Mother's Day

I was a creative little bunny for mother's day this year. My original plan to cook dinner from my Mum at my house was out. My Grandmother was visiting near where my parent's live and was going to drop by.

Following a chat with my sister and my Dad we moved the cooking to my parent's kitchen with input from sister, Dad, me and Dear Heart.

I made this card for my mum making use of some magazines I was about to throw out. I just love the 'Mum' spelt in jeans on the back.

I made couple of present bags this week. One with a present for my grandmother in it (bath bombs) and one for Dear Heart's sisters birthday. I find that I'm really busy as the moment. Particularly as a result of all the time I'm spending on Moonwalk training. I think I might have to reconsider the targets I am setting myself while I'm spending time on training. I also need to sort out in my head all the books I've read about not spending, how evil supermarkets are, how cheap proper food can be and quality of life. I'm sure they all tie together but I'm getting bit tangled up in all the principles at present. Anyway, here are the bags. Enjoy the cute green signature hearts on the backs (reminds me of the care bears!).

I'm off to try and wind up my ever growing job list, eat more carbs (lots of walking means I now have to wear a belt with my jeans to get them to stay up to a decent point!) and get my head together!

P.S. I cannot believe that 2 weeks have passed since my last entry. I will try harder to blog at least once a week, particularly during busy (and therefore interesting) times.

Pride comes before...

...your boot falls apart!

Let me start at the beginning. I headed off to a meeting this morning feeling rather smug. I've taken to wearing leggings (so much warmer and so, so much more comfortable than tights) and long in the winter. Alas the leggings were a little worn (i.e. ripped to the knee) after 2 winters but a few minutes with the sewing machine sorted them out. Any lining my boots might have had had also worn away but I made some lovely inner soles to stop my getting sore and keep them warm.

As I'd arrived early for my meeting and congratulating myself on my thriftiness I went to a coffee shop to enjoy a large cup of Earl Grey. As I sipped I read a little more of Not buying it. the time came when I finished my tea and exited the coffee shop. However as I did so I lost my balance. Righting myself and hoping that I didn't look too stupid I then realised there was something odd going on with my boot. The sole was hanging off.

Admittedly I noticed the sole was a little loose in places the other day, but I thought it would last me until the end of the winter. It became clear almost immediately that I was going to have to take some action. Should I buy some blue tack to hold it in place? Would chewing gum work? I shuffled into New Look who, of course, aren't stocking boots at this time of year. I tried all the charity shops in the area. They either had no long boots, the boots were leather, too small or had skyscraper heels. I then decided the answer was to buy pair of tights to replace the leggings and some colourful flat shoes.

Unfortunately I bought the tights before I realised that all the shoes available were too boring to spend money on, over priced, open toed or way too high to walk in. I was also cutting it rather fine for my networking meeting.

Working on the belief that people don't tend to notice flaws unless you point them out I tied sole to the top of the boot and went to the meeting. Once there I stayed seated (with my bag practically on top of my boot) for as much of the time as possible and left at the earliest opportunity. I couldn't concentrate anyway and spent part of the time making a list of all the shoes and boots that are currently sitting in my porch waiting to be worn. They'll be seeing a lot more action over the next few weeks and I will be buying new, good quality boots next autumn.

Time for a rest

I'm training for the Playtex Moonwalk once again. I did 8 miles on Sunday and got totally drenched. I only realised how wet I had gotten when the clothes were still wet yesterday. I took advantage of the better, although windy weather yesterday to enjoy a number of hours working on my allotment. The planting season will be here soon. I'm still finding potatoes from last year's crop as I dig the ground over. These are very welcome as the pantry at present only contains those too small to bother peeling.

I also did lots of cooking (and therefore washing up). I redyed my hair for the first time since I had it cut short (dyeing with Kool aid doesn't really count). I'm used to having a large porous surface (i.e. lots of hair) to soak up the dye so yesterday it was going everywhere. I looked like I something form a disaster movie. Hence the bathroom then needed lots of cleaning.

Anyway as a result of all that physical exertion I began to ache all over yesterday evening. Therefore I'm planning on a nice quiet evening with a book on the sofa. I've just finished World War Z : an oral history of the Zombie War by Max Brooks. It's an amazing book, but one that does tend to stay on your mind (paranoid? me?).

Tonight therefore I will be reading Not buying it: my year without shopping by Judith Levine. I imagine that this will have no mention of zombies. I'm hoping it may provide further inspiration for my frugal quest. Additionally I've heard very mixed reviews. I read an extract in one of the weekend papers last year and I must of enjoyed what I read because I wrote down the title to check on the library catalogue.

I'll report back later this week (hopefully) on if Not buying it was worth the wait.

Loyalty points

I have about £30 worth of Boots points. This would keep me in hair dye for a year. Yet what do I do when I need dye to cover the grey? I pay for dye with actual money. Why am I saving these points? They won't gain interest (unlike real money). The last time I saved them up I kept thinking that I'd buy myself a treat but I ended up using them to buy a present for someone else.

Time to save few pennies and get to Boots with my Advantage card rather than my Switch card.