New Year's Eve!

So it's nearly 2013, only 16hrs off... Time to post up my new year's resolutions:

1) Nothing Tastes As Good As Skinny Feels: Time to really buckled down and do this Slimming World stuff seriously, as I have two bloody good reasons to do so now! I managed to lose around 9lbs before Christmas, which was good enough for the time of year, but now to really shift some serious pounds...

2) Learn to knit something: Tom's mum is a fabulous and imaginative knitter, and I've decided, having completed my patchwork target this year, I would learn to knit something basic but pretty to add to skills I have craft-wise.

3) Remember birthdays and celebrations and get cards out: There are certain people in my life who ALWAYS remember my birthday or send me a card if something good happens. I think it's time to start making them feel remembered back and so this year I will try to send everyone a card when they're having a special time.

There is also the small matter of the fact that on Christmas Eve this year, I got ENGAGED!!!!!!

 Tom made me the happiest lady on Earth and finally popped me the question. With plans for the wedding to be in 2014, we need to be careful with our money this year and save up for our honeymoon and other things. It's going to be awesome.

Anyway, gotta get ready for work now (Boo!!) But, happy new year to you all! What are you up to this evening??

Lots of new start love,

BB xxx

Just in time for Christmas!

Hello! It has been a while, yes? Apologies! But to make up for my absence, I have a pretty massive post to put up!
I write this on Christmas Eve-Eve, finally getting a chance to relax and do not very much at all as I look on at our christmas tree which is positively bursting with pressies underneath it. I have been working very hard on the run up to the big day; my family decided that we would all be conservative this year with gifts, and so I've been careful to be creative and make as much as I can, or spend as little as possible, but get maximum results.
My proudest and biggest achievement was my gift to my Mum, which has taken me MONTHS, but has paid off. Last year I made a new years resolution to make a patchwork creation, and I've done it.

It's not quite quilt-size, but it's a large bed-end to go over the end of their MASSIVE bed! The applique squares have pictures that represent in-jokes within the family, so it has a personal touch. When making this project, I was directed to Patchwork Corner in Hemel Hempstead and they were incredibly helpful there, and sold me the wadding and some other bits. Since finishing it, I have invested in a rotary cutter and board, and am planning to complete a bigger project in the new year.

I also made something for my Nan to put up in her conservatory among all her other garden memorabilia:

I've made a couple of buntings now, and again this was personalised using applique felt figures. I used a lot of left-over fabric from other projects over the year, but I have bought some fat quarter bundles off of eBay and from Needlecraft in Hemel too, which I have ironed and put away from another day.

Speaking of othe frugal gifts, I wanted to give my new work colleagues a little something each, so I went online and bought some festive cake decorations, and voila! Look!!

I loved bringing them into work and presenting them with an egg box each, and seeing their faces of utter puzzlement when I did so, and then the glee when they opened them! Also very cheap to make; I have been collecting so many egg boxes that I have a cupboard full now, and the cake cases go a long way. For the cake itself, I buy a supermarket's own-brand cake mix that you just add an egg too, and the results were as good as making the mix from scratch. I will be making more of these before christmas day for friends and family too.
Back in October I joined Slimming World again, and have managed to shift 9lbs so far (slow progress, but atleast it should stay off!!) We had our christmas party last week, and everyone bought something tasty, but 'syn-free'...

I've been making meals at home and freezing as much as possible in bulk, especially as we're doing our £2-a day challenge again come January. I've been making the Slimming World alternatives to family favourites like Shepherds and Cottage pie, tomato and basil soup, vegetable soup, bean stew, etc...

The soup was a particular steal, thanks to the reduced isle in Tescos on a Monday evening!

My family and partner have also been enjoying some lovely food over the winter months. Back in November, my mum, Nan and sister-in-law went to the Country Living Christmas fair in Islington. A beautiful day out, but very busy!! And also very expensive - I discovered the downside to making my own things, because suddenly I resent spending £6 on a single felt decoration when I know I can do it myself!

Still, Mum had a good day!
Tom turned 28 in late November, and as well as cooking a beautiful roast lamb dinner, he also got a homemade lemon and yogurt cake from me!

So, what next??
As mentioned before, in the new year we will be trying to save money again and live on just £2-a day for the whole of January, as well as continuning as many of those good habits as possible into the rest of the year. More quilting to come, and at this point I'd like to direct you all to Frugal Queen's blog (see right hand side of this page...) which does all of what I want to do, but ten times better! A truly inspiring blog, and if you're reading this, Froogs, I am a MASSIVE fan, so thankyou! :)

That's all for now. Have a merry christmas, and a happy new year! I'll be back soon!

BB xx

Cupcake gifts!!

