Does ANYTHING ever go to plan???

well as you have probably noticed my thrifty day's till Christmas came to an abrupt end a few weeks ago.

Everything had been going swimmingly, then I had a really crappy couple of weeks - and none of it was my own fault! Family stuff...I am still dreaming of winning the lottery and have had a tiny cottage that is away from it all and ready for my escapes, earmarked for the winnings for years now! lol - one day.

The thrifting is continuing, I can't wait for the Jumble sale season to start again as I have a list of things we need, can't afford but could quite likely find at a jumble sale (hubby is after a pressure cooker!) and Baby Fig and I have signed up to have a stall at a new local 'Crafty Vintage' fair on 11th Feb. 

I have been busy making more up-cycled items for both folksy and etsy - I am very pleased with these scented hearts for valentines day   filled with a divine vintage rose scent.

I have had some nice news to sweeten all the poo! I was asked to write a little 300 word sales story for Craft Seller magazine! It has been submitted and I should be in there in issue 9 - on sale on the 14th March, so if you get it look out for me! if you don't, take a sneaky peaky in the supermarket/news stand.

I shall be trying my best to get back on track with the thrifty tips and stories as soon as I can! 

359 Thrifty days till Christmas

A few years ago Mr Fig opened our wood burning stove and a huge nail fell out onto the carpet. We didn't notice until we smelled the carpet burning. 

Although it is a perfect image of the nail, it isn't what I wanted to look at every time I sat down in front of the fire, so I covered it with an old Ikea rag rug I had in the bedroom. 

While cleaning up for Christmas Baby Fig threw this rug out. it was filthy - although it has been washed many times, and Mr Fig had decided a couple of years ago to actually chop fire wood on it so it had slash marks all over the back (can you understand what I have to deal with!!!!)

I have so far not seen a rug I like - or more accurately a rug I like and can afford. 

My Grandad always made rag rugs from old wool coats, and progressed onto wool rugs when coats were not easy to come by. I have had a go at rag rugging and wool pegging and find them both incredibly time consuming and boring to make, they just don't grow fast enough! 

So I have just been up to the sewing room and brought down a bag of old t-shirts I have been collecting for ages and a pair of scissors. 

My intention is to cut them all into long spiral strips, plait them into one very long strip and sew them together into an oval rug - for FREE! 

I have found a brilliant tutorial HERE and like I said yesterday - I never had a better chance to learn! 

I shall be back with the finished item soon.

360 thrifty days till Christmas

Happy 2012 everyone! 

I hope you are all feeling full of the joys of a New Year and not letting this miserable weather get you down.

Baby Fig is recovering from a late night out in the Village, and by late I mean about 4am. 

I started my new year with coffee and crumpets in bed listening to the Archers omnibus - to me this is pure opulence, I LOVE IT! 

Today I will be hopefully clearing away Christmas, cleaning up and making tea - using up the mountain of cheese my mother very kindly (a little too kindly) bought us in the supermarket sales. 

I have been pondering today's thrifty tip. This one particular phrase keeps coming back to me constantly...

This is something my grandma, and then my mum would always say to me whenever I asked them to do something for me I thought I couldn't do myself (or was too damn lazy to do!) 

As a youth I would dismiss this and usually storm off with a 'don't bother then!' attitude, and would make do without whatever service I wished them to provide for me!

Over the years though, this phrase remained with me (mainly because they kept on repeating it) but the more I thought about it, the more sense it made.

Both my Mum and Grandma had to learn to do all sorts of things we take for granted these days, they would never ever have dreamt of asking anyone else to fix, mend or make something they could well do themselves. What they were in fact saying to me is "don't take us for granted, but use our skills and knowledge to enable you to take control and look after yourself, here we are right now, we are willing to share all this with you, you really don't have a better chance than this to learn"

This is something I have stuck too through out my life - my Dad has taught me how to put up shelves, change a plug, draw up an accurate design, drive a car, take a photo, process a photo, change a tyre amongst many other things, my mum taught me how to sew and knit and bake and decorate a room, Grandma taught me how to make bread, feed a family for 4 days on one chicken, darn, alter clothes to fit, patch a hole, play whist, Grandad taught me how to get the most from an allotment - well you get the idea! 

