2010 - the year of living thriftily

The very last day of 2009 - and Mr Fig's 41st Birthday!

(He has just informed me he would rather be known as Mr Juicy...)

It has been another strange old year, but it has all ended quite well and left me feeling quite positive about the next 12 months.

One thing I am very possitive about is how much more thrifty I am going to have to be - money has never been so tight as it is now, and with the Figlett hopefully setting of for University in September, I am going to have to do some serious figure crunching!

My intention is to blog my thriftyness as well as my craftiness (hand in hand really!) but as with all resolutions we will just have to see how long it lasts.

Today I am going to be visiting Martin Lewis's web site and doing what I have put off for too long now - the financial breakdown, and I can tell you now the outgoings will be higher than the incomings.

Anyway - to anyone reading have a HAPPY NEW YEAR - and for Mr Juicy - HAPPY BIRTHDAY xxx

The goose is getting fat!

well, perhaps the goose is getting fat, but I don't think I will be getting the goose! As much as I would love to try Goose and feel it is a much more traditional dish to England than Turkey 1. I can't get my mother to get one for Christmas - she is terrified it will ruin the day! and 2. I can't afford to get one to try myself!

I have failed to photograph life for a while now - even for my photography class!

this is the time of year to make cosy fires though, wrap up warm in blankets and knitted socks, and keep busy with knitting and hand sewing.

here is a Poem I first read in Country Living magazine about 15 years ago, and immediately copied it down for reference ever since - although most fires we light seam to fill the house with smoke and require all the windows and doors open, and a liberal application of optrex to ones eyes!

Wisdom of the ages
Author: Cilia Congrave 1930

Beechwood fires are bright and clear If the logs are kept a year,

Chestnut's only good they say,If for logs 'tis laid away.

Make a fire of Elder tree,Death within your house will be;

But ash new or ash old,Is fit for a queen with crown of gold.

Birch and fir logs burn too fast Blaze up bright and do not last,

it is by the Irish said Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread.

Elm wood burns like churchyard mould,E'en the very flames are cold

But Ash green or Ash brown Is fit for a queen with golden crown.

Poplar gives a bitter smoke,Fills your eyes and makes you choke,

Apple wood will scent your room Pear wood smells like flowers in bloom

Oaken logs, if dry and old keep away the winter's cold

But Ash wet or Ash dry a king shall warm his slippers by.

Merry Christmas!

An Award? for little old me? THANK YOU!!!

I am so chuffed with my award from the lovely http://angleseyallsorts.blogspot.com/

Queen of the treasure haul!

Thankyou - though I don't feel I deserve it with my lack of bloggyness of late - even though I still always am thinking of what to write!

Apparantly I am supposed to blog about 6 things never revealed about myself before...which is REALLY hard to do!

(if you get chanse - go and read Anglesy Allsorts 6 things - I love the story about her Grandad and the house clearance!)

* When I was pregnant with my daughter, while still attending collage - I had parked on the car park which at that time was just waste ground. I suffered really badly with morning sickness, and had gone back to my car to go home only to find I had been blocked in on every side...

being sick and hormonal, I squeezed my car through between the others, scratching both sides of my car and the others!

I told my dad that was how I found it...sorry dad!

*I told my daughter that when the ice cream van plays it's chimes, it is because he has run out of ice cream...Sorry Taryn!

*I told my mum when I was very little, that the labrador broke the glass door that devided the kitchen from the dining room, but only locked from one side. and he did it because he knew I needed to get to the toilet while mum was outside speaking to a neighbor...sorry mum!

*I discovered the funniest way ever to get rid of cold caller - you know when the phone rings, you pick up and say hello, there is silence, then a click as the sales person connects to you - well (try this, I promise it is worth it) only say 'penguin' - every time they ask you anything, just say pengiun. see how many you can get in before they hang up, or you do because you can't help laughing - I got a 15 penguiner once - I hung up!

*When I am alone in my van - that doesn't have a sterio/radio - I sing at the top of my voice!

*When I was a child, my best freind's mum gave us a stair carpet to play with - we spent days in the garden rolling each other up in it - until one day when we managed to roll myself, my freinds sister and my freind into a giant child/carpet sausage roll, with our arms trapped in the carpet, my freind started to giggle, then wet herself - which soaked through all the layers of the carpet whetting myself and her sister through - we never let her forget it!

I am supposed to give this award to 6 others now - but I have been out of blog land so long, I need to do some catching up first!

soon

Kath

x

knit and natter in Whalley

Time is definitely speeding up - I was sure my last post was only about a week ago!

I have been taking small steps at work to make the whole experience less stressful - taking a demotion, doing less hours, and not getting too concerned with office politics. When it does get too much, I pop onto my favorite yarn web sites, and just look at the gorgeous colours!

My favorite event of the year is almost upon us - Harrogate Knitting and Stitching show - I have been going to this for years - it is a bit of a trek, but nowadays, it is Me, my mum, my daughter and our newest recruit, my niece Maisy - we book early, take a packed lunch, and SHOP!!!!! and even better, they always organise it right by my birthday, so now my relatives give me cash for the show. This year my mum is getting me the Dianna interchangeable needle set - Bliss! AND I have booked a whole week off after it to knit and sew.

Our little Village has been organising a farmers market on the last Sunday of the month for about 6 months now - it seams to have been a real success so far. It has been held on the car park of The Swan Hotel, where - I found out recently, my relatives were the longest serving landlords from 1870 - 1911 when it was still a coaching house, so mum and I had a word with the new landlady to see if we could start a knit and natter group there on the same day as the market - a sort of Sunday breakfast club. I am so excited - I really hope people turn up - I want to feel part of a community again like I did as a child!

