Pension day!

 

When I was growing up you had to go to the Post Office with your pension book (or Family Allowance book) every week to collect your pension in cash.  Where I lived it was a Thursday and there would be a queue of OAPs (including my Gran) standing outside before 9am waiting for it to open.  Then they'd take that hard cash and go to the Co op supermarket, butcher and greengrocer to get their weekly supplies.  My Gran would famously visit every shop to get the best price on everything.  She never bought everything in one place.

All this to say I got my first pension payment this morning.  Electronically paid into my online account and I was notified by text.  I did have a mild panic when the text said a much smaller amount than I was expecting.  But I get 3 separate payments from the 3 different schemes that I paid into over 35 years 🙄 so I only got 1 text instead of 3.  I checked my account and it's all there! Phew!!  Grand total of £729.14 a month.  It doesn't cover all my expenses (car payments/car insurance/council tax) so I'm relying on my savings to pay those until I sell the house and pay off the car next year.  But reality has now set in! 😱

My dear Gin Queen friend was 60 last week so I splurged and got her a very special gin that has her name on it!  I hope it's a good one!! 🍸 From now on presents will be small and hopefully hand made.  

And my last internet spend for a while (possibly ever!!) was some sock yarn!  I like to have socks on the needles as a pick up and drop activity for Winter.  Someone will get a pair for Christmas and there will be some lovely new colours to add to my leftover sock yarn blanket.

Thank you so much for the good wishes for my Lovely Mum.  I spoke to her last night and she's doing well.  She might get home tomorrow (Saturday) and I'll hopefully be able to go visit her soon 😊

Inspiration

I had to go to Glasgow today.  I rarely go there and definitely not by choice.  But I had to renew my passport in person as I discovered that it was out of date and I need it to go to Ireland next week! I had time to kill while waiting so spent some time in John Lewis (a couple of hours actually!!)  I like looking at all their latest design ideas in home furnishings.  They have a fab selection of home decor fabrics, curtains, cushions, furniture, lamps, bedding etc etc.  Some of it is very expensive but I like looking for ideas and inspiration.  I spotted these cushions.

They're hand stitched (probably in a far off country for a pittance) using just French knots.  Very tactile and very effective.  Sheep one here (it's half price) and seagull one here

Then I spotted this lovely mini trees one in all shades of green.  I immediately thought it would look lovely in different shades of purple for my bedroom.

And then I spotted one up high on a shelf in purples :-) The one on the left is all blues.  Love this design and will definitely be trying out something similar on a cushion for my bed.

I went to the haberdashery section to try to find purple embroidery thread to match my new headboard (I had a fabric sample with me) but had no luck.  However after much searching I did find some knitting yarn in the exact shade!  No idea what I'm going to do yet but I'm inspired to make something unique (and cheap!!) to go in my revamped bedroom :-)

Hot Water Bottle

When it's cold I love to snuggle up in bed with my hot water bottle.  I've never liked an electric blanket (The Teenager loves his!!) even though they only cost pennies to run. I recently bought a few new bottles for Christmas presents but they didn't come with covers.  So today I finally dug out some felted tartan and quickly made a cover.  This is the first crafting I've done since school went back in August!  I really enjoyed it. It's not perfect but it's just for me. I'll road test it tonight to see how it performs before I go into production!

A cautionary tale.  Please please never buy a cheap hot water bottle that doesn't have the BS kite mark (or whatever legal safety mark your part of the world uses) and never over fill it.  And regularly check the rubber to see if it's perished. Earlier this year, OH's son had a very serious accident when a filled bottle exploded at the side seam and gave him very serious burns.  His arm, chest, back and cheek took months to heal but luckily he didn't need skin grafts. 

It gave us a huge fright at the time so now we're extra careful using them.

Being creative

 

This really sums me up.  I've been so busy with the practical stuff for the last 4 weeks (yes, I moved house 4 weeks ago today!!) that I've had no time to be creative.  And I've really missed it.  So much that I actually bought pink and cream yarn to make a throw for my living room instead of trying to find my yarn stash.

 

It doesn't look very pink in the pic but in real life it's a soft vintage shade.  I've also made some curtains for the Teenager's bedroom as the venetian blinds were letting in light.  They were free (my favourite price!) as I found a bag of stuff from middle son's old flat.  They're just Ikea basic ones but I doubled them so they're lined.  Should also keep the heat in and light out.

And I won some Harris Tweed oddments on eBay.  I have some new ideas for The Tartan Tower so look out for a relaunch very soon :-)

I can't believe September has been and gone.  In a few weeks the clocks will go back and winter will be well on the way.  And then I'll need to think about the C word!!

