La Dolce Vita (The Sweet Life) - on a tiny budget.

Nelliegrace

It is Spring officially, the Equinox today. 
6°C in the garden this morning so it is frugal porridge as usual for breakfast, and an egg to celebrate. The hens gave us 14 eggs last week in spite of the frosty weather, they like the longer days. 
I made a fruit cake with some brandy soaked fruit bought in the January sales, and did a batch of flapjacks made with the usual amount of golden syrup but no sugar, and they are rather nice and crisp. I have cut them into small squares, home made cakes for the week, an absolute luxury. The oven was on anyway for the pot roast. 
DH made a good white loaf in the bread-maker, as a change from wholemeal. The 3kg bag of Allinson’s bread flour was on offer at £2, and will make over 7 x 400g loaves. 
The kitchen smelled wonderful with the baking. 

iris

Snap @helensbiggestfan - Magic Monday for me today also means visit to the dentist......😱😂.   That's about as exciting and as magical as it will get today.

helensbiggestfan

Transformation Tuesday. 

Good Morning my Lovely Friends. 

What steps can I take today to continue on my journey of transformation and re-invention.  

Tbh I am very tired today and somewhat lacking motivation. My transformation does seem like a long slog at the moment. Lots of aches and pains today, lack of energy and my skin feels parched. 

But, I will keep going......  

 I recently bought a couple of fine knit sweaters for spring, white, olive green and pale turquoise.  I like the fabric and style of the olive green one the best, so will order a couple more.  I am not going to dispose of the chunky winter woollies just yet even though I'm sick to death of most of them and intend to replace them next winter.  Not as frivolous as it sounds, most of them are several years old and are well past their best.  

It's quite miserable here at the  moment but I do want to plant out some spring bedding plants one of my sons bought me on Sunday.  Hopefully it will warm up later.  

One of my biggest transformations this year will be my teeth.  New crown fitted yesterday, looks better, so hopefully that's all the remedial work done. 🤞  Now I just need two further extractions, then wait 10 weeks for scans etc and then if all is well we can crack on with the implants. 

Chiro tomorrow, just 5 more to complete the course.  Then just maintenance, every six weeks or so.  Then once I have been given the all clear I can look at joining a gym.  Then the work will really begin in earnest.  In the meantime it's stretches, tai chi and walking.  I am going to dig out my 1kg hand weights and my resistance band so I can make a gentle start with resistance training. 

Wardrobe, teeth and body.  A totally new me......no wonder it's taking time. 😂

Wednesday2000

Some of the work on the house has been done, the cracks in the exterior walls were fixed. The workman said it wasn't as bad as he thought it was going to be so he finished early and he was very reasonable too.

We went out to lunch at a local bar as we haven't been eating as much so we thought we deserved a treat. I had a veggie burger, fries and a glass of wine. I went into a few charity shops on the way home. I was looking for a long dress and I found one straight away in Sense, a Wallis dress with a butterfly pattern. I got a blue jumper and a red jumper, 3 books and a teddy for my dog too. That all came to around £11 so a few nice things on a budget. 

It is much milder today and the sun made an appearance a few times. I'm now looking for something to watch on Prime.

helensbiggestfan

Wednesday.  Glad your builder has managed to tackle the most urgent work.  The warmer weather will help the walls dry out.  Nice chazzer haul.  

I have had a good but somewhat frustrating day.  It's been lovely here  so I planted the flowers in the front garden and then decided to tackle the back lawn.  It is so long, and it was such hard work. I managed half.  

Had fun and games with the lawn mower,  used my own because it's better than the owners mower. Managed to run over the cable and cut it in two, so I ended up having to use the owners mower in the end. It weighs a ton. Looked at their strimmer (I haven't got one) and it turns out the string thingy is broken so I have ordered the new part.  

The garden has been neglected, there's not much in it.  Just two rather scrubby lawns and a few half hearted raised beds with some straggly shrubs.  I'm  not going to spend much money on it but I will freshen up the flower beds and do what I can with the lawns.  May as well make it look half decent so I have somewhere nice to sit. I'll do what I can, I will just employ my "hour a day rule".   I'll probably do mainly pots so I can take them with me when I move.  The fences all need painting but I won't be tackling those.  

Anyway I'm done for now, so it's an easy simple dinner and then I too will settle down and watch something nice.  

artistlifestyle

Morning all, great to get the updates, lots going on. 

I was expecting to be back to work today but GP on Monday signed me off for 2 more weeks and gave me two more lots of AB’s. It’s challenging for sure. Lots of box set crime dramas and knitting. Unforgotten, Broadchurch and more. The garden calls, the lawn is growing, but will have to wait plus I am photosensitive to one of the AB’s so can’t go in the sun… yup you can’t make it up. 

