Another Scrappy Make

On Thursday last, after a morning walking the dog and working out in the gym, I looked forward to coming home and spending the afternoon in my newly re-organised sewing room. I had an idea for a new project that we really needed.

Our dog has two beds, one is a big oversized bed, that I bought from Joules when she was a puppy. It's stood the test of time and it's still her main bed in the kitchen. However, a few years ago, I bought a smaller cheap dog bed that she uses in the living room, I can't remember where from, but it has been useful as an extra bed and one we can take away with us if we travel, as it's a bit smaller and takes up less space.  

She seems to like both equally, but recently I've noticed that the small bed has really deteriorated. The stuffing has gone all lumpy after it has been washed numerous times and is now distributed unevenly and I can't imagine that it is very comfortable for her to sleep in anymore. Here's a picture:

I took a look online, with a view to buying another one and that's how I got scammed by a fake Joules site a few weeks ago, trying to buy another of their dog beds, as they are great quality. Anyway, having recovered from that experience, I've been looking in shops to find another dog bed, but I haven't found any that I liked, so when I got the idea to try to make one, I thought, why not.

I decided to make it another scrappy project, because I really love the process, love using up my scraps and it is a joy to make fabric from them. I just need an excuse and this was a perfect one.  The dog won't care that it's scrappy, so long as it's comfortable. I had also found some thickish wadding in my stash when tidying it last week. I had lots of odd offcuts and I figured that I could probably make them work for this project.

So, I set about making the fabric one evening by firstly laying out the pieces I was going to use. It's a super random design and nothing startling.  I just used darker coloured scraps, because, as anyone who has had a dog knows, their beds get super smelly and dirty, especially in the winter, so I figured dark fabrics wouldn't show the dirt so much. Luckily, I still had plenty of scraps left, despite my recent attempts at making scrappy fabric project bags. Here's a picture I took of the layout:

As mentioned above, I spent an afternoon sewing all the scraps together. It is much easier and quicker with a photo of the layout to guide you. I was going to add some hexie patches again and the odd other shape, but I decided against it in the end, as the dog tends to scratch her basket and they could get ripped off. 

Once I'd made the scrappy top fabric, I backed it with some fabric from my stash and then slotted in the wadding, with long thin pieces around the edges and a square piece doubled over in the middle. I then closed the bed up at the end using the backing fabric to bind the edge and  machine quilted the wadding in place around the edges and in the middle. 

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Here's a front and back view:

I actually quite like the back, we could always use this side by reversing it sometimes. It's not the thickest cushion, as I didn't have any stuffing to use. LB had disappeared off to Uni with it for her crochet projects, so I just had to make do with the wadding I had.

It's definitely not perfect. I actually nicked one of the small scrappy pieces, whilst trimming and had to cover the nick with a patch, but being scrappy, it didn't matter so much. That's the beauty.

So, is it perfect? - No, but it's good enough.  Did it save me money - definitely. Did it cost me anything? - No, only time, as I used supplies I already had. Did I enjoy it? - Heck, yes and I can't wait for the next scrappy project. Did the dog like it? - The judge and jury are out on this one, but here's a photo of her lying in it and she's been sleeping in it most nights since I made it:

She was a bit reluctant at first because it was new and unscented, but once it gets her own smell on it, I'm sure she'll get to like it a lot better.

A Bit of Cupboard Love

Last Friday evening, I was home alone with the dog, as OH had gone out for a few drinks with some cycling friends and I decided to give the cupboard in the vestibule a bit of love.

This cupboard has four compartments, a pantry shelf, a DIY beauty shelf and a couple of sections housing miscellaneous things such as sports equipment, birthday/Xmas cards, xmas lights, vases, candlemaking equipment plus various other bits and pieces. It's the kind of place that things gravitate to, when you don't know where else to put them, so it often becomes a bit of a dumping ground and of late, it's been a bit cluttered.

I started with the pantry shelf, as OH had complained that the plastic lidded box I'd put dry goods such as rice/pasta etc. in, prevented him from getting to the cans of baked beans easily, as the lid jutted out.

Here's a before picture:

I bought a new box on eBay, which I originally bought as a possible receptacle for my fabric stash. Unfortunately, it wasn't as big as I'd hoped, a completely different colour to what I expected and was not right for the job, I'd bought it with the pantry in mind too, as I figured that if it did'nt work for the fabric, it would be fine for the pantry. Hence, why I just ordered one.

Anyway, I took everything off the shelf, checked the dates and anything out of date or close to BB date I left out so that we would use it up quickly. I did relocate a couple of things, throw a couple of things out and also put a couple of things we wouldn't use aside to donate to the food bank. When putting everything back, I put them in date order so the older things would be used first. It looked a lot better, created more space and everything could be seen and accessed a lot more easily. Here's a picture after the re-organisation:

The next shelf down, was the shelf I use to house all of the ingredients for making DIY beauty products. In all honesty, I haven't made much in recent years, just some roll on deodourant and some paw balm for the dog.  Here's a before picture:

Many of the ingredients were out of date or many years old. I decided to be ruthless and throw some of it out. I will replace what I will use, such as shea butter and vitamin E oil, but some of it I won't replace. I did move a couple of things into either the baking drawer or the cleaning cupboard as they were multipurpose items, such as cornflour and citric acid and would probably get more use in their new location. 

I also recycled some containers that I'd kept from beauty products I'd bought and used. I needed to be ruthless, as they are just taking up space, with little likelihood of being used. Again, it looked a lot better when I'd finished:

There's a few more things to go back in here when I've washed them, but it will still be an improvement. I may even decant some things into smaller containers too, to take up less space. I called it a night after this shelf, leaving two more shelves to clean and re-organise, which I did the next day. I didn't take before pictures, but here are the after pictures: 

There was very little change, save the spaces are now much cleaner. I then continued on to clean the vestibule area, the stairs leading to the hallway, the downstairs toilet and kitchen floor, which all really needed it. Baby steps to getting on top of the house, but a definite improvement.

