Project Pan 2026 - Update 1

I started Project Pan early last year to try to motivate me to use up the plethora of toiletries and make up that I seemed to have accumulated over the years. I originally started with 241 products that needed using up. I can't say that I was very disciplined about it for the first six or so months and didn't do any updates, but then towards the end of last year I did an update and had reduced the items in my beauty stash to 214.

I've been promising an update since, but I didn't think I'd progressed very far, which I haven't, but true to my word, here is a current update on this project. Here's a photo of the total number of products I still have in my stash to use up:

I was slightly disappointed when I found that the number had only gone down by 11 items to 203, (now 202 as I have since decanted the hand wash into a dispenser I use daily, which was empty). I do have to admit that a few more items have come into my possession over the Xmas period and in addition, I have also, subsequent to the original post, included some items that weren't included before, but should have been.

The items that came in included a couple of pumice stones, that I intend to use to work on my feet. I've got a few foot products and I need to start using them, so I bought the pummice stones last year with this intention, but never got around to it. I can't say that I'm the most disciplined person when it comes to self-care. I'm pretty good at taking regular exercise, but when it comes to pampering myself, I'm useless. I rarely think to do it. Hopefully, I may get around to it sometime this year.

In addition to the pummice stones, I was gifted some toiletries for Xmas. Not all of them I will use, so I have donated a couple of items, but I kept a body scrub, body lotion, pillow spray and the bath scrunchie that came in the set and donated the other two items to the charity shop. (The charity shop has a weekly tombola, so these things could be put into it as prizes.) I am intending to use the scrub and scrunchie for exfoliating when I next apply Fake Tan, which will possibly be for my niece's wedding later this year. I also bought a couple of soaps in Portugal on holiday last year and these will start to get used as soon as my current bar runs out.

Other additions to my stash this year include the inclusion of these toothbrushes, which I haven't previously counted, but should really

and also these sleep mist products, some of which were tucked away in a drawer and forgotten about.

I also received a few facial products for Xmas which were added to the already rather large selection. They are a particular brand that I enjoy using and hadn't seen in Home Bargains for a while, until Xmas when a gift set appeared, so I got a set of 3 products, so that I could mainly use the face cream. The other products in the set, i.e. a night cream and face serum will get used too.

Recently, I also expanded my stash of toothpaste, as the one I use is not sold in the UK, but is an important part of a dental hygiene regime I follow. As I was down to my last 3 tubes, and can only buy it on eBay, I bought a pack of 6 more. These cost approximately £4 each, which isn't a bad price, considering they come from the US, but many other sellers were selling them for nearer £7 each, so I wanted to stock up, anticipating that they may go up in price at some point, what with tariffs, etc.

The final additions were a magnesium spray that I have relatively recently started using, a KIKO face powder I was given for Xmas by LB and a KIKO lipstick that OH got me for Xmas, both of which I will start to use once I have used up some of the others currently in my stash.

I did also realise, whilst creating this update, that I've once again bought a product when I already had a plentiful supply of it. This relates to some miscellar water I bought the other week and then discovered a very large bottle of it in my stash, which was very annoying. It will get used, but I could have saved myself the expense.

In all, approximately 27 items have therefore been added to or included in my stash since I last posted, which when taken into consideration, means that I have actually made some progress this last few months and used up 38 products, which sounds like quite a lot. I can actually tell that the number is going down, as the basket I keep excess products in is slowly becoming emptier, which feels very satisfying. Slowly space is being made and things are being simplified, even though it might not look like it.

One thing I can say, is that I have (aside from toothpaste) stopped buying multiples of regular favourites. I buy now tend to buy one of what I need, when I need it, unless it is on a super good offer and it benefits me to buy two (mainly only in the case of mouthwash). I am also making my own deodourant now and this means that I rarely need to buy any.

As I said in my last post, the largest number of products are the nail varnishes and nail products, which add up to 36. I was going to donate some, but I don't think the charity shop I frequent sells them and I couldn't stomach putting them in landfill, so I'll just keep trying to use them on my toes or finally throw them out when they go hard and unusable. Another large collection is lip products, of which there are 35 in total. I do use these most days, although I recognise that I do have too many. These can't be donated or given away for hygiene reasons and again, I can't bring myself to throw them into landfill, so I'll continue to work my way through them. I have for the most part, stopped buying them altogether, although I did receive one for Xmas.