So - hopefully if it goes well, I will be posting some photo's here, maybe even start a group blog or something! (I think a naked calender will be some time off yet though! hehehe)

Whalley
Knit and Natter
EVERYONE WELCOME
All ages, male or female, beginners or advanced!

Come and join us at
THE SWAN HOTEL
Whalley
For our first get together!
Sunday 29th November
10am – 12pm

No need to book – Just turn up!

A New Start?

After being sent home from work YET AGAIN suffering from stress - and realising how little I have put into looking after my own well being this year (I have yet to have a full week off work, and any time I have had off has been taken to do my other job) I have decided things definatly have to change around here!

As yet, I have no idea how this is going to occur, especially as mine is the only income in the house... but I feel that in writing this I am setting myself some king of affirmation/goal/challenge/something!

so, perhaps October 2009 could be the start of a whole new life - who knows...

The JuicyFig...

Photo madness!

Ah, so many things I do to keep my mind off the drudgery of my 9 - 5 job that is sapping my soul but keeping the wolves from the door.

I am really really enjoying my photography course at the moment (went through a dodgy part after Christmas where I fell out with the subject for a week or two, but back in full swing at the moment)
so - to bore the pants of y'all, here are some of my shots...

Ok, so I thought I better start with a still life of some of my vintage sylko pearl cottons... (black and white because they are vintage!)
what? me up at sunrise? well, I am in work early most mornings!

I love these little mushrooms, they look like they have been hiding.

My lovely Taryn looking all wistful

and here she is again - she was wearing a sheet, but I cropped it out. This is my favorite portrait photo.

Our new brief is 'self' and can be done in any medium - I have been thinking about printing photo's onto fabric, so would appreciate it if any of you out there know of any particularly good methods for this...

until next time!

Spring has sprung!

Our very ancient computer is heading towards the great computer graveyard in the council dump very soon, riddled with viruses and looking very sorry for itself...still not bad for a free bee almost 7 years ago - I wonder if computers are like dogs in the 'how many computer years are there in a human year?'

So, I am sitting at my desk at work, on a break!!! (ahem) updating my blog.

crafting has taken a temporary back seat, that isn't to say I haven't done any, finished a table cloth for mum, made myself a new apron, almost finished some socks etc...well you know! but have been concentrating on my Photography course work quite a bit - the last assignment has been portraiture, so will be posting a link to our class web site soon where all our work is handsomely displayed.

Ahh, the sun is shining, the weekend is imminent - 2 birthdays, and two mothers, and no money!!!

enjoy the spring-ness of this spring weekend!

Blue - I love you!

Ahhh, we might not have any 'proper' snow around here, but we have had some lovely sunny days, and since I quit working Mondays, weekends have a slightly more relaxed feel to them.

So - languishing is the key!

I knock on the floor when I awake, and hubby who has usually been up for hours already rushes and brews a fresh mug of coffee for me - ah, if only I could sit there all day tapping out instructions from the bedroom, imagining him scurrying around trying to make the house spic and span for when I finally drag my carcase out of bed!

I had been inspired to make some lavender scented sachets for the linen cupboard - well, actually they are going onto my new little Etsy shop - eventually when the computer decides to work properly (why doesn't it listen when I shout at it and bang the mouse up and down???)
Also. a new WIP for my Etsy shop - some children's socks made from a lovely vintage vogue knitting pattern

And then I noticed, how much of my weekend has been 'blue' - I wouldn't say I had a favorite colour, but looking around the house and my life spaces in general, I think I have a definite leaning towards all things blue, the colour of the sky, the sea, my eyes! it is a cold clean colour, fresh, bright...well it always makes me happy!

and my grape hyacinths flowered this week - the best 75p spent in a while!

February Snow

Can you believe it! this was taken in February 2008!

It is so cold! - February has arrived with snow and wind and left me shivering - however! my multi fuel fire is warming me twice as promised. Once chopping and gathering the wood - one again on the lighting, sitting of an evening with my feet stretched out on the foot stool, wearing my hand knit socks - knitted by my grandma about 20 years ago (and still looking like new!)

A good friend let me borrow his chain saw - I was like a wild woman this morning out in the backs, work bench set up, goggles on and safety gloved, I felt like waving the chain saw in the air and holing like a crazy wolf when I cut through my first log!

Not sure how the money saving is going - still haven't used the tumble drier once since Christmas, and the heating has been on very little - keep going round the house switching off anything on standby - we will see!

Taking life easy...

So - a couple of weeks into the new year and I am not a millionaire as yet with the frugality, and although I really can't tell a difference on my bank statements so far, I do believe I am feeling a load better in my soul!

I have not used my dryer once - I even managed to get a load of sheets pegged out and dried one day! - everything else is on grandma's trusty maiden.

The message is getting through to the rest of the household regarding switching off lights, not leaving the TV on standby etc

Yesterday I followed 'martins money tips' and purchased myself 10 low energy light bulbs for the grand TOTAL of 80p! how virtuous am I? ;~)

Not 1 single loaf of bread bought in 2009 - I am getting quite good at making a decent loaf now, and I am onto my 5th pair of socks - all knit from my stash.

I have decided not to moan about my job for the foreseeable future, and be glad it is there to pay the bills for now - and have decided that no longer shall I work to keep up a lifestyle I can never quite attain, but to get real pleasure from what I can do myself.

The door off our multi fuel fire is being mended, and SSB and I have been wood scavenging for free fires! (I can't believe I have spent a fortune in the past on bags of pre-cut kindling when nature blows the darn stuff off the tree's for me, all I have to do is bend down and pick it up!

Early potatoes planted into big pots in the pollytunnel, rhubarb patch on it's way to a new lease of life...phew!

So - to end, a quick photo from warmer days last summer, sitting by the river one Sunday morning with the latest WIP!