EH - Essex > Hebrides...the next step of the adventure?

beanielou

Hope the food order works out well.
Have dishcloth envy now.

EssexHebridean

Thanks Milann - there’s a thought too - with fine enough grade cotton I could perhaps crochet some makeup remover pads for myself? Hmmm…must see if Ravelry give any ideas!

Cheery my thinking is that once I’ve made a few I can hopefully begin to transition from using kitchen roll at all - we already use it a lot less than we used to but it does still get used to grab for emergency spills, and as napkins sometimes too. In an ideal world ai’d prefer to have a stash of cloths that can get easily grabbed then thrown straight into the dishwasher once used. Food for thought! 

SH I used to crochet years ago - never did anything massively significant with it aside from a large blanket that I crocheted granny squares for and Mum then crocheted/sewed together for when I got my first car - I still have it in the current car in fact and love it! I’m really keen to learn to actually use it for functional stuff now though - it really is a soothing hobby, I’d forgotten how much so! 

Beanie we’re also relieved about the food thing! 😆 (and that reminds me, I need to cast a final eye over it to decide if there is anything to add/remove)

Definitely feeling better today - we’re both coughing a lot less, MrEH’s sinuses are settling down, I seem to have shed the headache/temperature and the fatigue is still present but less too. We’ve been out for a round-the block fresh air wander at a slow pace (passing nobody else on foot at all!) and returned feeling a lot less wrung out than yesterday so that’s good, too. It’ll be interesting to see if tomorrow’s tests show any less intensity in the positive lines - it’s day 6 for me, 5 for him, so I start looking for two consecutive negatives from then. 

Another load of washing run overnight and out this morning - that should be the last for a few days though and is all the holiday stuff now sorted. It’s drying stupidly fast outside in the sunshine too which is lovely. Dishwasher ran through last night too and was emptied and put away first thing this morning. 

Banking checked and all OK, and confirmation from NS&I that the other day’s additional payment to PB’s has been applied. Tea tonight will be bacon and mushroom risotto, deferring the lamb couscous until tomorrow when there will be a better choice of veg. I’m also planning to bake either tomorrow or Saturday - probably something like muffins, flavour to be decided. I was going to buy something treaty for the weekend but I’m unlikely to be short of time for baking, am I now?! 

jokono

I've just read the last few pages, sorry to hear covid's been hard on you! We've had it recently but only had a couple of bad days that weren't even that bad.

Might the yarn website be the wool warehouse? 😅 I get their newsletter and they have various discounts all the time, it's really dangerous. It's one of the few newsletters I still get.

All this talk about dishcloths - we normally use cotton tea towels around the kitchen but still use sponges for the dishes we do be hand. From what you're saying I get you're using the cloths for dishwashing too? I might start doing that then, I was just looking at expensive biodegradable dish sponges.

Re deodorant - I didn't see earlier conversations so not sure if this is relevant, but I use a potassium alum 'stick', I've had one for two years and it works well, plus there's enough left to last me another couple of years.

EssexHebridean

Ha - yes Wool Warehouse is the one! 😁 I did stick mostly to the budget ranges, but a few balls of the Sugar’n’Cream cotton yarn did slide their way in there, Those colours are SOOOO pretty! 

And yes to the dishcloths being used for actual washing up - although my plan is to make enough that they can be used for all the regular cleaning jobs too. I’ve currently got a dwindling supply of very old micro fibre cloths which came from the Land of £’s originally -  but they are so old they are now rapidly heading towards disintegration and I’m reluctant to buy anything more with those sorts of fabrics in. I’ve always been more of a fan of cloths for dishwashing than sponges - MrEH loathes the sponge types, he can’t bear the feel of them - so I’ve not bought them for a long while, we have a stash of the scourer stuff that came from the Chinese supermarket ages ago - each large sheet gets cut into 6 smaller pieces which means we use less overall but the more knobbly finish of the woven/crocheted cloths seems to minimise how often even those are used. 

I’ve also seen those deodorants around - I tried one of the crystal types years ago but wasn’t impressed, and have a deeply cynical approach to deodorants generally as I’m paranoid about ending up with something that doesn’t work! I’ve been really impressed with the Wild ones so felt the investment was worth it. They smell fabulous too! Once the full size one arrives the mini one I’m currently using will get popped in with my travel stuff along with its two fellows - that should keep me going on that front for a while too. 

Just done a short gentle yoga workout - I’m trying to do something like that daily and definitely feel better for it. Will probably step back into more “regular” stuff from tomorrow I think as I feel like I’m definitely on the mend now. 

And in a couple of nods to the old “Use up your toiletries” thread gang - one UU to report today - the end of a tube of toothpaste, I have more in the stash. Also a “Pink Rose Candle” moment (if you know, you know!) when while clearing some space in a cupboard for the incoming yarn delivery I discovered a bird feeder we were gifted years ago - it’s in the form of a wooden painted cat holding two dishes which take the seed - we’d been reluctant to use it for fear it would get nicked/broken but for goodness sake what’s the point in that? It’s gone into use and is now being given disapproving twitters by the resident Blue Tits!

milann

😂I’m surprised the cat bird feeder doesn’t scare the birds away 😳 No point storing it away though.

