A Week of Catching Up, A Fashion Film and A Jumble Trail

This week, once we returned home from Yorkshire, was a week of catching up on jobs at home. After unpacking, I had a pile of laundry to do, two baskets to be exact. Mondays are more or less written off as it's weekly shop day, and this week was no different, so I began the task of catching up with chores on Tuesday.

I returned to an Aerobics class in the morning, that I hadn't been to for at least 2, maybe 3 months, as I'd been concentrating on working out in the gym.  I'm glad I went, as I quite enjoyed it. It made a change to be pushed by someone other than myself to do exercises. I realised how I've really lost my aerobic fitness in recent months, as I've been doing no cardio exercise at all, so I think I'm going to start going regularly again, to at least try to build up some stamina.

Talking of the gym, I had good news when I got back from Yorkshire, my gym instructor's certificate had arrived in the post. I immediately framed it. I worked hard for it, so why not. It felt very satisfying.

Anyway, on Tuesday afternoon, I picked up a prescription from the pharmacy on my way home from the gym, which added a few more steps to my daily total. I then spent the afternoon doing the laundry and then hanging it out, making an apple crumble, with some apples OH's mum had given us from her garden and also pickling another big batch of beetroot from the allotment.  Here's a picture of the crumble I made:

It was really tasty and disappeared within a couple of days. Luckily, there's lots more apples left to make into crumbles, so I may freeze some of them for later use.

On Thursday, I was back at the gym in the morning. In the afternoon, I decided to do a garden job that had been on my list for a while, namely to cut the ivy that grows over our front garden wall. It was getting a bit overgrown and I don't want a fine or warning from the council because of it spilling over onto the pavement.  Here's a before:

and after:

It's a very simple job that doesn't take long, but makes a difference. I had a chat to a neighbour whilst I was out there. The lightwell out the front is still in need of a tidy up, here's a picture:

This is going to be a job for OH, as it's tricky climbing down into here. It's just a sea of ivy at the moment, which OH prefers to seeing bare concrete out of his office window, but it is getting a bit out of hand.

We've now got quite a few bags to take to the tip, both garden waste and rubble, plus the old microwave that we've now replaced, so a trip will be in order sometime soon.

Later on Thursday, I had a shower and got ready to go out, as OH and I had been invited to a fashion film showing in Central London. A cycling friend of his, who is a fashion designer, had made a film in Ireland and had invited us along to see it.

The film was shown in a lovely high end venue with drinks and canapes. There were a few of OH's cycling buddies there. Later, we stopped off in a pub in St James for a drink before heading home. It was a lovely chilled evening. We don't go into Central London that often, so it made a nice change.

I had a lie in on Friday morning, so I had a late breakfast and did some banking to pay a bill that was due. I didn't have anything planned for the day, so later after lunch, I took a walk into our local town centre. I wanted to drop into the building society, as I was due some dividends being paid into my account and just wanted to check they'd gone in, which they had. 

It was a good excuse to get out of the house and add a few steps to my daily total. I ended up walking all the way to our local Lidl to pick up a few groceries we needed and then walked home again. It was a lovely sunny day, a bit too hot for walking, but I managed a full 10,000 steps which felt satisfying.  Whilst I was out, OH did some more work on the side return paving, which is coming along nicely.

Saturday, was a chill day. It started with a free gym session. OH came with me and we stopped off in a local cafe on the way home for a hot drink and to watch the world go by for half an hour. In the afternoon, OH continued paving the side return. It is almost finished and looks great. I'll do a separate post when it's completely finished.

I did a bit of sewing in the afternoon, trying to reduce my sewing project basket which was looking a bit full. I completed a couple of alteration jobs, finished making a bag and did some quilting to a gilet I'm making. It felt like a productive afternoon.

On Sunday, there was a local Jumble Trail, which is a kind of table top trail that households take part in to raise money for a local charity, in this case a local primary school. OH was off cycling, so LB and I took a walk around.  There were lots of stalls to peruse, although most of them were selling childrens' clothes and toys, but there were quite a lot selling ladies clothes and household items. I didn't buy much. I got a couple of pieces of clothing which were £3 each, a couple of bars of beeswax for £2, these vintage clip on earrings cost £4

and this small piece of Welsh wool fabric for £1,

which I might try to make into a pencil case. I probably spent £13 in total and we also bought some lovely Asian food for lunch. It was a fun morning out in our local neighbourhood.

