Journeys Are My Diary

Life, Adventures, Entertainment and more - A little bit of everything blog!

Week 26 – Monday Round-up

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Another busy week but I’m actually getting around to doing this post early (it’s Sunday night!). Monday to Friday the kids were at school but Chris was off from Monday to Wednesday. After taking the kids to school on Monday, I settled down to finish of the Murder Mystery I’d been working tirelessly. It took me all day but I finally managed it by about midnight! Obviously I picked up the kids, had dinner etc. but for the most part my day was solely spent doing this.

On Tuesday Chris and I took the girls to school and then headed to the storage unit. We needed to grab a few things, including the futon, which meant taking furniture to pieces and packing it into the car. After that we headed back home but we needed to go to Tesco and visit Chris’ nan too. We decided to go to Chris’ nan first and stayed for about an hour, we then went shopping and did a good weeks shop. Finally we got back home and Chris offered to put the futon back together while I took a bath. For a change it was a really long bath, because I got quite into the book I was reading. When the girls got home from school, via their few hours with their dad, I managed to catch him about Megan getting her ears pierced. He agreed and she was thrilled!

On Wednesday I took the girls to school and Chris was out on his driving test (sadly he failed). When I got home, he arrived shortly after me and while we wallowed for a little while, he soon headed up on his computer and I got sewing for the day. I picked out a pattern to do, traced it and cut it out. I then stopped for lunch with Chris before heading out to Boyes and buying some material. I got back and cut out my pattern pieces but then it was time to pick the girls up from school. Megan was having her friend Elizabeth back for dinner and so that pretty much took up the rest of my evening.

Thursday Chris was back at work but my mum was coming around for the day so I still didn’t get an awful lot done. She read through my murder mystery completely though (noting the odd mistake) and she liked it, so that made me feel positively about the party on Friday. She stopped for lunch and didn’t leave till I went to get the girls from school. After school we went into town and made an appointment for Megan’s ear piercing. We also picked up the Snow White Tsum Tsums which had just been released from Clintons. In the evening I had my nephew (or sort of at least) overnight as my brother and his girlfriend were working the next day when he was off school and they had no one for the early part of Friday. The kids didn’t get that long together but they were no trouble. Once they were in bed I baked some cakes, trying to bake them flat for the first time ever. It was definitely an interesting experience.

On Friday morning I had three kids to get up and ready but again they were no trouble. I took all three to school with me, met up with mum and sat with her and Charlie to watch Megan’s assembly. After the assembly finished, Charlie and I headed off so I could take him home, via McDonalds for breakfast of course. By the time I got home, I had ten minutes to grab my breath before heading out to meet Amy and Liv. I walked down to the train station to meet them and then we all headed back to my house. Since the girls were going to my mum’s that night, we didn’t need to go out and get them from school. In the end we all just chilled out together, headed in to town for a little while, played with some Tsum Tsums and watched Walle. After Olivia went to bed, Amy and I got ready for the murder mystery and finished the cake.

The evening went really well and it was nice to hang with friends. The murder mystery worked fine too so that was a relief, though not having rounds of food to break it up with, meant that it all went pretty fast (we were naughty and ordered Dominos!). Even once we finished though, we all sat around chatting and since we were a small group, that was nice too. In the end we headed to bed around midnight.

In the morning, I managed a lie-in till 10.30am but I still felt tired! The kids arrived home around midday and since they all pretty much occupied themselves in the afternoon, Amy and I spent time together in the dining room – researching everything from Paris accommodation to cosplay ideas. We were still in the dining room when Chris came home from work at 10pm, though obviously we’d got the kids dinner and fed ourselves too. We headed to bed a little earlier than usual as we were pretty tired. However I managed to lie-in till 9am again the following morning!

This time the girls got up and occupied themselves quietly until we were all up. Then we all just sat together, had cups of tea and chatted. I took Amy and Liv to catch their train at 1pm, then came home and helped Megan with her homework. Chris and I spent the afternoon strimming and trimming the front garden and it took ages! Finally I came inside, hoovered around and then ended up sorting all my jewellery supplies out. After getting everyone (and myself) dinner, it wasn’t long before the girls headed to bed. I spent the evening cutting Chris’ hair and then when he went for a bath I watched Holby City while writing this blog post! We’re now settling down to watch Humans and I’m scheduling this post and turning off my computer. I imagine we’ll head to bed after one episode as I have to be up early in the morning!

