Saturday 26 January 2013

Frugal seems to be on everyones mind

Well it seems that frugal is a hot topic at the moment, maybe due to the economic state of the universe, every second person seems to be thinking about it or acting upon it. Simple is another word that seems to go hand in hand with frugal. Whilst chatting to our coordinator at our neighbourhood house this week simplifying life was her mission for 2013. This chat made me think of how I had slowed down my production/ work on my creative projects and had become more engaged with it, in the thoughts behind my work, but especially the rhythm. I am enjoying and savouring the rhythm of stitching whether by hand or machine or using sewing needle or knitting needles. I feel this has come about purely as a result of not purchasing one project after another, not acting on whim and having to really think and plan what I am doing to maintain my goal of being frugal. So already I have discovered a very big plus from being frugal and simplifying my craft life. Along my journey another word keeps popping in to my minds space and that is nurture, so nurturing is being added to the mix. Nurturing myself, my family and my home, stay tuned on that front. I feel that being absorbed in the rhythm of my stitching is already nurturing my soul, that has to be a great start.

Slowing things down and really looking at life must get added to the mix. I was at my craft group for the first time this year, we had been given the new program and everyone was watching me read it. When suddenly after someone made a comment I truely looked at it and the cover and there to my delight were some of the buttons I had made in clay class. Everybody laughed when I finally realised, talk about not seeing the forest for the trees.


Did you notice the new back drop in photo? Well for the past week DD14 and I have been crawling around her room laying these new floating floorboards, no easy feat I can tell you. It took us quite abit longer than the average Joe Blow as we have to adapt how to do things because of physical limitations but we got there in the end. We are very happy with our first attempt. DD14 is now moving back into her room, already it looks like a young teenager's room instead of the little girl's room that it was. 
Sad but lovely at the same time.





Sunday 13 January 2013

Trying to get organised for 2013

Well for the past week I spent a few days recovering from our holiday( as you do, or at least I do ) then for the others I have been busy totally up ending my craftroom, a total rearrange. this also leads to a rearrange in my bedroom as I also have a sewing space in there. I hope to have it finalised by the end of the week before the heat sets in, but as I have DD's birthday and DD14 also has a friends birthday party the day after I may be pushing it.

This year I have decided to really concentrate on developing my free motion quilting skills and to learn thread painting both of which will take lots and lots and lots of practice. So I have joined a few sites to hopefully help with this endeavour. I also want to start to explore creating art quilts, these intrigue me and I am drawn to the multi media aspect of them, I would love to hear from anyone who is starting a similar journey.

I am also tidying up and updating my blog and trying to learn new skills with it, I am still very basic here. Soon I will add WIP, UFO and KART lists and add new buttons of sites I have joined. But as with everything in my life this happens slowly and can often be interupted.

I will close this post with a picture of my new apron, very indulgent on my part, my girls thought it was strange I won't buy new clothes but I'll buy an apron. But I saw this at Lorne, mulled it over for a few days and then splurged with some of my Christmas money, got to love it, I do.

I think I need to improve my photography skills to.







Friday 11 January 2013

Sooo....... excited it's hilarious

Well my year of being frugal is off to a great start. I had been hanging on to a $10 club points reward voucher from Lincraft for so long it was about to expire. I have also joined to do Leah Day's quilt along this year and needed about 1 meter front and back for the project, I had already bought black homespun for another as yet unstarted project and did not really want to take from that project. Whilst out shopping with DDs tonight I noticed Lincraft had a half price sale, so in I trotted to have a look. Well seen it is half price I'll buy the 2 metres and 1 more for good measure ( you like that oldie ) and I had better use that voucher. So the girl cut my homespun then put through the voucher and then told me it would cost me 47 cents then rounded to 45 cents. Yep that's right 3 meters of black homespun for 45 cents. Gotta be happy with that. When my girls found me I was doing my happy dance.

2013 The year of being frugal


Reuse, recycle, repurpose or make do.

Hi everybody, I hope that each of you and your families had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Sorry that it has been a while since I last posted but I had some health issues to deal with...but anyway back on deck and now I have some glasses YEAH !!!!! can finally see again. Whilst I was having some down time I reflected on my crafting and decided that like everyone I needed to tighten my purse strings and find more frugal ways of doing things. When you multi craft and have daughters who also dabble the cost and supplies can get quite out of hand..... so we have a plan.
We decided to keep a tally of costs and to only purchase what we need rather than what we want, well we all know that is how it should be but..........
Some of the guide rules are as follows:
  • only buy goods when they are on sale, so yes this will mean a bit of planning and forward thinking
  • we must use what we currently have in our stash 
  • no purchasing of magazines for the next 12 months..... oh heavens this one stresses me out the most, but I will just need to go through all the ones I have
  • we must find the most cost effective ways of doing craft projects
  • we are allowed 4 comfort buys a year ( one for each season) to spend on any item full price or not
  • we must try not to stress out about the rules
  • new rules can be added at any time
I would love to hear ways that each of you have saved money crafting please share them.

I will let you know I had already done some forward planning, I requested gift cards for my favourite craft shops for Christmas so these do not count but I will be applying the same rules to stretch my craft dollars.

We have just come back from a weeks camping holiday at Lorne where we had a great time being with friends. We go with DD's BF's family and neighbours and it's lovely. Lots of time to rest, do hand work, squiding, lying on the beach and playing beach cricket, this years holiday was the best I have had in a long time ( and to think I didn't want to go because I was too tired). it was just what the doctor ordered.
DD's catching a wave
DD now 14 at Teddy's Lookout
DD's just drifting
 DD14 at Erskine Falls
DD21's BF doing his best "merman" impersonation.

I would also like to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Eyeza who turned 30 while we were away,
Lot's of love from the Girls and I.