I think it's going to take a very long time to reduce this stash to a managable number, but I'd realistically love to get it down to less than one hundred products, and even that is way too many to my mind. Only time will tell if I ever do, but I'll persevere and try to remember to do updates as I go along. How does someone with very little interest in make up and beauty products end up with so much? Maybe I'm deluding myself and am a secret beauty product addict.

A Night at the Theatre and a Meal Out - W/E 15th February 2026

This week didn't start as well as I expected. I had a bit of an upset stomach on Monday, but still managed to get out and do the weekly shop. I dropped another big bag of donations off at the charity shop this week, the result of my wardrobe and jewellery declutter. I took a little look around the store and bought a few items this week. One was this lovely pair of handknitted socks. I think they are wool, but I can't be sure. They look to be unworn though and cost just £1, which I thought was a steal.

I also got a couple of books for £1. The main one I wanted was this Rough Guide to Croatia. It's old, but much of the information will probably still be useful. We're thinking of holidaying there or possibly Albania this year, so at 50p this book was a bargain. I am definitely an analogue type of girl when it comes to holiday planning, so I like to get a guide book for places we visit, but I never buy them new, as they can always be found in charity shops.

As the charity shop sells books at two for £1, I picked up this wordsearch book to buy with it. I quite like doing word searches and although this one is a Christmas one, it will keep me occupied. I'm currently working my way through the 200 or so puzzles, which are split into beginner, medium and challenging. 

I also bought this animal print coin/card purse for £2, which I thought was cute. It is by Accessorize and looks unused. It just about fits all my loyalty and other cards, thankfully. No clothes were purchased this visit, which is a good thing.

The weekly shop was pretty uneventful and not inexpensive this week, as I had no vouchers to use and quite a few things to buy, some of which were expensive things that periodically run out. i.e. my mouthwash and gin. We're now pretty well stocked up though, so I should be able to stay within budget for the rest of the month.

Tuesday, was Zumba at the gym in the morning, followed by an afternoon of sewing, finishing up things I'd started over the weekend, to clear the kitchen table. I also did a bit of financial housekeeping, which I try to do a couple of times per month. OH and I are watching Industry (a drama about the financial industry) at the moment and ended the day watching this week's episode. It's quite intense, but good.

I was able to have a lie in on Wednesday, which I was happy for. I read another chapter of the book Worn, this one about the invention and manufacture of rayon or viscose. It was shocking, in that one of solvents used in the process of making viscose, is neurotoxic and has been found to cause insanity and other awful conditions in factory and garment workers. It really makes you think more deeply about the clothes/fabrics you wear. At this rate, I'll only feel comfortable being naked as the day I was born. Surely in this day and age, we can do better and make fabric/garment making safer for everyone involved. It genuinely scares me the lengths that some corporations will go to to make profit.

Anyway, I got up slowly and then tidied around a bit, putting some laundry and other piles of things that had built up away. After breakfast, I took myself off for a walk, as I needed some fresh air and I'd not been out for a walk for a couple of weeks. It was raining intermittently though, so I didn't go as far as I normally would and only managed around 6,000 steps, but it's better than sitting on my bottom all day.

In the afternoon, I decided to tackle the ironing basket which was overflowing with towels and other items. I'd been meaning to do it for a while. I combined this with watching a couple of episodes of the new series of Silent Witness, as it's not a programme that OH likes to watch.

In the evening, LB had managed to get us some complimentary tickets for the press night of the current production at the theatre where she works, which was a treat. It's nice to be able to have inexpensive nights out at the theatre.

On Thursday, it was Aerobics at the gym, followed by an even longer walk home than usual to add more steps. I didn't do a lot in the afternoon, but I did finish watching the currently available episodes of Silent Witness and watered all my house plants, but didn't do much else. Later, I had to go and meet a new plot holder on the allotment, so that they could choose a plot. It didn't take long, but it was raining all afternoon, so the site was a bit of a soggy mess.

In the evening, OH and I watched the Winter Olympics for most of the evening, which was good.

I didn't need to be anywhere on Friday, so I had another lie in before getting up and ready. I was going to go into our local town centre and try out the new library, but there were some messages on the local street chat that put me off going, because of potential stuff happening locally, so I decided to stay home. 