Hope you all had a good week. See you again this time next week!

Just Sew Geeky

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As you probably know from my previous posts, I love to sew. My mum and dad bought me my first sewing machine at the age of 18 and I used it for a good year or so before it got stowed away and barely used. Since having kids I’ve used it every now and again, but it has never had more use than in the last 12 months. Last summer a group of us decided we would go to London Film and Comic Con and that we would cosplay. This was my first ever experience of cosplaying and I wanted to make my own costume. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out, especially since I hadn’t used my sewing machine in a long time.

cosplay

Sadly now when I look at the photos, all I see is how much weight I had on at that time. I was beginning to lose weight at that point but since then I’ve lost about 1- 1 and 1/2 stone and feel so much better for it. Anyway, when I try to focus on the costume itself I’m pleased but I know I’ve done so much better since. In the following months I made young Anna and Elsa dresses for my two daughters, I made a Snow White costume for my best friend Amy and I made a whole stack of Disney inspired dressed for our holiday to Florida.

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Since getting back from Florida I’ve flipped flopped back and forth about starting my own business – sewing clothes. I have had an online store on Etsy selling jewellery for some time now and I’d love to combine everything geeky that I like to do and make a little business from it. Anyway… the title of this post was one of the names I toyed with – Just Sew Geeky. However I felt it was too sewing orientated (and I want to do more than sewing) and in the end went for Closet Geek. The sewing section of my site will probably be the largest – for the most part I’ll be offering inspired dresses and clothes for children. In the future I hope to be able to offer custom cosplay too, not just for kids but for adults. I’ll also add my Jewellery Ever After stock (and add to it), along with the inspired hair bows that Megan and I were making a few months ago. On top of all that I hope to add murder mysteries to the categories, but that’s a little way off right now. It’s a lot of work and I’ve really only just started. I have the bare bones of a site in progress, social media platforms set up and business cards ordered.

businesscard2At the weekend (just gone) I sat down to get some sewing done and discovered the foot from my sewing machine was gone. I’m absolutely certain I’ve put it somewhere “safe” but after two hours of searching, I still couldn’t find it. In the end I ordered a new one, costing a total of £8.79 (only £3.80 for the foot but £4.99 postage!). To be honest I toyed with buying a new sewing machine all together. I checked out sewing machines online and I found a really good range at Tesco Direct but as yet I haven’t made a decision. There is nothing actually wrong with my sewing machine at the moment but I have to admit I can tell it’s definitely on it’s way out. As I said, it was bought for my 18th birthday – and I literally just had my 36th last week. It’s old… though not as old as I am… and it’s going to need replacing soon, especially if I expect to be sewing on it even more often than I have been recently.

Though I’m bubbling over with ideas of Disney inspired dresses to make, my first project is actually a cosplay one. For now I’m going to keep it a secret but I’ve ordered vintage Simplicity pattern 9825 and turquoise jacquard material that I could really only find in the US. I’m excited to crack on with it so my sewing machine foot better turn up soon! In the mean time I’m going to head for Pinterest and start pinning some more ideas and also work on my online store! I’ll let you know as soon as I have an update.

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Week 40 – Monday Round-up

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In some ways this post feels a little repetitive as I did a “Stoptober” round up yesterday, that covered some of my week. However as its something I’ve done all year, I want to stick with it – documenting my week.

This week has ultimately been a good one. Monday through Friday was work and school, as mostly it is! Monday after school the girls had Singing Stars, so I headed to Boyes and bought some material, ready to do some dress sewing! I also picked up a couple of patterns. Sadly with Monday being a late evening back, I didn’t manage to get anything started – but I did spend the evening with Chris which was nice for a change.

Tuesday after work I had to pick up a parcel from Asda so called into see Chris before picking up the girls from school. I then headed home with them and after Megan getting some homework done and them both having dinner, we all went down to Aldi – the girls on their bikes and me walking. Somehow it seemed a little more stressful than last time and I definitely realised its time to get Lily biking and take off her stabilisers. Nat came around in the evening which was great as I love our weekly catch-ups. Chris was working late so we barely saw each other except for half an hour between him getting home and us going to bed.

Wednesday was the first day of my Stoptober and I was feeling great. I was up early and got my washing out before we headed to school and work. At work we celebrated Lincolnshire Day which made the day a little more interesting than normal. Afterwards there were no plans and Chris was off work so it was really great to all head home and be together. I got on top of my blogging, then organised the rest of the week – making a meal plan and also a blog post plan. The rest of the evening was spent watching TV with Chris.

