I have a new addiction in the form of the 'small ads' on the internet (french). I sell stuff on there and now I buy stuff on there. At the beginning of winter I bought a winter coat off a someone for 10€! My old one was falling apart but I couldn't afford a new one, but this one is almost down-to-the-ground length, as-new condition, very warm and looks as if it was quite pricey. It isn't a style I would necessarily have chosen if I was buying new from a shop, but beggars can't be choosers and I've got used to it now and I'm very pleased.
Anyway, this woman was advertising some girls clothes this week - a job lot for girls aged 5,6, 8 & 10. 72 items in total for 15€! So today, Isabella and I went off to see her and we bought them! Only put 4 to go to the charity collection (not that nice, but someone could use them, they weren't falling apart or filthy). So in all 68 items for about 22centimes each. There's a few things that fit the girls now, but most of it will be good for next summer and next winter, which is what they need, as they have plenty of stuff for this winter. So am feeling a bit smug now. And it was like Christmas had come early when I got back, what with the opening of the bags and the trying-on and the girls being so excited about it!
22 December 2010
Thief!
I've made two batches of gingerbread biscuits to hang on the tree so far and they just seem to disappear. I was blaming myself mostly, well, who else could it be? But this morning we have finally found the true culprit all along. The cat was sitting under the tree, piece of ribbon and a few small peices left at her feet. I thought, surely not? She won't eat the biscuits in her food bowl and these ones are quite gingery. But then she ate the rest. So there you go. Not me after all.
18 December 2010
All I want for Christmas....
Well, christmas is going to be easy for Isabella this year - she just lost another tooth today, so now 'All she wants for christmas is her two front teeth'!
17 December 2010
A frugal christmas
Well, as you all no doubt know, Chtristmas is coming and it's got to be frugal. Especially as the folk who take our money in the name of social contributions, the ones who promised faithfully earlier this year that we were up to date with our payments, have now decided to send us a seasonal greeting in the form of a bill for over 4000,00€ (no, that's not a typo. There's really that many noughts).
Anyway, I digress. I know you're desperate to know about my frugal ways this year so here they are:
Presents:
Bike and helmet in excellent condition for eldest daughter bought at car boot for less than half the price of a new one (I might have mentioned this already somewhere on here).
Game for her to use on my nintendo bought at car boot for good price.
Youngest saw something she desperately wanted in local french toy shop retailing at 50,00€. Found same thing on Amazon for £15.00 so bought that one instead.
Bought off small ads for petit prix and all in good condition (things for me and the girls): Lego house, Pokemon cards, Hello Kitty cards, two handbags, board game.
Little wooden desk and chair for 8€ bought in local charity shop for youngest.
And so, onto decorations:
Every year the girls and I do some christmas crafts and decorate the house. My top tip for this: If it's things for their rooms, let them chose the colours. If it's for the house in general, ie, kitchen, lounge, chose the colour scheme yourself and then you've got cute little things that your kids have made and yet still go with everything else. So there's the usual gingerbread biscuits to hang on the tree (already onto the second batch of those, no idea where they disappear to...). And then after I've washed up the cookie cutters, they get used for drawing around onto card and then the shapes are cut out and painted and covered in glitter to be hung up on ribbon around the kitchen.
And then there's this years crafty decoration made by me: A jigsaw puzzle piece wreath. Saw some in a little crafty shop a while back, being sold for a nice price and I thought, I could do that myself, so I did. (Actually, it's turns out that it's not an original idea, I've found a few on the internet since). We've got some old jigsaws we have for the guests, but some of them are really not nice, so I used one to make the wreath.
Instructions:
Select an unwanted jigsaw.
Cut a ring shape out of some thin card.
Stick on a layer of puzzles pieces, overlapping edges of card.
Stick on second layer, slighty 'in' from edge of first layer.
Stick on final layer.
Send husband off to rummage through paint supplies in cellar to find green paint.
Rejoice that on this occasion he comes back with something useful - can of green spray paint for old car.
