50 Things before I'm 60 - 2019 Update

Hi there everyone 😀

Yes, it's that time again. Time to have a look at how I'm getting on with the '50 Things I want to do before I'm 60'.

When I did last year's first review in January 2019 I'd completed 23. I did another review in September where I shared that I'd managed to tick a few more off the list.

As I hit 55 in November I am now just past the half way point so should have completed 25 of the things from my list if I hope to have them all done by the time I hit 60.

I think I'm well on track and I'm not sure if I've actually completed any more since my September review but let's just have a look and see where we are ...

So far I have shared my first 36 goals with you and, of these I have completed the following ...
1 - Hand make Christmas and birthday gifts
2 - Make bramble jelly jam
3 - Have a posh afternoon tea
4 - Visit Balmoral castle

5 - Make something in Mosaic

7 - Holiday on the Suffolk coast
8 - Christmas in a holiday cottage

10 - Upcycle my old placemats
11 - Go camping again, or get rid of the camping gear
12 - Have a cottage holiday on one of the Channel Islands
13 - Run my own business

15 - Visit Rosslin Chapel
16 - Visit The Kelpies

18 - Become an auntie again
19 - Holiday in The New Forest
20 - Go up Snowdon on the Mountain Railway
21 - Replace old wonky and tatty patio in the garden
22 - Decorate all of downstairs

23 - Visit Warner Bros Studios - Harry Potter Tour
24 - Visit Castle Howard

26 - Visit all of the Shakespeare properties in Stratford-upon-Avon

27 - Buy no clothes, shoes or bags for a year

28 - Use less plastic

29 - Visit Portmeirion

30 - Embroider something to display in an embroidery hoop

31 - Celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary

32 - Visit the Longleat Festival of Light

35 - Visit Kew Gardens

36 - Visit The Lichfield Apartments at Shugborough Hall

So ... where am I with those that are missing ...

Well the following all still need more work ...

6 - Complete my on line photography course
9 - Holiday in all of the national parks of Great Britain
14 - Finish off the Explorer 232 series
25 - Finish telling Will Sidney's story and decide what to do with his memorabilia

33 - Turn one of my photos into some form of art

34 - Hold an afternoon tea party in the garden
The only one of these that has really progressed over the last year is 25. I managed to get to the end of Will's war years and have just a couple more posts to write, to cover his life after the war. When I did my update in September I was hoping that 2019 would see this goal completed but sadly that was not the case.

Whilst I haven't managed to complete 34 ... I'm blaming the weather. I did manage to hold two afternoon teas for friends at home ... but not in the garden, so whilst both went really well and were the best I could do in the circumstances I don't think I'm ready to tick this one of the list just yet.

By my reckoning that just leaves one ...

17 - Lose weight - go down four dress sizes

Whilst ... again ... there hasn't really been any progress with this one over the course of the year I have had a good start for 2020 - whether I can keep it up or not is another matter entirely. If it all goes well I'm sure you will be the first to know.

So here are the overall numbers ...

• Fully completed - 29
• Underway with progress in 2019 - 1
• Underway with no progress in 2019 - 5
• Not really started - 1

In addition to this 36 I did manage to decide on a few more things that I would like to do ... some of which I did actually manage to complete during the back end of the year ... but I will share those with you in another post 😀

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November in The Peaks #1 - Ashford-in-the-Water & Castleton

Hi there everyone 😀

I know it will feel like I am jumping around all over the place with my blog posts at the moment but I am desperately trying to catch up with all that we did back at the end of 2019.

There is still plenty to come from our Isle of Wight trip, which I feel like I've been writing about forever, but today I want to share a bit about what we got up to on our visit to The Peak District back in November.

We were staying in the very cosy Willow Cottage in Ashford-in-the-Water and on our first full day we spent the morning having a bit of a wander round the village ... we didn't go far ... just pretty much round the back of the church ...

... and to the Sheepwash Bridge ...
... where the river was most definitely in full spate ...
Not ready to call it a day we decided to head into Castleton for the afternoon. We went 'the back way', passing the Hope Cement Works on the way and it was just lovely ...

Castleton was really busy ... the Christmas lights switch on had taken place the previous evening ... and the car park was full of people looking very muddy.

Mud was no such problem to us though, as we just had a good wander round the village soaking up the atmosphere ...
We wandered the back streets ...
... very much tempted by one of our favourite fish and chip shops ...

... but opting instead for the welcoming warmth of The Baytree ... where sandwiches and cake went down a treat ...

Coming out of the warmth, the rain had set in so we decided to head back to Willow Cottage and get cosied in for the evening.

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Isle of Wight Holiday Diary #7 - Rain, Cider & Cheese at Haven Street

Hi there everyone 😀

We are back on the Isle of Wight for today's post. It's Sunday, day 9, and we were hit with the first bad weather day of our holiday ...

Day 9 Sunday
The forecast was grim ... rain ... all day ... and it looked like it wasn't far off the mark ...
We decided it was time for a 'cottage day'. We'd been out and about every day so far so were looking forward to just generally chilling out in Bramble with a bit of reading, a bit of crochet and maybe a film ...
Early afternoon the rain seemed to ease up and we decided that we'd take a bit of a ride out. It was the Isle of Wight weekend and there was a Cider & Cheese Festival on at the Haven Street steam railway station. It was a place that we'd never been to and was on the list for a visit so this seemed like the ideal opportunity.
We were soon parked up and in just in time to see an engine in and getting ready for the off ...
We found a good spot to hang around to watch whilst she finished taking on water and loading up ...

She was soon on her way ...

... and we just about had time to walk to the cider and cheese marquee before the rain came back with a vengeance. Well ... there was only one thing for it ...
... cider and cheese it was ...