Enjoying a Better Work/Life Balance and a Bit of Re-organisation - W/E 24/2/24

This week, it finally started to feel like I'm managing to get a better work/life balance. I've been feeling it for the last couple of weeks actually, as I haven't been given as many shifts at work, and this suits me down to the ground.

I worked the first couple of days of this week (i.e. Sunday/Monday) and then I was due to be off until the Sunday of the following week, which was exciting. I was looking forward to having some free days to do as I pleased.

I had a bit of a lie in on Sunday. I was supposed to be walking the dog, as OH had planned to go cycling, but because of heavy rain overnight and into the morning, he decided not to go and took the dog out, so I had a lovely leisurely morning before going into work for 2pm. I quite like Sunday shifts, as I finish at 6pm and am able to eat at a reasonable time with OH when I get home.

Before going into work, I did a few household chores and pottered around. Our neighbour knocked on the door. He's replacing the fence between our gardens and was taking lots of garden waste from clearing the fence, to the tip in a van he'd hired, so OH was able to put the fence panels we'd removed from our side of the fence into the van. This was very useful to clear them out of the garden. There's still more to take down and the fence itself to remove, so another van trip will be needed when work begins proper.

We're hoping to replace the rest of the fencing around our garden, as it's all getting very shabby and starting to fall apart. I'm looking forward to it all being done and dusted if I'm honest, but it will be a while. I'll keep you posted.

Anyway, I went around the house and watered all of the plants. I then decided to clean the leaves of some of the bigger plants as they were looking very dusty. I don't think I'd done this since Lockdown, so it was long overdue. The plants look much better for it too.

Work was good today. It was a shorter than usual shift and I managed to just about get everything done in time. OH made us a lovely Shepherd's pie for supper and we spent the evening relaxing in front of the TV.

On Monday, I was up early and out with the dog. We had a nice walk, but it was raining on and off and we got a bit wet.

When I got home, I headed out to do the weekly shop. I shopped locally this week, due to the fact I was working in the evening. I wasn't able to get everything locally this week, so I topped up at ASDA on the way to work.

I got a few bargains at both Tesco and ASDA. Here's a picture:

The large jar of sliced beetroot was reduced to 30p in Tesco, so I bought 3 jars, as I eat this daily. It costs well over £1 everywhere but Lidl, where it's 99p. This will keep me going for a while. In ASDA, I picked up 2 of these cajun quinoa packets for 36p each. These will be perfect for power bowls when I next feel the urge to make one. All of the items still had over a year's shelf life left.

Anyway, work was okay on Monday. I was doing a different job, one that I'd done before, but which was a bit calmer. It took a bit of getting used to doing it again, but it was nice to go back to it, especially on the last night of a 4 night stretch, as I was feeling quite tired.

OH had arranged to go on a cycle ride to Brighton on Tuesday, so I was charged with getting up early and walking the dog. Just as I was setting out, two traffic wardens were patrolling the street and I could see them taking an interest in our car. I decided to go back and they told me that our parking permit ran out two days ago. I knew this and was pretty sure OH had renewed it, but they said it wasn't showing on their system. 

To avoid a ticket, I took the dog out in the car to a favourite local spot and we had a nice walk. I then left it for the rest of the day, as I don't have time to watch over it. We didn't get a ticket and OH confirmed he'd paid for the renewal and had a receipt. We never see the wardens, until the permits expire and then they come out in force trying to catch people out. Seems a bit cynical to me.

I headed out later, to go to my usual class which was good and then after lunch I decided to head up to the sewing room and reorganise my fabric stash. I had been inspired by Karen of Just Get it Done Quilts on YouTube, who posted a great video about fabric storage.

Most of my fabrics are kept in drawers, but they were a bit dishevelled after I'd recently taken some out to use on projects and then put them back haphazardly and I wanted to re-fold everything, so that it all fitted better into the space. It took me the whole afternoon, but it looked a lot better when I'd finished. 

I had a long lie in on Wednesday morning, after having to take the dog for a midnight walk due to her having an upset stomach. When I did eventually surface, I put away some laundry and headed down for breakfast. I didn't have any plans for the day, as my usual class had changed venue, and as a consequence, I wasn't feeling it, as I would need to cycle and it was raining.

Instead, I decided that this was the day that I was going to do a task that I've been putting off for over 6 months, i.e. applying to renew my passport. It's a very simple task, but I'm terrible at getting around to tasks like this and OH had been bugging me to do it for months, so that we can maybe take a holiday abroad. I'd hung onto my old passport, so that I could use it for ID when I started my new employment in November, but since then I haven't had any excuse for not renewing it, I've just continually procrastinated.

I went online to do the application and I was surprised at how simple the process actually was. Within 15 minutes it was done and paid for and my expired passport was packaged up ready to send off. My self taken photo even seemed to be adequate for the process, but we'll see if they ask for another.

It was a huge relief to get this task done, as it's been in the back of my mind for so long. I was put off, thinking I would have to crop or alter the size of the photograph to upload it and in the end I didn't need to, so I could do it all myself without any help. I also thought that there'd be some other type of issue that would make the application difficult, but there actually wasn't. I would recommend the service to anyone. It felt like I'd really made progress today, just because of this one small thing, that I'd needlessly made into a big thing. Why did I do that?

On Wednesday afternoon, I decided to do a bit of sewing. I needed to alter a couple of garments to make them more wearable, so out came the sewing machine and I spent a nice couple of hours working on it. It was nice to get these things done and it removed a couple of items off the to do list. 

