Feeling Thrifty

Feeling a little bit chuffed today, all is going well so far. Aside from the fact I managed a perfect transfer of a sleeping toddler from car to house giving me an hour of free time... Yay! I am feeling really rather thrifty at the moment......

Thrifty moment #1:

Today, on the way home from the school run, I picked up these lovely peonies, half price at the supermarket, as well as these rather tasty raspberries, also a tiny bit reduced. We grow all manner of fruit on our allotment but no raspberries so far this year, so this is a bit of a treat. The verdict from the little people was... very yummy!

Thrifty moment #2:

Right now, as I write this, I'm enjoying a cold glass of homemade elderflower cordial. Also yummy!!

This was our first time making elderflower cordial and it is delicious. A big hit with Little Lady, although Little Man refers to it as 'pond water!' Apart from the sugar, citric acid and lemons it's almost free....

Thrifty moment #3:

Last night I started to make this little beauty! It's called Sophie's Garden by Dedri Uys, a free pattern that can be found here on Ravelry. I am using a 4.5mm hook and Drops Love You 5 100% cotton yarn that's currently selling at Wool Warehouse for only 80p a ball. Bargainous! 

Thrifty moment #4: 

We have also just about finished doing up the front garden...

All the materials used to make the planters, bar the paint, were recycled from our back garden when we took out the decking to lay turf. We even filled them with free top soil found on freecycle. We reused the Scottish cobbles from the back yard too.  The olive tree was also transplanted from the back garden, although the jury's out as to whether or not it will survive. It's looking a bit bare. 

Thrifty moment #5 

The plants are from various places including some transplanted from the allotment, car boot sales, donations from relatives and a recent Sunday afternoon outing to a local fair where you could purchase a large tray of near on 40 plants for only £5! Beyond bargainous!!

I am feeling very chuffed with my little front yard. It has given me lots of pleasure so far, watering  not so much, but I do enjoy the pottering about, dead heading, adding in something new, getting excited about a new flower popping open and generally admiring.

Thank you for coming by. I do hope you have enjoyed your visit and feel inspired to enjoy something thrifty too.  

Sarah

x

Dolly Blanket Ta-Dah

 

 

There is one happy Little Lady in our house. We have been having fun playing with our dollies this week. I finished the little dolly blanket the other night and since then there has been a hive of activity around the wooden goose pram Little Lady got for her birthday all those months ago. She is very much a girly girl and loves her dollies dearly. Spending hours looking after baby is her favourite thing to do.

You might also have noticed the Rabbit I made Little Lady a while back features in a few of the pics today. Rabbit has now got all his limbs and ears firmly secured with chunky buttons and is a happy little chap. He still needs something to wear though...

I used leftovers of Stylecraft Special DK in meadow, plum, pomegranate, turquoise, saffron, lavender, fondant, sherbert, with cream as the main colour and using a 4mm hook. It measures 49cm by 31cm with 35 little squares each with only 3 rounds measuring 6cm square each. It was quite a quick project only taking a few evenings in front of the box but lots of fun to make too. A nice break from some of my other bigger projects. 

The pattern was from this book, Cute and Easy Crochet by Nicki Trench.

I didn't follow the pattern exactly as I wanted my little squares to be quite tight and I made the edging up as I went along using one round of dc first followed by two rounds in htr stitches. 

It's a lovely little book with lots of very vintage and retro ideas for crochet. Took me a while to get going with it but now I have mastered the basics of crochet I can whizz through these patterns easy peasy.

Best be off now for more playtime... Thank you for visiting today. Come back soon!  

Sarah xxx