Mondays adventures

Today has been spent quietly getting on with things. The weather is grey and drizzly so I don't feel like having adventures outdoors today.

After the school run I popped to the community pantry. I was pretty happy with my little shop there and it wasn't to heavy to carry home either.  

I will try and show how I used the bits and pieces up over the week. 

 

I've also started a new knitting project. A friend of mine sadly lost her mother late last year, she has been sorting out the family home and several crafty things have kindly past my way.

One of them is this box of tapestry yarns. Each skein is approx 15 feet of yarn and the colours are a lovely autumnal feeling mixture. I've cast on 130 stitches on some size 10 needles and I'm attempted a very simple stripy hat. Each skein lasts about 2 and a bit rows of the hat so I think it should make quite a nice effect once it's finished. 

My only concern is whether who it will fit once it's finished 🤣 with 7 differently sized heads in the household I'm sure it will fit someone though!

X X x

 

Recovery Monday

 

Sorry I've been AWOL. The first bug of the school year hit me hard. Most of the weekend has been spend sitting under blankets and feeling sorry for myself.

Today however I am feeling much better!

On Saturday we celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary by watching a film together on the TV and sharing a chocolate orange. We know how to live eh?

Today's grey and wet weather has made me think of winter and the obviously looming Christmas. I found the cutest patten for little knitted stockings HERE. 

I'm planning to fill each one with a chocolate lolly and a candy cane each. I think the children would like them as a stocking stuffer. 

It's a nice activity to do on a soggy afternoon if nothing else.

X X X 

Wednesday wanderings

 

Yesterday ended up running away with me. I was planning for a quiet day because I seem to have a bit of a cold starting. It's not a bad one by any stretch, more of a nuscience than anything.

I'm the morning I did the school run with out much excitement to report. On the way home I popped into Home Bargains as usual to grab some Fairy liquid as they have bottles for £1 again. I like to keep one by the sink and at least 1 in the cupboard ready to replace it. I use a squirm of Fairy and a squirm of bleach to clean almost everything these days. 

I was very happy to find the pumpkin spice coffee I absolutely love was finally in stock. I will try and stock up on a box each visit for a while. They are my little me time treat once I've put the little ones to bed and I've finally stopped mumming for the evening.

In the afternoon I had a message from my Dad inviting me out for a coffee. My mum is away at the moment for a few days at a quilting retreat. I think he wanted a little company. While we were in town I picked up 2 bunches of Gladioli reduced to 70p each in Tesco. Both had barely a single flower out so reducing them seemed a very silly idea to me. I've just looked at them this morning and 4 or 5 flowers have started to bloom overnight. I've mixed the two colours and put half in the living room. The other half I gave to DD1 to put in the girls bedroom room. 

We had a lovely coffee and tea cake in town. Dad's treat which was very kind of him. 

Look at the size of those tea cakes! I'm glad I skipped lunch.

After our coffee treat it was time to collect the children from school. My dad joined me so he knew where each of the children's class rooms are this year. My parents are always willing to walk the children home from school if I'm having an emergency or a schedule clash. 

The children were of course thrilled to see Grandad waiting in the playground and I don't think a single one of them spoke me for most the way home 🤣

X X X 

Lots in Lidls

 

 I know people are complaining about the cost of food for a while but why is no one complaining about the weight of food! 🤣

Honestly my arms are so weak after the years of buggies and trikes that I've quite forgotten how to carry shopping bags any more!

I quite like Lidls because their app often gives me a free bakery item when I shop there. Today I picked a nice chocolate brownie to be my lunch.

I was planning on making hot dogs with half the sausages but the burger rolls were reduced cheaper than finger rolls so we are now having sausage and egg baps. 

Tomorrow will be cheese burgers and Thursday will be toad in the hole. 

I'm hoping to avoid more trips into town until next week and just use the local shop for milk and bread top ups as needed. I can't spend money in the shops if I'm not near them. 

This afternoon I need to try and work out why the dishwasher is beeping angrily at me and possibly doing lots of washing up if ifs broken.

Wish me luck 🤞

X X X 

A New Season of Life

 

You find me at a very odd time in my life. At least that's how it feels. Our dear sweet Baby C is officially a school girl! 

Coupled with DH's shiny new job, I now find myself home alone for the majority of weekdays suddenly. 

Today is my first day alone so I thought it would be a nice idea to dust off this old blog and record some of my adventures. If anyone is still here to read it. 

I started out by popping into the town centre after the morning school run. I needed some breadsticks for a little after school activity and a few things for dinner from Iceland. A random and unpredictable gust of wind just happened to blow me into one of my favourite charity shops and I found a beautiful handmade cable knit cardigan for just £2. It's going to be lovely on the colder mornings and evenings of autumn so I'm quite pleased with my find. 

Once home I sorted the shopping away and hung out the laundry waiting into the machine. It's turned into a warm bright day considering this mornings grey dreary start.

I decided that the garden was the place to be so I set about clearing out this messy corner of the patio. 

