Wednesday's wonders

 I had a pretty uneventful meeting with my consultant, he has decided to not back me for a home birth but wants me in a local birthing unit instead. I'm still planning to attempted a home birth even after his lovely tales of my uterus splitting and my baby suffering from my foolishness. But at least it's over and done with now.
 On our way back from the appointment OH detoured us skillfully into our local Waitrose where it happened to be reduction time. We picked up 2 treacle tarts for 40p, a pack of Pain au Chocolat for 45p and a lovely looking fruit loaf for 39p. So tomorrow I can look forward to a yummy breakfast and some tasty elevenses and afternoon snacks. This baby is finally giving me an appetite and I find myself constantly grazing.

  An earlier visit in the day to the local free book shop found me these beauty's. An old Readers Digest Atlas perfect for some upcoming crafty projects. A vintage book called " The pebbles on the beach by Clarence Ellis", it is all about different types of stones you can find on the seafront and how to find, collect and organise them. It's quite nerdy but fascinating. An old Penguin book about the seashore, it's full of wonderful full page illustrations that are just begging to be used creatively, if I can find the will power to cut it up!!!

 And the forth books is called Super ABC Book. It looks pretty vintage to me and my untrained eye, and is full of wonderful illustrations like the ones in the photo above.

 It has cute little comic strip style storys and counting rhymes that are almost to cute!

I'm really tempted to copy out some of the illustrations, like this piggy, and use them as embroidery patterns on pillows and bedsheets for DD and bumps room.

 My plans this evening are to eat some delicious treacle tart and try some craft ideas out using my new atlas.
 x x x

Total washout

 Yesterday was awful in the end! We spend the morning huddling in the cafe with a cup of tea, praying that the rain would stop and we could do something. It didn't happen though :(
 In the end we went into Havant and said hello to OH in his shop, and then had a bargain hunt around the local shops. Most of them were closing early due to no customers and bad weather so we found lots of lovely reductions. I picked up;

6 mini Pain au Chocolats - 45p in Waitrose. Waitrose make the best pastries and these mini ones are just right for DD's breakfast.(and mine lol)
Tomato and Mozzarella Wrap - 65p in Waitrose. Again these are soooo tasty but I would never pay £2.80ish for one.
2x British strawberry punnets - 25p each. They were marked up as £2.25 but were originally buy one get one free at £4. So a tasty double discount and a punnet each for a tiny price.
Belgian chocolate cookies - 99p Waitrose. A little nummy treat for OH who is something of a connoisseur of biscuits lol

After our success in Waitrose we decided to head on over to Mr. T and see what he was giving away as well.

2x Finest pasta meals - Originally these were £3.?? each!!! Reduced down to 85p which I think it much more reasonable and certainly a little bit of luxury for me and OH's dinner.
Chicken Pops- £1 these were for DD's dinner as she doesn't always like spaghetti, and it couldn't treat us and not treat her!
Kingsmill 50/50 loaf - 45p cause we needed a loaf, and they don't seem to last more than a few days in our house.

 So it wasn't a complete waste of a day after all :) This morning we have got up and feasted on two mini pastries each with our cuppa (milk for DD. My plans for the day are to make a den with DD in the kitchen for Finding Fun, to finish our homeschool letter task for this week and decide on something nummy to make for lunch.

x x x

Car boot goodies for May

 Firstly I will show you a freebie, almost brand new Timberland boots! My mum picked them up for me the other day and passed them on. A quick peek on the website tells me that someone probably paid around £120 for these and then barely used them.

 Kung Fu Panda stuffy - 50p  Charlie and Lola book - 50p

 DD and I have been watching Kung Fu Panda 2 a lot lately thanks to Sky on demand so I was quite pleased to find this panda toy. He was lovingly cuddled and carried for the duration of the car boot sale.
 The book will be added to our C&L collection. We have 3 books now all thrifted from boot sales and charity shops. I'm always keeping my eyes open for more as they can be pretty expensive to find new.

 Peppa Pig stuffy - 20p Number game - 20p

Peppa pig is DD new love, we are planning to get her a DVD when we next food shop. At the moment she watches episodes on YouTube but they are only 5 minutes long and your constantly having to put on the next one.
 The number game will be a great educational tool to use with our home school lessons.

P

 Arsenal shirt - £1  I'm the boss PJ's - 50p   Peppa pig top - £1

Football shirts in big sizes are our nighties of choice for DD. They are perfect for this hot sticky weather as they are breathable, light and also wash in a jiffy. The PJ's will be put away for the cooler weather as they are quite thick Cotton. The Peppa pig shirt will be worn to death!

 3 cross stitch card kits - £1

 A little something to keep me entertained at nap time and in the evenings. I deliberately went for Xmas designs as I have plans to craft a lot of gifts this year. As I am getting bigger and bigger now (27 weeks yikes) and moving less and less I have plenty of sitting time to fill with useful things.

Selection of Blu Ray movies and DVD's - up to £2 each

We love our movies in TFHMH. So a car boot sale is a great opportunity to pick them up cheap. Once we have watched them we decided if we want to keep them a while and watch them again or put them in our shop for resale. Most of them end up in the shop for sale making it a money neutral hobby.

