Make a Tree of Life Bunting

My box of materials and scraps of fabric are like a box of magic tricks, you never know what inspiration is going to leap out at you when you look inside.

Box of fabric magic trick

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seersucker 

There's always these bits of fabric I hold onto because I've labelled them in my mind as special, rare, vintage, have memories etc but too often they sit in the box waiting for a life transformed into something useful and beautiful. There's definitely an unhealthy hoarding thing going on in my relationship with fabric, by I try to keep it in check.... or floral or
seersucker.

Seersucker is a great word never mind great fabric. Do you know the word comes from Hindu and literally means "rice pudding and sugar".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seersucker

Like a lot of folks I'm partial to bunting but have never really got down with what's offered commercially, even when they are made with pretty fabrics. And I find the shapes and  generic make-up pattern on offer boring.

Traditional bunting

Though I do get bunting - the way it flits and billows in the breeze, the feel of summer and picnics, the good use of memorable remnants into decoration. There's something folksy and frugal about bunting.

I never set out to make bunting but out of my magic box jumped a printed leftover piece of sketchy leaves, shapes of nature and plants. Bought from Ikea I'd made a laundry bag from the fabric to use whilst camping and after that forgot the remains. Until that day.

Gathering leaves

I was inspired to make my own tree of life bunting.

It felt right to be recycling bits, building them back together, uniting them with others and giving them new life.

It was all a bit organic and it literally took root.

I let the creative process get on with it and pretty much kept my own conscious thoughts out of the proceedings. Sometimes it's the best way. Instinct.

Blue budding Bunt

Bunting with attitude. Maybe not so much for fluttering in a breeze, more for sticking it out in a storm kind of bunting.

Whispa Stems

I was keen to decorate my holiday home aka the tent with it, but the man screwed his grump up and dismissed it as "unsuitable". It's not the kind of bunting looking for a Pimm's picnic really.

Bunting Looking for a Home

Thanks for reading. Kx

Kate Makes Plans for the Week + budget & cats

Sunday at long last. I do love a Sunday morning lie in and tea brought to me in bed by my gorgeous hubby. Entertained by the lads as I pick and play with materials and threads, wondering what I shall make today. First things first though the "books" need done!

Sunday morning is my household planning time. I like nothing better that to lounge in bed with my budget book, receipts, household notes, menu plan list and online accounts at the ready. Taking my time and enjoying the luxury of having enough to to do this, some would say tedious, job well, is a blessing I never forget. At its heart it's a frugal exercise in housekeeping financial and stock control, but I like to dress it up like I'm running the books of a Shabby Chic Chateau! 

We run on a monthly budget and start on, naturally, payday where all the big expenses and direct debits are paid out via the bank. I'm canny about keeping those bigger costs in place, checking the deals and that's easy enough too do. What's more complex to keep under control is the smaller week-to-week and day-to-day expenditure.

I like to use tools and aids; including useful little books like this from KTwo now known as BusyB. The lovely people there run a wonderful website and design all sorts of solutions for organisation that are every so pretty and clever!  

http://busyb.co.uk/store/blog/

Useful Budget Book

 http://busyb.co.uk/store/collection/ktwo 

In addition to my budget book I keep a general household A5 ringbound book. I often need more than one in a year depending on what's happening or what's taking my interest.  


This this household notebook is filled with everything going on day-today such as shopping lists, menu plans, to do lists, ideas, plans, itineraries, days out suggestions, sewing patters and sketches of all sorts including eats, treats, flowers and new camping tent set ups. 


My note book is a real hodgepodge of my thoughts about running my home and life. It really must look like crazy lady stuff to the uninitiated. It can be a lot of fun keeping on top of your domestic duties hehe.  

On a more serious note, the little budget book links up to a larger monthly budget spreadsheet shared with hubby on our shared Google Drive. This lets us both see the bigger financial picture and how much if anything we have saved.

Tracking Every Penny
I track every penny I spend in my budget book - that means everything from that newspaper and chocolate bar while buying petrol at the garage, to those sneaky ebay purchases through to groceries, flights and hotels. I note every item down and balance it against its "topic" account and overall bank account.

My budget book, household notebook, my sewing machine covered and sewing box. The glass of wine... well I have not idea where it came from!

This activity takes hardly any time at all, maybe 5 mins or so each day and an extra 20-30 mins on a Sunday, though I like to take my time with it pillowed up in bed, romancing (ok deluding myself) I'm sorting out Marie Antoinette's accounts.

What About Cash in Hand
We all need to work with some cash in our pockets. There maybe things like the odd bit of shopping, petrol or leisure & going out spending that lend themselves to several people using cash as and when needed?

I keep cash in one place in a cash purse for this. I alsokeep a note of what has been spent and the receipts brought back to be able to balance the account.

Kate Made a Cash Purse -  I made it from  bits of gingham cotton, zips and acetate I had lying around. There's 4 different compartment each with an interchanging label. Zip closure and an outer cover that zips shut. It's kinda geeky-meets-with-twee kinda stuff :-) Saddest thing ever...it actually gets used.

pockets can be renamed

room for receipts

It closes up tidy

The Cash Purse closed.

Thanks for reading Kate Makes x

 

Kate Makes Frugal Cleaning for Clothes and Bodies

For some time now I've been looking at what I spend on washing clothes, the house and us. We seem to go through a lot of hand wash, shower gel and washing powder.

