Christmas Week Ending 31/12/22

First of all, apologies for not hopping online and wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas this year. Working on the days leading up to Christmas Day, meant that I didn't find the time, but I do hope that you have all enjoyed the festive season.

It's been extra busy for me, as I was working on Christmas Eve until 5pm. The store was pretty busy, more so in the last couple of hours of the shop being open and then it was a mad dash to do as much as we could to put everything back and straighten up the shop. 

I had a couple of food items to pick up before heading home and then I took the greatest pleasure in just relaxing at home, watching TV with OH and starting on the Christmas food treats.  LB was out celebrating after work and came home later a bit worse for wear, but I was pleased she had been out enjoying herself.

Christmas Day here was a relaxing day. After the customery gift opening, OH and I made Xmas lunch, after which we mainly spent the afternoon napping between watching movies on Netflix. There's really no better way to spend Xmas Day.

I was happy with my main Xmas present, which was a new phone, and OH spent some time in the afternoon setting it up for me, which I was grateful for. There were a few apps that I needed to re-sign into, which caused a bit of a problem, as I couldn't remember my passwords for them. I'm happy with it though. It seems very easy to use, despite being quite a bit bigger.

I got an unexpected telephone call from my sister in Australia in the evening, which was lovely. We had a good long chat and catch up.

On Boxing Day, I had to go to work again. I wasn't really feeling it to be honest. It was super busy in the store, the queue just didn't go down all afternoon. I was so glad when we finally closed the doors, although it still took a good hour or so until all of the customers had been served and I could go home. 

Working over Christmas in a non-charity retail store has definitely been an experience, let's leave it at that. I could have worked extra hours, but I just didn't feel inclined, as I wanted to relax for what was left of the Xmas holidays. I'm just trying to be honest and maintain my boundaries.

Holiday Tuesday, I had a completely free day to do as I pleased. I had a lovely long walk with the dog, with no time pressure at all. It was just lovely to get out into the fresh air. Much as I love the build up to Christmas, I'm always glad when it's over and things can get back to normal. 

I needed to start getting the house in order for our forthcoming visitors on Tuesday, so later in the afternoon, I started on cleaning the kitchen. I began with the oven. I don't know when it was last cleaned, but it was dirty. It looks a lot better now. I just use bicarb of soda, water and a brillo pad. It took a while, but it was worth it.

I then cleaned down one side of the kitchen, including the undersink cupboards, dishwasher, which we put on a cycle with citric acid inside, washing machine and cupboards. Felt good to make some progress and it will be good to start the New Year knowing that the house is clean and tidy.

On Wednesday, I got up and dressed ready to tackle more cleaning in the kitchen. I slowly worked my way down the other side of the kitchen and the worktop. I realised whilst I was doing it that I was due at work two hours earlier than I thought, which meant that I couldn't get as much done as I would like.  

Work wasn't quite as busy as Boxing Day, there were gaps between customers, but it was still a bit hectic with lots of things to do. At the end of the shift, I ended up staying a bit later to tidy the section I'd been allocated, so it was later than usual by the time I got home.

On Thursday, I had to miss going to my voluntary work. I had too much going on at home. More cleaning and tidying up, although OH had done some the day before when I was at work, which was a great help.  Our house will never be perfect. It's lived in, as houses are meant to be. As long as the kitchen, bathroom and bedding are clean, they are the priorities. 

Anyway, I carried on with cleaning the kitchen and then did some cleaning and changed the bedding upstairs. OH tided up the garden, which was a mess as we haven't managed to get out there at all since the summer. He did a great job. Here's a picture of it all tidied up for the winter:

Later, we did a big shop at Lidl, to make sure we had plenty of food in the house.

When we got back, I changed a bit more bedding and I was done for the day. 

On Friday I was at work for 9am and bar an hour at the beginning of the shift, it was super busy. A constant stream of customers. I left at 2pm and wanted to pick up a few bits from in store, but the queue was snaking all over the place, so I decided to just go home and help OH finish off the last few things that needed doing before our guests arrived.

The evening was spent chilling with one of our guests, whilst the others all went to a football match. It was good to catch up on everyone's news and just spend time with family that we don't see very often.