I did a bit of treat making for Valentine's Day in the afternoon. I made two different things that I'd seen on Instagram, which I then boxed up for OH and LB. They didn't turn out perfectly, and I'm not sure if they'll like them, but it's the thought that counts. I also wrote the cards I'd bought for them and wrapped some small gifts of sweets and chocolate mainly.

In the evening, OH and I watched the Mens Skeleton and it was great to watch Matt Weston win his Olympic gold medal.  Very exciting. I do quite enjoy the Winter Olympics, as the sports are so different.

I'm in hermit mode at the moment. I don't feel inclined to go out and do much and I'm not really doing that much at home either. I'm sure I'll snap out of it eventually. I'm just a bit demotivated this week for some reason.

The weekend was a quiet one. I had a lie in on Saturday morning and did quite a bit of reading. I picked up a book that I was part way through, but hadn't picked up in months and I'm working my way through it. I'm enjoying it and determined to finally finish it in the next week or so. 

I needed to show another potential plotholder the plots that have become available on the allotment site on Saturday afternoon, and on Saturday evening, OH, LB and I all went out for a meal at a Turkish Restaurant in Dalston to celebrate Valentine's Day. We had a nice evening out and the restaurant was very generous with it's side dishes. We all really enjoyed it.

Sunday, I hit the gym in the morning. I'd eaten too much chocolate on Valentine's day in addition to the meal out. I got into watching the Irish version of Traitors on Sunday evening, which I binge watched for a couple of hours. It's pretty good, I'd even say better in some ways than the UK version. We also started watching Small Prophets on BBC Iplayer which is good, if a little strange.

Nothing too exciting happening here, which is fine by me. I like a quiet life.

Glad for a New Month - W/E 8th February 2026

Usual start to the week, heading out of town to do the grocery shop. I do like getting out of London for a few hours each week, even though it's not very far out (only 10 miles). The pace of life is different, everyone is a bit calmer and not in such a hurry. 

More importantly, I shop in very large out of town stores and I know exactly where the bargains are to be had and I actively seek them out. I managed to get some breakfast items very inexpensively in the reduced sections today. They just get put in the freezer and I pull them out as I need them, so I'm sorted for a week or so. 

I ended up getting two bags full of shopping at Tesco for £34, which included 9 chicken breasts and a medium sized chicken, as well as yoghurts, bread/breakfast products, two packs of tortelloni, 2 cartons of juice for OH and a pack of Lincolnshire sausages. I also bought some dark chocolate, some for making a little Valentine's treat for OH and some to give him as a gift, so I think I did okay on this shop.

I also managed to get some reduced sticker items from B&M. Their bread products often get discounted to 10p each, so I was able to get tea cakes, bread and pancakes (all Warburtons) for this price and 50p in the case of some crumpets. Again, most of it gets frozen and used as needed.

I did most of my shop at Lidl, where I had a 10% off voucher to use. I decide to stock up on canned goods, i.e. tinned tomatoes, kidney/other beans, chickpeas and lentils, buying several of some of these to re-stock the pantry. I did buy lots of other items that I normally buy weekly, but didn't get at the weekend. I was expecting the bill to come to around £70/£80, but got a nice suprise when I'd only spent £52.

I bought more cans from Home Bargains, this time Branston spaghetti and ravioli, which I haven't tried before, but which works out much cheaper than Heinz. We like their beans, so I'm hoping I like these products too. I occasionally like to eat spaghetti on toast for a quick supper if OH is cycling. Not the healthiest meal, but I enjoy it. (I did try the spaghetti this week and it was okay, not quite as nice as Heinz, but I can live with it)

I spent quite a bit in total today, it was another case of front loading the grocery shopping for the month, but I think I got a lot for my money and the house has plenty of food in it again, so shops for the next couple of weeks shouldn't be too expensive as a consequence.

OH and I are getting a bit bored of our regular meals at the moment, hence why I bought the chicken breasts. I am going to try to make some dishes that I've seen on Instagram, that are high in protein. Maybe just once per week to change things up a bit and then I also want to try some from scratch curry dishes I've seen on YouTube too, so I purchased some ginger and garlic paste for this purpose. I will probably need to freeze what's left of the jars in ice cube trays and then decant into pots or bags for future use. I figure that there are probably much cheaper ways of eating than we currently employ, but I just need to build my confidence in making some new dishes.

