Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

moments_of_sanity

After doing some research on the internet I finally found a way to repair rips in jeans as DD2 didn't want them patched, after some swearing, a broken sewing machine needle and difficulty getting the legs over the end of the machine I have successfully managed to repair 2 pairs of her jeans (1 pair had 3 rips in......skinny jeans in a size 6 are hard to get on apparently) so I have 1 very happy DD :j

Whilst the machine was out I decided to finally stitch up the inside seams of my lounge pants so I now have another 2 pairs to wear around the house and I invisible stitched up DH's trouser hems. Very pleased with myself having repaired everything and also very impressed with DD who didn't automatically throw her jeans away instead of asking me to repair them

zaxdog

Slow cooker today: 17p mixed veg (carrot, broccoli & cauliflower), 10p carrots and 6p courgette, good scatter of chili flakes and some stock. Will blitz when ready and add some chopped sausages (leftovers from OH's work) = lunches for Mon-Thursday :-)

Also got the first strawberry :rotfl:of the year from Mr Zaxdog's plants.

fuddle

Lovely stories of MM&Ming. I get the ridiculously pleased with myself feeling. It sure does beat the I've just bought this feeling.

My DD's share a bedroom. Eldest has a single bed and half the room while youngest has an upper bunk and all things under it on her side of the room. All holiday I have endured tussles over youngest lying on eldest's bed. :cool: Seems youngest finds eldest's bed making/making nice skills very appealing. The solution? A patchwork quilt made to size so youngest can just lie it flat over the top. The worry? My skills aren't brilliant but I really would like to do it for her. Going to see what old clothes I have that are cotton, look at old bedding etc and look online.

For lunch we have had bread end sliced, brushed with olive oil and put under the grill for crostini and cream cheese. Was yummy.

Today's bread is on it's rise. Whole meal loaves are going down very well. I am doing 400g wholemeal to 100g white strong just to make them lighter as I am renowned for heavy loaves at the best of times. :rotfl: The plaiting is a novelty and going down well even if a bit wonky.

I have added to my stock cupboard which is a nice feeling. I will seek to get somethings extra every week, namely flour. Must keep on top of that.

misstara

Mrs LW - I wish I found such lovely things at the bottom of our freezer

Its a lovely day here, I'm currently walking home from my morning shift in the sunshine. I'm only home for a short while before heading up for late shift. OH said he would make lunch today, ham and mushroom omelettes - very yummy and then I'll get a roast dinner at work. One more split shift tomorrow and then I've got a few days off.

I've got a few social things planned for my days off and also I need to clear my desk as its become a dumping ground for everything recently. I haven't done any knitting or sewing recently so would like to do some. And I found a book (which I mind buying last year I think and haven't really looked at again ) which is all about homemade gifts. I plan to have a good look through that for inspiration. I had thought earlier in the year about making a lot of gifts for Christmas but then didn't do anything about it. I should probably start fairly soon.

[Deleted User]

I'm ashamed of leaving them so long MISSTARA, we produce so much berry fruit each year that I lose track of what is where. I've started dating the bags, that'll help won't it? I have the blackberry chutney simmering away on the hob using our own homegrown onions and windfall apples too, 6 lbs of blackberries used up in that and it will give me 8 lbs of chutney, the blackberry bushes (only 2) really are the most productive thing we have and we only put them in on the back fence as nothing else will grow there , it's behing the barn and the polytunnel, and we didn't want to waste the space, just goes to show doesn't it? Kitchen smells wonderful but doors are closed as I don't want the rest of the house to smell as well!

Thistlewhistle

Resisting the urge to go to the shops to buy more cordial - I've just finished this week's bottle. Promised myself a no spend day today so reacquainting myself with corporation pop.

Besides, I'm supposed to be drinking 6-8 glasses of water a day aren't I!

