Day One Hundred and Four – Saturday 27^th June –

Today was a lazy day. I spent the morning designing cards, napping and doing some reading but it was super relaxing and chilled, and I felt good about myself and the day.

In the afternoon and through into the evening, I played Xbox with my friend. We played Dead Island – a game I would NEVER play alone because it’s about killing zombies and I screamed more than once!! However, it was fun to play with a friend, even if that friend didn’t understand what being a ‘team player’ means. It’s alright, I’ll train them in the ways of ‘team player’ soon!!

My Dad cooked tonight, mushroom burgers with stilton and sweet potato fries. It was delicious and actually I was really impressed with the meal. The last 2 weeks Dad’s made a stir-fry for dinner and I’ve been teasing him about it. So, I guess he wanted to prove he could make something else this week. It was very tasty.

Hopefully the cooler weather will bring a little intellect back into the UK population and stop them from congregating at the beach and helping the spread of COVID-19. Every time I see a news report about large groups of people getting together I just can’t understand the stupidity of people and the selfishness of not thinking of others or the bigger picture.

Day One Hundred and Five – Sunday 28^th June –

I have been a mission of proactiveness today! I’ve been getting fed up of all the half-finished cards I have lying around in my workspace – not enough hours in the day! – so I made it my mission today to fix that. I ended up painting 15 cards! And when I say 15, I mean, 15 cards, 15 envelopes, and 15 outer envelopes. I mean, my hands are shaking now but I feel so accomplished. The ONLY downside in finishing all these cards is that I am running out of space to put them! Seriously, I don’t have a lot of room at the moment, so I can’t spread out my work in the way I would like.

I have 5 sets of cards left to do and then I’m going to have to move on to my prints, as I won’t have any more space for all the cards. Still, I’m happy that I have a steady stream of small business, it makes me very happy and encourages me to be more creative.

I wasn’t just painting cards of course I was also watching Criminal Minds. I took a break from Homecoming and got obsessed with Criminal Minds instead. I enjoy Criminal Minds because, like thriller books, I find it hard to guess the criminal – unless they show him – and that makes the show more interesting.

I always feel so accomplished when I get a job done, whether it’s something fun like being creative or whether it’s cleaning the bathroom. I think it goes hand in hand with my love of achievements. It’s just something I enjoy.

Tonight, will be an early night if I can get my brain to switch off and give me some sleep. I’m just so tired. I need to remember to ring the doctors tomorrow as well, for I think I have an infection I need to take antibiotics for.

It’s never-ending with me, if it isn’t one thing then it’s another.

It was my turn to cook tonight and I had been anticipating warm weather! It’s going to be colder this week, which is actually a big relief for me! I made a tomato and mozzarella salad tonight. It was actually pretty yummy, and I made it with 4 different types of tomatoes.

Day One Hundred and Six – Monday 29^th June –

I had to phone my doctors this morning, send in a picture and wait for a call back. I am now on a week’s worth of antibiotics again. I have a small lump on my collarbone which is painful. I’m on the same antibiotics that I got familiar with last year and thankfully, these ones are by a different brand and are much smaller. The ones I was on last year were huge and difficult to swallow!

At the moment, when I move my right shoulder, it pulls on the lump and it hurts. I hope the antibiotics will sort it out and I won’t have to go back for more testing/antibiotics.

Today was a stressful and terrible day for work. I desperately needed to sort out a collection and delivery from site to suppler and I managed to get that done fine. BUT. I then needed to forward the paperwork for the collection to a colleague, and what happened?! THE INTERNET WENT DOWN!!!

I live in a valley with two large hills on either side. So, when it’s very windy or very rainy, I lose internet. I spent 2 hours trying to get this paperwork across. My MacBook decided it didn’t want to open Outlook anymore, I couldn’t attach the files on my phone, my Ipad doesn’t have email. I was getting very, very, stressed. In the end I had to open my work email via google chrome and managed to send the paperwork that way.

After all that cuffuffle, the morning had completely gone, and I felt quite drained by the experience! Luckily, I did have some work I could do without the internet, so I wasn’t left stranded for the day. However, it did limit the work I could do.

It’s a new week of working from home and I don’t know what the days will bring. Last week was rather quiet on the work front but that doesn’t mean that this week will be the same! I find it amusing how work has fluxuated.

I’m surprised by how well my company has been working from home, considering that there are a lot of big personalities and extroverts floating around. I think the lockdown has proved our power in a way and shown the directors how much we can rally and pull through everything. It’s also shown how some people work better from home than they do in the office.

Going forward, when everyone is back to normal and the virus has been fixed with a vaccine, I think the company I work for will still employ some of the tactics used during lockdown because they proved so efficient and made for a happier workplace.

The only thing I really miss from work is my desktop computer. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my MacBook and I do most of my writing on here, but my Mac doesn’t like MS Teams or Outlook and I get problems when using both. Also, I like the bigger computer screen at work, it makes doing spreadsheets much easier.

But really, I’m quite self-sufficient at home. However, I know that when ‘back to normal’ resumes, I’ll be one of the few without the option of working some days at home because I am the office administrator and front of house, so it will be interesting when I finally have to get back into the old routine pre-covid.

Day One Hundred and Seven – Tuesday 30^th June –

Today I found myself in an OCD episode, so to try and pull myself away from the compulsion, I focused on a task that would help calm my OCD and bring my anxiety down. I decided to catalogue all the books I have to read and all the kindle books I have to read in one excel spreadsheet. It took a long time in total I have 193 books to read but it looked so pretty when it was completed! Me being me, I had to go and vamp up my TBR list that I have pinned on my blog, so it could look as smart as the newly formed spreadsheet. I couldn’t put the same table in on my blog, but I found a format that worked and made it look nicer.

