Christmas Bunting

While out shopping one day I saw some Christmas Bunting for sale at the extortionate price of £24.99, it was really lovely and I could imagine it hanging in my kitchen over Christmas, so being a bit of a cheapskate I quickly made my own. 

 Its the first attempt at doing this and I am very pleased with the way its turned out.

 Each flag measures 13cm wide at the top and 20.5 long, thats the finished length, I allowed about 1/2 inch seam allowance.  The bias binding is 1inch wide folded over and was perfect for this project.  The material was a bundle of 4 fat quarters from ebay at a cost of £7.99 with free p&p and the bias was £1.98 free p&p. I had enough to make an 8foot bunting for me with enough leftover for a small one for a friends Christmas present.  Not bad for £10.

 Piles of flags all turned and pressed.

I laid the bunting out on the bed to take a piccie but with the flash it hasn't shown the true colours. The top one was taken in daylight this morning.

I think my grandaughter will want some for her bedroom, I might do that one with nice flowery material and put her name on in felt lettering...........watch this space :-)

Thank you for popping by
Have a lovely evening

Karen xxx

Make do!

Its not long now until my holidays and I have been sorting out what I want to take with me, bearing in mind we now only have 15kg allowance.  I'm not really one for dressing up but when we are on holiday its nice to get my glad rags on and make a bit of an effort for the evening.  Having looked at my clothes I thought they needed sparkling up a bit with a nice necklace. I had a quick look through the large amount of crafty stash I have and found a bag of Swarovski  crystal beads looking all sparklicious and a  pack of 3 pearl bracelets from either Primark or £land and after mixing the two together came up with a necklace, bracelet and earrings. No clasps were required as they are on that stretchy jewellery stuff.  I wish you could see just how sparkly they are but the camera hasn't picked it up. I am really pleased with how they look on and  even more pleased that I didn't have to go out and buy them.  Just shows what you can make do with when you have to!!

I have also cooked a large vat of Vegetable soup and another of Leek and Potato again making do with what I had in the fridge, its all portioned up and in the freezer ready for those cold winter days, one of them being today... brrrr...

What have you made do today?

Thank you for popping by

Karen xxx

Sealed Pot Challenge 2013

I know its not the new year yet but I have already signed up for SFT's Sealed Pot Challenge for 2013. This is my new tin all ready and waiting to be filled, I had a good think about what I would be saving for and decided to keep it the same as this year and use the money for special treats at Christmas.

The grand opening of this years tins will take place on the 4th December, at that time I will be away on holiday so will be leaving mine until we get back home.  I am hoping there will be enough money in it to buy a nice meal out at our favourite eatery and have some left over for our trip to Malta at new year.

Its been an easy task popping oddments of change in the tin as well as any £2 coins which have found their way into my purse or hubby's pocket :-)  Having a totally sealed pot is the best way for me to save as I can't dip in when I need change.  Why dont you try it for this year and join in with the fun, I think there are 42 of us up to now, you could be number 43............. go on have a go, the more the merrier.  You don't even have to buy a tin, anything will do so long as its sealed up and has a slot in the top, use your crafty streak and decorate a gravy tub or a custard powder tin.  The ones above both came from B&M last year and were a bargain at 89p each.....mmm.... wonder if I can get the bottom off the red one and seal it up again for 2014, then I could put the 89p in the tin to set it off, or is that taking it too far LOL...

Saving for Travels  Sealed Pot Challenge 2013

Thank you for popping by

Karen xxx

It's beginning to feel at bit like Christmas..

Today I actually got my Christmas cards finished, they have taken me a couple of weeks to make but I am quite pleased with the results.  All the die cuts were done on my Silhouette machine, I absolutely love this piece of equipment, it means I can design a card using the available files from my collection and then size them to fit my cards.  There has been a lot of glueing and sticking going on this week.

 I used the same design and turned it on its end to create the look of a baubble but at the same time kept the two designs very similar.

 Here they are all together

 I gave the poinsettias a bit of dimension using some silicone between the layers, these cards will be hand delivered and the red baubble ones have been made flat for posting.

 I have also been baking today, I made 10 individual mince and onion and 10 steak pies for the freezer.  I try not to eat too much pastry but my hubby loves it so when he has a pie with vegetables I will have a piece of grilled salmon or something weight watchery with the vegetables.

 He had one for his tea and said it was delicious, I had a ham salad. While the oven was on I made a huge pan of stew and portioned that up too.  We now have lots of lovely variety for meals in the freezer which will take us nearly up to Christmas.

Next job was to tackle ironing mountain......argggg.  Thank goodness thats done and put away. Oh and I cleared 3 bags of clothes out of my drawers for the charity shop... 

Google image

Plus I even found time to nip to the hairdressers for a quick trim and came home and coloured it myself!! Phew..... what a busy day.... I feel quite smug :-)

Have you had a busy day today?

If you would like to see more of my cards and craft you can visit my other blog here

Thank you for popping by

Karen xxxx

Work...yuk!

Its been a rubbish week this week, work has got in the way and it hasn’t been at all pleasant.  The bakers shop where I work has moved premises to a much larger place and the owners have opened a small café at the front of the shop.  Instead of just serving our loyal customers with their fresh bread and cakes each day we are now expected to cook breakfasts, hot sandwiches and lunches, then spend 2 hours trying to clean while the shop is still open.  It has been an absolute nightmare and to top it all our very young boss has been trying to supervise us!!! We HATE IT!!  Thank goodness I only work 3 days, anyway enough moaning………  

  I had a lovely birthday evening with my family visiting me and spoiling me, we had planned a nice frugal meal and wine and then my lovely hubby decided to treat us to a nice Chinese takeaway.  I have to say we really enjoyed it.

 Back to the normal frugality now and eating out of the freezer. It’s  made my life so much easier having a menu plan and sticking to it.  On Sunday evening I made a plan up for 3 weeks, taking us up to our holidays, I based it on everything we already had in stock and apart from some fresh stuff and breakfast cereals we didn’t need much shopping.  I have another cooking session planned for tomorrow to add a little more variety although we don’t mind eating the same meal more than once a week.  Tonight we had the delicious Lasagne I made and froze in portions with a  simple crispy salad and fruit for afters.

Just juggling the wet washing at the moment and trying to get it all hung up to dry ready for ironing in the morning. Looks like a busy day at home tomorrow and that suits me just fine.

Thank you for popping by

Karen xxx

No-vember Challenge

After a successful  Stoptober Challenge I have decided to take the plunge and continue using up what I have and keep food spending to a minimum. So as from today my No (unnecessary) Spend November Challenge has begun..... bring it on!!

Over the weekend I MUST update my freezer inventory and keep it up to date! I have a rough idea whats in there but there might be a nice suprise lurking in the hidden depths of the chest freezer.

The pantry will be an easy one to do as I really only keep basics, a few tins and packets along with baking ingredients.  Our diet mostly consists of lots of vegetables salad and fruit along with whatever is in the freezer.  Our meals for next week are already planned from the batch cooking I did last week.

Think I had better find some nice thick gloves for the weekends jobs :-)

I have been making my Christmas cards too this week, lots of craft stuff in stock so nothing had to be bought, I even found a new pack of envelopes in a box, pity I didn't find some stamps too lol.

Work for me tomorrow and Saturday and its my birthday..... a nice frugal meal planned for Saturday night with a bottle of wine we had given ages ago, no expensive night out  for us. We shall enjoy a nice evening in just the two of us ;-)

Do you have anything frugal planned for the weekend?

Thank you for popping by

Karen xxx