanent job again made me feel more financially secure and relaxed about spending money. To be honest, though, I'm not totally comfortable with my spending over the year, as it has increased by around £3000 overall and I feel this is a little on the excessive side. As a consequence, I definitely need to do something drastic to help me get back to being more frugal and considered in my spending habits.

According to my calculations, I've increased my spending in virtually every category, and in some categories way more than others. There have been a few reasons (excuses) for some of this spending:

I lost a lot of weight in 2023/2024 and needed to buy clothes that fitted me, as most of my old clothes were way too big. I bought most items second hand, but I bought probably way more than I actually realistically needed and have continued to purchase more throughout the year as the seasons changed. This is a spending habit that I need to seriously curb in 2025. I need to be more satisfied with what I already have and focus on wearing the items in my current wardrobe, rather than constantly searching out more items. This will probably involve my participating in many fewer thrifting trips to the charity shop, which I will miss, but needs must. I may even try to set myself a maximum thrifting budget for the year and try to stick to it.

Increases in inflation and food prices may have played some part in the food budget increasing this year and as I have very little control over this, I'm not going to beat myself up about this one. We haven't eaten any more indulgently than in any other year, so I can only think that this was a contributing factor, or possibly in part a consequence of stockpiling a little in my pantry cupboard, although this has certainly not been excessive.

We were invited to attend a family wedding in 2024 and I needed to buy suitable clothes for both myself and LB and pay for haircuts, etc. before the day. This accounted for a good few hundred pounds, but it was necessary and many of the things bought will get worn again. 

I took up running in 2024 and bought trainers and clothing for running. None were particularly expensive, but I stopped running in the summer and they just sat unused for the rest of the year. I have started running again more recently and hope to continue into 2025, so they should continue to get used going forward.

LB moved into a flat with a friend at the end of the summer and there was quite a bit of expenditure involved in securing the flat by way of a deposit and furnishing/equipping it adequately. As it's her last year at Uni, we were happy to oblige and ensure she had a suitable place to live to enable her to study hard in her busy final year.

Finally, I needed more essential dental treatment in 2024, which cost over £500 in total and was quite unexpected. I didn't have a choice in this regard, well I did, but my choice was the least expensive option available. In addition, LB needed new glasses and and I treated both of us to prescription sunglasses this year, which cost another £250.

Heading into 2025, I'm determined to drastically reduce spending in every category, in an attempt to try to start regularly putting money aside into savings again. I haven't done this for a while now and I think it's important that I get back into the habit.

I'm looking forward to this challenge in 2025. I definitely felt shopped out over the festive season and I am looking forward to shopping as little as possible in the coming year. In addition, my wardrobe is bursting at the seams and I need to stem the inward flow and utilise what is in there and if I don't use items, then I need to donate them. There will probably be a bit of a declutter coming at some point in the very near future, which I will, of course, post about.

How was your 2024 spending?

Last Minute Bits and Pieces Before Xmas - W/E 21st December 2024

This week, as with most weeks lately, started with a shift at work on Sunday. I was due in from 12 noon until 6pm, so I had a little time to change the bedding in LB's room ready for her coming home later in the day. It was a very busy shift at work, as you might expect this close to Xmas, which was good, as it passed pretty quickly and I was soon on my way home again.

LB arrived home just as I got back from work. It was lovely to see her and catch up on her news over supper. She was full of cold after a busy term at Uni and burning the candle at both ends, so it was good that she'd come home and would get looked after. She was due to start work the following day at the local pet shop, so she retired early to have a shower and an early night.

On Monday, I was up and out to do the weekly shop out of town again this week. I dropped LB off at work on the way as she was running late. I got all of my shopping done and picked up a few extra things for LB while she's home. It was pretty busy out and about, with queues in many shops. I remembered to buy two weeks worth of daily items for the Foodbank, to make up for forgetting the previous week.

I needed to get back a bit earlier as I'd been asked to work an extra shift in the evening, which I'd agreed to. I got back, unpacked the shopping, got ready for work then cooked and ate supper before heading in for 6pm. The traffic was horrendous on the way to work, so I was a little late again, which was annoying.

Work was okay, but I wasn't feeling my best as I had a very sore mouth, due to some ulcers and I was happy to eventually get home.

