This week I saved money by:
Sewing. This week I concentrated on making kitchen towels. The last few weeks I have posted pics of kitchen towels that I have purchased and crocheted an edge around. Now I am on to making my own. All year I watch for pretty sheets, doona covers, curtains etc in op shops. This is the way to get loads of fabric for very little. I wash them up and line dry them. For kitchen towels I try to find soft cottons and I sew them double thickness. If it is a gorgeous print I will extend that by using the pretty bit for the front and using something plain for the back.
I have two friends with pink kitchens! I love sewing with pink! And I make some pink things for myself as I basically can't resist it.
And kitchen towels are useful. Aside of wiping dishes they are handy for wrapping food and keeping it warm, under the lid of the crock pot, line a basket and fill with warm scones, in your picnic basket as a cover and so on...
Then I added trims. I had these already and was very lucky with the matches!
I have some smaller bits of this left so I think maybe I will make a set of serviettes.
This one was a doona cover (quilt) and I backed it with an old thick white sheet. Loving the pink roses!
On Wednesday I visited Hilde for her birthday. I got a sheet set in cream with little pink roses all over it!!! So that is what I will work on next week. Fabric wise this means I can make kitchen towels for something like 50c each or even less...
Hilde has a lemon tree. It is HUGE.
Behind that tree Hilde has a balcony where she stands with a fruit picking stick and sends the lemons falling to the ground where I am collecting them.
All this means more when you see the size of these lemons. They are the biggest lemons I have ever seen!
It did occur to me that it would be a fitting end if I was knocked out dead under a lemon tree. There was a lot of laughter and I survived though.
So I came home with a huge bag of lemons and we made no impression on the tree what so ever.
Hilde's husband died before Christmas. Just before I arrived she had flowers delivered to the door. Her favourite flowers in her favourite colour! They were from him! Plus a card from him in his words with a message to her. He had obviously arranged all this before his death thinking that far ahead.
That was a bit of a moment.
At the workshop last weekend Tania gave me the most beautiful mandarins. The hugest bagful!
These are just a few on my kitchen bench. Mimi asked me what was I going to do with them all and I realised I forgot to answer that (sorry Mimi!) so here it is:
Andy one a day for three weeks or so.
Fishing trip 6
My niece who is mad on them 2 dozen.
Chloe 1 dozen.
Lucy 1 dozen.
That is where I am up to! they have been so handy and appreciated, thank you Tania. They are the juiciest mandarins ever!
I filled prescriptions at Chemist King instead of the local chemist saving about $50.
I made formula tins over into canisters (shown Wednesday).
Did all the usual things, made all dinners, packed all lunches etc.
Some of the ways we built up our home...
I added to the pantry and cellar. I added batteries, matches, tinned fruit, water.
We got a little ahead in some medications.
I added a bit to emergency savings.
I hope you also had a good week! How did you save money, get ahead, improve your pantry or preparedness this week? Were you blessed with any produce or great bargains?
Sometimes it is just amazing what comes your way when your eyes are open. It might be a great special, free fruit or two miles of cream fabric with rosebuds for a few dollars! But it all helps! xxx
Wow, what a big lemon tree. How lovely for Hilde's husband to think so far ahead. I'm sure it was a special moment.
ReplyDeleteLove the towels Annabel, but I love anything you make. I really do drool over all your craft photos.
I had one of Tania's mandarins when I got back to my room after the workshop. It was so sweet and juicy.
I'll post my frugal list tomorrow after I put it on my blog xoxo
Dear Wendy,
DeleteThank you for all your encouragement on my crafts. Ill have you sewing kitchen towels and napkins soon I think!
I will come over to your blog tomorrow as I love hearing about your week. You always get a lot done in a week! With love, Annabel.xxx
What a surprise for Hilde, he was a very thoughtful husband to think ahead to her birthday.
ReplyDeleteThat lemon tree is huge and so are the lemons, bet they full of juice. The mandarins were a lovely gift from Tania.
Those teatowels are just beautiful and the recipient will love them. Ill have to keep my eyes open for some doonas, sheet etc.
This week I have finally had the splint removed through the day from my hand so have finished a crochet project, very slowly as my hand and finger is very stiff..
I have also made your sunshine cake as i was visiting my partners Mum and she loved and asked for the recipe I also made Hilde's scones and guess what? They were the best scones I have ever made. I took a few to my Mum and she raved about them too.....So I have had a good week.
