A Year in Books - April

I can't quite believe we are in April already.  This month seems to have flown by.  In March, I read this book by Sue Townsend.

On the book jacket it had good reviews and I was expecting it to be funny and a little absurd, which it definitely was.  It did, however, surprise me (in a good way might I add) as it was also very touching and thought provoking in parts.  On the very first page was a quote attributed to Plato and others, which went as follows - 'Be kind, for everybody you meet is fighting a hard battle'.  I appreciated these sentiments as soon as I saw them, but as you got to the end of the book, the relevance of the quote hit home even harder.  In the latter chapters of the book, I became concerned for the welfare of the main character with whom I had some sympathy, who was deteriorating both physically and mentally by this point.  I won't spoil anyone else's enjoyment of the book by elaborating any further, but suffice to say, this book really made me think about the importance of being kind to other people.  It certainly delivered more than I expected when I first started reading it and was well worth the read.

I also read this book in March by Gil McNeil and at the risk of being accused of always giving positive reviews, I really enjoyed this book too.  What I most enjoyed about it, was it's lack of sentimentality.  I have read many books with similar plots in recent months, but this one was far superior, as a consequence of it lacking sentimentality, and I really enjoyed the knitting references too.  There was even mention of the Knitting and Stitching Show that I attended the other week.  I believe that a sequel has been written to this book, which I would be interested to read if I ever came across it.

In April, I've set myself the goal of trying to read some more serious literary fiction.    I used to read much more serious fiction when I was younger, but after having my daughter, I found the concentration necessary and the opportunities to sit down and really get stuck into a book have been been harder to come by.  This month I've already read this book by Margaret Attwood.  I read a few of her books in my early twenties - The Handmaid's Tail, Cat's Eyes - to name a couple.  I found them very powerful and thought provoking.  I found this book Moral Disorder on a favourite market stall, for sale for £1 brand new, and couldn't resist buying it.

As I entered April, I was already over half way through this book and enjoying it immensely, which I wasn't altogether sure I would.  I liked the honesty of the central character, of most of the characters actually.  I thoroughly enjoyed reacquainting myself with Atwood's literary style, although I do find the fact that the chapters are quite long, make it harder to dip in and out of, which means I often only pick it up when I know I have time to read a chapter in it's entirety.  Having said this, I finished it pretty quickly and am now reading this book by Amy Tan,

 

I think I have read the Joy Luck Club, but I have definitely read several titles written by Chinese/Japanese authors in the past and have enjoyed learning more about their very different customs and religious/cultural beliefs and practices.  The beguiling outline of the story, on the back cover of this book, both intrigued me and drew me to it.  I'm hoping I enjoy it as much as I think I will.  A couple of chapters in and I'm finding it very readable.  The print, however, is very small so there is much more packed into each page and as a consequence, it may take me a while to finish this book.

Joining in with Laura at Circle of Pine Trees in her A Year in Books challenge to try to read more in 2014.

 

A Spending Drought

I don't know what's come over me of late.  For the first time in a long time, if not ever, I'm finding it very difficult to actually spend money.  Maybe, I'm currently just feeling happy with my lot and what I have and I don't feel the need to acquire anything else, or maybe I realise that I actually have far too much already and don't need to add anymore to it.  

Take yesterday for instance, it was the beginning of the month, I had money in my account, I went out shopping to finish the grocery shop and get a few other bits, but I kept an open mind, had a good look around a few shops and was willing to buy other things if I saw them and liked them.  Only I didn't.  Save for one book from Poundland.  It hardly broke the bank.

Later tonight, I took Little Bird swimming and then strolled into town and had a look around Primark (as it's just about the only shop still open at that time) and I couldn't find a single thing I wanted to buy, either for me or Little Bird, which is highly unusual. 

Going down the West End this weekend, going into shops such as Liberty, I wasn't even tempted to spend any money and I didn't.  I just bought the few second hand sewing patterns in a local market here before we went.

My charity shop shopping habit has slowed off dramatically in the past year and I missed my favourite jumble sale this weekend due to spending the day with our visitors, so another opportunity to shop was missed.

More surprisingly, I've been finding it increasingly difficult to fill Approved Food orders.  I limit myself to one per month and try to get enough to justify the postage costs, but lately, there's not enough on my order to warrant sending it.  Partly, I think it is because it is such a popular site at the moment and good things sell out very, very quickly, partly I seem to be a bit more reluctant to fill the cupboards with lots of food that doesn't always get eaten, the February Food Challenge bringing this to my attention, and partly the Beauty and Household challenges I've been taking part in have stopped me throwing extra things into the basket and overstocking on beauty and household products.  Maybe I need to just place an order every six weeks or two months these days.  This in turn will make my credit card expenditure fall further, which is all good.

It does make you think about what causes you to feel the need to spend money on things you don't honestly need.  Perhaps, because I don't buy glossy magazines very often these days, or watch much television, I'm not bombarded with as much advertising imagery as I have been in the past, or maybe I'm able to see through it when I do encounter it.  Maybe I've now finally started really asking myself - do I really need/want this? 