Wedding outfit for under £10

My camera died on the day (boo!!) so sadly didn't get any pics of the wedding.  But here's how I looked on the day thanks to the Teenager taking some of me at home.

 

A chance remark lead to my lovely neighbour lending me her black fascinator.  I loved wearing it but it was rather windy on Stornoway on Saturday (ferry was very late due to bad weather leaving us just 20 mins to get ready for the church) so I was scared it would blow away!

My hair was lovely and curly on the day and I was wearing delicate silky neutral stockings (just bare legs and a wash n leave it style in these pics!)

I added some ribbon bows and 'adapted' a pair of silver earrings to jazz up my shoes.  I just LOVE my glue gun ;-)

I bought some flowers at the supermarket and made my own corsage with the help of a you tube video.

So total costs as follows:

Dress £7 on Ebay
Shoes, bag, stockings, jewellery and shawl I already had so recycled and free
Fascinator borrowed so free
Flowers £3 for bunch but only used 3 roses and sprig of baby's breath

Once upon a different lifetime I would have gone out and bought a whole new outfit from scratch. Probably something I'd never wear again!  I'll be wearing this dress throughout the winter with thick tights, boots and a cardigan. But to be honest I felt a million dollars in my £10 DIY outfit and there was definitely no one else wearing the same thing :-)

Lilac heart jacket

Middle son who now lives in Vienna was home briefly for a holiday.  He had left a lot of stuff behind last year so was sorting what he didn't want/need any more.

This is a white cotton jacket about 4 years old.  It was bit grubby so I washed it then chucked it back in the machine with a packet of French Lavender dye.  It came out a pretty lilac colour.

It was nice but a bit boring.  So I went to my quilting fabric stash and cut out some triangles and used some iron on sticky stuff (loads of brands are available but can't remember which one this is as I've had it a while)

I arranged them in a heart shape on the back of the jacket, inspired by a patchwork pic I'd saved from the net ages ago.

A little pinning and ironing took place, followed by a lot of machine stitching.  That took forever as I had to unpick one side of the lining to get access to make the back lie flat for stitching.  Each wee triangle (19 of them!!) was a bugger to stitch.  And all those thread ends.......

But I'm happy with result.  The zips are nylon so remained white but they're a nice feature against the lilac colour.

And the heart turned out great!  My triangles moved a little during stitching so the final placement is a bit 'neater' than my original plan.

So for a day's work I have a new jacket that didn't cost me any money. I might put it on Etsy to sell.

Sorbetto and other free clothes

Inspired by The Great British Sewing Bee I finally got my act together and started stitching again.  Blogland is full of lovely sewing blogs and websites and I've spent a few months procrastinating, collecting stuff and planning on how to expand my wardrobe without spending a lot of cash.  My annual budget is just £120.  So far so good.

 

So, the Sorbetto is a free downloadable pattern from Colette. www.colettepatterns.com Very popular in blogland and had great reviews so I duly downloaded it and made this from a remnant piece of fabric!

 

It's far from perfect but I love it!  In fact I finished stitching it this morning and am now wearing it :-)

I wanted the finish to be of a high standard so I dredged up memories of Home Economics at school (think I'm the last generation where girls were taught sewing and cooking and boys were taught woodwork!!) and did French seams. I thought a contrast bias binding would look good but in retrospect I don't like it.  I made bias binding for the arm holes and did bound seams (kinda by accident as I stitched the bias binding on the right side by mistake!!)

 

I think it looks good from the inside too :-)

 

I need to wait for the teenager to come home and take a decent pic of me wearing it but hope this one shows what it looks like on me.  Next time I'll make it longer (I have a long body!!) and take it in an inch on both sides under the arms as it gaps a little.  It fits nicely across my back.

This is my next project. My mum was having a clear out of her wardrobe so I acquired several black bags of clothes.  This flimsy flowery dress from Asda does nothing for me so I'm going to alter it into a tunic length top.

This is a lovely lined dress. It's got a Target label and cost $49.99.  Mum doesn't remember buying it or how she came to have it!! It's 2 sizes too big for me so I'm going to take it in.

So from the above I'll have 2 tops and a dress and it hasn't cost me a penny!

The Great British Sewing Bee

Anyone else hooked by the BBC programme The Great British Sewing Bee?  It's being tipped to revive the home sewing movement in much the same way as The Great British Bake Off has revived baking.  So far 2 episodes have aired (available on BBC iplayer) with 2 to go. 