I have also added a few things to the pantry, just more flour and basics like sugar long life milk etc.
Hope you have a great weekend Annabel xx
Dear Debbie this is great news about your hand. I would think it will take a while to get back to normal but still how good to have no splint!
DeleteI am so happy about the scones! Thank you for telling me that. I think I should add to the recipe or re post it as Hilde told me that you can press this mix out on baking paper and cover in jam, roll up and slice and you have scrolls. Or you can press it out thinly on a pizza pan and you have a pizza base. So it is useful for heaps of things! But you cant beat scones. Also as a gift scones are lovely and you can freeze them. Just so handy.
If your partners Mum wanted the Sunshine cake recipe that obviously went down well too! I love that you told me this, thank you.
I hope your hand keeps improving! With love, Annabel.xxx
I also made scrolls with Hildes recipe with cheese and vegemite and they were all eaten and loved. Many possibilities with this idea, cheese and ham or bacon, cheese and sweet chilli sauce and sweet ones with cinnamon and sugar. Thanks again for the recipe and well wishes for my hand.xx
DeleteLove the pinks! They are so pretty and you got some great bargains this week! Those lemons and mandarins! I am jealous! Hilde's husband sounds extraordinary what a precious gift.
ReplyDeleteAs you know I hosted my Pantry Swap party and traded for some goodies that way so it didn't cost me anything. I picked a bucket of tomatoes and will be canning juice from them. I got more free buckets from the bakery and a few samples in the mail. Will you be canning mandarin orange juice? Tomorrow I am making banana bread from leftover bananas and picking corn. The corn is small, but it is good so I am not letting it go to waste and anything too small will be fed to the chickens. Hope you have a great week!
XOXO
Vicky
Dear Vicky, I love what you do with the buckets... will show everyone this idea next week!
DeleteYou are right to use the corn and thats the beauty of chickens... nothing gets wasted!
A couple of weeks ago when I had all those bananas the cake etc I made was so nice... bananas are like lemons as there are a lot of things you can do with them!
Have a wonderful weekend! With love Annabel.xxx
Dear Annabel, I love, love the kitchen towels! So lovely and you are so creative!!! :) I just love all the ways you make everything so fancy and lovely!
ReplyDeleteWhat wonderful fruit you were given by Tania and Hilde! Yum!!! That's a huge lemon tree and that lemon in your hand is sure big!
I've added a lot to my pantry by canning peaches, tomatoes and green beans. We were blessed with lots of extra fruit and veggies, so we shared the bounty but I was still able to put up a bunch! I'm filling all my jars and making peach pie filling for the freezer! A busy but good week!
I'll bet Hilde was so surprised by her husbands' sweet gift! How thoughtful he was!! I also had to laugh at your lemon picking. I'm so glad you survived!! :)
Have a wonderful weekend Annabel and all! Love, Teri
Dear Teri,
DeleteI am glad you love the kitchen towels as some of them are coming your way!
:)
I am thrilled for you about all the peaches, tomatoes etc that you have had. How wonderful. I love it too when I can both fill up my shelves and share it.
I would have loved you to be here picking lemons too. It was really fun. I get to do this again in a few weeks.
Have a good weekend! With love, Annabel.xxx
Hi Annabel and everyone! Those lemons are spectacular, aren't they? I had a good week this week, not only in my own household but in my disabled sons household too. For us, I made Taco Pie, turkey meatloaf, baked salmon and teriyaki steak, all of which we love, and which I cooked in sufficient quantities to feed us for dinner that night, and lunch the next day. As well as that I made gluten free crepes which we've enjoyed like sandwich wraps, and as desserts and stacked crepe cake. Layered with jam, lemon or passionfruit butter, and cream, these are divine and so easy and frugal. On a trip to IKEA, I found the net curtains of which you spoke, and made both Caths fruit and vege bags, and tulle garlands as per your post some time ago. I also made progress on the cute embellished bedlinen I am making for my granddaughters for Christmas, and cut out the body of the looks-like-me dolls that I am also sewing for them. For my son, I did a great frugal grocery shop and a big cookup of sausage rolls, Italian bean soup, and honey mustard chicken. I sourced a new sofa for his support workers to enjoy in the living area, for under $100 on Gumtree, had a big declutter of his apartment, and replaced all of his linen from the online sales. It was all getting a bit shabby after five years. Yes, five years since he moved into his own home. Hard to believe! I ironed a lot purely for the therapeutic mindlessness of it, and now have several new outfits from my own closet...or rather my own ironing basket. That's a win for sure! Love to everyone, and applause from me on a great week. I loved Hildes' thoughtful husbands last loving gesture. It brought tears to my eyes. Love, Mimi xxx
ReplyDeleteDear Mimi, What a good week! Apart from all the practical help for your son and lovely cooking... the vegie bags and the things you are making your Granddaughters! Firstly.... isnt that tulle a bargain? It is a lovely soft tulle too perfect for bows on parcels and all kinds of things. Now... this linen I really want to see how you embellish it! It sounds just lovely. And the tulle garlands.... if you have left overs I have made tulle pom poms... big ones. They look so soft and pretty and I have hung them from Harpers cot here. I should take a photo.
