Adulting in my 50s

 I have spent an inordinate amount of time this week on our first ever purchase of a car. Yes, we have both made it into our 50s without ever owning a car.  DH has been lucky enough to have always had the use of a company car his entire working career, but that is being withdrawn this month and a car allowance substituted.  I had the use of family cars when I lived at home, and since then have either been peripatetic or resident in an urban area with good public transport.  In the UK, I have always commuted to work by train.  So we had the company car for personal needs like doing a big shop or visiting or holidays, and otherwise I did without.  So actually buying a car, and being responsible for it, is somewhat terrifying.  Particularly as DH, who is a good driver, will from time to time reverse into a bollard, or our gatepost.  Before it was just a phone call to the company who would get it fixed, and they also took care of all the servicing etc.  Now it will be me having to do all the arrangements.  The rest of you who have owned cars for decades are all shaking your heads right now and saying 'oh poor you' with mild sarcasm. But when it is all new to me, it's been a lot of work to research insurance and road tax and breakdown companies and then make all those purchases and download all the policy documents, choose the car, make the payment etc.  We've gone with a used 2019 Vauxhall Astra because that's what DH has been driving for several years now, so we're used to them and familiar with the nearest garage. We picked it up today and we're waiting for it to stop raining so we can take it out for an inaugural run.  DH is wading through the 300+ page manual and getting a bit mindboggled with all the information that in the past he has blithely disregarded because the company looked after all the maintenance.

Christmas has officially launched this week and DH has been trundling down all the suitcases and boxes of decorations from the attic.  We got the tree into the stand with some difficulty:  it had an enormous base, at least half again the diameter of the opening in our tree stand.  DH spent over an hour sawing slabs off it, with me helping with the hatchet to trim off corners and lumps, and we had to remove a small tree's worth of lower branches which I will use for decoration, before we could wrestle it into the stand.  The tree is not entirely vertical but I've turned it so it looks pretty good from the main viewing angle.  Yesterday we put the lights on and I added the garlands.  So it's ready to have ornaments added this weekend.  I've also been unpacking the boxes and slowly adding Christmas to other rooms:  the green garland up the stair banisters, and draped over the mantel in the dining room. lights in the front windows, the garland and lights for the living room mantel, the nativity scene and so forth. A few presents from friends have started to arrive in the post which is fun.  And I set up my homemade tree from last year that holds my sale-purchased Wedgwood ornament collection.

I've started the three-cornered stitch that secures the lace to the fabric on my Bucks Lace edging mat.  I started on a straight edge because that's the easiest part, it will be trickier when I have to start securing gathered lace.  It should really be on the straight of grain of the fabric but finished is better than perfect.  It's not as slow as I feared, I did about six inches in 90 minutes so the mat is do-able.

I hand-quilted the Japanese applique pouch and then discovered that the tailor's chalk pencil I had used to mark the quilting lines would neither brush out nor sponge off.  I ended up having to wash the pouch and physically scrub the lines with a nail brush, and they are still not completely gone.  Lesson learned for that pencil.  I've stitched the sides of the pouch but haven't stitched the boxed corners or the zip yet.

I also had a go at a little dolly dress christmas ornament, copying a purchased ornament I have, which was quite fiddly to make and has come out a bit long-waisted, but it's not bad. Bit of fun.

In the evenings I am still knitting on the capelet (now on the decrease section), hand quilting on the fourth block of the 25 block applique quilt and doing some occasional cross-stitch on the little house sampler.

Four more days of work next week and then I am on holiday until the new year, hurrah!!  Hope your Christmas plans, whatever they are, are falling into place and aren't going to be too impacted by the restrictions. Let's hope 2021 will be better.