I tried a new dish in the evening, a kind of one pot (roasting dish) chicken, chorizo and chickpea bake with rice and a few vegetables included. It was very tasty, but the rice wasn't quite cooked and it took 30 minutes longer to cook than suggested, so it wasn't a total success. I may cook it again, but I would probably pre-cook the rice and seal the chicken in a pan before oven roasting the combined dish.

Tuesday, was another wet and pretty miserable day here. I went off to my Zumba class at the gym. It was a stand in teacher this week, but I like her class and music so I was quite happy. There were only two of us in the class though, which was disappointing. I'm hoping they don't start removing the classes from the timetable, as they have gone quieter lately. After the class, I did a 1km incline walk on the treadmill. I've decided to go back to this type of cardio, as it did really work for me when I was trying to lose weight and it is supposed to target visceral fat (i.e. the tummy area). I'll see how that goes.

When I got back, I did some sewing again in the afternoon, attaching another couple or rows to the denim project and organising the pieces for two more rows, which I'll sew another day this week. I'm hoping to have it finished by the end of the month, hopefully before.

On Tuesday afternoon, I decided to do a major sort out of all the clothes in my wardrobe and storage. It took me until 6pm. It was a useful exercise though and I've posted separately about it. It felt good to get it done.

After hardly sleeping on Tuesday night, I woke up shattered on Wednesday and so was late getting up and ready for the day. It's a been a while since I slept so badly.  Anyway, I got up and ready and headed downstairs for a very late breakfast, afterwhich I did a few small sewing jobs. I've been going through all my current WIPS (Works In Progress) and decided to let a couple of small ones go, as they no longer appeal. The remaining 3 I'm going to try to continue with this year and hopefully finish at least one of them. They are all English paper piecing projects and I've kind of moved away from doing them lately, but I need to keep trying to progress them, between other projects.

I was thinking of walking into town to visit our newly refurbished local library, which re-opened this week, but in the end I didn't go anywhere today. I'll maybe do this another day this week. Instead, I just had a homey day doing some hand stitching. I started a little project to use up the last two denim jeans pockets I had left over. I'm making them into a little zipped pouch using one of the jeans fly zips. 

Today, was a bit of a comedown from being quite productive on Tuesday, but such is life, some days are better than others. In the evening, OH and I finished watching Frankenstein on Netflix which was good.

Thursday, I was up and out to go to a class at the gym. It was good today, there were a few more people in attendance which was encouraging. I did my 1km incline walk on the treadmill and then took a slightly longer route home to get yet more steps in.

When I got in, I needed to re-organise the undersink cupboard, as OH had had all the contents out for a few days, whilst replacing the trap and the waste unit when it got blocked. It was good to get it all put away again.

After lunch, I decided to do a bit more decluttering today, this time of my earrings. I got out the surgical spirit to clean all of the earrings, whether I was keeping them or not. It was shocking just how many I have and I only managed to donate 17 pairs. I have posted separately about the process. It was good to get it done though, as it's the first time I've systematically gone through everything and cleaned and organised it properly. I just need to keep it in order now, which isn't so easy.

Friday, was a quiet day here again. It was filthy wet and miserable outside for most of the day. I spent the day at home doing  a bit of laundry, working on some English paper piecing and then I finished making the little denim pouch from jeans pockets. Here are a few photos:

Most of it was handstitched save for sewing the zip in by machine. I'm really happy with how it turned out, it's cute. Not sure what I'll use it for yet, but I'll think of something.

Later, in the afternoon, I had to go out to the shop to get some milk and dropped into our local charity shop on the way. I think it was my first visit this year. I bought two books for £2.50 each, one of which, Quiet, I'd seen new in a bookshop and wanted to read.  The other, about waste food, is quite old, but I thought it might be an interesting read.  I love reading non-fiction, so these should keep me entertained for a good few months, at a good price too.

On Friday evening, we watched the second part of Ken Burns' series called The Great American Buffalo. Thankfully, this part was a bit more positive and focussed on how the US rebuilt the Buffalo population, although not nearly to as much as it existed before it was hunted almost into extinction. A very sad history, but an extremely interesting series.

On Saturday, I didn't need to go anywhere, so I had a lie in after another terrible night's sleep and then got up and spent some time at my sewing machine, this time preparing some weaving yarn from fabrics that I don't want to use for anything else. I am planning on making a rug at some point, using mostly shades of green, with the odd brown/neutral thrown in. The making of the yarn probably takes the longest time in the whole process.