DeleteAlso when you are finished I hope you will show us the dolls! They will be a treasure. I am in love with this idea!
Your week was awesome. You inspired me with ideas just hearing about it!
Have a lovely weekend! With love and thanks, Annabel.xxx
Dear Annabel,
ReplyDeleteThose lemons are huge! We have a lemon tree (lisbon) in a pot and those lemons are quite large, but definitely not that big!
Glad you are enjoying the mandarins. There is a yummy recipe for mandarin and almond cake on the net. Just four ingredients. http://www.4ingredients.com.au/recipe/mandarin-almond-cake
I'm not having a very frugal week, but having said that we are doing the trip as cheaply as possible. We took our own van with us on holiday, so that is cheaper accommodation. We brought our own food along, so saved money there. Carted our own drinking water from home, so didn't have to buy water.
The weather is not good for fishing so looks like we will have to purchase fish from the local fish factory, but that's okay.
Wishing you a lovely weekend.
xTania
Dear Tania, Thankyou for this recipe. I LOVE those 4 ingredient recipes so I know it will be good. I have plenty left to do this.
DeleteI just hope you are having a rest and break. That is the main thing. It has been really windy here so I am thinking the coast is probably getting it.
You are saving a lot of money just by having the caravan and your own meals. Just enjoy! With love, Annabel.xxx
Annabel I miss my lemon tree even more now - it was not as bushy as Hilde's but the lemons it produced were amazing. When we had the builders in they took large buckets of lemons away and could not believe how many were still on the tree.
ReplyDeleteI am sure you were meant to be visiting Hilde when the flowers arrived - true love.
I am cooking today - sweet things this morning and will do the rest of the savoury dishes after I have had a rest and caught up with the dishes.
So far I have baked some scones for DH using my mother in law's recipe (which is a rub in the butter one but, I don't mind that) - a simplicity chocolate cake and using the same recipe but switched it to a lemon coconut cake and have just removed the last of 2 dozen gluten free blueberry and lemon muffins out of the oven. Between the cakes and the muffins I stopped for lunch and had a zucchini slice in cooking - a double mix. Once that is cold I can then wash the dish and make up a double spinach and fetta impossible pie, some savoury mince and some procupine meatballs. My husband is making rissoles tonight so the freezer will be restocked with quick things as the season changes over.
Yesterday I did a huge Aldi shop - the lass who served me was not very well at all and I hope that she is not getting the 'flu, the mechanic that is working on the Torana was telling my husband that his apprentice that decided that he didn't want to be a mechanic if it meant that he couldn't work after partying most of the night and his girlfriend both died from it recently. Last year we nearly lost our soon to be niece by marriage to the 'flu - she didn't have the typical 'flu symptoms and the ambulance guys decided that she wasn't sick enough to warrant them taking her to hospital - just goes to show.
Mimi didn't mention it but we finally met on Tuesday - I expected her to mention the items we spotted in the garden shop - similar to what you have shown us but the prices are out of this world. After I left Mimi I popped into the shopping centre where Spotlight is and learnt that the old Sam's store has been split in 1/2 and ALDI is going in there - that will make it easier for me shopping wise because I will be able to pick up the great bargains at the other supermarket down the road without having to make a special trip.
Tomorrow we are starting to move things to where they are supposed to be - not sure when we will have the rest of our bits and pieces out of storage but we are getting close.
Lynette
XXXXX
Dear Lynette, oops my reply to you ended up two comments down!