 

If something new catches my eye I take note, watch carefully, ask questions, pick up tips - People are always willing to share there knowledge, they offer it for free because they want to pass it on. So next time you ask someone to do something you think you can't do and they offer to show you how to do it yourself, remember, you NEVER had a better chance to learn!

361 thrifty days till Christmas

Firstly I want to say a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Mr Fig

I always feel so sorry for him having his birthday today...

Secondly I want to wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

the next is an even number so I am sure I will not feel quite so discombobulated.

In honour of Mr Fig's birthday the Christmas cards have come down, he will not let me take the rest of the decorations down until tomorrow though. 

When I was a kid in the 1970's my mum would always get me to take the cards down and hand me a pair of pinking shears and a hole punch. I would spend hours cutting crinkly Robbins and Santa's out of the front of the cards, and punching holes out to hang them on next years parcels, and although I really didn't like the pinked look it was still more fun than using plain scissors.

This year I made all kinds of fancy labels with bits sewn and glued onto them only to watch them not get read, torn off and thrown in the bin with the wrapping paper - what did you expect? I hear you cry! well exactly! 

So this morning I have made my own 2012 version of those 1970's tags. If you like them, feel free to copy - and actually, I am more pleased with these than the ones I spent hours over! 

First get rid of the side with the writing on, send them to be recycled or hang onto them to use as templates for other crafty projects.

I used some thick card from the top of a go-cat box to make myself a luggage label style tag.

Instead of "fussy cutting" i.e. selecting a picture and cutting round this even if it means loosing the rest of the card, I fit as many onto the back of the card as I can. If I know it will only fit 2 or 3 on I tried to set them at an angle to each other - but DON'T look at the right side of the card, it will be a surprise! 

then simply draw round your template, cut inside the lines, punch a hole in narrow end and thread string/ribbon/cord (I used the end of a ball of dish cloth cotton I had saved) through the hole - finally put them somewhere you will remember them or find them next Christmas!

I have been working hard on the recycled scarf I started a couple of days ago, and have made a hat to match and hopefully I have enough of the yarn left to make matching wrist warmers. I think they may well have to go into my Folksy Shop due to finances - but not to worry, I still have my purchases from Novembers Knitting and Stitching show to make into stuff all for myself!

Keep safe and see you all NEXT YEAR!!!

362 thrifty days till Christmas

Cranberry's on the Grapevine???! 

Before Christmas I was given a jar of Cranberry and Orange relish by a lovely and very talented lady called Mary who comes along to one of the knit and natter groups I also go to. She had promised me the recipe if I liked the relish, and 1 large packet of cream crackers and a quarter pound of Stilton later the jar was empty and I had made my mind up that it was indeed extremely good relish! 

She e-mailed me the recipe, but as Cranberry's are not something I usually have in...well, I don't think I have ever actually bought a fresh cranberry in my life, I thought I would just pick up a bag as and when I could afford one.

Now this is where a good thrifty grapevine comes into play. Yesterday I received an e-mail from Mary marked "Cranberry relish - URGENT!"

Sainsbury's had a load of fresh cranberries reduced from £4 to 50p!  Now who of you would have been able to resist a reduction like that? 

A quick trip to Sainsbury's, 4 bags of cranberries (that still only came to half the original price of just 1 bag) and everything else I had in, and in less than 1 hour I had 3 jars of ruby red relish and 3 spare bags of cranberries popped in to the freezer to make more relish when I need!

Preserves are like the name suggests a way of preserving a glut of anything, I don't believe in buying expensive fruits and vegetables to make mine, instead relying on a glut on the allotment, or a friends apple tree, or from the hedge rows. Usually the only fruit I will buy are Seville oranges for my marmalade as they only grow in Seville, but with the cranberries I feel I have liberated them from a landfill site because lets face it, who eats cranberries all year round? and we all know how much good food supermarkets throw away.

