Find the SecondStar and soar, and then straight on till the morning…

Aimingforthegoodlife

Amazing work on the sewing! Viking stuff sounds great fun! Lovely to hear about the different connection with BF, means the world to have someone to spend time with and enjoy the mostly free stuff

SecondStar

Bother, I spent ages typing up a post and then the site ate it! This will be a short version instead.

The gist was, I’m rounding out January having had 26 NSDs, which I’m very pleased with. However, I closed out January’s budget at -£325, which I am very unhappy about.

However, looking at the numbers for February, I should break even if I am very careful - even with the extra expense of my dog’s blood work this month.

I finally got around to listing my Nalbinding for sale. I’ve sold 1 hat, and have an order for a pair of mitts and potentially another hat. It’ll be at the events when the money will really pick up though, and I’ll need to start making more stock to sell on the stall.

I’m also thinking about offering my sewing services, but I’m not sure what that’ll look like just yet.

It would nice to have a range of price points depending on whether the customer wants the garment machine made, machine inner stitching and hand finishing, or entirely hand sewn. I’ll likely start by photographing the pieces I’ve done for myself as examples, and offer commission work.

Once the season starts, I might see if it’s viable to have a few pieces ready-made in generic sizing, to be sold on the stall, and then use my own items as example pieces to take custom orders.

It’ll be work in itself to cost everything properly, and I’m mindful that I don’t want my hobby to turn into a resentful slog, but ultimately I could do with the money that this could bring in for me - at least during this lean period in my life.

SecondStar

Not a great deal to report. May have been counting chickens before hatching with my textile work, as I’ve not seen any money yet - the lady who wants the hat will hopefully pay, as she’s part of my group. The lady who wanted the hat and mitts had said she would get back to me with measurements, but hasn’t yet. Will wait and see I suppose.

As far as my personal sewing goes, I’ve got the bulk of my burnt orange apron dress together - just have to roll the hems and make up the straps x and I’ve trimmed my grey wool apron dress which looks lovely. I’ve to patch holes in the grey wool apron dress, as the wool was repurposed from a 1950’s nurses cloak and the moths have been at it in the past, and it also needs straps making. I want to alter the straps on my grey linen apron dress as well, to make them more aesthetically pleasing.

After that, I’ve just got my bargain basement white IKEA linen duvet set (picked up reduced to £35 as ex-display, and it’s easily 4m of linen) which will make up into my sleeping clothes - haven’t decided if I’m making 2 garments for myself, or if I’ll treat my partner to one as well. It might make a nice valentines present, come to think of it. Then I’ve to do 2 head coverings from the white linen pillowcases, and then all I’ve left will be my fancy wool which will be a posh overdress.

Plus accessories, and other bits and bobs for my kit of course, but that’ll be the bulk of my personal sewing done for the coming season. I have fairly wizzed through, given that I only started in earnest in the new year.

Once I’m done, it’ll likely be time to move back to Nalbinding and building stock to sell. I’ve also been asked to help organise our opening event / Easter festival weekend this year, which is very flattering and exciting. We have a member’s meeting soon to discuss the upcoming season, and then weapons training will be starting too - I’ve put myself forward for archery. This is my 2nd year, and my 1st year as a fully fledged member - everyone has a 1 year probation & introductory period - so I’m looking forward to making myself as useful as possible. At the end of the day, we are a voluntary group, who love to dress up and do viking age things together. If everyone doesn’t pull their weight, then the whole thing falls apart, and we don’t get to play anymore. We do this for fun, and it’s in everyone’s best interests to keep that fun going as easily as possible!

Had my 2nd NSD for February, and did my first shop of the month on Wednesday (counting as Feb, since it was in the Feb pay cheque) for £24.20. My budget this month is £120, and last month I managed £105, so I’m hopeful.

I’m seeing my partner tomorrow, and he’d mentioned charity shop browsing, so we’ll see how it goes.

SecondStar

Had a nice quiet (free!) weekend - did some gardening on Saturday (a very loose description of gardening, it was pulling a few weeds and then getting cold and going back indoors), and then went for a walk on Sunday.

I’m feeling…antsy, somehow. I can’t settle to anything, and I feel all out of rhythm.

This usually happens when a hyper fixation wears off - in this instance, I’ve been binge watching Downton Abbey and sewing non-stop for the past few weeks, and then on Friday I just…stopped. The tv show was boring and their voices were irritating, I didn’t want to pick up my project, and I just started doomscrolling on my phone instead.

