+++ Whoops! Here comes the cheese! +++

PennysIntoPounds

You are made of mse steel resisting half price loccitan especially after an emotional week in an already difficult time.
The bulbs, free grapes, and clothes sorting sounds very productive, and fire, reading, crochet and eating is exactly what this weekend called for.
Happy birthday month. How are you feeling?

redofromstart

The thing is PIP I have accidentally reverted to having a stash of nice beauty stuff.  I do use it up (enjoyably) but realistically I don't need to buy anything for at least a year.  In general I am functioning ok, thank you for asking, as you say a hard week last week but I didn't resort to eating or drinking all of the things - this too shall pass.  Not in the black pits of doom or anything and still smiling at the birds and the garden. 

My birthday is next Monday, its a bad run as it goes mine, Mr Redos, SS1 (and both his children too), DS1 and SS2 with one a fortnight till mid April.  Always an expensive start to Easter.  DS2 isn't until the summer luckily.

MrM contributed a free bar of chocolate, MnS was grapes or biscuits.  That is about as exciting as it is likely to get. 

Todays minor stress is taking the boys little car for its MOT, it has hardly moved since everything went wrong although I have kept on top of running it regularly for the battery to charge.  Must get into the discipline of taking it shopping alternate weeks rather than mine but it is a manual and I hate driving it nearly as much as I hate supervising a learner in it.  

I am thinking about booking a 'learn to crochet' workshop next week at the emporium of hobby and craft.  Has anyone tried these and are they worth it?  I can knit to a basic standard but hadn't touched crochet since I was a child.  It is part of my 'what do I want life to look like going forwards' musing.

LadyWithAPlan

Well done on resisting the sales ! I have been using my stash of posh toiletries for 6 months now and whilst I have gone through a fair few lotion and potions there is still more ! Somehow serums seem to breed 

I did sewing garment construction class last year it was lovely and the tutor was v knowledgeable and interesting - plus nice group of fellow learners 

Sorry you having to go through all these firsts without him, sending you a hug 

Cherryfudge

I haven't tried those particular classes but as a long-term knitter I took up crochet thanks to a friend's very patient instruction, and it helped to have a real person as tutor, as she could take it off me and work out where I went wrong! I'm now quite confident so long as I can look up which stitch I'm meant to be doing (you may be aware American and UK terminology look very similar but aren't compatible, so be aware which you are working with). I enjoy it more than knitting, but I found it harder to learn at first. Then something clicked and my fingers just carried on crocheting...

redofromstart

Thank you both.  Still undecided, will see how I feel next week.

Spending - £200 vets (planned) and £75 on minor repair for the little car to pass MOT. 
Progress - the extra bins arrived and some more sorting is underway, as always this is emotional.  
Wellbeing - managed 1.5lbs off so am persisting with F&V. Wine and chocolate have been consumed but in moderation.  Bribing myself to keep doing the sorting. 
Garden - sea of mud, so no progress but lots of bulbs peeping through and I can see my blanket of snowdrops flowering at the far end of the garden

rtandon27

Wow @redofromstart - 1.5 off and you've had both wine and chocolate? - That is impressive!

As to the sorting - all in good time - it's not a sprint but a marathon!

jwil

Well done on the weightloss and the sorting, even if it is very emotional x

redofromstart

The weight loss was before the bribes rtandon, but it is helping me to keep plodding away at it
Thanks jwil

A trip out this morning (using a £12 off a C&C voucher for MrS) turned into a quick dip into MrL, and a spendy visit to the orange diy place where they had some good offers on planters.  I have lots of small and mid size terracotta (mostly kindly gifted by my parents), but very few big feature sized pots. Two huge terracotta pots, and seven medium sized pots made the trip home with me, indulgent but my plan is to put anything expensive in pots so it comes with me if I do move.   

Got back to a lovely box of cheese which is a present from my generous sister so I can bribe myself with that as I carry on sorting through things.  Slow but steady progress - the hardest bit is choosing something to watch while I get on.

rtandon27

@redofromstart - have you seen the ads for A Thousand Blows - makes me want to restart my Walt's Studios subscription! - Also the new Quantum Leap is on 5 ready for streaming.

redofromstart

Thanks @rtandon27 I will have a look.  Mind you after years of resisting I have just signed up for FlickyNets to watch Br1dgerton, and will cancel once I am done because I couldn't see anything else that appealed.