I threw away all the rubbish and popped the random weeds into the compost. My compost bin is almost full to the brim with dark healthy compost ready to use so I've taken the chance on some garlic. 

I've had these bulbs of garlic for quite some time and they were looking past their best and starting to show a few shoots. I've planted 32 cloves on the oblong tub. It's not costing me anything to give it a go so if I even get one clove to grow successfully I'll be onto a winner. If lots of them do well I well repot them later to give them proper room to grow. I don't want to waste to much room on something that probably won't work 🤣

While I was moving compost from the bin into my new garlic pot I discovered what I thought was my long dead banana tree! I threw it's remains into the compost bin an absolute age ago thinking it had give up the ghost. Yet here it was looking a little pale from lack of light but standing strong.  I quickly popped him into a pot to see how he does over the next few weeks. I might bring him indoors for the winter just to give him an extra helping hand. 

I also found 2 mystery bulbs that were sprouting deep in the compost bin while I was giving everything a good mix. I popped them both into pots to see what they do over the next few weeks. I wonder what they will turn out to be.

Once I'd finished my gardening session I looked at my newly organised patch of garden and couldn't help wonder if the banana and mystery bulbs were little gifts of encouragement from God. That He was giving me little things to look forward to and to keep me distracted. 

X X X

Let's play in the Carden

 

It's been getting a little bit to warm in the afternoons for the garden, so instead we made our own indoor vegetable carden. We used random cardboard from the junk modelling stash.

First we made our soil using a cardboard tray and some strips of cereal box. We added detail with marker pens.

You can have plants with out seeds! So we then made a little packet of cardboard seeds using teeny cardboard scraps and a toilet tube. The peg holds it securely shut to keep the seeds safe.

Next we made some vegetables for our carden. We chose leeks, carrots, kale and pumpkins. All cut from cereal boxes.

From there our imaginations just went wild. We ended up with a watering can with yarn water attached to the spout, a trowel and fork, a very naughty pink caterpillar who tried to eat our plants and some bug spray to chase him off with 🤣

We still have lots of scrap card laying around so it will interesting to see what else gets added over the next few days.

We have had so much fun making these.

X x X

A little Friday trip out

 

This morning we all got up and headed into the town centre for the day.

We started with a visit to the Library where we read and drew together. The library have recently started making blank birthday cards for  children to decorate and fill out for people in local care homes. The cards are given to people who might not otherwise receive anything on their birthdays which I think is a very sad thought. 

After the library my plan was to treat the children to a Happy Meal in macdonalds. I had not realised however that they now cost £4.39p each!  Instead went into Poundland and looked at their £3 meal deals. I fed all 6 of us happily with 4 x £3 meals and added an extra drink for £1 and some biscuits and crepes for dessert (£1 each)

The whole lot came to just £15 which I think it's pretty darn good for 6 people. 

We are our food in the park with some friends and family before heading over the mobile farm that was set up in the main precinct.

I felt the farm was a little disappointing with just 2 goats and 2 sheep to look at. All 4 animals were looking a bit pestered and fed up with the attention of the crowd around them. Still it entertained the children for 5 minutes until they went to play in the giant sandpit that's been set up for the summer holidays. 

After a good half an hour of sandcastles and burying each other the smallest members of the family were beginning to get hot and tired so we headed home for a quiet afternoon of video games and netflix. 

That's another day of summer in the bag.

So far so good 

X x X

Cheap holiday entertainment

 

 Day 2 of the holidays and more frugal crafting.

We made suprise tubes using toilet rolls, tissue paper and thread. Again a fairly self explanatory craft I think. I hid a little packet of fruit heart gummies in each tube.

Everything we needed was on hand apart from the treats which cost 89p for a packet of 7 in Home Bargains.

I quite like the idea of making these as place cards for Christmas Dinner or perhaps a party 🤔 

X x X

Summer 2024 arrives

 

Life has been a bit rubbish for a while at Spurrier House. I've made a resolution to go the extra mile over summer and cheer us all up a bit. To remind ourselves that as long as we have each and a brain (or most of one) then we have everything we REALLY need.

I'm starting as I mean to go on with this quick frugal craft.

 All you need to do is ask for the end of a till roll next time you are in a shop. Eventually you will find a till worker who has just changed a roll or is about to. Most of these rolls have several metres of paper left on them and are destined straight in the bin.

I folded some till roll concertina style (as if making paper dolls) and cut out the flag shapes making sure to leave them all attached at the top.  That's really the most difficult bit to be honest. 

You can make name banners, birthday or Christmas banners, rude word banners (🙄 teenagers!) Or what ever you can really think of.

Let me know if you give it a go 😁

X x X

Time is whizzing past

 

I feel like the phrase 'blink and you miss it' is apt this week. We have had poorly children, job interviews, household drama and a garden shed burglary.

Poor Miss C - DD4 has had a really horrid case of conjunctivitis which we are just starting to win the battle with. It's needed a lot of vigilance to stop it getting worse or spreading to any other little Spurriers.