Wind and sunshine cleaning power

Then there's shampoo, conditioner, bubble bath and the enormous range of cleaning products available for the every surface and event in the home.  You can see how this all adds up, taking up cupboard space and creating a lot of recycling material.

Line drying tea towels

I'm not going to go into...well, what's in these products by way of ingredients as I don't know enough about this - but I do wonder why some of these products cause a rash, smell over powering, have serious warnings on the package and cost such a lot of money for what essentially gets washed down the drain.

Supermarket shelves heave with the range of products available to us, there must be 100s! Sadly I will admit I have in the past spent ages deciding which ones to buy in the best chic designer bottle. Idiot that I am...

Homemade laundry gloop - 1 scoop

Simplifying Cleaning

Through thrifty need I started off by using vinegar in place of fabric conditioner in my automatic washing machine. This worked out amazingly well and made my washing squeaky clean and fresh.

Then I moved onto mixing washing powder half and half with soda crystals. Again, my laundry was clean and smelt good. The only difference was the lower costs.

Then I discovered you could make bucket loads of laundry "gloop" at home for buttons. That it had 3 basic ingredients, would take half an hour out of your like to make and last ages. I read it worked great, better than many commercial products. Yeh right...

Homemade Laundry Gloop

• 250g soda crystals
• 1 bar of soap - unscented vegetable oil or household soap
• 250g borax substitute
• Hot water
• Your favourite essential oil - I use lemon.

Grate the soap using a cheese grater. Heat up a couple of litres of water, no need to boil. Add grated soap, washing soda and borax and stir well until thoroughly dissolved.

Add further hot water to make 4 or 5 litres total - the amount is not crucial. Whisk all together and add a few drops of essential oil. 

Seamus likes to help out

Pour this liquid into plastic storage containers. These can be anything such as a bucket with lid or an old gallon milk cartons.  The mixture turns to jelly as it cools, so make sure you transfer it while its still warm.

To use: put half to one cup in the washing machine DRUM (not the drawer) on top of the washing. I use 2-3 scoops as shown in the pic above.

There's a lot more discussion about homemade "gloops" over in this thread:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=35756

Homemade Hand & Body Wash

• 1 cup boiling water
• 2 tablespoons grated pure vegetable soap
• 2 teaspoons glycerin
• 2 teaspoons rose water
• Few drops of essential oil ie: lavender

Melt the grated soap into the boiling water until dissolved. Then stir in the glycerin and rose water. Pour into dispensers or jar with lid while still warm. It'll start to solidify and separate - thin down with additional boiling water if required and shake to mix.

The Homemade Hand & Body Wash is light fluffy and gel like.

This works well from a soap pump dispenser or scooped out by hand or by cloth etc. It doesn't create a lot of bubbles or foam. It rinses well and because of the glycerin it leaves your skin soft and clean.

Welcome to Kate Makes Valentine Day

We don't do Valentine Day at ours. Well we certainly don't spend money on things we don't need or cards that will have to be recycled or heart shaped chocs that make us fatter!

Beach romance

Some of the tat sold in the name of romance is just downright ugly and wasteful.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for love and a bit of romance, but for us it doesn't mean buying stuff.

We do like little acts of kindness and silliness though and these with extra lashings of hugs make Valentine Day special for us.

I did make us a special "fakeaway" dinner based on a British Indian restaurant style recipe for tikka masala curry. Accompanied by all the trimmings it felt like a real treat.

Cheats Fakeaway Tikka Masala Curry

Tasted really lovely too and best of all cost a fraction of what it would to have bought takeaway never mind sit in. All in I reckon it came in about £4.15 for the 2 of us and I still froze leftover rice and nan.

There's another 8 decent portions of the curry base sauce in the freezer. This basic curry gravy is the basis of nearly every type of curry you can get in an Indian takeaway and restaurant. It's a dream to have in stock as it means you can whip up whatever curry you fancy in 10-15 mins.

If you fancy having a go, it's worth having a look at this website:
http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php

Seamus & Joe wait for breakfast in bed

After such a hectic Valentine Day yesterday we all needed a good lie in this morning.

Seamus (the ginger one ) and Joe (the felix number) had mewed promises about taking it easy with pots of tea and boiled eggs in bed. Alas by noon it became apparent nothing was appearing. It then clicked. They were waiting for us to deliver their breakfasts in bed... on a silver platter of course. Bless their furry little cotton paws!

Menu Planning
Menu planning and sticking to it saves a fortune. Drafting a shopping list around that puts you back in control at the shops. Leave nothing to impulse and plan your treats - you'll be able to afford much more and the choices will be yours not the stores manipulating you with bargains and deals of things you really wouldn't have bought in the first place.

There's lots of great websites out there about menu planning. My favourite place is the MoneySavingExpert's "Old Style" forum.
 http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=33

My weeks plan:

• Kedgeree
• Sausage, egg, mushrooms and beans
• Left over cooked chicken greek salad
• Italian beef stew  (Spezzatino di manzo)
• Turkey tikka masala
• Homemade pizza
• Roast pork and the usual traditional trimmings

My kedgeree made with brown rice, peas & sweetcorn.

Till later...thanks for reading, Kate x