Feeling smug at having saved £1 and still on track for August grocery budget of £100

New cordial can be bought tomorrow because technically it's a new week!!

mcculloch29

I got offered an original Crock Pot slow cooker to review on Amazon, couldn't believe my luck. It's a new size and colour (butternut, which is a light orange, and 3.5 litre). Brand name items like this are fairly rare as freebies as they tend to have lots of reviews already.
As I type it is doing a simple casserole of lamb, onions, potatoes, carrots and a small amount of dried mushrooms.
All veg thinly sliced in my food processor (a Dec 2011 freebie and wonderful.)
My original slow cooker will be passed on to a good friend. Some years ago she loaned hers to friends to trial so that they could decide whether or not to buy one.
They have never offered to return it and after so long she feels uncomfortable about asking for it back. They are a nice couple so it seems likely that they have forgotten or that they misunderstood the original terms of the loan.

[Deleted User]

just reading through and thinking about what's in the bottom drawer of my freezer at home.I have a feeling its got quite a bit of fish for some reason,so when I get home from my holidays I think I will be on a sea-food diet for a few weeks.:) I'll need to, as I seem to have done nothing but eat,read, relax and very little else

DGS Ben and his lovely g/f Katie go back home tomorrow , as she has a few days work to do.We don't travel home until next Saturday.Weather was a bit pants this morning, but brightened up after lunch, so we all went to Ryde.The kids went on the Swan boats (doesn't seem that long ago my youngest would ride on them with her sister) but its over 40 years ago !!!
Then they all had £3.00 each to play on the penny arcade machines. Katie thought it was brilliant as she'd never been to one before, she has had such a good time joining in with the boys, and they all adore her.

Ben and her are going to Budapest for a week just before they go back to Uni, hence the reason she's going back home to her little part time holiday job to get extra cash for their trip

We shall miss her cheery face in the morning,especially young Jack who I think has a little crush on her bless him.

Tomorrow my late OH's cousin Ian and his wife are coming over to the Island for the day.It'll be nice to see them as its been awhile since I saw them last.

We have had such a nice time and I enjoy my summer break,but I also enjoy going home and routine as well.
Reality will soon be here and MD&M'ing will be back on the agenda.
Just going to make a nice cuppa for the tribe as they are back from walking the dogs
Cheers chums
JackieO xxx

GreyQueen

Have been gardening and done a dump run with my two Ikeya blue bags. I have some very nasty weeds on the allotment, chiefly horsetail and bindweed, so they don't get composted.

Bike was hard to steer as I had 5 very large courgettes, bordering on marrow. Going to take one in for a colleague tomorrow, plus a bit of mint runner for their garden.

Yesterday I cooked a recipe called Zucchini Pie off the interwebs and that gave me an idea; could grated and squeezed courgette, as per the savoury recipe, be adapted to a sweet recipe with blackberries and shortcrust pastry, making a courgette and blackberry pie?

Well, I did it anyway and its cooling in the kitchen. Won't eat any tonight as have no spare corners. I added sugar and ground cinnamon. It's an experiment which may or may not prove successful.

Picked a lot of blackberries just before the weather broke into heavy rain, have frozen the ones which weren't in the pie, to add to my porridge.

Oh, and I used the domed lid of my oval enamel casserole dish as a pie dish, as it has a good flange on it, making it more suitable than my pyrex casserole. Worked perfectly well.

I'm also reading books from the 20p at the chazzer, which has turned up some stuff I've been wanting for simply ages, to my great joy. And which will be re-chazzered once I'm done with it.

Onwards and outwards, lovely peeps.

Nellie_the_Viking

Hi all, coming out of lurkerdom because I've just had a huge success (leastwise I'm pleased with it) in the MM&M line and am excited enough to want to share. I had a shed full of tail ends of paint, and found a whole bunch of tester pots for 50p each at the local DIY store and thought I'd like to do something to cheer up the back garden which was a bit drab and dull......so I got creative and this is the result.






Not to everyone's taste, I'm sure, but its certainly cheered the garden up and I suspect that small nephew will like it when he comes to visit.