Saturday, I stayed in bed and let everyone get up and use the bathroom, as they were all heading out early. LB was heading off to Norfolk for the New Year and OH and our guests were all heading into London to do some sightseeing. I couldn't join them as I was working at 3pm, so I stayed home and had a leisurely breakfast before walking the dog and getting ready for work. It was nice to have a bit of time to myself and catch my breath to be honest, in what has been a very  busy week.

I'm looking forward to finishing work tonight and welcoming in a New Year, hopefully one that doesn't have any unpleasant surprises in store for me, but who ever knows.

Wishing Everyone a Very Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2023, see you all next year.

The Week Before Christmas 2022 - Part 1

Sunday, was my day off as usual and I took it very easy as I always do. I had a lovely walk with the dog over Hackney Marshes, which was still covered in snow after a week.

The rest of the day, I spent chilling, doing laundry and continuing with some patchwork. In the evening, we had a family film night and all sat together to watch the movie Liquorice Pizza, which was interesting. It's rare for us to do this, so it made a nice change. 

I was back at work on Monday morning. It had rained overnight and the snow had disappeared. I was secretly glad about this, as it's one less thing to worry about in terms of getting to work. It was much milder too, so I didn't need to layer up quite so much.

I managed to rearrange the blood test for Tuesday afternoon and headed off to work for 11am. Work was super busy for most of my shift. You can tell there's less than a week to go to Christmas, as the queues at the till just never seemed to go down all day.

I had to do the weekly shop after work and then came straight home. I was so glad to get home and relax, once I'd put the shopping away that is. I'd not had a good night's sleep on Sunday night, so I was pretty tired and went to bed early.

On Tuesday, I stayed home, save for the blood test. I managed to make my way through quite a large pile of ironing, mostly towels, sheets, pillowcases, etc. There's still a few things in the basket, but they are mostly summer clothing items, so not a priority.

I received the all clear from the recent bowel cancer screening I'd participated in, which was good news, other than this, it was a very uneventful day. 

Apparently, there was a power cut to some houses down our street the previous night. I'm glad it didn't affect our house (we're on a different circuit), as I have all of the Christmas meat in the freezer. To be honest, though, we're now close enough to Christmas for it not to matter too much if they defrosted.

On Wednesday, I wasn't at work until 5pm and OH offered to take the dog out this morning, so I decided to get a bit creative and do a bit of sewing. 

I started by making a tree skirt. We are using a new to us small artificial Xmas tree this year, that I bought from the charity shop last Xmas. I was struggling to get our old tree out and up, as it comes in many pieces and putting it all together had become a chore and was taking the fun out of putting the tree up.  This little tree has just two pieces and is very easy to put up. With just me and OH at home most of the time, we opted to use this one this year. 

The decoration is a bit of a mish mash, I only put on things that I liked, but they weren't bought with this tree in mind, so some are a little large. It's pretty enough though.

To make the tree skirt, I used the lid of my laundry basket to cut out a circle, which I then cut into and made a small hole in the middle. I hemmed it all around and bound the middle circle as this was tricky to hem. I then used small press studs to fasten the ends together, once it's on the tree. 

Half way through, I did think of an easier way to make this, by making it double sided, thus it would not need hemming, you could just turn it out instead. I may make another one next year, out of plain coloured velvet or some other fabric and I'd make it a little bigger to cover the edges of the table we use to put it on, but for this year, this will suffice.

Here's a picture of it on the tree:

I then proceeded to make a table runner for the kitchen table. I'd cut the material to size at the weekend and just needed to sew it together. It didn't take long and here it is on the table:

It needs a bit of an iron, but it's a pretty fabric.

Finally, I thought I'd show you a picture of the finished fabric wreath. It's not perfect, but I quite like it and may make another in red coloured Xmas fabrics, as it's a super simple make.

I hope you're enjoying the lead in to Xmas this year.

This Week - W/E 17th December 2022 - Part One

This week, I was looking forward to spending any free time I had, getting ready for Christmas. 

We started the process on Sunday, when we had a bit of a move around of our reception rooms. We like to  move our large sofa and the TV into the back room in the winter, as the wood burner is in this room, and especially this year with the cost of electricity, it made complete sense to huddle around the wood burner and use up the wood from replacing the decking earlier in the year. We're already half way through it.

