Misty morning.

After having an attack of the lurgy for the past 24hrs and being holed up at home, this morning I needed to get out and get some fresh air. Hubs, max and I headed down to the beach. It was a real pea souper. Totally different atmosphere, I loved it, as did max!

 

Stash Busting.

With chilly days now becoming more regular I felt in need of some neck-wear. I have a huge stash of sock yarn in glorious colours, shame to waste some of it on socks that will never be seen.

So after a quick rummage in my drawers, I found the perfect beauty. This gorgeous yarn is from The Knitting Goddess, I've had it a while and bought it from a fellow knitter who was selling her stash for charity. Its the Sparklynne 4ply in Cut throat colourway.

I decided upon a simple pattern to show the yarn off, its so fab it doesn't need fancy stitches, just plain old garter stitch, can you see the sparkle? yum..

Hitchhiker

by Martina Behm

This really is a simple pattern, it you can do a basic knit stitch then you can make this, totally easy TV pattern. Its coming up a treat. Its an 8 row pattern and you just keep on repeating, simples !

Here's the finished example, photo's from Martina's website,

Its the ideal quick pattern for last minute gift knitting to, I may just make another after!

Lazy Christmas shopping and a cheeky monkey or 2.

Absolutely hate battling the Christmas crowds and ending up spending far too much money! usually buying rash gifts that I later regret. So this year I haven't actually been Christmas shopping, its all been done on line!

Fantastic. You get to look for the best price, and can keep it in your basket overnight whilst making sure you are happy with it. The added bonus is that it makes it really easy to manage your budget, well it helps me stop putting extras in, as I get waylaid with all the Christmas pretties!

Those difficult to buy for, under a tenner gifts for friends, I only buy for 3 friends, [best buddies] was sorted this year as one of the friends has been making sock monkeys, so I bought 3 for the other 2 friends [mates rates]

still in progress

How fab are they, just a small something to bring a smile, and I know my friends will like them, I can post here as my friends don't know I blog! [like to keep it that way], something different and my friend also gets to earn some extra cash. Couldn't ask for more.

I then spotted this little beauty on amazon to go with the pair I'm giving to 1 friend and her partner, their getting married next year so thought I'd include him..

pic from amazon

I know that they will get hours of fun with them!

I can honestly say that frugal Christmas shopping is the way to go, I'm pretty much done and dusted, Decembers salary will not be touched for Christmas and I still have cash for the rest of the month! 

No 1 son is managing his gift list budget really well, he worked out he had £18 left so asked for a pack coke, a metre box of jaffa cakes and the rest to go on sweets! It is Christmas after all.

All about the eyes.

Saturday morning was dedicated to sorting out the eyes! Got up early and hit The Mall at 9am, beating the Christmas shoppers, fabulous..

First stop was specsavers, they have a fab 2 for 1 deal which includes varifocals. Unfortunately Mr Tax man had decided to take an additional £300 from this months salary, so I had to change plans and look for budget! I was determined not to get sold any add ons, just the lens and frames! And I stuck to it. I had looked at my budget and knew that £150 was the maximum I could afford. As I wear my glasses everyday the 2 for 1 deal means I can swap them around to match my clothing.

Fed up of the usual metal framed sensible ones I decided I wanted colour, I dont wear make up and as I am now silver [ not grey !] felt the need to be brave. I have to say the sales man was fab and really helpful with choosing the right shape for my now very round face! Want to see what I chose?

[photos from specsavers website]

Pretty pleased with them , the black may look heavy but with my predominantly black work based clothes will look great, and I just couldn't resist the purple ones. Total bill was £164, slightly over budget, but mid range varifocal lenses, and the eye test was free. sorted.

Came out and thought I would pop into superdrug for a mooch and look at what I found

[ photo from bodyconfidential]

A brow bar! fate, had to get my overgrown brows threaded, amazed, super quick and pain free, £7 but well worth it, very happy with eye shopping this morning.

By this time the Mall was starting to get busy,I didn't really feel the mood for Christmas gift buying there, same old stuff, most of which will be reduced in the sales, but snuck into BHS and got waylaid in the clothes section, they had sales! something on the Dorothy Perkins rail caught my eye, reduced to half price, do I , don't I , that was the question. I'm still trying to build my work clothes wardrobe, but want things that are duel function, work & play, sod it, so I bought it. Its a light chambray type of denim/cotton, but I love it..

The photo  is not great, but its long, so if I was brave I could wear with wooley tights and long boots, a nice chunky neclace and my new black glasses? sorted. I'm now really tempted to get my hair cut short, will contemplate that for a while.

