Happy Day at Home

Healthy...

Healthy, yummy, wheat free day. Spinach and cheddar breakfast omelette; quinoa, black bean, grapefruit and avocado salad; fish skewers with asparagus and salad with tahini dressing and a little treat - one square of 89% coco dark chocolate.

Wealthy...

 

 

One day anyway...getting stuck into my MBA. I like to spend my time productively.

 

Happy...

Dog walk in the late evening sunshine in the corn fields near my house. It may not be the most exciting landscape, but I loved listening to the rustling of the drying wheat, enjoying the biscuit smell and the coolness of the shady hollows.

 

 

 

 

A beautiful scarf in my favourite shade, palest grey, a gift knitted by my beautiful mum..

 

 

Flowers from my parent's garden, collected by the armful and dried for winter.

 

 

 

I didn't even leave the village, but what a wonderful day it was just having time on my own to potter.

Healthy Mexican Dinner

Today's dinner was a yummy, healthy Mexican bowl - rice, black beans for fibre, home made tomato and red onion salsa, avocado, herbs, natural Greek yoghurt and cool avocado. Mmmmm!

Finished up with a square of dark chocolate and a raspberry yoghurt.

 

 

 

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Frosty Beauty

The car thermometer recorded an extremely chilly -4 this morning and as I warmed it up, I took a moment to enjoy the garden with it's sparkly glaze.

Winter really does have its own unique beauty. Enjoy:

Oh Christmas Tree

We went for a gold and white Christmas Tree theme this year - I am lucky enough to have built up a collection of decorations that allows me to vary the colours each year.

 

Much of the last couple of weeks has involved sipping Baileys while snuggled in front of this:

 

I was so keen to find somewhere with a log burner - rare in rental properties but worth holding out for as it is a total human pleasure to listen to the logs crackling and watch the flickering flames.

Hope you are warm and comfortable in front of your tree, wherever you are.

Christmas Wreath

So much has happened since my last post, not least moving to Wiltshire Cottage - more on that coming soon.

We moved to this perfect little place just before Christmas - and one of the first things I did was to  make the wreath for the front door. Priorities!

I always make mine - I much prefer a real one and shop-bought ones are very expensive and a bit limited, usually to holly alone.

Part of the joy is the walk in the woods to gather the material, very midwinter - still and atmospheric...

 

I like a mixture of holly, broad glossy evergreen leaves and interesting firs.

 

 

I have been trained in Floristry and am very aware that this is not the 'proper' way to wire up a wreath - but works just as well.

 

First, take a wire wreath ring (£1 or so on Ebay) and make a padded base by binding generous bunches of straw to it, using twine:

 

 

Next, take even sized sprigs of your base fir (these were Christmas tree trimmings) and bind using twine or fine green wire:

 

 

Then, add your contrasting foliage by sticking the stem firmly into the straw base, and using a length of green wire to tie the tip of the sprig in place:

 

Until you are happy it is an even spread. Then, simply keep layering up contrasting foliage in this way until you are happy with it.

 

I prefer a lot of simple greenery, although you could hot glue on some pine cones or baubles if that is your thing. As a finishing touch I cheated and glued some red beads for 'berries' onto the holly.

 

 

The photo above was taken after a frost, so it looks a little sad!

 

 

 

Merry Christmas!

Celebrating Autumn

This weekend has been a glorious celebration of Autumn, my favourite time of the year by far. I have been revelling in the gloriousness of:

My lovely tweed jacket;



Glorious autumn colours at the park - no photoshopping required!



 

Chutney bubbling away as I sit with my laptop - this time Fig and Apple Chutney...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 ...and Pumpkin and Apple Chutney to start using up this lot which we picked from the allotment;

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And as I walked past the local florist which was full of autumnal colours, I treated myself to this lovely lot:

 

 

Happy Autumn!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm Still Here

Oh dear, bit of a hiatus, sorry about that.

What a busy month it's been - festivals, a weekend in Lynmouth and lots and lots of running. And not much frugality I am afraid. I have been saving a little each month - almost £400 in total now, which is an improvement, but not the strict frugality I was intending. Hopefully things are looking quiet and inexpensive between now and Christmas, and I can get my head down and save.

Its not all bad though - I have been doing a little eBay shuffling, and sold these:

 

(A little bit of me did die inside selling these beauts, but they have only been out of the box once in seven years, so a bit of a waste of space) In exchange for buying this lovely leathery creation, which I have been lusting after for ages:

Also, the focus in our household has shifted from frugality to weight loss and training for the half marathon. It's hard to do both at the same time! So far, I have lost 11lbs and am now running about 16 miles a week and swimming for an hour. We have bought more expensive ingredients as we reduce carbs and eat more protein. We are now spending under £150 a month each on food.

The running has been fantastic. I have found myself drawn to the trail rather than road running, and have really enjoyed the hills for the first time EVER! It's hard work, but the satisfaction of getting to the top and the fun down hill makes it so worthwhile. Here are some snaps I took during some recent runs:

Up on the hills near my home town.

 

 Lynton and Lynmouth, up on the top - beautiful. Yes I ran up through the forest from the bottom!

 

 That was a sore leg day.

 

 

I even found a heron, fishing...

It's hard to think about the pain when you are around such breath-taking scenery. I am going to really focus on trail running once the half marathon is over.

 

I am shocked at how easy it is to slip into old habits just be relaxing a little and taking your eyes off the frugal ball. Although our recent trip to Lynmouth was to stay in a cottage rented by LB's parents, I still splashed the cash buying drinks and food out. We stopped at a retail park on the way home and I succumbed, spending £60 on a jacket and more in GAP. I have had a (terrible!) haircut and have been thinking about having my nails done. Who do I think I am FFS - Kim Kardashian!?

 

But here I am, pulling myself back into line - just, can you believe, as my finger hovered over the mouse to buy a brand new SLR camera from of all places....Littlewoods! I know, I know. I seem to have been possessed by my evil twin temporarily.

 

No more! Its time to be sensible again and I need to remind myself of why I set out on this frugal journey in the first place - to save enough to be financially comfortable, provide some financial security in my life and to enable me to make choices - like a career change - that I wouldn't have otherwise. Also, to escape the hamster wheel of consumerism and find some peace.

 

So here I go, more posting and more grafting from now on.