Thrifty But Glam

Well amazingly we have had pretty much a whole week of Sun in the south of the UK! I even managed a beach trip on Tuesday!  We went to Studland beach and had to walk for almost 30 minutes to and from the car; in heat of about 29 degrees.  Now to those that are none UK natives, I am sure that 29 degrees is nothing.  To me however, it was hell!  Being beyond pale and covered in freckles and moles (one of which had to be removed in 2010 and screened) means that sun screen has to be re-applied religiously!  The traffic was hell and I needed to pee, but almost 90 minutes after setting out, we were finally there - and boy was it worth it! I am actually fortunate enough to live a 5 minute walk from the quay and a 40 minute walk from the local beach, but we knew it would be packed; and there was no way I was carrying the picnic food and drinks all that way!  Besides, sometimes it is just plain nicer to be adventurous and deviate from the local! There is t...

Today is turning out to be a bit of a nightmare day.  I was supposed to be working from home to try and clear a large back-log of main business and jewellery business items, but due to losing a contract in my main business, I am having to bite the bullet and go out to Nurse this afternoon.   Tuesday is usually the only day I get to spend any time with my husband so I always despair if work takes me away from home. Trying to be positive and mature I decided to make the most of the morning and do a mass print-out that I had been putting off for the last week - sadly the printer ink decided to run out half way through the 1000 copies, after replacing the cartridges it has now decided to quit printing in black and magenta.  I have spent the best part of an hour on my hands and knees cleaning, cajoling and lastly being down right aggressive in an attempt to get it to work - no joy.  I am now stuck with a half complete mail-out that is unusable until t...

Well as you all know I made a giant cupcake a few days ago and from the excess batter I made a batch of surplus cupcakes.  I was keen to try something new and was initially tempted to make Cake Pops.  They are super cute but I didn't have any sticks and I didn't really fancy making a trip out specifically to get some.  The obvious answer was cake pops without the stick AKA Cake Truffles! I managed to rustle these up pretty much from left overs, admittedly I did have to nip out to buy 300g of milk chocolate and a bag of white buttons.  We live opposite an Aldi and seeing as I was raised on German chocolate I love the stuff!  My huge stash of chocolate came to £1.25 - not exactly breaking the bank. Have decided to post my first ever tutorial, forgive me if it isn't clear - I will do my best! Step One - Cupcake Supply I had 16 normal sized cupcakes in total; 7 were topped with a chocolate ganache and 9 were plain.  I didn't weigh any of my ingredie...

Well our first craft session was good but I managed to make absolutely nothing :( Having two friends completely new to sewing meant that my time was spent helping them with everything.  I naively didn't realise that this was going to be the case and just presumed we would all be able to sit at the dining table crafting in unison!  They both picked things up really quickly and I am sure that it won't be long until they are teaching me! The naughty bunting was a success!  My friend used a big fat quarter of Kath Kidston style fabric and just made plain triangles.  Perhaps stating 'just made plain triangles' detracts from the effort that was involved.  The template was a doddle but achieving nice straight lines with a crisp point on the triangle was near impossible. I think she is very pleased with her efforts as this has pride of place hanging above her mantle!  This taught me many great things about bunting, the most import being that usin...

Well at the beginning of this year I swore that I would be super organised and have all manner of home made pressies ready for when Christmas roles round - I managed to knit the pieces for a kitty scarf; Cute Kitty Hat and Scarf Which I was planning on delivering to someone very special.  I had a lovely family member make me one for the Christmas just gone and I was seriously almost moved to tears!  I understood how much time and concentration would go into knitting a pattern on this scale and as she has a small child and knitted one for my sister in law too, I truly felt honoured. After spending weeks revisiting my basic knitting techniques, and then weeks actually completing the pattern, the individual pieces stayed in my knitting bag and I was planning on sewing them together in the Autumn.  However our latest little arrival the Cookie Monster...... ......decided that obviously my neon pink spotted knitting bag was actually a puppy pad in di...

So after my last post I was most definitely on a mission to craft to distract!  I am ecstatic to note that I have been super successful and have some cute wonderful accessories to enjoy as well! As I promised; I did complete my hair bands and am ready to share, so here goes! Sugar Skull Hair-band I love a bit of unique styling and after a close friend had some gorgeous sugar skull tattoo's done I soon became a fan.  This was simple to make but the detailing was all hand painted so very time consuming.  I wasn't overly happy with the top middle painting as wanted it more symmetrical but I was following a pattern and wanted to stick religiously to it.  I think next time I will go a bit more free-style Sugar Skull Hello Kitty Hair-Band I love Hello Kitty and am also quite partial to a mix of cute and dark so this fit the bill perfectly!  I really like how the face turned out on this band but am not overly keep on the ears.  Next t...

Well after my mood killing post in March it was strange that we should find ourselves pregnant the very month that I had decided to give up. My husband was sticking to his gluten free diet and I was being a good little girl and taking my clomid despite it turning me into a raving psycho she devil from hell.  As with most women that are pregnant after a loss I was convinced that we would end up miscarrying again and sadly I was right.  I don't really feel like going into all the details right now as it is just far too depressing but the basics are that we lost the baby at the same point as the first (between 5 and 6 weeks) and yet again my body hasn't realised what has happened so I am just waiting to miscarry.  I would have been 9 weeks today and unfortunately my body is still producing enough of the pregnancy hormone for me to be feeling all of the pregnancy symptoms.  It is getting quite frustrating that at least 3 weeks after our baby stopped growing I am still w...