Thanks Rachel Ashwell your Shabby Chic is fab !

My hydrangea petiolaris just now

To commerorate King George V and Queen Mary Silver Jubilee June 12th 1911

For people like me living on a budget eBay,charity shops and car boot sales offer a lifeline. There are so many advantages to buying vintage just one of those to buy the things you need at a cost more proportionate to  income. Car boot sales etc offer a chance for time spent rummaging to reap real rewards as a huge range of goods spanning many years are all there for the finding.
I find i can experiment with clothes more without making very costly errors - and clothes that really do not suit just get recycled. i have found that favorite items tend to get more compliments from friends and family and that is the best marker for whether a garment is really working for me. i only find out when i wear things!

To Commemorate King Edward V111 Crowned 12th May 1937

I love buying items for the home too that are really individual and especially love vintage curtains. Lovely vintage heavy lined curtains can be found very reasonably - they look fab and insulate windows. I carry my window sizes with me as well as a tape measure especially when looking for a specific size.
Then i found Rachel Ashwells Shabby Chic.I love her Shabby Chic concept and have three books of hers that have been given to me for birthdays. Her ideas are so original yet so achievable and adaptable. She runs a great blog which is full of photos and ideas - all for free - just Google her name. She uses a  palette of white and pale blue,green and pink. Everything has a soft faded look and she uses items in different ways. So inspiring whatever your budget.

To celebrate the wedding of HRH,Charles,Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer 29th July 1981

Rachel lives in America but was born in England. She has been celebrating the recent Royal events and often uses Royal Memorabilia in her designs. I have started collecting vintage Royal Commemorative mugs and yes she is right the artwork on them is fab-crowns and unicorns - gold pinks and blues. Now i treasure something in the past i have dismissed.

To commemorate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth 11 June 2nd 1953

I am finding thanks to Rachel that i am now looking at things in a different way and now value items for their signs of wear or fading and look at items in terms of how i can use them rather than what were they originally designed for. Thanks Rachel!

Cherry trees from cherry stones ?

This week i got two punnets of fresh cherries for50p each as they were short dated. Finished one punnet today and wondered if it is possible to grow a cherry tree from a stone. To check i have planted some outside in a seed tray. i will keep you posted or can you tell me - will they grow?

The stones were planted on Friday.Went to work Saturday and a colleague laughed when i said i had been eating cherries saying "you didnt swallow a stone did you because they grow in your stomach" - i have never heard that before!

But just now i looked out of the kitchen window and saw shoots about 4cm long. Surely they could not have sprouted already. Went outside and yes about 5 strong thick shoots! They will need replanting very soon.
So my friend was right a stone could well sprout inside you in such a short time! I am going to do some research on cherry shoots.

Local History Cadley Fulwood photos

First here is a picture of Fulwood bridge on Blackbull Lane. This spans the Savick Brook.

Next is a photo of the bus shelter on Blackbull Lane. This was refurbished a few years ago to its original condition.

Finally a picture of Cadley Bridge. Again over Savick Brook but this time on Garstang Road

More photos to follow!
please also see my post on Atherton Road Fulwood

10p tinned peaches and Silver Spoon cookbook 25p

Today got four tins of own brand peach slices in grape juice from concentrate 411g/drained weight 242g for 10p a can down from 38p a can. Apparently 7 slices = 1 of the recommended 5 a day - but i do not know how many slices in the can - i guess at least 10. So over 2 days 2 portions of fruit, 5p a portion.Sounds good value.

Decide to study the label in more depth. Firstly made in Greece from Greek peaches and grape juice.
Half a can will give me 85cal or 4% of calories needed - 9% of carbohydrate energy but no energy from fat (less than 1%). But that 9% carbohydrate = 22% of my days sugar. 3% of days protein and 7% of days fiber.

So what do i conclude from all this info? I think it means as a source of carbohydrate as sugars, it is a healthy one but to eat 5 fruit and veg a day the others need to be quite low in sugar. Which fruit and veg would give me fats - apart from the obvious avocado?
Plenty of food for thought as well as food to eat at a really good price! Think the supermarket are having a clear out so may have another look tomorrow.
ps bbe sept 2012 - plenty of time.

Also got two cookery books for 50p at a charity shop. One is called The Silver Spoon and is a brill Italian cookbook and one is a Gordon Ramsay Healthy Appetites cookbook - both look great.
Will report back when I have made an Italian dish from the Silver Spoon cookbook using the tinned peaches!

Local History Cadley Fulwood Lancashire - Atherton Road

Do you remember Atherton Road in Fulwood Preston Lancashire? Atherton Road ran from Blackbull Lane to Eastgate. It was built by John Atherton - who came from a well known Preston family. If you do I would love to read your comments and see any photos you may have.
In 1959 Atherton Road was renamed as part of Regent Drive and new house numbers were issued. Regent Drive as it appears now opens onto both Blackbull Lane and Garstang Rd.

please also see my listing on Cadley local history

Freebies this week

I think i got my best bargains this week today. Walking past a shop in our local town there was a variety of shop decorations marked free to take with a smiley face. I chose a perspex box filled with shiny packing - great for a present wrapping - a very large hanging gold heart - great for a party - and a large roll of red and black animal print shiny cardboard - what on earth will I do with that! Called at my friends shop and she offered to drop them at my home for me tomorrow as I was walking. Will post photo as soon as they arrive and i am open to suggestions for using the heart and the cardboard!

