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.