Late afternoon, OH and I did a trip to the tip. We had a whole bunch of stuff in the garden that needed to go and some bags of wood at the allotment from dismantling a pallet, that we picked up on the way. We left it a bit late, but just had time to drop it all off before they closed.

When we got back, I returned to fabric yarn making. I am going to need approximately 100 meters of fabric yarn for this project, which is dependent on the size of the makeshift loom I'm going to use. This sounds a lot, but I will hopefully manage to make 28m this weekend. 

To figure out how much I will still need to make, I decided to measure what I had previously made, which came to about 40 m, so just 32m to go! At least I now know what fabrics I need to add to get a balanced selection throughout the rug.

Sunday, was a pretty quiet, chill day. I went to the gym in the morning and then spent the afternoon sewing more fabric yarn. I only need to make another 15m or so, so I'm almost there. I won't be actually making the rug until next month though, so there's no hurry. I just wanted to be a bit more organised about it, so that I've got everything I need when I do start weaving.

Today, I volunteered to show some potential new plot holders the three plots we have available on our site at the allotment, starting on Friday, so that should be interesting.

It's been a pretty uneventful week, but I feel like I've been a bit more productive and have been doing a lot more sewing. Hopefully, this will continue into next week. Hope you've had a good one.

Cleaning and Decluttering My Earring Collection

This week, I've been a lot more motivated to do some decluttering and organising, especially after working on my wardrobe earlier in the week. On Thursday, I decided to tackle my earring collection. I have to say from the start that I have a lot of earrings, that I've collected and worn over the years. I have culled them before, letting go of some, but I haven't done this job in a long time.

In a previous style incarnation, I used to wear mostly fashion jewellery and I liked to have studs and danglies in every possible colour to go with my outfits.  These days, I don't wear a lot of my old stuff and prefer to stick to some everyday favourites, which tend to be either sterling silver or sterling silver gemstone studs or huggies (i.e. gemstones that hang from a small hoop that hug the earlobe). 

There are a few costume pairs that I also wear quite regularly, but the rest of my collection rarely gets worn. That doesn't mean I can easily part with many of them, as they are old favourites and I like to keep a good selection to go with different outfits and whims. Thankfully they don't take up much space, so I'm not too desperate to declutter them all. Here's a picture of the current extent of my collection:

They were a bit of a jumble, so I decided to get very systematic when going through them with regard to the type of earrings they were.  Every pair was considered, cleaned and then put into the different piles according to whether they were studs, danglies/dressier earrings and everyday earrings that I reach for. I made sure that each pair had appropriate backs and then put them back into their containers.

There were another few places where I keep earrings, namely silver ones and gemstone ones, so I went and dug these out too and went through and cleaned them all. I do have a lot of gemstone earrings, as at one point I bought a supply of beads and findings and made these, so I have many more pairs than I need, but as the findings are silver, they do have a value, so I'm happy to hang onto them. Besides, if I lose one earring, as sometimes happens, I can  replace it with another.

Here is the gemstone collection after organising and cleaning it:

I separated the earrings in the box according to colour more or less, to make them easier to choose from. Some of my gemstone earrings, the ones I wear daily, I put in a little dish that I keep on my dressing table. Here's a picture of these every day earrings, not all are silver or gemstones, some are just costume, but are my current favourites:

The danglies and dressier earrings I have put in this pot. I don't reach for them often, but sometimes, I do feel like a change or if I'm going out I may take a look through and pick a pair out.

The studs went into another box:

As you can see, I like large ball shaped studs in all colours and finishes. They are a definite favourite that I return to a lot. These costume ones don't get worn so much now, but I do sometimes look for a pair to match something I might be wearing.

In addition to the above, I do also have two other collections of earrings, the first are vintage clip ons. I don't wear them often, as they can nip, but sometimes I will wear the odd favourite pair. I also like them as they are mostly vintage and I have a particular love of vintage jewellery and have had phases where I've dressed in a vintage style and I would reach for these to wear with outfits. Here's my collection, now divided into danglies and non-danglies.

I particularly like the red danglies with the gold cross on them. I can remember wearing these a lot at a particular point in my life and I loved them, they are so 80's. Some of the diamonte/paste ones are nice to wear for an evening out, not that I go out anywhere special very often these days.