Get husband to spray wreath outside (well it is below freezing out there).
When dry, tie red ribbon around it and hang up.
Actually, I've been trying to find something like small red balls to stick on for berries, but in the meantime, I'm leaving it blank. It was completely free and looks very good, even though I say so myself. If you want to see it, you'll have to come back in a few days as I haven't taken a picture of it yet.
Anyway, I then got a bit carried away and thought, 'I bet you could make christmas trees like this'. So I did. Unfortunately, had no more green spray left, so had to make some green with the girls poster paints and apply with brush, luckily I found a can of clear car laquer spray, so even though the colour's not so good, it's still got a shiny finish. I stuck little sequins on as tree decorations and the red pot I painted with nail polish. They don't look too bad either, but for the time being, you'll just have to take my word for it.
Food:
Went to the supermarket today and spent points accumulated on loyalty card on food and drink for christmas (total 65,00€ so not bad).
I'm sure there's some other stuff, I'm always thinking of things to say when I'm nowhere near the computer, and then when I get here, I can't remember what it was.
Anyway, I digress. I know you're desperate to know about my frugal ways this year so here they are:
Presents:
Bike and helmet in excellent condition for eldest daughter bought at car boot for less than half the price of a new one (I might have mentioned this already somewhere on here).
Game for her to use on my nintendo bought at car boot for good price.
Youngest saw something she desperately wanted in local french toy shop retailing at 50,00€. Found same thing on Amazon for £15.00 so bought that one instead.
Bought off small ads for petit prix and all in good condition (things for me and the girls): Lego house, Pokemon cards, Hello Kitty cards, two handbags, board game.
Little wooden desk and chair for 8€ bought in local charity shop for youngest.
And so, onto decorations:
Every year the girls and I do some christmas crafts and decorate the house. My top tip for this: If it's things for their rooms, let them chose the colours. If it's for the house in general, ie, kitchen, lounge, chose the colour scheme yourself and then you've got cute little things that your kids have made and yet still go with everything else. So there's the usual gingerbread biscuits to hang on the tree (already onto the second batch of those, no idea where they disappear to...). And then after I've washed up the cookie cutters, they get used for drawing around onto card and then the shapes are cut out and painted and covered in glitter to be hung up on ribbon around the kitchen.
And then there's this years crafty decoration made by me: A jigsaw puzzle piece wreath. Saw some in a little crafty shop a while back, being sold for a nice price and I thought, I could do that myself, so I did. (Actually, it's turns out that it's not an original idea, I've found a few on the internet since). We've got some old jigsaws we have for the guests, but some of them are really not nice, so I used one to make the wreath.
Instructions:
Select an unwanted jigsaw.
Cut a ring shape out of some thin card.
Stick on a layer of puzzles pieces, overlapping edges of card.
Stick on second layer, slighty 'in' from edge of first layer.
Stick on final layer.
Send husband off to rummage through paint supplies in cellar to find green paint.
Rejoice that on this occasion he comes back with something useful - can of green spray paint for old car.
Get husband to spray wreath outside (well it is below freezing out there).
When dry, tie red ribbon around it and hang up.
Actually, I've been trying to find something like small red balls to stick on for berries, but in the meantime, I'm leaving it blank. It was completely free and looks very good, even though I say so myself. If you want to see it, you'll have to come back in a few days as I haven't taken a picture of it yet.
Anyway, I then got a bit carried away and thought, 'I bet you could make christmas trees like this'. So I did. Unfortunately, had no more green spray left, so had to make some green with the girls poster paints and apply with brush, luckily I found a can of clear car laquer spray, so even though the colour's not so good, it's still got a shiny finish. I stuck little sequins on as tree decorations and the red pot I painted with nail polish. They don't look too bad either, but for the time being, you'll just have to take my word for it.
Food:
Went to the supermarket today and spent points accumulated on loyalty card on food and drink for christmas (total 65,00€ so not bad).
I'm sure there's some other stuff, I'm always thinking of things to say when I'm nowhere near the computer, and then when I get here, I can't remember what it was.
