Waste not.....

Or what to do with some rather tired veg and a few things still left over from Christmas/New Year.

Yesterday I really had a bit of a 'using up' session.  As well as a collection of 'past their best' veg, there was some pastry from a pie that I had made for dinner on Saturday, a few bits still left from the festive season and lots of opened packets of flour, sugar and butter all with small amounts in.  Son does cookery at school and is  always taking new packets in when he cooks rather than using up the opened ones!!

First on the list were some pasties, to use up the pastry.  The filling is leek and stilton - just perfect for lunches this week.

Then I made a lovely ratatouille, to use up a part used aubergine, a courgette, an onion and some cloves of garlic.  All it needed was a tin of tomatoes to make a good meal with some crusty bread.

Finally to get rid of some of those nearly used packets of sugar, flour and butter I made a chocolate brownie. It also used up some walnuts left over from Christmas and was greatly appreciated by the 'troops'.

Now that I have cleared some of the cupboard and fridge, I can see what I actually have.

Autumn gales and apples

The first of the autumn winds has been blowing for most of the day.  It has brought down quite a few of the remaining apples on my apple tree.  I have rescued some of them and will try to salvage some more and pick the rest at the weekend.  Then I need to decide what to do with them all.  They are usually really good for keeping, but this year they don't look like they will keep well so I'll have to get out all my apple recipe's.  I have a load of tomatoes as well so I suspect that chutney is top of my list to make.  I'll have too find out some jars.  If I can find time to get some blackberries and/or elderberries then I'll be able to make some jam as well and crumble and I have a great recipe for apple cake ........ It'll all have to wait until the weekend so I hope I can find the time.

New Clothes

After all the effort I have put into the parties I thought I deserved a little treat and as I'm off work this week I took a walk into town to visit the charity shops.  The thing I love most about charity shop shopping is that you never know quite what you will find.  I'm trying to smarten up my image a little for work and so I was trying to stay away from the things that I would normally go for - flowery shirts and long flowing skirts.

I found this gorgeous checked jacket, which was absolutely brand new (I removed the original shop tag myself).  I also found a rather nice pair of grey trousers and a blue pencil skirt, all of which will be great for work with some of my existing clothes.  I have a lovely black chiffon blouse that I made that will go with the blue skirt.  A very nice black, grey and mauve jacket that I bought a long time ago and a white shite that I made to go with the grey trousers and probably plain black to go with the jacket, so that the jacket really is the focus of the outfit.

I'm rather pleased with these finds, and if I get time later in the week I will go again.  I'm also planning another Sewing Sunday, if I can decide what to make.  I have some dark red jersey fabric that I love, but I can't quite decide on a pattern.  Or there's some dark 'ink' blue cord that would make a nice jacket...........

Thrifty New Year

One of the comments below mentioned thrift.  I'm not sure that I can claim this, but

it is something that I aspire to be.  Every year I set myself new goals to move in this direction.  Generally I try to live my life in the same sort of way that my Nan would have done.  By this I mean trying not to waste anything or buy unnecessary.  We don't eat junk food, most things are prepared from fresh and we all sit down to a family dinner every evening.   It's not easy as I work full time, but I think that eating together is a very important part of family life.  It gets us all together, eating healthy food and it's cheaper than take-away's.

I try to make my own clothes as they are better made than most of the (cheap) clothes that I would buy in the shops.  Therefore they last longer and due to the effort involved in making them I value them more.  Also it avoids the dubious manufacturing conditions that some of the garments are made under.  Now that I have 'inherited' quite a lot of cloth and yarn, I have resolved to use only this for items for myself for the next six months.  I will allow myself to buy notions but not cloth or yarn.

me wearing the jacket and trousers

I generally try to make something new if I'm going out for a special occasion, that makes me feel more special and then the items usually go into my general clothes.  For example, today I'm wearing a patterned cord jacket and brown trousers that I made for a work conference a couple of years ago.  This way I usually have something new to wear out, I regularly replenish my wardrobe and when I wear the items I can ascociate them with a happy occasion.