Making Good Use

Birdie Brooches

A Thrifty Mrs had some great craft supplies ebay links the other week, and the resin cabochon link really took my fancy.  I didn't buy the ones she'd linked to but came across another ebay seller who had a really gorgeous 14 piece resin bird cabochon set for sale.  Cue £3.20 later for the birds, another £2.95 for the brooch backs (I could've sworn I had a bag of them knocking around at home but, no, couldn't lay my paws on them), and a half hour or so with a tube of Bostik et voila,

I've got me 14 different coloured bird brooches to jazz up any number of plain T-shirts and jumpers for a little over £6.00.

This Should Prove a Challenge!!

With a lot of encouragement from P, I've decided to have a crack at learning a teeny bit of basic Icelandic.  Icelandic is a notoriously difficult language to learn - it's a pretty-much-unchanged-for-a-thousand-years West Norwegian dialect (imagine if we were still speaking old English similar to the original Beowulf and you get something of the idea.) 

Plus I am a total dimwit when it comes to learning foreign languages.  I am the woman who managed to get an ungraded 'O' level for French (still my 'finest ever' exam achievement.  Though I recently read Jack Dee's autobiography and he managed a stonkingly impressive result of three ungraded 'A' levels - way to go, Jack!!)  I also managed to fail my Latin 'O' level - twice (a D grade both times as I knew a heck of a lot about the Roman way of life but frankly b*gger all about how to translate Latin into English or vice versa.  As a form of consolation prize I did get a grade A 'O' level in Roman Civilisation - how useful an 'O' level can you get!!)

P - who is a native German speaker - and I have lived together for nearly 17 years and still, I'm totally ashamed to say, my ability to speak German is only at the 'smattering' level.   P not only speaks German (obvs.) but is also fluent in English and French, taught himself very passable Norwegian in three months and is now teaching himself Mandarin!!  My sister - who is also much better at languages than me - is currently teaching herself Swedish, having had a go at Spanish a couple of years ago.

Me, I'm a total foreign language klutz.  I'm pretty sure it stems from never having grasped the basics of how the English language works.  Sure, I know what is right and what is wrong but I don't know why.  I also only have very a vague notion of what an adjective, verb and noun are.  I know, totally shocking!!  I'm not sure if it's because I went to a junior school that was only interested in teaching maths and PE (so not my thing.)  Or if it is because my teacher for the final two years of junior school was a native Welsh speaker who had only learnt English at the age of 10.  Or maybe it's just the way my brain is wired - who knows. 

I have watched an inordinate amount of Icelandic-language films and TV series lately (with English subtitles of course) - thanks to a very generous birthday present from P consisting of three Icelandic film DVDs, two Icelandic TV series DVDs and an Icelandic documentary DVD.  Which when added to the films and TV series in Icelandic we already had probably means we've got the biggest Icelandic-language DVD selection in Essex!!  Thanks to all that DVD watching - and with the hope of another visit to Iceland in the not too distant future - I'm pretty enthused to try and speak a few words, or even sentences, myself.  Progress will no doubt be slow but I'm looking forward to at least giving it a go.

At Last - A Sunny Sunday Morning

Finally, a sunny Sunday morning which means the boot sale was on - yay!!  I'm surprised they didn't cancel again as we had apocalyptic-force rain right up until late Friday night - and the ground was very wet and muddy in places as a result.  Never mind, a bit of mud on the old hind paw never hurt anyone!!  I came home with:

A lovely little wood and metal hook - featuring a Fab ice lolly image - 50p.  I was very fond of a Fab ice lolly from the ice cream van when I was little, especially the chocolate / sprinkles layer on the top - yum! 

A great book about Sixties style with some truly mouth-watering photos - 50p.

Oil cloth and a Scottie dog - two of my favouritest things combined in this little cosmetic purse.  I love the little bone detail on the zip too.  This was also 50p.

A vintage faux fur hat - funnily enough, also 50p.  This one'll be destined for ebay in the autumn.

A rather nice barkcloth cushion cover - 20p.

And from the same seller - two cushion covers featuring Frida Kahlo - also 20p each.  I also found a couple of good books for reselling on Amazon and five Disney T-shirts (50p each) for my nephew.  A pretty good haul and well worth getting muddy feet for.

