A Slow Week

It's been a bit of a slow week here. Since visiting the dentist on Tuesday for my last session off treatment, I came down with a cold and haven't been feeling so great.  As a consequence, the spring cleaning got put on hold for the week.  It was all I could do to just keep on top of the washing, ironing, dog walking and other day to day domestic tasks.

All I've managed this week, aside from the above tasks, is to send off a birthday gift and some cards and sit and do a bit of patchwork each night, so at least that is coming along nicely and I've hopefully not offended anyone by forgetting their birthday.

I have also managed to blag some more free Ideal Home Show tickets for the March show at Olympia here in London, and find us some decent and well priced holiday accommodation in Tenerife over Easter.

We are staying with OH's sister and her husband for a week, mainly so OH can do some serious cycling training before an event he is taking part in, in France in April, but also for a much needed spring break in the sunshine.

Saturday night, LB was staying over at a friend's house for a Birthday sleepover, but as I was still not feeling 100%, we decided not to have a grown up night out and instead had a quiet night at home, watching several back to back episodes of The Killing on DVD. I've got over my initial unease with regard to this programme and am now quite enjoying the first series.  With the wind raging outside, it was definitely a good decision.

I'm hoping that in the coming week I'll start feeling a lot better and I will resume being a bit more productive.

Quilting Update (2)

Since posting about my unfinished quilting projects the other week, I have made quite a bit of progress on the Christmas quilt. In fact, I've finished it.

Due to my tendency to procrastinate when I've got something important to do (that darned tax return again!), I knuckled down and finished this project.  It's not perfect and there are a few puckers here and there, but I'm happy enough with it.

As it is only for our own personal use whilst watching TV, I'm not too worried about it being too polished. I enjoy the fact it looks hand made and that you can see that time and love has been put into it.

As you can see from the above photo, quite a bit of work has gone into hand piecing each of the large diamonds together from smaller diamonds.

This project has definitely been a good exercise in making something from seemingly unusable scraps of fabric.  From this point of view, it is an interesting example of what you can actually make from really quite small offcuts, that might otherwise just get thrown away.

Here's the quilted quilt as it is now.  The binding (pinned on here) has subsequently been sewn on by hand and I am finally able to use it at last.

I'm now concentrating on another project that I forgot to mention in my previous post, another small scrap quilting project that I started a year or so ago, namely my tiny hexy quilt project.

Once again, this was a project where I wanted to use up some small fabric scraps rather than throw them away. I love the effect of sewing the tiny hexies together, they are just so cute.

I'm not sure at this stage what I'm actually making this into, I'm thinking perhaps a bed/table runner, as I don't want to make it too big, due to the fact that there is an awful lot of work involved in making it into a large project.  It is gradually growing in size, as I've taken to doing a bit of work on it recently, whilst watching TV.

It's a bit random in it's design, but the process is quite therapeutic. Here's a picture of where I'm at with it at the moment. I left the coaster in the picture so you could get an idea of it's actual size.  You can see that there is lots more to do to make it into anything usable.

I'll post again when I've made significant progress.

Curtailing and Curating Collections

This Wednesday, I decided to do a bit of re-organising in the sewing room. With our new bed due any week, I wanted to clear as much room as possible for when we move our double bed back in here.

The main thing I needed to do was to swap over some fabrics from one small ottoman storage chest to a slightly narrower one from our room, so that I could move it to another position in the room, thus making space for the larger bed.

Fortunately, the swap went to plan and everything fitted in the respective chests.  I swapped them over and found a new spot for each. I then decided to tidy some fabrics away, that I'd got out to use for Furoshiki, or present wrapping with fabric, and also sort out some scraps I needed for a quilt project I'm working on.

I'd been thinking about minimising my vintage linen collection for a while, so I decided to go ahead and do this at the same time and see if there were any items I was happy to part with.

Most of this collection will be kept under the double bed when it is moved in here, and I'm currently of the mindset that the fewer I keep the better.  I sifted through the two storage boxes and the under bed storage bag that house them and assessed almost every item as to whether I wanted to keep it.

Quite a lot got put onto the donation pile, I think probably about 40-50 items, some of them were a little stained, some I will never use and some I just wasn't too keen on and were just not to my taste any more.

The whole collection didn't really cost me very much, as many of the pieces were bought from jumble sales or car boot sales for pence, so I didn't feel too bad letting some of it go.  In any case, the items were just sitting in boxes not being used, so it's got to be better to let them go and let someone else make use of them.

Having  said this, I did still keep a lot.  The under bed storage bag is still full of sheets and pillow cases, although not quite as bursting at the seams as it was.

My table linens were reduced to half a small box, that I managed to fit on the shelves, and the under bed storage box contains a very pretty vintage single eiderdown and a couple of pillow cases. These could be used if anyone sleeps on the sofa at some point.