The other collection I have are Xmas earrings, to wear with my collection of Xmas brooches. I didn't photograph these, as I may do a separate post nearer the festive season. I try to wear a different brooch and similar themed pair of earrings every day in December to give them an airing. I've collected them over many years, some are vintage, but the earrings are mainly modern/new and I try to match them as best I can to whatever brooch I'm wearing. It's just fun and a hobby of mine. 

I cleaned all of my Xmas earrings before putting them away after Xmas, so I didn't need to clean these. I moved a few pairs back into normal use, as they aren't specifically Xmas ones, and I donated a couple of pairs I never reach for, mainly because they are too small. I mostly kept these earrings, as they are a themed collection and there is value in that when it comes to selling them on. I still add to the collection when I see a pair that I particularly like, as I love Xmas and this is my way of expressing that. I keep them in out of season storage until December rolls around.

The final small collection of earrings I have are sterling silver ones. I don't have many, just a few favourite pairs. Some I've lost along the way and I have been left with just one, others have broken. I sorted all the singles and broken silver into a bag and I may sell it for scrap at some point. Any that I hadn't cleaned recently got cleaned with bicarbonate of soda and came up sparkling. 

This was all a bit of a mammoth process and took me all afternoon, but at least it is now done. I donated 19 items which included a couple of necklaces, which isn't a lot when you consider the number of earrings I still own, but it's a start. Here's a rundown:

Dress/Dangly - 25 pairs

Studs - 35 pairs

Crystal/Gemstone - 31 pairs

Clip ons - 19 pairs

Sterling Silver - 11 pairs

Xmas - 29 pairs

Total - 150 pairs

It's just as well that they are small and easily stored. I may go back to them and donate more at some point in the future, but for now, I'm happy with the one's I've kept.

The items I am donating, I cleaned and put onto cards to make them easy to put out for sale at the charity shop. Hopefully, it will save them some time. I'll probably put a note in to that effect too.

A Clothing and Accessories Sort Out

This week, I decided to have a major sort out of all my clothes and accessories. It's something that I've been meaning to do for a while, as I've got way too many items in my wardrobe, drawers and other storage. I just felt the urge to release as much as I could and get to a place where everything was a bit more organised and more easily accessible.

I began with my wardrobe, which in the winter months is always a bit full, mainly due to large sweaters and other bulky items. I went through and tried on every item that I haven't worn in the last few months, to see if they still fitted and whether I still wanted to keep them. I came across quite a few items that I know I will never wear again and donated them.  I did the same with shoes and boots too and a couple of pairs went into the donation bag. Interestingly, clothing wise, I came across the odd item that I haven't been wearing that I really liked when I tried them on, so I'm going to try to start wearing them again very soon.

Some items that I really liked, but that were feeling a bit snug, I moved into storage. I'm not giving up on losing a bit of weight again, although I'm not consciously dieting, as I have done in the past. Good quality or favourite items I hung onto for a little while yet. This really freed up some space in the wardrobe and made it look a lot tidier and easier to navigate. Here's a picture:

I then went through my storage for clothing that doesn't fit well anymore. As mentioned above, I'm not good at getting rid of clothing I like, when I put a bit of weight on or lose it. As a consequence, I did find a few items in storage that I re-introduced into my wardrobe, which felt good. Most of the traffic went in the opposite direction though. I'm hoping that I will get back into some of them, but I'll reassess the situation in 6 months time, at least they are all in the same place and easy to go through in the future. I did decide to donate some items that I don't feel are my style any longer or that I know I just won't wear again.

The out of season clothing was my next task. I'd already gone through this at the end of last year when packing for our holiday in January. However, I did come across another bag of summer clothing that I'd stored elsewhere. I have to admit that I thought I'd donated these items when I couldn't find them for our holiday. It was nice to discover that I hadn't, as some of them were treasured old favourites.

There were some things in the summer bag that didn't fit well, so I put them into the non-fit storage bag, leaving just the summer clothing that fitted in the out of season storage. I also sorted them by type, i.e. skirts/trousers, dresses/jackets and tops, so everything is easy to locate. I also tried everything on, to be able to make decisions about what to keep and what to let go of. It feels good that everything in storage is now better organised and easier to find.