As I was going round, I found this little set of wooden drawers for free outside a house and had to snap them up for the sewing room. Luckily they were very light to carry around, as I found them right at the beginning of the trail. I got asked so many times if I was selling them, I probably could have sold them on a few times over. They needed sanding a bit, but are otherwise in very good condition and are super compact.

Later, I went up to the sewing room and went through quite a lot of the drawers, sorting and sifting as I went. I got rid of a few things, but mainly tidied and re-organised. The new drawers didn't quite fit the space I wanted to put them in, so I had to take something else out, but I prefer the way they look in the space, compared to what was there before. I just need to decide what I'm going to put in them and maybe move some stuff around. Here's a picture of them in situ once I'd cleaned them up a bit:

In addition to sanding and cleaning them up, I also polished them with some beeswax and they came up beautifully. I wasn't keen on the lime wash and they now look like they've got some age and patina which I much prefer.

Bags and More Bags

The other week, having cut out the pieces to make a few cross body bags using a few different fabrics, I decided to get started making them.  I created the pattern for this bag from a similar bag I already own and had already made one bag from the fabric from a skirt I bought from the charity shop for £1. I've been using this bag for the last six months.

Initially, I had made the body of a dark grey velvet bag with a mustard lining a week or so before, but was waiting for some webbing to arrive to finish the straps. Luckily, it came the day that I decided to sew up the other bags and so I was able to finish the grey one. Here's a picture:

I decided to add a patch that I bought a while ago, to add a bit of interest and colour. I'm happy with the finished result and I've now started to use this bag on a daily basis.

The second bag that I sewed was a blue camoflauge cotton canvas one. I'd bought a couple of bits of scrap fabric from the fabric warehouse the other week, along with some net fabric, zips and trimmings, paying £4  for the lot. The scraps I bought to use for this bag were a blue camo fabric and some paler blue cotton chambray that I wanted to use for the lining. I had also bought some royal blue webbing at a charity shop the following week for £1.50, which I decided to use for the strap, as it went so well with the camo fabric.

The fabrics for this bag were very easy to work with, as they were slightly lighter in weight than fabrics I'd previously used to make the same bag. This made it a much quicker and more straightforward make, although I did manage to break the sewing machine needle on the zip, but, fortunately, I had plenty of spares.

I was super pleased with how this one turned out too and I can't wait to start using it. I have some of this same fabric in a khaki colourway, which I'm intending to use to make another dungaree dress, so if there's any left over, I may make a khaki version of this bag too at some point.

Whilst I was in the flow of making these bags, I decided to proceed to make a third, that I'd cut out from some leftover pieces from a blouse I altered and posted about a few weeks ago. This fabric was quite lightweight, being cotton poplin and I teamed it with some cotton from my stash for a lining. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of cutting the patterned lining fabric from pieces that were not laid out in the same direction, but as I didn't have any more of this fabric I couldn't re-cut one of the pieces. As it is for the lining, it's not such a disaster though, as once my stuff is in the bag, it won't be too obvious.

This bag was easier still to construct, due to the even lighter fabrics utilised. I didn't actually have any co-ordinating webbing for the straps though, so once again, I had to order some webbing and wait for it to arrive. Once it arrived, I could complete the bag and attach the straps and fixings, which I had bought on eBay for £7.50 for 6 sets, making them about £1.25 per bag.

In total, for the grey bag I spent £1.50 on webbing and £1.25 on the strap fixings. The fabrics and zip were all from my stash and I think the patch cost £1 when I bought it a few months ago, so the total cost to make it was approximately £3.75.

The camo bag was a little more expensive to make, as I bought the scraps for approximately £2, the webbing for the straps cost £1.50 and the fixings £1.25, which totals £4.75. The zip was from my stash.

The leopard poplin bag cost £3.75 to make, as I ordered some special leopard print webbing for the straps, which cost approx. £2.50, the fabric cost nothing and the zip was again from my stash.  The strap fixings were again £1.25.

For just over £12, I made three bags, so I can now enjoy changing them out when I feel so inclined, to match whatever occasion and outfit I choose. I think that's plenty for me to be going on with, but I don't rule out making others in the future, as they are very easy to make and wear.

A Long Weekend in Yorkshire

On Thursday of last week, we travelled up to Yorkshire to visit family and for OH to take part in a cycle cross event in North Yorkshire.

We spent Thursday night staying with OH's mum and visited his brother for a couple of hours, who is now being taken care of at home for the time being after having suffered a severe stroke. There's a lot of complicated family stuff going on at the moment though, so it's a bit overwhelming. Must be much worse for the family members concerned, but we just have to do what we can to help and support them and hope that it will all work out for the best eventually.