Thursday, it rained all day. I managed to get out with the dog early in a break in the rain, but it started raining as we were out so I cut down the walk a bit. I then booked myself into the gym and headed off for a good workout. I hadn't been in the main gym for at least a month and felt the difference using the machines in there.

When I got home, I decided to spend the afternoon making a new scrappy project. (More in another post) So I had a lovely afternoon, doing one of my absolute favourite things.

Friday, I decided it was time to go and get my hair cut. It was long overdue. I hadn't had it cut since before I started my job in November. I took myself off to the local mall, where I always go. It felt good to do something nice to try to make myself more presentable and it was good to actually get out of the house and go somewhere different. I found a £5 off voucher in my handbag, from my last visit, so I used that, which made it a little less expensive.

I had a little look around a few shops whilst at the mall and bought a few things we needed, but I didn't linger too long or spend too much money. Another thing crossed off my to do list.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon working on the star patchwork quilt. I'm close to finishing the last star block, which is exciting. In the evening, OH was out with his cycling friends, so I decided to do a bit of re-organisation of the cupboard in the vestibule. (More in another post)

Saturday morning, I was off to my usual gym session at 9.30am. I won't be able to get there for a couple of weeks, so I was glad to go this week and enjoyed the session.

I spent the rest of the day finishing cleaning and reorganising the vestibule cupboard and doing a bit of cleaning. LB rang and we had a nice chat and catch up.

In the evening I went back to the mall with OH. He wanted to buy a new phone and we stayed out for something to eat, which was a nice treat. I don't go to the mall often, but typically, I then end up there twice in two days.

Anyway, it's been a good week. I've enjoyed not being at work for the majority of it and having time to work on projects and do some re-organising. I also feel like I've ticked a quite a few important boxes on the to do list, which makes me feel like I've made good progress this week. I hope you have too.

Sewing Room Spruce Up - Part 2 - Making Some Progress

It's been a couple of weeks since I posted that I wanted to re-organise the under desk area in the sewing room and I've managed to make quite a bit of progress. Once again, here's the before photo of this part of the room:

I won some more wooden IKEA drawers on an eBay auction, which ended up costing me £16, plus £4 for sample pots to paint them with. I got straight onto the job and they were finished and ready to use within a couple of days. I transferred the contents of the metal drawers into them and they are now insitu underneath the set I found on the street.

With a bit of rearrangement, I was able to make this space a lot more organised and streamlined. It's still pretty cluttered, but in a more organised way that gives me more room to work at the desk. Here's what it looks like now:

There's still stuff under the desk, but I have got more leg room now and I was happy with the outcome of this part of the makeover.

I then went on to try to re-organise my fabrics which are housed in a chest of drawers. I'd pulled out lots of fabrics to use them recently and I'd not really put them back tidily, so some of the drawers were a bit messy. I've now gone through all of the drawers and re-folded all the fabric to get it to fit in and utilise the space better. Here are some photos:

I've now just got to re-organise the fabric that I keep in boxes on the shelves here:

These boxes have been a great temporary solution. I bought them for £4 each from ASDA quite a few years ago now and they were a super cheap solution at the time. However, the shape of the boxes does not make them ideal for fabric storage, so I'm looking out for something a bit more suitable, that also looks a bit better. I have a plan for re-using these boxes, so they will be used for another purpose eventually. 

I'll keep you posted with progress on these shelves.

Making Use of Another Street Find

As you probably know by now, I'm a sucker for a street find, and where I live, people are always putting things out on the street when they don't need/want them any longer.

The other week, I was walking the dog and I happened upon this plywood Virgin wine box. It had been left out on a night when it rained heavily, so it was a bit wet. (A few days on OH's underfloor heated office and it had dried out perfectly) I carried it home with me, as when I looked inside, it was compartmentalised and I was sure I could make good use of it for something.

After letting it dry out, I took it up to the sewing room, as this is the place where I probably have most need of good storage at the moment. I had an idea that it might be just what I needed to house all of my ink stamps.

They were currently housed in another box, which didn't fit all of them in, and I figured it would be good to get them all into one container. I removed one of the sections (they'd both got a little warped by getting wet, but were still useable. 

When I tried my stamps and ink pads in there, they all fitted perfectly. 

I then just needed to paint the red lid, to make it blend better with the storage I already had in the room and I stuck some pretty paper on it. 

I'm very happy with the outcome. These items can now be moved from under the desk, to somewhere else. I repurposed the box they were in to put my small travel iron in, that I sometimes use when sewing. 

Baby steps to creating a better crafting space.

A Mixed Week and a Romantic Gesture W/E 17/02/24

This week began in the usual way with a dog walk. I wasn't working again this weekend, which was great. When I got back from the dog walk, I had a lovely lunch and then took myself off to the sewing room again. I wanted to carry on working on the new piece of fabric I was making from scraps. 

I spent a lovely afternoon working on it. It took a while to finish and use all the pieces I'd sewn together, but I was happy enough with the finish. I decided to try to attach iron on interfacing to this piece, to strengthen it and make it slightly less floppy, but when I did try this it was a disaster and created all sorts of creases in the fabric, so I ended up ripping it off. It was a learning curve.

OH made us a lovely soup for supper, which was very tasty and we spent the evening watching a very crazy film about a record producer from the 1960's, which neither of us particularly enjoyed, but we got so invested in it we couldn't stop watching it. I did a bit of work on my tiny cross project whilst watching TV. The crosses are looking so much better, now that I'm sewing them together with coordinating thread.

