Another Garden Project - The Side Return

After completing the patio in our garden earlier this year, OH had one more garden project that he wanted to complete by the end of the year. This was to tidy up the side return that runs alongside our kitchen windows. It is into this space on his side, that our neighbour has built onto his property this year and with that project coming close to completion and him having donated some York stone slabs to us from his side return paving that he no longer needed, OH decided to start work on laying the slabs and making this long neglected area more presentable. It is probably the last major job we need to do in our garden.

Here's a picture of the side return taken quite a while ago before the building work started next door:  

The decking was rotten and needed replacing, and initially, OH intended to re-deck this area after having replaced the decking outside the back door. However, upon receiving the York stone, he decided instead to pave the area.

He started this job a few weeks ago using some bags of sand left over from constructing the patio. Almost immediately, it was starting to look so much better. When we returned from Yorkshire, he continued and finished laying the majority of the pavers, leaving just a few small gaps to either fill with gravel or cut down pavers. He mainly did this to enable some scaffolding to go up to assist the building work next door and to aide him in repainting the back and side of the house.

Here's a current picture of progress with this project:

It will, of course, be finished properly once the scaffolding comes down, but already it looks so much better and it was a good choice that will have cost us nothing but the price of a bag or two of gravel and also afforded us the priviledge of recycling some beautiful stone pavers.

We have now got plans for this side return space, which is little used, save as a dumping ground for garden items.  OH wants to build a lean to greenhouse into this space, possibly a bit like this one above, that I found on Pinterest, so that we can grow seedlings outside and house all of our garden equipment away from the decking, giving us more space to sit out and use the garden in the warmer weather. 

We're both really excited by this project and it will probably complete our plans for the garden, save for just building up the borders with plants and maintaining it. I'm not sure when it will get built or to what exact design, but hopefully it will be finished before the spring, so that we can put it to good use.

OH has worked hard to completely transform our garden in the last two years, as can be seen from the above photograph; from building the garden room, replacing the decking and fencing on one side, constructing a new patio and paving the side return. It is a completely different space now and one we can really enjoy going forward. I can't wait for this last project to make it the tidy, functional, low maintenance space we've always dreamed of.

I'll keep you posted with future progress, but it might be a while, as the house maintenance will be given precedence and will preoccupy OH for the coming weeks. It's very exciting though.

Tough Decisions

Last week, marked a month since I left my job and I have to say that I'm not missing it one bit. I'm loving my new found freedom of being able to do exactly as I please and live a more balanced life. However, it's been tough week too, mainly for reasons of a financial nature. In all honesty, as you have probably already noticed, I have been finding it hard to rein in my spending this last month and this resulted in my budget running out with a week still left of the month.

I did the weekly shop as usual last Monday, with a strict budget in mind, namely £120 max, as that was all that was left in the budget for the month. I wasn't spendthrift and didn't buy lots of extras, save a couple of bits for Xmas (which I promised myself I would buy every week to spread the cost) and some beef mince, which I hardly ever buy these days. As we had guests coming over the weekend, I thought I might make a chilli one evening whilst they were here. I also needed some mouthwashes for my dental routine, but other than these items, it was just our regular weekly shop. Could I keep within budget? No, I couldn't. 

I'm not blaming the cost of living and rising grocery prices, although everything is more expensive these days. The fault lies directly at my own door. I have just not been able to rein in my spending on unnecessary items this month.  Too many visits to charity shops, car boot sales, jumble trails.  Any excuse not to rein it in and the consequence has been to go over budget by a few pounds and face an even more challenging month financially next month.

I'm not trying to garner sympathy, I'm just annoyed at myself for continuing to spend like I've still got a job. I'm not destitute, I do have savings I can use if I need to, but I really don't want to start delving into those within the first month of finishing work. I just need to grow up and spend less.

Hence, I have given myself a good talking to, knuckled down and cleaned the house, taken care of what we already have and made a promise to myself to minimise unnecessary spending from now on. It just can't be accommodated in my new post-work budget any more. I need to get real and start living according to my new means.

October will be a challenge, as I do have a few extra bills to pay next month, i.e. allotment fees of £35 are due, renewal of my gym membership at £40 (yearly fee) is due and a birthday gift of £30. Luckily, it is also my birthday next month, so that will provide me with the odd treat in an otherwise super low budget month. 