In terms of accessories, I also went through my box of belts and donated 4 or 5 of these that I don't think I need, as I had duplicates of some colour and style of belts. I still need to go through my jewellery and sort out the earrings that I no longer want to keep. I'm pretty sure that there will be quite a lot of them. I'll be doing this another day and will clean any earrings I intend to donate and maybe even put them on cards ready to be sold on by the charity shop. I will also go through my brooches and scarves to see if there's any of those I want to donate.

I'm feeling quite motivated to do these jobs at the moment, as I want to shed some stuff and feel less weighed down by it. I also do still need to go though some of my clothing drawers and see if there's anything else I want to let go of or even repurpose for quilting/sewing or cleaning cloths, etc.

By the end of the day, I had put aside   items for donation, almost filling this very large bag: 

I will take great pleasure in taking these to the charity shop next week and I look forward to uncovering many more items that I feel ready to let go of in the coming weeks.

Heading into February - W/E 1st February 2026

This week started with my going off out of town shopping on Monday. I went on my own this week, as LB didn't fancy it. I had a bag of donations to drop off at my favourite charity shop whilst out, so of course, I had a little look around whilst I was there, but came away without buying anything.

The grocery shopping went okay, although I did spend a bit more than I anticipated, mainly because I found a few things that I use regularly that were on offer, which was too good to ignore. They will save me money in the long run, but I had to use some of the extra money I found I had last week.

For a treat, I made us beef burgers with wedges for supper. We don't have them often. I'm still working my way through two bags of potatoes, that I bought for 5p each at Christmas, taking advantage of the supermarkets vying for everyone's custom over the festive season. They are sprouting slighly, but nothing that can't be nipped off before use. They'll probably last at least another month, if not longer. Well worth purchasing.

On Tuesday, I headed to a Zumba class in the morning which was good. When I got home, I decided to start a new sewing project after lunch and spent a pleasant couple of hours working on that. Later, I popped to the allotment to put the garden waste bins out, to be emptied the following day. 

We're currently watching the new series of The Night Manager, which is good.

I had a lie in on Wednesday morning, as I hadn't slept well on Monday night. I read for a while in bed. I'm currently reading the book I got from the exhibition last week. It's very good with lots of social history about clothing, women, work, fabric, etc. It's right up my street. It's not a particularly easy read, as it's dense with information, but I'm really enjoying it.

It was a lovely sunny, dry day on Wednesday, which is rare at the moment, as we've been getting so much rain lately. After lunch, I decided to go out into the garden and do some work. The main job I did was to clean all the dirty pots in the greenhouse and re-organise it a little. Once the pots had been cleaned and put away, it did free up quite a bit of space and make things easier to get to.

I also decided to plant the bulbs I bought last year and some that OH had bought me for Xmas. Luckily, we had some compost to pot them up in, so I didn't need to go out and buy any. I'm definitely a bit late planting them, but hopefully they will still grow.  I'm starting most of them off indoors to give them a better chance and to keep the squirrels off them. I've still got a couple of packs to plant, which I will do another time.

I also did a little bit of pruning and tidying up and by the time I'd finished it was getting dark. It was lovely to get out there and get started for the coming season.

OH made us a lovely chicken curry for supper, which was nice and then he and I watched a Ken Burns documentary on iPlayer. It was called The Great American Buffalo and is in two parts. We watched the first part, which was harrowing. I've not watched anything as painful to watch as this in a long time, but it was very good, as is the case with of all Ken Burns' work. If anyone is interested in watching it, it was broadcast on Channel 4 earlier this week.

Thursday morning, I went to my now usual Soca class at the gym which was good. I did my usual of taking the long route home to get more steps in. To be honest, Thursday afternoon was a bit lazy, as I didn't do much. I finished watching a series on Netflix and then watched a movie which was quite good. After supper, OH and I watched a Netflix documentary about the Art band Devo together, which was great. They recognised the direction our world was going in way back in the 1970's. 

I've never watched so much TV as this month. I'm really not very motivated to do anything much and it's my fall back in a quiet month. It costs nothing.  Some things I've watched have been enjoyable and others very informative. I do need to be a bit more productive going forward though.

On Friday, after getting up and ready, I decided to walk to our local Lidl, which is just under 2 miles away, and do a top up shop, mainly to hit the target for the 10% discount this month. Seemed silly to waste it. By buying the things we use regularly a few days early, I'll get 10% off my shop next week and I intend to use it for a bit of a stock up of pantry staples. I came across a really good recipe for a lentil curry and a chickpea masala on YouTube this week and I'm keen to try them out, but did need the odd inexpensive ingredient to do this. If they work out, they will be much cheaper to make than buying sauces from the supermarket and they will also be meat free.