April 21st was Ollie, my little brother's, birthday, and it's a time of year I dread, that and Christmas, because he's SO DAMN FUSSY!! He's off to Florida in June and so all he's asked for this year - like every other year - is money. Of which I have none...

So I made him THESE:

And apparently they went down a storm!! I got the cute cupcake cases off Ebay and I get loads in a box, but I've also seen these size cases in Asda too, for the bargain price of £1. The egg boxes I've been collecting from everyone, and the ways in which you can decorate it are endless. The cupcake mixture was a packet of Asda's 'just add an egg' for 50p and it made me about 20 mini cupcakes, and once you ice them and decorate, no one would know the cheapness!!

But I was outdone: My birthday is THIS SUNDAY COMING :) :) :) :) and yesterday at their parents, Kate - Tom's sis - presented me with these babies, in a proper presentation box:

...I may have eaten one for breakfast. Maybe.

BB xx

P.S. Tom has just returned from the kitchen with a cupcake in his hand also. At 9.25am. I'm not such a bad person afterall. 

My Felt Family Flannimals!

A couple of posts back I wrote about the little felt hearts that Kirsty Allsopp wrote about in her craft project books, and got straight away busy making as many as I could! A week or so later, and LOOK!

Animals, hearts, pants, instruments... it seems you can make just about ANYTHING!! And now I am going to sell some, give some as presents, plant them in people's houses, on people's door knobs... beware!!

Remember, as ever, please contact me at hannahlou.brown@hotmail.co.uk for orders!!

BBxx

Up In The Loft: Part 2

So, don't believe me when I say that my sewing genuis appeared at a young age?? Look what was lurking in the suitcases full of all my primary school stuff... Yes, PRIMARY!!

 Turns out I was quite the little crafter, eh? :)

I have no idea what 'Detective Street' was all about... who remembers that film 'Harriet The Spy'?? Think it was something to do with that!

My grandma and I also had to sift through loads of framed photographs, of various people: baby photos of me and my brother, dogs we've had over the years, weddings, special occasions, birthdays... we took all the photos out and made up a box full of frames, and along with those and other things, we're taking them to a bootsale next week! SO EXCITED!! There was one frame and picture that couldn't be separated though, and has come home with me...

Awww, bubba!! :) I love my mummy!
BB xx

Oh, modern technology...

Another by-product of helping to clear out my parent's house is the millions of CD's and DVD's that they had there but will never, ever again listen to. I came home with two big shopping bags of them, and I've already got loads myself that I never listen to. I'm very picky about those things; 'Shutter Island' was the last DVD I bought, because I went and saw it at the cinema 3 times, so I figured it was a good'un enough to purchase it. Same with CD's, although the majority of the time, people buy them for me as presents now. The last one was a Michelle Branch one that Tom got me.

So what to do with them all - I could charity shop them, but there are just SO MANY! Ebay seems pointless, I'd get barely anything for them, and plus listing them all is a pain in the bottom.

This is shameless, free advertising, and no one's paying me to do so, but I have just put through about 122 CD's and DVD's on Music Magpie, and made myself £60! Ok, so I had to type in 122 barcodes, but with a cup of tea and the Corrie omnibus on in the background, it was done nice and quick. And, because I listed over 50 items, I get a free courier service to come and pick them up from my house!! Amazing!

Don't judge me: the 'This Is Folk' triple-disc box was a badly judged gift!

I really recommend it, as now I've got some extra cash for our savings, and that makes me feel all the better what with tomorrow being the start of our 2nd £2-a day venture.

Have a nice weekend!

BB xx

Up In The Loft: Part 1

My parents moved out of our family home last year to take on a pub on a lease, and now finally my grandparents - who lived at the top of our railway garden in a chalet - are moving out too into their new home in Tring, but in the meantime they're practically camping out in our old house, and packing up what they don't need. Heroically, my granddad moved all of our possessions out of the loft and down into my brother's old bedroom, and now begins the task of sorting through it all and deciding what goes where.

The obvious solution for a large chunk of it is to bin it - amazingly, my mum and dad have kept every single piece of work, every single notebook, workbook, certificate... since my brother and I began nursery! And I would LOVE to keep it all, but I simply have nowhere to store it now, and neither do my parents anymore. So I selected a few things to keep, and the rest is now in a dump site in Hemel. Really sad day, I was pretty cut up whilst doing all that. We had to do the same with many photographs too, but I made sure all the old ones of my family that look like they were taken by a polaroid camera were kept, and I think I have a project in mind for another time. 

We took photos out of frames, and all of those will be bootsaled, as well as two tennis raquets, an Ab-Machine, 3 room fans, Chelsea FC memorabilia, DVD's, a whole box of old vinyls, old vintage books, a nearly complete collection of Beatrix Potter books, and other things.

