Thrifty But Glam

Borrowing from our US cousins, I decided to do the 30 days of Thankful throughout November. Sometimes it is all too easy to concentrate on what you do not have, instead of what you are thankful for.  Every day I posted on both my business and personal facebook pages things I was thankful for.  So here it is, from Thursday 1st November (technically I only decided to do it on the 6th, but just back-dated the first 6 posts ;) ) right through to today - Friday 30th November. 30 Days of Thankful - Day One I am thankful for my very loving and supportive Husband 30 Days of Thankful - Day Two I am thankful for my wonderfully large, loving, and amazing family - both those that I am lucky to be related to, and those that have adopted me into their family through my husband. 30 Days of Thankful - Day Three I am thankful for my amazing friends. Without them, I do not know how I would have gotten through the darker parts - you always help me to find the light, and make me smile again...

Well, last week I was asked by a friend if I wanted to set up a stall at her work Christmas fete.  I have often wondered about venturing into the world of craft fairs, but have never had the confidence.  Seeing as this was just £5 entrance, I figured it would be a wonderful learning experience and said yes! The fete is on Saturday 15th December, and as usual I have a zillion and one ideas, but not enough time to try them all.  I am having to be really strict with myself and set small tasks that must be completed before I start something new.  I have a bad habit of starting something, and then abandoning it when I get a new idea. The aim is to select some of my key jewellery items (such as my Tree of Life pendants) and then focus on them and paper crafts.  This week is dedicated to making tags, gift bags, boxes and cute decorations to sell. I am also having to go out and Nurse, so trying to balance this new business with the existing one is pr...

So it was my best friend's birthday last week and obviously I decided to make her a super awesome birthday gift! I saw a design on the Silhouette store for a 3 drawer gift box and knew that whatever I made her, it had to be packaged in it.  I decided to use heart shaped metal brads for cute little handles, and co-ordinated pastel blue with black.  I am really pleased with how it turned out; So now that I had the cute wrapping, I need something as equally nice to fill it with.  My friend is a chocolate fiend (bit like me) and so I decided to make her some truffles to put in the drawers.  As there were 3 drawers, I decided on 3 different truffles. Left to Right - milk chocolate dipped in white chocolate, milk chocolate covered in malibu frosting and mixed nuts, double dipped milk chocolate drizzled with white chocolate It foolishly didn't occur to me to check the height of the drawers before making the truffles - needless to say they were ...

Well, almost two weeks ago my car decided to break down :( Trying to be super thrifty, I attempted a DIY fix and prayed it was just the battery being affected by the cold weather.  Sadly it wasn't and my little Smartie decided to cost me £700! Down side to this is that we have been pretty much cleared out of our Christmas present fund, the upside to this was that I was forced to stay at home.  In a way, this was a positive thing.  Chris is always complaining that I never take the time to just relax, that all my time is spent running around after the businesses or visiting family.  Without a car, I had no choice but to stay in. Trying to make the most of my time, I decided to start on Christmas preparations =D I now have 11 jars of pickled onions (5 plain, 6 spiced) fermenting away in my cupboards and I have finally managed to complete my first Christmas present.  I honestly was worried it wasn't going to happen, shamefully these have been about 6 m...

For those of you not in the know, Movember is the act of growing a moustache to raise money for Men's Health Charities.  Eh?!? I hear you cry!  Basically on the 1st November, a man is supposed to record a photo of his clean shaven face.  On a daily basis, a photo is taken to show the progress of the Moustache.  People will donate money to him, which in turn is then given to his preferred Male Health Charity.  November then becomes known as Mo-vember! Personally I think it is just a bit of an excuse for men to try out the Grizzly Adams look without fear of repercussions/arguments; Significant others can not possibly complain about the new face fuzz, as it is all for a good cause ;) To show my support for my male friends that are in the running this year, I decided to create some cute Moustache nail decals.  Okay, okay, you've got me.  Firstly its an excuse to use my  Silhouette Cameo , secondly like most Etsy sellers, I am obsessed...

I love baking, and generally I would never use a packet mix.  I personally think that they don't actually save time, they cost more money and usually they don't taste all that great either.  However after rummaging in my cupboard a few weeks ago, I found a Mrs Crimbles sponge and muffin mix that was about to go out of date.  We inherited this packet mix from my cousin, who brought it whilst she was trying out a gluten free diet.  I hate waste, and really couldn't bare to throw it away. The weekend I discovered the mix, also happened to be the biggest Birthday weekend of the year!  I was already making a madeira cake for my cousin and thought it would be a good idea to whip something up for Chris to enjoy whilst we were there. Chris loves raspberries and he loves cream cheese.  Coupling the two created this; I have to say that despite it being a packet mix, it was deliciously moist!  The combination of raspberries and cream cheese isn't...

Now any of you that have seen my facebook page, know I am obsessed with Christmas (countless Christmas/Winter themed posts in the last 24 hours).  However, there is one aspect about Christmas that I dread; working an obscene amount of hours. My main job (the one that makes enough to pay the bills) is running a Dental Nurse agency.  I started this business about 30 months ago, and quit my then job to work at it full time almost two years ago.  The main reason I started the agency, was because I had worked my way up to the top of my career by the age of 22 and had been stuck in a working environment I hated. When I initially quit the 'day job', we had just suffered our first miscarriage and I believed that the stress I had been put under at work may have been contributory.  I did something I had never done before, I left a secure job and headed into the unknown - I had no idea how we were going to pay the mortgage and I was sure that Nursing at my agency would be a...

This last week has been very heavy on the craft front!  We had two very dear friends get married yesterday, and knowing their unique tastes, I was itching to create a present and card that I hoped would appeal. I will detail the present in another post, as it is rather lengthy and I wanted to be able to do the card justice. When Chris and I got married, we were presented with many beautiful cards.  It saddened me that I would be unable to display them, and instead have them closed away in our memory box.  This gave me the idea of creating a card that could be displayed permanently (if the recipient so wished). Knowing that the Bride and I have very similar tastes, it didn't take long to come up with a concept - a 3D birdcage.  Coupled with the fact that their wedding had accents of flamingo, I knew this design would be perfect featuring a beautiful flamingo within. Having another opportunity to use my favorite new toy (my Silhoue...