On Monday, I took myself off to do the weekly shop, out of town this week. I needed quite a lot of things this week, so it was a more expensive shop. I used my £8 off voucher at Tesco, where I managed to bag quite a few yellow stickered items, so that helped and got a couple of free items from Lidl, using Lidl plus.

I bought some new dahlia tubers for the allotment at Lidl. They were only £1.49 each, so I bought these 3:

These cactus type dahlias are my favourites, as they have large flower heads. I also bought two packs of cress seeds for 29p each. I'm going to grow this on the kitchen windowsill and add it to my salads. 

Some colourful beetroot seeds came home with me from Poundland for £1. They look lovely in the jar, when you pickle the different colours together.

I was out for most of the day, and then when I got back I did some banking and got up to date on financials before making supper.

OH surprised me today, when he told me that he'd booked me a personal training session at a local weightlifting club, as a Valentine's gift. He knows that I'd love to learn how to lift weights/strength train properly, but he knew I would never book myself to do it, so he did it for me. I arranged to go along on Thursday of this week and was quite excited/nervous to see how it goes. A strangely romantic gesture.

Tuesday, I was booked into my usual class. It was a good workout. I was due to work in the evening. I didn't actually get a lot done before work, as I was preoccupied with a task that I'd got very behind on. Work was busy, but passed quickly. I was a bit late getting home as a consequence, but I wasn't due to work again until Friday, which made it okay.

I took the dog for a long walk first thing on Wednesday and then headed to Soca Aerobics. I wasn't really feeling it on this particular morning, as I'd got a bit wet on the rainy dog walk, but I made myself go and I enjoyed it when I got there. 

In the afternoon, I needed to go and collect my new prescription sunglasses from the opticians. It ended up being a bit of a disaster, as they'd put clear lenses in them and not tinted. I got the impression that they thought it was my fault for not expressing what I wanted. I'm pretty sure I made it clear, but they didn't seem willing to budge. I said I'd be willing to pay half the cost of getting the lenses replaced for tinted i.e. £15 and later got a call to say they'd agreed to this as an act of good will(!), but I came way feeling very disappointed with their inability to get it right in the first place. 

I dropped into B&Q afterwards, to get some more paint for some drawers that I bought on eBay at the weekend and that I'm hoping will be delivered later in the week.

After the disappointment over the sunglasses, I spent the rest of the afternoon in the sewing room, making up the third and final project bag. I was pretty happy with how this one turned out. I used some left over hexies to add a bit of interest to the plain pieces of fabric. I appliqued these on later. Here's a couple of pictures:

(Apologies for the dark pictures, the lighting wasn't very good)

It is now housing the hexi star project which is getting bigger.

On Thursday morning, my wooden drawers arrived. They are pretty much the same as the ones I painted last week. I started to paint them the same colour, as I want them to stand on top of one another. I did a bit of painting each day until they were finished.

In the afternoon, I went for my personal training session at the weightlifting club.  I'd never done anything like it before. It was interesting, but there was a lot to take in with regard to technique and the exercises I did, even with very light weights felt quite strenuous. I came away with legs like jelly and have been stiff ever since. I'm thinking of continuing with it by attending classes, but I probably need another personal training session before I do. I'll keep you posted with what I decide to do.

Friday, I was working in the evening, so I stayed home and caught up on some small jobs, did more painting of the drawers, laundry etc., before getting ready and heading into work. Work was steady, but busy as always.

On Saturday morning, I went to the free gym session again. I had a good session and needed it to loosen up the tightness in my muscles after the weightlifting training. I felt better for it. I then finished the painting of the drawers, lined them with paper and transferred the contents of the metal drawers into them. The new arrangement looks a lot less cluttered and I'm pretty happy with it. I'll post separately about it when I've made a few more changes to the room.

Later, I got showered and ready for work. I was scheduled to work 4 consequetive nights and then I should get 5 nights off, unless the rota changes, which it sometimes does.

This week has not been quite as productive a week as last week, but I have tried to make some progress each day, on the various things that I'm trying to achieve, be it my fitness journey, sewing or re-organising the sewing room.

I hope you've had a good week.

Sewing Room Spruce Up

My sewing room has been feeling a bit cluttered of late.  This is especially the case on and around the desk area. I spend quite a bit of time in the room, sewing and journalling and I'm not entirely happy with the current layout.

Here's a picture:

I feel a need to completely re-organise this corner of the room and find better storage solutions, even if it means spending a little money to do so. It is very congested, especially under and around the desk. Ideally, I want to remove the metal drawers, but need somewhere to store the contents, which include items such as my hot glue gun, heavy duty stapler, fabric paint, lino cutting tools, etc.etc.

The shelves in the alcove aren't too bad, as they have plenty of storage that houses quite a lot of things I use regularly, but I would like to make a few small tweaks here and there too.

I own a lot of vintage thread, that I am slowly working my way through. This is a throwback from my thrifting days, when I frequented charity shops more than I do now. I would always pick up odd reels of vintage thread for pennies and I have quite a collection. I decided to sort through it. I have an idea to store some of it on a little shelving unit that I bought a few months back. I decided to try it out and here's what it looks like: 

I quite like it. It would be hung on the wall next to the desk and would make the thread very accessible. This way, I would probably be more inclined to reach for it and actually use it. I would most likely secure the reels with sticky dots or velcro to stop them falling off.

I also have a sewing basket that I keep threads in and a spool holder that sits out on the side, so as you can see, I have a lot.

The top layer is brand new thread, still sealed in it's packaging, some vintage, some modern.  Below this, is another layer of threads of various less appealing colours.

This spool holder is perfect for the threads I use most often. I use bright colours for basting when I'm doing patchwork. I also like to keep a selection out to use on various scrap projects.

