Lockdown diaries ~ week 2 🌾

Here we are, back at it again with week two of life in lockdown. This week started off very meh...I think the reality of all the days stretching ahead hit and I felt in a bit of a slump. That coincided with a couple of days without much sunshine which may or may not have contributed to the slumpiness. Thankfully the mood passed, as they generally do.

Day 8 (Tuesday 31st) - I hopped out of bed and wrote a card and wrapped a present for a certain family member's upcoming birthday, I threaded my felted balls onto a string to make a garland, I wrote the week 1 recap blogpost, I made a curtain. After lunch Ed and I went on a 10 mile bike ride and stroked a horse, then we videocalled the siblings. We ate pizza for tea and watched 3 episodes of The Vicar of Dibley. Then we finished Stranger Things 3 and cried :') even tho we know Hopper is alive 

Day 9 (Wednesday 1st APRIL) - we went for a run in the woods and pretended we were training for the Hunger Games, ate breakfast whilst watching Friends, watered my leafy plants, fed my snails, washed some clothes, and made my sourdough starter! I painted my miniature clay Tom and recorded some worship songs with Ed. For tea we had chicken and veg, followed by magnums. I put my (now washed) clothes away, we watched The Repair Shop, then Ed and I brainstormed a story before getting an early ish night.

Day 10 (Thursday 2nd) - read some bible and prayed with Ed, sent a happy birthday message, brekkie and Friends, and made some more collages. Top Gear and a sandwich for lunch, followed by a nice walk where Ed and I bought some flowers from a roadside stall and I picked a lovely hedgerow bouquet. We saw a vole in a bush eating a dandelion. Curry for tea and Dibley. We watched a very sweet Studio Ghibli film called Only Yesterday.

Day 11 (Friday 3rd) - we went for a run (short but we tried to go fast), breakfast and Friends, I spent a while trying to post some pictures of my wild bouquet because instagram wasn't working, had a pitta for lunch and then finished my fourth and final curtain! Ed and I made some donuts! I found a tutorial to make some dungarees. We ate pies for tea followed by our donuts, watched some more Dibley (the 2004 reboot is not as good as the older episodes!!!) then Ed and I watched Kiki's Delivery Service.

Journal quote: "I feel better today! I feel good and productive. It rained little today, for the first time in ages."

We didn't have yeast so we used baking soda and lemon juice and we thought they'd
turn out bad but they looked and tasted like real donuts!

Day 12 (Saturday 4th)  - Friends brekkie (this has become a ritual, I feel like I don't even need to mention it anymore), I had a dungaree-making sesh in my pyjamas, stopped for lunch and Wheeler Dealers. More sewing, at about 3/4pm we went for a 12 mile bike ride in the sun! It was torturously tiring at moments but also very nice and there were hills to whizz down and we saw a big bird of prey. When we got home I did an orchid photoshoot because the lighting in the bathroom was pretty, and then we ate delicious burgers. We watched Sleeping With The Enemy.

Ed bonsai-ing whilst I sewed

Day 13 (Sunday 5th) - had hot cross buns for breakfast whilst watching John and Lisa's Weekend Kitchen (goals) followed by Ainsley's Mediterranean Cookbook, I kind of love cookery programmes now. Church livestream at 10.30am and Tom watched with us. I was on the sewing machine making my dungarees pretty much all day after that. We didn't even go out for a daily exercise today! I made macaroni cheese for dins and then we watched the Queen's speech at 8pm which made me feel a bit emotional. Then my dad introduced us to Notting Hill, potentially my new favourite film!!! (two Julia Roberts films in a row was unintentional)

Day 14 (Monday 6th) - Friends brekkie, I finished my dungarees and Ed photographed them for me (thanks Ed). We ate lunch and caught up on last week's Gardeners' World, then I wrote a blogpost about my dungarees. We went for another bike ride in the sun and saw some cows, then I emptied some pictures off my phone onto my hard drive whilst we watched an episode of The Simpsons. Spaghetti bolognese for tea and then I gave my sourdough baby its second feed of the day. We had a hot chocolate and watched The Hand That Rocks The Cradle with dad (creepy) and then Ed and I watched the finale of Liar so know we know #whokilledandrewearlham, or do we?

More news:

• We are getting bored of going running, that's why we've been just going for short and faster ones.
• It's that time of year where lots of my plants are pushing out new leaves, hooray!

Monstera adansonii

• Ed and Tom are firm friends.

• I have been doing some lockdown embroidery, counting down the days via needle and thread.

That's all for now, folks! 

P.S. I'm very aware of the fact I'm painting a very fun and peaceful picture of lockdown life. I am very privileged to be able to stay at home and make things whilst many people are suffering and many more are still at work and putting themselves at risk. So a big thank you if you are one of those people 💞 praying that this is all over soon. 

I made my own dungarees ✂️

This lockdown period has been a good opportunity for me to do some projects I've been storing up for a while. One of those project ideas was to make a pair of dungarees out of a 1998 Tweenies duvet cover which I bought for a few pounds at a car boot sale last year  (maybe £2? Or £4? I can't remember). Bargain.

