At work in the garden

The past few days have been a bit like Christmas - we've ordered a few bits for the garden on line and the parcels have been arriving every day.  Very exciting - butterfly mesh and the like.  We don't order much online, and if we can source it locally we do, but I have to say that the service from the small independent online retailers has been excellent.  As was the delivery of gravel from a local firm (Blackhouse Quays) who we would very happily recommend.  So armed with all our goodies, we took advantage of a glorious day yesterday and set to work.

The vegetable plot, with raised beds, was set out last year but never got finished off - we were trying so hard to complete the internal renovations that the garden was put on hold - so it was very satisfying to finally gravel the pathways between the beds, making access around the plot so much easier.  We make a good working team, OH and I, and we chat away as we work, talking over plans for the rest of the garden.  It was a very productive couple of hours and so good to be outside.

Today, of course, it's wet again.  Small steps, methinks.

More up-cycling/repurposing

Another sewing project crossed off the list - hurray!  'Convert old sailing shirt into skirt' seemed so simple, and no doubt for many it would have been a walk in the park.  It's taken me almost three days, on and off - how the contestants in the Sewing Bee create their outfits in the time allowed, I just do not know.

I haven't had to buy anything to do this conversion (the zip -bright pink, but right size and weight and I thought, why not? - I rescued a few weeks ago from a very tatty pencil case) and I'm pleased with the end result; I shall be packing this for an up-coming holiday.  There was quite a bit of fiddling to do to ensure a good fit but it was worth the pinning, tacking and trying-on that is involved because this little skirt now fits very well.  I have conceded that I am not a standard shape, far from it.  Getting ready-made, mass-produced clothing to fit me properly is becoming almost impossible (and quite disheartening, if I'm honest) so it makes perfect sense for me to make my own clothes to fit the shape I am.  (Also I need to confess I am reading some wonderfully inspiring sewing blogs!!) 

Rocket seedlings

We have moved on from merely talking about the garden, to buying in some supplies to turn plans into reality.  A very large bag of gravel now adorns our front lawn.  It will be used in a number of different places around the garden and a spell of dry-ish weather would be much appreciated!  I think March will be 'Into the Garden' month.  But I shall try to squeeze some sewing in whenever I can.

The start of the new growing season

We have a seedling!!

The rocket has sprouted!!  These seeds were only sown last week and have been taking in the light on the guest room window sill.  This little chap popped up this morning and by this evening had been joined by about 20 more.  It is always so exciting when seeds germinate, and the anticipation of a harvest in a few months' time is something to look forward to.  

A parcel of goodies arrived today - lots more seeds.  We've not used this supplier before and it will be interesting to see what success rate we have.  So there's been lots of planning and looking up sowing instructions, and we are both eager to get working in the garden.  We have some funds put aside for the garden, left over from the renovation budget, and we are hoping to spend wisely - it would be very easy to get carried away ;-)  

My day got off to a better start than I feared it might - I've been nursing a broken tooth for a few weeks and had convinced myself that I would need either a crown (financially *ouch*) or an extraction (just *ouch*) but as it turns out, neither is needed, just a filling (she says cheerfully, me who is terrified of any dental treatment).  However, the dentist was lovely and I feel relatively calm about things.  And I won't need to take out a loan for the treatment so I am taking alll the positives I can.

I'm still musing over my wardrobe, or lack of it.  A lot is to do with self-esteem; feeling good about yourself generally results in being confident in what you wear.  We are constantly being bombarded by images in magazines and online, and there is a pressure to conform to societal expectations, especially, it seems, if you are of a certain age, and going grey!  The colour/style/image police are everywhere - it you're this shape, you have to wear that style; don't wear this colour if you have that skintone; don't even think about this outfit if you are over 40, and so on.  It's a minefield.  I think the bottom line is - be comfortable in what you wear, be confident with what you wear, and most importantly, be yourself.  Yes, I think there are certain shapes, styles and colours that suit different people - I know that I look quite ill in orange, for example, and deep scoop necklines look silly on me - and I would rather have a few well-chosen, co-ordinating clothes that will work together than a whole wardrobe full of mis-matched items that don't do anything for me.  It's been an interesting foray into the world of capsule wardrobe collections and I shall take away some good ideas and suggestions to work with.  

