Elsa dress up

Stephanie along with thousands of other little girls is very into Frozen at the moment. she has asked for an Elsa dressing up dress, not even the Disney website are stocking them at the moment, although I did hear  a rumour the other day that the local Disney store had them in stock. However, Disney dress up is eye wateringly expensive starting at around 330 for a dressing up dress. So I got some material and made her one. It cost me about £8.00 in material and  4 hours of my time. Stephanie hasn't seen the finished product yet, although she did see it at the nearly complete stage. I can't wait to give it to her;

the dress

dress and cloak. I may need to adjust the cloak, I won't know until she tries it all on, but it is a small 5 minute job.

 

Stephanie' won't get this beautiful dress for a few days as I am picking her up in a short while and we are off on our holidays, somewhere in the South West- I will tell more when we are home again.

 

We are still trying to empty our freezer so Dylan and I made a pack up for the journey using up little bits and bobs;

 

There are chicken goujons, fish fingers, veggie fingers, veggie hotdogs and garlic bread tucked away in those two boxes.

 I also made some cakes for us to take with us, well cakes cost a lot when you are out and about. I made plain sponge cakes and lemon cakes. I made them different sized for Stephanie as she doesn't like the lemon ones so I wanted to be able to easily tell the difference when they are in the tin I received for free

All safe and snug and ready to go.

I doubt I will have signal to post while we are away so I am going to leave you with this picture of my water baby not quite getting the point of the dodge the sprinkler game in b&q!

 

Happy holidays!

What's a girl to do when....

her pencil case breaks due to being over crammed with essential things! Does she head to the shops with her purse- not when she's being frugal. She head to her bedroom where she keeps her stash and the sewing machine. Within 5 minutes she has carried the sewing machine down to the table, made a pencil case and put the sewing machine away again!

Take a scrap of material and a zip from the stash.

And here it is- a perfect pencil case with plenty of space.

Sunday

Today we went for a swim after a lazy (thanks to the teenager!) start to the day. As usual swimming didn't cost any extra as we have our gym memberships and can use any of the local authority pools as much as we want with this. After swimming I have spent some time sewing with Stephanie;

She is making a cuddly toy, I am so proud of how well she is doing with this. She has really got into crafts at the moment and concentrates for long periods of time.

 

 

We have also completed all of her homework so will have no more to do until the next lot comes home on Friday- good job as I have 2 late nights for parents evenings this week!

 

I have made dinner on a shoestring, we had tuna fishcakes

tin of tuna- 75p

potatoes- 28p (from a large sack bought at the farm shop

1 egg- 17p

breadcrumbs- 12p

 

total cost £1.32. I made 10 fishcakes for this so they come in at just over 13p for one fishcake. Stephanie and I had 2 each for dinner so dinner this evening cost about 53p for 2 of us. Dylan had some noodles and chicken as he doesn't like tuna. the noodles cost pennies as they are from the 9kg box I bought for £3.99 at the beginning of the year, the chicken was some we had in the fridge probably about 25p worth.so for less than 80p we have all eaten this evening.

I am going to try and cost each of our meals this week as I like seeing how cheap I can be it really spurs me on to reduce spending and I desperately need to cut costs as far as possible as the bank account looks very short this month.

Lets see how stretchy I can make October!

Sewing day

Well more of a sewing morning, yesterday.
I decided I wanted to make a fabric basket with some material left over from the curtains and cushions I made for my new bedroom. I had a quick search online to see how others had done theirs, and decided I didn't have the materials they used so made up my own pattern with what I did have.

I measured my material to make the sides I decided my long sides would be 35cm the short 25cm but  made the sides in one continuous strip. I needed something to make the sides stiff. I found some of the iron on stuff (that's the technical name! LOL)I used to make the curtains stiff wehre I put the eyelet rings. Perfect. so I ironed it on;

This is what I had to use.

I needed to do 2 strips as it wasn't wide enough.

I then cut a piece out to be the bottom and ironed 'stiff stuff' onto that as well. I sewed the bottom to the sides, then joined the seam of the sides. and hey presto I have a box/basket

 

outside

inside

on the shelf.

 

It was really simple to make, despite the naff instructions. I will make some more, I am disappointed that I have no m ore of this material left. I also need to find the name for 'stiff stuff' as I need to buy some more, and I am not brave enough to google my name for it!

 

Whilst I was sewing I made some cushion covers out of some material from the stash. These are destined to go in my reading corner at school. I just need to source some cushions to stuff them with;

 

Another simple, 5 minute sew.

Once they were done I went off and spent the day with various family members. Which was lots of fun involving hugging a tiny baby, tormenting my niece and nephew, and LOTS of laughs.

 

 

 

 

organising

Today has been another organising kind of a day- well for Dylan. His granddad drove him to Ikea to get the furniture for his bedroom as I was looking after my niece and nephew while my sister went clothes shopping. Dylan is getting so grown up, he built the bulk of his furniture himself with just a tiny bit of help from Granddad. pictures will follow once he has organised his things onto the new furniture but his bedroom looks so much better for having smaller furniture.

I started the day with a 5km parkrun. It is my first time at one of these events as they are all at 9am on a Saturday and Stephanie normally has a swimming lesson at 9am. I was very pleased that I completed the course in 30 mins 32 seconds. This is a timed by chip event so the timing is very accuyrate and your results get emailed to you after the event. I was 39th person to complete the run today; 10th female and 4th in my age group. Not bad especially as lots of the runners were running club members. I really enjoyed the run, I would love to be able to participate more often but never  mind.