DeleteI hope you see it! With love Annabel.xxx
Dear Annabel,
ReplyDeleteBeautiful post! I'm still laughing over you and the lemons! Thank you for sharing about Hilde's floral surprise. The towels are just gorgeous and have your signature beauty all over them. It's been a very busy few weeks for me and pretty good in the pantry, etc. Here's what's happening:
*half-priced grocery week
*made all savings goals, with a little extra to add to the pantry :). God is good
*cooked all meals at home except for one...BIG plus as it was a busy week but I pulled it off!
*did some decluttering to go to the domestic violence thrift shop
*baked for my family
*washed my sofa slipcovers, and my son thanked me! :) "mom they're so soft and nice, thank you!"
*tucked away a Christmas present
*tried a few new recipes, both kid approved YESSSS!
*made a birthday cake and celebrated my beautiful daughter's 22nd
*added items to the pantry at a 50% discount
*worked one day part time while kids were at school
*started Wendy's fancy face washers for Christmas gifts
*had a review of the budget & started planning for next year, ie, where to tighten the belt even more
*spent time purposely enjoying little things
A great week for sure. I love reading everyone's weeks. Even when I don't post I'm always sure to read as everyone is so encouraging. I'm spending time reviewing our finances and where we can improve. I keep learning that no matter how good you may be doing you can always find more ways to decrease what you're spending. Seeing my savings grow (slow at times) this year has been a great morale boost! Sometimes I think I get stale or don't feel like I'm making much progress. But keeping track and having a little review changed that. Thanks Annabel for all the encouragement, especially in the pantry. Definitely a family's insurance against any obstacle that threatens health, job loss, short weeks, short months, etc!
Much Love, Colette xxx
Dear Colette,
DeleteYou have been doing really well! I am so happy to hear it. I know you are very busy. That is your season!
I can see you have got ahead in some things too which is excellent ie putting away a Christmas present, starting on Wendys face washers (they are so sweet for a gift!) and also adding to the pantry. I love getting ahead!
Also you have reminded me of something... we are about to go into spring. I need to do my lounge covers! It is a big job I have 16 pieces to take off wash and put back on! Also it is cream... mmm But after it all looks so fresh and nice! It is super sweet your son appreciated the difference! (and feel!) That is lovely.
It is a joy to read how you are going.
Have a lovely weekend and I cant wait to hear about your retreat and see what you make! with lots of love, Annabel.xxx
Dear Lynette,
ReplyDeleteThat is sobering about the young ones dying from the flu. I had a bad flu once and will never forget. I was in hospital several days and it took me ages to recover. So now anyone with a bad cold that is not the flu... a bad true flu is a terrible sickness. It pays to be really careful.
You met Mimi!?!! I didnt know that! How lovely! Oohh I would have loved to see the garden shop plants and prices. My uncles birthday is tomorrow and the bowl of succulents I made up for him has sent up little flowers! Very timely! It looks really good and it cost me $2.50 all up!
Your cooking sounds just wonderful. What a cook up and adding to the freezer is so helpful. I love your recipes too. Things we love to eat.
Have a lovely weekend Lynette, lots of love, Annabel.xxx
Hehehe! I thought I'd leave that to Lynette to share. We spent a lovely hour and a half together, and yes...got lots of inspiration for terrariums, both big and small, and orchid bowls....at $400 if you don't mind! It was lovely...xxx
DeleteHello Annabel, what a great post! I love how productive and pretty your week was.
ReplyDeleteMy week has revolved around grands and my parents moving to our town. My home is in need of some care now but I should be back to that and blogging next week
Thank you Rhonda. I hope your parents have moved and are settling in! Yes you probably need a chance just to do things in your own place! there are just times like this! Thank you for taking time to comment! With love, Annabel.xxx
DeleteThose towels are so pretty Annabel. I don't think I could dry dishes with the, but wrapping up scones, covering a picnic basket, just gorgeous! I have doona covers here I bought on $1 day a while ago at our op shop. I was thinking aprons, but serviettes and pretty tea towels look just so lovely.
ReplyDeleteThe lemons are HUGE! What an amazing tree! How beautiful for Hilde to receive the flowers, I had a few tears over that one. xo
I bought some well priced items at NQR to stock my pantry up this week. I also used some Coles flybuy dollars. My daughter gave me $10 to buy some items at Coles, I used flybuy dollars, then went to Woolies and bought some cheap veggies with it! I still have my $50 to spend left! I'll be trying Telstra credit and see if it works, then I will have $50 to spend elsewhere next week. Not much other spending again this week, but plenty was spent on me! ;-) i have quite a few birthday dollars now and am considering a few items, one being a vacuum sealer. Hope everyone had a great week. How wonderful for Lynette and Mimi getting together! The price of those terrariums makes the mind boggle!!
