A bag well travelled

Good evening. I'm cheating a bit today, posting pics of other people's craft projects. The ladies brought them to this mornings craft club to show, and I thought they were so clever that they deserve a place on my blog. We have got some talented ladies in our group. This is a picture embroidered onto canvas. It is stretched over a wooden frame, all it needs is an attractive frame to complement the scene and it is ready to be hung. This is not a kit, the lady designed the whole thing from choosing a nice scene, to picking out the colours and stitches she wanted to use. 

The stitching is really intricate, I love it.

The back has extra fabric machine stitched around the edges so that the threads can be pulled tight across the back to keep it square.  

Another lady brought in two books that she has made. The picture on the front is embroidered in tiny stitches.

The front and back cover is two separate pieces. The fabric is pulled tight and secured at the back, then covered in decorative parchment.

The pages are thin card so it could be used as an album.

Here is another one, with a cat on the front. 

Lots and lots of small French knots make up the picture.

Very clever how the pages are joined together.

This afternoon the weather was glorious. I took my radio outside and listened to Steve Wright in the Afternoon while I planted up my beans, peas, and courgettes. My ears pricked up when I heard the name Jack Munro (linky to her web site) mentioned, she came on the show to talk about her book. She's doing very well for herself  promoting cheap meals. My meals will be even cheaper when I start harvesting my home grown vegetables.   

Dinner tonight was very cheap, all reduced of course. Half a punnet of mushrooms 11p, two chopped spring onions, a handful of chopped spinach, cooked in a little oil, a teaspoon of wholegrain mustard, a shake of garlic powder, and a dessertspoon of plain yogurt added at the last minute. Served on a large microwaved potato. Must have cost all of 25p at a guess, and it was chuffin lovely. Beats all your fancy mucked about food they serve up in restaurants.

The smiley Sue G has sent me a photo, she is carrying an original 'Ilona' bag, on her way back from holiday up north in Scotland. Below is the email she sent.  

Hi Ilona,
Just thought you'd like an update on your (now my) bag. 'Bag' has been on holiday, to the Inner Hebrides, to Islay and Jura in fact. (Should have taken it to Iona really, since it has Ilona embroidered on it!) Anyway, it came in very handy for putting all sorts of things in, and it enjoyed it's two weeks away very much. It would be interesting to know how well-travelled your other bags have been. 

Here is Bag coming back past the Kintyre peninsula, on the way back to the Kennacraig Ferry Terminal:

Thought you'd be pleased to know what a wonderful time Bag had, camping and birdwatching and seeing lots of winter geese. Thank you Ilona!
best wishes
Sue G

Thank you for the pic, Sue, I'm pleased that you like the bag and you are finding it useful. Your suggestion of finding out what has happened to the other bags I sent out is a great idea. Let's ask everyone who won a bag to send in a photo of themselves using it, with a description of where they are in the world, and what they use the bag for. That would be great fun, I will post them on a separate page so they don't get lost in the main body of the blog. So how about it folks, email your photo's to the address on the sidebar.

I'll catch you tomorrow. Toodle pip

Summer is here, everyone outside

Happy Mothers Day to all mothers everywhere

I hope you don't mind but I went out for the day yesterday, a spur of the moment thing, like you do. I fancied a trip to the Midlands to visit family. My goodness that M1 motorway is a pain, twenty miles of roadworks at 50 mph. Why they can't do it in four separate lots of five miles I don't know. Good for the fuel consumption I suppose.

Uncle and Aunt are doing fine, they have just had their veg patch flattened and graveled over, a lot less work for them. The strawberries have a new bed, and there will be some runner beans planted soon, they are aiming for low maintenance gardening.

Sisters new bungalow is looking fabulous now the new conservatory is up. It was gutted when they moved there and they had to live on site in their caravan for a while until the work was done. The house itself is smaller than their previous one, and although the garden is smaller, there is room to park the caravan at the back. They are well chuffed as it's in the area they like, and near to children and grandchildren.

On the way back I hit Tesco at just after 8.30pm, it's at the end of the motorway just off the roundabout,  well I had to pop in didn't I, ha ha. A few yellow stickers left. I was looking for bread, but there was none, oh well, never mind, I will manage without. I have four slices left in the freezer and some potato cakes, I'll eat them instead. I spent more on the cats than I did on me. Chicken pieces £2, yellow stickers £1.18p. I have added it to the list on the page above. It was a quick dash round, wanted to get home.

