that was the weekend

            :: lazy mornings

          :: time with family

          :: rhubarb and custard pies

          :: driving in the Essex countryside

          :: lunch in a sunny courtyard

          :: Fentiman's lemonade

          :: the Telegraph crossword

          :: a field of sweet peas

          

weekending with Amanda

this weekend I've been

volunteering: manning (womaning?) the Women's Institute stall at a local summer fair.  I came away with rhubarb and raspberry jam I was very excited about and some lemon drizzle cake. We hopefully recruited some new members too, there were some very enthusiastic ladies there. 

eating: lemon drizzle cake. Rhubarb jam (very disappointing - expensive and I couldn't taste the rhubarb). Strawberries and cream - how else to watch Wimbledon? 

drinking: proper coffee from my cafetiere, with cream. We've only had instant for a while and proper coffee is just so much nicer. A glass of traditional lemonade with ice on a hot day, gorgeous. I must make it myself sometime. 

feeling: tired, but happy. I've been doing more than usual lately, and so far it is making me very tired, hence lots of extra sleep, but its not made me ill so that's an improvement and I hope it continues. 

watching: Andy Murray win the Wimbedon men's final! The first British male to win in shorts, that's how long ago it was that we last won, 77 years! I have to admit to falling asleep in the middle of the match, but I was awake to see the end and to eat the strawberries, those are the important parts! 

enjoying: the sight and smell of the glorious sweet peas I am growing on a wigwam by the front door. I have small vases of them on the mantelpiece and the kitchen windowsill and they smell divine. 

weekending with Amanda 

£2013 in 2013

A Frugal Wife has been doing a '£2013 in 2013' challenge, and I thought I'd join in. I know I'm coming late to this, as we are already halfway through the year, but I think it's doable and will spur me on with my eBay adventures and might even make me do a boot sale later this year. I might not get to £2013, but it's worth a try.

I have a bit of a head start, as this week I collected together my old gold - broken necklaces, odd earrings, that kind of thing. My parents gave me a few bits as well, and I sent them off to Tesco's gold exchange, hoping for £50 or £60. I was delighted to receive £520!   There's a decent start to my project, then. I also have a bit of money put aside that we've earned through cashback sites, so we've £598.01 to start off with, as you can see in the nifty little widget over there on the right.  I'm hoping this goal will encourage me to have a sort out and start listing things on ebay, which I've been putting off forever. 

I will be counting money made from:

• Selling my old gold and silver (I have some more gold I don't want that I actually couldn't find. I know, how disorganised am I if I can't find my jewellery?! When it turns up, I'll be selling that too)
•  Ebay/Amazon sales
• Cashback sites
• ironing and cleaning work I'll be doing
• Anything left in our budget envelopes each month 
• Money made from the boot sale I might get around to doing!
• Anything else I can think of

Do or Dye

I have just coloured my hair. I have managed to get splotches of dye on the wall and on my hands and arms as usual, and I don't like the resulting colour of my hair. I don't know if I picked up the wrong box (I couldn't remember what I usually have) or if the formulation has changed but I think it's too dark, and looks flat. I am so fed up with colouring it.

I started going grey in my early twenties, and now, at 45, I believe I am considerably grey, underneath all the layers of dye. I am so grey now it is difficult to cover it all, and last time I paid huge sums of money for the hairdresser to do it, she did a worse job than me. I've been colouring my hair so long I can barely remember my natural shade. I do it every four weeks, and for ten days or so I am happy with it, then the white stripe down my parting appears and gets wider until I colour it again. I hate that and would rather be grey than look like a badger for three weeks out of every four. What's the point? I'm not prepared to colour it every ten days and it's not as if I'm fooling anyone, when the whole world can see the badger stripe more often than not.

I wish I could wave my magic wand and get rid of the hair colour overnight, but I know it's likely to take a year or so to grow it out, and how to deal with the ever-widening white stripe during the process? I have had enough of the mess I always make in the bathroom (and on my skin!), the cost of having it done at the hairdresser, the ever present stripe, the nasty chemicals, not liking the result. I've.  Had. Enough.