I’m not surprised - I know the show gets boring around this season, and I’m not able to complete my last 2 projects yet - the last 2 and another previous 1 all need their straps making/replacing. However, I’m not able to do this until I have a pair of ‘tortoiseshell brooches’, which are used to connect the straps which hold up the dress. I don’t own a pair of these brooches, and until I do I’m not able to know how long to make the dress straps. So it does not create dopamine when I know I can’t finish my dresses!

The brooches are an integral part of a femme viking age wardrobe, if one is wearing an apron dress. I don’t *have* to wear an apron dress, but since I’ve taken the time to make 3 of the blooming things, it would be nice to! Plus they do give visual interest, and I think they look really pretty as well, and I’m proud of them. I could put regular straps on them, though it wouldn’t be period authentic - my group wouldn’t mind, but I would.

Trouble is, the brooches can be expensive, and they’re not something I can manufacture myself. Prices might range from £30 per brooch for a super cheap set in a flimsy material, all the way up to hundreds for a very high quality museum replica set in a precious metal. You can see why I’m hesitant and feeling stuck!

What I should do (could do) is set aside all the apron dresses for now, scratch them from my mind, and draw a line under them. Remind myself that I have £0 until March at the earliest, so there is no point mooning over jewellery I don’t have and can!t afford yet. Instead, I should look at cutting out my fancy wool, or my white linen, and get stuck into a new project instead - one that I can see all the way through till the end, and feel satisfied with. I am happier in myself when I have a goal, and I’m working through clear steps towards that goal. Right now, I’m floundering and a little lost.

What I *need* to do is sit down with an annual calendar, and mark out all the time I have between now and the season starting. I need to mark out the important events, book the time off work, and allocate time to make stock. I don’t want these things to spring up on me, and I’ve not fully prepared.



This was a very long, very boring post, for you who aren’t interested in viking age reenactment or sewing, sorry! But it’s easier for me to find trains of thought through writing, and I can’t afford therapy any more, so buckle in for more streams of consciousness posts hahaha.

SecondStar

I cut my expensive wool, and have started stitching, and I’m feeling very happy with it! The fabric is gorgeous to work with, and it smells amazing (just textile enthusiast things!). I’m really looking forward to wearing it this season, it’s going to look very smart indeed.

We went for the family vet visit yesterday, to get their arthritis jabs and to have my dog’s blood tested to check his kidneys. The blood panel ended up being £56 more expensive than I’d accounted for (I’d been going off of the amount charged for my cat, for a more simple panel - my mistake), so I had to take the difference from my savings.

Then I impulse purchased a sheepskin from eBay for a valentines present for my partner. It had popped up as a 15 minute warning, and when I clicked in there was only 40 seconds left, and it was at £20. I got it for £27.50 including postage, which is a bargain, but it was still an impulse purchase that I can’t really afford.

To be honest, I had been stressing over what to do or get for him for the occasion. We’re both not massively invested in valentines, but it’s our first together, and I’d wanted it to be special but not full of out of budget spending. I had planned to make him a set of sleeping linens, but both times I’ve seen him this week I’ve forgotten to take his measurements!  By the time I see him again on Saturday, it would be cutting it too fine to get the garment done to a standard I’d be happy with. It’ll probably be a birthday present instead!

I know I bought the sheepskin because we had just come out of a stressful team meeting at work, and it was an instant opportunity to zone out my brain and get a dopamine hit. I understand *why* it happened, and I’m going to give myself grace and not beat myself up about it. Now that I know, I’ll be better placed to recognise the build up to it in the future, and head myself off. My partner will be thrilled though, and that makes me very happy.

At the risk of being too soppy for a finance forum, I really am so very happy to be with him. He is just the sweetest, kindest, most generous person I’ve ever met. He is considerate, gentlemanly, and just adores me. He makes me feel loved and cherished in ways which he tells me I deserve, but which I’ve never experienced or felt with previous partners. He is a true gem.

vampirotoothus

Hi there, do you know anyone who has the brooches you need? Could you ask them if you can make a template from them for your measurements? V x

SecondStar

@vampirotoothus The would be a good idea, but unfortunately the brooches come in lots of different sizes, and with the pins all in different places, depending on where you buy them from! I’ve had a good lead though - apparently one of our members often has jewellery for sale, so I’ll likely send him a message in a month or so when I might have more cash.

