Thank goodness February was a much shorter month than January, that really was the month that I thought would never end! Life is a bit more back on track now which is good, and I'm hopeful that once this cold spell has finished we will start to see some warmer and more cheerful weather. I love Spring! So here's what I've been up to lately:
Thinking about
How cold it is! Unfortunately our boiler broke around the middle of the month and we were left without heating for ten of the coldest days of the year. We coped by just heating one room at a time using electric heaters, and keeping the doors shut and avoiding the other rooms as much as possible, all sleeping in one room at night. It was mostly fine, but towards the end we were getting pretty fed up. It was such a relief to have a nice new boiler and I'm really appreciating the lovely warmth, especially this week.
Crafting
This month I've been alternating between two of my long term craft projects. The one that I've spent most time on has been my ABC Christmas sampler
(affiliate link). I started in the middle, and I've now completed O for Ornaments, T for Tree, U for Unwrap and Y for Yule Log, with just the beads left to add. I've made a good start on S for Santa, and then I want to move on to X for Xtra Special, which will mean that a large section of the bottom left will be finished. I'm still keeping with my deadline of finishing by Christmas next year though, as I think that adding in the beads will take a bit of time and to count it as finished by Christmas this year I'd need to have it finished and framed by the end of November at the latest - I'm not sure that is realistic!
I've also been making very good progress on my Persian Tiles crochet blanket. I've finished six of the large octagons and five squares. So I have another ten octagons to complete, another four squares, twelve large and four small triangles, and then of course the border. I could finish it more quickly if I got on with it, but to be honest I'm rather enjoying working on it, and I don't want to rush it! I'm a lot more confident with the pattern for the octagons now, they look a lot more complicated than they actually are. They are full of mistakes, and I've done quite a bit of fudging in places to get the stitch counts right, but I'm hoping that because they are so detailed it will all look fine.
Watching
Thanks to recommendations from my Mum I've just started watching Inside No. 9 and Black Mirror. I like both series because each episode is independent from the others, so you don't need to remember any details from one to the next, and they've both entertained me not just during the watching but also given me things to think about afterwards.
Eating
I've been doing very well with cutting down a bit, I've not eaten nearly as many biscuits and I've also been avoiding crisps and chocolate for the last couple of weeks. I'm not doing so good at eating less cake though, I diverted Harry from his slime making to following some actual recipes and he has kept me supplied with homemade cake and biscuits.
Travelling to
Apart from a weekend in Warwick at the beginning of half-term I've not been out and about much. I never feel like going out unless it's necessary when it's so cold.
Reading
I had a good sort out of my bookcase recently and made sure that all my favourite fiction books are now prominently on display so that I can see them and pick them up. I'm currently re-reading Rebecca for probably the fifth or sixth time. I've also been browsing through some of my favourite decluttering books to remind myself of my more minimalist aspirations.
Planning
Now that YouTube has taken away my monetisation (you can find my channel here if you want to help me out! - Jennifer Jain) I've been feeling a bit deflated when it comes to making videos. It wasn't as though I earned a massive amount, but it was certainly an encouragement, and it feels like a shame because from time to time one of my videos actually does quite well, so I do feel as though some of my content at least has a value. I have another video which I need to finish editing and publishing, but I need to have a think about the sort of content that I want to produce, as it's all a bit of a mixture at the moment. And of course work on getting my subscriber number above that magic 1000.
Looking forward to
This term seems to have gone so quickly, it's a very short term. Over Easter we are returning to Center Parcs Erperheide in Belgium for a week and I'm really looking forward to it. We love Center Parcs, and every time we go the children have increased their swimming confidence so they get so much more out of it. The activities at the parks abroad are so much more reasonably priced so we'll have a few things to do and I'm looking forward to spending lots of time together as a family.
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