Birthday Cards Using Recycling and the Sad Waste of Paper

I always like to keep bits of colourful envelopes it seems such a waste to throw them away when you have opened cards. The same could also be said of any envelope really, all those bits of paper just thrown away, that could be used for shopping lists, paper for the children to doodle on or cut up and fastened together for note books to keep in your bag for odd bits you need to jot down.

As you may have gathered I hate waste,so while I have to watch tree after tree disappearing through the photocopier every day at work I try to be a bit more sensible with my use of paper at home, and not just paper we try to re-use  and make the most of our stuff.
I have a cupboard full of gift bags which are re-used at Christmas and Birthdays, any I am given are folded and carefully stored, as are ribbons, and any re-usable bits of paper.  We recycle clothes, at charity shop if we no longer want them, I often buy there also or on ebay, my children also sell on games or donate and they also buy used games for consoles etc.
There are a couple of birthdays coming up so I decided to make a couple of cards for that today. I know that places like hobby craft are full of pre-made card and envelopes and I have bought these when they are being sold off occasionally. More often though I will use what I have and that is usually what most people will have lying around.

So the white card was A4 size but then cut in half and folded now quite often there is a pristine piece of white card on the back of any birthday or Christmas cards you are given. Cut this away carefully and store, ribbons often come on boxes of chocolates, around blankets or towels or can be picked up at charity shops.

 Buttons I always save the spares that come with any thing and any clothing that cannot be donated or reused is de constructed and all zips, buttons and useful bits removed.

The silver and white background card in my cards was from a bath gift set I was bought last year it lined the bottom of the box! The pink paper I used to make the flowers was a used envelope, your name is usually in the middle so there is loads of usable colourful paper on birthday envelopes. If you are not very good at cutting your own designs you can go on line choose some images and make yourself some templates ( just remember to save them so you are not creating more waste!)

The buttons are from my stash of many odd buttons I just sew them on, silver pens come in useful for writing on your greetings and save on printing. I don't usually add further paper inside I just write the greeting straight onto the card.

Now these cards now need envelopes to fit, I will do these tomorrow, you can use colourful magazine pictures (use the free ones that get pushed through the door) or any paper big enough even saved wrapping paper just make a little label to stick on the front.  I usually find people like cards you have made because you put the time in. I have been a  bit behind on all my handmade stuff recently so I am on a real push now to get back into it.

There are loads of ideas out there for re-using paper, card, jars, jumpers etc. I will share more later.

Repairs, Cards and Books

Today I managed to get some jobs done despite spending all of my free time watching the new puppy. I repaired the sleeves again on a shirt, repaired a rucksack for my son and mended a hole on a pair of jeans.  Nothing amazing I know but they are jobs that have been sitting there and it is a relief to get them done as I nearly always put off starting anything for myself while ever there are other repair jobs sitting around.
I also made a Christmas card, yes just the one but it is still October. It is quite a basic tree one, but sometimes you want to feel like you have done something no matter how small to get the ball rolling and get you back into making stuff.  So that is what this was, I have  decided I am going to make them daily, not all the same of course and this way they will build up gradually.

Now the colours are much brighter but this is a night time photo so it looks quite washed out.

The card I bought last year really cheap after Christmas for something like 30p for 6 with envelopes. The tree is cut out from vinyl samples I was given years ago and I still have loads left, other bits are recycled paper, some stickers I got free with a magazine I was bought as a gift ( a craft magazine as a present from a friend)

So I have ideas now but it is getting the time to make them a reality, watching a puppy as many of you will know takes loads of time and energy, every sniff we have to rush outside to see if he needs to pee or poo, When my son is watching him he has only half an eye on him so accidents are happening more then, so much as I should make him watch him more (he is supposed to be his, I laugh) I don't want to delay his house training so it is more effective when I can keep catching him and talking him out.

I have seen some fabulous ideas on pinterest 

How gorgeous is that sewing machine cover, I also saw this one...

