Ho Sodding Ho

And that's me being polite ;)

Not one speck of tinsel has found it's way out of the Christmas decorations box yet. Small people have neither queried or requested it so I'm wondering just how long we can go without it all before it becomes silly and folk start to think I've really been reading those WatchTowers.

I've managed to scrabble together most of one child's presents from Santa, a wee pile for another child and barely a bulge in a carrier bag for the third one. Why does no one know what they want this year?!?

Where is my Christmas spirit? Well the bottled kind that had been languishing at the back of my cupboards for cough cough some time were shoved into a homemade hamper that I put together back in October for Mother to take back down the road with her for my brother and sister-in-law. How organised was I! Yeah ok I guess using the word shoved does imply that it was more a hasty thought of ooh let me quickly put something together for them and save myself a gazzillion pounds in postage.

I spent the equivalent of a small countries debt on sheets of stamps the other day in the hope that it would motivate me to actually write the Christmas cards. Not worked so far. Why do we have to send Christmas cards, am I the only one that finds writing them a chore? If you haven't spoken to someone all year why do you feel obliged to send them a card with snow on the front of it just because it's Christmas? You're probably not going to speak to them again all of next year.

I do however have our Christmas day meat sorted. I expect that says more about me than I'd want a psychologist to know but it was on offer and we really wanted to try one last year but they were all sold out. It's one of those 3 bird roasts thingys and its taking up a huge chunk of my freezer space as we speak. It better be good!

I think I need to sit down with my small people and make the hundreds of snowflakes we do every year and if that doesn't put some sparkle in my baubles then I must be a lost cause and there's no hope for me.

This post was brought to you under the advisement of dear bloggy friends who tell me to just write something/anything.....well you asked for it so how was it? :D

The fugly bathroom

When the ex and I bought this house 9 years ago it was decreed that we could live with the avocado bathroom for the time being but it would be refitted in due course.



7 years on and the ex had left but I was still living with the bathroom. Did I mention the walls were originally painted yellow? Oh yes this bathroom was just delightful!


Just imagine that the toilet was once that delightful shade of yucky green too, I forgot to take proper before shots and the toilet had already been changed as I started ripping it all out.


This all took place last year, as some of you may remember. I have still to get the extractor fan fitted, the guy returned once with the wrong size fan and has not been seen again. I am still in possession of his step ladders though so not sure how the exchange rate works on that. I'm not out of pocket anyway. He was paid for all work undertaken so I'm guessing the fitting of a fan is not worth his while to come and get paid to fit. Anyway minor details, let me show you the good stuff. ;)



I learnt a new skill - tiling! Well it helped keep the costs down.

This was my first wall. :)
I have to admit I didn't do the fiddly bits of tiling that involved cutting round things like the shower hose and outlet pipes. I left that to the professional.

The big white wall tiles were sale bargains, the fancy wee border tiles were expensive but I bought a couple of boxes of the large tile size and cut them down into strips myself which worked out far cheaper than buying them as strips ready cut. Crazy!
Floor tiles again were an on sale bargain.
Toilet and sink were a set in a box from the cheap and cheerful range.
And my lovely big double shower base was bought during a quick buy it now and we'll take a few percent off the price weekend. :)

Do you want to see it all finished now?

Cupboard cooking

Take...

1 chopped onion, peel off and cut away the dodgy bits if it's been lying about in the cupboard too long.
A couple of crushed cloves of garlic, if the fresh stuff has shrivelled up in the cupboard hunt for the jar of lazy garlic you know is in there somewhere.
1 tin of chopped toms or if they're not chopped as mine weren't just use a knife and chop them up yourself.
A squirt of tomato puree, cut the tube open as you would toothpaste to get that very last bit out.
S+P, Herbs to your own taste or whatever you can find in the cupboard.

Simmer away in a pan until you have your very own lovely tomato sauce.


Cooked with a bag of Quorn Mince found stuffed at the back of the freezer when you were doing your clever inventory.