Once this job was done and the decorations were all put up we were more or less Christmas ready here, which felt good. It was too frosty to work in the garden and get the garden lights up today, so they will have to wait for another slightly warmer day.

I did venture into the sewing room on Sunday too, and made a new table runner using some Christmas fabric I had in my stash. It was to use on a blanket box in the living room. It's not a perfect make, as I ran it up quickly, but it will be fine just to bring out at Christmas. Here's a couple of photos:

It's a pretty fabric with a fir bough and berries print. I used a plain dark green as backing, which I bought in an eclectic batch of fabric from eBay a couple of weeks ago, so it was good to put some of it to use. I'd like to make another table runner for the kitchen table this year, using a different fabric from my stash, preferably something darker that won't show food spills, which are virtually inevitable on the kitchen table. I'll post a picture when I've made it.

I also did a bit of Xmas shopping online for OH, but we still need to go out Xmas shopping one night for him to try on some clothes. Hopefully, we'll do this en famille, when LB comes home from University this week. I can't wait to have her home. I just need to put some Xmas bedding on her bed to welcome her home. 

The remainder of Sunday was spent chilling, doing some patchwork, watching TV and eating from the freezer to make more room for the Christmas food I'd bought over the past few weeks. It was jam packed and difficult to get into. I also got out a few of the Xmas nibbles I'd bought, so Christmas has now officially started in our house.

Sunday night, it snowed here and there was a 3" layer over everything. It looked stunningly beautiful, but I went to bed, not relishing the drive to work the next day. Here's a picture of the back garden on Monday morning:

I think I was feeling a bit overwhelmed last week, with so little time and so much to do. I'm hoping that this week, I'll feel a little better and be able to get on top of the present wrapping and then I can enjoy the week before Christmas without too much stress, especially as I expect work to get busier and busier over the next few weeks.

On Monday morning, I made sure to get up early, as I had quite a few things to do before work and I had to clear the car of snow and get it running before heading off 2 hours early, to allow plenty of time to get there on time. I put on my thermals and wellies, walked the dog in the snow, posted off the remainder of our Christmas cards and hopefully the last two online parcels, although they won't be collected until tomorrow, because of the postal strike, gathered together the grocery shopping list and bags, in the hope of having time to do the weekly shop before work and made a packed lunch to eat when I got there.

I was due at work for 1pm and by 11am the main roads that I take to work were pretty clear and thawed out.  Some of the side roads were a bit more precarious, but it just meant taking it very slowly. I had plenty of time to do the grocery shopping, and a few extras found their way in, such as a cute leopard print fleece cardigan for me to wear around the house and a really cosy faux fur blanket and cushion for LB's room, plus a new velvet lampshade. If I can't splash out on welcoming her home, when can I. I hope she likes them.

Work was busy and passed quite quickly. I stayed an extra hour as they were short staffed, but didn't want to stay any later as the roads start to ice up again and I wanted to get home. I still had to pick up the fridge/freezer bits of shopping, before I could head home too.

I was glad to get home, unpack the shopping and have a couple of hours to just chill before bed.

On Tuesday, we were up early, as we were due to drive over to South London and pick up LB and all the things she wanted to bring home for Xmas. The drive there wasn't too bad and took us less time than we expected.  I did a bit of cleaning in LB's room when I got there, sorry, the Mum in me couldn't resist and I changed her bedding, so that she had clean bedding to come back to, then we set off for home.

As a rare treat, OH bought us lunch at McDonalds, which we ate on the go, and we got back around 2.30- 3pm. LB liked her cosy bedroom and subsequently got straight into bed and slept for the rest of the afternoon, bless her.  It is lovely to have her home again.

I started on some of the washing that she'd brought home with her, walked the dog and then I decided to wrap up all of her presents, so she couldn't peek at them. I decided that I would take one thing back, as I don't think she'll use it and she gave me an idea of what I could buy her instead, that would be much more useful and practical for her. 

We brought her airfryer back with us too, as she uses it a lot and we've missed it. It might also be useful over the New Year when we have visitors. It will go back to Uni with her in January though, so we need to make the most of it whilst we have it.