Now I hope these images last because sometimes I share and then find the image has gone. However if I do one thing this half term I think it has to be making myself a sewing machine cover like one of these.

I have a couple of new books on the go this week, one of them is fiction, The Loney

I have only just started this so will let you know how it goes. The other one is by Cesar Millan called How to raise the Perfect Dog ( hah! again I will let you know how that goes also.

Right I am going to try to be back tomorrow as I am determined to carve out a little time each day for making.

New Puppy

I've been busy again this month but for a different reason, we have a new family member Marvin the jug. (half pug half Jack Russel)
He takes up a lot of time because you have to have your eye on him all the time, house training and making sure he is safe. Also as I have two other dogs I have to make sure he is not bothering them as he is young and very nippy at the moment!

He doesn't stay with my other two when we are out as I don't trust them together yet and it wouldn't be fair on the older two so he has his own pen in the hallway. So I hope to be sewing again soon, he just needs to calm down a little so I can take my eyes off him without him chasing the other two around the house!

Courgetti spaghetti, Cake, Biscuits and Books

As I get used to avoiding wheat I find it gets easier all the time, I suppose this is the same with any change that we need to make but initially it did feel very difficult to eat without all the baked goods that I used to love.  The thing is now I tend to associate them with feeling dreadful afterwards which tends to make them less appealing.
Due to this change I rarely get to eat any cake or biscuits unless I have braved baking with the dreaded gluten free flour.  I saw a recipe for white chocolate and cranberry cookies so I thought I would try it. Now as usual I didn't stick to the plan ( maybe this is why things go wrong?) I just creamed the margarine and sugar then threw in the flour, egg, cranberries and white chocolate.  I also didn't need it as I have found it to be very crumbly and not very workable, instead I added a little soya so it would be more moist and just spooned the mixture onto the baking paper.

I didn't get any pictures as half are already in the freezer, some in my stomach and a few left in the kitchen which wouldn't make for a great photo.  Long story short is that although they were not very biscuity they were very tasty!  They came out more of a flattish scone but never mind as they are so nice.
I will maker them again with a full photo and recipe for you.

Something I did take a photo of was todays bake, which is for church and therefore not Gluten free as it is to be given out and not consumed by me!  I made this up, and it is a vanilla sponge with crushed wheatos ( Yeah like I said I'm not eating it!) marshmallows and chocolate topping.

There are marshmallows inside as well.

Another thing I tried today was courgetti spaghetti, now basically it's just courgette cut into really fine strips (julienne) and fried in olive oil. You can top it with whatever pasta sauce you use, I made one with tomatoes, onion, garlic and chilli.  I then topped it with cheese and had a spinach and cucumber salad.  It was really good and strange how the courgette when cooked lilts and has the texture of spaghetti.  Much healthier, I will definitely make this often.  I think I will buy a julienne peeler though as they are cheap enough and would make preparing stuff quicker.

A couple of books I have read recently are The Shack which was really thought provoking if maybe a bit challenging in places. Also I am having a bit of a binge on reading about habit formation. A book I enjoyed was 59 seconds.

 It has some really good examples of studies, some you may have heard of before if you have read Outliers or Tipping point there are some familiar themes.  I also started Nudge but I got a bit bored with that,  The latest one is The Power of Habit, I just started this so I will keep you posted.

Burda Women's Shirt Pattern

This weekend I have been getting on with a couple of jobs that have been sat around a while.  The first was a small rip in a friends dress that needed some invisible stitching ( I say invisible but it was actually a very fine mesh so I did the best I could). There was also a replacement zip and a shirt for me that I have had the fabric for for quite a while.

The reason it has been so long waiting for me to get started is that I knew it wasn't going to be a quick make. It is fitted but very structured and  lot of bits and detail that needed to be spot on.

Here it is...