I just have to come up with a strategy to see me through the process of growing out the dye. I could cut my hair short, to make the process quicker....I hate my hair short, but it's a possibility. I could wear headbands and hats! That might be the route I go down, I think. Watch this space. 

making laundry liquid

I made laundry liquid yesterday. The kitchen was awash, I managed to burn lumps of soap on the hob, drop a tea towel into the dog's water and break my mini chopper (I knew I was optimistic thinking it would cut up soap, but it cuts up carrots and soap can't be much harder than that, can it? Turns out it is.)

On the plus side, it cost me more or less nothing to make 9 litres or so. For a while I've been saving little ends of soap in a jar, I had just enough to make almost a cupful of grated soap and I used half a cup of washing soda. Boiled it up on the stove with a couple of litres of water, poured it in a bucket with another 8 litres of cold water, decanted it into various containers, et voila. Laundry soap, enough for quite a while. I've hopefully saved more than a new mini chopper is going to cost me. 

One thing I am going to miss is Ecover fabric conditioner, I love the scent of it, but I do know that some white vinegar in the rinsing water does just as good a job of softening the washing, is far cheaper and doesn't leave a smell behind. Once I can source some cheap white vinegar, all my washing will smell of nothing except fresh air from being hung outside on the line. 

this weekend I have been...

What I've not been doing this weekend is taking photos, hence this random one, taken in London a couple of months ago on one of our drives. After I posted it, I realised the words at the side are particularly apt: today I'm making laundry liquid! 

• Eating: Nectarines. Not really ripe enough yet, but I couldn't resist. There were four in the box - the Prof got one, the Young Philosopher wasn't here, I managed to eat the other three. A chip butty with lots of salt and vinegar. Toast with jam for breakfast. A veggie wrap and crisps from Pret in the car with the Prof on our way out last night. Half a brownie with the Prof, also in the car. I am not sure we ate a proper meal this weekend, that seems like a lot of snack food, oops. 

• Drinking: full leaded coffee as the decaf has run out. Peach schnapps and lemonade, which I took up to bed with me to read in bed. Woke up this morning and took a swig, thinking it was my usual water. Peach schnapps not so nice first thing in the morning! 

• Doing: Lying in bed late. Knitting. 

• Watching: Wimbledon. Not much of a choice, the Prof's a fan - me not so much, but I will summon some enthusiasm (and some strawberries and cream) for the final next week, I expect. 

• Feeling: Tired, it's been a busy week. This week and next week are too, so I'm crossing my fingers and planning to eat well, get to bed early (and maybe grab an afternoon nap or two) and hope I can manage and I don't get ill. 

• Going: to the Royal Albert Hall (for the first time. Fantastic venue, what a lovely building) to see Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, I gave the Prof tickets for his birthday in April. The special guest was Marc Almond from Soft Cell, the very last person I would have expected to see singing Jethro Tull songs. Apparently he's a big prog rock fan, who knew? I love Tainted Love, it's always been my theme song with my friends - you know the song you always get up and dance to? Ever since I was thirteen! 

• Making: Finally sewing the poncho together. It's about time. I still have to knit a border around the neck, another around the hem and make a fringe. I've also been making a dishcloth to send to a friend. I'm feeling the need to cast on something else and I'm not sure what. 

How was your weekend?

Weekending with Amanda 

adventures for the summer

I've been thinking over the last few days of what I'd like to do this summer. Some of these are just for fun, others tie in with my plans for simplifying things.  

• Keep on decluttering
• Get outside more, even if it's just to sit and read on my bench in the sunshine
• Have a picnic
• Spend ten lovely relaxing days house sitting in the countryside 
• Get some wedding photos printed and up on the wall (it's more than 2 years since the wedding!)
• Pick lots of sweet peas from our garden to enjoy in the house
• finish knitting my poncho
• Make my own laundry liquid
• List some things to sell on eBay 
• Knit a jar jacket for Curly Girl (she wants it blue with clouds on - any ideas/patterns for knitting clouds? The only idea I have is sewing on clouds made from felt) 
• Have a trip to the coast  
• Take more photographs

I'm looking forward to all of these, especially our break in the countryside and taking more photographs. What adventures are you planning for this summer?