Productive plans.

Last week I had grand plans to get the sewing machine out and make a tunic.

I had the fabric and the pattern, and that's as far as it got.

A lovely deer and doe pattern

The Arum dress.

A simple pattern with no sleeve fitting { hate setting sleeves}

Had the butterfly fabric but decided I dont like it any more { taste has changed}{ trouble with stashing},so nipped to Fabric land and bought some cheap cotton, £3.99 pr metre , cant go wrong.

I am definitely moving towards blues and greens.

And there it sat, all week, whilst I stressed about the job.

Enough, today I got up off my worry chair and cut the pattern out. Yes I am a pattern cutter, as I am a large lady if I ever lose weight its easy enough to cut it down if I want to make another. The fabric has been washed, all it needs is an iron and I am ready to cut it out. I have bought a rotary cutter and a lovely pink cutting board, I even bought matching threads! There really is no excuse now not to get at least one done, I am thinking I may start with the Peacock fabric.  Strange that both fabrics I choose had a bird theme.

Garden planning was also on the agenda today, we headed down to a lovely little garden centre in Bristol, boy was it busy all you need is some sun and everyone is out buying plants. I understand why, its a great little garden centre with a great cafe, they were queuing out of the door so we missed out on a coffee.  The garden centre also has a great view down the river into the city centre

I love the colours of the houses alongside the river, then we had a lovely drive home along  under the bridge.No matter how many times I drive along here I always enjoy it, no matter what the weather. This is also my commute route so I generally get to see the bridge most days !

During the hound years our garden was a dog playground, nothing survived, not event the grass. Now we are houndless we have started to plant again. We have loads of pots and a veg patch but nothing else. We had a dead corner that we have now cleared of Junk and I really wanted something that would bring some colour. I did want a  tree but as we are only going to be here 1-2 more years didn't want to spend a fortune.  We ended up with a trailing white hydrangea which will be planted in the corner at the end of the garden and a small white magnolia which will go in a large blue pot. That will be taken with us when we move. Hoping to get them planted later. Strange that I wanted a pop of colour but choose white!

Now I am going to go enjoy the rest of the sunshine whilst waiting for everyone else to come home. Sunday afternoons are for piano lessons and granddad visiting !

Catching up.

Weekend goals:

Yeah, I made the pinny !

little wobble on the top edge but pretty pleased with it, came out quite well. No 2 son is the model !

No 2 son and I made a cake

Red velvet & sprinkles. We haven't done this for ages, it was nice to do something with him. 

I ripped back my sweater sleeve ( only the mustard section ) and started again

only to realise that I have made another error, and to be honest I cant deal with ripping a whole sleeve! the main body finishes on a grey stripe, as should the sleeves, but I've ended up on a white, given the shaping in the sleeve I have obviously done some miscalculating or the pattern is wrong? , but I am just going to roll with it and hope the 2nd sleeve matches this one... I am done with this sweater, I love it but I'm frustrated and just want it done !

I did do the 3rd section on my Oceania but I've not had chance to take a pic in decent light. 

Work bag sorted, got rid of the laptop case and am just chucking the laptop in that, downsized everything I carry and am just about managing. The locker at work is still an issue as cant fit laptop in, still need to work on that as dont want to have to carry it in and out everyday if I dont need to.

That weight thing.

It has still been more of a miss than a hit, but I am noticing a big improvement in my eating habits in my new job , and have lost 3 lb since my last weigh in. Altogether that's 5lb. Not bad just need to keep the rhythm going now. 

Reading.

I am so loving commuting, I get to read everyday.  I am currently reading the winternight trilogy and loving it. Totally different to my normal reads and am now on book 2

it's a magical Russian folklore tale, set in deep midwinter, full of magic and monsters. I love it.  

Scrabble.

I've become addicted to a Scrabble app, I am playing daily against the computer! ( using my phone though), getting better and learning new words daily, despite it being the English dictionary version I am sure the computer is making up words, I have been known to go check them out, darned computer is always right though!

And that's it, I'm back in the work week and still juggling that work life balance.

