Hi ladies!
I have to say that I have been pretty tardy, nay, nigh invisible when it comes to blogs of late. I have had various home improvements projects going on and a serious cleaning schedule readying the house for Christmas decorating. I found during November that post Covid I don’t have the usual energy I have for these tasks and each task is probably taking me at least twice as long than it would’ve done last year, so I’ve had to pace myself and sorry, but the blog has had to pay for this lack of energy.
But he’s a round up of some of the things that have filled my time during the last month.
Crafts
I finished a teddy bear outfit that I started knitting in 2013.
Yes 11 years ago!
I can’t believe it has taken me 11 years to finish this relatively simple teddy outfit of jacket, hat, and scarf. But I did finish in November 2024, and I’m very proud of myself.
And the only reason I finished the little set above is that I was looking for some red wool to knit some poppies for remembrance Sunday. The poppies were rather large so next year I’ll knit a smaller version. You can see me wearing my poppy with pride later on in the post. Of course, in lieu of buying a poppy I gave a donation to the British Legion.
Self-care
Following the red theme, I had my nails gelled in a deep red for my birthday week.
And I also had a trim. I’m thinking to let my hair grow a little over the winter as I found that I miss being able to scrunch my hair in a messy bun.
Date Afternoon
Date nights don’t exist in a pensioners world. We have date afternoons. On this day, we went to see Paddington in Peru. We love the Paddington films, and this one did not fail to entertain us, although we still feel that the Hugh Grant Paddington remains our favorite.
Birthday Presents
Fortunately, what comes with getting a year older is you may be lucky enough to receive presents!
Here are some of mine.
I’ve long sdmired this Bordallo Pinheiro cabbage ware. I have two pieces which are very old and chipped; however, for my birthday this year I was given some spanking new plate and bowl sets which I absolutely love.
Of course, with birthdays come oodles of lovely flowers.
And my sis is pretty good at choosing just the right cushion for me and this birthday she did not disappoint. This cushion in the centre does just what it says on the tin, it’s cozy.
Meals Out
We had a few meals out during the month, the most notable of which were the birthday meals, yes plural as there were quite a few of them!
TP and I have birthdays three days apart, so there are double the celebrations in November.
Here’s our cosy tete a tete birthday lunch.
We went to a restaurant we hadn’t been to for a few years and I’m pleased to say we were pleasantly surprised by the food ambiance and service. We’ll be back!
I think I’ve got this old lady eating malarkey cracked now. When I go out I order one sometimes two starter sized meals dishes and that seems to work well for my dwindling capacity and challenging digestion.
So have you noticed that as you’ve got that little bit older your appetite has reduced or you just don’t have the capacity to cope with food as you used to?
However, my dining companion still manages to put away a main course sized meal. Here he is tucking into a very tasty halibut and prawn dish.
Home Improvements
I have to say that home improvements is quickly becoming one of my favorite hobbies. During November, I spring cleaned the whole ground floor in preparation for Christmas. Well cleaning is a home improvement in my world!
We have a conservatory that we would like to hard roof or at least insulate. I spend an inordinate amount of time researching what is no best to do. We did get a quote some months ago to replace the polycarbonate roof with a hard version, but that seemed to involve changing the shape of the structure, the drainage, and replacing all of the glass. That seems overkill and profligate in our minds as there’s nothing wrong with the glazed units so why replace? So we haven’t pursued this option and I’ve looked into other solutions. It seems that many go the DIY route and insulate the roof themselves. It seems that simple.
Above is a picture I took from Pinterest of the kind of thing I’m thinking of. Please tell me if you’ve replaced a conservatory roof with something more solid, I’d love to hear.
And here’s a funny story.
During all of last winter we sat out in the conservatory draped in thick wool blankets as we found the space very cold indeed. We called in that aforementioned hard roof replacement guy to quote to make the space warm again. It was only because we didn’t go a bundle on his plans that stopped us spending £50k there and then.
This winter we discovered that the underfloor heating serving this section of the ground floor area wasn’t working. We called in a man and the whole thing was up and running with a very easy replacement of a pump bit.
And then it dawned on me. The whole of last winter we had never thought to wonder why BOTH of us were simultaneously feeling the cold so much more than we had previously.
I think that may be called a senior moment, or senior whole season!
The stairwell had become quite an embarrassment. It’s funny how things deteriorate in the house and become shabby, but unless you actually focus on the area with fresh eyes, you tend to turn a blind eye to what’s going on. It was only when we had guests staying upstairs in September that I realized the stairwell’s woodwork had become very chipped. So in November the photographer nestled himself down with brush and paint and set to on the area. I’ll post some after pics of this area when the Christmas decoration boxes have been finally removed from the landing!
Whilst TP busied himself on the small stairwell, I found a few tasks to fill my time. This glazed coffee table had also become shabby over time, and not in a chic way! It’s surprising how a freshen up of white paint can transform a piece of furniture with just a day work.
We had some spare paint left over from the stairwell woodwork and so I slapped a bit on this doll’s house to give it a bit of a makeover. I think it looks bang up to date now, and I wouldn’t mind moving in!
I now need to put lights into the house and tidy up the surrounding area. Again, I’ll post pictures of the finished job WHEN those bloomin’ decoration boxes are removed from the landing!
Soft Furnishings
Another quick fix was this bedspread purchase. This is a guest bed and as it doesn’t get used very often I wanted a dust cover as protection.