Another Cheap Eat

I usually do my main food shop on a Monday morning as it fits in nicely with the 'Coffee and Jumble' and means I can post off any ebay items that have sold over the weekend too.   Trouble is, by the following Sunday I'm usually a bit short of ingredients to make a main meal - not having a freezer doesn't help with this, nor does having a fridge the size of a small cardboard box!!  (Our kitchen is waaaaaay too small to cram a decent sized fridge / freezer in.  It's certainly too small for the two of us to be in there together!)
Anyhoo, last Sunday I came up with the idea of stuffed cabbage leaves.  Fortuitously I'd saved four ginormous outer leaves from a cabbage we'd had with a chicken earlier in the week and I just popped them in some boiling water for a few mintues to soften them up.  I've always got plenty of rice and I chopped up all the 'tired and emotional' looking bits of veg that were still lurking in the fridge and added them to the cooked rice.  A teaspoon of rose harissa paste (left over from goodness knows when) added just a hint of spice to the mixture. 

I topped it all off with some white sauce and just a teensy grating of parmesan cheese and baked the whole lot for 30 minutes in the oven.  We ended up with a really tasty evening meal for very little cost and not many ingredients. 

Rainy Day Thrifting

Once again the wet weather meant a weekend with no boot sale (it was actually dry and sunny here in Essex yesterday but the boot sale was cancelled as the ground was waterlogged - not really surprising with the amount of rain we've had lately.)  There was also a local village fete that should have taken place on Saturday but as it persisted down all day we didn't bother going.  So the upshot of all this darned rain is a definite thrifting drought.  Until today that is - today proved to be quite the best thrifting day I've had in ages.

One charity shop yielded 14 balls of dishcloth cotton.  I paid £8.00 for the lot which works out at a smidge over 57p per ball.  Not bad at all when I paid approx. £1.25 per ball the last time I bought some.  This lot should see me sorted with dishcloth cotton for years!!  In the same charity shop I also found two silk ties for P - £1.00 each. 

In the next charity shop along the high street I bought this Bugsy Malone DVD - £1.50.  I love that film and haven't seen it in years.  I wanted to buy a DVD of Flash Gordon too but they couldn't find the DVD that went with the case (they have to keep the actual DVDs behind the counter and just display the cases due to theft!!  Thieving from a charity shop - really, how low can you go??  Though having said that, I have seen people stealing from jumble sales.  Yes, really!!)  I'm stocking up on DVDs to get me through the inevitable blanket coverage of the Olympics that'll be starting oh so shortly.  I'm sure many people love watching sport on TV but it really don't float my boat.  Not interested, never have been.

Finally, the weekly 'Coffee and Jumble' yielded two very appropriate plastic rain items.  A black gents plastic raincoat - Empire Made so deffo pretty vintage - and a rain poncho which was obviously purchased at York Minster.  This one is going in my handbag as I can see it coming in quite useful.

And, just in case summer ever does arrive in the UK, a really nice summer top for me.  It's not the type of thing I normally wear and I bought it to sell on ebay but I had to try it on as someone had removed the size label (I knew it was 'plus size' as it's got an Evans label.)  Well, whaddaya know, it looks lovely on and will definitely be a keeper.  It cost me a whopping 50p and I also found a lovely T-shirt for P as well - again for 50p.  It was most certainly the best haul I've had in flippin' ages.

Cheap Eats

As our weekly food shopping bill seems to be on an ever-increasing trajectory, I've been trying to find new ways of putting cheap but tasty nosh on the table every evening.  We don't like compromising on the quality of the meat we eat - preferably organic but free-range at the very least - so we've been cutting down on the amount of meat we consume and I've turned my attention to a lot more vegetarian options.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had a lucky find of Granose Soya Mince reduced to 25p per box in Sainsbury's a while ago, I foolishly only bought one box for me and one for Mum (I was a bit wary in case it provoked a serious flatulence issue - but it was totally fine).  I really wish now that I'd bought a lot more as it turned out to be rather tasty.  I cooked up the whole box and it made two evening meals for the both of us.  The first meal was spaghetti bolognaise with mushrooms, grated carrot, onion, garlic and a tin of tomatoes all tickled up with some Marmite, Lea & Perrins and a beef stockcube.  What was left-over from the bolognaise bit I used to stuff a couple of peppers, which made a lovely meal the next day served up with stuffed tomatoes.  Stuffed tomatoes have featured quite heavily on the menu here lately, especially as Aldi have some really tasty on-the-vine British beef tomatoes at the moment.  Simply stuffed with cooked onion, breadcrumbs, basil and the flesh of the tomato, and topped off with a teeny bit of grated parmesan and some olive oil they make a really tasty, quick accompaniment to all sorts of meals.