I had already noticed a revival in sewing with the success of magazines like Cloth, Sew (my current favourite) and Mollie Makes.  I'd also noticed a rise in workshops and classes teaching people to sew.  I even attended one myself (corset making) in February.  It completely revitalised my enthusiasm for dressmaking.  I've always made home furnishings but rarely attempted clothes for myself.  I grew up wearing handmade clothes so maybe I've avoided it for that reason!

I'm currently in the process of making a corset for myself, one for my friend and a kimono style dressing gown for myself.  I've also got plans to make a summer dress and a skirt.  All from fabric acquired from various places, no money involved.

A quick look round blog land unearthed some great sewing blogs.  Looks like the GBSB has tapped into an already growing movement!

Finished!!

Finally my craft room/gym is finished.  And I'm thrilled to say the total cost of the makeover was less than £15!!  Everything has been re used, re purposed, donated and 'bought' with nectar points.

 

The gym end of the room still has a mirror to put up but I'm going to use the big wall one from my bathroom when I decorate it. Hopefully that will be soon although it is a bigger project involving plasterboard, tiles and creating a shower.  Gulp!!

The sewing room end :-)  The cupboards are still full of DS's stuff but that will be cleared out soon and I can move ALL my supplies into one place.  I made some bunting from leftover Amy Butler fabric pieces and a ribbon from a recent parcel. 

The chair isn't the comfiest to sit on so it needed a cushion.  I made a pad from several layers of wadding and used some of the curtain lining fabric to make one.  It's tied on with 2 long strips of the AB fabric.

The circle mirrors were donated by my mum who bought them on impulse then didn't know what to do with them.  I've had them for ages and didn't know what to do with them either!  Until yesterday.

This wee bookcase will never be as tidy again!!!  This is before I move the rest of my supplies from the kitchen.  Once I find my picture hooks I'll hang up the picture that says 'Creative people are rarely tidy' LOL!!

You can't see them in the photos but I needed 2 light shades to replace the orange ones.  I was racking my brains and searching YouTube to find thrifty ways to re do them.  But then I spotted some cream coolie shades in Sainsbury's at £6.  I had enough nectar points to buy 2. So free light shades!

And this is the bag that started it all.  Even though I'll only have a dedicated craft room until the house is sold I'm going to enjoy having my own creative space.  Hopefully a potential buyer will see that the room is a good space for an office/gym/bedroom/craftroom etc

Nearly there....

The yucky orange wardrobes and skirting took 3 coats of cream paint!!!  But they do look fab now so it was worth the effort.

My mum found some unused curtain linings in her cupboard in a cream colour so I've used these instead to make curtains.  They were very long so I chopped them in half, stitched them together, added a broad border in Amy Butler fabric and re used the curtain tape from the old curtains.  I've finished one so just the other one to finish by tomorrow.  I used an old bookcase hidden away in a cupboard and found a fold up chair in the garage.  Both Ikea products.  The room is nearly ready for the big reveal :-)

Found this bag of frozen veg in the supermarket last week.  Normally £1.49 for 700g but it was a 2 for £2.50 deal!  It's a finely chopped mix of carrots, onions and celery.  I tested them last night in my Split Pea and Lentil soup.

It would have taken me ages to prep this by hand.  I slow cooked it overnight in the crockpot. It smells lovely. I'll report back on how it tastes after I've had it for my lunch!

I added up my monthly food and petrol totals for February (see sidebar) Oh dear!!  Must try harder this month.....

Before........

I love makeovers especially when you compare the before and after shots. I especially love ones that don't cost a small fortune where people have re used what they already have.  Consistent feedback from viewers says my house needs updating.  I agree but I just don't have the funds.  But I have some crafty ideas ;-)

 

My house has a one bedroomed annexe.  My oldest son lived in it before he moved out.  I recently painted the living area white and bought really cheap white cottony curtains from Ikea.  There are 4 windows in that one room!  So I needed a lot of curtain fabric that didn't cost much.  I think in total it was £35.  There was a lot of fabric leftover as some of the windows were small.  I added it to my stash :-)

 

This is the annexe bedroom upstairs.  Now a dumping ground for my laundry, tartan stuff and my middle son's belongings that he didn't take to Vienna. The walls have been painted cream (cos I had lots of leftover tins in the garage) but I've still to paint the orange (yes, it's really orange!!) woodwork.  I still have white satinwood paint left. The carpet is a strange shade of green.  It's a good quality one so I'm not changing it (mainly due to cost) so I'm stuck with it.  Note the handmade pink and green bag to the left of my bike.  The green in it matches the carpet!! 

So I'm thinking of making some curtains from the leftover curtain fabric and some of that pink/green fabric to replace these orangey ones.