I am planning to start my Xmas shopping in October, as buying for others might replace the urge to spend money on myself and on unnecessary things and I have a budget put aside for this. Besides, I like to get my Xmas shopping done before the end of November, so it's good to start early.

Life and budgets have suddenly got very real and I need to put on my big girl pants and make some tough decisions going forward. If I get through the next month, I've done okay and can maybe get back on track.

Just as I was writing this post, I got some post through the letterbox, namely my P45 and a surprise payslip that I wasn't expecting. I was apparently still owed some overtime and holiday pay from my previous employer, so I'll be receiving £700 or so that I didn't know I was owed this month, which will very much help me over the next few months. This was a lovely surprise and came just at the right time, but I still need the financial reset to help make it last as long as possible.

 I'll keep you posted with my progress.

More Sewing and Alterations

I've been doing a bit more sewing lately, trying to get my project basket down a bit, as it was looking a bit piled high.

Firstly, I altered this Zara blouse that I bought from a car boot sale for £1. I didn't like the sleeves, or more specifically the piece of fabric between the bodice and the embroidered sleeve. It wasn't comfortable when I tried it on and looked very odd, so I cut these extra pieces of fabric out and restitched the embroidered part of the sleeve onto the bodice. A small alteration, but I was much happier with the result and I will be much more likely to wear it as a consequence.

I also re-started work on a gilet that I cut out a while back. Having cut out the pieces and wadded them, I started to quilt the back panel. The print on the fabric had lines of polka dots, which did help me to keep the quilting lines relatively even, although I did veer off a little in places. I did probably make the quilting lines too close together, but for a first attempt it's coming along okay. I'll keep you posted on progress.

I did a couple of other small alterations, one being to repair some favourite vintage plaid woollen trousers. Moths had unfortunately got to them and created some holes near the crotch seams. Luckily, the trousers were a bit on the generous side fit wise, so I was able to sew inside the existing seam to exclude the holes. I then noticed a couple of very tiny holes outside of this repair line, which I reinforced with fusible webbing and stitched closed with matching thread, so they are hardly noticeable. I was lucky the moth damage was where it was with these and could be circumvented. I really need to take care to prevent moths getting at them again.

I then completed a third cross body bag, which just needed the straps sewing on. I've posted separately about these. They are a staunch favourite and have been so easy to make.

I also did another alteration to a Zara blouse/dress I bought at the Jumble Trail at the weekend. When I got it home and tried it on, there was something about the sleeves/shoulders that I didn't find flattering. It looks nice on the hanger, but not on me. In this instance, I decided to cut off the flouncy sleeve and hem them into cap sleeves. I also shortened it by a good six inches to make it a more flattering length.  I much prefer it in it's new guise. It did have tassles on it too, which I removed before I even took the first picture, as they are not really my thing and were looking a bit scraggly and worse for wear. More work than I expected, but I'm happy with the outcome. Here's a before and after picture:

Before

After

There's still lots more things in the basket to work on, but I'll keep you posted as and when I progress further with the various projects.

A Week of Spring Cleaning

This week I've been a bit absent from blogland as most of the week has been spent doing a much needed job at home, namely spring cleaning the whole house in readiness for some visitors that were coming to stay at the weekend. It's a job that's been on my to do list since the beginning of the year, but it never really got done for one reason or another. Whilst I was busy with work and other things, I just didn't really have the energy or the motivation and it just got worse as the year went on, especially when I got so busy over the summer months..

With visitors on the horizon, I was sufficiently motivated to make the house a nicer environment to visit, so starting on Tuesday I slowly worked my way right through the house, thinning everything out as much as I could, to make the rooms they'd be staying in more habitable for guests. It was a long and quite tiring week, but I just took my time and tried to enjoy the feeling of taking care of my home and having the luxury of time to do so.

I did go to a class at the gym on Tuesday morning and a gym session on Thursday morning, but otherwise, most of my time was spent cleaning. I did, however, sustain an injury this week, to my hip abductor muscle, which made the last day of cleaning painful and difficult. I'm a bit annoyed about it, as I've been very careful to do proper warmups and cool downs in the gym to avoid injury. I'm not sure how I managed to acquire this one, but it is limiting my movement quite a bit and it's painful. As a consequence, I had to skip the free gym session this morning, but I'm hoping it will improve soon.