On Friday morning, we did a few errands locally, then packed up and headed off to North Yorkshire. OH dropped me off in the town of Malton, which is near to where some other family members live, who we were staying with that evening. Whilst he checked out the course at the event, I had a mooch around Malton for a couple of hours. I mainly visited the charity shops, which were quite good and I did buy a few things whilst there, but I didn't spend too much.

I then caught a little local bus back to where we were staying, which was an adventure. It was a lovely little scenic route through lots of little villages and cost only £1.60, which was a total bargain. It was like something out of Postman Pat. Apparently, it used to pick up the mail at one point in time. OH met me later at his relatives and we caught up with their news and had a lovely evening with them.

We were up very early on Saturday, as OH needed to be at the cycle event in Dalby Forest for 9am ish. I dropped him off this time, as the race was 5 hours long and I didn't want to hang around waiting for him to finish. I decided instead to drive up to the town of Whitby on the North Yorkshire coast, which was 20 miles away, and spend the day there.

It was a lovely drive over the North Yorkshire Moors to get to Whitby. I stopped to take a couple of pictures of the beautiful landscape.

When I got to Whitby, I caught the park and ride bus into town, as I'd read online that parking could be quite expensive. It was only a 5 minute bus ride to the centre of town using the Park and Ride and it cost only £2.70 all in for parking and a return bus fare. The buses ran every 15 minutes or so. It was a good decision I think.

I started off exploring the town a little. We'd stayed in Whitby for a week a few years ago, (probably 3 or 4) and had a great week there. I eventually traced our steps to the part of the town where we'd stayed, as there was a great cafe around the corner from our holiday let, called the Jet Black Jewel Cafe, which did a wonderful Hand of Glory hash breakfast. I treated myself to one, out of both hunger and nostalgia. It tasted even better than I remembered and definitely filled me up for the rest of the day. Here's a photograph:

I then walked down to the pier and walked right to the end of it. It gets a bit windy out on the pier, but it's quite invigorating and well worth getting a bit windswept for.

It was a super busy day in the town and the weather was fantastic. I couldn't have picked a better day for it, but I was eventually glad to get out of the crowds of people thronging the streets.

I had a little walk on the beach before returning to the town centre, crossed the swing bridge and explored the old part of the town a little before catching the park and ride back to the car park. I'd walked over 10,000 steps by the end of the day.

After picking OH up, we eventually got back to his mum's at 7pm and chilled for the rest of the evening.

On Sunday morning, I dropped OH off at his brother's house and I made a quick visit to a local car boot sale that I used to go to a lot, but hadn't been to in a long while. I didn't buy much, but I did get a complete bargain when I bought this microwave oven for £10. It looks virtually new and the seller said it was from his holiday home and had hardly been used. I couldn't resist it at this price, as we needed a new one as ours was going rusty. Serendipity, if ever there was any.

Here's a picture of it in situ back home:

Later, we packed up and headed back to London. It was a long journey, due to some road closures and having to take a detour, but we eventually got back home. We spent the evening with LB, re-watching the first Hunger Games movie on Paramount+, which was really good. It was a nice chilled way to end a very busy weekend.

A More Productive Week Getting More Organised

This week I feel like I've been a lot more productive and got myself a bit more organised. Inspite of deciding not to post weekly diary style blogs anymore, I thought I'd post an overview of the week, giving an idea of what I've been up to.

We were only home for the first half of the week, as OH and I had arranged to go up north to visit family and for OH to attend a cycling event in North Yorkshire, so I only had a few days to get my act together and get some stuff done.

The first couple of days of the week I spent doing some small sewing tasks that I'd been intending to do for a while. This cleared a couple of things off my list and has left me in a better position to start doing some larger sewing projects i.e. making some new clothing from scratch using fabric from my stash.

I also sorted through all of my work clothes, which are mainly just black clothing items. I donated quite a few of these, as they were bought specifically for work and are not really things I'd chose to wear in my everyday life. Some items I hung onto, as I may wear them, but quite a few got put in the donation bag, which was quite satisfying as it signalled the end of an era in my life.

I also put away some of the more summery items in my wardrobe, as now the weather has turned colder, I don't think I'll be wearing them again until next year. I stopped short of getting my autumn winter clothing out just yet, so I've currently got a kind of transitional wardrobe at the moment, but it's much more suited to the current temperatures.

I finally tackled the ironing basket too, mainly because I needed to photograph some clothing items I had purchased in August and wanted to include in a post. The basket was also full of towels and tea towels that I needed to get back into circulation, so it was useful to tackle it from this point of view. It was another item off my to do list and it removed some of the clutter that has built up around the house over the last few months, when it's been too hot to iron and I've been too busy to tackle it.

