X marks the Spot

This weeks letter for #leadthewayatoz took on a pirate theme as we hunted down the letter X. I think these crossbones will do very nicely! 

It's been a strange week. I've hit groundhog day. With hubby being furloughed and me working from home, every day really does feel the same. I was horribly confused when Thursday turned out to be Wednesday and I realised there was plenty more of the week left! 

Hubby wasn't very well Friday, so as a result this has been a very slow weekend. Although we did manage a family Burns Night (he passed on the haggis and, to be fair, I always pass on the haggis, so it was a wise move). 

I'd organised an online get together and had split our favourite Burns poem: Tam O Shanter, into peices that everyone would read. Despite the whole family being Scottish (with the exception of my BIL), my mum and eldest neice (16) both opted for the English translation of the poem as opposed to the Scots (so did BIL, but seeing as it was possibly the first time he'd seen Scots written down, I don't blame him for deciding to play it safe). I had eldest neice start as she was nervous about it, then my mum and then, at the point the story actually starts, I took over in Scots, followed by hubby and sister. BIL read the last part, with youngest neice (7) delighting us with the last four lines.

BIL was apparently very nervous, but I couldn't tell and the whole thing went without a hitch. The meal time set up worked really well - I stole the idea from a friend who virtually had Xmas dinner with her family, and thought it a good way to include the very young neice and nephew without them being bored or feeling like they are being paraded about.

And that was that. The weekend done. I managed to get a little sewing done with this great little upcycle. This jumper was one of the casualties of hubby's weight loss, but I couldn't part with it and I don't need more cushions. The solution? A new jumper for Missy (modelled throughout this post). 

I'll finish on a laugh, here's the before picture:

Four Seasons in One Week

Well, not exactly four seasons.

Wait, very wet with a high of 10...thats a Scottish summer! So yes, all four seasons in one week!

It started with snow:

And then rain:

And lastly, in a brief respite from storm Dennis, spring is arriving:

So we haven't managed much in the way of adventures, but after last week, we all needed a bit of a holiday from the holiday! 

In the down time between going out for what is supposed to be considered a walk, but this week has resembled either an Antarctic exploration or swimming the channel, I have managed some sewing. After coming in soaked so often, I figured Missy could do with a quilt that had some water resistance to it:

Bonus points, it's completely upcycled. The main fabric is some old jumpers that were too well worn to donate and then the batting is actually an old waterproof mattress protector. We bought one thinking it a great idea and then, because they don't breathe, my husbands excema completely broke out and its never gone back on the bed...

So a win win! 

Just a short post this week since we're all still recovering from our bumper week down south!

A wintry start to February

Well, the snow has arrived, not the snowmageddon levels of snow the met office promised, but we did get a little sprinkling to make the place feel a little more like winter and less of an eternal Autumn.

So, I for one am glad January is over - I think they should change the rhyme: 30 days hath September, April, June and November, all the rest have 31 except January, which has about 57 days in it...

There's no real reason why I've gotten so fed up with the never ending January, I'm just sick of it and feel like, with the new month and the arrival of snow, I can get my act in gear and get started with the year.

Its been a good sewing weekend. Missy enjoys the snow in small doses - everything smells great and its so exciting and then her arthritis bothers her and she hobbles about wanting her knee rubbed before she can get going again. At nearly six, I think her misspent youth murdering small animals and chasing much larger ones is starting to catch up - although she did give a squirrel a run for its money today, so I'm not sure how much of the grumpy old lady shtick is an act!

My latest sewing project is an upcycle, some nice new cushion covers for the dining chairs made with old jeans that were going to be thrown out. I'm hoping these are much hardier than my last set - who knew bottoms could be so damaging to fabrics? Although I do like the irony of denim jeans being sat on...

My other completed project is in the post, so I don't want to spoil the surprise and pop it on here until I know its been safely picked up. Its set to be a busy week this week, so I'm looking forward to have something to show off!