Blackcurrant Fool and haircuts
For those of you, who, like me have a bit of trouble getting around to cleaning the kitchen floor on a regular basis, here is my recipe for Blackcurrant Fool and Haircuts what I did today:
Ingredients:
1 husband in dire need of haircut
broom, dustpan and brush
500g blackcurrants
175g sugar
20cl double cream
1 pot natural yogurt
mop, floor cleaner and bucket
Method:
1. Take one not super-clean kitchen floor. (Actually, on this occasion, I cleaned it only about a week ago, so it really wasn't in desperate need of re-doing).
2. Finally get around to cutting husbands hair in kitchen.
3. Due to length of husband's hair there is now lots all over the kitchen floor. This unfortunately necessitates use of broom, dustpan and brush. After sweeping decide that floor is ok-ish and can go without another mopping so soon after last occasion.
4. Decide to make Blackcurrant Fool. Put blackcurrants in a pan with a little water and cook until mushy (potato masher useful here). When mushed up, add the sugar and stir until dissolved.
5. Push blackcurrant mix through a seive with a wooden spoon (into a bowl of course).
6. As you are tipping the remaining contents of the sieve that won't go through it into the bin, drop the wooden spoon that you were holding in the other hand onto the kitchen floor, thus spraying blackcurrant mix all over floor, fridge, cupboards and jeans.
7. Carry on with recipe, will clean up mess in a bit.
8. As it is below frezeing outside, put bowl outside to cool blackcurrant mix.
9. Pour the cream into another bowl.
10. As you go to put the carton of cream into the bin, ensure that you completely miss the bin, thus carton lands on floor and sprays cream all over floor, fridge, cupboards and jeans.
11. Carry on with recipe, will clean later.
12. Whisk cream and then stir in yogurt.
13. Stir in cooled blackcurrant mix. Transfer to a pretty glass bowl and put in fridge for a bit.
14. Finally face up to reality re: kitchen floor and admit defeat. Fetch mop and bucket, fill with floor cleaner and hot water and clean kitchen floor.
15. Eat blackcurrant fool. Bloody gorgeous!
Ingredients:
1 husband in dire need of haircut
broom, dustpan and brush
500g blackcurrants
175g sugar
20cl double cream
1 pot natural yogurt
mop, floor cleaner and bucket
Method:
1. Take one not super-clean kitchen floor. (Actually, on this occasion, I cleaned it only about a week ago, so it really wasn't in desperate need of re-doing).
2. Finally get around to cutting husbands hair in kitchen.
3. Due to length of husband's hair there is now lots all over the kitchen floor. This unfortunately necessitates use of broom, dustpan and brush. After sweeping decide that floor is ok-ish and can go without another mopping so soon after last occasion.
4. Decide to make Blackcurrant Fool. Put blackcurrants in a pan with a little water and cook until mushy (potato masher useful here). When mushed up, add the sugar and stir until dissolved.
5. Push blackcurrant mix through a seive with a wooden spoon (into a bowl of course).
6. As you are tipping the remaining contents of the sieve that won't go through it into the bin, drop the wooden spoon that you were holding in the other hand onto the kitchen floor, thus spraying blackcurrant mix all over floor, fridge, cupboards and jeans.
7. Carry on with recipe, will clean up mess in a bit.
8. As it is below frezeing outside, put bowl outside to cool blackcurrant mix.
9. Pour the cream into another bowl.
10. As you go to put the carton of cream into the bin, ensure that you completely miss the bin, thus carton lands on floor and sprays cream all over floor, fridge, cupboards and jeans.
11. Carry on with recipe, will clean later.
12. Whisk cream and then stir in yogurt.
13. Stir in cooled blackcurrant mix. Transfer to a pretty glass bowl and put in fridge for a bit.
14. Finally face up to reality re: kitchen floor and admit defeat. Fetch mop and bucket, fill with floor cleaner and hot water and clean kitchen floor.
15. Eat blackcurrant fool. Bloody gorgeous!
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