I also tidied up the sewing room and got future makes organised and collected together in one place ready to get on and work on them. Previously, there were piles of small and large projects spread all around the sewing room, some half started, others yet to be started. I will now be in a much better position to start work on some serious sewing once I return from Yorkshire and can carve out some time.

I got some good news this week with regard to the Gym Instructor's course I did this summer. I was notified that my certificate should be arriving very soon, which I am looking forward to receiving. This confirms to me that I have passed the course and now have a new qualification, should I choose to apply for a job in this field. It made the hard work and pressure I was under over the summer months worthwhile.

OH and I also paid a visit to the allotment in the first half of the week. OH dug up the last of the potatoes, while I harvested raspberries and most of the beetroot. There are still a few small beetroot growing, but I'm going to give them a bit longer and see if they get a bit bigger. I've got plenty for now to pickle and eat. The preserving of these and the remainder of the fruit in the freezer I will do once we get back. There's only a few raspberries left to pick and then we will need to prune things back a little and tidy up the strawberry bed. 

As a consequence, the allotment is now almost ready to be prepared for the winter. There isn't a lot of work to do, but I will enjoy doing it on dry autumn days. We just need to pull out the last of the tomato plants and beetroot and then weed the beds and dig them over ready for them to be mulched over the winter.

Before I tackle any of the above, the priority when I get back from Yorkshire, will be to do a thorough clean of the house, as we have some visitors staying for a couple of days towards the end of September. It will be good to finally get the house in order before we settle in for the colder months. I'm also looking forward to getting the new sofa covers on too.

I finally feel like I'm blowing out the cobwebs of the last few months and once I'm on top of everything at home, I feel I will be able to look ahead to the future and what I want that to look like. It takes me a while to readjust to new circumstances, but it's all good. I consider it just part of the process of moving on with my life.

Monthly Clothing Purchases - August 2025

This may be the last of these posts for a while, depending on whether I get another job and can afford to buy clothes.  It's probably a good thing, as I have enough already. I will miss thrifting, but maybe an occasional thrifting outing might be an affordable treat, if I don't spend too much.

I'm late posting this on account of several of the items needing an iron before I could photograph them. I had to wait for some cooler weather to do this, but here goes.

I started the month of August with a visit to my favourite out of town charity shop and found a few things. No surprise there. The first was this lovely dress that I bought for a wedding next year. It is beautiful.

I also found another dress which is more casual. I've worn it a couple of times since buying it, once for an interview. I like it, as it's made of viscose and is very easy to wear. It cost £5.

The only other thing I bought were these new Primark Sandals for £3. They are a size too small, but I can get away with wearing them for a while without them being too uncomfortable. They were probably an unnecessary purchase, considering that I bought a new pair of sandals last month, but I justify it in that having a second inexpensive pair will elongate the life of the more expensive pair, as they'll get worn less. Irrational I know.

I also bought a couple of things from work, one of which I returned, as it was a pair of work trousers, that once I resigned, I no longer needed. The other was this 100% cotton floaty black wrap style dress which cost around £10 in the sale with my staff discount.

I'm definitely in a floaty dress and skirt era at the moment. They are my favourite thing to wear on hot summer days or in the autumn layered up with tights and boots. Thankfully, I've now got a few different ones that I enjoy wearing.

Later in the month, I paid a visit to my local RSPCA charity shop and bought these M&S trousers on clearance for £3.25. I really like them as they are a comfortable fit and they'll be great to wear with a long sweater in the autumn/winter. 

I also bought these lovely black leather Barbour espadrille sandals for £20, that have hardly been worn. They have a low wedge heel and I intend to wear them for the wedding next year too, so I've now got a full outfit.

The final purchase this month was made at a Car Boot Sale I went to, where I bought this very pretty Zara blouse for £1. I love the royal blue colour and the embroidered sleeves, but there are a few issues with the fit, so I'm going to alter it to make it more flattering and I will keep you updated with regard to how that goes.

In total, I spent £48.05 this month, which was less than I've spent for a few months now. I imagine that this figure will drop drastically in the coming months, as it's amazing how deciding to leave your job and give up a regular income, can instantly cure you of spending money on things you don't really need. 

Instead, I might focus on making some clothes that I've been intending to do for a while. (Using fabric I already have in my stash of course.) It should help scratch the new clothing itch and clear some of my stash at the same time.

I'll keep you posted.