It really worked for my OCD I could feel it calming the longer I worked on the task. Some OCD moments are easier to get out of than others. I only have one OCD tick, but it’s an unpleasant one and it can be super difficult to try and get out of that once the episode starts. My family and friends are aware of that tick and help me when they see it happening. For the most part, my OCD is minor compared to other sufferers.

Opening my Etsy store and having a successful small business has really helped my OCD as well, because the crafts I make – even if they’re the same design – are all different, I cannot perfect them, so it’s teaching me that it’s ok for something to be slightly wrong. Of course, there are still times where I will sit and redo a card countless times because I can’t cope with the result, but every journey has dead ends!

I’ve got really into State of Survival which is an app on my phone. I kind of feel like it was made for me because it’s all achievement based – which I thrive upon. I’ve definitely become a little obsessed with it. My next goal is to become more socially active within the alliance I’ve joined. It’s stupid really but I still get social anxiety even if I’m chatting online. I’ll have to build myself up to do it.

Four hours in the office this afternoon and my head was splitting in two. I actually had a really manageable headache for most of the day. The weather is super muggy at the moment and is raining on and off. It makes the office very uncomfortable. Never work in a wooden office if you suffer from headaches!!!

Unfortunately, the bad headache stayed with me through the evening and I think it will be an early night for me tonight. It’s one of those headaches where paracetamols won’t help. Food might but my eyes are just so sleepy at the moment.

Day One Hundred and Eight – Wednesday 1^st July –

This morning I took my car in for its MOT and I was actually quite irritated by the lack of social distancing by the workers. There was minimal effort in keeping a distance, in fact, it seemed they’d only thought of social distancing for customers but decided that they were fine working in close quarters. I’m glad I took my mask with me as a precaution because it definitely made me feel safer amongst those people who seemed to have disregarded the virus.

I read two books today – they were short children’s books (under 400 pages) but they were rather good.

Gargantis by Thomas Taylor

The Vanishing Trick by Jenni Spangler (Debut)

I kid you not, there is space on my tbr shelf! I added one book to the charity pile and that was Possession by Peter James, I just couldn’t get into it. I made it to chapter 6 and then obviously shelved it. I read again to chapter 6 today and I such couldn’t get on with the book, the beginning chapters just felt too much like an information dump and got a bit waffly. I found this interesting because I’m about 2/3 through Faith by Peter James and I’m really enjoying that.

I am always interested when I get a dud book from an author who I usually enjoy.

I’ve now started on Nowhere Child by Christian White.

I’m trying to make July a better month for reading because June got so chaotic and stressful that I feel I let myself down with reading. I want to make a better show of it this month and clear some more space from my shelves.

Day One Hundred and Nine – Thursday 2^nd July –

Honestly, I know I say this a lot, but this week has gone by so quickly! I know that lockdown is easing up in the UK, but I also know that people are still being idiotic about keeping safe and not spreading the virus. I will continue to write this weekly blog post until the threat has passed.

Today I spent a lot of money! My car went in for its MOT yesterday and they kept it overnight. It failed the MOT, so I had to get extra work done to get it to pass. My car is 16 years old now, so I’m constantly amazed that it is still running. However, I had a choice a couple of years ago, get a new car or save for a mortgage and I chose the latter. I can’t afford to buy a new car. I’d either have to take from my mortgage savings – where I’m so close to having enough money for a deposit – or go on a financial plan. Neither of those options sound good to me right now, so I’m just hoping and praying that my car continues going for another couple of years.

I decided to swap my days in the office because for the last couple of weeks I’ve been going in on a Thursday afternoon to help a colleague out and then going back in on a Friday afternoon. It just seemed a little wasteful, so I’ve decided to stop going in on the Friday and just getting everything done on the Thursday afternoon. That seems more beneficial to everyone and it means I can work in comfy clothes or sweats on a Friday!

I made myself a salary budget. I’ve only set it up for July and August so far, but it’s basically to track what I spend money on the most and see if I can cut any corners or reduce my outgoing spending in order to put more money away. It’s just an experiment I thought I’d try, and it is easier to control an experiment like this while I am still working from home.

We’re due to have a thunderstorm today, so my headache is already here. I hope it will stay at a manageable level, but I am prepared for the migraine should it appear.

Day One Hundred and Ten – Friday 3^rd July –

It’s Friday again and I kind of feel like I’m in a hamster wheel, always spinning and never stopping. It’s another wet, gloomy day in the UK. The dog has given up asking for a walk and is now snuggled beneath my duvet, a wet nose on my knee. I’m still in a lot of pain, I can’t tell if the antibiotics are working or not, but I still have to take them until Monday.

I finished off watching Homecoming today. Seriously, you need to watch this programme. It’s like a conspiracy theory mixed with mystery and suspicion. It reads just like a crime novel. There are 2 series on Prime and the episodes are only 24 minutes long. You can binge watch it in a day. I just really enjoy it. It is definitely a programme that makes you think and makes you question everything. It’s very addictive and compelling with characters that are so complex and multi-layered.

I’m busy looking through my recipes to see what I can make over the weekend. I’m leaning towards an Italian pasta recipe.

I want to try and finish my last card designs over the weekend, or this evening. I’m working on 4 packs of 8 thank you cards in pastel colours. I’m rather excited about them, the design I created looks really good and I’m looking forward to painting them in a mixture of normal and metallic watercolours.

I mean, who knows what next week will bring!!