The last week of February started with a lie in. I finished reading 'Worn - A People's History of Clothing' by Sofi Thanhauser. It was one of those books that I was sad to finish, as I have enjoyed it. I relished delving into a new chapter every time I picked it up.
Anyway, I then read the first chapter of another book, which is essentially about food waste. It was written in 2009, so it is probably a little dated, but hopefully I'll enjoy reading it. I think perhaps there is more done to prevent food waste these days, as lots of supermarkets now seem to be on board with distributing their unsold items to charities or foodbanks. There is, however, probably still a lot of food waste happening in the world, so it is still worth reading. We try very hard not to waste any food in our house, but occasionally we have little option than to throw out or compost some items that are beyond redemption.
After getting up and ready, I headed out to do the weekly shop. I had a limited budget this week of around £82, which I knew wasn't quite enough to get everything I needed. I did put £13 worth of stuff on my credit card, which will be paid off next month, and the rest came out of the £82 budget. I managed it just, with 8p to spare. Hopefully, I won't need to spend any further money this week, but if I do the credit card will have to come out again.
I managed to get quite a few yellow stickered items again this week, which was good and the freezer is full, so we've got more than we actually need for the week. I seem to have overspent on food this month by £60, which is probably on account of stocking up on quite a lot of things. It's fine though, it will all get eaten.
LB made use of the new crafting table on Monday afternoon, which is good. Talking of crafting, I started a new patchwork project on Monday evening, using some of my favourite fabrics in my stash. I've been saving them for something special for years, but I figured why just hang onto it, I need to use it and see it in daily use.
Whilst making some fabric chains in the lead up to Xmas, I ironed some interfacing on the wrong side, sticking it to the ironing board, which was very stupid of me, so I've decided to make a new ironing board cover. It's an EPP project (English Paper Pieceing), so I've cut out some pieces, which I now need to baste and then start sewing together. As usual, I'm jumping from one project to another, but I like to have several projects on the go. I can't help myself.
Tuesday morning, I headed out to Zumba which was good. When I got back I spent a couple of hours sewing on my machine at the new craft table. It was nice to have a big space on which to sew and one that was in a different location in the house. LB was working in the afternoon, so I had the space to myself.
I then spent most of the rest of the afternoon working on other hand sewing projects, hanging out some laundry, etc. I finished a couple of small projects I'd started last week and did a bit more work on the new EPP project.
In the evening, I finished watching the Irish version of The Traitors which was good. No spoilers here though. Then, OH and I watched this week's episode of Industry.
Wednesday, I had a lie in in the morning and read a bit of my current book. It was a beautiful day, the best so far this year, with blue skies and sunshine, so I decided to finally get myself outside and walked into town to visit our newly refurbished library. I had a couple of other errands to do whilst out, so I did those too. It feels like it's been such a long wet winter, it was so lovely to feel the sun on my face again, whilst getting nearly 7,000 steps in.
It was very busy out and about. The sunshine had obviously had the same effect on many people. At the library, I found a few books to take out that sounded interesting. Here's a picture:
I also decided to order a particular book that I want to read. It's on my eBay watchlist, but rather than pay £12 -£13 for it, I thought I'd borrow it from the library for free instead. Although I'd like to own it, it isn't necessary to own every book I read. I also picked up a leaflet about London Open Gardens for charity and also one for Women's History Month, which takes place next month. There were a few events that I wouldn't mind attending, many of them free.
When I got home, I had a couple of hours on the sewing machine at the new craft table again. I'm trying to finish my February sewing project before the end of the week. LB was working again today, so I got to use the new crafting space, but for most of the rest of the week, she'll be using it herself.
The evening was spent watching another episode of The Lady on ITV that we'd recorded and then we watched a programme about painter L.S. Lowry which was interesting.
On Thursday, I was up and out to my class at the gym. It was the last class before the music changes, as the company that run the gym are refusing to pay license fees for Zumba and other music from March. Apparently they will have their own playlist of presumably non-licensed music. Sounds horrendous, but I'll just have to see how it pans out. OH came along with me today, to use the gym, but went home before I'd finished my workout, so I joined him at home later after taking a longer than normal route home, making the most of the weather being dry.
I didn't do a lot in the afternoon. I started watching a new drama series on BBC iplayer called The Walsh Sisters, which was about an Irish family with five daughters. It was good and I ended up binge watching 3 episodes before doing a bit of reading of one of the books I got from the library, called 'Homesick - Why I Live in a Shed' by Catrina Davies. I'm really enjoying it. It is well written and informative and talks a lot about rural and urban housing issues and poverty, which is very pertinent today for young people. It's taken priority over my current book, due to the fact that I will need to return it in a couple of weeks.
Friday, was a totally free day, with nothing planned. I had a long lie in reading the above book, which was enjoyable. After lunch I did a bit of financial housekeeping, as it was the end of the month, wrote a couple of blog posts and then made some deodorant, air freshener and a reed diffuser from some ingredients I had to hand. Not sure how the latter will work out, but I make the other two regularly and they work well enough. I then took a walk to the shops to get some milk and pick up a prescription.
On Saturday, we had next door's dog again. I did a bit of sewing for a couple of hours and finished attaching the small denim patches for the seat cover. I washed the actual cover and now just need to wait for it to dry before I can attach the new backing.
We took the dog with us to the allotment after lunch and did a few small jobs. I say small, but we were there for 2 hours. We then took him for a walk. The sun even came out for a while, which was lovely. The dog came to us having just had a bath and by the time we got home he was stinky, having rolled in something not very nice at the park. OH had to shampoo him before sending him home.
In the evening, we finished watching The Lady and then I watched a couple more episodes of The Walsh Sisters which is really good. I didn't get to sleep until late as LB was out with friends and I never really settle until I know she's home safely.
As a consequence of a late night on Saturday, I had a lie in on Sunday morning reading my library book. It is so good, another book I will be sad to finish reading. I would definitely recommend it. I dug out a few books from my 'waiting to be read' pile, that I feel in the mood to read. I really need to work on getting this pile down this year and donating any read books I don't want to keep.
I was late going out to the gym, so I didn't get home until 2.30pm. I did a bit of hand sewing and chopping up waste fabric from some jeans I'm dismantling in the afternoon. Nothing exciting. I'm trying to get my current and ongoing sewing projects in some kind of order, as they got a bit messy and were sprawling all over the kitchen table.
It's been a quiet month, mainly due to the weather and financial limitations, but it has passed quite quickly. I'm hoping things will pick up a bit when the weather warms up and I can get out in the garden and onto the allotment more. I am, however, pretty happy living a slow and self determined existence, as opposed to being at the beck and call of a large corporation, always hungry to increase their profits. Life is much simpler and less demanding and I'm slowly learning to live within my new more restrictive means without too much difficulty.
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