Mary has kindly let me put the recipe on my recipe page for your use, she points out that it is her adaptation of a recipe by Saint Delia (the boozy bit) so please have a go - if you can get CHEAP cranberries!

363 thrifty days till Christmas

I am as always trying to tidy my sewing room. Now matter how much I throw out, sell, tidy, give away, with in a week of there being floor and bench space, it has usually all vanished again. I don't buy very much new sewing materials these days, but I am always having a lot given too me! I belong to a couple of knit and natter groups and where there is one craft, others follow. Most of the ladies at these groups now exactly what I use, what I like, what I am looking for, and every time they have a clear out I get bags of goodies. Vintage lace, fabric, paper, ribbons, you name it, they have had it, and now I have it!  Besides this I am an incredibly untidy person. I can't help it, and I long to be a tidy person. 

If money were no object I am sure by now my little box/sewing room would have been transformed into a storage savvy area, but as money is always tight the room is full of random shelves from mum and dads kitchen, an old cupboard with the doors removed (as there wasn't space to open them) a couple of old office draws, baskets, boxes, tins...well you get the idea. I have to climb over stuff that hasn't yet been sorted out and bags of wool, just to get into the room.

I have decided that I need a set or two of free standing book shelves to place against the last bit of free wall but as I can't afford anything at the moment I have put out a plea on 'FREEGLE' 

I joined this web group a few years ago when it was called Freecycle - I'm not sure why it changed to freegle, but it did. 

If you are not familiar with this concept, I urge you to look it up. 

Basically it is a way of getting rid of almost ANYTHING that is perhaps not good enough to sell but is far too good to go into landfill. It is also a way of receiving stuff as well. 

You put out a Wanted or an Offered, let people know what it is you are giving away or what you want, and hopefully you will be inundated with people who either want what you are giving or have what you need. 

If you are lucky enough to 'win' an item it is up to you to collect it, if you give something away, then it is up to the recipient to collect it from you.

Ourselves, we have received a double bed, a single bed, 2 gorgeous sofa's, a microwave, a tea chest, grout whitener, fabric, yarn, toys - to name just a few! we have got rid of a sofa, 2 beds, a wardrobe, files, books, an arm chair, fabric, yarn and all sorts more. 

It is a fantastic idea, and ours in this area seams to work pretty well without incident plus they are all over the country. Even if you just sign up with nothing to offer, it is a revelation to see what is offered and what people actually manage to get hold of! 

So Keep your fingers crossed someone has an old set of bookshelves they were going to get rid of and they come our way, one day I WILL BE TIDY!

364 Thrifty days till Christmas

On Christmas Day and Boxing day I did NO crafting. I had been knitting and sewing presents right up to 8.30pm on Christmas eve, and wanted to sit back and think about what to do next, as I have previously mentioned Hubby and Dad's birthdays are both in the next week, but I didn't think I had a hope of getting anything else made for them! 

I have spent those 2 days 'off' pouring over the gorgeous books I got for Christmas, mainly baking books, and a wonderful history of British Magic that has seen me having a sneaky lie-in for the past 2 mornings while I read.

Anyway, to get to the point, last night I was bored stiff without a project to get my teeth into - I wanted something easy, pretty, and thrifty. 

Now while this particular project didn't start out thriftily, I think it has ended up thrifty, and it is the principal behind it that counts! 

A couple of years ago when my purse seemed to have a little spare cash in it every now and again I indulged myself with 1 ball of Noro knitting yarn. As anyone who has bought or looked at it will know it is NOT cheap. A jumper can cost over £150 to knit in it.

I started to knit a shawl with my 1 ball, but I soon ran out and had to buy another 2 balls, they ran out and I bought another - by this time the shawl had cost about £40 and was still too small to put around my shoulders! 

I cast the damn thing off and left it for 18 months in a cupboard, discussed with myself for spending all that money on something so useless!

