Waste not want not

What can you do when you have a fruit bowl full of wilting fruit?

With the help of your beautiful daughter and her peeling skills



You can make a juice.



Yummmmmmm, and sooooooo healthy.

I'll beat the supermarkets...the veggie plot saga

Who else is going gaga at the prices of food nowadays? A year ago I could do a weeks shopping for 50 pound a week, these days with the recession and all that I am usually hitting 100 a week. So enough is enough i thought "I'll grow my own and become self-sufficient." Its not only about saving a bit of money though, I actually get a great deal of satistfaction from growing stuff. I get sooo excited when the shoots actually appear through the soil, and the kids share this excitement too. So anyhoo, I have a plot of earth at the front of the garden, so its been weeded, sieved, my hubby put a wood surround round it and we filled it with compost. There is a drain in the middle so we cordoned that off and are using it for pots and bags, etc.


So heres a photo of it after it was built




and here it is after filling with compost and after adding the courgettes and corn that I had growing in pots on my windowsill in my kitchen. With the make shift cloches due to the cold weather of course.

OOh infact heres a picture of the courgettes and corn taking off...I have peas, carrots, lettuce, beetroot and carrots all growing on the window sill at the moment.

Oh and look what I bought from wilkinsons...my fruit I have to plant down the other end of the garden, i already have blackberries so want to add the rhubarb and raspberries, and hopefully strawberries, plums and pears, perhaps, a crab apple tree as well maybes if I have room!



Oh and of course I have been doing a lot of reading up on the internet but i also found a great allotment book in the charity shop for the grand price of 1.50. I love a bargain x

getting organised...slowly but surely

So i have this space in my kitchen where i decided to have a little organisation centre going on.



I wanted to have a weeks menus up, a cleaning rota, a pin board and a calender.
What I did:
1. I found an old picture frame with a glass front. I used one of my fave scrapbook papers to jazz up the frame and i did a cleaning rota and a weeks menu plan behind the glass so that I could use a wipeable pen to change the menu plan for the week and tick off the boxes on the housework plan, etc;
2. I bought a 50p calender from wilkinsons
3. I also bought a cheap cork and wipeable board, anything i need to deal with can be pinned to the cork board. Messages or things i need to buy can go on the wipeable board.



And the end result is...





I am slowly becoming more organised. I await the day when someone comments on how organised I am...its one of my ambitions in life to have people say that about me...i have a bit of work to do first though, I think (Ha Ha a lot of work).

It starts with one...

Today my motto is one person can make a difference...someone on facebook shared this video with me...i watched, i shared it. Then i googled kony, i signed kony2012's pledge and am sharing this on my blog now. We live in a new world now, facebook and the power of social media is amazing...and it all starts with one person, one click, so please watch this video and then share it. Just imagine if it was your child kidnapped, maimed, killed...if it happened in our country, actually scratch that this just wouldn't happen in our country. Lets help change the world, click by click, piece by piece xxx

KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

Charity shop shopping

Everyone out there, i cannot stress enough how great charity shops are. If u don't like the thought of buying clothes how about looking at the other nik naks you can get. Books, homeware, dvds, games.

This week I found junior cluedo and disney trivial pursuit dvd and board game. They were only a pound each, all intact and in great condition. We spent half the afternoon playing disney with the kids so a pound well spent me thinks. I can see dd wanting to play this a lot too.

Set yourself a challenge perhaps to find something you need but just can't afford to pay full price for. Maybe you could try to fimd something to help with a current project. Whatever it is you will save a fortune, just got to keep your eyes peeled.

Just wait til car boot season starts as well.....:D

I love felt

I love working with felt, i find it easy to work with and always turns out so well. I've been making things i've seen on pinterest so here's a couple of pictures.

Tooth fairy pillow, the tooth is a pouch where you put the tooth then replace it with money...I love the smily face on the tooth.


These are felt fractions I did for my daughter. These are fab as they are a tactile and fun way for her to learn and remember fractions.


This owl is an ipod cover i made for my niece. I've since made a monster face, a penguin, a bear and am working on a jack skellington one for hubbys bday next month

A little bit of blogging and setting the world to rights.

I have promised to blog more often. I like blogging even though i'm pretty sure only two people are reading this. I feel like a weight is lifted when i've recorded my thoughts and goals here. Its a place to set myself right and to plan how i'm going to move forward.

Frugalness is on the cards today:

I just can't believe the cost of food right now. I made a menu plan last week and went shopping at asda, did about a weeks shopping including a few treats for the kids and a bkx of nappies and it came to £110 and that was 'after' putting a few things back. I feel lately like setting a budget is useless as there is no way i can stick to it just because the prices of stuff. This recession has a lot to answer for.

However, i will try and cut down cost of meals somehow. www.moneysavingexpert.co.uk forums have a lot of good ideas. I normally just use them for cheap meal ideas but i think i should visit the site and keep an eye on the groceries boards, the ones that tell you when certain supermarkets have stuff on offer. I asked some girl friends last week what cheap meals they all cook...didn't realise how big a laugh that would turn into...one lovely lady does hot dogs and baked beans mixed into pasta...my sis in law nearly split her seams laughing at that one, hence i don't think she fancied it...what can i say - different strokes for different folks (hee hee)

We've had the birth of a new cousin this weekend and there are loads more babies due so i need to work on sewing some gifts to save some money. I have all the supplies to make a rag quilt and i found a tutorial on pinterest. Just need some batting and some time to sit at the sewing machine to see if i can still use it.

My next post will be some stuff i've made lately. I promise xxx