I have a confession, I didn't do the 5k Park Run yesterday, I know, I've let myself down. I just didn't get organised in time, wanted to get off down the motorway. Never mind, I promise to make up for it. Extra on the cross trainer, and more walking around the village, I might even get the bicycle out for a ride.

Looks like a sunny day today, the first day of summer, YIPEEEEEEEE. I think it might be time to take the winter curtains down now. Got stuff to do in the garden, a line of washing to get out. Let's make the most of it. Enjoy your Sunday.
Toodle pip.

Worth a look if you are passing

Good morning, it's raining so I will get on with this post and maybe go out later if it stops. Someone asked for more information about finding reductions when food shopping, or as it's widely known, yellow sticker shopping. Not all reductions have yellow stickers on, different stores have their own way of doing things. Some go through their shelves of short dated stock and stick a blank label on and hand write the new price. Tesco have big yellow stickers, Sainsbury's have small yellow stickers, Spar shops use a large hand written sticker.

Where in the store do you look for reductions? For a start you need to get to know the layout of the store. Fruit and vegetables are often near the entrance, or close to the back door to the store room. These shelves need replenishing regularly so easy access for large trolleys is important. If there is an instore bakery the bread and cakes will be in the middle towards the back, so they can wheel out the freshly made loaves as they come out of the oven. The meat needs to be put out on the shelves pretty quickly as it is packaged up, so an aisle with access from the butchery department in the back is usually chosen.

Some stores will set aside a section in a chiller cabinet to gather all the reductions together in one place. Others will leave their yellow stickers with the rest of the same stock, so customers can take the cheaper item first. Some people will bypass the cheaper one and reach to the back of the pile to get a longer date. I think that's a bit daft. I have pointed out to people that the one at the front is cheaper, they answer, I don't want to use it straight away. We all know that the dates are a guide, but some folks are funny and will chuck out food on the actual last date.

When I walk in a shop/store, my eyes are programmed to search out bigger stickers than normal, be it yellow, plain with a red edge, hand written, or small yellow. I ignore everything else. I skim along the shelf edge looking for any labels which say REDUCED. Anything that catches my eye, or jumps out at me is worthy of a second glance. I go around the store like this when I first go in. When I have satisfied myself that I have found all the bargains, and picked out what I want, I then go around again, picking up a few must have items which I know are never going to be reduced. So, priority is, what is cheap, buy reduced first and base my meals around the bargains I can find.

Some of the discount stores, Poundstretcher, Home Bargains, B & M, Pound shops, have a trolley near the checkouts with half price of reduced dated stock. Have a look there first before you go round the rest of the store. There won't be any fresh produce there, but sometimes you will find tins and packets about to go out of date. Beware though, there is a lot of junk, cake, biscuits, fizzy drinks, sweets, which you don't really want if you are trying to follow a healthy diet. You have to be disciplined not to pick it up, even though it is cheap. I usually walk away from it, but I am not perfect and sometimes get a little treat for myself.

When picking up yellow stickers in a supermarket. put them in your trolley with the sticker face down. It has been known that other savvy shoppers will take things out of your trolley when you are not looking. If there is a bit of a scramble around the lady with the ticket machine, chat to her, be friendly, and make it like a game. No point in being nasty. Tempers can be lost and yellow sticker shopping becomes a misery. Make it fun, so what if you didn't get that small cauliflower with wilty leaves, go for the sprouts or the broccoli instead. If there are several of the same item available, don't grab the lot, say, I'd like two of those, and point out something else that the other person might like instead. I have had people hand me something from their own trolley, when I said, ooh dear I missed those. Of course, the level of niceness might vary depending on where the store is located. My Tesco is on the edge of the town, to shop at night you need a car to get to it, so not a lot of competition. If it is a store close to town or a housing estate, there will be more people looking for bargains, so there will be some grabbing going on. Not very pleasant, but there's ways of getting to the front without the pushing. I have been known to get down on my knees to get to the bottom of the chiller cabinet.

So, when is the best time to look? Anytime between 2pm up to 9pm. The meat usually comes out first, because it's got to be shifted quickly. The supermarkets start with a small markdown first, then later a second and a third markdown. The later it is the cheaper you will find it. Saying that, you may be unlucky and find nothing left if you go in at 7.30pm, because some people are satisfied with a 50% reduction. I like to take a gamble and go later to get 90% off. Of course I may be unlucky and find there is nothing left. It all depends on how much the management have over ordered the stock by, and how much people are prepared to pay for it. Supply and demand.