Now either make up the packet of cheese sauce again found in the cupboard or make up some fresh cheese sauce with some flour, milk and that hard bit of cheese that was in the fridge that nobody seemed to be eating.

If you're me then realise you've no pasta sheets then take the left over tortilla's from the bread bin and use in place of said pasta sheets.


Then get on with some fancy layer work.

A bit more of that grated cheese because of course you'll have remembered to hold some back for the final topping.

Pop in the oven for 20-30 minutes, I can't be more accurate than that I'm afraid as I kind of lost track of time and just judged it by eye. This style of cooking makes my small people giggle as the timer bell inevitably goes off when we're already sat down and starting eating.
Anyway I digress....
Serve up with a lovely salad and there you are..

A healthy, frugal yummy meal from things you already had in your cupboards/freezers/fridges - see told you those lists would come in handy eh? ;)

Do you know exactly what you have?

Don't panic I'm not asking you to share anything racy but rather I'm curious as to whether other folk know how much food they have in their cupboards and freezers.

I'm sure I can't be the only one who used to rummage about and couldn't remember either buying that or when exactly it was put in the freezer.

I've been doing weekly menus and posting them up on the fridge door for some time now. Not only is it a great money saver as I know exactly what I need to buy each week, it has also stopped the daily "What's for tea Mum? Ooooh do we have to have that!" conversations. Everyone knows what's coming and amazingly no one seems to moan. Of course no doubt now I have totally jinxed myself saying that.

So there I was buying only what I need for each weeks menu but still having to do the rummage to fit things in the cupboards and freezer.

Enough I thought to myself, well I probably said it out loud to the dog. Poor old beast has to listen to a lot of my ramblings bless him.

So I pulled everything and I mean EVERYTHING out of the freezer and the cupboards and I wrote me an inventory.




As you can see when I painted the kitchen cupboards with the blackboard paint I didn't have enough to do the insides of the doors - oops!


Once the lists were made I realised I could feed us for a good couple of weeks only having to buy a few fresh bits and pieces thus saving my grocery money and having that cash free to put towards an upcoming large bill. Brilliant!

Now each week I consult my lists and never have to wonder whether I have something when the mood takes me to make something.

Next job is to design some nice sheets so they look a bit prettier stuck around my kitchen. :)

So do you know exactly what you have?

New stuff for the walls

In an attempt to make my house prettier and with very few spare pennies to spend on non necessities I decided to try something out from my stash pile.


A few fabrics that I have been loathe to chop up and some embroidery hoops bought very cheaply from my local charity shop (big one went through a cross stitch phase) and this was the result

I've tucked the fabric in at the back so I can still use it for a future project when either I tire of them on the wall or inspiration strikes me.
For now one wall in my living room looks a whole lot nicer. In fact my wee one on her return from school asked if I could do something similar for her bedroom, unfortunately big one didn't agree and thinks this is just yet another example of my weirdness. LOL

Frugal hair

My name is Taz and I haven't had a hair cut since.....................

actually I can't even remember the last time I had a hair cut. Hmmm think it must be a good year or so ago.

I have hair that grows incredibly fast. Many would think this is a wonderful thing to have but it can actually be a serious pain in the purse.

To have a style and keep that style I would have to have a trim at least every 3 weeks. Most folk get their hair trimmed every 6 weeks apparently. That means I'd have to have twice as many visits to the hairdresser a year.

Now back in the days when I had a husband and was therefore deemed eligible to spoken to by the 'others' I know that they would spend at least £40 a visit. :o I should imagine it's probably a lot more than that now.

Let me just fumble with my calculator....
that's just shy of £700 a year and that's not including the more expensive visits for restyles, colourings, root upkeeps when the prices go sky high.

I've been colouring my own hair since I was a teenager and despite a right snotty hairdresser once telling me I should never do that as my hair would go green (as of yet it never has but then i've never yet picked up the green hair dye box) it's always fine.

I used to cut my own hair back in the daring teen and early 20's years. I have the photos of some of those creations, they bring much hilarity to the small people. I tend to just focus on the very thin, fresh skinned pretty kid that of course I never thought I was. Sigh!