The remainder of the day, I spent on a new Xmas patchwork project, of a fabric wreath, the idea for which I got from Emma Jones Vintage Sewing Box on YouTube. I am making it very slightly differently to hers, but it is so easy to make and I was able to use some of my favourite Xmas fabrics from my stash. Here's a picture of it in progress:

I'll post another picture later in the week when it is finished.

This week, I'm dividing the weekly blog into two parts, as it can get way too long, so see you in part two.

This Week - W/E 10th December 2022

This week has been mixed again. It started off slowly on Sunday. OH was feeling very unwell after overindulging on his night out with his cousin. He was subsequently out of action all day, so I took the dog out and then had a quiet pottering kind of day.  To be honest I needed one, as I'd spent every spare hour during the previous week cleaning, in preparation for our visitor. It felt great to not have to do anything much and just take it easy.

On Monday, OH was feeling a lot better thankfully. I was working in the afternoon and went early again to post some online parcels and do the weekly shop. Work is getting busier at the moment, so it went quite quickly. I did a bit more shopping when I left and then was home by 7pm and was able to relax and do a bit of patchwork.

My sister had contacted me whilst I was at work, so I rang her for a catch up and a chat about Xmas presents this year.

Tuesday, I felt pretty tired when I woke up. I just didn't feel like rushing around with the dog, so that I could get to the gym on time, so I gave my usual class a miss and had a long slow dog walk instead. It was nice to get out and get some fresh air.

Disappointingly, I received a £65 traffic fine on Tuesday, after the disaster I'd had a couple of weeks ago. I'd  dodged it for a while, due to the postal strikes, but it found it's way to me eventually. I'm hoping there are no more to come, I'll just have to wait and see.

It feels like I take one step forward and two back financially at the moment, but such is life. Many people have it a lot worse.

I spent the rest of Tuesday at home, save for popping out to the Post Office to post more online parcels. This week is the last week I will be selling online before Xmas, due to the coming postal strikes. I caught up on a few jobs around the house and made some more pickled beetroot from some bunches I'd bought at Lidl. I was down to my last jar.

OH was back on the roof, trying to finish off the last of the jobs that needed doing. The scaffolding came off the next day, as he managed to finish everything and the scaffolders were in the area, so agreed to take it away. 

The weather is much much colder now, so I'm wrapping myself up in lots of layers to keep warm, both inside and out. I enjoyed just spending my day off doing exactly what I wanted.

On Wednesday, I was due at work for 5pm again. I had a leisurely day, we did a tip run and I walked the dog back home. OH got the Christmas tree and boxes of decorations down from the loft and I wrote and sent off some Christmas cards before heading off a little early to work. 

I did a bit more Xmas shopping before and whilst at work. My staff discount has become available for the store in which I work, so I was able to buy a couple of things for LB and my niece and used it for the first time. It wasn't super busy and I was put on a new section to tidy up at the end of the night, which was a bit of a challenge. It's all good to help me get more familiar with different parts of the store though.

Thursday, I was due at the dentist at 11.30 am. I wasn't looking forward to one and a half hours in the dentist chair. It's been a number of years since I've needed any serious treatment.

Before heading off, I spent some time in the morning deciding on my Xmas wrapping theme for this year. I haven't bought any new wrapping paper this year to speak of, as I still had quite a few rolls left over from previous years and I want to use them and start from scratch next year, possibly not using paper at all.  I'm looking forward to wrapping gifts this year. Now that we don't buy for lots of people, I enjoy it more and it's easier to use reusables.

Anyway, I went to the dentist. It was quite a long session of treatment and was very uncomfortable at times. Not the actual work on the tooth, but the coldness of the water used in my mouth. I came away with a very swollen face. I was going to check out a couple of nearby charity shops, but I just couldn't face it, as I felt very self conscious, so I came straight home.

I spent the afternoon decorating the Xmas tree and taking the dog out, after which I felt really tired.  We were going to go out and do some Xmas shopping, but I couldn't face it, so we had a cosy night at home instead, with no pressure to rush around amongst crowds of people. I think it was the right decision. I just needed some quiet time after quite a traumatic day. All being well, I've now got a reprieve from dental work until January 3rd, when I go back for the last part of my treatment.