You can see what I'm up against, and this does not even include the fabric I have stored in this room. Fortunately, most of this is all stored out of sight in drawers or boxes, which keeps it quite tidy and orderly. I'm hoping I can find some better solutions to make this room look tidier and less cluttered. I'll keep you posted with progress.

A Productive Week - Part 2 - W/E 10/2/24

This week has so far passed in a relative flurry of activity on my part, which has been rare in recent months. I think having a few days off over the weekend allowed me to recover from what has been a very busy period and I came out of the other side feeling much more motivated and energised. In part one of this week's post, I mentioned what I'd got up to at the beginning of the week. This post will carry on where the last one left off on Wednesday of this week.

On Wednesday, I got out early with the dog again, so I had 45 minutes before I needed to head to Soca Aerobics. I decided to make it count and set about sorting the death pile on the top landing.  Here's a picture:

It's the place I put everything that I want to donate and it builds up over time. It was looking a bit unruly, so I wanted to get it in some sort of order.  It didn't take long and looked a lot better afterwards. At least everything is boxed and bagged up ready to go. I did add some clothes to the pile the following day, so it is now slightly bigger.

I walked to my class. It was a different teacher this week, but she gave us a good class. It took me to over 10,000 steps before lunchtime.

In the afternoon, I decided to tackle the ironing basket, as we'd run out of kitchen/tea towels, as they were all sat in the basket. I then put all the laundry away, so that's another job I managed to get up to date with. I was at work in the evening and it was busy, as the section I was working on needed a lot of work.

On Thursday, I had nothing planned, not even a dog walk, as OH was taking her out, so I had the whole day to do as I pleased. It was filthy wet outside, so it was a day to spend inside at home. I decided to carry out a big wardrobe declutter. I've been struggling to get anything in and out of the wardrobe lately, as it was so full and some of the items in it, I probably don't wear and won't wear again now that I've lost weight. 

I decided to be very methodical and ruthless. I tried on almost every single item of clothing in the wardrobe, (save for a handful of things I knew I wanted to keep). Anything that was way too big either went in storage if I still really liked it, or was donated if I didn't. I'm not taking for granted that I can keep the weight I've lost off and I don't want to struggle for clothing if I do put some weight back on. Hopefully, I won't, but who knows what might happen in the future.

Anyway, it took about 3 hours, but by then end I'd accumulated a big pile to donate and the space in the wardrobe was much easier to navigate. In order to make room to store the clothes I didn't yet want to part with, I went through a stored bag of clothing, that I've kept from when I was a smaller size. I tried on everything in that bag too and was so happy to find that the vast majority of the items now fitted me. A few made their way back into my wardrobe and some were transferred to the summer clothing bag, that is also stored away. I will go through this bag when the time to get the summer clothes out comes around. I'm sure there'll be lots more things in there that are way too big for me now.  I'm looking forward to wearing some of the items that now fit me when the weather warms up.

A few things in the storage bag were still very slightly snug, so they went back into storage until I've lost a bit more weight and then I'll try them on again. I can't explain how lovely it was to know that I could now fit into most of the stored clothes. Some of them are like old friends and some I've never actually fitted into since I bought them, believe it or not.  Just goes to show you can never say never, although I've wanted to lose weight for a long time, I never thought I'd be successful in doing it.

By the time I'd finished it was 3pm and I just had time to make a late lunch before I needed to get ready for work. Work was busy. It's constantly busy on the section I work, to try to get everything tidy by the end of the shift.

In other news, I received a couple of Tesco clubcard vouchers through the post on Thursday, giving me £8 off my next shop there, regardless of how much I spend. These will come in very useful. Certainly not to be sniffed at.

On Friday, I had a bit of a lie in, as I often find it hard to get to sleep when I work until 10pm. I didn't really want to get out of bed, if I'm honest, but once I did I went into the bathroom and decided to give it a deep clean. It's been bugging me for a while, but I've just not had the motivation. It felt good to get on top of it. Another job done. 

Later, I continued the cleaning by vacuuming and mopping all down the stairs and the hallway. It doesn't take too long, but does make a big difference when you come in the door. I've got a lot more cleaning to do in the house, so this was a start at least.

I had a late lunch again before work. I'm finding that having a late lunch before work, is working well for me and makes me much less hungry towards the end of the shift, which is good. It's difficult to do on days when I've been to the gym though, as I come home ravenous and need to eat lunch straight away.

On Saturday, I went along to the free gym session in the morning. I really enjoyed it and had a pretty good workout. I had my now usual weekend breakfast later. I find I really look forward to eating something different for breakfast on the weekend. A small habit change, but it is very enjoyable.

I was feeling a bit grumpy on Saturday afternoon, because of something that happened when I got back from the gym, which I won't go into here. Nothing to do with myself or OH, it was a third party that put me in a grumpy mood. To soothe myself, I took myself off to the sewing room for the afternoon, as it is my happy place.

I did a bit of sorting, with a view to reorganising the space a little. (More in another post coming soon). I then proceeded to make the second, much bigger project bag from the fabric I made the other day. Here's a picture of how it turned out:

This bag is very big. It currently has the grey quilt I'm making inside it and the fabric I'm currently using to make it, and there is still plenty of space.  This is a good bag for projects that are well on their way to being completed or that I am using lots of different fabrics to make. I was happy with the outcome.

I also started making a third bag, again this one is going to be quite a large one, as the one that is currently housing my star quilt will not be big enough for much longer. This one is being made with navy, green and brown fabric scraps, some of which were left over from making small quilts for our dog. This time, I just sewed lots of random scraps together. I didn't lay out all of the pieces first. I'm just kind of making it up as I go along and hoping for the best. I'll let you know when I progress further with it.