Tom, DH, is on the look out for a new job and has been attending some interviews including one for TESLA that latest almost half a day. So far he's had no luck getting a job offer but I just know there is job waiting around the corner for him.

In the house we have had to reshuffle some rooms and sleeping arrangements again. As the children are getting older our bedrooms needs are changing. We've made the decision to give up our living room for DS. So far it's a bit awkward but it's working.  Mostly.

And finally today I came home from the school run to find our garden shed has been riffled through by persons unknown. We only keep some garden toys, lawn chairs and the paddling pool in it so there was nothing to steal. They had a good poke around though to make sure 😡 it makes me feel a bit funny that somes one's been in our space though. You just know they tried our back door and windows while they were there too *shudder*

But onwards and forwards as they say. I've kept myself occupied by making the children all a little treat to enjoy after school. They deserve to celebrate the end of a long week to.

Don't you just love these snack cups too? In our house we call them Bups (Bowl-Cups). They are apparently quite trendy at the moment on Tiktok and the like, according to my teenager anyway. Its not I get told I'm on trend 🤣.

X X X

Starting tomorrow

 

Starting tomorrow I will be taking part in our church's 40 days of fasting and prayer. 

I'm planing to fast each day between 6am and 6pm, with Sundays off. The idea is to follow the podcasts and daily prayer guides to connect closer with God. To heat what He is trying to say to us about the upcoming year and about ourselves. 

I'm looking forward to the journey.

X x X

Whoops

Having finished my 15 knitted hearts project I fancied something a little different. Pinterest suggested a cute heart patterned ear warmer that DD3 said she liked. 

Firstly I'm not happy with my colour choices. The hearts are a lot easier to see on the photo than they are in real life which is annoying.

It's also maybe possible just a smidge on the small side 🤣🤣🤣

A lovely warm wristlet but definitely NOT a ear warmer for a 5 year old 🙈

Having looked at the pattern again I was supposed to use 8mm needles and not size 8 needles. Let's hope the next attempt goes a little bit more successfully!!!

X x X

Enjoying some freedom

 This afternoon was my first little bit of child free time since the Christmas holidays began. After taking DD4 to preschool I met with my parents for coffee and cake in one of our favourite local cafes. I remembered to keep some mementos to add to my junk journal.

After our coffee and a catch up, we had a little wander around the towns charity shops before the schools finished for the day.

I found some very pretty Cath Kidston fold and mail stationary. I thought they would be useful for sending messages and for adding to my junk journal occasionally.

In Poundland I found some Christmas straws in their clearance section for 50p which I thought would be well suited to Valentines theme crafts.

In Tesco I found some Silver and Gold paper cups for 30p.

Together I think they'd look quite fetching on the dining table. I think I might decorate the cups a little more though. I quite like the idea of drawing hearts around them with a sharpie and marking them with the children's initials.  

I'll think on it and see what I can come up with.

In Iceland I was quite excited to discover the new chocolate orange variant for Easter. I had to treat myself to one 🥰

I've yet to find the elusive white chocolate orange though. If anyone spots one please pop me a comment and let me know where they are hiding. I am a woman on a mission 🤣

 Once home from the school run I found a bag by my front door. One of my neighbours had kindly given us a box of mince pies they didn't want and the softest brown shawl I think I've ever touched. I sent her a message thanking her for thinking of us. I'm not entirely sure she's human though between you and me.... she very kindly pops things by our door every so often if she thinks we can make use of them BUT not once has she ever set off my Ring doorbell camera while she does it. Bear in mind that my ring doorbell often sends me video clips of the bushes by the front gate slightly twitching in the breeze or cats walking along the fence.  Very odd. Possibly a vampire?

X x ☓ 

Welcome 2024

 

Welcome 2024!

This year was the first time all 5 children made it to midnight. We slipped on our coats and slippers at midnight and watched some of the fireworks that were all around us. 

There didn't seem quite as many as previous years but what we saw were beautiful.

We spent the afternoon in the company of my brother and his family. We drank some tea in the cafe at Itchen Valley while our children enjoyed the indoor play area. 

Just as we decided to try a little walk through the woods, it started to rain. We hopped back into our cars and decided on a little visit to Haskins garden centre instead.

Tom (DH) kindly treated me to a beautiful pink petunia and a white African violet. The Violet was reduced to £1 with lots of new leaves and flowers buds growing. Both are currently living on my dining room table. 

Once home we had a nice dinner of Ham, egg and chips before the back to school bathing and hairwashes began for the older two children.  Tom gave DS a haircut while I settled the smallest two into bed with a story. 

Then I worked on my first journal page for 2024. I'm hoping to build up a sort of diary over the year filled with little mementos of our adventures. Today I saved an used coffee stirrer, empty sugar packet, till receipt and parking ticket. I added a few decorations that tied into the days adventures. I wished I picked up a leaf to include now but maybe I'll do that on another trip. 

My evening will be spent drinking tea and knitting little stuffed hearts for my Valentines day project. I need to make about 15 and so far I've made 9. 

Happy New Year 

X x X