A Great Week and a New Quilt Project - W/E 4th November 2023

I woke up on Sunday morning to the sound of the dog wrenching and vomitting. Not a great start to the week, but things did get better, and so did the dog, thankfully, bless her.

I managed to get her out for a short walk before a downfall of rain. I picked up a couple of books from the Little Free Library on the walk. One was a book about herbal medicines, which looked interesting and the other a novel by John Updike. I was happy to get home though and stay inside while it poured down outside. I took the inclement weather as an opportunity to start work on a new hexie quilt project that I had decided I wanted to make. 

The new project is a lovely one. I'd seen the pattern on Pinterest and instantly wanted to try it. It is a lot more complicated than one's I've tried in the past, but that's half the challenge. It should be a good stash buster too.

Anyway, after a couple of hours of working on it, I decided to head off to Lidl to do the weekly shop, as we had virtually no food left in the fridge and my scratchcard voucher was burning a hole on my Lidl Plus app. 

Before I headed out, I received a phone call from a place where I'd applied for a job, probably a month ago now, inviting me to an interview on Monday afternoon.  That was a nice surprise.  I figured they were possibly doing a second sweep of the applications, on account of the amount of time that had passed. Either way, I was grateful to be considered.

As a consequence of using the voucher (for £47.41, which was the value of my last shop) I got this week's groceries for the sum of £15.45.  The cashier was surprised when my £60+ spend ended up costing me £15 or so. I explained that I'd won on a Lidl Plus scratchcard, but his surprise and that of his colleague, did make me think that they'd not actually come across many winning vouchers to date. I felt very blessed and grateful. I kept the shopping as minimal as I could again this week, with only a few extras thrown in.

I returned home and after supper, spent the rest of the evening doing more work on the new project and catching up with some of my favourite YouTubers. Once I start something new, I get a bit obsessed. The first block is coming along nicely and I'll make a post about the project when I've got a bit further on with it.

I've got lots of ideas in my head at the moment, of things I want to make. I seem to have got my creative mojo back with avengence. Many of them are small projects, I just need to make time and headspace to actually do them. 

Monday, was a mostly quiet day. OH took the dog out and I'd done the weekly shop, so I didn't need to go out. I had a leisurely morning doing some sewing at the kitchen table and later after lunch, I got ready to go out to the job interview. 

The interview seemed to go okay, but as always, I came away thinking I could have done better. I didn't expect to get the job, for reasons relating to availability for work, but it's always good experience to go for interviews and learn from them.

OH made us some chicken soup for supper, using up some bacon bits from the freezer and some veggies that had been languishing in the fridge for a while, so super frugal and very tasty.

Later, I started work on making a homemade advent calendar with chocolates in it. I may make a post about how I made it. It was an idea I got from Pinterest and is very simple indeed. I'm using chocolates that I'd already bought for Xmas, so it isn't costing me anything really and it will save me buying a chocolate advent calendar this year, which I always like to do. I got about half of the calendar done and then went to watch TV with OH. We're currently watching a series about the Beckhams on Netflix. It's quite interesting.

On Tuesday morning, I was up and out with the dog before my usual class at the gym. When I got back, I made myself my usual big bowl of salad and then spent a couple of hours working on the first block of my new quilt project. Each block takes quite a long time to make, but I'm liking the results.

I caught up on a bit of blogging and blog reading this afternoon and as it was the last day of the month, I did a bit of financial reckoning as well for the month. Got to be done.

OH was out in the evening until late, so I was able to please myself for supper. I always tend to go for my default supper of a baked potato, on this occasion with taco beans and cheese. Very tasty and not too calorific.

On Wednesday, OH got up, despite his late night and took the dog out, so I had time on my hands before going to my usual Soca class. I did a bit of sewing on some new small projects I'm attempting, which are Christmas themed.

The class was really good fun today, I enjoyed it. After lunch I went upstairs to the sewing room and dug out some old projects that I'd put aside. There was a basket full of them. They just needed sewing on my machine, so I worked my way through as many as I could.

I made two table runners and a tree skirt for our new small Xmas tree, using the fabric that a neighbour had put out at the weekend, I also made some wadding for the Xmas wreath quilt, as I figured it wouldn't be warm enough without any. 