So apologies for the C word so early in the year as I’m knitting some of my Christmas presents, it was a suggestion at the knit and knatter I sometimes go to. I often like to give little presents, not expecting anything back, or sometimes they’re just a little thank you. 

This year I am starting with cloths, and then in the autumn will make soap to go with them. The local wool shop had a sale of bamboo yarn, which I had put in my stash, these make wonderful face cloths and I’ve used all that up now, and then I used plain dishcloth cotton, they’re brilliant for bodies, baths and basics and last ages. Then to ring the changes I found this on Amazon last week https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lily-Sugar-Cream-56-7-Strawberry/dp/B000QHGVLE/ref=sr_1_7?crid=23DZQO4TPTA7T&keywords=sugar+and+cream+yarn&qid=1679474024&sprefix=%2Caps%2C96&sr=8-7

Pattern https://www.allfreeknitting.com/Dish/grandmas-favorite-dishcloth
for the bamboo ones I go to 55 stitches, the plain cotton to 50 stitches and the sugar and cream to 47, that way I get 3 cloths from 2 balls of the sugar and cream pink. All on 5mm needles. Average cost per cloth overall £1.60. I’ve made 20 so far and still going- about 4/day.

Last year I made lots of spiced plum chutney, after being given a bucket of plums, which was very popular and I always make cookies and cream fudge as a once a year treat for the immediate family and have often made different cold pressed soaps, this year I might cheat and use melt and pour glycerin soap just to go with the cloths. The cold pressed soap needs weeks to cure, and last year I ran out of time and energy so took a break.

Hoping when I’m feeling a bit more like myself I can tackle the paperwork pile and get back in the studio. Looking for the blessings in all this, like getting ahead with my knitting. For me the lack of connection with others is probably the hardest eg it will be almost 4 weeks I’ve been stuck at home by myself by the time I can can back to work. 

So here’s to wellness Wednesday and back to normality asap. 

Nelliegrace

When I was recovering from the first lot of heart problems, I could not manage a ten minute walk but could do two five minute walks, and built those up by a couple of a minutes gradually. A walking pole made a surprising difference to my confidence. Weight was not a problem, I lost two stone in hospital, when I could eat there was almost nothing that I would want to eat. 

The home made food presents sound delicious @artistliestyle We had lots of honey for presents when we kept bees, (we are down to the last 20lbs,) and I make jams and marmalades. I have given homemade vanilla extract, and sloe gin. I have knitted dishcloths, children’s hats, scarves, and jumpers.
I took cuttings from the fruit bushes for presents the following year. 
I treasure the handmade gifts from my family. 

I knit less now, but I have a few baby cardigans in stock from the knitters who do the craft stall at the church fair. I have some proper, still boxed, English mohair teddy bears from those lovely collectors who de-clutter onto e-Bay. I have a parcel to send for baby Hector.

wort

Morning all , sun is shining and washing is on the line, even popped my quilted coat in to freshen up.

I am joining LL and Iris at the dentist today , as I think I have a gum infection 😢 hopefully only antibiotics, and no cracks in my tooth ,I grind them when stressed and should use my gum shield but it makes my mouth so dry and because of menopause it’s already very dry at night that I wake up to drink water regularly.

I also have to take cat to vet for his booster, luckily he came home early this morning, I just need to wrangle him into the crate later. 😬

I went for a meal Monday after a hectic weekend in work ,very busy for Mother’s Day. It was my friends birthday and we enjoyed a lovely meal and a drink and catch up. Lovely to dress up a bit , put some make up on too . Yesterday had a trip with my dsis and her friend to mooch round a garden centre and have coffee.

wishing everyone well and hope the sun is shining on you .

helensbiggestfan

Wellness Wednesday. 

Well unfortunately both blood sugar levels and weight have stayed the same, but at least they aren't increasing so that's a positive.  My shoulder pain is excruciating today. (Pushing the wretched lawnmower uphill). I think it might be time to outsource lawn mowing.,.,.,

Pain levels are a bit too high for exercising today and anyway I'm going to chiro later so I don't really want to over do it, so will have a day off today. Disappointingly slow progress but it can't be helped,  

Persistence Pays Off😉.  I'm not going to give up.  

Wort......hope the dentist trip pans out well.  Good luck.  Sounds like you are having fun, getting out and about.  

Nellie ....I so agree about home made presents.  So much love and care goes in to them.  They are so personal too.  

Artist......sorry to hear you are still poorly.  It's good that you are finding nice things  to do whilst you recuperate.  Get well soon.  

It's nice and sunny here. Warming up nicely too. I shall walk to chiro so will at least get a bit of exercise. 

Wednesday2000

artistlifestyle said:

 For me the lack of connection with others is probably the hardest eg it will be almost 4 weeks I’ve been stuck at home by myself by the time I can can back to work. 

That must be very difficult.xx