Walking to the store was a good way to get a bit of exercise on a day I don't go to the gym and also I decided to try out my new trolley bag, as I wasn't doing a full shop. The trolley worked really well. I was half expecting it to collapse under the weight of the shopping, but it stood up well to the test and I decided to walk all the way home too, which was harder with a bag and trolley full of shopping. It saved on bus fares though and I did over 8,000 steps, which was a bonus. I wasn't able to do the full weekly shop, as I steered away from the heavier items, such as tins and bottles, but I'll use the voucher when I buy those and the remainder of the weekly shop on Monday.

I had another lie in on Saturday morning and read another chapter of my book. I spent the morning doing laundry and putting away clean laundry, catching up on blog reading and doing a bit of blogging. In the afternoon, we had a special visitor, i.e. next door's dog Toby, who was coming to stay with us until the evening, as his owners were going out until late. It was the first time we've looked after him this year and it was nice to see him again.

Before he arrived, I spent an hour or so working on my latest denim scrap project and then I put it away as I wasn't sure if the sewing machine would upset him. It's coming along nicely. I'm now one third of the way through it.

OH and I took Toby for a walk in the late afternoon and stopped off at the pub on the way home for a drink which was nice. 

We started watching a film about Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein tonight on Paramount, but only got half way through before OH headed off to bed as he was up early to go cycling the next morning. He dropped Toby back next door before going to bed. He was happy enough to go.

On Sunday, it was my usual gym session of the week which went okay. When I got back, I did another couple of hours sewing on my current project. I'm posting separately about this. It is now half done. Progress is slow, but it's definitely coming along. It actually looks better the further I get on with it. I think I've just about got enough fabric scraps to complete it, although I will probably run out of some colours of denim as I get towards the end.

I then spent an hour or so cutting up some of the remaining pieces of scrap from the jeans I used for LB's pouffe, mainly the flies, which I didn't have a use for. I managed to salvage a few bits of scrap fabric to try to use, a couple of small brass zips, which may come in handy for purses or pockets or something small and I used part of one fly to make a pen holder for my handbag. The rest was cut up small for stuffing and the only bits I threw away were 3 metal fly buttons which I can't re-use. There has been very little actual waste from the denim I used, thankfully.

On Sunday evening, OH and I finished watching Mary Shelley which was good and then watched a bit of Frankenstein, which is currently on Netflix, until OH decided he couldn't stomach the cutting up of cadavers to make the Monster. Thankfully, it didn't give me nightmares.

Hope you've had a good last week of January.

A New Make For February

Towards the end of January and moving into February, it was time to come up with another sewing project to work on for the month. I'd had a scrappy project in mind for a while, to try to use up lots of leftover offcuts from the denim material I'd used to make LB's pouffe. It was an idea that I got from a video on YouTube and involved stitching all the small pieces onto a piece of fabric using a zigzag stitch.

The aim of this project was to use the created fabric to repair a cover that we use on OH's favourite chair in the kitchen, the one I re-upholstered during Lockdown.

The cover in the above photo has been used on this chair for years now to protect it, but the underside of it is made of silk, I think, and it is slowly perishing with wear. As a consequence, I thought I would cover it, using the denim scraps, to keep it in use a bit longer, as this would be more hard wearing.

I started by finding a piece of fabric, in this case the lining from some curtains I took apart, to stitch the denim scraps to and then cut it to the right size. I then proceeded to stitch each small piece of denim onto it, each one overlapping the one before, using a wide zig zag stitch on my machine to minimise fraying. 

It took a couple of hours to get a few rows done, as it's quite fiddly trimming off the bits of thread, but by the end of my first session, I was probably a quarter of the way done which was quite satisfying. Here's a picture:

It's not perfect, as theres a bit of fraying and overstitching here and there, but it's fine, as it will probably be the underside of the cover in any case. 

I continued to work on this project over the next week or so, adding a few rows every few days or whenever I felt like it. It's now half way done and here's a picture. 

I'm liking the overall effect. It's interesting what you can do with even the smallest pieces of scrap fabric.

It is a great project for this month, to use up not only scraps, but thread too. I'll post again when I've  completed the project.