Friday, I was due at work for 5pm again, so I spent the morning walking the dog, doing some laundry, washing up, baking some jam tarts to use up some pastry, etc., etc. Just pottering really. I set off a couple of hours early and did some more Xmas shopping. I've only really got OH to buy for now and he wants some new clothes, so we need to go shopping together for those.

I didn't have a great shift at work. Some shifts are just less enjoyable than others due to a number of factors and Friday night wasn't a shift I particularly enjoyed, put it that way. The car was iced over when I left at 10pm, so I had to de-ice it before I could head off home. The roads had been gritted too, so I was glad to just get home safely.

On Saturday morning, I woke up feeling really tired. I think that working in the lead up to Xmas is taking its toll on me both physically and mentally. Only two weeks left to go, but then the really busy sale period after Christmas starts. I'll be glad to get to mid January when hopefully things will calm down a little and I might get to take some leave.

Anyway, despite this, work was good today. There was a good atmosphere and the shop was really busy, so the time passed really quickly. When I got home, OH and I watched a movie on Netflix called The Swimmers about two young female Syrian refugees who made their way to Germany along with thousands of others at the height of the conflict in Syria. It was really good.

I was happy to get to the end of the week this week. LB is coming home next Tuesday and I'm really looking forward to seeing her.

A Bit of a Do Up

For the last month, we've had scaffolding on the front of our house, as OH has been sprucing it up a little. It's long overdue to be honest, we never really finished painting it after having the builders in 10 years ago to renovate the basement into an office for OH.

A few months ago, we got new sash windows installed upstairs in our bedroom and in the bay window downstairs. These were double glazed and replaced the old single glazed units, making the house more energy efficient and improving the overall appearance. As a consequence, the surrounds and sills got a bit bashed up and needed repairs and we also needed to remove the remains of an old dead creeper that a neighbour had cut down this year.

The day after the scaffolding went up, OH was up there removing the creeper and prepping the brickwork and sills for a bit of pointing and filling. Once the filling was done, he needed to wait a couple of days for it to dry properly, before he could paint it. The biggest headache was getting the colour right for the paintwork around the bay and window surrounds. It took several attempts at mixing to get a colour we both liked. Thankfully we got there in the end.

Once all the masonry painting was done, it was the turn of the front door. It was looking very scruffy and the battleship grey colour was looking very dirty and dated. We opted for our favourite shade of blue from Little Green which is called Hicks Blue. We have this in our living room and kitchen, so why not the front door too. Besides, I knew it would look nice with the brass hardware that I'd bought, mostly from eBay during Lockdown.

It has been so lovely to get the front of the house finished. It was looking tired before and now looks much fresher. OH has also been up on the roof to put in an access hatch for roof/aerial repairs and done a few other bits too, to maintain the house. 

I've been so impressed by how quickly he's got the work done, and he actually quite enjoyed it once he got up there. He's done a great job and saved us a lot of money too. Anyway, the scaffolding came down yesterday and here's the result of his work.

Here's a before photo:

and here's an after one:

Subtle changes, but it's looking a lot better maintained and feels like a different house for LB to come home to next week.

This Week - W/E 2nd December 2022

I was so happy to get to Sunday this week, after a particularly horrible week last week. Sunday is my day to reset and just calm myself after a busy week at work. I stayed home pottering, sewing, doing laundry and preparing for the week ahead.

OH wasn't cycling, which is unusual, so he volunteered to take the dog out in the morning and I could have a lie in and a leisurely breakfast. It felt blissful.

I spent most of Sunday in my sewing room, making an Xmas present for LB and also making some stock to sell. I really enjoyed it. 

Monday, I was working from 1pm, so I walked the dog and then posted off a couple of online sales and an Xmas card to my sister in Australia.  I was going set off for work early and do the weekly shopping, but I didn't, as I had another 10% off voucher for my shop at Lidl and I wanted to make the most of it, so I went after work. I ended up staying an extra hour at work today, as someone had called in sick. It was a horrendously busy afternoon for a Monday, but I did get to do a different job which helped me to find my way around the store a bit more, so I was happy for that.

I was glad to get home and put the shopping away and then I chilled by doing a bit of patchwork. It always calms me down when I've been busy. I've gone back to working on a table runner I started a few months ago. I might try to finish it before I go back to the new quilt project, but who knows, I may get bored and swap back onto the new project again at some point. That's the beauty of having more than one project on the go.