Thursday morning started off with finding out the girls’ dad wouldn’t be having them that night and although it did change some of my plans, I wasn’t too worried – in fact I looked forward to the extra time. We headed out to work and school and afterwards when we came home, we all just hung out, had dinner etc. Megan set to making some loom bands for me (blog post to follow) and it was nice to spend some time just with her once Lily was in bed – especially since Chris was at work. Once the Megan was in bed too, I started on organising the dining room, putting up pictures and dress patterns for what I wanted to make and also sorting and tidying the table. Most important thing about Thursday though – its 6 months till we go to Florida!!

Friday I was still feeling good and motivated from my “Stoptober” challenges. I hung out more washing before we left for school, and had time to get to the Post Office and pick up parcels. After work the girls and I came home – Chris was at work yet again – and after dinner we ended up all making scrunchies together. Once Lily was in bed, Megan went on her computer and I started working properly on Olivia’s first dress – Cinderella. Sadly I didn’t get further than cutting out the pattern, especially as I was tracing out the pattern first in order to retain its size for future use. However I was happy with what I got done.

The next morning, although I originally woke up early, I was lucky enough to get back to sleep and not wake up till 10am. However from that point onwards, till about early afternoon, my morning was nothing but a disaster. I woke to open the door on our Disney and Universal park passes and after rushing to put them into “My Disney Experience” app, I managed to royally bodge up one of them. I spent an hour trying to fix it and getting more frustrated. I then headed to Aldi, dropped my keys, got soaked and then even dropped my shopping so it rolled under the car. I came home feeling even worse and when Chris offered to make me a bacon butty I burst into tears. In the end, after a bacon butty, I started to feel a little better. I spend the afternoon working on Olivia’s dress and when I ran out of the right colour fabric, I considered driving all the way over to Lincoln to get some.

However in the end I didn’t bother as time disappeared faster than I expected. During the afternoon I also organised our next three murder mysteries and we’re sorted up till Christmas! Nat came around to visit again in the evening – mostly cos I’d had a bad day and she wanted to see if I was okay. She brought me Lush and as always it was great to have her here and catch up, even though it was only Tuesday when she’d last come. Since Nat was here, Chris invited Jon around and with him came wine. Due to another mishap (which I won’t get into) and ending up upset again, I caved to a very small glass of wine and felt much better for it.

Sunday morning we were awake at 8am and while it would have been possible to go back to sleep, I decided to get up instead. Chris and I sat and watched Mythbusters and drank a cup of tea while we came around. Then at 10am I went to Aldi and bought food for a Sunday Roast. I spent majority of the time until lunchtime, prepping and cooking, but the time I had in between I started to stitch dress two for Olivia – Sleeping Beauty.

Mum came around in time for lunch, so we all sat down to eat together. Once lunch was over, mum helped Megan with her homework (for hours) while Chris went up on his computer and I did more sewing. Eventually Megan and Mum were done but she then offered to do Lily’s maths homework with her so I gladly excepted. When I ran out of material again, I took another break from sewing, knowing I couldn’t do anything more until I get to Boyes again after work on Monday. Instead I went on my computer for the first time all day – made my 52 Project post and my Week 1 Stoptober post. Once Lily was in bed, Chris, Megan and I sat and watched Next Great Baker and then Megan went to bed. Chris went for a bath and continued to be organised by writing this post, ready for the next day (today). I watched Casualty (and cried at the end) followed by Doctor Who – while Chris went for a bath. Afterwards I went for a bath myself and then settled down to organise the rest of the week, both meal plans and my blog post topics.

During this week I’ve felt so much more organised than I ever have before. While I’m not 100% on top of everything, I have done things that have been outstanding for a while. Monday and Tuesday I want to crack on with getting sewing finished (I at least want Olivia’s 2 dresses done), then probably a day on my blog again, before making sure I have everything else sorted and organised. As well as all that, I’ve been managing to read a bit more this week too. I’m currently reading Insurgent (Divergent’s second book) and I’m enjoying it a lot. Every morning I stick the book in my bag so that if I have any time between work and picking the kids up, I can sit in the car and read. Like I said before, all in all, a good week. I’m feeling very positive and looking forward to another good week.