Project Pan 2021 Update 2

 

And then there were two, sort of.  That's another quarter of a year down and another three months of slow progress on using up these beauty products.  There is a bit of a change to these items, but nothing to do with me actually getting through the products myself.

Let's start with the NYX Blush in Taupe which I have actually decided to just get rid of.  The texture seems to have changed a bit and isn't the easiest to use anymore, with me having to constantly scratch the surface to get any colour on my brush.  It also now seems to go on a bit patchy as well.  If I'm being honest, I'm also getting a bit bored of this product and no longer have an interest in doing a sort of contoured look.  The cool tone of this blush does make it a good product to use for contouring and NYX is cruelty-free, which would normally mean that I would recommend this item.  However, I have heard some pretty bad things about the way NYX do some of their publicity that makes me not really want to use their products anymore.

I've done a much better job of using up the Cien eyeliner pen in Black this quarter than last with the more smoky eye looks I've been doing.  The liner is now down to 1.4cm from 3.1cm and I don't think it'll take me much longer to use it up completely.  This eyeliner does go on pretty easily, but it also smudges and transfers pretty easily too so I won't necessarily recommend it to anyone.

Lastly is The Balm highlighter in Mary-Lou Manizer.  It wasn't looking like too much had changed, other than a slightly larger section at the bottom of the visible pan, but then I knocked it (not even dropped it) and a big chunk of the product fell out the last time I opened it.  It's still not going to be gone by the end of the year, but I'm actually alright with that as I've found that I quite like this product.  It gives a very nice and surprisingly natural glow, at least on my skin tone, and is a pretty quick extra step.  I've been using it on my eyelids, over a blush, as well as on the tops of my cheeks to give a slightly shimmery look which actually lasts quite a long time.

So, perhaps a little more exciting project pan update than I was expecting if we were really pushing it.  I knew this year wasn't going to be one where there was a large change in my makeup collection, but 2021 is more about it down to the size I want to end the year with.  Hopefully, by the end of the next quarter, I'll have finished the eyeliner, and then that'll basically be it for the year.

Goals 2021 Update 2

I am writing this post a little bit early so I won't quite have reached all the sub-goals I had planned for the halfway point.  There's also the little point of a trip to Lundy Island for our joint birthdays and anniversary celebrations, and that obviously would have taken a bit of a chunk out of our finances.  That being said, we're still doing pretty good and I'm feeling quite proud of where we are at the moment.  

The main goal for this year was to work towards becoming more financially fit and free, and I'm happy to say we're definitely on our way to that.  Our individual emergency funds are still there looking good and the credit cards remaining at zero.

Now that we've had a few months of paying bills we've been able to work out how much we would need to save to cover all our outgoing for four months and this would be £5200 (which we had round up to because, let's face it, it's always better to be over) and after a long discussion about it have decided that we are happy with just having four months covered rather than the six we had thought about at the start of the year.  This is one area we have definitely done well in, managing to get to the halfway point by the end of May.  This gives us seven months to make up the final £2600.  I'm not going to lie, I'm feeling very proud of us for that.

Last time I wrote about this year's goals I had had to miss a month's pension payment which meant that I needed to up my payments to £225 a month to ensure that I would catch up by the end of the year.  My sub-goal for halfway through the year was to have put away £1200 towards my pension, but by the end of June it'll only be £1100.  However, this is only £100 out after missing a months payment, so I'm not feeling too bad about it.  It is definitely now a financial priority for me for the rest of this year.  

We've managed to put money aside every month for our Christmas and car repair sinking funds as planned.  My sub-goals for five months were to have saved £325 towards the Christmas fund and £225 towards the car repairs and we've hit those targets.  There have been a few hiccups here and there, but I think we've done pretty well.  We could probably have done a lot better if we'd been a lot stricter with our spending, mostly on food we didn't really need.  However, as we are still managing to reach our financial goals for the year I'm not going to worry about it too much as we do want to still enjoy ourselves as well.

As for the skating, well let's just skim over that.  I've been concentrating on too many other things to make this goal a priority right now and this was always going to be a goal that was really more about having a little bit of fun more than anything else.  However, it's still something to aim for over the next six months.  Maybe I need to make the goal a little more concrete rather than just that I'd like to be able to stay upright on it before the year it out. 