For other reasons it was also a good time to tackle this task this week, as my budget had evapourated quickly this month. It served to keep me busy, whilst costing absolutely nothing, but my energy and time. It also made me realise how much stuff we have in the house and how I really do not need to bring in anything else for the time being. In fact, the next task will be to actually go through some of the stuff I've got stored in various places and get rid of some of it and try to condense it, but that is a task for another week.

Evenutally, the house cleaning got finished. OH and LB helped me as the visit got nearer. It does feel good to have the house reset. I was quite thorough, although it wasn't a deep clean. There was a lot of dust on surfaces, partly due to all the building work that's been going on next door this year and there were lots of cobwebs to brush down, but it's done now.

Today, I've finally got a day to myself. OH and our guests have all gone to the Women's Rugby Final at Twickenham and LB is going to work shortly, so I've got the whole day to myself to hobble around and do as I please. I might even do some sewing work on my quilted gilet, as it's simple enough to work on and I can do it at the kitchen table. I'm going to just enjoy myself, as a reward for a busy and productive week for once.

I hope you've had a good week.

A Week of Catching Up, A Fashion Film and A Jumble Trail

This week, once we returned home from Yorkshire, was a week of catching up on jobs at home. After unpacking, I had a pile of laundry to do, two baskets to be exact. Mondays are more or less written off as it's weekly shop day, and this week was no different, so I began the task of catching up with chores on Tuesday.

I returned to an Aerobics class in the morning, that I hadn't been to for at least 2, maybe 3 months, as I'd been concentrating on working out in the gym.  I'm glad I went, as I quite enjoyed it. It made a change to be pushed by someone other than myself to do exercises. I realised how I've really lost my aerobic fitness in recent months, as I've been doing no cardio exercise at all, so I think I'm going to start going regularly again, to at least try to build up some stamina.

Talking of the gym, I had good news when I got back from Yorkshire, my gym instructor's certificate had arrived in the post. I immediately framed it. I worked hard for it, so why not. It felt very satisfying.

Anyway, on Tuesday afternoon, I picked up a prescription from the pharmacy on my way home from the gym, which added a few more steps to my daily total. I then spent the afternoon doing the laundry and then hanging it out, making an apple crumble, with some apples OH's mum had given us from her garden and also pickling another big batch of beetroot from the allotment.  Here's a picture of the crumble I made:

It was really tasty and disappeared within a couple of days. Luckily, there's lots more apples left to make into crumbles, so I may freeze some of them for later use.

On Thursday, I was back at the gym in the morning. In the afternoon, I decided to do a garden job that had been on my list for a while, namely to cut the ivy that grows over our front garden wall. It was getting a bit overgrown and I don't want a fine or warning from the council because of it spilling over onto the pavement.  Here's a before:

and after:

It's a very simple job that doesn't take long, but makes a difference. I had a chat to a neighbour whilst I was out there. The lightwell out the front is still in need of a tidy up, here's a picture:

This is going to be a job for OH, as it's tricky climbing down into here. It's just a sea of ivy at the moment, which OH prefers to seeing bare concrete out of his office window, but it is getting a bit out of hand.

We've now got quite a few bags to take to the tip, both garden waste and rubble, plus the old microwave that we've now replaced, so a trip will be in order sometime soon.

Later on Thursday, I had a shower and got ready to go out, as OH and I had been invited to a fashion film showing in Central London. A cycling friend of his, who is a fashion designer, had made a film in Ireland and had invited us along to see it.

The film was shown in a lovely high end venue with drinks and canapes. There were a few of OH's cycling buddies there. Later, we stopped off in a pub in St James for a drink before heading home. It was a lovely chilled evening. We don't go into Central London that often, so it made a nice change.

I had a lie in on Friday morning, so I had a late breakfast and did some banking to pay a bill that was due. I didn't have anything planned for the day, so later after lunch, I took a walk into our local town centre. I wanted to drop into the building society, as I was due some dividends being paid into my account and just wanted to check they'd gone in, which they had. 

It was a good excuse to get out of the house and add a few steps to my daily total. I ended up walking all the way to our local Lidl to pick up a few groceries we needed and then walked home again. It was a lovely sunny day, a bit too hot for walking, but I managed a full 10,000 steps which felt satisfying.  Whilst I was out, OH did some more work on the side return paving, which is coming along nicely.

Saturday, was a chill day. It started with a free gym session. OH came with me and we stopped off in a local cafe on the way home for a hot drink and to watch the world go by for half an hour. In the afternoon, OH continued paving the side return. It is almost finished and looks great. I'll do a separate post when it's completely finished.