Very pleased with my morning, even if I did spend £183 on myself. Luckily we had our back pay this month and with my mileage and regular car user payment, I still took home more than I would normally so, despite nasty Mr Taxman, in theory haven't touched my salary! that's my reasoning anyway!

Christmas planning.

I just love the Christmas season, roaring log fires, sparkling lights and chestnuts roasting on the open fire! Want I don't like is the preparation, stress and constant big sell.

Well this year I have surpassed myself, the boys gift shopping is complete! yep, all bought, paid in cash and no overspending here.No worry, no credit bills and Decembers salaries will remain intact!

Each Year I give the boys a budget for their gift list, I'm not a bah humbug but they have to be realistic if they want to eat in January! It also means that they think seriously about what they want. If they have been really good Santa may bring them a surprise! Gone are the days when I would buy lots of crap that ended up unpacked for months on top of their wardrobes.

Gifts for others have been reduced, only buying for those that matter, and a minimum budget allocated, I breathed a sigh of relief when our good friend in Cornwall, with whom we shall be spending new year, suggested that we just stick to a £10 limit, mind you I am finding it really hard to find something for her..

Food shopping is not going overboard, we only buy the extras that we don't normally have, chestnuts to go with the sprouts, that sort of thing, but it will be a normal shop. Each week I have been buying 1-2 items, serviettes, Christmas crackers for the table etc, so come December there will be hardly anything to buy. Cards were bought in last years January sales.

The only splurge will be a decent piece of meat, this year hubs has chosen a Waitrose turkey with figgy pudding stuffing, a real treat. Some may say a tad expensive but its only once a year and as we have managed our food budget so the money is there.

I have to say despite the sad memories that this time of year brings I am really looking forward to time spent with family and friends and chuffed that we have kept it all within budget.This is the first Christmas ever that this has happened! I must be doing something right after all.

Catching up.

Well I must be getting old as time is just flying away with me. Wednesday already! sorry for the lack of real posts, will try harder!

Sunday I managed to get out with the dog, the weather was glorious!

just me and the hubs, boys were being teenagers, its nice to get to spend some time alone with him, seems to be the only time we can chat without interruption these days. Max had a fab time as always

we even managed to keep him out of the mud, which was fabulous!

A good breath of fresh air was just what was needed. We headed home to cook a roast, do some odd jobs, then i hit the writing course again !

Come the evening it was time to light the first fire of the season

we didn't really need a fire lit, but it would have been rude not to as the coal and logs were feeling neglected!

A comfy evening snuggled up, bliss....

This week has been work busy, again, but the days go fast and I get out and about so cant complain, I did run out of thyroxine though so have been feeling a bit blurgh, not quite sure how that happened, 5 days without, but now have stock and getting back to normal.

This week I have cut back on the old writing course, its not a race even though some of the other students seem to be way ahead, I type a lot for work so dont want to have to be doing loads in the evening, I am enjoying it though.

But writing course aside ,I need to get back ontop of things I have 2 days left at the end of this money! how the heck did that happen?

Rainy days .

Yesterday was wet, plain old wet! yuk.

Posty bought a smile to my face with the first of my £6 for 3 subscription

Just have to remember to cancel it before the big subscription gets taken out of my bank account.I quite often pick up these deals, £6 for 3 mags I think is quite good, especially as you get a free sewing pattern.

The I set off early to go do the weekly shop, looked like everyone else the same idea as Aldi was packed out..Not as stressful as last Saturdays trip to Asda mind you. List held tightly in hand, menu written on list! no mishaps this week.. Budget of £50 for food. So how did I get on?

Fabulous....

Here's what I spent.

• Dog Treats- £2.98
• Household £4.18
• Food £40.95 

Result !

then as Aldi had coal/logs/firelighters I stretched the budget by spending an extra £9.97 on fire goodies!

Which was lucky as hubs had swept the chimney ready for our first fire of the season..

Holy cow was there a lot of soot, surprising as we didn't have that many fires last winter as it was so mild. Job now done, cant wait to light it, need a frosty spell!

The afternoon was spent doing the housework, clearing the chores list in the hope that today would be sunny.

Managed to get the woof out for a walk between showers or should I say downpours, to witness the most beautiful sunset, didn't have camera, gutted,

Then home to eat and spend the evening knitting my cardigan..

Up this morning to SUNSHINE !!, whoop whoop, did some of my creative writing course, 2 loads of laundry and just about to eat a bacon butty, and I'm off down 'The Beach'..

Have a good day.
x

Weekend Learning.

Up and out early on Saturday morning, the sun was shining so did 2 loads of laundry and put out to dry, then weekly shopping trip to be done. This week I decided to hit Asda. After weeks of Aldi I felt a change of scenery was in order.