As mentioned, I think the challenges I've set myself have helped a great deal in this respect, as they have really slowed down my spending in certain areas and made me think hard about what really is necessary spending and this approach seems to be filtering into other areas of my life too.  Don't get me wrong, I love shopping and could happily shop 'til I drop, but I have made an effort to limit opportunities and it does work.  The longer you limit yourself for, the more you get used to not spending money and acquiring new 'stuff' and the harder you find it to actually commit to buying new things unless they are vitally necessary.  This might change as the challenges end I suppose.

Maybe, I'm just more accepting of myself  at the moment, and have got to that point in life where I have just about everything I could ever need, so feel less prone to trying to impress, by having the latest thing or wearing the latest styles.  Whatever the reason, I'm enjoying the moment, but I can't honestly say that it's more than that, as who knows, I may suddenly decide I need something and find myself going off on a shopping spree at some point in the near future.  How fickle I am.

Make Something Every Month - March - Making a Pencil Skirt

Apologies for the delay in posting this, I intended to post it first thing, but we had the electricians in and the power off, so I wasn't able to go online until now.  For this March's make I was determined to get my dressmaking hat on, but didn't actually find the time until the very end of the month.  Sunday afternoon, with a clean house and our guests having departed, I ventured up to the sewing room and started work on one of the projects in my dressmaking 'to make' pile that I had collated the week before.

To keep it simple, I went for a straightforward pencil skirt without a waistband, that I could run up in a few hours.  It was a pattern that I hadn't used before and had bought at a local market whilst out and about this weekend.  It was similar to others I've made previously, so there wasn't really anything too difficult about it and as it was a Very Easy Vogue pattern it was simple and had clear instructions.  I picked a fabric from my 'to make' pile that I was going to use with a different but similar pattern, with a print that didn't need too much matching at the seams, and off I went.

This was the pattern which was a bit large, but I adjusted it accordingly to fit me

and this the fabric.

Initially, I cut out the pinned the pattern pieces for the skirt to the fabric and cut them out and then I put in the tailor's tacks, ready for sewing together the following day.

Monday afternoon I resumed work on it.  I sewed the double darts front and back, sewed up the back seam and put the zip in, stitched the front to the back at the side seams, attached the interfacing to the waist facing and attached it to the skirt, topstitching it to keep it in place.  Finally, I completed the back slit and hem by hand whilst watching TV later in the evening.  As I didn't have my over locker working to neaten the edges, it isn't as perfect as I would like, but I pinked the edges of the fabric to try to prevent them fraying and did the best job I could in the circumstances.  I am quite happy with the result.  I will definitely use this pattern again.

This type of skirt is really one of the simplest to make and I really enjoyed getting back into my dressmaking groove.  I already had the fabric, interfacing, zip and thread, none of which cost very much, so the only recent outlay was the pattern itself which cost £2.  The fabric wasn't the simplest to use, as it was synthetic and the edges frayed a bit, but I liked the print, it was incredibly inexpensive at something like £1.50 per metre and as it had a bit of weight to it, it wasn't too bad to handle.

Here's a picture of the finished result.  This is the front view (excuse the darts, I haven't properly ironed them),

and this is the back view.

As an added extra I added a Merchant and Mills 'Made in England' label.  I always think it makes for a much more professional looking finish! (Tongue firmly in cheek at this point).

I'm pretty happy with it and am looking forward to wearing it at some point in the very near future.  I'm also looking forward to my next dressmaking project now that I've recut my teeth on this one.  I'm hoping it won't be such a last minute dash as this one though.  Fingers crossed.

Monthly Round Up - March

March has been a good month.  I've paid off my credit cards again this month and they now seem to have far less on them from month to month, on account of my spending less, which leaves a bit more room in the budget for the odd treat or day out with spending money, such as the one I had at the Knitting and Stitching Show this month.   I've continued to pay money off my overdraft, which is going down gradually.  I've also managed to make the money I have last well this month and have not been financially stretched as the month came to a close, which is a first for me. 

I've stuck to the menu plan pretty closely and used up more of the things from the overflow cupboard.  I managed to use all the frozen items and halve the remaining items on the list from my February Food Challenge.  Anything still on it will get used up eventually, especially now that I'm onto it and trying to include dishes using the items in my menu planning, so that challenge has come to an end.

April might be a little more expensive with Easter on the horizon, but I don't have any birthdays to speak of, that require expenditure.  I do have the expense of renewing a passport for Little Bird, but I think there is plenty of room in the budget for this.  I also need to pay for her trampolining lessons, but again there should be enough for this too, as they aren't too expensive.

I have finally got around to doing some dressmaking in the last couple of days, which has been really satisfying (post to follow), and I will hopefully be making more garments in April if I manage to find the time.   I also managed to complete a couple of other projects this month, which has reduced the list somewhat.  Sorting through my wardrobe and sewing room has also meant that I have created a 'to make' pile with fabrics and dressmaking patterns ready to go , so I'm hoping next month will be much more productive.