I wasn't working again on Saturday night, so I made us a meal of beef burgers with sweetcorn cobs and roasted new potatoes. It made a lovely change. Later, we planned to settle down to watch a series on Prime called Expats, that we started watching last week. It stars Nicole Kidman and is quite good.

It's been a very productive week this week. I wish every week could be just as productive. The house would be in a much better state if it was. I hope you've had a good week.

A Productive Week With More Spare Time - Part One - W/E 10th February 2024

This week started with a few days off. I wasn't working over the weekend and my hours for this week got changed, so I was working less shifts. I was very happy about this, as I'd previously been down to work five evening shifts this week.

As a consequence, I had a few consequetive days off, which meant that I had lots of spare time to do a few things that I'd been meaning to do for a while.

On Sunday, I had a nice walk with the dog, as OH was cycling again. Later, I decided to do the weekly shop a day early, as we'd run out of a lot of the foods we eat regularly. I stayed local and went to our local Lidl again. It does help to keep me away from the temptation of going into some of the many shops on the out of town retail parks where I normally shop.

I did a bit of patchwork on and off over the weekend, which was nice, as I hadn't done any for quite a while and then on Sunday night, I felt like I wanted to do something creative, so I went through my scrap basket once again found lots of scraps I wanted to work with to make another project bag. This time, I chose purple and burgundy scraps and added in a few other fabrics from my stash to make a big enough piece of fabric to work with. I set them out on the bed in a way that I thought would work well and then set them aside to sew together another day. This definitely scratched my creative itch.

On Monday, I didn't need to go anywhere. OH was walking the dog and I had done the weekly shop, so I got to spend the day at home. OH and I finally got around to putting the Xmas tree and decorations back in the loft, which cleared a lot of space in the sewing room, so I did a bit of a tidy in there.

Later, I went down for breakfast and then spent the rest of the morning deconstructing a patchwork project that I wasn't a fan of (more in another post). In the afternoon, I did a bit of painting. I'd picked up a small set of wooden drawers off the street, on the way to the gym a few months ago and I finally got around to giving it it's first coat of paint. I had a couple of tester pots in the cupboard that I used for this, so it didn't cost anything to do.

Here's the before:

There were a couple of drawers missing, so I painted the front of the bottom and determined to line it with pretty paper to make it into a shelf. I planned to put the drawers in the sewing room alongside others that I have. 

I was going to paint the second coat in the evening, but I got a call asking me if I would work, so I got ready and went in for a few hours to help them out.

On Tuesday morning, I got up and ready to go to my usual class at the gym. I had an hour to kill before heading out, so I put another coat of paint on the drawers. It felt good to get this done. It's a small job to spruce these drawers up, but I just hadn't found the time or inclination in the madness of the last couple of months.  It's done now though and I'm very happy with the results. Good enough, for something that cost me nothing but a bit of time and effort. Here's a photo of the drawers finished with pretty paper lining the drawers and 'shelf':

Here's another picture of them insitu in the sewing room:

I proceeded to fill them with things that I need to get access to easily when I'm sewing. Baby steps towards better organisation in the sewing room and hopefully making it a less cluttered and more easily useable space.

I then did some sewing on my machine on Tuesday afternoon and made up another piece of fabric using scraps to make into another project bag. Here's a picture of the fabric made:

This is a much bigger piece than the last one, but it actually took less time to make, partly because I'd made one before and knew better how to assemble it and partly because many of the pieces were larger, which also made it quicker.  It should, hopefully, make a much bigger bag/basket. I cut some fabric to size for the lining and made an inside pocket from more scraps and now I just need to sew it all together.

As I've been quite productive this week, I've decided to divide this post into two parts. See you in the second one.

Sewing with Scraps - A Fail - Deconstructing to Reconstruct

Last year some time, I found a great little quilting kit in the charity shop. It was for making projects with one inch square pieces. I figured it would be a great size to use up lots of small fabric scraps I had in my scrap basket.

I almost immediately set to using up my fabric scraps to make inch square pieces that I then made into small cross blocks and I then started to sew them together. I wasn't quite sure what I was going to use this patchwork for or what it would end up being. 

Here's a picture of how it progressed:

The problem was, I wasn't very happy with it, for several reasons, so I put it aside and gave up on it. I came across it again the other day and had a serious think about it. I didn't want to continue with it the way that it was. The main reasons being that my stitching was sloppy and I'd made my stitches way too big. I'd also made the mistake of using only white cotton to sew all the pieces together, regardless of the colour of fabric and on some of the darker fabrics, the stitches were very noticable and just stood out way too much . 

A second mistake I made, was using any old fabric that I had to hand, in my enthusiasm to use up my scraps. Some of the larger prints just didn't really lend themselves well to being made into such small patchwork pieces and in addition, some of the different styles of the prints didn't seem to blend well together.  As a consequence the outcome just didn't look the way I had hoped. I just didn't really like it.

I decided that I could do one of three things: carry on regardless of my doubts and complete a make that I didn't like and which I knew would irritate me; throw the whole thing away which seemed too much of a waste; or deconstruct it and start again using only the fabrics that I thought suited the project well. I decided to do the latter.

It took a few hours to unpick all of the blocks. I set aside the ones I wanted to keep and then I deconstructed them further back into 1" squares, so that I can sew them back together using matching coloured thread. I have no excuse not to do this, as I have a basket full of cotton reels of all colours. I think I was just being lazy using white cotton unilaterally.

I'm now looking forward to re-making it, whilst trying to make my stitches a lot smaller and less noticeable. I'm sticking with very ditsy floral or spot prints for the theme going forward, as I think it's important to consider scale and size of the fabric print used when making tiny patchwork pieces.  It's definitely been a learning curve, but hopefully I'm now on the right track.

I'll let you know how it progresses.