I did a bit of sewing in the afternoon, trying to reduce my sewing project basket which was looking a bit full. I completed a couple of alteration jobs, finished making a bag and did some quilting to a gilet I'm making. It felt like a productive afternoon.

On Sunday, there was a local Jumble Trail, which is a kind of table top trail that households take part in to raise money for a local charity, in this case a local primary school. OH was off cycling, so LB and I took a walk around.  There were lots of stalls to peruse, although most of them were selling childrens' clothes and toys, but there were quite a lot selling ladies clothes and household items. I didn't buy much. I got a couple of pieces of clothing which were £3 each, a couple of bars of beeswax for £2, these vintage clip on earrings cost £4

and this small piece of Welsh wool fabric for £1,

which I might try to make into a pencil case. I probably spent £13 in total and we also bought some lovely Asian food for lunch. It was a fun morning out in our local neighbourhood.

As I was going round, I found this little set of wooden drawers for free outside a house and had to snap them up for the sewing room. Luckily they were very light to carry around, as I found them right at the beginning of the trail. I got asked so many times if I was selling them, I probably could have sold them on a few times over. They needed sanding a bit, but are otherwise in very good condition and are super compact.

Later, I went up to the sewing room and went through quite a lot of the drawers, sorting and sifting as I went. I got rid of a few things, but mainly tidied and re-organised. The new drawers didn't quite fit the space I wanted to put them in, so I had to take something else out, but I prefer the way they look in the space, compared to what was there before. I just need to decide what I'm going to put in them and maybe move some stuff around. Here's a picture of them in situ once I'd cleaned them up a bit:

In addition to sanding and cleaning them up, I also polished them with some beeswax and they came up beautifully. I wasn't keen on the lime wash and they now look like they've got some age and patina which I much prefer.

Bags and More Bags

The other week, having cut out the pieces to make a few cross body bags using a few different fabrics, I decided to get started making them.  I created the pattern for this bag from a similar bag I already own and had already made one bag from the fabric from a skirt I bought from the charity shop for £1. I've been using this bag for the last six months.

Initially, I had made the body of a dark grey velvet bag with a mustard lining a week or so before, but was waiting for some webbing to arrive to finish the straps. Luckily, it came the day that I decided to sew up the other bags and so I was able to finish the grey one. Here's a picture:

I decided to add a patch that I bought a while ago, to add a bit of interest and colour. I'm happy with the finished result and I've now started to use this bag on a daily basis.

The second bag that I sewed was a blue camoflauge cotton canvas one. I'd bought a couple of bits of scrap fabric from the fabric warehouse the other week, along with some net fabric, zips and trimmings, paying £4  for the lot. The scraps I bought to use for this bag were a blue camo fabric and some paler blue cotton chambray that I wanted to use for the lining. I had also bought some royal blue webbing at a charity shop the following week for £1.50, which I decided to use for the strap, as it went so well with the camo fabric.

The fabrics for this bag were very easy to work with, as they were slightly lighter in weight than fabrics I'd previously used to make the same bag. This made it a much quicker and more straightforward make, although I did manage to break the sewing machine needle on the zip, but, fortunately, I had plenty of spares.

I was super pleased with how this one turned out too and I can't wait to start using it. I have some of this same fabric in a khaki colourway, which I'm intending to use to make another dungaree dress, so if there's any left over, I may make a khaki version of this bag too at some point.

Whilst I was in the flow of making these bags, I decided to proceed to make a third, that I'd cut out from some leftover pieces from a blouse I altered and posted about a few weeks ago. This fabric was quite lightweight, being cotton poplin and I teamed it with some cotton from my stash for a lining. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of cutting the patterned lining fabric from pieces that were not laid out in the same direction, but as I didn't have any more of this fabric I couldn't re-cut one of the pieces. As it is for the lining, it's not such a disaster though, as once my stuff is in the bag, it won't be too obvious.

This bag was easier still to construct, due to the even lighter fabrics utilised. I didn't actually have any co-ordinating webbing for the straps though, so once again, I had to order some webbing and wait for it to arrive. Once it arrived, I could complete the bag and attach the straps and fixings, which I had bought on eBay for £7.50 for 6 sets, making them about £1.25 per bag.