Once I got back I made these for my room;

 Then my sister dropped my niece and nephew off to me for the afternoon.
We had a fun afternoon involving watering the garden, shooting water guns at the windows/fences/shed etc, bouncing on the trampoline, reading, making dinner together and making tents from furniture boxes;

We decorated the boxes with various pens and paint together and lay in them looking at books. Once everyone had left I loaded the car for tomorrows bootfair. I do hope I can clear the majority of the stuff. The attic is looking half empty and the house is looking good I don't want to have to fill it back up.
I am now going to sit in front of the television and knit before getting some sleep for my early start.

peaceful day

Today we have had a peaceful day. I didn't go to work today as the children both had upset stomachs last night so they needed to have a day off school today. Both have been fine all day- naturally!

So I have spent the day working through my weekend list. The list initially seemed to grow as much as I was ticking things off

It ended up with 24 items on it by lunch time this morning. The good news is I have managed 14 of them.

These are the items from my mending pile that I have mended whilst watching TV this evening.

I just need to figure out what I am going to do with one of my dresses, the bodice doesn't fit at all, it's too big.

The house is looking much better, I have even managed to clean the windows.

We enjoyed our dinner in the garden and then a game of Cluedo before Stephanie went to bed. As long as Stephanie is still OK in the morning she has a friend coming around for dinner tomorrow.

 

 

 

Presents

I have spent today making gifts for 3 of Stephanie's friends as they have parties coming up. I want to try and make more gifts this year. I have not purchased anything to make these gifts.  I have use an old and holey pair of my jeans for the main, then I used 2 tops and some material I had left over making a dress for Stephanie last year.

This is one of the tops and the pair of jeans.

All cut out ready to sew.

3 bags ready for wrapping. Stephanie has chosen the colours for her friends and the embellishments. I am really pleased how they have come out. I have one more gift to make, this one for a boy so I am thinking about a pencil case. I have plenty more old clothes etc to re-purpose.

I just need to embellish the pink one, as Stephanie is in bed it will have to wait until tomorrow so that she can choose from the stash what she would like on it.

 

 

 

A completed project

Today I have finished this beautiful cross-stitch;

I began my part of the stitching back in March, I am amazed at how much I like this piece, I almost don't want to give it to Stephanie for her room I want it in the hallway when I have finally finished decorating it. However, it was intended for Stephanie so she will get it. I do have another of Mum's cross-stitches I will hang in the hallway. I will show you that one another day.

A lovely new bag!

I started sewing my hexagon quilt together again this week, what with the enforced stay home due to the snow. I found a problem though- my bag I had been storing them in since I started back in the summer, has become someone un-bag-like.

So to find a solution to the problem where did I turn? that's right GOOGLE- how did we survive before the internet?

Anyway I looked through ots of sites until I found something I liked that looked as though it would work for my sewing problem when I found this site; changing bag I thought fab! its just what I need I'l over look the fact it is designed as a nappy bag because the pockets are useful and it looks good.

Next I went through my fabric stach and found the beautiful floral fabric I ordered from here Stefanie at etsy back in the summer. Armed with the printed pattern and the fabric I made this;

I LOVE it! it looks slighty orangey in the picture, it is actually my fav colour- red. I am so impressed with the bag I need to find a more weatherproof material so that I can make one as my handbag!

soapnuts, sewing and garden happiness

remember the other week when I said I ordered a sample of soapnuts? I used them and still feel undecided. I love the feeling knowing I m using something eco, but I am not a fan of their smell. The smell does fade after being on the washing line, but what about in the winter when everything is dried indoors?

I decided that a smell should not put me off doing something so good. With this in mind I ordered 500g of them to make a more informed decision. I have found that if I add a small amount of white vinegar to the wash the smell isn't as noticable.

So today I ran out of washing up liquid, was about to go to the shop to buy some more when I saw that you can make a cleaning liquid from the nuts which can be used for just about everything; washing up, cleaning the house, washing, screen wash for the car- I am amazed how versatile it is and decided to make some.  I washed up with it after dinner and the plates were clean, the real test will be after roasts or something similarly hard to wash up after.

I also managed to finish the dining chair cushions;

 Well they are finished if you overlook the lack of zip, to fasten them! That will have to wait til next when when I have had time to go and buy them.

 I am pleased with the results of them, not exactly as I had imagined, but I like them a lot.

I am also liking how full of food my garden is;

This is our main vegetable patch, full off carrots, onions and salad mainly. The raspberried are starting to form as well. further up the garden the peas are starting to grow pods, and the first tomato is starting to grow, am so proud of my veggie babies.

1 down 3 to go!

I have been sewing today; I made one of the dining chair seat cushions today. I'm very pleased with how it looks, just need to make the other 3 now!

Ok so its not completely finished as I haven't bought the zips to put them in yet.

The elderflower cordial is bottled and tastes wonderful, well Dylan and I like it a lot Stephanie does not like it at all. She wants to go and get strawberries and make a strawberry cordial. We are planning a pick your own trip in the next week to get lots of yummy berries.

Have just ordered some yummy looking food from our local farm delivery website food for kent I have been prdering my vegetables from here for a while now, and we had some lovely sausages from there the other week so have ordered some more as well as some other meats. I love that I know where my food is coming from and that I can ask questions about what is involved in the making of produce such as the butter. Short of buying my own farm it doesn't come much better than this!