Last day of 2024

 Has the year really come to an end?

It has been the toughest year for me by far, and that is even accounting for 2021 when I left the family home! More on the final details tomorrow.

As the day was a Tuesday, then for some, it was just another day of work.

For me, just another day of holiday. I took myself off to find a swimming pool I had been told about by my Physiotherapist, about 25 min drive away, but it had a hydrotherapy pool which is slightly warmer and allows for walking up and down, and exercise.

I discovered it also had a sauna and hot pool (all included in entry price). I dipped in the hot pool at the end, but whilst I fancied sitting in the sauna, it was full with quite a few men and I didn't fancy sitting in there as the only female.

I also finished the last jigsaw of the year, number 20

This was a 2000 piece one that I had bought myself. My only struggle was that it was 1cm too small in one direction for my large board! It had to go up the side just slightly. Still totally do able (nothing stops me). It was lots of small pictures so a case of identifying the location and then placing it on the board, then over time more pieces got added and slowly piece by piece got joined together.

Nice to start it outside in the sunshine

As you can see, just sits up the side of the board!

Unfortunately, when I sorted out the pictures for this post, it was already 2025 and I got myself mixed up when putting my name on them!! Thus why some of the pictures have 2025 on them instead of 2024. Oh well, makes no difference to the post.

At the end of the day, I enjoyed doing this jigsaw.

Wherever you are, whatever you are doing - I wish you all the very best for the new year and achieving your goals and dreams in 2025

 As you may have gathered by now, or maybe you haven't! I like to complete parkrun. A free 5km run, walk, hop or skip held every Saturday morning. In New Zealand it starts at 8am but I know in the UK it starts at 9am, so always a good idea to check for each country. You can check out parkrun to find out more details about one local to you.

I walk it, I am not a runner!

It takes me about 40-50 minutes to complete, depending on the course and how I feel on the day, if I am walking with someone or if I am on my own.

Someone at my local parkrun decided that she would plan to complete 4 parkruns in one day! (Last year they did 9 in one day!!) Now you can only officially complete 1 parkrun on a Saturday morning but there is nothing to stop you going and completing the course of any parkrun at any time you wish, you can register this as a freedom parkrun, but it does not count towards any milestones you are working towards. The plan she came up with was to complete 4 of them by lunchtime!

1. 6.30am
2. 8am (official one)
3. 9.30am
4. 11am

Followed by lunch at 1pm

1 and 2 were very close together and so with me walking in 48 mins then I was able to get to them both easily, however, number 3 was 25 mins away and then number 4 was then another 25 mins away from number 3! There was no way I was making it to number 3, so used this time to grab some breakfast and be able to get to number 4.

The sun was shining, it was warmer at the first than the second and very hot at number 4 as it was close to midday.

Just finished the first one (7.20am)

Just finished the second (8.50am)

 

Just finished the fourth one (12pm)

Lunch was being held at a bar/restaurant about 25 mins away and I had to pass by the house to get there, so I nipped in really quick, grabbed a shower and changed clothes and still made it to lunch only 5 mins late!

It was a fun day, and I am so glad I pushed myself to do the first one, as my original plan had been to only do number 2 & 4.

Roll on next year and whatever crazy she comes up with

Christmas Ornaments

 I do like to create things, and this year I found an awesome little pattern for tree decorations made out of felt, so I gave it a go.

Simple paper/card templates that you use to cut the felt

A quick whip stitch around in a matching colour, obviously this was just a simple two colour design but there were others that had other parts to them so many different colours.

Add some stuffing and some beads to make it stand out more and voila....a gift for someone.

They are not difficult and do not take long to produce. I got the pattern from Whatacurlylife on Instagram.

I made a gingerbread man for my colleague