In total, for the grey bag I spent £1.50 on webbing and £1.25 on the strap fixings. The fabrics and zip were all from my stash and I think the patch cost £1 when I bought it a few months ago, so the total cost to make it was approximately £3.75.

The camo bag was a little more expensive to make, as I bought the scraps for approximately £2, the webbing for the straps cost £1.50 and the fixings £1.25, which totals £4.75. The zip was from my stash.

The leopard poplin bag cost £3.75 to make, as I ordered some special leopard print webbing for the straps, which cost approx. £2.50, the fabric cost nothing and the zip was again from my stash.  The strap fixings were again £1.25.

For just over £12, I made three bags, so I can now enjoy changing them out when I feel so inclined, to match whatever occasion and outfit I choose. I think that's plenty for me to be going on with, but I don't rule out making others in the future, as they are very easy to make and wear.

A Long Weekend in Yorkshire

On Thursday of last week, we travelled up to Yorkshire to visit family and for OH to take part in a cycle cross event in North Yorkshire.

We spent Thursday night staying with OH's mum and visited his brother for a couple of hours, who is now being taken care of at home for the time being after having suffered a severe stroke. There's a lot of complicated family stuff going on at the moment though, so it's a bit overwhelming. Must be much worse for the family members concerned, but we just have to do what we can to help and support them and hope that it will all work out for the best eventually.

On Friday morning, we did a few errands locally, then packed up and headed off to North Yorkshire. OH dropped me off in the town of Malton, which is near to where some other family members live, who we were staying with that evening. Whilst he checked out the course at the event, I had a mooch around Malton for a couple of hours. I mainly visited the charity shops, which were quite good and I did buy a few things whilst there, but I didn't spend too much.

I then caught a little local bus back to where we were staying, which was an adventure. It was a lovely little scenic route through lots of little villages and cost only £1.60, which was a total bargain. It was like something out of Postman Pat. Apparently, it used to pick up the mail at one point in time. OH met me later at his relatives and we caught up with their news and had a lovely evening with them.

We were up very early on Saturday, as OH needed to be at the cycle event in Dalby Forest for 9am ish. I dropped him off this time, as the race was 5 hours long and I didn't want to hang around waiting for him to finish. I decided instead to drive up to the town of Whitby on the North Yorkshire coast, which was 20 miles away, and spend the day there.

It was a lovely drive over the North Yorkshire Moors to get to Whitby. I stopped to take a couple of pictures of the beautiful landscape.

When I got to Whitby, I caught the park and ride bus into town, as I'd read online that parking could be quite expensive. It was only a 5 minute bus ride to the centre of town using the Park and Ride and it cost only £2.70 all in for parking and a return bus fare. The buses ran every 15 minutes or so. It was a good decision I think.

I started off exploring the town a little. We'd stayed in Whitby for a week a few years ago, (probably 3 or 4) and had a great week there. I eventually traced our steps to the part of the town where we'd stayed, as there was a great cafe around the corner from our holiday let, called the Jet Black Jewel Cafe, which did a wonderful Hand of Glory hash breakfast. I treated myself to one, out of both hunger and nostalgia. It tasted even better than I remembered and definitely filled me up for the rest of the day. Here's a photograph:

I then walked down to the pier and walked right to the end of it. It gets a bit windy out on the pier, but it's quite invigorating and well worth getting a bit windswept for.

It was a super busy day in the town and the weather was fantastic. I couldn't have picked a better day for it, but I was eventually glad to get out of the crowds of people thronging the streets.

I had a little walk on the beach before returning to the town centre, crossed the swing bridge and explored the old part of the town a little before catching the park and ride back to the car park. I'd walked over 10,000 steps by the end of the day.

After picking OH up, we eventually got back to his mum's at 7pm and chilled for the rest of the evening.

On Sunday morning, I dropped OH off at his brother's house and I made a quick visit to a local car boot sale that I used to go to a lot, but hadn't been to in a long while. I didn't buy much, but I did get a complete bargain when I bought this microwave oven for £10. It looks virtually new and the seller said it was from his holiday home and had hardly been used. I couldn't resist it at this price, as we needed a new one as ours was going rusty. Serendipity, if ever there was any.

Here's a picture of it in situ back home:

Later, we packed up and headed back to London. It was a long journey, due to some road closures and having to take a detour, but we eventually got back home. We spent the evening with LB, re-watching the first Hunger Games movie on Paramount+, which was really good. It was a nice chilled way to end a very busy weekend.