Dear Kaye,
DeleteI understand what you are saying... I keep my prettiest towels for the nice jobs like the picnic basket etc. It makes them so enjoyable. I am always packing a basket of food to take in the car etc so they get used a lot.
How handy to get Birthday money! You are using it for wise purchases! It is also amazing how much you can get if you do careful shopping. It is more fun that way too!
Have a lovely weekend! I hope you had a great birthday! With love Annabel.xxx
Wow! That lemon tree is impressive! And the lemons! Magnificent!
ReplyDeleteThose towels are gorgeous! You've inspired me to look for some pretty sheets today when I go out thrifting.
Dear Jenn,
DeleteI hope you had luck with the sheets! Linen and curtains are so good to get larger quantities of fabric very cheaply. I watch all the time as patterns and colours I like are finds for me and not always there. But I also get plain white, cream or pink to use as backings. This makes the prints I love go further. Plus some old linens are superb quality, very old sheets were thick cotton and are really good finds! It is fun to hunt anyhow and thrilling when you have a good find!
Thanks for commenting! Love Annabel.xxx
Dear Annabel,
ReplyDeleteYour towels are gorgeous as is the woodwork in your home. The lemon tree is incredible. I don't think I've ever seen such large lemons!! What a blessing for you to be able to have some of them to put up.
Sounds like you had a productive week. Not much productivity here, but I am spending some time evaluating our stores and making lists. It seems rather urgent to get things on the shelves.
Have a blessed weekend.
With love and hugs,
Glenda
Dear Glenda,
DeleteThank you! You would love this lemon tree. It is the best one I have ever seen. And the joy is I can see it regularly now!
I am agreeing with you. Now is the time to be filling our shelves. In the last week a lot more "Greeces" have emerged and at a rapid rate I note.
I hope you can have a restful weekend. Planning is an important thing. Sometimes some time out planning makes things clearer and also when you are up and running again you get much more done overall thanks to planning. With love, Annabel.xxx
The towels are 'sew' pretty! I sure love pink, but no where to use it in my home. The lemons are luscious... envy you. Very touching about the flowers from Hilde's husband. Just today I stopped in at a thrift store and purchased 6 Correlware dinner plates for 24 cents each (USA). They weren't the exact design pattern I was looking for to add to my set, but these will do until what I had in mind appears. For that price, if the pattern does appear, I could just donate these back to the store. I've been trying to make the most of our garden produce; made some zucchini bread, eating cucumbers and cherry tomatoes, and plan on making salsa from the rest of the tomatoes. Also, sharing zinnia and sunflower bouquets with friends. I am enjoying God's blessings on my life and in my home! Have a wonderful weekend!
ReplyDeleteDear Joy,
DeleteIf you really love pink then sneak it into your personal world... a pillowcase, a face washer, soap, a purse etc. Somehow pink is a delight to me! I sneak it in!
I am very fond of Correlware, also Corningware and Pyrex! I collect these especially if I see them in colours I like. I always keep an eye out they are wonderful products!
Your cooking and flowers sound beautiful! What a happy thing to be able to give away bunches of flowers!
Have a lovely weekend and thank you for commenting! With love Annabel.xxx
I just remembered... I do have a beautiful pink purse!
DeleteThanks for all the inspiration! I need to get started on some towels as well. Your post on storage is great. I sometimes pick-up jars rather than cans (tinned) food at my discount grocery in order to use for that purpose. I just spray paint the lids to cover the product name and to match my kitchen.
ReplyDeleteI'm off to pick more crab-apples to make jelly tomorrow. My husband gets check-ups at a nearby clinic and they have a crab-apple tree. They are happy to let us glean.
Have a good week!
Blessings,
Leslie
Dear Leslie,
DeleteThank you! I also notice the jar when purchasing things! There are some beautiful ones! I have noticed the best bottles around have had fancy oils or alcohol in them. There are some exquisite ones. In the past I had someone save bottles for me that I then used to make herbed oils and vinegars as presents. They looked lovely. I should do that again.
I hope you come home with a great load of crab apples! That will be wonderful. I love apple anything. I am also amazed at what produce can be found if we will ask. I am game to ask now especially if I see fruit just falling on the ground.