Crafting 2021 Update 2

That's another three months of crafting gone and it's been more productive than I was expecting, despite having less time than before. 

The 1940s Trousers

After repeatedly putting this project off as I was finding the pattern a bit intimidating and I also knew I would have to make quite a few changes to it as my body shape doesn't fit the norm, I decided to just open the package and give it a go.  I'd decided to make a pair of shorts out of the top of the pattern first, using a bed sheet, so that I could work out the changes. They're not perfect and I need to lower the back of the legs as I've made them so high it's just inappropriate, but they actually turned out a lot better than I was expecting.  Now I have all the changes I need to make to the trousers.

I've also finally brought the material that I need to make the trousers and it is a beautiful wool suit fabric, which I brought from Minerva.  I also ordered some smiling buttons (as I just couldn't help myself), nylon thread, and the interfacing I'll need as well.  I do need to wash the material first to reduce the chance shrinkage after I've finished them, but then I'll take the plunge and start making the trousers properly.  I'm also planning on making the top half of the dungarees as a detachable part of the outfit so I can add it and remove it when I want.  I've ordered enough material for that as well.

Christmas Cards

This has gone no further than the last update.  If I'm honest it's because I'm a little nervous that it's going to be a complete disaster, but I'll need to just give this a go and stop being a coward.

Lord of the Rings /The Hobbit Cross-Stitch

This has gone quite well and I've managed to finish the top half of The Shire.  It's looking really good and I'm looking forward to it being completed on the wall.  Though I have now realised that it's probably going to take me years before I finished them all.  There is also the problem that I got a line of dirt on the fabric from the way I was holding the frame and I need to work out how I'm going to wash this off before I carry on with the bottom half of the pattern.

The Fantail Skirt

I haven't started sewing this as I want to practice using my sewing machine more first, especially as this is the skirt I'll be wearing at my wedding.  I wanted to make this and the top out of second-hand fabric but, despite a whole lot of searching in the charity shops, I couldn't find anything and so have brought some of the fabric of eBay.  I'm still looking for the lace table cloth that I'll also be using as part of the skirt as I have a particular design in my mind. I do have to dye fabric I'm using for the skirt as I want it to be a pale blue.  I'm hoping to start on this once I've finished making my trousers.

Altering my Pyjamas

I've already written a post about this, so I won't write too much about it here.  In summary, I had a pair of pyjamas that were too big for me but I didn't want to throw them away or buy a new pair as I really like the theme of these.  So I decided to do a little practising on my sewing machine and resize them.  They actually fit pretty well now and I'm glad I gave it a go.

Knitting Socks

I hadn't done any knitting since Christmas and I was actually missing it so I wanted to find a small project that wouldn't take up too much time.  I decided to knit some socks.  I've found a sock yarn by Regia Yarns that was designed by Arne and Carlos and am using the sock pattern Voolevine has available on her website.  They're going pretty quickly and I'm really liking the outcome.  This might end up being something I make on a regular basis, even if it's just to have something to do.

And that's it for this quarter.  It's not a large amount, but it's definitely more than I was expecting to do at this time of year.  I'm finding that I'm really enjoying the variety of crafts I have going at the moment.  I will need to really concentrate and spend some extra time working on the trousers so who knows how much I'll actually get accomplished next quarter, but hopefully, it'll be similar to this one.

Eating from the Redwall Cookbook: Spring

Spring is now officially over (what a weird season it's been) and with it some more cooking from the Redwall Cookbook.  In keeping with the type of British weather we get this time of year the recipes have been warm and on the slightly heavy side.  We didn't make all of them, but these are the ones we tried.

Hare's Pawspring Vegetable Soup

This is a good soup with a nice mix of vegetables which do give some good flavours, though I would want to add some herbs if I made this recipe again.  Obviously, this is meant to be for children so it's not really surprising that there aren't too many herbs and species other than salt and pepper.  Otherwise, it turned out pretty well and it a very healthy dish.  We happily finished it off with the dumplings I made to go with it, because why wouldn't you put dumplings with anything if you could.

Crispy Cheese'n'Onion Hogbake

I wasn't sure about this recipe but it turned out to be a definite win.  We didn't put the cornflakes on, mainly because we didn't have any and I wasn't going to buy them just for this dish.  Normally I would want to add some other flavours, but I liked this just as it was and is probably something we'll make again.  Obviously, the dairy products were swapped for non-dairy ones and we ate it with broccoli and rice.

