Its been a dull day

Its been a dull old day today although humid and damp.  I woke up with a start this morning thinking it was Sunday and that I did not have to get up then realising that I should be at work!  It sort of wrong foots you for the rest of the day then.  I met up with my friend at dinner and put the world to rights; we try and meet up once a week for a spot of lunch and a we always end up having a good old chin wag and quite frequently end up in lots of giggles.  

The heavens opened up just before I came out of work this evening to walk home.  Fortunately I was armed with a brolly and soon made it home in quick time doing the Mary Poppins quick step and bewailing the fact that my brolly did not have a talking parrots head!

Over the weekend I have been on Ebay quite a bit looking for craft CDs at cheap prices.  Mostly Joanna Sheen CDs. I am talking an average of £5 for each CD.  I am starting to stockpile craft items and wool in readiness for the "C" word and having a go at making some cards myself and some knitting projects as well.  I quite like doing Decoupage when I have the time to sit and play.  Some of the CDs have already arrived.  Victorian Christmas cards, the Victorian Companion and Victorian Birthday CDs and I have The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady craft CD and Victorian Angels and Fairies yet to arrive.  There are a couple of more that I have my eye on but will have to see how the pennies go. There is always next month and the aim is to try and get them as cheaply as I can so I can afford to bide my time.  Having OH out of work for over three years and subsisting on a low wage has taught me a lot of lessons.  It is a long time since I have had a little money to indulge whereupon once upon a time it was a frequent occurence.  We still keep to the budget for monthly basic items and I am trying to keep some cash to one side so as to be able to take advantage of seasonal buys and pop stuff up in the pantry.  A little bit of foresight never hurt anybody.   One of the biggest battles when you have had no money and then have a little more is the temptation to have a blow out. The battle for me is not having the blow out and saving and popping the money up.  We pay cash for everything these days and do not have a credit card.  Debit yes but not credit.  We save and pay cash for what we have otherwise we go without.

 I have several ideas  for using the CDs so far combined with other craft tutorials I have come across  some of which I put up last year and it will be good to play.  A lot of them are Victorian images. Pure nostalgia groupie me.  I need  to save up for new cartridges for the printer before I start playing and I tend to collate everything together before I start playing.  My blog is written from my laptop but the biggie is well out of date and extremely slow never mind it was custom built for us about 8 years ago.  That's the trouble with technology its out of date as soon as you get it!

I also have my eye on trying to obtain some cross stitch charts that I quite fancied when they first came out but due to financial restraints was unable to obtain at the time.  If you take your time and are selective in you choices you can end up with those items at a fraction of the price than they were originally sold for, which to me is a win win situation.  I shall keep browsing as the fancy takes me and if and when I have a few pennies to hand.  I know I am lucky compared to some but I do not drink and I do not smoke and crafts and cooking are  two of my main hobbies and my indulgence.

Tomorrow I am shopping for more Kilner jars and bottles to pop in the store.  I do try and buy them when they are on offer though.  I am afraid I am a tad tight and I do not believe paying through the nose for items.  There are always ways round things.  Before I start bottling and processing I like to have a little stockpile of jars ready to fill.   My friend who has helped with the veggie box contact has indicated that there will be tomatoes shortly and as I am one to put up quite a bit of passata and various other bits and bobs I am eagerly looking forward to be able to stock up but for that I need the jars.  I buy them where I can.  I am also going to put up some bottled red fruit salad as well as white fruit salad/cocktail and pears in syrup and whatever else I can come across. I am hoping to get some more gooseberries during the week to make some gooseberry jam which is one of my favourites. I do love this time of year when we have so much choice of what is readily available.  We cannot have all of it but at least I can put some of my favourites down to enjoy during the year and through the winter months.  Preserving really is my passion whatever form it takes. 

Right I am off to potter.

Take care

Pattypan

xx