More Sewing Makes and Alterations

Another sewing post this week, as I seem to be finding my sewing groove. My first make was a small sunglasses case out of some left over fabrics from making a crossbody bag. I needed a flat cloth sunglasses/glasses case that I could put in my handbag and that wouldn't take up too much space. It needed to house either my sunglasses or my regular specs when I'm not wearing them, rather than putting them straight into my bag and risk scratching them.

 

It didn't take too long to make. I just made a lined pouch with a flap, which closes using velcro. I hand stitched a little dog patch on the front flap, to cover where the velcro had been stitched on. It does what it needs to and is quite cute, but not perfect. 

I then did an alteration to a dress that I bought from the charity shop last week for £5. Here's a picture of the dress:

It's a very nice 100% cotton gingham dress, but the neck is not a style that I would ever wear. Way too much skin on show for my liking. It was, however, a very easy and quick alteration to make it into a skirt. I basically cut it off around the bust area and encased some elastic to make it into a long tiered skirt.

This skirt is a nice mediumweight cotton, so it will be ideal to wear both in the summer and the autumn/winter. I'm looking forward to wearing it in the coming months with a nice chunky sweater or knitted vest and boots. 

The only usable parts of the dress that were left over from this alteration, were the sleeves, so I've stored these away with my scraps, as I'm sure I can find a small project to use up this lovely fabric.

I also did one small mending job on this t-shirt that I used to wear for work.

As you can see from the photo, the sleeves are made of lace and some of the lace had developed holes in it, so I hand sewed them up so that they are less noticable. I was going to donate this item along with quite a few other work clothes that I've put aside to donate, but I actually quite like it and got a few compliments from customers when I wore it for work. As a consequence, I'm going to hang onto to it and see if I can get some more wear out of it in my everyday life.

One other very small mending job I did was to add a new tab to the end of the zip on this lunchbag, as the original had come loose and fallen off. It was a tiny job, using a small piece of black linen fabric from my scraps, but it will extend the life of this lunch bag, which is a good size for travelling and carrying around a big salad box. I also like this because of the lovely Ankara or African fabric it is made of. This was another purchase from the charity shop a while ago, it was new and cost just £2. It's been extremely useful ever since.

After working on a few projects over the last couple of weeks, the sewing room was looking a bit untidy with piles of stuff everywhere. I had a good sort out and re-organised my scraps, which were getting a bit messy. I also put away things that I'm not going to be working on in the near future and put to one side all the fabrics and patterns for projects that I intend to tackle this autumn/winter. To prevent me getting side tracked, I've made a list of items I want to make for the coming season. The above two items have already been crossed off the list, so it feels like I'm making progress. I'll post again, when I've completed more items from the list.

Moving Forward - W/E 7th September 2025

This week has been about moving forward with my life. As I get more and more used to not going to work anymore, I'm starting to think more about the future and how I want it to look. I'm now starting to settle into a new routine of not working. It still feels strange some days, but my body seems to have relaxed a whole lot and I'm feeling a lot more rested and ready for new experiences and challenges.

On Sunday afternoon, we had a family cycle ride over to the Olympic Park, mainly to go and see the new Sadler's Wells Theatre that has been built there.  We stopped in to have a drink and check out what's on in the coming months. There is the odd show that we'd quite like to see.

Monday, was weekly shop day, as usual. LB came with me out of town and helped me do the shopping. I had to buy quite a lot of things this week that we were running out of. I kind of frontloaded the food/household shopping for the month, as I had a £4 off a £40 spend voucher at Tesco to use. I didn't buy anything that we don't use or eat, but maybe bought a couple of things before we actually needed them, in anticipation, lets call it. This means that weekly shops from hereon in should be less expensive and just a matter of buying the essential food items we use every week.

I also paid a visit to Home Bargains, as there were a few things that I needed to buy from there. This always ends up being a £30 spend and it was no different on this occasion. I didn't buy anything that wasn't needed though, save for one food item for Xmas. I may buy one Xmas item, be it a gift or a food item, each week to spread the cost over the coming weeks. This week it was brandy sauce, which is a non-negotiable with our Xmas pudding. It really depends on the availablility of things in the shops and the best before dates. A lot of Xmas food isn't on the shelves yet.

We did visit my favourite charity shop and I did spend £8 on two items, one being a cotton dress for £5 that I'm going to make into a skirt and the other a cotton shirt for £3. Old habits die hard, but I'm not really planning on going thrifting much more this month. I did get a £20 gift voucher when I left work, which I turned into a Charity Shop Gift Voucher that I can spend at TRAID, Crisis or Sense.  I may go thrifting with LB to a high street where all these shops are located and spend it at some point this month.

