Making money... or not!

I haven't posted in ages... Elizabeth is now 5 months old. She was christened on 18th March and we had everyone back to our house afterwards. We were worn out, but it was a lovely day. Elizabeth is now almost sitting. We borrowed a Bumbo sitter and she is doing really well sitting in that. We've had some ups and downs with sleeping. She was doing really well, the went through a really bad phase of waking up every two or three hours during the night and feeding. The last couple of days she has slept through though. She tends to feed in 10 minutes flat now. She can easily hold toys in her hands, and loves playing. She went in her pushchair (facing forwards) for the first time the other day - in fact, with all the nice weather we've been having she has been out in it a few times this week. Our new stroller arrived today in readiness for our holiday in Devon (well, I say new... second hand on E-bay).

One of the reasons why I haven't posted so much is that a lot of my focus has been on making money. I used Birthday money back in March to buy a sewing machine, then borrowed a 'vintage bags' book from the library and have been making small tote bags and little purses. I've sold a couple, but nothing major. We have had some success selling other stuff on E-bay though. We've made over £400 so we're nearly at our holiday target of £470. I sold a dress, hair curling tongs, Formula 1 caps, that kind of stuff. It takes ages to list things, and to enter all the fees and details into my spreadsheet, then there is the packaging and taking everything to the post office to send.

Husband had a week off around Easter (well, the week after Easter) and we did a car boot sale and made £60. That went towards the holiday fund of course. We also discovered a wasp nest in the loft, and that cost £30 to rectify!!! We went out for our first meal last Saturday (28th April) - first time since 18th November... can't do it again though, there's no way we have enough money.

I've made my application to work part-time now. I've asked to work one day a week as of September but there is no way they are going to agree to it. I had a flurry of discussions with the Union, and have now got a meeting arranged for next Wednesday. The decision is fairly clear-cut for me. If they won't allow one day a week then I'm resigning. Husband is going to apply to compress his hours into four days, and he will look after Elizabeth on the fifth. Otherwise not sure what we are going to do. These last few days I've been investigating freelance writing (can't find a way to make money out of that), childminding (£3 per hour!!!) and various other ideas...

I've just made Elizabeth a taggie comforter and feel quite pleased with myself. She's taken it into her cot and is asleep at the moment. Dad came around yesterday and planted some pots in the garden... all is well, if quiet!