It's an Amy Butler fabric.  I've just ordered 2 metres at a cost of £14.80.  My plan is to make plain white curtains with a bold broad stripe around the edges.

I already have white satinwood paint, white curtain fabric pieces and a couple of old picture frames.  My plan is to turn that room into my workroom!

You've seen the before pictures, now watch out for the after in a few weeks :-)

Happy Valentine's Day

I haven't made a card for ages but dug out my supplies to make one for my OH.  I really do have a lot of craft stuff!!! I spent a happy hour sorting through boxes of inks, stamps and toppers.  No cost as I had everything. Hope he likes it. With a little bit of work I could save a lot of money by making cards again.  They seem to have shot up in price.  I saw a card of similar size in the shop selling for £3.99!!

I also baked him a cake.  He has a very sweet tooth!  It's a lemon drizzle cake baked in 2 wee heart shaped tins. I used my bargain eggs and lemons ;-)  I sandwiched it together with my home made apricot jam and drizzled the lemony syrup over it.  I also made some heart shaped cupcakes from the mixture for my other sweet toothed guy.

I saw an idea where you put a marble in the tin to create a kinda heart shape.  I used some baking beans.  They came out ok ish.  The hungry Teen won't mind what they look like!!

Approved

This wee lavender heart was my first handmade gift of the year.  It was for OH's mum who gave it a big seal of approval! Very pleased that I've started my handmade gift giving with a positive response.  It's my nephew's 19th birthday next week and I have to confess I'm stumped for a handmade gift for him that meets his approval.

I need to do a big supermarket shop today or tomorrow so am working on a weekly meal plan.  I used to do this when there were 5 of us and there was lots of coming and going with after school activities and evening events.  Then it was to make my life easier but now it's all about saving money.

I forgot to post that the 'cost' of my Christmas dinner was just over £42 :-) Well within my points value.  And there was enough leftovers to last several days.  I've even got some of them in the freezer for future use.  This convinced me that with careful planning I can do this on a regular basis.

Last night I placed my first order with Approved Foods (AF) They sell discounted food online.  It's usually out of date, short date or just surplus end of lines.  I've been looking at them for ages and was registered but since I rarely buy packaged foods I didn't place an order.  Until I saw they had sports powder at £2.99 for a 1.170kg tub!  It's normally £18.99!!! I got 4 so I'm hoping this will last the teenager all year and save me a small fortune buying sports drinks.  I'll work out the numbers when it arrives.

One day into the new year and I've made a good start :-)

It's beginning.....

.....to look a lot like Christmas! :-)  I was feeling very Christmassy yesterday when I found my box of cookie cutters so I knocked up a batch.  They're just flour, sugar, butter and golden syrup.  So easy to make and taste yummy!

 

I might make some gingerbread ones next week.  I'd love to hang some from my tree but I suspect the dogs would be too tempted!!

I bottled my blackcurrant vodka yesterday (see my snow out the window?)  The blackcurrants were from my mum's garden (I had hardly any this year) and had been lurking in the freezer before I added them to vodka and sugar.  They've been steeping quietly in a cupboard for a month.

I also have a bottle of toffee vodka on the go as well but I'm not happy with it yet.  Think I'll need to add more toffees to it to get the desired consistency.

I like to make up gift baskets containing jams, chutney and a wee bottle of something alcoholic for family and friends.  Easy, inexpensive and always appreciated by the recipients

Busy is good, right?

Oh my, it's December already.  I am so busy with stuff right now I don't know if I'm coming or going.  The Christmas fair season is upon us and I have orders to fill, I've had my first commission (6 tree decorations in a specific tartan) and am desperately trying to get my website photo gallery sorted out  Not helped by my camera getting smashed as it went through airport security.  Hey ho.

 

I have managed to fit in a quick trip to Vienna.  Sadly no photos but we had a lovely time visiting my middle son who lives there and seeing the gorgeous Christmas markets.  Lots and lots of lovely inspiring ideas.

 

Next batch of brooches for the shop in Crieff

Present I took for my son :-)

Last night it snowed here.  Just a little but enough to make me realise I need to get myself more organised for the big freeze they're predicting.  A couple of years ago I had so much snow I couldn't get my car up the wee lane to my house for 7 weeks.  It snowed, then froze. Then snowed again and froze.  For several weeks.  It's going to be that bad again apparently so I need to make sure I have plenty of food and supplies.  We also lost the electricty for several dyas as the snow brought down the power lines.   Since I'm so rural I'm at the end of the lines so am always last to get reconnected.

Despite the cons of living here, the pros are good enough to make it worthwhile though :-)