A Varied Week and a Fabric Stash Count - W/E 16th March 2024

This week has been quite a mixed one. It started off with some bad news for LB. There was another incident at her Uni halls, which shook things up. She was away at the time with her work placement, which I am grateful for to be honest. 

The weather was filthy on Sunday, grey and rainy all day and night. Horrible. I'm over all of this rain, although I know we need it to replenish the water table. Despite the rain, OH and our neighbour managed to get a few more fence panels up, which was good.

I was working on Sunday afternoon, so after a leisurely morning sewing and pottering, I headed off to work. It was not as crazy busy as the previous Sunday had been, so passed without incident. I even left a bit early. 

LB, meanwhile, was travelling back from the event she'd been to over the weekend, but unfortunately the minibus got a puncture and they had to call the RAC, who came out to them. Luckily, they were at a service station and not on the motorway, which was something else to be grateful for.

As a consequence, she was home later than expected, so OH and I picked her up from the drop off point and brought her home. It was good to get her home, especially as it sounded like she'd had quite a manic weekend. She needed to rest and get a good night's sleep before heading back to Uni the next day.

On Monday morning, LB packed up and headed back to Uni. I dropped her off at the station and then took the dog to a different place we don't often go to for a walk, which made a change. It was another grey and depressing day. I'm really looking forward to some sunshine now, when we do eventually get any.

Later, I did the weekly shop locally, as I was due to work in the evening. The time flew by and after putting away the shopping and having some lunch, it was time to get ready and go to work.

On Tuesday morning, I'd booked into my usual class. I made sure to book the day after last week's class and got a place easily for once. It felt good to go back. I did appreciate it more for missing the previous week's class. Three sessions in the gym in one week was too much for me, I prefer a bit of diversity in my exercise regime.

After returning from the class and having lunch, I decided to hole myself up in the sewing room and do an audit of my fabric stash, which I posted about earlier in the week.  It was an interesting and enlightening process, when you actually quantify your fabric collection.

On Wednesday, I had a quiet day at home. I just didn't really want to go anywhere. OH took the dog out and dropped in at the allotment to plant some potato seeds and then when he returned, we moved a few things around in the garden to straighten things up after work was done on the fence at the weekend.

I spent the rest of the day working on my Hexi Star patchwork project and then continuing with the fabric count I'd started the day before. This time, I tackled the fullest drawer of fabric. It felt very satisfying to get this one done.  The remainder of my stash is divided between various locations in the sewing room, so it will be a case of working my way around the room, digging out, measuring and documenting every piece. There's no real hurry to complete the count, so I'll just do a bit here and a bit there when I've got some spare time and the inclination, until it's all been accounted for. I'm quite enjoying the process, but spending at most a couple of hours at a time on it is quite enough.

Later, on Wednesday evening, OH and I watched a good film on Netflix called Infinite Storm.

Thursday, was a busy day. When I got up, I needed to I take my 4 weekly body measurements and selfies, as part of documenting my fitness/weightloss journey. My weight loss has once again slowed down this last week, which is disappointing, but I guess that's just part and parcel of the process. I still lost 1/2 lb and my measurements reduced very slightly, but I just have to be patient and consistent and hopefully things will continue to move in the right direction. After having lost 2 and a half stone since last June, I'm down to losing the last 10 or 11 pounds to reach my preferred weight goal and I kind of expect it to be more difficult at this stage and possibly take much longer. I may need to change some of the things that I'm currently doing to get the eventual outcome that I'm hoping for.

After doing the above, I took the dog out for a walk and then after lunch, I booked a gym session and headed off there.

In the evening, OH and I had been invited to an art exhibition opening night, by an artist friend of his, so we headed into town for that, which was quite exciting, as I've never actually been to one before. It was taking place in Soho in Central London, so we got the train and tube to Oxford Circus and had a nice walk around the area on our way to the event.

It was a nice sociable evening meeting and talking to people I didn't know well. After the opening, we retired to the pub for an hour with everyone and then headed off on our own to get something to eat before coming home.

On Friday morning, I came across an interesting course that I fancied studying locally, whilst scrolling Instagram. Sometimes doomscrolling can have positive outcomes. I applied for the course. It starts in April through to July and it's a Level 2 qualification. I won't give details yet, I'll wait and see if I get onto it. It's not too expensive for what it is and I may be able to get help with the cost, or possibly even pay it in installments over 10 months, which might be a good option.

Once I'd eventually got up, I needed to pick up the car from where we'd left it near the train station the night before, so I took the dog for a walk and picked it up en route. Meanwhile, our neighbour had rented another van and he and OH loaded it with all the rubbish and debris from the fence replacement work and took it to the tip. They then put up the rest of the new fence. It was nice to come back to a completed fence, no rubbish cluttering up the decking and and raised beds newly unearthed and ready to sew some salad seeds into. Here's a picture of the progress:

All I needed to do was sweep up the debris left behind on the decking and through the house which was very easy. I then decided to do a bit of pruning and hang out some bird seed. Our next job will be to dismantle the shed and heavily prune the trees on the other side of the garden, so that we can take the old fence panels out and put new fence panels in. Exciting. I can't wait to get stuck in and get it done. We just need some dry weather to be able to get on with it.

After lunch on Friday, I retired to the sewing room and then promptly fell asleep for the rest of the afternoon. I must have needed it.

On Saturday, I headed off to the gym first thing and got in a free session. Next week is the last free session until the end of April. The end of term comes around so quickly. 

OH picked me up from the gym, as we had an errand to run. There was another Zero Waste event today and I had a bunch of stuff that had been clogging up the landing to take and donate.  It felt good to drop this off and clear the space.  There's just one bag left that I need to take to the charity shop and a couple of items I need to drop off at the Little Free Library. With the pile of doom gone, it looks a lot better.

I wasn't working this Saturday and OH was out cycling in the afternoon, so I had the house to myself to potter around in. I spent most of it sewing. The Hexi star quilt is coming along nicely and is currently a joy to work on. I love having a hobby that is so inexpensive to participate in and brings me such pleasure.

Ultimately, it's been a varied week this week, with some progress being made, which makes me happy.