Vegetable Casserole a la Foremole

This was another win, though it did take quite a while to cook so it's not necessarily a dish I would choose to cook during the week.  As with the Hogbake it tastes good without adding any additional spices and I changed the dairy products for non-dairy ones.  I just added green vegetables to it and we managed to finish it all off in one go, though we did feel uncomfortably full afterwards.

Gourmet Garrison Grilled Leeks

I completely forgot to take photos of this one, but I made this dish as a side dish as it was so small.  However, I have to admit this one didn't really blow us away.  There's nothing wrong with it as such and all the ingredients are good ingredients, but we just didn't take to it so we probably won't be eating this again.

Spiced Gatehouse Tea Bread

I wasn't certain how this recipe was going to turn out as I had to make quite a few changes to fit what items we have in the cupboard and what I need for my dietary requirements.  These included using gluten-free flour which usually makes these things much harder and dryer, sultanas instead of raisins, and chia seeds instead of the one egg required.  I also didn't have all the spices it needed so, instead, made a slightly strange concoction of cinnamon and mixed spice.  However, despite all that, it actually turned out pretty well and I think I'll be making it again in the not so distant future.

The four recipes I didn't make from this season were the Stuffed Springtide Mushrooms as I don't like mushrooms,  Abbot's Special Abbey Trifle mainly because I couldn't be bothered to make all the layers - lazy I know, Honeybaked Apples as my Mum makes these all the time, and Hot Mint Tea as, unfortunately, mint tea makes me sick.  Otherwise, it's been enjoyable actually                                                                                                                                                                                         `eating some of the food that we've read about in the Redwall books.  Next season looks like a whole lot of cakes and puddings so that's going to be very enjoyable.

May 2021 Budget

May has definitely been quite an eventful month.  Lockdown has been eased but the weather has made it difficult to go places, rain has had a bit of an effect on my earning potential, I finally bite the bullet and after months of umming and ahhing ordered the fabric I wanted to make my trousers, the scary tax returns were done, we've moved into the land of birthdays and all the spending that goes with those, and I finally got my first Covid-19 vaccine (always good).  Some of these have had a bit of an effect on our spending and earning for May.

As always let us start with the good.  I still have my £1000 emergency fund and no debt sitting on my credit card.

We've also managed to continue putting money into our sinking funds for car repairs and Christmas, as well as actually putting away £401 into our savings account this month.  Most of this money actually came from the money I had put aside for taxes over the last financial year but then didn't need to pay.  As it was savings any way I just transferred it straight into our savings, which was a nice little outcome and means that we are almost halfway to completing our savings goals for the year.

I also put £225 into my pension which I'm very proud of and means I'm on my way to completing that goal for this year as well.

We are still spending quite a bit of money on food and household products, but looking back at previous months that spending has reduced quite a bit.  So, whilst it's not great it is going in the right direction and that's what I'm focusing on at the moment.

I've also decided to add some more lines to our budget to give us a better idea of where exactly the money is going and what we need to work on.  These are take-away which has actually turned out to be quite high, birthdays which won't really change much but is still good to have it out of our general spending category, and wedding spending as we are getting to the point where we're starting to spend money on this and it'll be good to keep an eye on it.  We don't actually have a budget for this last category, but we should probably do a bit of research and make a decision on it so it doesn't get too out of hand.  Not that it's going to be a particularly pricy wedding anyway.

One thing that has gone up quite a bit this month and of which I have no control over is fuel costs.  This is because it depends entirely on the location of my worksites.  I just have to hope that we get some sites closer to home soon and this will then reduce that number significantly.  There's also been some additional money spent on doing sightseeing things in May and that's absolutely fine.  We decided right from the start of the year that we didn't want to save money at the expense of not seeing the area we are living in at the moment so, as long as it's not getting us into debt, we're going to keep doing that for the rest of the year.

I suppose this month could definitely be classified in the 'could do better' category.  It wasn't a complete failure and we have done better this month than in the last few.  However, there is still room for improvement when it comes to unnecessary spending as earning potential is all down to the whims of the weather, and that's what we'll be working on in June.  How exciting.