On Tuesday, LB wanted to pay a visit to a Hobbycraft store out of town, so I agreed to take her. Whilst she was looking in Hobbycraft, I paid a visit to a couple of nearby charity shops and spent £4.50 at a Hospice shop on a very cool uncut vintage sewing pattern (£1), some webbing for bag straps (£1.50), that I intended to use to make a cross body bag, some pattern making paper (£1), which will be useful for making another dungaree dress pattern. (I leant my original self-made pattern to someone on the sewing course and didn't get it back, so I need to make another one). The last item I spent £1 on was a small cotton handbag that I upcycled into an oversized bag charm this week.

In the evening, OH and I finished watching the second series of 1923 on Paramount+. It was good, but quite dramatic. We now need to start watching the 5th series of Yellowstone, which is also on Paramount+. OH currently has a week's free subscription and then he will subscribe for a month to enable us to do this. It costs about the same as a cup of coffee, which is very affordable for hours of entertainment. I may also use it to re-watch all four Hunger Games movies, which I love.

Wednesday, it was raining for most of the day. I went to the gym late morning, which was much needed. After lunch, I retired to the sewing room and started work on a new small project and an alteration to a top that I bought but never wear.  I'm a lot happier with it and I will be much more likely to wear it in it's new form.

In the evening, OH went out cycling, so I caught up with the Sewing Bee and watched the last episode in series 1 of Annika on iPlayer, which I'm quite enjoying. Luckily, there is another season to watch, after this one.

I had a lovely day on Thursday. I woke up late (as I didn't get to sleep until the early hours), read some of my book in bed, got up and ready and went down for a late breakfast, before spending most of the day in the sewing room working on projects that I've been meaning to do for a while. It felt great to properly get back into sewing again. I think I'm finally getting used to finding ways to fill my time more productively and do the things I enjoy doing again. There's still more I want to do, but I'm just taking it one day at a time and one step at a time and enjoying the journey for now.

Friday, I was back at the gym in the morning, which I enjoyed. When I got back, I had lunch, read for a while, photographed a couple of things for blog posts and had a nap. LB was going out in the evening and staying at a friend's house, so it was just me and OH at home for the evening.

After this weekly post, I think I'm going to change my post schedule and just post as and when I've got something I want to post about. Although I like the weekly format, it's probably a little boring and repetitive for the reader. Now I've got more time to do different things, I should be able to do more varied posts on a weekly basis, when I eventually get out and about more.

On Saturday, I decided to go for a walk in the morning. I just wanted to get my body moving and get some fresh air. I did almost 7,000 steps which wasn't too shabby. When I got back, I had a bit of a potter in the garden as it was a lovely day. I cut back a couple of bushes in the area outside the back door, which made the garden look a bit tidier.

Later, OH started on the paving down the side return. He's only laid a few slabs, but they look good so far. It's quite exciting to see it coming along. The pavers were given to us by our neighbours, who have just had a side return built, so no longer need them. As as consequence, it's costing us nothing but OH's time and the cost of the sand to set them in. Frugal DIY is the best kind. Luckily, OH is very handy at doing practical jobs about the house and garden.

The week ended on Sunday with a trip out. OH was cycling in an event in Chelmsford, so LB and I went along, dropped him off and then went to a local car boot sale for a mooch. We had a wander around until such time a he'd finished his event. I spent about £10 and got a few nice things for my money, one of which will be in my monthly clothing purchase post.

The only negative, was getting very viciously verbally abused by some angry van man on my way to the car boot sale. Some people really shouldn't be allowed out on the roads with the rage inside them.  That's all I've got to say about this particular person, they seriously need to chill.

When we got home, OH did a bit more work on the paving down the side return. It's coming along beautifully. I'll take some pictures and do a post once it's finished.

I hope you've had a good week this week. Mine has been a lot better. I'm feeling much more in back tune with myself and am gradually getting on and doing things and being more productive as each week passes. I'm still procrastinating with regard to some things, but hoping to get past myself and just get on with them at some point. Baby steps.

Project Pan 2025 Revisited

Way back in February of this year, I posted about starting a Project Pan in 2025. At that time these were all my personal hygiene and beauty products that I needed to use up, all 241 of them.

I'm pretty sure that progress this year has been slow. I kept on replacing items I finished and bought a few extras here and there too, whilst using up the odd item pictured here, but not many.

