Frugal Frump to Fab - 2015

maman

MissRarr wrote: »

What a terrible day of weather!!

Bit of a mixed bag for me today. Got up for work feeling absolutely shattered this morning but surprised to find that my usual work jeans felt fairly loose despite being fresh out of the wash when they're usually a bit tighter - maybe the more vegetarian cooking has been paying off! But was so tired I overate at breakfast and today was one of those days when *everyone* decides to bring biscuits in to work!! :rotfl:

Not a nice trip home with flooding on the tube and I feel very unfab as my hair goes mad when there's moisture in the air. To round it off I stood up to get off my train to see someone I think I used to work with. It's always when you look cr*p isn't it....

But now, glass of wine, a frugal "using up leftovers" healthy meal and the Masterchef final followed by an earlyish night and an early start for work.

Have a lovely Friday evening everyone!

Hope you enjoyed your evening MissR.


I can resonate with the tight jeans feeling, hope the biscuits haven't undone all your good work! I don't have scales at home as I think I'd keep hopping on and get obsessed so I use my jeans as a guide. They're feeling very tight this morning:(.


Despite the weather, we had a good evening on the boat trip with live music and plenty of dancing. Then a group of us went to a Thai restaurant. So too much food and wine has left me feeling quite bloated. I made the right decisions about clothes but my hair too ended up a mess because of the dampness. Fortunately I wasn't the only one.


Good for you on the meal plan rummer. I just know you'll feel better about yourself if you can eat healthily and see a few pounds disappearing. I've just done my meal plan for the week and will be off to the shops soon.


I've got a bit of a headache too LL but mine's self inflicted!;) What are the builders up to?

lessonlearned

Just a few fInishing bits and pieces. we have one of those inner storm porches that you seen on victorian properties, first a main street door, then small porch area, then a second front door. They're great at keep ing all the weather out. Anyway It had a concrete floor which was breaking up so we are replacing that we nice new floor boards. then the hall itself has a nice Minton tiled floor which I shall renivate once the porch floor is done.

Ive also got them painting the exterior stone window cills and above the window stone arches. Personally I would gave preferred to leave them in their natural stone state, but they had been painted cream and the paint was blistered and peeling. I'm having them done in Matt black, very smart against the white window frames and old red brickwork.

I'm not sure whether to put up some black window boxes, but no,one else in the street has anything, so it might look a bit pretentious. Maybe that's a step too far in the gentrification process. Im not sure the street is quite ready :rotfl: although some one has to be the first....;)

This will be the first house that ive not decked out the front in flowers and plants. Seems very odd to me to have such a plain frontage. It's just crying out for red geraniums.........

Ds1s entrance is coming along nicely. Passers by stop to take a look.....

Actually DS1 has already had someone ask if he would like to sell his house. Apparently they have been watching the renovations and are keen to buy it. The lady said it was her "dream house. Anyway although he has no plans at the moment he's going to meet with them.

You never know they might make him an offer he can't refuse.;) at any rate it does show that people like the house.

I too have stocked up on lots of healthy eats, lots of veg and salady bits, so hopefully I should find it easier to stick to the PAleo. Ive done quite well this week. Like you Maman ive not weighed myself but I think my jeans feel quite loose.

The boat trips sounds lovely. Hope you are feeling brighter Miss R.

Ellsbel

The renovation work sounds lovely *lesson learned*:)
Glad you had a good time yesterday *maman*
Hope you're feeling a little less shattered *miss rarr*
Very unfab here today - I need to rethink my indoor wear as it's bordering on the slobbish:D
I'm going to be offline for a few days to sort of "reconnect" with the real world, if that makes sense?! Sounds odd, I know, but sometimes if my mood's not great, the Internet is a great time waster for me so I need to ban myself for a few days!
Take care all, and I'll "see" you in a short while:)

maman

lessonlearned wrote: »

Just a few fInishing bits and pieces. we have one of those inner storm porches that you seen on victorian properties, first a main street door, then small porch area, then a second front door. They're great at keep ing all the weather out. Anyway It had a concrete floor which was breaking up so we are replacing that we nice new floor boards. then the hall itself has a nice Minton tiled floor which I shall renivate once the porch floor is done.