Anyway where was I? Oh yes my crowning glory. My 'you must have a grow bag for brains your hair grows so quick' hair.

Over the last few years I tend to let it do it's own thing - growing. Then have it chopped to about shoulder length, then off it goes growing again, then after a year or two I go back and the process repeats. Everytime the hairdresser hunts for split ends and damage that will highlight the fact that I should be getting a trim on a regular basis and everytime they are disappointed.
Everytime I tell them I have had the same hairdryer for 20 years now but as they don't see me very often I guess they forget. It was my 21st birthday present and it's still like new. I'm sure it should be in the guiness book of records. :) Poor neglected thing rarely gets used, I wonder if the ghd's I had as a birthday present a couple of years back will last as long too.

As I said it's been a while since my last trim but my lovely 16 year old agreed to give it a go so this afternoon we took ourselves to the bathroom telling wee one we may be some time.

She trimmed the ends of my hair then applied the red that has been my colour of choice for nearly a year now.
I think she did a pretty amazing job.

I hope the sun keeps shining as it makes my hair look wild.

Frugal?

Hair cut - free and big one has now learnt a new skill.
Colour - £9.38 (my hair is so long it takes two boxes) but the application, rinse and condition was done all for free by my lovely big one. :)

So yes frugal and the bonus is all that one on one time with big one.

How old!

So today I rolled up my sleeves and tackled the dreaded airing cupboard.

Now, of course because it's me, my airing cupboard isn't your traditional kind of cupboard with a door or where the hot water tank used to hide out.

No my airing cupboard is more of a box. A great big thing that's been built in between the wall space between the two front bedrooms. Imagine a chest freezer style wooden box full of years of sheets, towels, blankets. The lid doesn't stay open so you have to constantly hold the lid up and it's a blinking heavy.

I have tidied and sorted it several times over the years but now that I have finally been smacked around the head with the realisation that I don't have to keep everything just incase I decided it was time for a proper sort out.


So I emptied out the whole box and sorted and sorted and sorted.

Sometime later.....

I had

One big bin bag full of stuff to go to the charity shop

and

One big bag of things to be cut up and used for cleaning rags.


The box is now practically empty. There are two changes of duvet, sheets etc for all the beds in the house. One on and one off.
And two each for either gender of foster child I have staying.

I've kept the wee blankets that were handmade each for the smalls - one each.

I've also kept the two big crochet blankets my Nanna made and the big heavy duty blankets for those cold cold nights we tend to have up here.

The title of the post was for the two towels I found right at the bottom that my Mum made for me when me and the ex were setting up home many many moons ago. They will be used for the dog's next bath then disposed of.

I'm all fired up to keep going but this weekend I'm here there and everywhere running everyone around, oh and taking the smalls to see McFly.


Now where did I put those 'just incase' ear plugs?

Take one kitchen, one pot of paint and one fed up me.

I've lived in this house for over 8 years now, I've lived with this kitchen for all that time.



I gave up hoping for a new kitchen years ago and I definately gave up hoping for one when the ex moved out. Friends tell me I should have just ordered a new one years ago when me and him were still together but that's not the way I am.


So between Xmas and New Year I decided enough was enough. I can't afford a new kitchen for anytime in the near future so after scrubbing all the units down with sugar soap, I took the blackboard paint that I'd used in wee one's bedroom.



And this is what happened....





I think it looks so much better and so does everyone who's seen it.

Bonus points for the fact that now me and the smalls can have hours of fun drawing on the walls and no one tells us off.

Still snowing!

That was a shocker eh? Not!!

Anyway I think we've covered the whole snow thing before so I'll move on to something else more interesting.


Now while it's like this outside.

My back garden and yes the bottom of the slide is indeed buried in snow.

And your front and back door are about as effective as this.

An idea may be to take this...

and this...

And make this...

The jury is still out as to the colours but to be honest beggars can't be choosers. I bought the curtains many many moons ago and had made some bags out of the red pair so it was just a case of cobbling together what I had left to make them long enough. Yes I know they're too long at the bottom but that is because the draught at the bottom of the door is vicious.