Anyway, in my current situation of no longer working and earning money, I can't afford to spend money on things that I really don't need or use and it would be useful to save myself a bit of money by using things that I already have to hand, so I thought it might be a good time to revisit this project and get a bit more serious about it. There's still 4 months of the year left and I might be able to make a bit of progress and at least get the number of items down to below the 200 mark.

I figured that I'd better do another count, but I was a bit nervous that it might be even bigger than it had been in my initial post. So once again, I laid everything I could find out on the bed upstairs, took a picture and wrote down how many of each item I currently had in use or waiting to be used. Here's an updated picture:

I have to say at this point, and you may find this strange considering the number of items that I have, but I'm not particularly into beauty products in a big way. I have a few tried and tested favourites that I use regularly and re-buy where possible when I run out. The accummulation of the above, has mainly been a result of trying to find solutions for problems I've faced, (i.e. treatments for dry hair, moisturisers that don't break me out, etc. etc.), trying (and often failing) to find substitutes for products that have been discontinued and I can no longer get hold of, stocking up on items that I do use, (because I'm worried about not being able to afford or get hold of them in the future), or just that insidious habit of treating myself to something small, by adding the odd lipstick or other item to my shopping basket on far too many occasions.

There is probably enough skincare here to last me a couple of years at least, but going forward, I'm going to try to use up some of the items that are not my regular favourites to try to get this pile down. I'm currently using a facial wash and serum that are not regular favourites and I don't seem to be breaking out, so I'm going to try more of these and see if they work okay for me.

Lipsticks are a particular issue, as you can see from the photo. I've divided them between summer and winter colours, as I tend to wear reds in the winter and pinks and oranges in the summer. Some of the lip balm and sample products I've had a very long time and they've probably gone off, so I might discard a few of these items.

I've been working on stopping putting new items in my shopping basket when out and about and now try to completely avoid it, but I can't say that I've 100% recovered from this habit. However, now that I'm not working and earning money, it has made me question every purchase and I no longer buy more than I need. If I run out of deodourant, toner or hairspray, I'll buy one to replace it not two or three. 

Anyway, I digress, so where am I with this project now, 7 months later and how many personal hygiene and beauty products am I currently using or have waiting to be used. The answer to this question is 214, so not many less than the previous count, but I did add some things to this count that I didn't to the last, namely tissues, cotton pads, etc. which added 12 items, so if I took these off I'm around about the 200 mark.  I was a little shocked when I recounted, as I thought I might have made better progress this year, but sadly I haven't. I just need to try harder and now I've got less money, I have the motivation to do better. 

To be honest, there are some items in the picture that I can straight away discard, i.e. most of the nail varnishes, fake nails, fake eyelashes, nail stickers. I no longer wear nail varnish, save for the very odd special occasion. I did have a period of wearing it this year, which resulted in the worst split nails I've ever experienced and I vowed that I would use it as sparingly as possible going forward, as it does more harm than good for me. I may just keep half a dozen bottles for my toenails in the summer and get rid of the rest. If they are pretty full, I will probably donate them, if not they'll be hitting the bin. Likewise, I don't wear false nails, as the glue causes damage to my nails and I don't wear false eyelashes, so it's pointless keeping any of these items too. If they are unopened they will be donated.

With regard to the rest of the items, I will endeavour to try and use as much as I can in the time that is left of this year and see where that gets me. I can't really see me hitting pan on the lot any time soon, but I'll keep you posted on my progress, which I'm hoping will be better than it has been so far this year.

A Few More Alterations

I made an effort to do a bit of sewing again this week. A few alterations were needed to a couple of things, so I started with those.

The first alteration I did was to this leopard print cotton poplin blouse, that I bought from an ASOS sample sale a couple of months ago. I paid £3 for this, which was a steal, but everytime I tried to wear it, it just didn't look right. It had babydoll type sleeves which were very puffy and just looked a bit silly on me, so everytime I went to wear it, I took one look at myself in the mirror and immediately thought better of it. 

As a consequence, I decided to alter it to make it more wearable. Initially, I cut off the sleeves thinking I might make it sleeveless, but then decided to re-add less puffy sleeves, which I did and I much preferred the look of the garment. I'm not really into overly dramatic silhouettes and these sleeves were just that, so they had to go.

Here's the finished blouse with new sleeves, which were made out of the insides of the babydoll sleeves:

I'm much happier with the new look and it is much more likely to get worn now.

There was also some spare fabric, as a result of this alteration, from the outside layer of the babydoll sleeves and I used most of this to cut out another cross body bag to run up at some point when I get the chance. I'll post about this separately once it's finished.