Have a wonderful weekend! With love, Annabel.xxx
I am always awed by how beautiful the things you make turn out. I suppose were I to put that sewing skill of mine into more practice I could make pretty things, but I do believe you just have an eye for beautiful linens. My week didn't go as planned but I enjoyed the majority of it a great deal. Highlight was watching my youngest grandson take his first steps! Here's my post:
ReplyDeletehttp://bluehousejournal.blogspot.com/2015/08/this-week-in-my-home-savings-never-stops.html
Thank you Teri! You had a very family oriented week which is very nice.
DeleteAnd seeing your Grandson walk! That is a milestone.
If you can sew a straight line then you can make these that is for sure. For me its the patterns and fabric that make things. I love old fashioned soft florals so I watch for them everywhere!
With love, Annabel.xxxx
Here's my frugal list for the week -
ReplyDelete* Gratefully received some apples, English breakfast muffins and some lemon slice.
* From the Adelaide Cheapskate's workshop I bought home a small bag of lollies, a couple of packets of snack sized biscuits, a few tea bags, sugar, coffee sticks, accom toiletries and a bottle of water.
* Bought $1 toothbrushes from Woolworths while I was in Adelaide. I also bought more toothbrushes for 59 cents and Dove soap for 89 cents from Terry White chemists.
* Made the most of the Spotlight 30% off sale to buy some card making equipment. I used my clothing allowance from Winter as I didn't buy many clothes.
* Gratefully received a gift from my blogger friend Annabel. She bought me some baking supplies. The wrapping paper is beautiful and will be used for card making.
* Froze two single portions of left over tuna pasta bake.
* Ate out of the freezer three nights in a row. I need to make more room in the freezer for when legs of lamb come on sale in Spring.
* Saved all washing machine water for each next load and dried all clothes on clothes horses.
* Fed the compost bin with lots of kitchen scraps.
* Fed the chickens some bread crusts and grass.
* Juiced and froze some more lemon juice.
* Made a double strength batch of Miracle Spray.
* Emptied the supermarket shelf of white choc bits on sale in Coles. Mind you, they only had three packets. I received a rain check for six more packets. This rain check is valid for twelve month so I'll save it and try to get more stock while the sale is still on.
* Filled up with petrol before it goes back up..
Annabel those towels are gorgeous. I have a stash of of op shop sheets and a pretty kitchen towel with a matching knitted dishcloth would be a nice addition to the hampers I make at Christmastime. I just love the ideas you come up with, they are useful but so pretty they just make me happy to look at them, thank you!
ReplyDeleteDear Cath, Thank you! I love the knitted dishcloths, I do crochet ones and face washers. Kitchen towels (I call them that as the US ladies never know what t towels are) or serviettes would be perfect with dishcloths. So would a little bottle of miracle spray! Another thing I have added is old fashioned wooden pegs. They have so many uses and I think they are lovely!
DeleteI hope you are having a good weekend, it is glorious here! Love Annabel.xxx
Oh, Annabel I love wooden pegs, my Mum always used them. Then I saw the pretty painted pegs over at Strangers and Pilgrims and fell in love with them all over again. I'm not very good at folk art, but I have covered some with pretty wrapping paper and then varnish and given them with dishcloths and hand towels/kitchen towels as gifts. I have some I've glued a magnet to and use them to hold notes and recipes and so on in the kitchen and laundry.
DeleteI've used old business shirts to make serviettes - they come in such lovely soft colours and patterns and when they are 50 cents each at the op shop a set of serviettes costs almost nothing. I've even embroidered initials on them and given them as part of a kitchen tea gift, they look so nice and are unique.
There are so many simple things we can do that cost almost nothing to make our homes pretty, warm and inviting for our families. And it was a beautiful weekend, Wayne was thrilled with the numbers for the train exhibition, over 4,000 adults through over the two days in spite of our beautiful weather. I had fun puddling around in the garden and yard by myself, enjoying the warmth :)
Wow that is true love- how sweet of Hilde's husband. I bet it brought tears to both of you. What a gentleman.