I really like the middle fabric on the front of the pattern but they didn't have any like that so I got this which is a dusky pink. Not  a colour I would usually go for as I tend to suit bolder colours so I hope I wear this! 

The fit turned out to be very accurate but I did feel the collar was too deep so after I had stitched it all on I thought that it would just bug me, that would probably mean the garment wouldn't get worn.  With that in mind I unpicked the whole collar snipped about a cm off the bottom and put it back in.  It took longer to put back in as everything was not as crisp but it got there.

When making the shirt next time I may also make it shorter as it is quite long.

This has inspired me to try more of the Burda patterns for more detailed stuff, I make lots without but it is good to work from one occasionally, my way of doing things  usually involves trying on repeatedly and tweaking things as I go. Working from a pattern is more like doing a puzzle so it can be a relaxing way to work.  ( Just buy them on offer, make sure you can reuse and adapt)

Here you can see it is long, but that is the style.

Now that I know that this pattern works and is a good fit I may see if I can make it in something heavier for the winter. 

Gluten Free Blueberry Pancakes (frugal and quick desert)

I really wanted some pudding today after my lunch and while everyone else was eating banoffee cheesecake and cream I had to go without.  I did try a bought lemon cheesecake from the supermarket's free from range a couple of weeks ago but it was awful, expensive and everyone complained!  So back to letting them have the regular deserts as why should everyone else suffer.
After about an hour my sweet tooth got the better of me and I decided to make something using what I had in the fridge.

Blueberry Pancakes.

 I didn't measure anything out as it is not necessary with stuff like this I feel, so here is what I did.

I used one egg and cracked it into the jug, added a splash of soya milk and whipped it up a bit.

I added one teaspoon of sugar and about five level desert-spoons of  GF flour (plain). Next I chopped up a handful of blueberries, heated some olive oil in a pan and poured in the batter.  I waited until the bottom had caught a bit then spread out the blueberries, turned after a short while and it was done.

To serve I added some plain Alpro yogurt, a few more blueberries and a drizzle of syrup, it was very nice.

It was a decent size serving so you could use this amount and make four or five small thin ones to have with ice cream if you can eat that (I can't).  There is a really good cheats ice cream though that you make using frozen bananas and peanut butter. You can find it here Dairy free ice cream

Pancakes are quite useful as you can put savoury fillings in them and they are cheap to make and a bonus is they are one of the few GF recipes that taste just like the regular version.

Frugal Bathroom Blind revamp/makeover

I redid the bathroom blind last year or was it the year before? Using a bit of fabric from Ikea but as we have recently redone our bathroom it no longer went with the colour scheme.  As it was so easy to do on the cheap last time I had no intention of paying out a ridiculous amount of cash to get the look I wanted.  Lets face it a roller blind is just a bit of fabric with a channel in one end for a bit of plastic and it is attached to a mechanism on a cardboard tube!

Here it is...

This is what I did.
As the bathroom is a damp place and my window is right next to the bath I decided that this time I was going to use the coated fabric. You know the kind you use as wipe-able table cloths, so we went and had a look and found this...

It has little pebbles all over it which will go really well with two pictures I have in my bathroom.

This is the lovely orange one I took down, but don't worry that fabric will be washed and pressed and I am sure it will come in useful for something in the future.

It is a great design but it does not go with the current neutral colours.

All I did was remove the old fabric by taking out the staples from the tube, I lay the new fabric over the top to get the right size and then stitched a new channel at the bottom for the plastic to go in (the bit that weights the bottom down).  If you are starting from scratch you could just make this from a bit of dowel.  I didn't even need to hem the sides this time because the fabric being coated it does not fray.  We just made sure it was lined up straight on the tube and stapled it with an electric stapler.  I'm sure strong glue could probably be used for this bit.

I showed my mum the fabric and she said she could do with something like that as things get splashed on her blind and she has a hard time keeping it clean. I told her to have a look for something she likes and we will do her blind up next.