Frugal Birthday gifts

There is nothing I need for my Birthday. Of course, there are always lots of things I would like for my Birthday, most of which are craft stuff, bits of ribbon, wool, etc, etc, but we just don't have any money at the moment.

When DH asked me, "What do you want for your Birthday?". I said, "Wrap up something I already have and give that to me", but I have thought of something I would really love from my boys......

..... Vouchers. Not the expensive kind, for some clothes store or record shop, but the free kind that look like this:-

As I have hardly ever had hugs from my two baby boys, they are just not the huggy type, and as I just live for Hugs, I will need plenty of these, but I'd also quite like:

* a Breakfast in Bed Voucher
* a We'll cook the Tea Voucher
* a Back Rub Voucher
* an I'll tidy my Bedroom Mom voucher
* a You Can have Control of the Remote voucher
* and a couple of Coffee vouchers, (not the Starbucks or Costa** kind), just the sit down and we'll make you one kind. **other brands are available.

What free Birthday gifts would you love to receive?

Lots of Love Arwedd xx

Frugal Quilting Anticipation

I'm getting very giddy with excitement, as I eagerly anticipate a Frugal Quilting Workshop with the amazing Frugal Queen this weekend.

I'm also getting extremely nervous too, good job the beautiful Fostermummy  will be there to hold my hand. Why nervous? because sewing is yet another thing I don't know how to do. Sadly, I never learnt any of these traditional skills, crochet, knitting, sewing or cooking at my Mother's Knee and whilst I have managed to "get by" until my 40's (when did that happen), without them, I feel I have missed out and do so want to learn.

First problem, Froogs originally said, "bring your sewing machine (and an extension lead)". Well, I don't own a sewing maching, I never have. I don't know how to use one, never have! Thankfully, there is a spare one I can borrow. However, second problem, Froogs then said, "I want one lucky person to go home with a quilt made by five quilters". Nervous, doesn't begin to describe it, some poor person is going to have to go home with a lovely prize, ruined by my pathetic attempts to use a sewing machine for the first time. I'd just like to apologise in advance to the "lucky" person, sorry!!

Then there was the other "rule" for the day - "Only old scraps from the bottom of the bag, box or off cuts allowed. No buying any new fabric for this one!" As  non-sewing-type person, I don't have any fabric! Now I know Froogs has enough recycled fabric to sink a battleship and I'm sure she wouldn't have minded if I'd turned up completely empty-handed, minus machine, lead or fabric, but I just couldn't. Again thankfully, my cousin is a bit if a seamstress, so she said she would send me some of her off-cuts in the post. They arrived this morning, woohoo! So I now have the following bits of material to take with me.

Now I know they are new to me and they are still new in that they haven't been used in/on anything yet, but I hope they still count as they are off-cuts. I have also bought a nice two tone green duvet cover from the charity shop for £4.00, which is therefore second hand.

No doubt Froogs will tell me what this is best used for, whether it's backing or patterns. It's a very small stash of fabrics to get me started however, if anyone wants to recycle any more my way, it would be very welcome.

Now, hopefully, the excitement can now win over the anxiety, as I'm all ready. Bring it on!!

Lots of Love Arwedd xx

Nice weather for....?

Very sharp headache this evening - taken Ibuprofen and Paracetamol, to no avail, so I might just give it another hour and take some Asprin aswell. (Please do not believe that I have any medical knowldege whatsoever). Anyway, for this reason, I was aiming to do a short Blog this evening, but then I kept thinking of things I wanted to record, so it will no doubt end up as another of my essays.

Well what is it nice weather for? These little chaps? Certainly!

But in our little World, yesterday was nice weather for this.

Shortly after I met my DH, as well as discovering he came with a half built Hovercraft (see my earlier post here), I learnt that he had a passion for all things to do with the water. He loves Wind-surfing, although he doesn't do this much. He has been Water-skiing and he absolutely adores "Messing about on the Water" in Boats.

His family have been lucky enough to own one most of the time since he was born. The current one is called Lady Tess. I'd like to tell you she looks like this!

Veerry Nice Boat!

But she doesn't! She looks like this:-

She comes out of the water every year to have her hull cleaned and repainted and yesterday, during the worst of the torrential downpours we had on and off for most of the day, it was time for her to go back into the water. I'm not sure the pictures are really clear enough to see just how wet we all got, although I did shelter inside for the short trip around Plymouth Sound back to her berth, while DH was out on the front deck and FIL was upstairs, in the wet, steering.

DH on deck sorting ropes. 

Sadly, due to changes in fortunes, the family can no longer afford the exorbitant mooring fees, that's without the running costs etc so this lovely Lady is up for sale. Not sure how quickly that will happen, but this is likely to be our last Summer of lovely days out and evenings pootling up and down the river, so we must enjoy it while we can!

I was very pleased with myself yesterday, as I made my first few tentative steps towards being frugal and made our sandwiches to take with us, as well as a flask of coffee and made up a bottle of squash. Yeah-hey, I actually thought about it and executed it. We were lucky enough to be treated to a coffee in the local pub aswell, just to warm ourselves up, although MIL was disgusted with me that I should get my crochet blanket out in the pub for a quick few minutes extra work. Clearly I'm an embarassment!

Crochet on lap - bottom left

The weather today has not been an awful lot better and today's activity in the pouring rain? A little excitement in our day, when the nice lady from Tesco rang to say her van had broken down and we could either go and get our shopping from her over the other side of town or receive it possibly another day this week... maybe! So out we duly trotted in the car to go and collect our "delivery" and just as we joined the end of the queue of other people also collecting their deliveries so the heavens opened again. 

I'm still trying to work out how to get the cost of my delivery back, as I signed up a little while ago to pay my delivery costs in advance for 3 months, as you then got every delivery for £2.50 regardless what time slot. The only condition was you had to spend £40.00 each slot and I wasn't holding out much hope of getting my shopping bill below this in the next couple of months. Hmm?

What with all of this and Aquafit tonight, my fingers are starting to web over! From now on, I'm staying in the warm and dry. And why is it that when you get out of the swimming pool you can't get dry enough to get your clothes on? I got so frustrated tonight, that I have decided in future I am going to take a dressing gown, get out of the pool at the end and drive home in my cossie and dressing-gown. It is a private pool at a lady's house so I only have to go two foot from pool to car, drive home and go another two foot from car to front door. My Aunt would be very proud of me and my decision, as she is a woman with no shame. She once arrived at an Aquafit class to discover she had forgotten her swimming costume. Did she let this deter her? she did not. She got in the pool and did the class in her bra and pants and drove home with her underwear in her bag! I've decided I'm old enough not to care who sees me driving in my dressing-gown either, so there!!

I had more to write but now I'm off for that asprin, see you soon.

Lots of Love Arwedd xx