"My Frugal Accomplishments" for the week !

Tired of wastage, ever increasing food and utility prices and inspired the the wonderful "The prudent homemaker, i have embarked on a cost cutting, sensible use up and recreate what you have regime.
I have been trying to sort through a bit of my clutter each day and apply a new use or am on the look out for previously overlooked opportunities to save.

 This week my i managed to clean my fridge till shiny new and use up all the leftovers that were still good, i sorted through my cupboards and pantry, made a list of what we need and what we never used, I made kidney bean tacos( and the girls had no idea it was meat free), i cut up a few old tablecloths i no longer liked and ran them through the serger and made myself some new kitchen towels. I bought 2 dresses for my girls that were reduced because they had visible faults ( black lace,who could tell) and so i altered the fit and mended the said faults ,popped some black grosgrain ribbon and some black and white gingham ribbon from my sewing box on as belts/sashes ( the dresses came with orange belts) and had 2 very fancy looking party dresses for my little misses. Feeling quiet pleased and inspired to continue.

The revamped dresses ( The wore them for Melbourne Cup) day at school.

Whats been happening.

A few pictures to help get up to date.

Sisters ! AHA!!!!

Cross eyed cutie

Little Monsters

Add caption

My little champions

Melbourne Trip Day One

Making yoyo's to pass the time

Jolly Miss Ollie

A still unwell Angelica (trying hard to smile)

I think we are on the right road

Melbourne Museum (Pythons and Angelica)

T-Rex photo by Olivia

More Olivia T-Rex

Olivia

Angelica feeling a lot better

Big mouth, small chip, Love this man

Pretty

Mademoiselle Butterfly

My little Ladies

Unknown Species

Bug Presenters

Happy

International Man of Mystery?

I love cats

Guinea Pig Love 1

Guinea Pig love 2

Dinner?

Time to feed the Farm animals

Horsing around

Angelica and a very sweet Ewe

Farm Gal Olivia

Day one went well, even with the slow start, both girls came down with a flu bug,but perked up in enough time to have some fun. First off we went to the Melbourne Museum, then to Collingwood Children's Farm, Then a spot of shopping and dinner at Ikea. Would have loved to have done more but the girls were still not a 100%.

Here again at last !Long Catch up post .

My new  corner office

So clean and fresh !

Office/ Sewing table

New blinds and rug for dining room !

Sleeping beauty Olivia

Double delight

French General  Fabrics

French greys

My new Cottage chic yoyo's

My first completed cardigan , knitted on circular needles.

Knitted all in one, i cord edging.

More yoyo's, pretty shimmery Damasks

Our youngest son Douglas with our youngest daughters.

Been very busy these past three months, stupid mad crazy busy, Work, kids, grand kids, More Work WORK!! Work !! Our  youngest son Douglas moved back home after 4 years away at Uni, and a work stint in Sydney, losts of moving stuff around to squeeze him in but we did it. Then he decided to go travel overseas for a few months. And after all that work , household reshuffling and a bit of sprucing up i was sick for a few weeks. I now have my own home office/crafting corner, nice bright and sunny even on a bleak winters day, i love it ! Did manage to make some Yoyo's,  i use to sell them on eBay for about 4 years and then stopped, but i started making some again , i missed making them, so easy and fun and very pretty. I have so many pretty things i want to make and not enough time. I'm off to Melbourne for a few days to have some long overdue family fun. See you in a few days!!

Everything old is new again

Oh ! How i love to read, there is nothing more comforting than curling up with a good book or magazine. Lately i've been enjoying some lovely new reading material right out of the 1900s,20s,30s. Seriously they are a valuable history lesson in themselves Magazines  and books like "The Mode in Home and Dress" and "The Modern Priscilla", Home Arts etc" , the woman of these times  were far more complex, intelligent and involved than a modern person might think, yes their lives revolved around domestication and child rearing but they ran their homes like well oiled corporations and had far more common sense and self respect than their contemporaries.
 Presenting ones self and family in  best possible way in appearance and good manners and expectations are what makes society civilized and is that such a bad thing really? We all need boundaries.
 These are American magazines and books of which i speak, but none the less i was amazed just how much education and political opinions were expressed and encouraged, these woman made a difference to society and were interested and involved, seems kind of sad though to think of all the sacrifice and hard work woman of those time did to lay the foundations for woman of the future, i kind of think it has been squandered in our time.
These of course are my personal opinions and observations. I have  found a lot of great ideas, commonsense and sweet escapism in these precious publications and just love collecting them.  Oh to have a time machine!

Beautiful Art work

Love some of the quirky adverts.

Nothing wrong with taking the time to look and feel good.

Have got a few of these for the girls.

Only have the digital version at the moment, but seriously to this day i don't think a smarter book for young girls has been written.