What seemed like a long walk - I guess 2 miles - seems not so long now I am used to it. Once or twice a week i walk into town and i walk back taking a different route. Great for exercise and fresh air and it is surprising how much more you see of your area when you are walking. Today I took photos of two beautiful old bridges reminders of when our suburb was a couple of hamlets in a rural farming area. These will feature in a new post. How can an areas heritage be lost so quickly?

making my own oilcloth fabric 2

continuing from previous post here is the next picture

Some success but not perfect. Could use to make a purse with a lining fabric. At this thickness i would be happy stitching on my machine. Over the next hour i have experimented with different plastic bags and the best to use for this seem to be clear soft polythene bags.
I am going to continue to experiment and will report back.
I need to find an old non-steam iron too as mine will only steam on hottest setting.

making my own oilcloth fabric

Have started experimenting making oilcloth fabric today with some success following on from Meanqueens idea of fusing plastic bags together and then creating a unique strong plastic tote.
First I got a scrap of Laura Ashley country furnishing cotton - about 20 years old. Then between sheets of baking parchment I fused a strip of plastic bag to the back of the fabric. I remembered to open the door for ventilation and proceeded with caution as everything gets quite hot - as it can when ironing.

continued on next post

Cath Kidston inspired decoupage Diamond Jubilee memory box

Second day of my new blog! This time last week I was enjoying the Queens Diamond Jubilee - on TV of course!. I wanted a memento of the occasion but with no spare cash buying something was not possible. Then I remembered a feature in a Cath Kidston magazine on decoupage - a traditional craft. These magazines are a really good read with ideas on makes and competitions and are free if you sign up to their mailing list.

So armed with a heart shaped chocolate box I had kept as it was just to lovely to throw away, a stores free magazine and a newspapers TV guide magazine I was ready to make my Diamond Jubilee memory box!
 I did have to go out and buy a small bottle of PVA glue at £1.99. I already had a small sharp pair of scissors.

I spent the afternoon watching the Thames River Pageant and cutting out scraps from the magazines. I then pasted these over the whole of the top of the box with PVA glue watered down 50/50. I left it to dry - about 1 hour - then covered the whole lid with PVA glue - this time not watered down.

I am so thrilled with the result! Please see pic.Just for the cost of the glue - i used about a tenth of the pot.

My intention is to store small mementos from the Diamond Jubilee in the box across the whole summer - including the Olympics -but for now it is actually storing a growing collection of scraps i am cutting from any magazine i can find around the house. I think i have a new hobby!

Just now i added this comment to Meanqueens brilliant blog about fusing throwaway plastic bags together to create unique strong plastic tote bags. I remembered a mat I made for guide camp !

"Great idea - cannot wait to try.i am reminded of a mat we all made when going on Guide camp as a teen. we folded newspaper into strips about 5cm wide.then we wove them together to make a flat square.the square was then covered in sticky backed plastic.this made a really good mat for sitting on around the campfire.i think i will make another using a pocket made of fused bags rather than sticky backed plastic. Great for gardening!"

Really am going to try her fusing bags together idea and who knows where it will lead!

Using up over ripe tomatoes in a beef casserole

Today I was making mince beef casserole and had no tinned tomatoes as I do not buy them anymore - no car to carry them in and have they suddenly gone up in price a lot???
So then thought about fresh tomatoes bought for 50p as past best before date. Quick check and I found 3 were too soft for sandwiches so i just squashed each one with my hand and stirred into the casserole. So easy and turned out really well. Why did I never think about doing that before?
In our town there is a shop that sometimes sells huge bags of tomatoes for £1 - will buy one next time to casserole.

Learning to blog First Steps

Wow, a big title for a new blog! Actually I am developing my ideas for life on a budget - hard but at times fun when "needs must" and I learn a new skill because I have to, or dredge up a long forgotten skill like sewing.
Today a new skill - learning to blog!
I have come back to update as i am now just over a week into blogging. I have changed the title of my blog to one that expresses who i am more and the direction and ethos of my blog and life. i love the shabby chic look and have to stick to a budget. over the past year i have been changing the look of my home to shabby chic and selling what i can that i am ready to let go. a really pretty shabby chic look can be achieved on a budget with time and a new way of looking at items and the world.
i have taken some photos in my back garden and uploaded them. i am really pleased with the geraniums picture in the header. i really feel at home when i see it. i have realized photos are a must on a blog yet it is so easy when you look around your home to find lovely things to photograph - a pet. a flower anything - color shape texture all mean so much.
i have also realized how personal a blog is as ideas for blogs pop into the mind all the time. if i was to start again i might plan out my first ten blogs. the way i have done it is a bit haphazard.
i started by going on blogger.com and just following their simple instructions. i think it is possible to start a blog by writing your own web code rather than using a host like blogger.com but i do not have the knowledge for that. i have spent quite a while going through all the different menus and buttons but still have lots to learn.
it is really easy to go back to a blog if you are not happy with it to edit and update and i think that would be my best hint to a new blogger like myself. keep an eye on the stats section and add and adapt according to the number of views a page has. change a title or add photos.
and do not underestimate the time it takes - and that it is so addictive !