Weekend Goals.

I just want a weekend to faff about. I love faffing. Faffing means doing whatever I fancy indoors. 

I have a work bag to sort, commuting with heavy bags doesn't work for me, (dodgy shoulder) I am downsizing what I carry, I've just swapped work bags to one of my cross body bags for my personal bits,( but big enough for my reading book).  The new laptop case is big enough to carry a file or 2 so I should be ok with just the 2 bags. Its amazing what you carry that you don't really need. By the end of the weekend I hope to have it well and truly sorted.

  I found a little set of baskets at Lidl yesterday for £4.99 so grabbed them, the larger one will be just perfect for my locker. I have downsized most of the rubbish I had so really its just for my mug  ( & teas) & water bottle !

I covered a piece of cardboard with some sticky back plastic ( blue peter girl here ) to put in the bottom and I think the basket is just about the right size. The cotton bud dispenser tub will go as he stuff in there can go in my bag. Pretty pleased with it, sure my mug and other teas will fit in. Will try it out on Monday. Then I am going to get one of those magazine file thingys for my notebooks, you know the type you put on a shelf with your magazines in? Hopefully I will have enough room left to slid the laptop bag in so as I don't have to keep bringing it home. 

If you are wondering what the blood orange is, I was introduced to TugBoat brews at Christmas via way of a gift from my Cornish friend. 

I am now addicted and have bought a few more. You do need an strainer or infuser though as its full of glorious fruit bits ! ( I found this out when I used it first time ) so I bought one of their tea infuser tongs for work use. I find them really refreshing and I have cut right down on my tea/ coffee usage at work.

Then I need to rectify this

I am so cross with my self, I thought I was getting on so well and had grand plans to get the other sleeve sorted. It wasn't until I cast it off and went to take a pic I realised what I had done ! can you spot it? you might need to be a knitter ! I have completed the mustard in stocking stitch where I should have swapped to garter stitch to match the front and back. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr 

That will teach me for picking up my scrabbled notes rather than recheck the pattern after not having knit on it for a while ! I have now ripped it right back to the stripes and start again tomorrow ! On the plus side I did catch up on some pod casts whilst I was knitting !

Then I have decided I am going to get my sewing machine going for the first time this year ! Its not seen the light of day for quite a while. As I feel a little rusty and my machine probably needs some love, thought I d start with a  small simple project. Well lucky for me I had just the thing I picked up in the local charity shop.

Just a little pinny ! might be good to use whilst sinning fluffy stuff. When I opened it up look what else I found

can you see those cute little scissors, they weren't meant to be in the pack so not sure where they came from? I have cut all the pieces out so there should be no excuse not to get it done, lets hope the machine is up to it !

My last piece of craftiness I want to get done is Marchs instalment of the Blue Planet Oceania KAL. I am loving this project so far, such a great pattern.

this is where I am up to so far

I did make an error in January's first section, but really couldn't be bothered to try and unpick a double stranded project especially as one  strand is lace weight mohair. I can see it but I don't think it distracts from the pattern and I managed to back on track by the next pattern repeat. This is going to be great for chilly days its so snuggly. 

Lastly I will watch that Bohemian Rhapsody film, still didn't manage it last night !

Date night fun.

Hubs and I had a fab night out last night, we rarely go out just the 2 of us and have been making the effort now the boys are all grown up! Last night wasn't any old date night, it was a 'gig' date night ! 

I was lucky enough to get tickets to go and see Massive Attack. They are an iconic Bristol band and as a Bristol girl I just had to go see them in Bristol ! They are a bit like marmite and the tour has had mixed reviews but I loved it. It was a cracking night. I would love to go and see more bands but ticket prices are ridiculous.

Here's a couple of pics for you. The actual building was specially constructed for the band and was in the middle of the runway at Filton Airport. 

There was a visual all the way through , it documented how society has changed over the last 20 years since the album mezzanine was released, we were way back as I hate being hemmed in in a crowd , but we managed to see most of it from the big screens. If you are into this sort of thing then its definitely worth a visit to you tube to catch it.