The second alteration, was to a small cotton handbag that I bought from a charity shop this week for £1. It was a small heart shaped bag with a ruffled trim around it and I thought it would be perfect to make an oversized bag charm for a leather tote that I sometimes use. 

All I needed to do, was to remove the bag handles/straps, stuff the bag with my mini fabric scraps, left over from various projects and then sew it closed and add a little loop to hang it from my bag. I then sewed on some cute beaded patches that I bought on eBay a while back and I was very happy with the quirky finished result.

I've wanted to make this type of bag charm for a while, but I'm not confident with regard to creating the ruffle around the edge, so this was a perfect opportunity for me to make one, without having to attempt this.

Two very simple alterations, that took very little time, but created items that I now really like.

Have you altered anything lately?

Monthly Budget - August 2025

It's been an interesting month financially for me. I really didn't anticipate at the beginning of the month, that by it's end I would have left my job and lose the income from that, but sometimes life does throw you the odd curved ball and you just have to run with it. I made a conscious decision that I am responsible for, so I just need to get on with it.

I took LB on a promised trip to IKEA in the first week of August and treated us to a very inexpensive lunch out. I resisted the urge to buy much instore, but did buy a couple of glasses for £2. I did, however, spend a bit of money in a nearby Home Bargains, mostly on food and household stuff. I also paid a visit to a favourite charity shop and spent £13 there.

It was after this that things shifted at work. To be honest, this made me a bit more careful with regard to spending, although I did visit a local charity shop and spend £30 in the couple of weeks that followed. It was a last splurge for me, as I knew that if I left work my spending habits would be changing drastically.

Once I'd made the decision to leave work and handed in my notice, my spending became a lot more careful. I did buy a few Xmas gifts using my staff discount before I lost it and I went to a car boot sale after leaving work and spent a small amount of money, but other than buying a few small things for craft projects and a set of new sofa covers for £35 on eBay, all of my spending was on food or household items.

As a consequence, my monthly spending came in at the lowest it had been all year to date, which just goes to show that I can rein it in when absolutely necessary. I could have spent less really, so I could bring it in even lower, if I resist all urges, but realistically having a few small treats here and there does make life more enjoyable.

I don't live an extravagant lifestyle, so there isn't much to cut from the budget, but I will need to find areas where I can cut expenditure going forward and the obvious place will be spending on clothing and any non-essentials. Whilst I've been earning money, I've not thought twice about spending money on things, if I saw them and liked them.  I mainly buy second hand, so I'm not talking large sums at all, but that will have to cease or be reduced dramatically going forward. I'm okay with that though. Besides, I have plenty of clothes, I don't really need more, I just enjoy fashion and buying new things. If I can't afford them, I can't buy them. Simple as.

I can't lie and say that I don't have any anxieties about my finances going forward, it is always nice to have spare money that you can save and put aside for future plans, but for now that isn't going to be possible, so I just have to get on with life as it is. Xmas is covered, thanks to my putting money aside each month for the past 8 months, so that's one less thing to be anxious about, but I will be very careful with regard to Xmas spending this year and intend to be a lot less frivolous than usual.

I did manage to put some savings away for the month of August, for the last time in who knows how long, so it was a good month in that respect and there was some money left over to spread over the next month or so to take the pressure off needing to find a job immediately. I also won £50 on the Premium bonds which got reinvested, which was lovely.

Going forward, next month shouldn't be too expensive. I don't have any major birthday gifts or expenses on the horizon. I do have my credit card bills to pay from August spending online, but I will be making sure I don't run up my credit cards, as much as I have done in the past, to keep bills to a minimum. There will be some things that I put on there, i.e. gym classes, eBay purchases (usually only for craft), other occasional online purchases if needed, but these will be greatly reduced from now on. 

The vast majority of my money will be spent on food and household purchases only and maybe the odd small treat if the budget allows.  We'll just see how it goes. I am going to put aside £35 per month towards a couple of bigger gifts I need to give next year for a family wedding and a 21st birthday. Spreading the cost will make it more managable, just in case I don't find another job.

I may round up some savings balances by very small amounts, just to put something into savings, but that will be as much as I can manage. I will be receiving some dividends from some shares I own in September, but that will really be the only substantial thing that will get added to my savings this month. I'm grateful for this though, as at least it will be something.

It's going to be a challenge, but I've got plenty of time on my hands to shop around for the best deals where I do need to buy anything and I can spend time making things instead of buying them, which should be fun and also take time to look after the things that I already own, which should keep me occupied. Some activities and pleasures in life don't cost money, and peace and balance are the most important things in life, so I'll keep you posted with how I get on.