I've also been experimenting with potato cakes - not something I'd ever made before but P said his Mum used to make them quite often, so I gave it a go.  Left-over mash with a couple of diced spring onions and a bit of tinned sweetcorn is very tasty when coated in breadcrumbs and warmed through in the frying pan.  I'm sure they'd be lovely with all sorts of left over veggies mixed up with the mash and next time I make them I'll just use up whatever's lurking in the fridge.

Finally, we've also been having a good old-fashioned lentil loaf on a pretty regular basis.  I use an ancient Rose Elliot recipe.  As I can buy a two tins of lentils for £1.00 in the local farm shop (the recipe only calls for one tin) it makes a tasty, nutritious and incredibly cheap evening meal.  It goes very nicely with the stuffed tomatoes or, to ring the changes, we sometimes have it with grilled courgettes and a white sauce.  I also like it cold the next day with a dollop of Hoi Sin sauce!!

Bunting, Cath K and the Union Jack

Check out those giant stinging nettles on the right of the photo - I didn't notice them at the time!!

It was the annual summer fete at a local country church this weekend.  It's always a lovely 'middle England' sort of occasion - as if the 'Darling Buds of May' had come alive in 21st century Essex!!  I saw more Cath K bags than I could shake a stick at, the bunting was out in force and the Union Jack was flying from the top of the bell tower - as well as decorating the 'tea tent' gazebo.

There were some nice bargains to be had too - all the above toiletries were 20p each.  The liquid soap is missing its 'pump' bit but that's no problem - I'll just swap over the one from the soap we're using at the moment.

A couple of vintage pillowcases to make some more bags from.

A selection of vintage scarves.

And a rather nice 1970's jug.  I was surprised to find this still lurking on the bric a brac table when I gave it a final perusal just before leaving.

At today's 'Coffee and Jumble' I found a set of four of these 1970's cloth placemats - 50p the lot.

And a bundle of approx. 45 of what I assumed were fancily-shaped vintage beer mats - apparently they're dart flights.  I got these for free and gratis aa I also bought a new multi-sized wrench / pliers-type do-dah whatsit for £1.00 (it looked like the sort of  tool that could prove mighty useful to have at some point!!)

Evil, Wicked, Mean and Nasty

Attractive, n'est-ce pas?

Yup, something evil, wicked, mean and nasty took a bite at my ankle a few days ago (this was the state of it on Saturday - bite about the size of a £1.00 coin.  Please excuse the swollen ankle but my ankles are always like that - a problem I inherited from my Dad.)  By Sunday evening I was feeling most peculiar - racing heart, freezing cold (with teeth that were chattering so hard they were like those wind-up toy teeth!!) pains in my guts - oh yes, I was feeling all the delights you can imagine.  Monday I had to spend all day in bed recovering and felt like a limp rag. 

It's by no means the first time I've had some little toxic flying git bite me and cause a nasty reaction - on one occasion necessitating an A&E visit.  I don't know what it is about me or my blood group that attracts these varmints so easily - and causes such a reaction - but my poor old Dad had the same problem too.  I remember him coming back from a visit to Dorset once when his forehead had been so badly bitten that it looked like he'd turned Klingon!! 

Anyway, I'm feeling much more chipper today.  The bite has stopped itching, thank the Lord (I cannot tell you how much willpower it took not to scratch the blessed thing) and is now turning a fetching shade of black!!!!  I fear there will be a scar.  I shall not be venturing onto the grass wearing shorts again this summer - and that's for sure.