Me and the gang in August 2019

I found a great, easy to follow tutorial on youtube which I'll link here so you can have a go!

I only spent about two days in total to make them and that's as someone with almost no experience making clothes, so it could be much quicker with practice. Here are a few process pics (I didn't take many):

Wahoooooo look at these beauties, I'm very pleased with how they turned out and how I actually managed to follow the tutorial and get my measurements roughly accurate! There were a few mishaps but they were useful to learn what not to do next time. If you looked closely you'd see some messy stitching and wonky bits but seeing as I was only making them for myself and it was my first time I didn't care too much 😄 when you're wearing a pair of ridiculous cartoon dungarees you can't take yourself too seriously.

I'm buzzing about these. HAHA they're so silly and I love it. *Cue the photo shoot*

ThEy HaVe PoCkEtS!!1!!!1!

Feeling ecstatic and effervescent, time to dance around to this like a big child (one of the best Tweenies songs if you ask me). ENJOY!

Lockdown diaries ~ week 1 🏇

Welcome to my blog, what better time to resurrect it that during a pandemic crisis. This is the woeful tale of two star-crossed lovers who have already had to cancel their wedding and are now in lockdown away from their new house *cue the violins*. It's not all bad, it's almost like being on some kind of forced holiday where you aren't allowed to work and are forced to confront all the abandoned creative projects you've let pile up under your bed (just me?). I've been documenting the days in my journal in preparation for some kind of blog project so here goes.

Our lockdown preparations began on Monday night (23rd March) after Boris's Big Announcement, when we made the decision that Ed should move in here with my dad and I, rather than be isolated solo in our partially furnished house with no running water. So during the night we hurriedly gathered up his essentials and moved them here, feeling as though we were completing some kind of secret mission.

Day 1 (Tuesday 24th) - the day began with some tidying and making space for Ed and his plants, I didn't think it was possible to fit more plants in here but we did it. We ate soup for lunch and then went for a lovely walk where we saw a heron and some sort of exotic pheasant. Yum roast chicken for tea, and then we spoke to Elli on the phone. In the evening we watched Liar (catching up on last night's episode which we missed due to the whole moving house situation).

Day 2 (Wednesday 25th) - we went for a run, then I made my first curtain (!) getting ready for when we can eventually, one day, move into our house. Lasagne for tea. Then we had our first housegroup zoom meeting! Very fun. Ed and I watched Shaun of the Dead (apocalypse feels).

Day 3 (Thursday 26th) - my dad made poached eggs for breakfast, then Ed and I recorded some songs for our church livestream on Sunday. After lunch we went for a 10 mile bike ride! Ed made stir fry for tea. We started watching The Vicar of Dibley with dad too, 3 x episodes today. At 8pm we stepped out of the front door and clapped for the NHS with our neighbours.

Day 4 (Friday 27th) - we went for a 4/5 mile run in the sun (we don't know exactly because our running apps both give slightly different results, Ed's is more generous). Ate Biscoff on toast for breakfast. I made another curtain and some collages. We had a drone flying competition in the garden and we were all quite bad. Spaghetti bolognese for dins, followed by The Vicar of Dibley and Stranger Things 3 (Ed and I are rewatching).

Day 5 (Saturday 28th) - I baked some tangzhong buns from my Kim-Joy recipe book, we decorated them as turtles, at 11am we had a family zoom call for my uncle's 50th birthday. In the afternoon we went for a bike ride with dad and came back for a cup of tea and a bun. Buffet-style leftovers for tea, and then Ed and I played Mary-Kate and Ashley Sweet 16 on the PS2 late into the night (best game ever, if you know you know).

Day 6 (Sunday 29th) - had a lazy wake up (I forgot to change my clock forward), followed by church lifestream at 10.30am. Played Animal Crossing, soup for lunch, and then I cleaned the bathroom v thoroughly whilst listening to Vashti Bunyan (dreamy). We went for a nice walkies and I took my camera and got some nature snaps. We saw a woodpecker and a rat! After dins we watched Dibley and Stranger Things (spot the routine!).

Day 7 (Monday 30th) - a 4 mile run, then I repotted and staked my pothos plant before brekkie. I videocalled my family, then had soup for lunch (again, it's good). I drew come corvids, then did some sculpting with air dry clay. We had pasties for tea whilst watching some Top Gear. Followed by, you guessed it, Dibley! Ed and I had a Monday night prayer meeting on our own and then watched Liar #whokilledandrewearlham.

Other news to note: 

• We had a nest of robins in the garden which was very exciting but a local cat came and ate them. 
• Ed is pretty good at Guitar Hero on PS2. 
• The weather has been really nice and sunny.
• I planted this random bean I found and now it's growing.

• I've been needle-felting lots. 

• I'm glad to be in lockdown with Tom the cat.

• I have a plan to make my next Unlikely Style Icon post about Alice Tinker. I'll have to source the images myself as apparently no one online shares my love for her outfits and has cared to post any pictures of them. Challenge accepted.  

Hope you're all finding the small joys in this mad time ✨✨✨✨✨