I managed to get all the jobs done at the allotment that I needed to this month and sowed some seeds at home in the greenhouse, although only a few have actually germinated thus far.  Having sorted through all my seeds and put them in date of sowing order, I will have some more to sow next month once the weather warms up a little more.

The house got a good de-clutter and clean, on account of having some guests to stay this last weekend.  It feels good to get on top of things for once and have some breathing space for pursuing some of my other interests.  

Finally, the challenges I have been joining in with have continued to help motivate me to complete tasks and read books, which in turn often results in yet more clutter being re-purposed or leaving the house, which has also been very satisfying.  I'm hoping I can keep up the momentum into April.

I hope you had a good month too.  Have you got any plans for the coming month?

Project 52 - Week 13 - Making a Dog Pillow for the Car

This week, finding the time to complete a project for this challenge has been a bit difficult, so as a consequence, I decided to complete this small project, that I've had in mind to do for a few weeks now.  I made a quilt for the dog's travel cage in the car a while back, but it was a little small and thin, and had a tendency to slide around the cage with the dog on it when we go around corners and roundabouts.  Lately, we've taken to taking the cushion out of her basket in the kitchen and putting that in the back of the car, but it's a bit of a pain to be honest, as we often forget it and have to come back in for it before we can set off.

The other day, whilst tidying the sewing room/spare bedroom, I came across a piece of fabric that was the ideal size for covering a pillow, which is what I decided I would use to make a new dog cushion.  I then cut another similar sized piece of cotton from a recycled table cloth, before sewing them both together and then to an old pillow from the spare bed, that really needed throwing out.  As it won't be seen inside this cover, it was perfect for being repurposed for this project.  It took about half an hour to complete and here is the finished result which can just be thrown into the washing machine when it gets dirty.

This is the front

and this is the back.

I think you'll agree that the dog should enjoy sitting on this cushion in the car.  I'd climb into the cage myself and snuggle up in it if I could.  An added advantage is that this is another zero waste project, that has saved something going into landfill at some point, so it's great from this point of view too.

Joining in with Dreamer from Living a Slow and Simple Life in her Project 52 Challenge to complete a task a week for a year.

The Great Household and Cleaning Challenge - Month 7

This month hasn't been too bad on this challenge, but I was hoping to spend less, because I'd bought this month's toilet rolls in last month's budget and thus make up a bit of lost ground.  It didn't quite work out like that though.  I spent £9.55 this month.

The overall total now stands at £116.22/£125 with 5 months still left to run so I'm desperately running out of funds.  Unless I find an alternative and free source of toilet rolls (back to the old newspaper? - not likely), this challenge will soon be coming to an end, but I'm determined to eek it out to the bitter end, which will definitely be sooner rather than later. and thank goodness for that.

This month's spending was on the following:

Kitchen Roll x 4 - £1.39
Disinfectant - 30p
Washing Up Liquid - 59p
Matches x 3 large boxes - 99p
Black Bin Liners x 20 - £1.49
Toilet Rolls x 4 £1.79 - With visitors arriving this weekend I needed to top up.
Laundry Liquid - £3 - This was a bit of a bug bear, but I finally succumbed to a branded laundry liquid after trying to wash some muddy jeans twice with the soap nuts and them still not coming clean.  Even one wash with the branded laundry liquid didn't do the job in a full wash, so I'm putting them in on their own to try to get them clean.

To be honest, I have struggled for the last six months with various cheap laundry products and not been particularly happy with their effectiveness, so I finally decided I'd had enough and bought some branded laundry liquid, with the added bonus of it having a lovely fragrance.  I know there are many arguments, ecological and otherwise about using products with less chemicals, but I just wanted something that did the job well.  I'm still going to use the soap balls, as they are good for washing less heavily soiled items, such as clothes that need freshening, rather than cleaning, but for things such as towels whereby it is nice to have a fragrance too, I'm sticking to branded laundry liquid from now on.  If I've learned nothing else from this challenge, I have learned the value of this.

Alphabet Blogging - R is for ..........Ready (as we'll ever be)

After a busy week cleaning the house from top to bottom, we are finally ready for the arrival of our visitors this weekend.    The spare bedroom/sewing room has been thinned out, aired and cleaned, there's been quite a bit of de-cluttering going on everywhere and the rest of the house has had a good spring clean too.  I took a car load of items to the charity shop yesterday which felt good.  Its great to know the house is clean, tidy, and free of more 'stuff' and as a consequence life feels a little lighter.

We now hopefully have a relaxing weekend of museum visiting, shopping and strolling around the markets ahead of us.  I'm looking forward to it.  Living in London, we don't always get around to making the most of it, so when we have visitors, it's a good excuse to get out and about and visit some favourite haunts.  I've even got a bit of money left in the budget to treat myself a little.

Have a good weekend whatever you're doing.