Getting around to finishing things has always been one of my failings. It’s an unfortunate consequence of living at 100 miles an hour and always having a list of projects as long as my arm waiting to be done.

A policy of “I’ve started so I’ll finish” seems to work unless I get interrupted. Picture the scene – I work my socks off to renovate, paint and decorate the dining room. I get stopped in my tracks by the fact the plaster won’t dry so it sits and waits for two years while I’m dashing around doing other things until I finally have time and effort to find a solution. While it’s all languishing unfinished, even the bits that could be finished don’t get done.

This week, I’m finally doing the mosaic panels on the fireplace, which only leaves painting the skirting boards. Once again though, I’ve been stopped in my tracks, having not bought enough glass of one particular colour for the design I’ve chosen. I’m hoping that it arrives in the next few days so I can do it before needing to clean the dinner table next week for our Burns/Wassailing dinner party. If I put the stuff away, heaven knows when I’ll get it all out again and finish my task.

The same is true of the subject of this photo. It’s a bag that I’m making so I don’t have to carry one of those “I’m utterly devoid of imagination but I’m still saving the planet” or perhaps “I can’t be bothered to find anything more aesthetically pleasing to carry my groceries in but I still want to save the planet” or maybe “oh sod it – I’d better buy a jute bag because you get vilified for using carrier bags these days, even though I don’t really give a damn” jute thingies. I got held up with it because I ran out of red ribbon and hence couldn’t finish it without buying more. The following day, I had no time to go shopping for ribbon because I was cleaning for the “in-laws” arrival, so the sewing machine got put away and it’s never found its way back onto the table since.

Another example of this is the hole in the tiling in the bathroom, where we’ve always planned a “statement” mirror. I eventually got around to thinking we couldn’t justify spending a couple of a hundred pounds on a nice bevelled edged framed mirror so I bought a cheap mirror and planned to mount it with a mosaic “frame” straight into the hole. Good plan I thought. However, when we mounted it, it became apparent that the wall was so bowed that it couldn’t be mounted straight onto the wall and needed a wooden board behind it. It’s still there, hanging from two screws (instead of four) waiting for me to get around to going and buying a board on which to mount it.

I reckon my best plan for this whole messy world that I live in is to set aside a day a week for “snagging” of jobs that I’ve started and not yet finished.

As for the temporary fastening, it’s another of my living life at 100 miles an hour “failings”. I worked out many years ago that if you pin things at 90 degrees from the line of stitching, the sewing machine will go right over them, so you can get away without tacking. I’m not sure if this is laziness or 100 miles an hour-ness…….