Sunday 29 December 2013

Back to Blogland

  I hope you all had a lovely Christmas Bloggy buds. The Frugal household was spoilt rotten your be pleased to hear. 
Yesterday DD and I busted out a card making kit we'd received.( We actually got one each!) and while Baby D was napping we made several cards for later in the year. The pack was stuffed full of backing papers, toppers, stick on jewels, ribbons and lots more so we had a whale of a time.

 DD was very proud of her work which is rather complex and about an inch thick lol.


I have also started my spring cleaning by cleaning out the vacuum cleaner. I'd noticed over Christmas it had lost some sucking power without the container being full up. So I took it to pieces over a carrier bag and gave everything a good clean off. Tip for life; Use a paintbrush or toothbrush to clean out the filter to get into all those nooks and crannies. After about 20 minutes I was done and my vacuum is as good as new! 


And finally a little peek at my latest project which is part of DD's birthday present in March. Not much time to knit over Christmas but I am already on square three of twelve.

x x x

Wednesday 18 December 2013

Ohhh I'm famous


 I thought I would share this article in a local paper I spotted yesterday. That's me in the front in the black tshirt. Not the most flattering picture, my mum already says I look like one of the army guys rather than one of the knitters!

 I'm still proud of being in the local paper though.

X X X

Sunday 15 December 2013

The beast is done!


 I am pleased to announce I have just finished the last few stitches of the Rudolf jumper. Sadly I've not had the light to sew him together yet, so that is tomorrows job, along with weaving in the ends.
 Hopefully I can get him in the post on Tuesday or Wednesday.
I'm already getting twitchy fingers about what to knit next lol, I'm off to peruse my pattern stash.

x  x  x

Busy as a bee.


  The fun just doesn't stop here and the Frugal Home. On Friday it was DD's school play, she was a Christmas star. After the performance there was a special visitor who arrived to give all the children presents.

And because he is a magical chap, Father Christmas also knew Baby D would be there (along with all the siblings in the audience) and brought them all a  little something too.


And finally I wanted to show you my attempt at Angela's Chocolate Mountain Pudding. I haven't got any icing sugar to decorate it, and due to moving soon I don't intend to buy any until we are in our new pad. But I do think it looks delicious enough with the Swiss roll edges alone. We had a few slices between us all last night and it was a huge success. Thank you Angela! I've tucked the recipe into my stash already to make again for New Years.

x x x

Tuesday 10 December 2013

Christmas Jumper progress report.

Just wanted to post quickly. Both of the girls are having afternoon naps and that NEVER happens!
 Here is my current progress on the jumper project. A few more days I think and I will be all done. My next project in the works is knitted blood for a charity so watch this space.

x xx

Monday 9 December 2013

It's just another manic Monday






 It's been manic here today. Every few hours we have been checking our online sales and finding another two or three things needing posting. Which is fantastic for our sales but it means I have to stand in ques like the one above regularly in the Post Office.

 However the wonderful people at Waitrose cheered me up no end with these four little goodies from their reduced baskets. I LOVE bagels! Chilly weather, Bagels and homemade jam is just a match made in heaven.
 The pastry is something I've always made myself but as it was a ridiculous price I was tempted. Plus Anchor have a reward points scheme that I've been told is good.


Yup, it really was that cheap! I love doubled up promotions.

Once we got home DD wasted no time in making up a batch of heart shaped mince pies. We had one each after our dinner and they are delicious! I think they might be lucky to make it to the morning as OH is already eyeing them up each time he enters the kitchen.
 She did the entire thing herself , only needing me to open the jar of mincemeat and do the oven side of the baking. It meant I could get on with reboiling my marmalade from yesterday which hadn't quite set overnight.

x x x

Sunday 8 December 2013

Busy weekend

 DD and the Birthday Princess.

 Saturday's birthday party for Princess H was brilliant fun. DD let me put her hair up for the party and kept in for the whole event, only taking it out once we got back through our front door. I was flabbergasted as DD hates anything in hair usually and fights against even wearing a hat.