Having Dyslexia - and why it's helped you learn to just give things a go.

This probably isn't really a subject that fits with anything else I've written about in this blog, especially not in the last few months, but I have a feeling that it's probably pretty obvious that I have this based on how I write, or miss-write, my posts.  It's also popped into my mind more recently as I've had yet someone else who has been surprised to find out that I am actually dyslexic.  So I decided to write about it.

Obviously, I'm used to having dyslexia and the wonderful and usually comical way in which it affects my life.  However, non-dyslexic people's reaction to finding out I have it is always a little bit odd to me, especially the reasons behind why they are surprised.  Sometimes it's because they feel I shouldn't be able to string a coherent sentence together about any mildly complex subject, sometimes it's because of the way I use words to describe things, sometimes they feel I shouldn't have been able to get a Degree let alone a Masters, and sometimes it's because they're just surprised that I'm not.... well, to be blunt, stupid.  And it does make me wonder if I had followed the ridiculous stereotype that people try to fit you into how things would have been for me.

I could write a post about all the ways my form of dyslexia affects my life, like the fact I can't actually hear the different sounds that make up a word which makes spelling an interesting affair.  However, I don't see dyslexia as a disadvantage.  In fact, it has allowed me to understand mechanics and concepts that are apparently complicated and allowed cram all sorts of information into my brain, and I see that as an advantage.  So instead, I thought I'd write about how I've learnt to deal with my dyslexia and how that has had an effect on other areas in my life as well.

1) Dyslexia does not mean stupid.

This is the most important and I'm not sure you can ever say it enough - because you're dyslexic does not mean you're stupid.  No matter what anyone says, and believe me, I've heard it a lot, it's just not true.  It just means that you're not good at words or numbers or both, but that doesn't mean you're stupid.  Your intelligence will be in something else, like understanding concepts in physics that other people just don't get, and you just need to find out what it is.  So try out lots of different things, even in the academic fields that people tell you you won't be very good at, to see what it is you excel in.  It could be a very pleasant surprise and just because an archaic idea is attached to something doesn't mean it's actually true.  

2) How can someone else know what you're capable of when, most of the time, you won't even know yourself.

I'm very used as someone with dyslexia, and as a woman, to people deciding that they know what I will actually be capable of, giving me their opinion, and then expecting me to follow it.  However, the truth is that you'll never actually know what you can do until you give it a go, at least a couple of times, and if you don't know how on earth are they going to.  It's also true that they are rarely giving you their opinion for your own good but rather to box you into a behaviour that will make them feel better, and this makes it 'advise' to definitely ignore.  So don't listen to other people's opinion of your capability and find out for yourself.  Then you might find out that you can get a Masters whilst having word-dyslexia (why did they make that word so difficult to spell?) or have a job moving heavy objects as a woman.

3) It's very unlikely that you'll be able to do something, and definitely not be good at it, on the first go.

Most things that you give a go at will take time to be good at or even just competent at, so there's no point in being disheartened just because you can't do it straight away.  I understand it's disappointing, but you can use that feeling to decide if it's really something you want to be able to do or achieve and if it is then just keep going.  Almost no one is able to do something the first time, and just because you can't doesn't mean you are able to do it at all.

4) You need to find your own type of translation and accept the pitfalls.

And by that I mean you need to work out how your own squidgy brain works and then translate everything to fit that.  For me, my brain works in pictures and not in words, so everything I do and learn I translate into pictures so that I can remember and understand them.  Unfortunately, there are some things I just can't do that with, like names.  I'm terrible at names, but I just accept that there's nothing I can do about that and for everything else, it actually works just fine and allows me to fit a lot of information into a very small headspace.  My favourite thing about my form of learning is the way I can then move the picture around in my head and use it to look at something from a different angle.  Something I wouldn't be able to do if I tried to force myself to think in words.

5) Sometimes (or most times) you just have to work really hard.

This definitely isn't just for people who are dyslexic, but there are a number of times that you can actually do something if you're prepared to really put the graft it.  You might not be a genius at it, but you're not going to really know if you can do it without really giving it a proper go.  I had to work really hard to get the grades I did, but I accepted that that was just going to be the case and now I'm very proud of what I managed to achieve.  I also now know what I'm capable of, and that it s very useful piece of information.