On Tuesday, I was due at the dentist at 12.30pm. OH had taken the car in to have it's MOT. Luckily it passed and he was back home in time for me to go off to the dentist in it. I knew it was potentially going to be expensive to fix my broken tooth and I was right, but I am going to let the dentist re-construct my tooth, as it's a molar and is important for chewing and eating. 

If I'm honest, I think I'm more frightened of having an extraction than having re-construction work done. It is going to be expensive, but if it needs to be done, I'll have to use some money from my savings. My oral health is more important than keeping money sat in the bank. I go back next week for most of the prep work to be done and then I should just have one more appointment and the work should be completed.  It's not the best time of year, but I can't help that. I just need to suck it up and get on with it. I'm fortunate that I have some money in the bank to pay for it.

The dentist was very thorough in his explanations of everything, so I came away feeling very reassured that I was doing the right thing. It would be easy to just have it extracted, but I may regret it at a later date.

When I got back from the dentist, I headed straight out to meet some friends for lunch. We hadn't met up for a couple of months, so it was nice to see them and have a catch up. In the evening, I spent a couple of hours catching up on blog reading. It had been nearly two weeks since I'd read my favourite blogs. 

I then spent an hour catching up on my finances, as they are in a bit of a mess at the moment, for various reasons. (Despite the fact I'm working again, I'm still playing catch up financially, especially with Christmas almost upon us) I'm just going to have to muddle through this Christmas, which is not what I wanted. Fortunately, I have already bought quite a few gifts for LB.

I was working a late shift on Wednesday, so I had most of the day to start cleaning the house in time for OH's cousin coming to visit this weekend. OH has been lighting the fire most nights for the last week, which has been nice and makes the house feel cosy. The weather here has really turned colder this week. It will be a shock coming here from Australia. I hope he has lots of woolies with him.

Anyway, I started the cleaning upstairs, stripped and changed bedding, vacuumed and mopped floors and cleaned surfaces. I had ordered some new bedding for the guest bed from work. It wasn't too bad to be honest, but it still took a couple of hours. I then stopped for breakfast at 1pm!

As I needed to walk the dog, I took her out before getting ready for work. I went early again, as I don't trust the traffic around rush hour. I did some online learning assessments that were outstanding when I got there, as I had an hour to spare until I needed to start my shift.  I only had a few days left to complete them, so they were a priority.

On Thursday, I was up and off to my voluntary work, which went okay. I had to let them know that I wouldn't be coming next week, as I had a dental appointment to start the work on my tooth. There was no other time that was suitable. At least I will get a bit of a lie in next Thursday. 

When I got home, I had just the afternoon and evening to clean the rest of the house, i,e, the whole of the downstairs and the bathroom, so I needed to get started pretty quickly after lunch. I didn't get it all done. There was still the kitchen and bathroom to do after work the following day.

I was working a 9-4 shift on Friday, so it was an early start for me. I ended up getting to work half an hour early again, so spent a little while shopping in B&M. They sell some really good dog treats and as we were almost out of them, I picked some up. I also found a couple of things from my Xmas food/present shopping list, so that was good.  

Work was busy all day and I was a little late getting away. I then went to a nearby huge Tesco store to do the second installment of my Xmas food shop. I managed to get a few meats and other items we needed, that will go into the freezer and I was able to use the last voucher I had for £5 off a £50 shop. There's only the fresh stuff and a couple of other items that I now need to get, which I will buy nearer the date.

When I got home, it was more cleaning and last minute preparation before our guest arrived and we could chill and spend the night chatting and catching up with family news. 

On Saturday, I woke up after a great night's sleep and took my time getting up and ready, which was nice.  I had a parcel to post and then we all headed out onto our local high street for brunch, before I had to get ready and go out to work.

Work was okay and didn't seem too bad for a Saturday. I was glad to get home though and put my feet up. OH and his cousin had gone out for the evening, so I had the house to myself and was able to enjoy some valuable me time at the end of another super busy week. 

Next week, I'm hoping things slow down a little, so that I can enjoy the build up to Christmas a bit more.