Santa's coming!!

TONIGHT!!!!!!
how exciting - and he's coming on a real fire engine with real fire men - yippeee!!!!!
I am slightly apprehensive about it, as I have a feeling Grace is going to take one look at him and panic again - but it'll be a nice start to the festivities.
Unfortunately it also heralds the beginning of the most hectic 72 hours of the year!! I'll b eup at 6.30 tomorrow so I can hit Tesco before 7.30 - I might have a vague chance of escaping before new year!! Then home for a 10.30 video call from Owen's cousin in Australia. We're trying to set up a video call between Owen's mum and her brother Tommy on Boxing Day - she hasn't seen him in over 40 years. Then bake vegan cake for my best mate's present, pick up dry cleaning, visit an old family friend and pick Owen up from work at 3pm. After that it's home, showered and out to Nana's for christmas eve tea and pressies!!
Flip I'm getting tired just thinking about it, must go make a coffee and then start writing a shopping list.....

Homesick

I came back to work after maternity leave in early May. So it's been almost 9 months...and suddenly, today, i have started to get really badly homesick.
I found it relatively easy to come back to work at the time. I enjoy my job (most of the time!!) and I work with (mostly) nice people. I was happy to be back, and although I missed being home with Gracie I was fine with it...until today. And all I want to do is go home to my baby for kisses and cuddles and games and songs and...whatever we feel like getting up to.

Make do and mend...?

I have a question. Why wasn't I taught proper domestic science/home economics/whatever PC name it has these days at school?? I "made" one pair of oven mitts (teacher sewed them together because she didnt have time to teach us how, so she did them for us) one wheaten loaf and a strawberry milkshake. And I did it to GCSE level!!!!!!
I wish, oh how I wish now that I had more education in this way. I still have not mastered the sewing machine, socks that have holes get binned rather than darned, I have a heap of clothes that need mended, although I try very hard I feel my cookery skills could be improved...
I was lucky, I did sone Home Ec. in a well-equiped room with cookers etc. - I doubt my daughter will have the benefit of this when she grows up. Children are being horribly failed by an education system that does precious little to teach them and proper life skills that will be of any use when they are adults. We can't fix things because woodwork etc. are no longer taught, we can't feed our families because cookery lessons have been cut, we can't mend out clothes because no-one shoed us how....
I'm determined to learn more this coming year - someone needs to be able to teach Grace how to REALLY look after herself rather than how to buy new things all the time.

Worries, lack of stuff, and frustrations

I am so fed up. There is so much I want to do, wish I could do, and I can't. I cant get my garden into order because it is flooded. Ok, not flooded but way too boggy. The fence needs mended (landlord is ignoring that little issue) I have no money to start raised beds, or any kind of greenhouse-type structure. And even if I did time is at such a premium I'd not get anything built anyways!
I can't have chickens because of all the above plus the landlord won't allow it.
I'm also getting worried about the 3 big dogs that have appeared in the garden backing onto ours. I really don't like the look of the big husky-type one and am worried that he'll come through the rickety fence at Jessdog - or worse, at baby G.
I have not got the time to do as much housework as I want to, or to do things like batch cook/bake and freeze. I need to figure out how my new sewing machine works but again, have not had the time to do it. And I need to start thinking about christmas soon too. Thankfully most of the presents are bought but I still have to get decorations out and sort through them and buy a tree and put it all up.....
And then there is the "IT" that keeps leaving me stinky little parcels on the driveway. Again, no help from landlord. Will have to look into getting travellers to come and tarmac it cheap. Oh and speaking of needing things cheap the sofa has collapsed, so looks like a new one is on the cards :(
Phew, feel so much better for getting that all off my chest :)

A very busy day

I had planned to stay home for my whole two days off this week...HA! Fat chance!! Up and out to do some grocery shopping, in to Carrick to see what bargains the African Missions shop has. We did well, got most of our tinned goods, plus a few treats for the boy, for £11. Then we had a tootle around the charity shops. picked up a pair of winter gloves for the boy, a new audio book and a pair of mod-style shoes for me, and a beautiful pair of winter boots for Grace. They are from Ravel and still have the packing inside - they have never been worn!! Got them for £2 in the new charity shop - bargain!!
After lunch we went home, emptied car of shopping and seat, dropped Grace at her Granny's for the night and headed off again. Hit Asda with a vengeance. The reduced to clear sections are now bare LoL. I have managed to fill my freezers with meat, bread, all sorts. I got 2 large loaves, 2 half loaves, rolls, potato bread and baps for £5!!!!!! The whole lot came to £55, and we reckon that will do us for at least 2-3 weeks.
After a visit to the in-laws and some dinner, we headed out to Donaghadee to buy a chest freezer. While Owen and the man of the house hauled it into the car the lady invited me in - and she had 2 pet rattys!! Elvis and Sunny - they were so gorgeous! I got a big cuddle with Sunny and could easily have taken him home, they were so lovely.
So home eventually (via reduced to clear in Tesco - that's my veg for the next 2 weeks sorted!!) to find I won my Ebay auction for a job lot of baby stuff :) By the start of next week we will have everything here and be ready to start making nappy cakes!! It's very exciting but kinds scary too....