 DD and one of her many balloons

DD was entertained by the copious amount of balloons everywhere you looked. She was very industrious and tried to collect them all in one place to make her own little stockpile. She also was giving out free hugs to anyone who moved close enough (whether they wanted one of not).

 DD munching her cucumber

Birthday Girl's mum put on a wonderful spread of finger foods for all ages and abilities. There was even jelly in little pots!
 Baby D munching

Baby D found the Jam sandwiches particularly declicious and I think she's have happily scoffed the whole platter if I hadn't stopped her at 3! I didn't think she'd ever nap after all that sugar but as soon as the party died down and we started walking home she crashed out for a solid 2 hours.

 Hubble Bubble

Today has been much quieter. I cut up 3lbs of oranges on Saturday evening and let them soak overnight in a little water. Then this afternoon once I'd caught up on various jobs I popped it into my brand new Jam pan and got some Marmalade on go.

 Just made

Just over 2 hours later I have 4 large jars of Marmalade ready for Hubby's morning toast. 2 have been flavored with a shot of whiskey for a little extra kick. Tomorrow I need to start processing a pile of huge cooking apples.
 What have been up to this weekend?

x x x

Saturday 7 December 2013

Foody Christmas


 We have just finished hanging our homemade Christmas decorations on the tree. We decided that as we are moving home just after Christmas and we need to use lots of things up that this year is a Foody Christmas. So we will be decorating our tree every so often with a selection of foody treats for everyone to enjoy. Currently we have a choice of coconut and cherry or orange and ginger shortbread hearts.
 We are also planning popcorn and peanut garlands, stained glass biscuits, gingerbread people (how PC!) and whatever the Internet shows us in the mean time.
 I have also just put a few pounds of sliced orange into some lemon juice and water to soak ready for marmalade making so watch this space for that to :)

x x x

Tuesday 3 December 2013

Frugal Christmas windows

Did anyone else see that gorgeous sunset last night? The beautiful pink sky made everything in the town glow in the most beautiful way. I was so taken by it I snapped this shot as I crossed the park on my way home. Not a bad picture for a phone camera.

This morning the D's and me have been making some window decorations and watching Snow White. Okay so they watched Snow White while I made some decorations! As hard as I tried to catch their interest they just weren't getting it today.
 On the way home from picking up DD from preschool I have been collecting "nice" twigs. I've been letting them dry in a vase on the dresser for few days until we had enough. With a few simple knots and some hairy string I now how two very festive looking stars to hang.


I also knocked up a few paper snowflakes from a gift catalogue I picked up a while back. I like looking through gift catalogues for ideas each year but it's so wasteful to just chuck them away after a flick through. My whole window has cost me pennies to decorate so far. I estimate 1p for tape to stick the snowflakes and another penny for the string which I can reuse after Christmas anyway.

And as requested by Angela over at Tracing Rainbows here is my progress on the Christmas jumper I've been working on. Just the antlers to knit and then I'm onto the sewing up and collar. I'm hoping to have it finished by the weekend.

x x x

The Random's are back!

 It's been one hell of a November for the Randoms, but we are never ones for dwelling on the past! So onwards and positivity is the order for the rest of the year.
 As its been over a month since I last updated you all here's a little catch up with each of us.
Baby D is growing up so fast and her vocabulary is growing day by day. Her favourite things to do at the moment are singing games, playing with containers and trying to climb into the washing machine!

 DD is rapidly approaching 4 years old. Her favourite things are anything princess, baking/cooking, and painting. She is coming on in leaps and bounds at preschool.
 OH is mentally still about 6, but I don't think that will ever change at this point lol. He is still into Arsenal and video games. I still utterly adore him with all my heart.
And finally me. I am still into knitting/crochet, self sufficiency and money saving. I'm hoping that next year will be a great year for us. We are moving home just after Christmas so 2014 really will be a year of new beginnings.

 x x x