This week started with a lie in. I'm not getting to sleep until 3am most mornings, so I end up sleeping in to catch up on sleep. It's very annoying. Anyway, I got up and ready this morning. When I looked out of the front window, the car tyre was flat again. I was going to go out of town to get the last few bits I needed for the week, but I decided not to risk it, even if OH did reinflate the tyre. I have to go on large, busy roads and I would be stranded if it got flat whilst I was out.
Instead, I decided to go for a walk and get some steps in. En route I went through a local park that I hadn't been to for a while and discovered a new outdoor gym had been installed, with quite a few good machines to work out on. The timing was perfect, as that morning, I'd got an email telling me that my gym was closing on Xmas Eve for 3 years. The outdoor gym might be my best option going forward, as other gyms in the borough are a cycle or bus ride away.
After that discovery, and trying out a few of the machines, I continued with my walk. I decided to stop off at the local Xmas Tree shop, which sets up every December to sell trees. I asked if they had any loose fir branches, as I needed them to try to make a wreath for the front door. They were great and showed me to a pile of discarded branches and told me to help myself. I offered to pay, but they said I could take them for free, so I was very grateful. I'd seen some fir branches for sale in Lidl for £6.99 and described as wreaths! Anyway, I filled a small bag and continued home. I've now got fir branches, bay branches from a tree in the garden, rosemary that I need to harvest from the allotment and lots of ivy growing over the front wall, all of which should make up a nice wreath when combined with dried orange slices and maybe even nuts in shells.
I've decided that this year is the year that I'm going to give handmade wreath making a go. I've never done it before, but I've got the time, I've got some materials, I've watched a few YouTube videos on the subject and I'm ready to give it a try. I'll post separately about the results.
I spent the rest of the afternoon tweaking the Xmas decorations. I put up the fabric paper chain, put the decoration bags and boxes back upstairs out of the way and then hung some laundry out. OH, meanwhile, hung out the Xmas lights in the front and back gardens, which is nice to look out on, on dark winter afternoons/evenings. Once I've done a bit more cleaning and made the wreath, we'll be all set and it will just be a case of wrapping presents, writing cards and baking for the festive holiday.
On Monday evening, I ventured out to my last Charleston dance class. To warm up, the teacher taught us a little Xmas Charleston Walk, which had us mimicking carrying santa sacks, eating Xmas pudding, throwing snowballs, slipping on the ice, pulling Xmas crackers and more. It was so fun. Later, she handed out mini mince pies and chocolates, which was very sweet of her. I wasn't really feeling like going out when I set off, but I had a lovely time once I got there. I'm thinking of booking another set of Jazz Solo classes in January with the same teacher, but I'll just have to see how the finances go.
On Tuesday morning, I got up and ready to go to my usual class at the gym. I was tired after the class the night before, but it was good to keep moving. After the class, I walked down into the town to get a few bits of shopping. First stop was the Card Factory, for a few individual cards for family members. I then dropped into Crisis Charity shop, as I still had an £8 gift card burning a hole in my phone (it was digital). On this visit I did manage to find a few bits to spend it on.
My final stop was Tesco for a few groceries I didn't get from Lidl at the weekend. I also picked up the TV guide for over Xmas and New Year, which cost £1.80 (Cheap version, not TV Times). When I got home I lost a few hours of my life going through it, to circle all the mildly interesting programmes I wanted to watch over the festive period. To be honest, there weren't a lot. There is a Christmas edition of Amandaland on Xmas Day which might be funny, a new series of Traitors starting at New Year, a Celebrity Xmas Sewing Bee and a couple of other things, but not much else. I'll probably end up watching some nostalgic stuff, such as an Xmas episode of The Good Life.
When I got back, OH had just got back from taking the car to have the tyre looked at. The garage did some work to remedy the problem. I'm just hoping it works and we don't have any more flat tyres for the foreseeable.
On Wednesday, I woke up a bit groggy, as I only got a couple of hours sleep. There's so much going on at this time of year that when I get to bed stuff is all churning over in my mind. Anyway, I got up and ready and decided to go for a walk. Part of my reason for doing so, was to gather more greenery for my Xmas wreath. I'd seen some ivy berries on my previous walk and wanted to harvest some on the way round. I also found some holly, although not with berries, as I leave those for the birds. On the way home, I dropped in at the allotment and harvested some rosemary and then last stop was to cut some ivy from the front wall.
One of the items I recently bought on eBay came today, namely, this cute vintage Xmas decoration:
I have to admit that I did think what have I done. It seemed much smaller than I expected, but I actually really quite like it. It's very naive and kitsch and I love the little robin.
I decided that today was the day that I was going to make the wreath. I'd been procrastinating and putting it off, as I think I was a bit scared to do it, which sounds silly, but it's how I felt. Anyway, it wasn't actually too bad in the end and I was pleased with the outcome. I've made a separate post about it.
After tidying up after this messy job, I made Toad in the Hole for supper. LB and OH were both going out, so we needed to eat early. I stayed home and watched The Game of Wool again and had a chilled evening and was in bed by 10pm which is a rarity for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment