The Tenner Challenge: Day 6 - seeing things through to the end

The penultimate day of my ten pound challenge went by without note. The highlight was probably a hot chocolate that I paid 20p for at work - you can gauge how thrilling my day was off the back of that. To be honest, I'm going a bit stir crazy as a result of not doing anything particularly exciting this week - unusually for me I haven't seen any friends (doing that normally costs over a tenner), and although I've tried to do interesting bits and bobs in the flat, due to lack of funds I've been pretty much housebound apart from the trip to Saltaire. Although I looked into free things to do in Leeds midweek (using Leeds Inspired - a definite must of a website for any bored Loiners), everything that was free was either happening during office hours or cost more than £2.00. Not much use to those of us in 9-5 jobs who are trying to scrimp and scrape.

Anyway, when I got home from work, I thought I'd pick up and crack on with a project that - embarrassingly - I started almost a year ago. I'd say my tendency for starting stuff and then not seeing it through to the bitter end is one of my worst character traits. There are various things that I've started and never finished - in 2011 I decided to take a photo a day for a year. I was doing great, until I gave up in late November, just a matter of days from the end. In the same year I lost a very decent amount of weight, but got bored of tracking what I ate so gave up just lbs away from my target goal. There are various TV box sets that I've watched for a good few series, but then given up - not out of lack of enjoyment but because it's lost my interest. I'm the same with books - I don't think I've ever completed a trilogy because by book three I've decided there's something more worthy of my time. I guess the crux of it is that my attention span is pretty awful - no matter how well I enjoy something or  how well I'm doing at it, I always seem to have grass is greener syndrome. 

This needs to change if I'm ever going to achieve the things I want to achieve. And with the project I picked up again today, it's really important to me that I do my best to finish it by the 23rd of March.

Why the 23rd of March, I hear you say? Well, it's this little man's first birthday.

This is me and my nephew Will on the beach at Scarborough last summer. He's loads bigger now and can do lots of cool stuff like commando crawl and play peekaboo. Will's my first ever nephew, my sister's first child and my parents' first Grandchild. When he arrived last March we were all over the moon. He has brought our family so much joy and we're so much closer as a result. I might be biased, but I'm pretty sure he's the best baby in the world. 

When Will was first born - despite not really listing arts and crafts as a strong point -I decided to cross stitch him a traditional sampler. You know the type - his name, birth weight, date of birth and lots of little animals going two by two in rows. I spent ages picking the one I wanted, which was quite a feat considering I hadn't cross-stitched for years. When it was finally delivered, I cracked on like an eager beaver and was surprised by my progress, thinking I'd have it done in no time.

That was last March. Since my first enthusiastic bout of stitching, it's spent almost a year sitting next to a ukelele and on top of a picnic hamper in the living room, gathering dust. Sorry Will. I promise it's not because I don't love you. It's because I have the attention span of a meercat.

I don't want you all to think I'm an awful auntie. I've bought Will lots of presents, but I know that none of them will mean as much to him when he's older and my sister right now than a sampler which I spent hours and hours stitching by hand. 

Sometimes, it's not about money. It's about time. And attention span.

So, tonight I picked up the sampler, threaded the needle for the first time in almost a year, and got cracking.  

This is for you, Will. x

The Tenner Challenge - Day 6

Total spent: £6.62