Although I loved collecting these things, there comes a time when you realise that a collection is not really serving any useful purpose. I could try to sell them on eBay, but I just don't want the hassle, so they're going to the charity shop.

Thankfully, I'm currently out of the habit of collecting things, which is good news from a decluttering point of view and I really don't want to get back into the habit any time soon. So, it was quite a satisfying day, feeling able to part with yet more belongings with no regrets and the room is now ready to accommodate the bed when our new one arrives.

Poundland Splurge

Despite my post the other day, in which I talked about keeping a lid on spending this month, I do have a bit of an admission to make.  I have had a bit of a splurge in Poundland recently and I managed to spend £20 in total.

I was quite surprised when I got to the till, that I'd spent quite so much, but I hadn't been in the store for a few weeks and there were a few new lines that I just couldn't resist.

A few of the things I bought were small gifts for Valentine's Day. I'm sticking to small, practical or consumable items when it comes to Valentines gifts.  Not very romantic, but at least not wasteful.

Firstly, I bought a couple of cards. Call me stingy, but I'm not big into spending large sums on cards that generally get tossed after the day in question, and I find the selection in Poundland to be pretty good.  You do have to be a bit selective, but it is pretty easy to find decent cards to send for most occasions there.

I also saw this pretty heart-shaped acrylic make-up storage solution for LB.  She's looking for storage solutions for her bedroom at the moment, so when I saw this I thought it would be perfect for her.

(I also bought an acrylic nail varnish storage container for me too, as these cost at least £5 anywhere else, so this was a complete bargain.  I don't have many nail polishes either, so the size is perfect)

Another small gift I bought for LB were these photograph corners.

I bought her some for her birthday too in a different design.  They are great for photo albums, scrap booking, journals and planners and they have a few designs to choose from.  You get two sheets of 24 per pack.  I've bought some for myself in the past too, as I'm intending to sort out my photographs at some point and will use them for this.

The dog didn't get ignored in terms of Valentine's gifts.  She got a pack of these heart-shaped treats, which she likes.  I will probably buy her a ball she likes from the local pet shop.  (She had one and loved it, but lost it on a walk)

Finally, on a Valentine's theme, I bought this lovely heart decorated string to decorate parcels.  It's really sweet and could potentially be re-used year after year.  I've already got lots of wrapping paper I can use, so I'm virtually sorted now.

I also bought a few food items in my haul and some more necessary toiletries, as well as  a couple more storage solutions for LB, which I'm hoping she will like, namely these small, but very sturdy white plastic baskets.

I bought a grey one for myself for undersink cupboard organisation. I've already put it to use, to hold those smaller items that usually fall between other larger items or get lost at the back of the cupboard. I may go back for a couple more for using in my food cupboards, for packet mixes and similar items.

A bit of a splurge, but definitely on items I think were worth buying. I really do enjoy shopping in our local Poundland, as if you look very carefully, you can find some really good quality items in there that can really do the job you need them to do.

Does anyone else enjoy shopping here?

Just When You Think You've Done All You Can....

On Sunday morning, LB and I headed out with the dog early, so we could get to the gym on time for my class. At the start of the walk, we came across this, sat on the wall outside someone's house.

I assumed it had been left for anyone to take, as it is a regular sight locally, to see things left outside the front of houses, that people no longer want.

As you can see from the photographs, it was in very good condition, almost like new.  Just a bit of dust and dirt here and there, nothing that wouldn't wipe off with a wet cloth.

As it was raining and we wouldn't be passing that way later, I took it with me and continued on the dog walk. I got a few strange looks carrying it around, but I don't let that worry me too much.

When I got it home, I cleaned it up a little and decided I'd use it to replace the beaten up metal suspension file, that I keep various odds and ends of paperwork in. I've wanted to replace it for a while, but didn't want to spend the £20 or more it costs for a new one.

Only a few weeks prior, in the lead up to Christmas, I had gone through the old file, sorted/labelled all the paperwork and thought I'd got it down to as little as possible. However, when it came to transferring everything over to the new file, there was quite a bit too much to put in it, without making it bulge somewhat. As I thought this was likely to prevent it lasting a reasonable amount of time, I decided to have another good sort through of my paperwork and try to remove any more unnecessary documentation.

Well, it's surprising how much more you can make yourself throw away when you need to.  I managed to recycle a whole pile of paper, shred quite a bit more and got it down to far less than I thought possible. Happily, everything now fits comfortably in the new concertina file, which is incidentally a lot lighter and easier to carry around the house, should I need to and it forced me do some unexpected decluttering to boot.  Result.

Talking of paper decluttering, Courtney Carver posted an interesting blog post yesterday on just this subject.  Here's the link.

Thank Goodness It's February

Whilst not wanting to wish my life away, I must say that I'm super happy that we're now in the month of February.  January for me is always one of my least favourite months of the year.  I love the build up to Christmas and January never quite supplies as much excitement as the preceding month, so I struggle my way through it generally.