Tuesday was a bit of a lost day. I went to my usual class at the gym in the morning, which was good, but I still wasn't feeling 100% and eating was very painful, so I didn't do a whole lot for the rest of the day. I emptied the ironing basket whilst watching a couple of Xmas movies and Kirstie's Handmade Christmas on TV. Later, OH and I started watching a new series of Strike too.

On Wednesday, I was determined to do a bit more with my time. I got up, tidied around, sorted some laundry and put some more in the machine. I then walked up to the pharmacy to pick up a regular prescription, pick up a few groceries and post off some Xmas cards. I also dropped in to see LB in the pet shop on the way home and take her some medications for her cold.

When I got back, I did a bit more wrapping of some things that arrived late and did a bit of cleaning in the kitchen. I started with the oven as it was the messiest job, which wasn't too bad, but then progressed to tidy the cupboard of doom (aka the tupperware/preserving jar cupboard) which had been calling out to me for weeks. You know it's time to declutter it when everything falls out when you open the door. 

I also went on to tidy the dog cupboard where we kept our dog paraphenalia. I couldn't bring myself to get rid of much out of there. We really miss her and can't quite believe she's not here with us this Xmas. It made me feel very sad to do this job. Here's my favourite photo of her, that OH printed off for me to put in the tiny frame for my advent calendar:

To cheer myself up, I decided to make some mince pies:

Later, I did a bit of work on my hexi quilt whilst we watched more of Strike.

On Thursday, I got up and decided to have a dummy run of packing my cabin case for our holiday in January. I was interested to see what I could actually get in my small case. I was quite surprised how much I got in there but I haven't yet even looked in the summer clothing bags to see if there's anything there I want to take. I really struggle to pack light.

I then got ready and headed down to the post office to post a final couple of Xmas cards. On the way back, I dropped into the allotment to harvest most of the last of the beetroot in order to pickle it. This was an item on my to do list. I left only tiny beetroot in the ground to see if they'd grow more. If they don't I'll just pickle them whole.  When I got back, I set to pickling and made 3 and a half jars, which will keep me going for a while.

Later, I needed to get ready and go out to work for 5pm. It was a bit of a slow shift on the job I was doing and a few customers were quite rude, which was annoying, but I got through the shift eventually and headed home.

Friday, started with a work out in the gym, probably my last gym work out before Xmas. I've got one more gym class booked on Xmas Eve though, which is good.

LB had a day off on Friday and was heading out to meet some friends and OH was meeting a work colleague and heading out for something to eat, so I found myself home alone in the afternoon, which is quite rare. I lit a nice fire and sat in front of it reading A Christmas Carol from an anthology of Charles Dickens Christmas writings, which I really enjoyed.

On Saturday, I had a lazy day at home chilling. I did do a bit of sorting through all the stuff that accumulates on the kitchen table, with a view to clearing it for our Xmas day meal. This led me to do some end of year financial reckoning, which should make interesting reading once it's been completed at the end of this month.

I desperately want to overhaul my spending in the coming year. I've been way too spendthrift this year and need to cut back on buying stuff and instead concentrate on putting money aside for the future. There isn't really anything that I need or want to buy currently, so I need to focus more on saving money instead of spending it. I'm looking forward to getting back some discipline in the area of personal spending.

I hope you've had a good week and didn't get too frazzled by the rapid approach of the festivities. Thank you for reading my blog this year.

Wishing you and your families the Merriest Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.

More Free Time and Creating a Cosy Christmas Nook - W/E 14th December 2024 - Part Two

Once again, I'm continuing from my previous post for this week.  Wednesday started in a slow but productive fashion. I got a shower and got ready in a nice leisurely manner, sorting and putting away some laundry as I did so. I then went downstairs and did a few household tasks that I just couldn't face the night before and started another small task on my to do list. This one was to wash and iron some new towels I'd bought, ready for use.

After breakfast, by which time it was nearly lunch time, I headed into the shed to do more work on the sofa. It's almost become part of my daily routine now, but I will be so glad when I've completed it. I was in there nearly 3 hours, listening to Handel's Water Music and Vivaldi's Four Seasons as I worked. I just kept going as I could see the finish line getting closer and I managed to finish attaching all the velcro. At least I can now move onto the next part of the job, which is attaching the other half of the velcro onto the cover, but by machine hopefully, as my fingers are shredded. That was a job for another day.

