lists – my word of the week

Here’s a top tip. Don’t put your hand in your sewing drawer, if you have one, without looking. Especially if you are rushing around and ticking off lists. To be honest, I’ve still not looked to see what I managed to slice my finger with, but I suspect it was a rotary cutter that was bumped and unclipped itself. No sympathy required. It’s not bad, just inconvenient. Mighty difficult to sew and pack with one finger bandaged up.

This week has been all about lists. Youngest left this morning for Italy with the school. Lots of organising, and labelling to be done, too. I printed out lists for packing and contacts to be included in the bags. I taught him how to pack as efficiently as possible, like a 3-D Tetris champion, so he didn’t waste space. Hopefully he’ll be able to do the same on the way back.

Luggage labels

I couldn’t find our luggage labels and I left it too late to get some more, so I opted to make my own. I’ve used cardboard ones before, but they don’t survive. Instead, I used leather off-cuts and see through plastic packaging from a bag of pasta, plus a ribbon which came with a present. Nothing like making do with things found around the house. Even the cardboard inset was cut up from last year’s wall calendar.

I wish I’d had more time and my finger hadn’t been bandaged up. Tying knots and using scissors on leather was not easy. The labels are a tad wonky to say the least, but they do the job. I’m calling them rustic.

The back of the labels are yellow leather and brown for the front. My old hand cranked Singer sewing machine purrs through the stitches. I left one side of the labels open, so he can turn the labels round for the return trip and the ribbon holds it all together, as well as attaching it to the bag handle. I’ll make another and improve the design. There are always lists of improvements.

The other lists

Still problems with the car and we’re at a crossroads (excuse the pun) for the next stage. Big decisions. We were meant to have our electric car by the end of January, but like others, we are still on the lists. Having it now would logistically make the existing car issue easier to figure out.

Added a new trilogy to my book lists. This week, we watched “Half Bad” on Netflix and really enjoyed it. They don’t seem to be making another series, which is a shame as it finished on a cliff hanger and left so many unanswered questions. I’ll read the books instead.

It’s half term and we’ll have only one child at home for over a week. It’s been a long time since that’s happened. Needless to say, she has lists of projects and trips she’d like to do over the school break. I can see that we’ll be just as busy with one child as we would be with three.

Joining in with Anne’s word of the week. Hope you all have a good weekend.