So they may not be the best curtains in the world but for just now they're the best I've got. :D

How's everyone else baring up in the cold?

We've been doing that for years

First a quick THANK YOU to everyone who leaves me comments. I write my blog as something of a scrapbook come daily release because there's no one else to talk to of an evening so it's always lovely to find out that what I write is interesting enough for others to have a read. I appreciate your comments, especially when they ones that give me that just been cuddled feeling. :)


Now back to the title of the post...
Growing up we were on a very low income, my Dad did work full time but his wage was low. That meant free school meals, school bus passes, what clothes were not handmade by Mum were from the jumble sale. (charity shops were few and far between in those days) The clothes that we had were repaired, darned, adapted to fit someone else and then if nothing else could be done cut down for rags.
My Dad had a huge allotment which we were all expected to pull our weight on, literally. I remember my brother pulling the handmade plough that my Dad had knocked together. We would collect seaweed when there had been a hightide as it was a great compost apparently. The downside of having an allotment is the surplus in vegetables. As a child I was not a huge vegetable lover...well that was just tough! It was a eat what's on your plate family and as a consequence of too many hours spent forced to stay at the table by my Mother till the peas were gone I now at the age of 40 still hate peas.

My Dad also built his own shrimping net, which yes my brother yet again would pull and my Dad would push through the low tide. I would work with my Mum sorting out the shrimp, from the crabs and wee fish from the net.
This is not a picture of my Dad btw and the net that my Dad made was at least twice the size of this one. Idea being the bigger the net, the bigger the haul. That was why my brother had to pull as my Dad pushed, the thing was too big for one person. And before you think well wouldn't your brother walking in front of the net disturb the shrimp....they devised a system of whereby my brother pulled off to the side and not directly infront of the net. Clever man my Dad LOL
Once back with our haul we would then sit at the kitchen table shelling the shrimp, once they were cooked obviously, one for the mouth and one for the pot until our wee tummies were bloated and the freezer was full.

My brother and I would also spend summer days, inbetween rock climbing with no ropes or helmets and daring each other to do other daft feats, (don't tell Mother!) fishing off the rocks. Invariably he'd catch the big fish on the rod and I would be in the water scooping whitebait up in a carrier bag. It still makes me chuckle seeing the price restaurants charge for a bowl of them now.

We spent hours picking blackberries from the bushes on our local walks which my Mum would then turn into jam.
There was a ramshackle greenhouse at the bottom of the garden that was probably several different greenhouses cannibalised into one, where all our tomatoes and cucumbers were grown.

My first bike was a wee trike that my Dad had again cannibalised from other bikes and my boot was a bread bin. The whole thing was painted with some pink paint found in the back of the shed. :)

So what became of that little girl who desperately wanted to be like her friends and have clothes from the shops? I know I know handmade are best, I know that now just back then everything about us was different and not in that hippy way but in that we have nothing but we have to pretend we are the same as the rest of the world kind of way. My Mother didn't instill a sense of 'it's ok to be who you are' in us. We were brought up to conform, not to question just to do. Obviously as a teenager I rocked the boat and my Mother would still tell you now that 'she (meaning me) has always been different' but I'm ok with that and I always, always, always tell my small people that it's ok to be you.
Sorry went off on a tangent then and that's a whole different tale. What I was going to say about how I turned out is...
that growing up with no money it's probably amazing that I didn't go crazy once I got out into the working world myself. But I've never had a credit card, if I can't afford it I don't buy it.
Clothes are the things you wear to cover yourself and spending silly money just because some designer has sewn his label into it doesn't appeal to me at all. I do love my converse though but only buy them when I have the spare cash. As long as I look ok I'm happy. I just wish I had a vintage sized body so I could wear the kind of things I'd really like to.

It's funny how living 'The Good Life' has gone from necessity to trend back to necessity again. I'm just glad that for the good and bad stuff from growing up at least I have the skills that have brought me this far in life and the knowledge that no matter what we'll survive.