New sewing goodies...

First a huge thank you to those of you who took the time to comment and make me feel better about continuing with my blog. 

Thank you also for the birthday wishes.

I had a lovely evening... My son was working, but his girlfriend came round to have tea with us. My lovely hubby went to the chip shop because he doesn't think I should have to cook on my birthday. Not thrifty, I know, but it's one day... Oh but it will be two days because Ashley had to work yesterday, they are coming round this evening for an Indian takeaway ...not at all thrifty...oops! 

They bought me some lovely sewing goodies...

I can't wait to get started in my new sewing room. 

That's it for today, but a special thanks to my bloggy friends:

Mymoneysavingjourney

Loo

Frugal in Bucks

Lors

Jane

Kim

Shirley

I do really appreciate your support xxx

Mandy x

A day of sewing and decluttering.

Today I've been busy...

I've made 2 dog beds with a spare cover for each. I actually used my new sewing machine too! I was going to show you photos, but I can't seem to upload them :(

I have also been decluttering, this is what I've sorted:

• old duvet made into dog beds
• old sheet made into dog beds
• old blanket made into dog bed covers
• old duvet cover made into dog bed cover
• another old duvet made into dog bed cover
• 16 books boxed up for the Air Ambulance charity bag (bag came through the door today and is collected on Tuesday)
• 3 videos boxed up for the Air Ambulance charity
• fish slice (charity) I have 3 already
• maths GCSE CD ROM (charity) my children have left school!
• blue egg cup and cosy (charity) my son is nearly 23 so has outgrown it
• 2 x school rugby tops (charity) as above!
• 4 cuddly toys (charity)
• 2 x baby cardies (charity) unliked by my daughter
• 20 newborn size huggies nappies (charity) as above
• home magazine (given to my son's girlfriend)
• biscuit tin from Christmas (given to my son's girlfriend to store baking)

I also sorted my small freezer. I have meals in there where I did batch cooking, but I haven't labelled them! Tea tomorrow is either pot luck, or sausage and bacon pasta. I want to use up all the odds and ends and discover what batch cooking is lurking in there. I freeze these and leftovers in marg tubs.

A very productive day!

Something I brought into the house was a jar of homemade piccalilli, which I love with cheese. This was passed on via my son's girlfriend. Her nan gave us some lovely pickles at Christmas too - red cabbage, onions and plum and ginger chutney. She has also knitted loads of cute little things for Daisy-May - a kind and thoughtful lady.

Tomorrow I plan to continue with the big declutter and do some baking.

Mandy x



Clearing the clutter...

At long last, I have started the battle against my clutter!

My aim is to record what I have got rid of on my blog to keep me motivated to do more. My utility room is full of boxes and bags where I have sorted out all of my unwanted and not needed items. I have quite an issue with hoarding - I always think that things will come in handy one day! Sadly, it's just mess really.

For quite some time now, I have been collecting bits and bobs of ribbon, buttons, fabric etc, but haven't got round to using any of it. I never throw clothes or bedding away - the clothes get cut up into fabric pieces ( I want to start patchworking) and the buttons are removed and saved. The bedding has been saved because I want to teach myself how to quilt and these will come in handy (here I go again) for backing quilts.

I can easily convince myself that things are useful and therefore necessary clutter, so if I want to keep stuff, then I have to justify it. So, today I have started to make a dog bed. Both of the dogs in our house need new beds. Charlotte's dog Flo is very big now and it would cost her a fair bit to buy one. Jake's bed is old and tatty and he needs to be more comfortable in his old age. So far, I have made the inside of Jake's new bed. This afternoon, I will make the cover for it and Jake's will be finished. Hopefully I can start on Flo's bed tomorrow. A positive start to my declutter/use up what I have collected and stashed away. I will post photos when the beds are finished.

Before I start sewing again, I am going to list 10 books on ebay. Before Christmas, I sold quite a few bits on ebay, so now I need to really crack on with it to make space in my utility room. Eventually, I hope to use this room as my craft room too, but more space is needed. when I have more space, the house will be easier to clean and tidy.

Ebaying is also a big plan of mine because i want to build up my paypal account. Usually I use this to make ebay purchases for Daisy-May, but she now has far too many clothes and loads to grow in to. I can concentrate on other things, like stocking up the cupboards. Approved food accepts paypal, so I plan to sell my clutter to buy food!!! Food prices rising constantly is hard to bear, so my next challenge is to create a proper store (like I used have when I was working) of tins and packets. I won't just buy for the sake of it, but buy what I normally would (at a reduced price) when I see it available (and lots of it).