EssexHebridean

I thought the same Milann - but this morning ai stood quietly and watched as one of the Blue Tits hopped confidently onto one side, grabbed a seed and flew off again! Didn’t expect success that soon, so we’re delighted with that! 

How’s everyone today then? We are both much improved on the Covid front I’m pleased to say - I felt a bit grot again this morning but it passed quickly enough after a shower and hair wash. Treated myself to using the final handful out of the jar of my posh Cl1nique body scrub - I absolutely love the product and I spite of it being pricey I may well treat myself again in the future. For now though I’ll appreciate the space on the edge of the bath! Also dug out the jar of S0ap n Gl0ry hair mask I got in one of the Boots Star Gift deals a few years ago - about two applications left, or rather, one now after using it earlier, so as long as I don’t forget it again that will be gone next week. Sadly both our covid tests this morning were still distinctly positive - although mine wasn’t showing quite such a thick line as Wednesday’s one. I don’t think it’s likely I’ll get two consecutive negatives over the weekend, though. 

We now have shopping, plus some extra fruit from Mum which worked out well. My Dad is back in hospital again - seems the cold he had earlier in the week triggered pneumonia which with his IPF is a significant issue and explains why he’s been struggling even more with his breathing this week than normal. He has various fruit that Mum won’t eat, so we’ve gained some blueberries, some citrus, and some grapes plus another pack of baby plum tomatoes. I’ll put a pasta dish with tomatoes on the meal plan for the week I think as I had a couple of smaller packs of those in the shopping too! The grapes are useful though as those were out of stock from my order. The most annoying “not available” thing from the order was the eggs - with hindsight I should have marked those as allowing substitutes but didn’t think of it. Now need to re-plan for baking - possibly biscuits, or maybe flapjacks. Also need to replan food around not being able to make omelettes or sweetcorn fritters, both of which were on the radar. 

Yarn delivery arrived this morning - I’m super impressed with the speed of that! Good news too as it meant I was still able to finish my dishcloth at lunchtime in spite of running out of the original yarn a row and a half off the end. I’m about to sit and have a play about with the lighter weight cotton I bought to see if I can come up with a decent pattern for makeup wipes I think - that is also going to make general cleaning cloths suitable for the bathroom as it’s the right colour! (green and purple in similar shades to our towels/bath mats).  

Some surveys done in the last few days so a bit of progress on the totals:
Prolific: £8.72 paid/£3.81 pending
OnePoll: 1612 points
Ipsos: 793 points 
I’ll cash Prolific when it hits the £10 mark I think - I can’t have any effect on the gym cost per visit right now but I can add to the Gym Neutral fund can’t I! 

We’re going to sit and have a financial review over the weekend at some stage - it’s looking like we need to make some adjustments to where savings are going as there is a notably better regular saver now available to us than one of those we already have. I need to research the penalties involved in stopping or reducing payments to two of our current options though, to see where we’re best to change things. We also want to do our usual quarterly review of how we’re doing, how our savings pots are looking, and whether anything else needs amending. I have no issue with doing most of the day to day financial stuff but I do insist that MrEH has a decent level of involvement to the extent that he knows what money is where, how much we pay out for various things (and when) etc - essentially all the stuff that means he’ll not be left in a pickle if anything happens to me. 

Oh - and I shall be mourning the loss of any decent snacks for this evening too - I’d ordered a sneaky bag of Bombay mix as a treat for us but THAT a was out of stock too! Pah! 

Cheery_Daff

Pah to snacks and things being out of stock. Wish you were closer - we've got eggs coming out of our ears and I'd gladly bring you a box or three 😂 We're in a similar situation with finances in our house in terms of me insisting Mr Cheery knows where things are - although sometimes I think it goes in one ear and out the other. It's on my list to write everything down properly this year just in case - let's hope nothing happens to me first... (although he'd be fine - he gets the life insurance and a big payout from work if I go first so he'd be set for life. All I'd have if he went first is the comfort of knowing which bills were paid from which account 🙄😂😂)

Sorry to hear about your Dad. I do hope he picks up soon xxx

foxgloves

I do like the idea of a quarterly financial review, @EssexHebridean. I do update Mr F throughout the year & we do make joint decisions most of the time, but we only do an annual money summit atm. Something to think about.
I'm reading in the garden with the sun bouncing off the pond making me see coloured blobs in front of my eyes. Consequently, I read 'Treated myself' as 'Tasered myself.....' Think the angle of this bench needs shifting slightly.

Sorry to hear that your Dad has IPF. My Dad had it & it's a cruel disease.
F x

milann

It makes sense to look at savings accounts. It’s something we need to do. 

Sorry your dad is in hospital. Hope he improves quickly.
it sounds as if the worst of Covid is hopefully behind you 🤞 hopefully you’ll get negatives soon 🤞

beanielou

Hope your dad is a wee bit better soon xx