Frugal night out

We had a lovely night out tonight. We went to the theatre to see a play called "Yours Truely, Jack the Ripper". It was about the Whitechappel murders from the point of view of the head of the London police force at the time. It was really good and we both really enjoyed ourselves.
Best of all it was (almost) completely free!! The theatre is attached to the leisure centre I work in, and my mum has a hand in programming the theatre, so we managed to blag front row seats for free. At the interval we got a cup of tea in the staff room (another perk of the job) and splashed out on a packet of crisps each (50p each) On the way home Owen stopped to get diesel (the light had been on the whole way there so no way were we getting home on the fumes!!) and treated us to a wee choccie bar to share. Total cost - about £1.50. Oh, and my parents minded Grace so the babysitting was free too!
We had a good chat about the nappy cakes in the car. Still have not decided wether or not to put some of our precious savings in yet, but we knocked some great ideas around and I'm feeling very positive about it.

Karma. Or should that be Korma....?

I have been on the hunt for a chest freezer for months now. I hate having to leave gorgeous food in the reduced to clear cabinet all for the want of somewhere to put it, or not being able to take full advantage of special offers etc. I finally tracked one down through posting a "wanted" ad on Gumtree last week. But when I emailed the man who offered me one (note he contacted me to offer one, I did not reply to a "for sale" advert) he emailed back to say he had sold it to someone else - he had placed a for sale advert too! I was really upset, as I had availed myself of two huge carrier bags of cooking apples from a colleagues garden to batch cook some crumbles - and now had no-where to store them!! I thought that was really rude - why contact me, offer it to me, speak to me on the phone to arrange collection, then sell to someone else??
So I put yet another plea on Freecycle for a freezer. Would you believe it, I got offered on within an hour! So I reckon that it was meant to be, as the freezer I'm picking up tomorrow is in better condition and is being given to me by a lady who also has a little girl called Grace - it must be good karma! And when I get my freezer it'll be the perfect place to put a good Korma too :)

To spend or not to spend....

Hurrah!! My first parcel of stuff for nappy cakes has arrived! I am now officially in business!! The postie also brought Grace's leg warmers and matching hair clips - can't wait to get home and see what they are like. The nappy cake thing is going well. We have just got to decide now if we're going to invest a couple of hundred £££ on materials. I suppose it is the point everyone comes to when trying something new - teetering on the edge before you either dive in head first or walk away.

When is frugal not frugal...?

My dad bought me a gorgeous book yesterday as an early christmas present. It is all about having a greener, thriftier christmas. I was really chuffed with it and had a lovely half hour skimming through when I got home from work. It has really wonderful pitcures and some brilliant ideas like how to make decorations using dried leaves etc - all very nicely done so it didin't look like crap. I was feeling very positive about it and was thinking of doing a lot of the projects in it for this christmas. Then I happened to open at the "About the Author" (or chief editor in this case) page. The book is by Sheherazade Goldsmith. Yes, one of "the" Goldsmiths.
I feel stupid about it, but it sort of took the shine of my enthusiasm about my lovely new book. Now I'm looking at everything thinking "Yeah, you can use 100% organically produced fair trade cotton tableware, you can flippin well afford to!!" It just feels a bit...I dont know, patronising now. Perhaps this lady is the genuine article. Maybe she is the one genuinely cares and believes in what she does, and has the money and the name to make people listen. I just find it hard to take money saving tips from a woman whose wedding reception was at the Ritz and who commutes between her 300-acre Devon farm and her London home each week......

My First Blog

Well. Been thinking about getting a blog for ages as an outlet for my random musings, recipes, ideas and other general drivel :)
I am supposed to be in work but just got so much on my mind that I'm not being terribly productive. I have won quite a few auctions on Ebay for nappy cake supplies, now I need to get some nappies and start creating!! I need to cost out how much they cost per nappy in each shop to find the cheapest.