Oh how I envy you that. I love strolling through the Victorian/Edwardian streets locally and gawping at the paths. One of my weaknesses is to record 'Homes Under the Hammer' and watch it when I want a rest. I flick through all the boring and repeated bits and I'm furious with people who cover up lovely floors or don't treat 'original features' with respect. I often see some lovely properties in your neck of the woods.

lessonlearned

Yes we are blessed with some lovely architecture, although I'm afraid the city planners did their fair share of vandalism in the 60s, ripping out whole swathes of the city.

At some point they woke up to what they had done and stopped in their tracks, creating conservation areas and listing buildings to preserve what was left. . Ds1 house is Georgian vernacular Grade II listed so is quite an important building, probably one of the oldest private dwellings left within the city boundaries.

The only real problem is that it has a very busy road nearby which can put people off but it did make the house affordable. The same house in a quieter spot would probably fetch treble.........

I think there is a distinct possibility that one day they will reroute or downgrade the road, especially when HS2 is built. I can foresee some kind of by pass at some point. If that happens then his house would soar in value.

In the meantime it's just a Quirky ramshackle old building which he is lovingly bringing back to life.

DS2s house is a smaller more modest three bed Victorian house. It didn't look too bad until we started work but we uncovered a lot of bodged jobs and as you say they hAd covered up all the original features such as cast iron fireplaces and the tiled floor. All least they hadn't ripped them out but the standard of the previous renovations was actually rather shocking. So I'm afraid we are over budget and overdue on our anticipated finish date.

Plus of course having to deal with my husband Nd my mothers death
Has meant delays on both projects. Hey ho, we are getting There now.

I'm actually thinking of starting some kind of blog to keep track of all our projects. When it's up and running I can post up a link (if I'm allowed) and you can all have a nosey.

lessonlearned

Ellsbel - enjoy your break.

Floss

LL a blog of your building & renovation experiences sounds fab!

Rummer

My oven has finally been fixed :j After a few months of only being able to cook on the rings it is finally fully working so I have a greater range of things I am able to cook. I have been browsing health food blogs today and I have a few ideas already.

The weather continues to be grim today and I really would like some sun.

Susan1962

After persevering for three months with growing out my hair colour and accepting the grey bits I caved in today and went to the hairdressers' again. I have a hairdresser phobia (naturally curly hair = really horrendous hair disasters!) and couldn't face finding another one. But there's a new one in the village. She costs more than the old one but she did a far better job. Colour bath on the length which was dark and highlights on top to blend in the grey. She also dried the hair before she trimmed it which was so much better! (Cut wet, there's no way to guess how far the curls will go up).

Anyway, after weeks of convincing myself that I didn't mind the grey, I admitted that I did mind it and feel much better for having it professionally dealt with at last!

Other fabbing - had a rice soap facial (plastered on the rice soap, steamed it, washed it off and followed by rosewater as toner) and my skin feels much softer. Also the colour has evened out which was a lovely unexpected bonus.

indiepanda

Yesterday morning I went out for my first run since my 10k race last weekend. I would have gone out sooner but I went down with a cold the day after the race and am still not 100%, though better than I was. Anyway, it was parkrun and though I felt slow, I was only a minute and 15 seconds off my best so I am glad I went.

Did a bit of fabbing afterwards - exfoliated and did a face and hair mask too.

Been getting better at doing pre bed beauty fabbing - too often if I didn't have make up on I would fall into bed without night cream etc, but my face definitely feels better for the extra TLC.

Did a manicure earlier in the week but think the feet need some help now - no amount of putting foot cream on removes the need to scrub the hard dead stuff off, though it does stop it from cracking etc.

Susan1962 - I know what you mean about hair dressers and curly hair. I have one now who knows what he is doing and wouldn't dream of changing even though I have to schlep all the way into central London (an hour travel either way) to see him. The years of pain of people getting it wrong...