A domestic goddess I could be, but a fly lady I aint.....

I'm not entirely sure a domestic goddess would stay in bed till tea-time, but that's what I did today. I then cleaned out one, but only one, of my kitchen cupboards, made a list of all the food that was in there, then made tea. Today we had fishcakes (my mother's secret recipe) and rice pudding made with arborio rice because it wouldn't all fit in the lock and lock container I wanted to put it in. And even if I say so myself, it was very lovely. I even managed to pretty much clean the kitchen after me. Just waiting for one of the sons to wipe up.

Most of you out there will have no idea about my ineptitude when it comes to cleaning. To be honest it's not so much the cleaning, it's the tidying before the cleaning. I think it's safe to say I am a hoarder, and not only that, I have, in the past, suffered with depression, which is mostly under control nowadays, but still get the "odd" moment. And for anybody out there who has been unfortunate enough to go through a similar thing you'll know what I mean when I say that you often just don't see the mess. And then by the time you see it, you just don't know where to start. The pic you see to the right (hopefully) is the living room AFTER I've tidied for Christmas. The crafting might help the sanity, but does nothing for the clutter.

And talking about crafting - I did make good use of the time I spent in bed earlier. I took full advantage of the "up to 85%" sale at http://www.sizzix.co.uk/ and despite losing my complete shopping cart at one point, I perserverd and managed to save myself nearly £200, having ordered some embossing stuff, stamps, and dies. I have the next week off work so hopefully they will arrive during the week so I can then play to my heart's content. (I do have to do a bit of cleaning as well) My intention is to follow in my sister's footsteps who makes 20 cards in 10 different designs ready for Christmas which she then sells. If I could do that then I should break even for all my purchases. Perhaps even make a profit - that would be good.

Review of the year.....

or maybe not.

It's enough for me to remember what I did during the day I'm in, so you've got no chance of me remembering a whole year. But this time next year I'll know exactly what I've done. As part of my frugal lifestyle I have made myself a diary by putting lots of A4 paper in a ring binder and separated them by a print out of a monthly calendar in a polypocket.

If I was as crafty as I like to think I am, it would be all pretty and appliqued, and decoupaged, and stamped and even bound with a spiral. It might even have a ribbon on and a stamped image, possibly coloured in as well.

But unfortunately this is not the case, and instead it's very plain and boring.
My first task in this "diary" will be to make a list of all the food in the house, and then plan some meals. I will also list all the money I spend and what I spend it on. If I've saved money by buying stuff on offer then that will go in my book too.

When I make money, which I'm sure I will, just havent' quite figured out how yet, guess where that's going - yes, in my book.



I do have lots and lots of crafty stuff, and my latest plan is to make cards for selling - I currently have about 450 card blanks (not yet advanced enough to fold a piece of card in half). I have 65 or so ProMarkers (got doublers of powder blue an

d leaf green) and both yesterday and today I came home to parcels from some rather wicked online sales shopping. I am particularly taken with the Kanban patchwork pals stamps and papers that arrived from QVC








What's with all this empty space at the bottom - anybody would think I couldn't do blog formatting.

So I'll fill it with

HAPPY NEW YEAR - Pick 2011 up by the scruff of it's neck, turn it upsidedown and shake it till all the change falls out of it's pockets. Then pick it all up and put it in your sealed tin to spend at Christmas time.

A thrilled recipient

Well today I gave my pal her engagement card and she loved it. As did her fiance. All the girls were well impressed and said I should sell them. One card does not exactly make a business, but it's nice to be appreciated, and my "talent/skill" recognised.

Yesterday I made a stew of sorts. It was intended to be "cawl" which for those who don't know is a lamb stew however it was only my second attempt at ever making it. The first attempt was about 20 years ago and it was a disaster. This time, it was a bit better, but still not great. But I will persevere. The home made bread was nice though (sunflower bread mix from Lidl)

Tonight I printed off enough blank menu plans for a whole year. Complete with a column for how much each meal costs.

I will be economical and frugal if it kills me.....

The Engagement Card

I have now assembled the card using the Royal Court digi stamps and sentiments from http://www.thewildflowerpatch.com/ I printed the pictures onto plain printer paper (although may have got a better finish if I'd used a higher quality paper. I coloured them in using ProMarker pens, most of which I have purchased from http://www.cowlingandwilcox.co.uk/

Hmmmm - having uploaded the first lot of images they have appeared above the text, when really I wanted them below the text.

Hopefully the final 2 will be below, or to the side of the text.

Nope - the final 2 are right at the top - this blogging lark is not as easy as it looks.

One of today's task is to complete my friend's engagement card. I am using digistamps from The Wildflower Patch http://www.thewildflowerpatch.com/ and hopefully, when I've finished I will manage to post a photo. I did test out the "adding a picture" thing earlier, but somehow managed to get a scarily large picture at the bottom of the page which was not what I intended at all. So just to try - here's on I made earlier. It kinda looks ok in the bit I'm typing in, but not sure if it will be where I want it to be when I'm done typing.

On the frugal front - not doing so great there, but it's an investment I tell you.

I think I have enough food to make quite a few meals, but will have to do a proper food inventory and some planning

laters folks

xxx

An early new year's resolution - 2011 will be the year when......

I am going to change the focus of this blog, but if you look through the archives, all of about, oooh 4 posts in 2 years(????) you will probably notice that there has not been much of a focus to it anyway.

I am going to follow in the footsteps of my pal Nat (who's blogging name I forget) and adopt a more economical/frugal lifestyle. I have been reading the Money Saving Expert forums, and am picking up loads of useful tips and hints, but yet to put them into practice - when I figure out how to do it I will add links and tags and all sorts of useful stuff. I might even tell all my followers (of whom there is one - thanks Nat) useful stuff I find in my everyday adventuring, which could include MSE forums, web-browsing, newspapers or even a real live book, which will of course have been acquired from the library.

And, what's more, I will try and work out the picture thing so I can share some of my photograpy, card-making, cooking, baking, general crafty stuff, and should I ever get motivated enough, the garden.

A follower?

I have discovered that this blog, which has not been posted on for nearly a year, has a follower. And not wanting that follower to die of boredom, I have decided that maybe I should post something for them to follow.

When I went back to Slimming World after a long time away on 20 April 2009, I weighed 15st 8lb. I lost nearly 2 stone and stopped going because "I can do this" I thought without having to spend £5 a week for the privilege of being weighed. However after a rather stressful few months and feeling rather fat I decided to go back. Tonight, my 4th week back I weighed........... yes you've guessed it 15st 8lb.

A couple of days ago I watched the film Julie and Julia - in case you don't know what it's about it's about an american woman who wants to be a writer, and is also a huge fan of the cook Julia Child so decides to work her way through her famous cookery book about french cooking. And whilst she is doing so decides to blog about her journey. Eventually her blog is picked up by the New York times and she is offered a book deal.

Maybe, if I blog daily, word will spread and I'll get a book deal and earn thousands of pounds and never have to go to work again.