Lockdown Diary - w/e 20th February 2021

This week started in it's usual slow Sunday way, but it was slightly more productive than previous Sundays have been. In case you are wondering why I start my week on a Sunday, this is the start of the financial week when I am at work, so I have become accustomed to thinking of Sunday as the start of a working week.

As it was Valentine's Day this last Sunday, we began the day by exchanging small gifts and cards.  We didn't go overboard this year. LB got more than anyone else. I always like to include her in Valentine's Day gifts. We just bought sweets, chocolates and wine and OH bought me some flowers.

Prior to this, I had started this week by finishing another book in bed. This one was The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce, I bought it from eBay on the recommendation of Marlene on her Poppy Patchwork blog. I really enjoyed this book and at one point it even had me in tears. I also bought another book by this author called The Lovesong of Miss Queenie Hennessy, which tells the story of one of the characters in the previous book. I'm hoping it is as good and it will be interesting to read the story of another character.

I'm so enjoying reading non-fiction books again. I'm almost becoming a bit of a book worm, whizzing through book after book and as I finish each book I put it aside to leave the house and be donated to the Little Free Library, which gives me an added sense of satisfaction. I rarely keep fiction books, as I am not likely to re-read them.

Later, OH went out to do some off road cycling, so I got on with a bit of plant watering, housework and laundry. I then decided to try out my new sewing machine. I had prepped a project that I needed to complete, so all I needed to do was thread up the machine and get sewing. It was quite simple and didn't take too long to get it threaded up. It was slightly different from my previous machine, but once done I could then start sewing. 

I managed to completed a couple of machine sewing projects that now just need a bit of hand finishing. One was a pair of curtains that I needed to alter to make them the right width and length and the second involved sewing together a cushion cover for the dog, the top of which I had hand quilted. Both were really simple projects that took very little time once I got started. I still have one other project to complete on the machine, namely a dress that I want to cut down to make a skirt.

The machine itself seems to sew really well and is actually a lot quieter than my old machine, which is a bonus. I'm very happy with it and happy that I finally got around to using it.

In other news from the day, my amaryllis is finally flowering.  Here's a picture:

It is not very upright, which is a disappointment, but I do love the colour.

Monday, was another slightly more productive day. I finished a few small sewing jobs, i.e. mending a hole in some socks and repairing my cycling gloves. I then proceeded to do a bit more work on the final hand made dog quilt that I'd been making. I finally finished the top, which was very satisfying.

Tuesday, I seemed to hit a bit of a brick wall. I've found this week difficult if I'm honest. I think it was partly as a consequence of watching the latest Covid announcement on Monday night. I think I was expecting more news about how and when we'd be coming out of lockdown and when it didn't materialise I was left feeling a bit disappointed.  Hence, I was left feeling a bit frustrated and I'm starting to look forward to the time when I can go back to work. Sorry for the grumble, I realise I am very lucky to have a job to return to at all and I can't complain about being on Furlough. Anyway, LB made me a couple of pancakes for lunch later, which cheered me up a bit.

I spent the afternoon sewing the dog quilt, just a bit of binding left to do. In the evening, I needed a pick me up, so I started researching holiday cottages for a possible break later in the year. We didn't book anything, but I've noted some nice cottages that might be an option when we get the okay from the powers that be. 

On Wednesday, I decided that I needed to drag myself out of my funk. When I got back from the dog walk, the item I'd ordered from eBay had been delivered which was very exciting to me. It was a large hula hoop. Here's a picture:

I'm trying to learn to hoop at home in Lockdown. I watched a course on Udemy about it and then watched lots of YouTube videos and it looked like fun and something I could do in the house everyday for exercise. I needed to buy this large 42" hoop, as I understand that using the small kind you can buy from pound shops would have made it virtually impossible to learn, as the hoop spins too fast for your body to keep up with it.  Anyway, I'm trying to learn a new skill and that's quite exciting, although it is not in the least easy and I'm lucky if I can manage 6 revolutions at the moment.

I bought a DIY version as it was the cheapest option and I intend to add different duck and gaffer tapes to decorate  it, but I'll budget for that next month.

In the afternoon, LB and I headed out to do a bit of shopping. We needed to do a food top up shop, so we headed off to ASDA. It's always a relief when that is done, I should be good now until I get paid next week, save for buying a few bits and pieces. 

Thursday and Friday were pretty uneventful days. The weather was a bit rainy and miserable, so I stayed inside reading and catching up with the ironing. I continued to practice hooping for a few minutes at a time, at various points throughout each day. I'm now managing 12  revolutions on a good spin. The only place I've found in the house to do it easily, is the living room, as the size of the hoop requires a fair bit of space and the sofa provides a soft landing for the hoop when it falls, reducing the noise. I'm not brave enough to practice in the garden just yet.   I also found a jigsaw that I hadn't done yet, so spent Friday afternoon doing that and nothing else. Wonderfully indulgent.

By the time Saturday came around, I was pretty pleased to get to the end of this week. It's the first week I feel I've really struggled this Lockdown. Spurred on by the warmer weather, I spent most of Saturday cleaning the bathrooms and the stairs and hallway. It felt good to get at least some parts of the house clean and tidy. I need to work my way through the other rooms before going back to work.

On the spending front, I was much better this week and managed  6 no spend days, which is better than the 3 that I managed last week. I'm currently 10 purchases down on the same time last month, which is definite progress and I've spent much less on my credit cards so far this month, which means less to pay off next month and more to go to savings.

I do hope you've had a better week than I have.