Speaking of cash, it all seems to be in with one hand and out with the other.

I seem to spend half of my life calculating the cost of medications, prescriptions, and vet visits; and the other half of my life realising that those calculations have been wrong.

It should be a fairly simple process - the prescriptions are issued every 6 months with 6 repeats on them, and I order medications once a month. So I need to save a little each month to afford to pay for the prescriptions. Except, I now have 6 prescriptions to try and keep track of! 3 of them all expire at the same time, 2 expire at the same time, and 1 isn’t a repeat it’s a once only for 6 months. Trying to have the right amount of cash saved at the right time in order to afford the right amount of prescriptions is melting my brain. Say nothing of trying to save the right amount to afford the right medications on time!

When done correctly, it should be saving me money. And here’s hoping, because right now it’s just pickling me. 

KajiKita

I wonder if part of the issue with the prescription savings / planning is that you don’t have a buffer to start with? Maybe add up all the costs for 1 year (I.e. a full cycle) and then allocate some money from savings to half of that amount, so at least you are meeting the next batch with funds ready? That might then give you the breathing space to keep on top of them in future? Also, are there any specifically expensive ones that you know will land on you in x months? To be fair, this kind of financial forecasting is quite sophisticated.

I really enjoy reading about all the Viking reenactment stuff 😊 I find it fascinating to see people do it and have masses of random questions but the participants are generally focused on their ‘doings’ so I don’t feel able to harass them! 😂

Everytime you post about it I remember the Viking shop in Glastonbury - he has some lovely stuff in there 😊 I’m sure some of it is ticky-tack tourist stuff, but there are some real gems too - I love glass so picked up a little, hand blown, blue glass bud vase in there - so sweet😊

KK

SecondStar

@kajikita you’re probably right re. a buffer. I’ll take another look at the numbers now that I’ve had a few days away from it - surely it can’t be that difficult to work out! The Viking shop in Glastonbury sounds divine. It’s a bucket list item of mine to spend a long weekend in Glastonbury town, it would just be delicious. The closest I’ve ever got was going to a wedding in Taunton, and we drove through Glastonbury town and Cheddar Gorge on the way back to Bristol airport. There wasn’t any time to stop off, and I had my nose pressed against the glass of the car window, gorping the whole way. I’d love the chance to indulge myself with a holiday there.



This has been a fabulous weekend! It was our members meeting and first training day on Saturday. I’d seen most of the group at curry night in January, but I like it when we meet for Viking Things, and I cope better in a large group if we’re doing more structured activities. The meeting was very informative - I’m hoping to get involved with running the seasonal events, and then we have our big even in the summer this year, which will fall around my partner and I’s anniversary. Very fitting, since we met at an event! There was lots of talk of kit and crafts, and one of my friends has asked for my help with sewing herself a few new garments.

Training was archery, which was great fun - I thought about trying the sword and shield stuff this season, but honestly I don’t think I’m up for getting whacked at. My partner has offered to make a shield and a sword or seaxe for me though, if I change my mind. I’d be very worried I was taking advantage of him, if he wasn’t always offering things to me! It might be something to revisit though - I don’t mind show fighting, or going up against other members of our group, but some of the other groups are a bit iffy when it comes to safety, and I wouldn’t be comfortable fighting someone I wasn’t familiar with. I’m far happier doing living history demonstrations, and cheering from the sidelines!

Was in bed asleep by 10pm, and then my partner and I went for a lovely coastal walk this afternoon, and got chips by the harbour. The sun shone all day, and the sea was as smooth and clear as green glass. Absolutely stunning, and we found some lovely picnic places for paddling, when it gets a little bit warmer. It’s really fun to go exploring together, there’s still so many spots we’ve not seen before.



Today is the 10th NSD for February, though I’m still going to round out the month out of pocket due to some mess ups with the pet medications. Still waiting for my partner’s sheepskin to be delivered, and hoping it arrives in time for Valentine’s Day. 

KajiKita

“ Today is the 10th NSD for February, though I’m still going to round out the month out of pocket due to some mess ups with the pet medications.”

Ahem …. Let’s reframe this? 😊 Perhaps “I’m still going to round out the month out of pocket due to learning and adapting to the complex financial forecasting needed for my pets’ meds.”
😉

So glad you had a lovely weekend. Makes me happy to read it. 😊

KK