Fortunately the rain didn't last too long so, filled with cider and cheese, we were soon back outside and exploring the station, which was a real treat ...

 

It was then time to take a wander through the gift shop and the heart of the engineers' yard ...

... to The Train Story ...
We had absolutely no idea what to expect inside but before heading in we explored the old railway carriage which had been converted into a small holiday hut, which was very reminiscent of Martin's childhood holiday accommodation which had been very similar ...
Inside was a real throwback to a bygone age ...


Moving inside of the main building we found it was most definitely more than just a storage shed, aiming to tell the story of the historic Island Railway through the years, with four interactive display areas.

There is so much to see ...

... and it is very interactive with access available to all of the carriages, which gave a real reminder of just how beautiful they used to be ... even in third class ...

There is also a good display of the restoration work that has taken place on the site with a very good example of 'before and after' ...

It was time to retrace our steps back through the engineers' yard ...

... and head back to Bramble Cottage ...

All in all we really enjoyed our visit to the station and were so glad that we'd decided to head out. It was perfect for an afternoon wander and great there is plenty to see inside if the weather is not so brilliant and we loved The Train Story.

We would definitely recommend that you make a visit if you get the chance.

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2019 - A Year in Crafts

Hi there everyone 😀

I know I've shared bits and pieces of the things that I've made over the course of the year, both here and on Facebook, with some on my Hand Made at Number 27 page. I thought it would be nice to just bring them all together again for a bit of an annual round up ...

January to March
It's always nice and quiet for Hand Made at Number 27 in January so it's a good time to have a go at making something just for me. I decided that I would finally have a go at making something with mosaic and made a start at my January craft group and I'm really pleased with how it turned out ...
Inspired by my first attempt it wasn't long before I had another go ... this time it was more of a recycling project, using old tiles ...
There were also a couple of sewing days, making up plenty of reusable facewipes and peg bags for stock, another session making up beeswax wraps and a gorgeous snuggly baby blanket for a customer who had bought a sensory blanket from me in 2018 ...

April - June
The second quarter of the year was a busy one on the crafting front. With craft fairs on the horizon it was time to get busy making up lots of our best selling items ... more beeswax wraps and reusable face wipes, which have sold like hot cakes right across the year ... I'm really pleased that both of my best selling items are in line with our journey to zero waste ... long may it continue ...
As well as the popular old favourites I got to have a go a few new bits and pieces too ... some 'men's shirt' bunting, some little house key rings, where I had the chance to try out free motion machine embroidery and another two mosaic hearts ...
April saw our first of a number of craft fairs that we attended across the course of the year ...
Exciting news from my good friends, who became grandparents in the spring was another good cause for getting the sewing machine out ... and in May we were all delighted to welcome Emma Holly to the World ...
There was a bit of button art ...
... and time to have a go at something new for me, which didn't end up working out that well. It looked fine, but the soap bag just wouldn't dry out after use and using soap in the shower just left such a mess that it was abandoned as soon as it was started ... definitely a bit of a zero waste fail for us there ...
There was a totally unexpected and random order that I picked up from someone putting a call out on our local 'Spotted ...' Facebook page ...
Inspired by the Great British Sewing Bee I thought I'd have a go at making something to wear ... I think the least said about this project the better ...

And finally for this quarter ... do you remember this? Well it's been an ongoing project for about two years now but there was a bit of a spurt of progress ...


July to September
This quarter started off with a button art order picked up from our visit to the Lullington Open Gardens event with the craft stall, where we were blessed with glorious weather for a lovely couple of days ...
As seems to becoming the theme there were plenty more beeswax wraps and reusable face wipes made up ...
I tried a few new bits ... including fabric bookmarks ...
and ... after having fallen in love with all thing William Morris following a visit to Whitwick Manor ... I had another go at free motion machine embroidery when making these simple gift cards ...
There was time for me to finally make up some home made dish cloths for the kitchen ...
And ... though it seemed early ... it was time to start getting ready with a few Christmas makes ...

October to December
After our three week break on the Isle of Wight this quarter started off with some more card making ... this time using some positive 'self-affirmation' papers that I'd had free with a magazine ... trimmed up with bits of lace or ribbon. I'm really pleased with how professional they ended up looking ...
It was then time to start making for Christmas craft fairs in earnest ...

There were a couple of short notice Scrabble frame gifts made up which I don't seem to have photographed, along with a Christmas gift for Baby Emma ...
There were lots more beeswax wraps and reusable face wipes, including some larger sized ones, which continued to sell really well and are still doing so into 2020 ...
There were the regular Christmas gift tags, which are always popular ...
... and I added matching bookmarks to my William Morris cards ...
There was a bit of a last minute rush on Scrabble name tags ...
For me there was the 2020 calendar ...
... and my first ever Christmas wreath, made at the last craft group of the year ...
My very last crafty make of the year came in that quiet period between Christmas and New year when we finally decided to have a go at doing something with the candle ends we'd been saving across the year. We built up the courage to make some new candles and, whilst not perfect, we were both pretty pleased with how they turned out ...

Looking back I have been quite surprised at how much crafting I have actually done. I consciously decided not to do quite as much this year, concentrating more on attending monthly craft fairs than trying to sell on Facebook and it has actually gone pretty well.

I'm really pleased that my most popular makes for Hand Made at Number 27 are showing that more people are starting to think more about reusable options to replace single use and I love the fact that there has been a little bit of recycling in the mix too.

It's also nice to see that I've had chance to try a few new makes from my ever increasing list of things I'd like to have a go at ... as well as making a few bits for myself.

We are already booked in for plenty of craft fairs across the year for 2020 so I'm sure it will be another productive and crafty year 😀 I can't wait to get cracking!

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