I was so cold when I eventually got back into the house, that after lunch, I decided to get the last of the foraged fruit out of the freezer and made into jam.  That helped to warm me and the kitchen up and it was another item off my to do list, as I'm trying to free up space in the freezer and we are down to our last two jars of homemade jam. Sadly, I managed to burn the jam, as I forgot about it whilst getting engrossed in another item on the to do list. I managed to save half a jar which tastes okay, but my pan is looking a bit worse for wear.

Anyway, the task that distracted me was to re-organise my Xmas brooch collection which was now too extensive for the board I had pinned it to, so I needed to make a new pin board for it.  Here's a picture of the finished board:

I probably should have used a plainer fabric for this job, as it looks a bit busy, but it will do. I'll know next time when I need to make a bigger one. There's a few gaps which will probably get filled this year, so I may be increasing the size sooner rather than later. Many of them are vintage, but some are not and I have lots of different earrings to match. They are just something I like to collect for fun and wear during the festive season. The vintage ones are getting harder and much more expensive to find these days, but I usually treat myself to at least one each year.

A couple of parcels came today, one was for our holiday in January. I'm having to use a cabin case for the first time ever on a week's holiday, so I needed some bottles to decant my toiletries into and had ordered a set on eBay. It's going to be a real challenge for me to pack so lightly.

In the evening, we retired to the living room, to watch an interesting 3 part series on the Renaissance in Italy, mostly about Michael Angelo. It was very interesting. I continued with my hexi quilt as I watched it.

On Thursday, I was late getting up and still suffering a bit with vertigo, so I decided not to go to the gym. Instead, I decided to get straight on with finishing the sofa cover for the shed. I machine sewed the velcro onto the two pieces of the cover, which took a few hours, as my thread kept snapping and I kept having to re-thread the machine, which was very frustrating. Eventually, I got it finished, fitted onto the sofa and then I took a lint roller to it all to clean it up, before adding soft furnishings.  Here's a picture of how it looked once finished:

Definitely not perfect, as I ran out of velcro, but good enough to get through Xmas. I may tweak a few things in the new year, but for now I just can't face it. I'm happy with the results, but I am not in a hurry to tackle such a large and time consuming project again any time soon. In total, apart from the hours of time I spent on it, it cost me just £25 for materials, which is pretty good to lengthen the life of this sofa.

Here's  a picture with the addition of some soft furnishings and twinkling lights, to make a cosy Christmas nook in the shed:

The rugs were the items I bought from IKEA. They were £9 each and just help to make it feel a bit more cosy and snug.  I just need a rug for the floor now and it's done.

To reward myself for ticking off that mammoth item on the to do list, I didn't do much else for the whole afternoon. I tided a little, did the washing up and worked on my hexi quilt.

On Friday, I was up early and off to the gym for a workout. When I got back, I went to drop off some donations at the charity shop. They'd been clogging up the landing for months, so it was good to finally take them and was another item ticked off the to do list.

I then decided to start cleaning the upstairs of the house as it was a mess. OH had been sanding and painting more of the floorboards upstairs, but had now finished for the time being, so I could finally clean up. I started with the master bedroom and it took me most of the rest of the day. It felt good to get it done though.

On Saturday, I got up early and continued with the cleaning upstairs. We moved LB's furniture back into position in her room, as OH had been painting the floor in her room. I cleaned the bathroom and did some laundry and then had to get ready and go to work for the rest of the day. I was on a long 2 till 11 shift. I was late getting there, as some new roadworks had appeared and had caused gridlock on the route there. It was pretty busy and passed quite quickly though. I also got to leave at 9.30 pm which was a bonus at the end of the week.

More Free Time and an Epic Day Shopping - W/E 14th December 2024 - Part One

This week started with another shift at work on Sunday, but I wasn't due there until 2pm, so I had a bit of time to do some stuff at home first. I decided to start doing some Xmas wrapping for an hour or so. I got a few bits wrapped, but there's still quite a lot to do. I ended up being in a bit of a rush to get ready, have lunch and go to work, but at least I felt like I'd made the most of my time.

Work was busy. I started on one job for an hour and then took over another when a member of staff went off duty. The time passed pretty quickly again today, as the store was pretty full of shoppers. I was glad to leave at the end of the shift. I'm not scheduled to work again until Saturday, but I think the rota is being changed as the needs of the business dictate, so I don't rule out having more shifts added if it's busy this week. As a consequence, I need to make the absolute most of any time I have off and keep making progress with the to do list. 