ReplyDeleteI love those kitchen towels. They are beautiful! I cannot sew but I think once I have a little more free time this is an area I would love to develop as well as my crocheting. I was crocheting pre and during pregnancy and made your blanket. Funnily enough in blues- not knowing it would be ready for Henry! :) your craft projects are always so lovely, I mean who knew formula tins could look that pretty?? You are amazing Annabel and I appreciate you sharing your gifts and talents with us, so much. We have had a great week- convincing friends to have picnics and morning teas at the beach. So much better with little ones! Also, having our own drink down the beach. What a nice little date. Nothing nicer. No crowds and better views. Did a little baking while Henry was napping and my mum picked up three pairs of gorgeous baby boy shorts. These are hard to find so I was really happy. My grandmother sent some crocheted toys and they are so sweet. I think home made makes the best gifts! Bought a much coveted carrier from Gumtree. I have to thank both you and Mimi- I now have a notebook I carry around with me with possible gift ideas and my own Wishlist which allowed me to buy this carrier quickly. This was such a great idea of yours and Mimi's and I think it saves a lot. Lots of love to you all- Bridge
Dear Bridge,
DeleteWhile your baby is little might be a hard time to start sewing but truly this is straight lines sewing and easy stuff!
That was lucky with the blue blanket! I know I still managed knitting and crochet when I had babies but you have to be careful when you put it down or else face finding it unravelled!
I am so glad you have your Mum and Grandmother. Really that is lovely and so helpful. They both sound beautiful.
I am glad for you about the carrier, it sounds as if it was something you were really wanting.
Apart from knowing gift ideas when someone asks you what would YOU like for Christmas or your birthday this can be a chance wasted if we just are vague. Many times people really want to get you something you want or need but I often go blank when asked! Not this year! I know several things I would dearly love and will say if asked.
You really had a good week! Thanks for sharing it Bridge, Love Annabel.xxx
I also tried your apple cider vinegar rinse and it was fantastic! Love, Bridge
ReplyDeleteOh wow! Those lemons are a blessing for sure! My sister used to live in a house with a lemon tree like that and oh how we all miss those lemons. They made the best lemonade.
ReplyDeleteMy big savings this week was a personal item, bras. I have paid 29 dollars each for them for years and they are the ones that I love and last so I was willing to do so. Last week I found that Amazon carries them and they are $12.89 each and shipped right to my house! I could hardly believe it and so now I am telling everyone to check for their favorites on Amazon as you may just find the same!
I also was able to purchase some light fixtures on clearance for $4/34 each and they are regularly $45 each. We have needed these in hallways for years and just could not bring ourselves to spend alot of money for them.
Dried cranberries are a breakfast favorite of mine and I purchased 8 bags for $3. That will keep me going for a long time for my granola that I do at home.
Your handmade towels are lovely. My grandmother always had a pink kitchen and would have so loved them. She even had pink pots and pans!
Have a good week all!
Dear Lana,
DeleteThat is a great saving on your bras. If you have ones you like and fit well etc then they are a vital thing! That is a huge saving and so easy too. Yesterday I shopped with Chloe she was having trouble getting good fitting jeans but found some. Its a similar thing! Good fitting things make a world of difference!
Also good bargain on the light fittings.
Comparing around online has made me some amazing savings but I need to keep remembering to do it.
I would have loved to see your Grandmothers kitchen and her pink appliances! That is gorgeous! I would have been her friend for sure!
You had a great week of savings! With love, Annabel.xxx
Hi Annabel
ReplyDeleteYou have been busy as always. Please could you send some rain our way. Yesterday afternoon DD5 and I had to take DP to work (car issues) and it is a way we do not tend to go often as there are no supermarkets in that direction (well a small IGA you pay through the roof prices) and I commented to DP that the only green I could see was the trees but they to are tinged with brown. It was sad to see either no grass at all or all dead grass that the poor cows were eating..
Those mandarins look yummy.....I was getting some of a friend who has a fruit tree but all are gone now and I have had to buy some from the fruit shop and DD5 does not like them as they are mostly dry.
Your kitchen towels are lovely and would make great gifts. You are so crafty.
Hope you have a wonderful week
Aly xxx
Dear Aly, The Australian outback is harsh! Even our farm in summer looks so dry and I dont like it then. At least right now it is green though. Rain is a wonderful thing and thats why I appreciate it so much.
DeleteI am not sure what your op shops are like up there... but the sheets etc are so cheap to make the tea towels that as I keep finding them I keep sewing! I hope to get some more done this week.
Have a wonderful week! With love, Annabel.xxx
Your kitchen towels are beautiful, Annabel! I always enjoy seeing what you are working on because it's always PRETTY! :) I have never seen lemons so huge!
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