A busy day tomorrow - definitely needs a list so we don't forget things.  Hopefully I can get on with a few more sewing projects after a bit of shopping for supplies.

And a phone call late this afternoon has put a very big smile on my face.  Life is good.  

So many blogs, so little time

Days seems to be skipping past rather too quickly just at the moment.  It's noticeably lighter in the mornings, so we're wide awake much earlier, and this evening we didn't close the curtains till 17.45, much to our surprise and delight - Spring really is coming!  But somehow I don't seem to be getting as much done in these longer days, which is a bit contrary to my thinking.  Pondering this over a cuppa this afternoon, N said he felt the same - no projects started or on the go (although, goodness do we have a few in the pipeline!) - it feels as though we are just waiting to start the next phase of work, and for that we need, or certainly would prefer (!) more settled weather.  I think we just need to get February over and done with; it's always such an unpredictable month.

I have a feeling that one of my problems is I'm spending far too much time on the iPad - really not good at all.  It is just so easy to drop in on favourite blogs, and follow links, and click on to other posts and suddenly a couple of hours has disappeared =:o.  It started with just a handful of 'simple living/frugal' blogs, then I dropped in on a few quilting/sewing/recycling ones and just recently I've been browsing through some helpful clothing sites with the intention of updating my wardrobe (previously documented).  Who knew there were so many blogs out there?  And all so interesting?  And it seems I need to read them all . . . .
I think a little more self-restraint is required on my part, perhaps a time limit per day wouldn't be a bad place to start.  

The final winter spinach crop

Thrifted and deconstructed fabric

Even though I feel as though I haven't achieved very much over the weekend, I've actually done far more that I thought - it's so often the way.  I finished going through the filing drawers (more shredding) and re-labelled them; I've sorted through another cupboard (a few more items to the charity shop pile); I cropped the last of the spinach and cleared the bed; made bread and rolls; spent the morning dusting and hoovering; clothes washing; changed the bed; updated online details for a couple of storecards; turned some old T-shirts into rags; unpicked another thrifted shirt and a dress to add to my fabric stash; started upcycling a shirt into a skirt; met up with a friend for a drink and had a lovely chat on the phone with my little girl.  That's quite a bit really, now I come to think about it! 

The rest of the week has a little more structure about it - places to go, people to see, shopping to do - and hopefully more planning for the garden.  Roll on Spring, we have lots to do outside!

A quiet day of this and that

A quiet day of slowly pottering, just what was needed.  Seeds sorted and a few more ordered, outdoor planting planned, herbs sown - we are looking forward to our growing season.  There'll be quite a bit of digging new borders and preparing the ground in this new garden but that's good and exciting work to be done.  The pleasure of growing at least some of our own vegetables never fails.  The spare bedroom is now doubling up as an overflow greenhouse . . .

I baked this morning - chocolate chips cookies, what's not to love :-) - and sorted out the bathroom cabinet again, taking stock of all those half-used bottles that get pushed to the back of the shelves.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that the collection of 'potions and lotions' was considerably smaller than it was, and that's taking into account various bits I have been gifted along the way.  This was another area I was looking to declutter and streamline - I really don't need a thousand and one skincare products, just the handful of items I regularly use - and it was pleasing to find that my diligence in using up the odds bits has paid off.  

The rain that has been promised for the last 24 hours finally arrived at lunchtime, and it has steadily poured ever since.  A really good reason to curl up in a chair with some fabric.  I have a small collection of thrifted cotton clothes and they need unpicking, so this afternoon I sat and carefully deconstructed a man's shirt; it always amazes me just how much fabric can be salvaged by doing this and it's a great way of adding to the fabric stash.  I find it quite therapeutic.  

And it's something else off the list.  Tick.

And the Sewing Bee this evening rounded off a really slow, easy sort of day.  I need days this this, once in a while.  A nice, simple day.