It started off well, I had a shopping list, all the essentials for the week , I felt in control. Didn't take me long to get side tracked though, Asda sell clothes, and books and lots of other goodies to tempt me, I did waste a while window shopping, occasionally I had difficulty letting go of things. But no.. I resisted all temptation .. no new goodies for me went into that trolley.

Felling good I stepped forth to the shopping isles, scary stuff. I forgot how big it was and how many people shopped there. Gone was my normal shopping routine, I panicked..I couldn't find things, I had to get a grip. Back to the list, bugger I didn't plan my weeks menu, had all the essentials bar what we were going to eat, drat. That was a big issue when I hit the meat isle, normally we don't eat meat every day, but there was stacks of the stuff reduced, got a bit carried away, think we now have 2 weeks worth of meat & fish in the freezer. A bargains not a bargain unless you need it, the bill proved that £141.. what.. I normally average around £80.  When I had got over that momentary panic I headed home to unpack and unpick the bill. When unpacked it didn't seem like much.

Lesson learned from that trip, take your menu or add to your shopping list, don't go to Asda..

Needed to calm down after that so did some meditative ironing, great feeling when laundry is washed dried ironed and put away..Hubs used some of the meat and made a lamb stew for tea, yum, then an easy night knitting my cardigan.

Weather forecast wasn't good today, so a leisurely morning was had, I cracked on with my writing course while hubs pottered, then when sky cleared we decided to make a run for it. Grabbed the dog, picked up no 2 son en route and headed off to the big woods.

Seemed to me everyone else had the same idea and we were constantly attacked by mountain bikes, it didn't help that the torrential rain had turned many of the paths into mud baths. but we had a great time.

Even Robin hood and his merryman made an appearance.

 

We made the circular walk just as the sky turned black and the heavens opened.

We headed home and I hit the computer again, trying to do this weeks course materials ,whilst hubs cooked the Sunday lunch, guess what we had, yep, more meat, roast pork and crackling.. I think I'm getting fed up with meat already!

I managed to plow through this weeks course, I need to sort out a plan for this, it certainly takes more than 3 hours a week. On the plus side I am really enjoying it, I am learning and guess what.... I wrote my first 500 word short story... well the outline draft, totally amazed myself on that one.I really don't know where it came from, the instruction was to turn the radio on and take the first words heard and use it to form a story. I cheated a little as most electronic gadgets were on in the house, so popped into the front room and listened to the TV, rough guess I knew it would be factual as hubs was watching it.. My words were 'only as long as your little finger and weighs no more than a penny'

First up I automatically thought of a fairy, don't ask me why, but thought that too cheesy, so just started writing and BAM, there it was. full 520 word short story! I need to read it through tomorrow and start to type and edit, it wouldn't make a book , but for a little 500 word piece I thinks its ok.

After the excitement of that i needed to bring myself back down so out with the knitting needles and another small project finished, cant share as its for a swap!

Now I need to go to bed, am exhausted..

Weekend claimed !


.

October review.

November! what? how? blimey! Time is running away from me.

October was a busy month,

lots of walks, a mini holiday, a new car, new haircut, going out of county loads for work, going to the cinema with very oldest friend, having a bit of a melt down mid month , not surprising when I look back at what I got up to for the month. I do forget just how much I do !  October also saw me set myself some goals

October goals:

1. start a personal spending log. nope! didn't even think about it.
2. complete weekly food menu, yep, working really well
3. Go back to slimming world  nope, still dithering, hence why I don't lose weight!
4. Plan a family day out.- nope, had a few small trips instead
5. make a cleaning schedule! nope but have done some !
6. Build fence in garden- yep, hubs has done a good job.
7. wardrobe stock take, nope, need to get this done
8. window shop for possible sofa's- still looking, 
9. locate cheap curtains- yep, got some for my new craft space, still need some for living room.
10. buy 2 wooden blinds- yep, found some online, now up and looking tidy!
11. source cheap rug- nope, haven't seen one i like yet
12. set up craft room.- yep!! love it...
13. Set up a book a month page- yep, read 3 books last month!
14. Get eyebrows sorted!- nope, still have busy caterpillars
15. October cinema night with oldest friend- nope,
16. go to vintage fair/ car boot with S, nope

Oh dear only 6 out of 16 done..may have been to over keen with my goal setting!   I do love setting myself goals, I love having something to work towards and like ticking things off.. so for the month of November my chosen goals are.......

Personal.

• rejoin slimming world
• get eyes tested
• sort out eyebrows
• complete wardrobe stock take
• arrange night out with D
• go car booting with S
• meet up with A

House

• source curtains for front room
• continue to look for suitable sofa
• source 'z' bed for craft room
• sweep chimney

Strangely that's another 16 goals! lets hope I get on better this month.