Do not waste time and petrol going from shop to shop, that is daft. Always combine journeys, if you are going out somewhere time it that you are passing a supermarket on your way back. It could be worth stopping for ten minutes to check out if there is anything to be had.

Don't be embarrassed about foraging in shops, the markdowns are there for everyone to buy. You are being savvy to search them out. Some people will say, oooh, I couldn't do that, and look down on those who do. Well bully for them if they can pay full price, let them. I have to make ends meet on my pension. I don't load my trolley with expensive crap. I look in their trolleys and think Jeez, what awful food you eat, then watch them hand over the plastic for a £100 bill. They are subsidizing my food bill, it makes me smile.

Are you going to become a savvy shopper? You don't need to go to the extremes I do. It would be more difficult to shop like this if you had some picky family members, it's easy if you only have yourself to please. Also, work can get in the way, and your time may be limited, but can you call in a supermarket on the way home. Worth a look if you are passing. I picked up a few items yesterday on the way back from my walk. Another £2.94 spent, listed on the page above.
Off out now, it's stopped raining. Toodle pip        

A walk from Goxhill to the Humber

I woke up to sunshine this morning, it should be a nice day for a walk, I thought. So I quickly got myself ready, packed my small rucksack, picked up the ,map I printed off last night, just in case, and set off towards the Humber Bridge. I didn't go over the bridge this time, but headed east and carried on to Barton, then to Barrow, and parked next to the church at Goxhill. This is All Saints Church. 

I saw that there were some workmen busy inside, so me being nosey I asked what they were doing. Apparently the roof has been stripped of it's lead by robbers, and they were there to make repairs because the rain is coming in. They are using a different material, so it shouldn't get stolen again. This seems to be happening a lot. I reckon that the parishioners should start removing their own lead before the thieves get it, then sell it and use the money to repair the roof. With the price of metals being quite high, they would make a few bob on the side to go in the church collection box. 

I didn't expect to see Cliff Richard in church today, ha ha.

Heading out of the village I came across this red telephone box, only it's not a phone box any longer.

It's a mini library. Help yourself to any books you need, and bring your unwanted books to fill the shelves. What a good idea. It could do with a clean though, the windows were a bit mucky, and the floor needed sweeping. A bit of polish would spruce it up a bit. 

I left the village via North End and walked down a very long straight road towards the River Humber. This brought back memories. I used to drive my cement tanker down this road, to make a delivery to the tile works. I wondered if it was still operating. I got my answer when a lorry load of roof tiles came towards me.

It was very overcast, I could only just see across the river to the docks at Hull. It started raining, then the wind got up, and the rain came harder. In the distance you can just about make out the ferry boat at Hull docks.

I walked along the waters edge for about an hour, hanging onto my umbrella. There was nowhere to sit down for lunch, so I had it standing up propped up against a concrete wall at East Halton Skitter. The Skitter is a bridge that goes over East Halton Beck where it joins the river. My makeup free selfie.

My original plan was to carry on further down the river bank towards North Killingholme, but by this time I was getting fed up with the rain and wind, so I turned inland and took the long road to East Halton. What is this I spy in the hedgerow, surely not, it can't be, yes I believe it is. It's the very rare Achillea Filipendulina Gold Plate. Now that is an unusual find, these rare herbaceous perennials don't usually come into flower until mid summer. I have no idea how it has found it's way from Norway, to take root in a hedgerow in North Lincolnshire. It's amazing how the wind has carried the seeds all those miles, they must have blown onto a ferry and landed on our shores :o))

Look, there's the ferry.

Time for a sit down in the park at East Halton. It has stopped raining, finished my sandwich and the second boiled egg. There's a shop round the corner, I fancy a lovely Magnum Infinity ice cream. Yum, chocolate and soft caramel. Haven't had one for months, must treat myself.

The pub at West Halton.

I left the village across the fields, went through a wood, past a pond, across a little bridge over the Beck, and joined the road through South End, back into Goxhill.

I was back at the car by 4pm. That was enough, the rain had started again. Just a short walk today, a little over 11 miles. There isn't a lot to see in this corner of North Lincolnshire. It's very flat, all farmland with massive fields, no animals all crops. Goxhill is a large village with a lot of big posh houses with huge gardens. It's a bit too far out on a limb for me, nice if you want a quiet life and don't want to wander too far afield. I would rather have easy access to a motorway so I can get out and about.
That's it for tonight. Catch you tomorrow. Toodle pip.
PS. Picked up some yellow stickers on the way home. Added them to the Reduced page. Link at the top.