 I hope you enjoyed looking at what we brought yesterday. I would also like to say a big Hello to my two newest likers!!! and to all of the 189 people who have looked at my blog in the past 2 days. Your all making me feel really popular and motivated.

 x x x

Shopping bargain in April

  

 3 Retro (?) wooden puzzles 50p each.

Oh dear, I haven't been a very good blogger have I? Will you forgive me if I post about my latest charity shop bargains? 

 First I discovered these wonderful wooden puzzles, I say I discovered them, it was actually DD. My DD can spot something remotely duck shaped from a mile away. Behind the duck puzzle were the sheep and polar bear puzzles at the same price. I'm not sure how old they are but they needed a hefty clean when I got them home. The style of the animals is making me think late 70's perhaps. Anyone recognise them?

  Gorgeous sequin sundress with matching bolero and hat. Ages 3-4. £1.50

 Next up this wonderful dress for DD.  It is so light and summery, I'm putting it to one side to take on holiday with us soon. At only £1.50 I'm not worried if it doesn't survive the sand and beach based abuse holiday clothes can get. I'm tempted to take a snap of DD wearing it before we go.

 10 balls of Rico Pom pon in spearmint - £10.99   New Cath Kidston catalogue.

 And finally a sneaky peek in HobbyCraft led me to a bargain pack of wool. I'd been eyeing this wool up at a show I went to in London recently. Sadly they only had pinks and blues left and I wanted a neutral colour so I could make a little something for impending arrival. At £1.10 a ball this wool is better than the show price I saw of £1.25 and miles better than the £3 a ball the local wool shop is charging. I've almost finished my current knitting project (a dress for DD) so expect a post about my spearmint coloured creations soon.
  And after all this shopping I was delighted to find the new Cath Kidston catalogue waiting on my doormat. It will be the perfect read while I'm soaking in the bath this evening.

 Have you found any bargains lately?
x x x

Saturday sales and update.

White EWM top 20p - 2 WF DVD's £1.50 - Molten Brown gift set £1

A few little bargains from the community centres table top sale. Apparently they have one quite regularly. The top is a welcome addition to my dwindling collection. The DVD's will give OH and I much entertainment as we love anything WF and Molten Brown for £1 is incredible! I have always wanted to try it.

My parents gave me this wonderful wooden jewelry box a few days ago. I used to belong to my Aunts Mother who sadly passed away a few years ago. I came with some costume jewelry which I have kept a few pieces of. The rest was donated to a local charity before it could become clutter. I'm currently using it for my current quilting project as the little compartments are perfect.
I also recently picked up this stunning Laura Ashley dress for just £1 in a Cancer research shop. It is perfect and wonderful, I felt so glamorous and special when I tried it on. I'm hoping to keep hold of it and wear for my wedding in September.

x x x

Bargin shopping

Look at that sea of yellow stickers! Doesn't make your heart sing. or maybe that's just me lol.
This little pile of beauties originally cost £16.78p Scary! Here's the contents;

3 Bulbs of fennel - 5p (Always wanted to try fennel and at this price if we all hate it I'm not to worried)
Organic milk - 13p (planning to make some cottage cheese)
Pineapple chunks - 6p (Perfect for trying Fishfinger on)
Organic Plums (4)- 10p (Originally £1.99!!!!! and they aren't even ripe yet)
Broccoli - 4p
Organic Cauliflower - 9p (Originally £1.80!)
2 Packs of Potatoes - 9p each (5kg for 18p)
Mixed Salad - 8p - (Will be added to my 3p french dressing pack for tomos lunch nom nom)
French Dressing - 3p (A little treat to go in my salad)
2 Packs of 12 crumpets - 40p (Breakfast for the next few days!)
Sushi - 38p (Again something I've always wanted to try)

We picked up a few other bits as well, but you don't want to see my baby's pack of nappies or OH's Shreddies do you? I'm off now to nab a cottage cheese recipe and find out how to prepare fennel.

x x x

Chocolate Heaven

Today I happened to pop into Waitrose and discovered that they were reducing their Christmas chocolate to silly amounts, Being one never to pass up an opportunity to treat myself to some bargain chocolates I filled my boots lol.
As you can see I went a little mad. Everything in that photo is worth £61.29p!!! Those two chocolate baubles alone are £6.50 each! Extortionate prices!!!
My bargain hunting actual total???........... £11.88p a huge saving of £49.41p.

Tis the season to be shopping.....

....tra la la la la. La la la lah.

A very successful trip to Mr. A's today.

• 3x packs of 6 crumpets reduced down to 9p
• 3x packs of 4 teacakes reduced down to 14p
• 3x packs of 3 stems of Rhubarb reduced down to 10p (from 80p!!!!!)
• 1x vegetable platter with dip reduced down to 10p (from £3!)
• 2x packs of pre-sliced mushrooms reduced down to 10p
• 1 large punnet of cranberries reduced down to 10p
• 4 packs of 10 Xmas cards reduced down to 5p

The crumpets and teacakes have been frozen down. The rhubarb I roughly chopped quick and have frozen down to be made into crumbles on my next baking day. The mushrooms I chopped into much smaller chunks and have frozen for adding to pastas, pizzas and omelette's. The Christmas cards are nice a small so if I don't use them all they will be perfect for next years gift tags. The veggie platter seems to have mysteriously disappeared (nom nom nom)
The cranberries are something I have always wanted to have a play and an experiment with so that's tomorrow afternoons entertainment sorted out!!!!
This may be the season that traditionally spells expense but if you are sharp eyed and prepared to have a good rummage there are still bargains to be found out there.

x x x x