My monthly update

Managing to do this post in timely manner is definitely a good start. So here is my progress for this month and my to-do's for March.

Use what I have

• Still no clothes purchases
• Resisting buying excess food
• Utilised an old laptop bag to make a portable craft bag (all the little pockets come in really handy)
• I am still not buying glossy magazines and I do think this has made me want less. I started to keep a list of things that I wanted to buy in January and some of them would have been very easy to justify. Of course, vacuum storage bags would be a good thing to buy. A big bag would make carting all possessions around much easier. But as time as gone on I abandoned the list because I didn't seem to be generating the same wants. I'm currently reading (borrowed from my local library) The New Spend Less Revolution by Rebecca Ash.

EBay/ Freecycle at least one item per month

• 5 items sold on EBay this month. It is so nice to be freeing up space in my study.

Count my blessings

• Still loving this one. I have so much to be grateful for.

Be more mysterious

• Trying to keep quieter but I've found an urge to share the joys of positive thought. Perhaps I'm denying my true (non-mysterious) nature?

My to-do’s for February

• Post at least one picture on this blog completed - no excuses now for not adding more http://prettylittleblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/my-gift-bags.html
• Redesign my home page Completed - I'll try and make a few changes every month http://www.prettylittleparcels.co.uk/
• Post target update at the end of the month completed - this is it!

My to-dos for March

• Dye two t-shirts that I have in my projects to do bag. I have the dye I just need to find a vessel to put it in. This project has been waiting ages to be done.
• Make 4 gift bags and tags to photograph and sell.
• Scan 25 photographs from the old family photo album.

Have a great March!

I resisted!

I've always liked things in shops that have been marked down from their full price. When Racing Green still existed I filled my wardrobe with cut price garments from their website. I linger around the reduced shelves in Boots picking up hair dye in odd colours (although they all look much the same once on my hair). I always look at the reduced produce section in supermarkets.

Yesterday I popped out to the Co-op to buy a loaf of bread. It was the only thing we needed. When I go there I discovered lots of marked down things. Happily the bread was reduced, but so were lots of other goodies. I was about to go and get a basket so that I could indulge in this bargains when I questioned if I really needed some blueberries from Peru or Strawberries (in February!) from Chile.

I'd done the usual round of food shopping on Friday. I'd planned my menus for the week and purchased the necessary ingredients. I'd even been to the market to buy fruit and vegetables in brown paper bags. Did I really need to buy lots more food in plastic wrappings?

I left the store several minutes later having bought just the loaf of bread required. A lesson learnt. Just because you can buy it doesn't mean you should.

My gift bags

I said ages ago that I would post some pictures of the gift bags I made. So this weekend I got the camera out to take some pictures for EBay and did a couple of the gift bags while I was at it. these are bags that I made for Christmas 2005. The reason that they are currently in my possession is that they were reused this Christmas to give a gift to me. Isn't recycling a wonderful thing! I made this one for Dear Heart's sister and it had a DIY book, muffin tin and a muffin recipe in it. It was bulging with Benefit make-up and other goodies when it came back. The ribbon definitely needs an iron before I reuse it this year.


I made this one for my Grandfather and to my shame I can't remember what I put in it! It doesn't show up very well in the picture but the net around the candle flame is orange.


I hope to have a profile photograph soon so watch this space!

Planet Organic

I recently ran out of nutritional yeast. Nutritional Yeast unfortunately doesn't not seem to be something that can be picked up easily in any old health food shop (Holland and Barrett take note!). I love visiting the kind of places that sell it (like the Natural Way) and browsing all the marvellous things on sale. Alas I knew that I was not going to be near a branch of the Natural Way and was trying to work out if I should arrange a trip and when I might be able to fit it in.

Yesterday I had to go to London for a meeting so I decided to see if there were any health food shops near where it was taking place. I was just thrilled to discover that there was a branch of Planet Organic just two streets away.

Oh and what an experience. It was so much larger than I expected with so many more things. The staff must have thought that I was a bit strange or was about to start shoplifting because I just couldn't decide what to buy. Alas I hadn't taken a cool bag so I couldn't buy any frozen food (but next time I will). I had to restrain myself from buying a vegan calzone, spinach wrap, rice ball or sushi to eat immediately (when I had sensibly packed my own lunch).

What I did buy was Larabars (Kenny has talked about them so much), a Nana's cookie (which could almost actually be good for you), some kind of chewy seitan and hemp bar (very chewy and very tasty), squirty soya cream and the nutritional yeast (imagine if they hadn't had any).

I then began to worry about how much stuff was imported and wrapped in plastic. Hence I'm trying to see the products I bought as inspiration rather than things that are about to become regular additions to my diet! It's just so good to go somewhere where vegan food is normal. I now really understand the phrase about children in sweet shops. Being vegetarian/vegan restricts your choices. If you go out to eat or buy a snack or lunch there will probably be only 2 things on the menu that you can eat. They will also probably be really worthy stuff (a salad when your pals are overloading in fat and carbs), foods that you would never have chosen to eat (I have only ever eaten Mushroom stroganoff in a restaurant) or really boring food (tomato sauce and pasta).

So being somewhere where there are dozens of choices is difficult. I'm not used to having to make such decisions. I'm out of practice!

P.s. Unlike some other shops they immediately understood that I wanted to use my own bag.

February here I come

Here’s my update of the changes for 2007 that I posted a few weeks back

Use what I have
I think I have conquered my glossy magazine addiction. Other good things to report are:
· I have not bought any clothes.
· have been taking lunch (and on occasion breakfast) to work.
· made my dad a birthday card and some fudge and popcorn to go with his birthday present.
· Sorted through the fabric and half finished sewing projects lurking in my study. Hemmed a skirt, finished turning an old pair of trousers into a skirt and made some spare curtain fabric into napkins.

EBay/ Freecycle at least one item per month
I listed 3 items on eBay in January. I sold one, didn’t sell one and the auction on the third is still open. I also sold my Mum on the joys of Freecycle.

Count my blessings
I so enjoy doing this one. It also ties in well with this amazing book on positive thinking I’ve been reading called Excuse me, your life is waiting. Written by Lynn Grabhorn, this is well worth a read, so get to your local library.

Be more mysterious
Not really sure how I’m doing on this one. I think it’s probably also about listening to other people more.

My to-do’s for February

Post at least one picture on this blog

Redesign my home page. It really needs re-doing and I've been learning a bit more about HTML at this marvellous site http://www.w3schools.com/

Post target update a the end of the month (unlike this month)

Those aren't many targets for February, but better to set small targets and exceed them than aim too high and lose heart.

Resolutions update...

I promise to do one tomorrow!

Today has been horribly hectic (despite my best attempts to be marvellously organised).

Not a very good start. I'll have to set myself lines if I don't pull my socks up.