Dear Blogger, it's been one month and one day since my last post. Work has been all consuming recently and so March managed to slip by without me really noticing. Even on the first sunny day of the year I was at my desk, trying to tick off tasks on my to-do list faster than I was adding them.

It would be nice to have a few days that are entirely my own sometime soon. A few weekends ago I ran my first clothes swap of the year. It was great fun but it's a lot of work and my house is still peppered with bags of clothes waiting to be sorted for the next one in June. Other than that I've been working the weekends, with the exception of last weekend when my hand was too sore to do anything.

I was attacked by a cat. Not one of mine, but a large black tom that has been hanging around and fighting with Socks and Tink. Friday night they'd both been chased in through the cat flap. The tom doesn't come in, or even try to, but he sits outside growling and it really upsets my cats (and me) so, without thinking, I stuck my hand out of the cat flap to shoo him away. Only he didn't go anywhere, he grabbed onto my hand, digging in with claws and teeth, and sat perfectly still, growling, leaving me with my hand stuck out the cat flap with a cat attached to the end of it. It makes me chuckle to think of it now, what a ridiculous position to put yourself in, but at the time it was a bit of a shock.

Tink, who had been sitting in the kitchen doorway came running over, fur puffed up, growling and yowling and making all sorts of noises that I had no idea she was capable of making and at a volume I found rather shocking. With this, the tom let go and as soon as he did, Tink stopped. How's that for a cat bodyguard? Yup, Tink's got my back.

After A&E on a Friday night and not getting home until 4:30am, Saturday was a write off and Sunday my hand was still too sore and swollen to hold my mouse, so work was out of the question. It was very frustrating not being able to work when I had so much to do, so I busied myself with some left handed housework, with varying degrees of success. The upside was that Andy took to cooking for most of last week. My hand is on the mend, I still can't grip very well but it is getting better.

I've been finding a little time here and there to add to my new obsession, my patchwork quilt. Although this past week I haven't found the time to pick it up once. Today I wanted to quilt and do very little else, but my hand isn't quite up to sewing just yet. I've managed one full hexagon flower and that's it. I'm doing a Sunday patchwork quilt update on Instagram, so you can follow my progress, y'know, if you like... The cats seem to love it, every time I lay it flat one, or both of them stretch out on it.

Isn't the year flying by? February went by in a flash too. I didn't really notice that my Frugal February 'essential spending only' rule had actually begun before it was all over. It went pretty well, my meal planning helped to cut down my grocery bills and I stayed away from town (charity shops) and ignored my desire to go internet shopping (eBay). The awful weather helped too by making me want to stay tucked up at home. Nothing says 'stay at home' like the driving rain!

My Wearing It All Again wardrobe challenge sort of, well, stopped. I have to admit on my busiest days I didn't even get dressed. But, I've been slowly sorting out loads of things for a blog sale (when I get the time to photograph it all), and have promised myself that I will wear my favourite outfits more often... And to get dressed everyday, it's so easy not to when you have nowhere you need to be.

At the beginning of March I visited a local wedding venue, Easton Grange - not that I'm getting married - I was asked along to go along to an open day and to write a post. Which I will do soon, it was a gorgeous place! Andy went pale when I showed him the brochure and he received more than a few not-so-subtle hints about getting hitched, and more specifically, getting hitched there. It was really, really beautiful. And thanks to Sophie for putting them in touch with me x

So, that was March. April is shaping up to be a good one, how's yours going?
Love