This week I started to feel a bit festive. I always get a bit excited when the advent calendars and candles come out. This year, I've got a paper advent calendar, which is very sweet:
I can't remember where I bought it from, possibly TK Maxx in the sale last year, not sure. I also have a bought chocolate advent calendar this year. (Galaxy for me, Terry's chocolate orange for LB - OH didn't want one) I used to make a chocolate advent calendar myself using small paper boxes, but by the time I ate the chocolates, some of them started to taste a bit off, so I didn't make one this year. I went for the lazy option of a bought one.
I also enjoy the ritual of lighting my advent candle each day and watching it gradually burn down. This year's I bought in the sales last January and put it aside, so I didn't need to go out looking for one. I've already got another put aside for next year, such a hoarder am I.
Aside from opening advent calendars, my week started in the usual way by heading out of town to do the shopping. It was super busy in some of the shops, Home Bargains in particular, you could tell that everyone was starting their Xmas shopping proper. I was glad that mine was all done and all I had to worry about was food.
I had a £4.50 voucher off a £30 shop at Sainsburys this week. I never normally shop there, save for buying the odd thing if I can't get it anywhere else, hence how I got the voucher. I managed to spend the £30 without spending much more than I would going to other supermarkets. I also got triple Nectar points on the shop, so I now have a small Nectar points voucher to use there next week.
I then had a voucher to get 10% off my grocery shop at Lidl, so I bought the bulk of my shopping there, saving around £7 on that shop. I bought a few bits of food to put towards Xmas, but there's quite a lot still to buy, that can't really be bought until nearer the time. I qualified for a free mini Panetonne on the Lidl Plus app, which is going in OH's Xmas hamper, as he loves Pannetone.
Once again, I frontloaded the shop at the beginning of the month, probably buying more than was actually essential, but I wanted to make the best use of the vouchers I had. It should mean that subsequent weekly shops shouldn't be too large and leaves a bit of room to buy a few food bits for Xmas each week.
I then came home and unpacked the shopping, before having an early supper and heading out to my dance class around 6pm. The class tonight was challenging, but in a good way. We learnt a second section of the routine and then put last week's and this week's segments together. I'm really enjoying it. Just one more week to go next week.
On Tuesday, I was booked into my usual class at the gym. It was good and I felt better for the workout. Later, I made a few final additions to my denim scrap/sewing basket. I made a little pin cushion from another pocket, that can be hung from a button and I also added a handmade needle case, which just fitted in a belt loop that I'd sewed on, so it's now complete, with everything I need in one place. Here's a picture of the additions:
I'm very happy with it as it is a very practical solution for keeping the kitchen table a bit less cluttered.
After the dance class last night and the gym class this morning, I felt a bit tired today and just didn't feel like doing a whole lot for the rest of the day. I did do a bit more hand sewing on another small denim project. This one was a wristlet. I got the idea from Pinterest. I used the remainder of one of the waistbands for this and added some belt loop decorations. I now just need stitch up one end on the machine and create a button hole before I can wear it. I thought it was another cute idea to use up more of the offcuts.
I also finally made the little vintage doll's face, that LB bought me at the Knit & Stitch Show, into a pin badge. I covered a piece of card with black felt, added some stuffing to the back of the face and then stitched the felted covered card to the face, as carefully as I could before sewing on a pin. It's not perfect, but I like it. It's been kicking around on the kitchen table gathering dust for weeks now, so it was good that I finally finished the job and I can actually wear it now. Another little job done. Here's a couple of pictures:
Later on Tuesday, I decided to clean some of my silver jewellery that I wear every day. One of the necklaces that I wear daily and which was a very fine silver chain, broke at the weekend. My first instinct was to buy a new necklace, until I remembered that I did have another much thicker silver necklace that I could use instead. I dug it out on Monday, along with a silver charm bracelet that I'm slowly filling with charms. I needed to attach the charms, but hadn't got around to it, so I started work on that this week. I was a little short of silver jump rings, so I need to source some from somewhere to complete the job.
I decided to clean this jewellery, as the new chain had got discoloured and some of the charms needed a clean. In addition, my rings that I wear daily get super grubby and I hadn't cleaned them for months.
My silver jewellery cleaner of choice is baking soda and hot water. The bubbling effect of hot water being poured on baking soda helps to remove the dirt, especially the dirt that gathers in the stone settings and it's quite gentle with no harsh chemicals.
This time around, I used some aluminium foil in there too, as I'd heard that this helps with the cleaning process and it did seem to work really well. I repeated the process a few times and also went in with cotton wool buds, to get into all the crevises and my jewellery came out sparkling. Here's a picture of the jewellery after cleaning:
I'm currently enjoying creating an old fashioned style charm bracelet. My mum and my Auntie both had one, rammed with charms and I loved playing with them as a child. I'm gradually helping to build one for LB too and each Xmas and birthday, I buy her a new vintage charm for her bracelet. I'll be adding one to mine this Xmas too. I only got my bracelet this birthday in October. I actually bought it from Kirsten's Curiosities on YouTube and it was perfect. It was good to support someone I watch regularly and then finally be able to add the few charms I'd already collected to it. The charms can be quite expensive at between £10 to £30 each, especially for the ones that open up with moving parts, which are more collectable. Being silver, however, they do have an intrinsic value too, so I consider them an investment.
It was satisfying to do this job. In fact, I may dig out other silver jewellery that I've got and give all of it a clean too this week.
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