On Sunday night, OH and I watched the week's episode of Wolf Hall. I combined this with more sewing on my hexi quilt. We're in the process of booking some accommodation in Tenerife in January. We're heading out there to join OH's sister, her husband and OH's mum for a week, which should be a nice break. I'm looking forward to getting away once the festive season is over.

On Monday, I had a completely free day to spend on the weekly shop. Aside from buying the usual groceries, I wanted to pay a visit to IKEA to get a few bits for the shed. The IKEA I visited is about 15 miles away, and is close to a large out of town mall that we used to vist many years ago, before our local one was built. I went there first to take a pair of barrel jeans back to Primark. I decided they weren't for me after purchasing them a couple of weeks ago in our local store. I found a few things to exchange them for, namely a couple of pairs of pants I can wear to work and a couple of gym vests.

Next stop, was IKEA. I hadn't been since the summer when I visited the store with LB to get things for her flat. It was nice to visit at Xmas as the store looked very festive. I do love some of their Xmas designs and couldn't resist getting a few bits in addition to the things I went in for.

I had to visit what used to be called Bargain Corner, but which is now the Re-use and Recycle Store and here I bought a few plain canvas cushion covers in red, green and black which cost £2 each. I'm planning to use the red and green ones to make Xmas cushions. I intend to applique some Xmas patchwork onto these and the black one I'll do the same thing with, but it will be a design that is usable all year round. I also bought a pot of 3 white hyacinths for £2.50, which I thought was reasonable and I also bought some scented tea lights and a few rolls of Xmas wrapping paper. I didn't go mad. I'll post about what I bought for the shed when I get the sofa cover finished and get it looking how I want it.

When I'd finished at IKEA, I went to a nearby Home Bargains for a few household bits and pieces, and then did the weekly shop at the Lidl next door. I finally bought the white amaryllis in a jar, which I'd been eyeing up for a while. (Thanks for the inspiration Marlene) It cost £6.99, but looks so lovely on the kitchen table. It's something I can possibly recreate myself every year. Here's a picture of it alongside the hyacinths:

The Santa wax burner contains some mulled wine wax melts I bought from Home Bargains for 79p and the small red candle was 99p from Lidl. These are great little candles. I bought a green one a few weeks ago, but it has now run out. I find that many candles just don't have a strong enough smell, but these are okay for the money. I look forward to keeping the jars too and using them for tea lights next Xmas. The other green candle on the table is a soy wax candle that I bought from Cancer Research. It has a lovely seasonal cedarwood scent and was a good price for a soy wax candle at less than £5.  The pot containing the hyacinths was also bought from Cancer Research for £3. It's a B&Q one. I already have one this colour and a larger one in grey. I really like them. I will be spreading all of these things out around the house eventually.

Once I'd done the weekly shop, I stopped in at an out of town Cancer Research Superstore on the way home. I hadn't been there for a month, so I really enjoyed having a browse. I bought the two above mentioned items and I also bought some other great things here, including a new with tags black skirt to wear for work for £2, a couple of dresses that I may cut down to make tops for work, which were £5 each, and a lovely green plaid top that was £3. I was so happy with all of the things I bought here. I always find some great items. Here's a picture of the plaid top, which was one of my favourite purchases:

It's so pretty, I look forward to wearing it. In fact, I may make this part of my Xmas day outfit. This was my last stop on what was an epic day shopping. I really enjoyed myself and there is now virtually nothing we need for Xmas, save for fresh food, we're all set. I did completely forget to shop for the foodbank today though, so I may pop to our local supermarket to buy and donate a few bits at some point this week. Only one thing was crossed off the to do list today though, so I need to do better.

On Tuesday, I went to a gym class in the morning. It didn't go as planned as I woke up with a raging bout of vertigo and wasn't feeling too great. I managed the standing up parts of the class, but when it came to the floor exercises, I decided to leave early and come home.  I was determined to make progress with the sofa cover in the afternoon. I spent a couple of very cold hours in the shed continuing to attach the velcro. LB is coming home on Sunday, as she's due to start work in a local shop on Monday, so I want to get it finished by then. Progress is slow, but a little every day should help get it done. I soothed my soul by listening to an amazing production of Handel's Messiah on YouTube. Here's the link if you like this piece of music:

I had hoped to go to see a live production of this in London this Xmas, but sadly all the tickets were sold out. This was well worth a watch though.