I made the wadding out of lots of samples of wool/wool mix fabrics and old woollen scarves, that I've had in my stash for ages. I just set the sewing machine to a zigzag stitch and stitched all the various sized pieces together until the whole was big enough. It didn't need to be particularly neat, as it's not going to be seen. I was really pleased to have done this, as it both saved me money buying wadding and also used up pieces of fabric that I don't like that much and haven't got any other use for. I've got lots more too. I remember buying a whole bin liner full of them from a fabric warehouse for £1, probably 10 years ago. I may use more of them for future quilt project wadding. I'll post a picture when I do a quilting update post.

Whilst I was making the wadding, I got a phone call from the company I interviewed for on Monday. The manager told me that I'd been successful in my application and I'd be getting an email to start the onboarding process. I was really pleased, as I'd told them I wasn't able to work over Xmas week, as we were visiting family and they still agreed to hire me regardless, for a seasonal job too. It has restored my faith in commercial retail companies, I have to say.

The job is a bit more local to where I live, but I still may drive there. It takes 10-15 minutes.  I can catch a bus or even cycle, but it will depend on the weather. I'm very happy to be returning to working again and earning money, especially with LB's 21st birthday coming up in January. I put a bottle of wine in the fridge to chill and had a glass with my supper that evening to celebrate.

I finished the first block on my new quilt project tonight, here's a picture:

As you can see I've returned to using hexies, I just love working with this shape. I will post more as the project progresses.

On Thursday, I had a free day where I didn't need to go anywhere. It was another rainy one and it was a while before I could get out with the dog. 

Now I know that I'm going back to work, I need to get my hair cut and possibly buy a couple of items of clothing to wear for work, as there's no uniform as such, but you do have to wear clothes of a particular colour. I mainly need a smart sweater, cardigan or fleece top, incase it gets chilly in the shop. A lot of my clothes are looking a bit worse for wear now. They're okay for wearing at home, but are a bit worn for work. I don't want to spend too much money, but I want to look presentable.

I'm now trying to finish as many small projects as possible, as I know I probably won't have the time or energy to do them once I'm working, as life will get very busy. I spent most of Thursday doing just this, which felt very satisfying.

On Friday, I set out early to get my hair cut. I did my usual of heading to Supercuts in our local mall to get it done. I was seen to straight away, which was great and the stylist who cut and blow dried my hair was a lovely lady. I really liked the cut she gave me and was super happy to leave looking much more put together. 

I needed to do a bit of shopping whilst out. I went into Primark to look for a few bits to wear to work. I didn't find a lot, just two tops. I may wait and see what other members of staff wear, before committing to spending any more money just yet. I also found a padded gilet, which will be part of OH's Xmas present to me. I couldn't get my size in the colour I wanted i.e. black, so opted for a dark grey, which was also nice and a bit different. It was nice to buy clothing in a size down for once. 

I picked up a few other bits whilst in there, but it was very busy, so I was glad to finally get out of the store. I had a few more stop offs for a few other bits I needed and then it was time to head home. 

When I got home, after having some lunch, I decided to re-organise my wardrobe, so that clothes I could wear for work were in one side and then general clothing in the other side. This should help me decided what to wear for work when I do start and see what I might need to buy in the future. In the process, I found a PU skirt that I forgot I even owned which was a bonus.

Saturday, was another rainy day here. Luckily, we weren't really affected too badly by storm Ciaran, but I do feel for those whose homes suffered damage. On Saturday morning, I went to my usual gym session which was good. I had a chat to one of the ladies there who has been learning to lift weights in a special class taught by a professional weight lifter. Unfortunately, I don't have the same membership as she does, so I can't join the class, but I'd really love to learn to lift weights safely and with good technique. 

I may start incorporating bar bells into my normal gym routine next time I go into the main gym. I think I can just about manage the lowest weighted bar bell and then just try to progress from there. It will make a change.

When I got home, I spent most of the afternoon emptying the ironing basket, which had piled high again. At least once everything is ironed an put away, I can see what clothes I have got to wear for work.  I've got one more wardrobe job to do and that is to go back through clothes I put away when I put on weight and see if any fit more comfortably now. I did this a month or so ago, but I'm hoping that some things might fit better now and I might be able to wear them for work. I'm trying every avenue to avoid spending any more money at the moment.

Anyway, it's been a great week with lots of positive things happening.  I hope you've had a positive week too.