Slow down

Some days, life just seems to be slightly out of synch, doesn't it?  I'm just emerging from a couple of days like that, where I couldn't quite get into step with what I should do or wanted to do, when anything I tried to engage with was clearly not willing to co-operate, and where my mind was anywhere except where I'd like it to have been.  On those days, I simply have to slow down, dig a bit deeper, grit my teeth and persevere, in the knowledge that the feeling will pass and I'll find my way back to the path I was on - or sometimes accept an alternative path that proves to be just as good.  

I have picked up, and then put down again, several sewing projects, none of which I seemed able to get going with.  A walk into town for a specific item resulted in not being able to find what was needed, so that project was then put to one side to join another which had also been abandoned almost before I had started.  But this morning, after a good night's sleep (which was so needed, and much appreciated), I lay in bed watching the sun rise into a bright blue sky and knew this day would be better.  And it has been.

Seeds have been planted - chillies, tomatoes, peppers and squash, and basil in their little 'greenhouses';

models finished;

Washing has dried completely outside - always good for the soul.

An unexpected trip to the pigs with little grand-daughter;

And a lovely couple of hours spent with a good friend; sometimes a chat over a coffee is just exactly what's needed to put things right.  

Perhaps I needed to take a bit of time out from trying to achieve results - lists, projects, whatever - and just take what the day has to offer.  Slow down, enjoy the simple things, look for beauty around me, it's there to be found if I look:

And tomorrow?  Well, I'll take it as it comes.

Curtains, food shopping and staying grey

Peppers ready for the freezer - a bargain at the greengrocers

A Red Admiral found in the greenhouse

'Small' carrots pulled from the garden for Sunday dinner - the taste was just so good.

The curtain alteration is finished - hooray!  I will confess they very, very nearly got the better of me and I did a lot more than just mutter about the quality.  I have worked on those curtains for almost three days solid; everything else went by the way, and it required more patience and perseverance than I thought I possessed, so to say I am relieved they are done is a bit of an understatement LOL.  And so we move on.

We don't 'do' the commercialism of Valentine's Day - no cards, chocolates or flowers here - but N likes an excuse to mess around in the kitchen and we had a lovely meal of Indian-style tapas which he had made from scratch, including some delicious pitta bread.  I doubt we'd have got a starter in a restaurant for the price he spent on the whole meal - just another reason I love him so much ;-)))

We caught up with the final programme in the Eat Well For Less series and whilst I have been just slightly stunned by the way some people shop for food, there have been one or two interesting snippets we've picked up on.  Fruit juice from concentrate, for example, has exactly the same ingredients as 'pure' fruit juice.  Meat from a butcher is better quality than from a supermarket, and often cheaper.  Fresh produce, cut up and washed then packed in bags, has a very short shelf life.  Cooking from scratch is cheaper and of course you know what goes into it.  Use a meal plan and shop with a list.  Only buy what you know you are going to use, and don't get side-tracked  by so-called bargains.  The amount of money that some people spend on food for one week is double what we spend for a month.  And we eat very well indeed.  It was staggering.

I'm still pondering the wardrobe/clothing situation.  The randomness of my clothes has been a bit of a shock; absolutely no plan at all.  I think some of that may have been due to wearing a uniform for much of my working life, so I only needed to throw casuals on when I got home.  Also I know I used to buy sale goods (in fact I don't think anything in my wardrobe was full price) because they were a 'good buy', not because they went with anything else.  And such a lot of colour, which I love, but not much to tone any of it down a little.  Many, many years ago (probably over 25, thinking about it) I had my colours done ('Colour Me Beautiful' I believe) and I took my little colour charts very much to heart.  So all the colours are the right colours, just way too many of them!  And it was a long time ago.  And now I have grey hair . . .  Just before Christmas I had a wobble about being grey, and convinced myself I needed to dye my hair again, but with a bit of time, and some perspective, I realise that it's what I wear that's the problem, not the colour of my hair.  I just cannot face, or justify, the time and money to have my hair coloured, not to mention the chemicals involved, and I'm relieved that, as so often happens, I have worked my way through the problem.  So grey hair is what I have and grey hair is what I will stick with.  Authenticity rules!!  The clothing declutter has brought into the open one or two other issues which have been 'cluttering up' my life for a while, and I suspect there is a connection at some deeper level.  I'm not saying a radical revamp of my wardrobe is going to sort everything out, but I am quietly confident that it is a place to start.