Sewing with Scraps - Making a Project Bag/Basket

I've been working a lot over the last few weeks, so I haven't really had the chance to do anything very creative. As a consequence, when I did get a bit of free time a couple of weeks ago, I decided to use it as sewing time. I'd watched a couple of videos since Xmas, of people using scraps to make fabric and then making something out of the new fabric, and it made me want to have a go myself. One particular video was by Kate at The Last Homely House. She made a lovely little sewing pouch out of her scraps and it really inspired me.

Anyway, one afternoon I took myself off to my sewing room and started with a good rummage in my scrap basket. It was a bit of a mess, so I sorted through all of the scraps looking for inspiration. I sorted some of the scraps into piles to use, namely all of the grey fabric scraps and some blue/green scraps. I decided to work with the grey and black scraps and so I then set about making a piece of fabric from them.

I had a vague idea of what I was going to do with it once it was made. I wanted to make some sort of project bag for my quilting projects, to keep everything tidy and at hand. I've always got quite a few projects on the go at any one time, so it's useful to be able to keep them separate and have individual bags to put them in. 

I proceeded to lay out all of the grey scraps on the bed to make up a reasonable sized piece of fabric and then I began the long process of stitching them all together using my machine. It was quite fiddly and frustrating at times and you have to be quite methodical about the order you stitch the various pieces together, so it took quite a long time, probably 3 hours. By the end, I had a new piece of fabric and had virtually used up all of the grey/black fabric scraps in my basket, which felt very satisfying.

I then had to decide what I was going to do with the resulting fabric. I decided to make a kind of bucket bag/basket. I stitched two of the sides of the made fabric together to make a bag and then made a lining out of some more coordinating fabric from a bigger length. The back of the pieced together fabric was a bit messy, so lining it was essential to hide this. I wanted to make it stand up, so I sewed across the corners and cut the excess fabric off  to give it a flat bottom. I did the same to the lining. I then rolled the inside lining out at the top to make it look a little like a basket. I also added pockets to the front and the inside too, to hold needle books, scissors, thread, etc.

Here's a picture of the finished result:

Front

Back

It's not perfect, but I was really happy with the outcome. It's housing my current star quilt project at the moment and it feels good to have made something useful and practical out of my scraps again. It's one of my favourite things to do. I need a few project bags, so I may have a go at making more when I get the chance.

A New Month - W/E 3rd February 2024

This week got off to a lovely start with an old favourite dog walk on Sunday morning. I bundled the dog into the car and we went to a not so local park, where we used to walk a lot, until they changed the parking restrictions. It was really busy. There were kids playing rugby at the nearby rugby club, lots of rowers at the rowing club and people playing tennis in the park, in addition to people jogging and walking dogs, etc. London parks are so well used, especially on weekends. We had a nice walk though and then made our way home.

In the afternoon, I decided to christen my new muffin tin and finally make some breakfast muffins, after seeing another YouTuber make some on a video. They turned out okay. Here's a picture:

I probably should have waited until they'd cooled down, but I couldn't resist trying one as soon as they were out of the oven. So simple to make. I used 4 eggs, salt and pepper and a splash of milk and then chopped up onions, peppers, tomato and chorizo to add in. I cooked them at 180 degrees for 20 minutes and they cooked perfectly. They'll be a nice savoury addition to salads or even just nice to eat as a healthy snack. They probably don't contain more than 100 calories each.

On Monday, it was weekly shop day again. (It comes around so quickly) I stayed local this week and went to my local Lidl. It was very busy. I had a 10% off voucher to use, so I saved £7 on my shop which was good. I can't buy everything I need at the local store, so I had to go to a large local Tesco store to get the rest. It was a lot lower spend this week, which is a relief at the end of the month.

Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty normal days. Classes at the gym in the morning, work on the evenings and time inbetween to do necessary household tasks, keep on top of my finances at the end of the month, a bit of reading, some sewing and anything else I fancied doing. 

As mentioned in my last post, I was offered a permanent contract at work on Wednesday evening, which was good news, with a slight hourly rate rise, but slightly fewer hours, all of which is fine by me. It's a relief to know that I don't need to start looking for a job again. I'm happy to do a couple of shifts a week on a regular basis. I don't need heaps of money to get by these days, as I've honed my skills in living simply and generally spending less (December and January excluded).

On Thursday, I had a nice walk with the dog. We were out early and it was busy with parents dropping off children at school. I rarely get out that early when I walk the dog. I was back by 10.30 am and as I wasn't due at work until 5pm, I decided to clean out one of the kitchen cupboards.

I started with the food cupboard, as I'd been meaning to do it for a while. I'd noticed there were lots of crumbs on the shelves. I was quite ruthless this time. Anything we don't eat, or that was long out of date went in the bin or food waste bag. There's no point giving kitchen space to things I've bought on a whim and then left in the cupboard for years. I threw out quite a few spices that had hardened in the jars. I mostly had fresher replacements, but if I didn't they were probably things we never use anyway. It felt good to get the job done, except for the fact that I was tempted into finishing off some peanut butter.

Later, before getting ready for work, I decided to read for a while. I'm currently reading Capital by John Lanchester. I bought it from a charity shop. It's a fictional book about a street in South London and the residents who live and work there. It's not that recent, as it's set just before the 2008 financial crisis, but it is still very relevant today, in relation to the themes of the book. I'm really enjoying it, which is unusual for me, as I rarely read these days.

After reading for a little while, I suddenly remembered that I had to catch the bus to work as OH was using the car that night, so I quickly had to get showered and ready, as I needed to allow more time. Luckily, the buses I needed to catch arrived promptly and I got there half an hour early. I ended up killing some time in Poundland and spent more than I intended, when I got tempted by some gym leggings for £10. (I've worn them since and they fit super well and are very good quality.) I definitely don't need anymore now.

