January 13th 2013 - towel rack

January 13th 2013 - towel rack

Well today I got hubby to put up a new towel rack, well coat hooks, because I am fed up of towels being on the floor and then laid on by the cats because the kdis cant get them to stay on the radiator.

I got the idea of the coat hooks here on pinterest.  I'm hoping that even little man whose 5 can reach them.

I do think I am going to have to sew a piece of ribbon as a loop to the middle of every towel though so they stay better.

January 12th 2015 - Laptop tray

JANUARY 12TH 2015 - laptop tray

My laptop tray is 1 of those that is filled with bean bag beans, now this was ok but the seams have split and everytime I move or put it down beans come out.  I did try and glue it back together but this hasn't worked.  Also since injuring my knee 2years ago having the laptop try right on my lap seems to add to the pain of my knees.

So I decided to do a hunt for a new laptop tray - 1 that had legs and rested around my legs and not sat on them seemed a good idea.  I looked at argos for 1 first - £28! Not a chance am I paying that!  So I then looked on pinterest for ideas of how to make them, I didn't find much. BUT I did find a very nice laptop tray (today's pin) and then looked on ebay and found almost the same one for just over £10 and ordered it.  Even though it's not here I have ordered 1 and will be here by the end of the week.

The old 1 will be going in the bin and hopefully my knees will ease up abit!

January 11th 2015 - Happy Birthday Hubby

JANUARY 11th 2015 - Happy Birthday Hubby

Today is my hubby's birthday.  The day started off well for him, our friends who we had spent the weekend staying with back in our home town of Peterborough cooked him (and me and kids) a full cooked english breakfast! (I just hope they don't expect this when they come and stay with us lol!)  From here we had to load the car of our things ready for the drive home.  Once the car was loaded and we had said goodbyes we headed to see my sister who lives about 8miles away.  This was great as we didn't get to see her over christmas due to ill health, so hubby didn't get birthday presents BUT christmas presents!!!  He actually got his birthday present on christmas day - my sister sent me some money to buy beers/cider for over christmas and 1 pack was hubbys birthday present.  Well after seeing my sister we nipped into my nans, not far from my sisters and stayed with her for an hour before we hit the road back home. Sadly hubby is the only driver and so he spent 5hrs of his birthday driving back home!

My inspiriation for today's pin is found here blue birthday cakes.  Due to being tired from a busy weekend of drinking and visiting and the long journey I will add a pic tomorrow of the small cakes I made for hubby.

January 10th 2015 - straw bear festival

JANUARY 10th 2015 - straw bear festival Whittlesey

As we are going back "home" for the weekend I will do tomorrows post today, and add the photos when we get back.  As well as seeing friends and family we decided we would go over to the straw bear festival in Whittlesey.

Every year Whittlesey holds a straw bear festival at the begining of January.  It's always very cold but alot of fun.  Dancers and dance troops of morris/molly dancers attend from all over the UK and dance in the streets and at pubs.  There is a bear made of straw (has a man in it) that also goes dancing round the streets and pubs, and sometimes a bear from Germany.  It is a brilliant atmosphere and great for the whole family. On the sunday after more dancing and fun the bear is burnt (without the man inside!)

Many of the dance troops wil get members of teh public involved with the dances and if your really lucky they will cover you  in facepaint (that they are already wearing!  the red leicester lot are the worst).  Also the German straw bear has a habbit of capturing young females and dancing with them, but as it dances it turns round and in doing so is tying you and it together with a rope, they then tend to fall over so that you are laid on top of them!!!   This happened to me many years ago, and I was in a florescent yellow/hi-vis jacket as I was with St John Ambulance who provide the first aid cover for it as we were based in whittlesey.

If you ever get the chance to go to the event I would suggest you do, but wrap up warm.   This pin is found here.     Take a look at the Straw Bear website and read the info and look at the pics.

Here are some of the photos I took, it was a dry and sunny but bitterly cold day.  We saw a few of our friends there as well as members of the family, which was great.  As it happens it was only me and hubby that went as the kids wanted to stay with their godmother (where we  were sleeping).

bear in a window

the straw bear

the chicken

the plough

dancers

dancers

dancers

January 9th 2015 - 2015 reading challenge

JANUARY 9th 2015 - 2015 reading challenge

I have downloaded and printed out the 2015 reading challenge,  I think this could be quite a challenge for some of the 50 books on the list as they are not what I normally like to read.

I have gone through the list and made a note of books that I have on my shelves (but not read) and also through the net for ideas like the book published in 2015 and an author under 30yrs old etc.  I will update and cross out books when I have read them.

The reading challenge can be found here.

the reading list so far - the blue are the planned books

January 8th 2015 - Monthly meal planner

January 8th 2015 - monthly meal planner

Since the begining of December 2014 when money was abit tight we have sat down and worked out meals for that week, and bought the things we needed only (plus the odd snack type bits for lunch times and weekends, health n beauty bits, fruit, cereal  etc) and we have saved LOADS of money compaired to when we just went and bought "stuff" or "everything".  WHY I haven't done this sooner I never know!!!

Well I decided if we can do it for a week can we work out a plan of food for the whole month?  The answer is simply yes!  I sat and made a list of all the meals we eat/cook regularly and it came to 33, now I know my maths isn't great BUT I do know that no month has this many days in it, so i'm already onto a winner.

The hardest part was actually working out what to put on what day and what week, so that we didn't have all chicken in 1 week or on consecutive days (if possible) but as chicken is the main meat we eat this wasn't a totally easy task. But I managed it.

Then there was a harder task of working out what we needed for each meal so as to compose a shopping list.  So I worked my way through each of the meals from list 1 noting down what we needed for each 1, and things that were used in multiple meals I changed the font colour to red.

Even though we have the planner things may change on it if my knee is playing up and I can't stand to cook, or if we are ill or not at home or decide to have a take-away.  But by doing it and saving money we will have extra money to be able to get a take-away every now and then.


I found the idea of the monthly meal planner here on pinterest, so used this for todays task.  It doesn't seem possible that I have done over a week already.

January 7th 2015 - loom bands

January 7th 2015 - loom bands

For todays pin I am making loom band bracelets like these ones with my St John Ambulance Badgers (5-10yr olds) as part of their badge work.  They will be being sent to another badger sett that is based in Cambridgeshire in a bid to make them pen-pals.

I wasn't sure if it would count for today as part of 365 pins or not, but upon speaking to my friend Coralie who is also doing it she said she doesn't see why it wont.

Bracelets the Badgers made to send to their badger friends.