About 6 months ago my Mother insisted I let her pull the shawl back, which she did, and since then it has been sat in 1 giant ball - staring at me menacingly. 

Last night I started to knit it into a swirly scarf. I am LOVING IT!!! and can tell it is going to end up really long so it will wrap round many times. And who knows, I may even sell it and try to recoup some of the expense!

There is not much recycling of wool these days, acrylics are relatively cheap to buy, and not as many people knit from necessity, but my Grandma would often pull back a jumper that one of my uncles had grown out of and knit something up for my mum, she would knit sleeves from shoulder to cuff so if the cuff became worn or frayed she could unpick it from the cuff and replace that bit, she re healed and re-toed socks and never threw out anything that could be re-used.

So, if you have some yarn hanging around that needs knitting, get on with it, if you have something you made but don't like, pull it back and make something new! 

My twirly scarf pattern is available for free (there is a tab at the top of the page) or click on the picture!

365 thrifty days till Christmas

After eating up some of the left overs from Christmas day at Mum and Dads, Taryn pointed out to me that even though we watched several programmes by various exciting (or was that excited?) Chef's on how to make delicious and unusual left over turkey recipes we always end up making 'butties' (British for sandwiches) with just a bit of everything left on them, still, we have not had to buy any food for 3 days!

Today Mr Juicy and I had to brave a 'Supermarket' as all the bulbs in the kitchen had gone, and although I have an ample stash of tea lights, it wasn't going to cut it! 

As we had to drive to a nearby town to visit family we made sure we went to a supermarket on the way to save on fuel, and as always I had the above 'mantra' firmly fixed in my mind. As you can imagine the left hand side is the side I seam firmly planted on. 

We bought EXACTLY what we needed and NOTHING else, in fact we did not even venture down any sale isles because the temptation of a bargain I don't need and cannot afford can be very strong! 

You may recognise the mantra from the Money Saving Expert's web site, and my advice is that if you have never been onto the site, click on the mantra and go take a look, there is something for everyone there, and even better, sign up for the weekly news letter! 

oh, and thanks for the comments and idea's - keep them coming, 366 thrifty tips is a lot to come up with! 

wrapping paper

wrapping paper, a photo by juicyfig on Flickr.

366 Thrifty days 'till Christmas 2012

Ahhh, I hope a wonderful Christmas day was enjoyed by one and all! 

We had a lovely morning opening our hand crafted and carefully chosen pressies before a chaotic, noisy but very tastey afternoon at my mums with my Brother and his clan, then back home for Dr Who? and Downton Abbey.

And so to my new challenge - a whole year of blogging a thrifty tip or action EVERY DAY for a year, and as was pointed out, we actually have an extra day this coming year - What a mammoth task! hehehe

This is NOT aimed solely at next Christmas, it is to get me through all the different events plus daily life! we have a plethora of birthdays as usual, a few weddings (4 in the next 2 years so far) and all the other usual events, Easter etc! I am determined to save money, mend the house, eat better, exercise more, well, you know, the usual resolutions plus more - and the sooner the better.

I already have Mr Juicy's Birthday looming large on New Years Eve, and no idea what to get or make him as I kinda threw everything into Christmas for him, then on the 3rd January it's my Dad's Birthday. I know these events occur every year at the same time but I am never prepared and consequently they both tend to end up with reduced Christmas food items from the supermarket. 

Anywho - back to my first Thrifty Day, (only 365 left!) 

Baby Fig and I are determined to not spend ANYTHING on wrapping paper this year, it costs a fortune and is usually just ripped off and thrown in the bin, so Taryn the bag fairy had away with every gift bag as soon as it's gift was removed and came home with a stash to keep us going for ages - plus any that are torn or damaged around the top we are going to cut down and customise.

I know it sounds extreme and not much of a saving, but this is something we have done before, no one ever notices it is recycled and like I said, it just ends up in the bin in the end. 

An image that blogger won't let me upload!!!!