This year has not started well for us, but now's the time to get active and make things better.

Has anyone else started the big declutter???

Mandy x

My second draught excluder and the downstairs toilet!

Today I've had quite a lazy day - I been sewing for most of it!

I've finally made my second draught excluder

My lovely husband plastered our downstairs toilet today. We are doing our house up so that we can move away from this village we hate. At the moment we live close to the borders of Oxfordshire and Warwickshire, but actually in Northamptonshire. I grew up in Oxfordshire (Thame and Chinnor) but was born in Chalfont St Giles. I would love to go back to South Oxfordshire (we are close to Banbury which is North Oxfordshire), but my husband is self-employed and is known in this area. Obviously he doesn't want to travel too far everyday.

So Steve has been busy getting our house ready to go on the market (although there is a long way to go yet).

For tea we had homemade beefburgers and sweetcorn relish - it was yummy!

Sweetcorn relish

1 onion - finely chopped
1 stick celery - finely chopped
little olive oil
4 tbsp brown sugar
4 tbsp vinegar
black pepper
pasatta
2tsp cornflour - mixed to a paste with a little water
tin of sweetcorn

Method

• Gently fry the onion and celery in oil.
• Add the sugar, vinegar, pepper and 2 good squirts of pasatta.
• Simmer for 15 mins, adding more pasatta if necessary.
• Stir in the cornflour and add sweetcorn.
• Mix well and pour into serving dish.

This worked really well with my hamburgers -

• Put mince in a bowl, add shake of paprika, pinch of mixed herbs, pepper, parsley and chopped onion.
• Bind with a beaten egg and shape into burgers.
• I grilled mine for 5 mins each side and then finished them off in the oven while I made the relish.

It's time to bake again tomorrow. I need to make Ashley's birthday cake for Monday.

Mandy x

Sewing again...

Hi,

Today I've been busy doing housework and sewing. I had a seat pad for my rocking chair, but the fabric was quite dated. Well today it is covered in a lovely gingham check fabric:

Who knows what tomorrow brings???

Mandy xxx

I've been sewing!

I've just completed my first piece of sewing! I've made a sausage dog draught excluder. Sorry no photo yet because my old digital camera has given up on me now. I've got my fingers crossed for a new one for my birthday (on Monday) X

Alice came to see me this morning - she went to the doctor and her chest is still bad.

After I'd done a bit of sewing, I decided to bake a cake (again sorry no photo), a chocolate cake :-)

For tea, I made a beer batter and fried some fish. It was lovely.

Tomorrow I think I might sew some more - another sausage dog for another door.

See you tomorrow

Mandy x

My first attempt at sewing

Hi everyone,

Today I actually mended my son's work jeans! He said it didn't matter what they looked like, he just needed the tears in the knees sewn up. I had a go and I did it!!! Ok, it wasn't beautifully neat, but the holes have gone. Now I'm in the mood for more sewing. If it works, that's brilliant, if it doesn't, then I can always unpick it and try again.

Last week we decided to give Aldi a go and we were pleasantly surprised. We really went for the 'super six' (we bought - celery, sprouts, tomatoes and savoy cabbage), but we ended up buying a few other bits too.

This morning I filled a flask with spare boiled water from the kettle. This is a tip I picked up from Frugal Queen. I read lots of blogs, looking for new frugal ideas. I really need to keep on cutting back. I also read what the 'oldstylers' have to say on moneysavingexpert.com. I have been getting ideas off here for some time now, the posters on there are fantastic at money saving and really inspirational.

I have continued to cook from scratch since my last post. Tonight we had roast duck, roasties, stuffing balls, savoy cabbage, sprouts, carrots and homemade gravy for tea. I have changed to Monday's for a roast, because this is when Alice comes to eat with us. She has had bronchitus and has not been looked after very well by the familly she has chosen to live with. I have persuaded her to have tea with us, stay the night, and then she sees her Social Worker/Counsellor the following morning. Tonight is the first, so hopefully it will continue. At least I can check she is ok and get some veg down her. Alice recently had a bowel infection which landed her in hospital in severe pain. This pain has returned tonight. Poor diet and hygiene was the cause of this before. She is fed rubbish and their shower is broken, hence the pain is back. This is the sort of family that would spend their last fiver on fags, rather than food or electric. This is the family Alice now lives with - she's 16, this is why my headaches are so bad. On the positive side, she has had a roast dinner, tablets for her pain, a warm house and a clean fresh bed to get into. It's a shame that it's only one night a week.

Mandy x