Monday Minus the Usual Madness

Monday this week was a treat compared to my normal Mondays during term-time.  It started off in the same fashion, with me taking the dog for a walk before heading out to the gym to do a couple of classes.  I'm fortunate in that OH works from home, so Little Bird can stay home with him whilst I continue with my normal gym routine during school holidays and I'm very thankful for that.

That was where the similarity with my normal day ended, as I would usually do my weekly shop straight from the gym, but this week I didn't need to as we did it yesterday on account of there being no food in the fridge.  Lidl is just down from the gym, so after I'd done my usual Sunday morning class and OH had been to check out the London Marathon which passes just down from Lidl, we popped in and whizzed around.  I say that, but it was incredibly busy, especially now it has an in-store bakery.  OH didn't mind so much though, as he'd wanted to see Mo Farrah running past which he had, so he was happy.

Back to Monday and without the shopping to do I was able to go straight home from the gym.  I made lunch for myself and Little Bird and then caught up on blog reading and a bit of work.  I was going to do some ironing, but somehow managed to short the electrics whilst using the iron, so was spared the task until OH returned from walking the dog and could get the electricity back on again. 

Little Bird was out at the park all afternoon to celebrate a friend's birthday, so I had the afternoon free and decided to do a spot of hand and later (once the electricity was back on) machine sewing.  I completed a make for April, which I'll be blogging about very soon and then I decided to attempt a coaster from the Zakka Gifts book I bought last week.  I used the instructions for the pot holder, but made it smaller and tried their quilt-as-you-go approach, where you sew the backing fabric, wadding and top fabric pieces together all at once as you go along.  It makes it a very quick process.  Hand stitching the binding on was the most time consuming part and I haven't quite finished it yet (hence the pins), but you get the gist. 

 

 

I made this coaster for Little Bird's bedside table, to hold her glass of water.  It was done as an experiment really, just to try out the method and I probably should have used a thinner wadding, but I just grabbed the first off cut I could find.  I will probably use this method again for other small patchwork piece projects.

Usually on a Monday, I would be heading back to the gym at 4.30 pm to take Little Bird to her trampolining class.  I used to do a class myself at the same time too, but as her lesson has now been brought forward an hour, I don't do the later class anymore and do an extra one in the morning instead.  Today, though, there was no trampolining lesson.  I toyed with the idea of going to my old class, but I decided to give it a miss and enjoy not rushing around for a change.  Instead, I cooked us all up a lovely Shepherd's pie and enjoyed staying at home on a Monday night for once.  It made a pleasant change and a lovely treat. 

Tonight, I'm going to put my feet up and watch a programme I recorded with Richard E Grant about people who visit the brocantes and flea markets of France in search of French antiques and vintage wares.  Something I've always wanted to do, but never really have (probably a good thing as I'd have more stuff in the house!).  Following that, I'm hoping to watch Monty Don's new series about Real Crafts on More 4.     

How was your Monday?