6) It's absolutely fine if it turns out you really can't do it.

If after all that grafting you still aren't able to do that thing you had hoped to be able to do then it's time to step away and accept that that just isn't going to be a skill for you.  And you know what, that's absolutely fine! You can't be good at everything, because no one can be.  It also doesn't mean that that person who told you you won't be able to do it is right either as they didn't know you were capable of going as far as you did.  Now you need to take all the lessons you learnt from this effort, which is why failing at something is nothing but a learning opportunity, and go and find something that is the right fit for you. 

All of those are reasons why I tend to ignore it when people tell me that I can't do something and even why I ignore my initial reaction of "I won't be able to do this" as no one will actually know until you give it a go.  And it was having dyslexia and learning to work around it that taught me that.  My strengths might not be 'normal' strengths but they are still strengths and useful ones at that.  It would also be true to say that I was also very lucky when it came to academics in that I love learning new things, and there wasn't anything anyone could say that was going to put me off pursuing that.  No matter how difficult it was going to get.

So I hope that, in some small way, this might help someone who's having to deal with those people behaving as if you can't do something because of your dyslexia (or for any other reason) before you've had a chance to try.  It might be that you can't, but without giving it a go you're never going to know.  Now have a look at a very cute, sleeping kitty.

Exploring Devon: Part 1

It's been a little bit difficult these last few weeks to match up mine and my partner's days off so that we could do the exploring of Devon we've been hoping to do.  Due to this, we haven't gone as many places as we originally hoped, but we have managed to get in a couple of trips and they have definitely been worth it.  

Wild Swimming - Sugary Cove

This was our first (and only so far) wild swimming trip since getting our wetsuits, but it was definitely a good one to start with.  Sugary Cove is a lovely, small cove that apparently doesn't get a lot of visitors other than the locals.  To get to it we started by parking above Dartmouth Castle and then walked along the South West Coast Path for a couple of minutes before reaching the very steep steps that take you down to the water.

I'm not going to lie, the water was very, very cold, but it's a good, sheltered bay that feels very safe to swim in.  It would be good to come back with snorkelling gear and have a proper exploration of what's lurking under the water.  Especially as these waters are pretty clear, which means there should be quite a healthy ecosystem to stare at.  We didn't spend too long in the water as I'm definitely not used to that temperature anymore, but I'm hoping I'll become more acclimatised to the temperature so I can spend more time enjoying the swim.

Walking - Wistman's Wood looped walk

This was a lovely short-ish walk to get back into the swing of things and it felt really good to get my walking boots back on.  We decided to do a looped walk as the path to Wistman's Wood on its own wasn't going to be long enough.

We started off at the Two Bridges car park and heading along the well-worn path to Wistman's Wood.  Don't be fooled by the small size of the trees (mostly beautiful oak) as they think that this wood is the remains of an ancient forest.  Most of the trees have a contorted form which, along with being covered in mosses and lichens, would give the woodland a wonderfully eerie feel on a foggy day.  This is what most of Dartmoor would have been covered with and it's a shame that it doesn't cover more area.  I liked it, but I think it would be good to go back in summer to see what it's like when it's really green.

Once we'd had a good little wonder through the woods we headed uphill towards the Tors.  We decided to walk a little further north than we had originally planned as it was so lovely to be outside and headed for Higher White Tor which we could see directly in front of us.  It did go uphill quite steeply, but I felt very comfortable doing the incline despite the lack of walking recently and, better still, I felt like I was breathing very comfortably (a problem that I've had for a few years).  

Once we'd had a good look at the view we turned back south and carried on along the high ground to the east of the woods, scrambling over Longaford Tor and walking past Littaford Tors.  Then it was back onto another well-worn path that carried us downhill towards the car park.  

In total, the walk probably took us about 2.5 hours and gave us a good view of the other areas of Dartmoor we're planning on visiting in the future.  

So, only a couple of trips this time around, but definitely more to come in the future.  The nicest surprise how easily my body took to walking again despite the length of time since I've done it properly.  The cold during swimming has been the less enjoyable part, but I'm sure I'll get used to that soon.  However, we now have a taste for it and are already planning our next trips out into the 'wilds'.  On the plus, if it keeps raining the way it has been on our days off together that doesn't affect our ability to swim.