And so to my best find: A Kenwood Slow-Cooker...

My Dad has been threatening to buy me one for years, and now - just at the time I've started thinking how nice it would be to have one, especially with our 2nd £2-a day challenge coming up - I have one! Free of charge!

I estimate there'll be a few more parts to this subject, as I found many an interesting treasure... Watch this space!

What's up in your loft?

BB xx

"Yellow Army!!"

Back in the day, my Dad was a professional football player. He played for Barnet FC and had a trial with Chelsea FC at one point also. Even with this heritage, he's NEVER taken me to a football match...

So Tom took me. To see Watford play Ipswich... And it was literally brilliant!!

The weather was perfect! I dressed in suitable Watford colour as you can see in the above picture (H&M red polkadot skirt, £3 charity shop find in Tring - get in!) 

And made sure I did all the traditional things: I had a horrible, horrible sausage roll, cheered obscenities, and became a football expert when I shouted at our team: "Omg, what are y'doing?! PASS IT!!" Muahaha...

 I thought Harry the Hornet was especially funny, and bless his enthuiasm throughout the game. 

The funniest thing though was this: 1st half, Ipswich were 1-0 up, and Watford were playing abysmally. This is what we heard behind us in the crowd:

Fan #1: "Pay £30 to get in and this is what they give us."

Fan #2: "What an f***ing joke, total waste of time."

...etc.

But during half time, the manager obviously gave them all a big kick up the bottom, and we went on to win 2-1:

Fan #1: "I love them! I love those boys!!"

Fan #2: "Always knew they would win, I always said they would!!"

Hilarious!

 Have you been to a football match?? Who did you see play?? Was it a good'un??

BB xx

Find a Happy Place

The weather has been absolutely glorious of late, I'm dreading the day I wake up and look outside and I'm not greeted by sunshine!! On my day off on Tuesday I sat outside from 10am until 5pm basking in the rays... admittedly without decent protection though, and I burned my shoulders and nose somewhere (Lesson to be learned there, children). I'm making full use of our garden space this year - we share the garden with our landlord, and we have our own patio area that my parents bought me a table and two chairs for last year. I've been adding little laterns and mobiles to it, and now in the sunny daytime, and in the warm evenings we're being treated to at the moment, we have our happy place at home:

 It's perfect because the sun hits it from first thing in the morning and gradually goes around 4.30pm.

Blue lantern: present from Tom's sister

Seashell mobile: made by moi from shells from Brighton beach.

Jar tealight: made by moi from an old coffee jar and black lace (oooo naughty). All those lanterns and tea lights look gorgeous in the evenings - Tom and I have taken to playing 'shithead' (card game, with a rather distasteful name, sadly!) out there and it's really calming.

Additionally, happy places can be places you weren't expecting, and you can in fact BUY a little piece of happiness to go with you. I present: Mr Simm's Sweet Shop! New to Berkhamsted:

...AND LOOK:

We didn't buy any though, because they're imported and so therefore £10 a box!!!! But we DID buy a packet of chocolate and peanut butter M&M's, and a Tootsie Roll, which was actually a little disappointing, but it doesn't matter, because it's from a HAPPY PLACE!!!

Where's YOUR happy place??

BB xx

I Heart Kirstie Allsop...

Don't all us crafters LOVE this woman???

Aaaah... Kirstie.

I mean, thanks to her, last Christmas I rediscovered my passion for this kind of thing, and she managed to get the majority of us searching out our needles and squeezing our creative juices. She almost single-handedly responsible for the sharp rise in knitting, crafts and tools sales both on our highstreets and on the internet. We've stopped heading straight for a shop-made shallow token and instead we try new projects that can then be given away as thoughtful gifts, and personal touches to our own homes. A seriously brilliant mascot!!

Tom's mum very kindly bought me her homemade craft book for Christmas, and I've now assembled enough of the stuff to start a few of the projects. Tonight I made this!! LOOK! IT'S SO CUTE:

Literally took me about 45 minutes to make, and it's so pretty! I've seen them in shops for a long time now, but they cost to buy, obviously. In fact, this was so simple, I'm going to take the same bits with me to work tomorrow so my client can make her own. I've found a good home for mine, but I've decided it looks a little lonesome on it's own, so I will post a photo once EVERY SINGLE KNOB has one!

Enjoy!!

BBxx

Sunny sewing

I bought this dress in a charity shop before Christmas, but even when I wore it on Christmas Day, I knew it wouldn't survive in it's current form because it was too tight around my arms and irritated the heck out of my skin! Today on yet another gorgeous afternoon, I took the scissors to it:

And made it into a skirt!

Much better!

BBx