In addition, it's a month that incurs quite a bit of expense in our household, particularly as it's LB's birthday halfway through the month, the sales are always a big temptation and tax returns are due at the end of the month (although I don't usually owe any tax!).

Today, I've just had my last dental treatment (two fillings), which has exacerbated my current financial situation and is by far my biggest expense this month.  I have to say that I'm very happy not to have to see the dentist for another six months now.  I'm sure the feeling is mutual. I don't regret having had to pay for the treatment, because I feel so much better just knowing that I am up to date on my dental care, but it did come at an already expensive time of year.

When I get through to February, things do usually start to ease up a little and there starts to be a bit of room in the budget for a few treats or to start saving some money.  I'm not sure that this is going to be the case this February, but probably by March I'll be starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

As a consequence, I'm keeping a bit of a lid on spending this month, especially on anything other than essentials. Luckily, there's very little that I find myself pining for.  I'm going to keep on getting stuck into some more patchwork, reading, gardening (weather allowing), spring cleaning and decluttering and keep right out of the shops, for as much of the month as I possibly can.  Another month of these activities and I should get the house a lot more ship shape. It does help that it is a short(ish) month too, although it is a leap year this year, so February is slightly longer than usual.

Aside from the dental treatment, I have one birthday present (which has already been bought) to post off to the recipient, then possibly a small gift to buy for LB and OH for Valentine's Day and these are the only essential expenses this month. I do also need to re-heel LB's school shoes and possibly get her a haircut, but everything else can and may well have to wait until March.

I did a pretty huge shop yesterday, and placed an order with Ethical Superstore, who had another 20% off offer.  I was able to stock up on dental floss, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, bicarbonate of soda, citric acid and also splashed out on a 5 litre bottle of laundry liquid to keep me going for the next few months. All of these items were bought for less than I would normally have to pay for them, so I was very happy about this. I have now bulk bought laundry liquid, washing up liquid and toilet cleaner, so I should be good for cleaning products for the immediate future and beyond.

The menu plan is written and after overspending on food by about £70 last month, I'm determined to stay within budget this month.  I am already (on day 2!) overspent on household/toiletry and petcare, but with bulk buying this is to be expected.  I just need to minimise any spending from here on in.

Is anyone else minimising spending in February, and if so, how are you going about it?

January No Buy on Toiletries Update

This month, I challenged myself to a No Buy January with regard to natural or regular cosmetics and toiletries, due to the substantial size of my current stash.  I'd bought quite a few things in the lead up to Christmas, and was developing quite a spending habit with regard to natural beauty products, so the challenge was to help prevent the habit getting any worse.

I have to report that I had a good month, although I didn't succeed in buying nothing at all in this category.  As I said in my post about this challenge, if I, or anyone else in our family did run out of anything essential, that I didn't have a stash of, I would go ahead and purchase replacements and this indeed is what happened, causing me to purchase the following:

1 Tube toothpaste for LB £1
1 Tube toothpaste for myself and OH £4 (We use Cordosyl which isn't recommended (by my dentist anyway) for children)
1 Can of hairspray for me £1 - (Non-natural, as natural is far too expensive, if it is even possible to find it)
8 Pocket tissue packs 99p
Some personal feminine hygiene products £1.59 (Enough said)

I did also purchase a bottle of Deep Steep Shower Gel (a natural brand) that was reduced to £2 in TK MAXX, as it was such a good deal and will definitely get used at some point. (I did, however, use my Christmas present money for this, so it didn't come out of the household budget)

These were the only things I purchased this month, so I think I did okay, and the exercise has hopefully slowed down my purchases of natural beauty products.

I was able to make small inroads into the stash, as I at least started to use the following items from it:

A bottle of shampoo
A pack of dental floss
A moisturising day cream
Two bottles of mouthwash
A bottle of distilled witch hazel
A tube of concealer
One soap
One bamboo toothbrush

(Only 13 more items left in it to start using - mostly makeup!)

I set aside a full  tube of conditioner to donate to the Food Bank, as I no longer wanted to use it, due to it not being conditioning enough on my hair, which tends to be quite dry and brittle.

In addition, as already posted, I made some home made stick deodorants this month, to replace one that I finished. As I already had the ingredients, I didn't have any extra monetary outlay for these and they seem to be working really well, so should keep me going for a while.

I'm going to give myself a break from this challenge next month and possibly resume it in March, as there are quite a few basics that I need to stock up on and I'd like to visit a Natural and Organic Beauty show in London at the end of the month.  I'll try not to go too mad I promise.

I did actually manage to keep to the household/toiletry/pet care budget for the first time in 3 months, this month, so the challenge did work in this respect.  (Unfortunately, I didn't fare so well with the food budget and went well over on that this month!)  Baby steps.