Work was good. I managed to see one of the managers before they left for another store, which I was happy about as I didn't think I'd get the chance to say goodbye. She was very sweet and kind and I enjoyed working with her.  OH picked me up later on his way home.

On Friday, I booked myself into the gym and had a really good session for an hour and a half. When I got home, I had a little time to get ready before heading out to ASDA for an eye test at the opticians there. I used to go there for many years, but changed to a local optician. However, I've changed back, as I got fed up of all the extras that they tried to persuade you to pay for. Going back to ASDA was so straightforward. The price on the glasses included lenses and I just had to pay for the eye test on top. No hidden extras. 

My prescription had hardly changed, so I didn't get new glasses, but I did order a new pair of prescription sunglasses, as the optician said there were signs of some sun damage to my eyes. I think my current pair have a very old prescription in them and the frames are a little large and fall off my face all the time, so it was time for a change. The new ones cost £80 and are a bit of a style departure for me (I'll post when I get them), but this seemed very reasonable and I'm excited to be all set for summer.

I spent the rest of the day chilling, baking, doing laundry, watching a limited series called Fool Me Once, that I started began watching on Netflix this week. Absolute bliss. I made some more egg muffins using the same recipe, but smaller ones this time. I bought another muffin pan, that makes 12 small muffins. These are a much better snacking size and are probably only 50 calories each. They turned out well. Here's a picture:

One other small highlight of the week, was that my amaryllis started flowering this week and there's still another unopened bud waiting to burst into life too.

On Saturday, I didn't go to the gym, as I'd gone the day before and OH was out cycling, so I needed to take the dog for a walk. We had a nice walk over some marshland, which we haven't visited for a while. Later, I did some jobs around the house, some sewing, pottered in the garden doing a bit of pruning and tidying here and there and then made us a vegan sausage casserole for supper. I wasn't at work at all this weekend and it was lovely to spend the weekend at home.

It's been a very positive week on the whole. I hope your week has been positive too.

January Progress

It's been a very busy January for me this year. It's always a little busy, especially at the beginning, as LB's birthday falls in the first half of the month, so I'm usually preparing for that the first couple of weeks and we usually have a family night out at some point. We had the odd extra event to attend this month too, but most of my time was spent working.

As I've previously mentioned, I have been employed on a temporary contract for the last few months and didn't know if I'd be kept on beyond the end date in February, so I'd accepted extra hours when they were offered, to make the most of the time left.  It has left me a little tired at times, but I'm not complaining. To be honest, I'm always thankful for the distraction of being busy, particularly when LB goes back to Uni after Christmas, so it's mostly been welcome. Anyway, I was offered a permanent contract on the last day of this month, so that has been a positive this month. It's for slightly less hours, but that is fine as I'd prefer to work a little less as opposed to more hours.

On the financial front, I haven't been as low spend as I intended at the start of the year. I've had a few visits to charity shops and bought a few items for myself to wear/use, plus other bits and pieces. I don't regret any of them though. I think it's sometimes hard to get back to normal spending patterns after the spendiness of the festive season and it usually takes me a few weeks for my spending to settle down, especially if I'm working and have money coming in regularly.  Also, there are always sales and special offers out there at this time of year and it's easy to get tempted by them.

I have replaced a few things in the house this month, by buying things at work using my staff discount, namely some kitchen towels and a bath mat. I've still got a few more things to buy, but there is no hurry and they are not particularly expensive items. I'm waiting for products that I like and that are practical to come into the store. (I like dark, as opposed to light coloured textiles for using around the home, as I think they last longer, in the sense that they don't stain as easily, especially when in daily use, i.e. tea towels and kitchen towels)

I have utilised quite a few money off vouchers, at both Tesco, Lidl and Poundland this month, which has saved me some money and meant that I've stocked up on quite a lot of things. As a consequence, February should be a much lower spend month on food and toiletries. I also don't have any big birthdays to buy presents for in February, so that will make it a less expensive month in that regard.

I have decided to got back to putting money aside every month this year, to buy birthday and other gifts, as I have my nephew's wedding gift coming up later in the year, which will be quite a big expense. I'm going to try to put aside at least £50-£100 per month for gifts, birthdays and next Xmas, so that I don't need to get anxious about money as the festive season approaches again.

In relation to our house, OH has also made progress this month with some DIY. He started and finished work on the front bay windows, that were replaced this time last year. They are fine from the outside, but the trims inside needed to be replaced and the shutters re-hung and he has now done this work and painted it all, so the living room is now back to normal. I for one will be grateful for having shutters up again, as they do afford more privacy.

In other areas of life, I feel like I've also made progress in January. I've been to the doctor's for a blood pressure check, tracked my BP and pulse readings for a week and been told they were within normal parameters, which is good news. I've been to the dentist and paid for a check up and having my teeth cleaned. I've booked an eye test and I've continued on my weight loss journey. My weight is slowly starting to move in the right direction again, after all of my festive indulgences.

The walking challenge I set myself, to walk 1,000 miles in 2024 is going well. I need to walk approximately 135 km per month to meet the target of 1,000 miles in a year and I have walked 165 km this month, which puts me a little ahead in the challenge. This is despite not tracking steps on a couple of days, when my pedometer accidentally got switched off.

I haven't yet started doing any running at all. Not sure when this will happen, but there's still plenty of the year left to make a start on this. 

I feel happy that I've made progress in January. I'm hoping that February will be a bit less spendy, but I do possibly need to order a new pair of glasses when I have my eye test, I need to complete the much procrastinated task of applying for a new passport and I need to get my hair cut, which will all cost money. I'll keep you updated with how I get on.

How was your January?