Later, I decided to continue with wrapping presents. It took me 3 or 4 hours, but I eventually got all but a couple wrapped up ready to go under the tree.  All that's left to do is find a couple of small gifts for OH's cracker and stocking and then I need to make up a hamperfor OH's mum. I shredded lots of tissue paper in readiness and used some of it to make up a hamper of favourtie foods for OH. It felt very satisfying to get this quite big job done and cross it off my list.

By the time I finished, I wasn't feeling too well. I made some supper and did a few household chores, tidied around upstairs and then went to bed.  Hopefully, I'll feel better and have a more productive day tomorrow.

A Week With Some Free Time - W/E 7th December 2024 - Part 2

Following on from my last post, Thursday this week was another day off. I booked into the gym first thing and took myself off for a good workout.  When I got back, I had wanted to trim the ivy hedge in the front of the house, as it was getting a bit overgrown, but it was a bit wet, so it will have to wait for dryer weather. 

As a consequence, I decided to do some sewing for the rest of the afternoon. There were quite a few sewing jobs on my to do list and I wanted to make some progress with it. I decided to start in the shed, sewing velcro onto the sofa, to hold the new cover in place. 

It takes quite a long time to sew the velcro on the sofa, partly because of the thickness of the fabric and the velcro itself. It takes it's toll on your fingertips. I managed to sew three quarters of the front strip of velcro on before I started to lose the light, so I had to stop for the day. I'd made good progress though.

I then decided to do some other sewing jobs indoors. The first job was to sew a new zip into a jacket I wear to go to the gym. The zip on this jacket broke a week or so ago, so I ordered a new zip and tacked it into place. I just needed to machine stitch the zip in place, which was a fairly quick job.

Once I'd done that I moved on to making another seat cushion for the chair I sit on in the kitchen. I made an Xmas version this time, using blue and green Xmas scraps from my stash. I was pleased with the outcome. Here's a picture:

In the evening, OH and I decided to head to our local mall for our usual yearly Xmas shopping trip. We like to go early in December before it gets too frenzied. I didn't really need to buy anything much, but I did need to try to exchange something I'd bought for LB for a different size. We decided to eat out which made a nice change. We got everything we needed and then had a drink in a bar there before heading home.

Thursday, was a bit more productive in terms of completing things on my to do list. I think I completed 5 or 6 items from the list, which was much better progress.

Friday, was my last day off before going back to work on Saturday, so I really wanted to make the most of it. When I got up the sun was shining and the ground was dry outside, so after breakfast, I decided to do the job I hadn't been able to do the day before, namely trim the front hedge.

It didn't take long and looked so much better. Here's the before:

and after pictures:

I did a bit of a hachet job on the ivy, but it's so resilient and grows back really well. It all looks a lot neater. I also removed quite a bit of moss from the front path and pavement outside the house. I'm not anti-moss, but it can make paths slippery and treacherous in the winter.  It was a quick job, taking little more than an hour. I then re-filled some bird feeders after cleaning them and went in for lunch. Two more items off my list, another bag of leaf mulch to rot down and some ivy trimmings to decorate the house.

After lunch, I went back into the shed and did more work on attaching the velcro to the sofa. I got a bit further with it and am almost half way around. It's going to take quite a bit longer than I thought, maybe I should have bought the stick on velcro for this job. It would have been a lot quicker.

Once the light had gone again, I came indoors as I was getting very cold. When I got back inside, I'd had a delivery of some more vintage ornaments for the tree, that I'd bought on eBay.  These were a lot cheaper than the pine cones. I thought they were going to be glass, but they were in fact plastic.  It didn't detract from their cuteness though and I immediately put them on the tree. Not before taking a photo, of course:

The late afternoon/evening was then spent tackling another item on my to do list, namely the ironing basket, which was full. Later still, after supper, I did a bit financial reconciliation for November and finally did  a bit of work on my hexi quilt. Not as many things ticked off today, only three, but good progress made with others too, which is all good.

On Saturday, I was due at work for 11am, so I couldn't go to the last free gym session of the year, which was a pity. Anyway, work was good. It was fairly busy all afternoon, so the time passed quickly and I was on my way home again. I did drop into Poundland next door for a few bits before heading home. 

We just chilled in the evening and watched a very odd film that OH had recorded. I won't recommend it to anyone, as it was very strange. Whilst watching the film, I did some work on my hexi quilt which made for a very relaxing end to another week.