The first I bought from Amazon was a disaster! It looked similar to the above, but was a limp rag. There is no other way I could describe it. I returned it and then searched around for another and this one fits the bill; it’s a velvet fabric, nicely quilted and covers the whole bed perfectly. I’ll try to remember to put a link to it below.
Baking
Before I retired, I imagined retirement to be endless days of baking. However, after I retired, I very soon discovered that the photographer isn’t that keen on cakes, and my body can’t handle eating whole cakes alone! So baking actually happens very rarely in this house.
This blueberry oat cake looks a bit of a disaster, but that’s only because the fruit sank, apart from that it was very tasty. Right now I can’t remember where I got the recipe from but if I managed to engage brain cells for one second, I may put a link to the recipe.
Fingers crossed on that one!
I also baked my Christmas cake. Here it is after its first dousing of brandy. I use a Mary Berry recipe year after year.
Christmas Preps
And whilst on this subject of Christmas, we picked up our Christmas tree just before the month ended.
I always find it quite exciting to go to the local garden center to choose our tree and then lug it into the car.
Getting it home, a short distance between the garden centre, can be quite an ordeal, but it usually manages to squeeze between passenger and driver seat with no loss of pine needles. We then take a slice off the base, drill holes in the bottom and leave it outside in a bucket of topped up water, until TP can contain himself no longer and the thing gets lugged in for decorating. He’s a bit of a child when it comes to Christmas trees!
Are you a real Christmas tree household or do you have one of those very realistic artificial trees that I sometimes lust after?
Purchases
I think I may have mentioned in my October post that I indulged myself and bought a green velvet trouser suit. There’s a story behind that purchase, but that is best saved for exclusive post. Meantime, I just couldn’t resist showing you a pic of it.
Having test driven it now by trying it with lots of tops in my wardrobe, I can see it actually is a very versatile set indeed. I look forward to wearing it leading up to Christmas.
And yes, I did become a little addicted to dark green during November. I also bought this two piece style dress which I’d seen advertised on Instagram. Big mistake.
There is a whole story attached to me attempting to return this dress but again I’m going to have to leave that for a separate post as the story drags on rather.
What I wore in the Month
Be prepared, what I wore during the month is again very basic entry-level stuff.
I tried out part of my green velvet suit trousers
on a day I met up with girlfriends for lunch.
I wore it simply with a black cashmere jumper and scarf.
Sometimes when test driving a new piece, it makes sense to start with basics so teaming the trousers with a simple black jumper and a trusty pair of boots was a great way to kickstart this new piece in my wardrobe.
But IRL this has been the basis of my wardrobe uniform most days. Old berry coated jeans and a cozy jumper. Simples. I find myself drawn to a variation of this most days.
An old Leo print scarf and a beanie hat were the only accessories I needed this day as November in the main was a very mild month, so no jacket required.
And on this day, I actually wore jeans rather than soft jeggings or coated jeans. This was quite an occasion! The jeans are a washed black from Marks & Spencer.
But back in retirement uniform again, the trusty coated jeans and V-neck cashmere jumper were on again here.
Do you have a uniform you’ve drifted into this winter? I’d love to hear what you’re wearing on a day-to-day basis when doing nothing in particular and going nowhere special. This is the kind of thing I wear, as you can see!
I think this is what I wore to finally have my Covid and flu jabs! I had to wait minimum 14 days after testing negative of Covid.
As you can tell, I don’t go out much as I saw this as an occasion to dress up!
Brown faux leather jeggings, brown chunky boots, grey cashmere long line jumper.
The cashmere scarf is nearly 20 years old, but comes out every single winter without fail.
Another go-to accessory is the chunky necklace you can just about see here. I picked it up at a jumble sale about 30 years ago and it never fails to spark interest. It’s handmade with belt hardware.
And this was about the only time in the month that I got out of jeans or jeggings. I wore a denim skirt!
When I can find the time, I will write a piece on this skirt as it is new and I’ll be quite excited to style it. Well between you and me I’ve already I filmed a try on session but the lighting and camera angle was so appalling that I binned it and chalked it down to lack of experience.
Let’s get Christmas out the way first and I’ll have another go!
It took much research to find a denim skirt that didn’t have a slit up to my crutch and didn’t drag around my ankles. These trends are trends that I will happily ignore as I see no point in them.
I chose to pair grey with brown, which is a combination I really like. The chocolate brown crossover-top is from Kalico and is 20 years old.
(Sporting my knitted red poppy!)
And yes, here I’m again back in my absolute retirement uniform currently. Super comfy khaki soft jeggings from Marks & Spencer and that old black cashmere V-neck once more.
And again, when I can find the time I will write a piece on these jeggings because they really are worth looking into. These and a black pair have really become bottoms that I need to be prised out of kicking and screaming!
And that, dear friends, concludes my round up of what’s been going on in my world during the month of November. I have to admit that all things domestic seem to be taking up so much of my time currently. Yes I’m suffering from post Covid fatigue and that means that things are taking even longer to do than they would normally in old age. I’ve put things like Pilates choir and Skittles on hold as the days weeks and months seem to be so filled. During the month I helped a little with a local Panto’s rehearsals. I hope in the new year I can get back into the swing of things and involve myself with all of the pursuits that I have enjoyed during the earlier part of the year
So with apologies for lack of posts, and this post being perhaps a little mediocre, I’ll leave you with that thought and wish you a very merry Christmas!
A la perchoine,
Mary.
Bedspread, £54
Blueberry oat cake, as you will see I made a cake rather than a tray bake.
