Monthly Archives: September 2013

Living without central heating revisited.

Saving money

Hello Dear Reader,

Tomorrow, I’ll be talking to Julian Worricker on the ‘You and Yours’ lunchtime programme on BBC Radio 4. I will tell him and all the listeners about life without central heating. In preparation, I thought I would tell you all first.

I will start with the caveat that it is easy for us. We are both young, fit and healthy and live in the South West and have a milder climate than many people. We don’t get months of snow, we don’t get freezing weather every winter and in fact, ice and snow are the exception and not the norm. We also live in a south facing house (for now) with big windows and we trap a lot of solar gain. We also live in a rural area and have affordable access to logs by the tonne, delivered to our door. I fully understand that this is not easy for everyone.

However, once upon a time, our central heating was set to come on for a few hours in the morning and evening and now it doesn’t come on at all………………unless it snows and it’s sub zero. But, as I said, that’s rare here. Initially, it was hard and we felt the cold and it was difficult. Now, I skip round the house in normal clothing and I don’t feel the need for heating on most days.

I digress! Living without central heating revisited. To start, I need to clarify, that I don’t live without heating. We burn wood on our stove and that predominantly heats one room. The surrounding chimney breast, walls and the chimney breast and walls upstairs also warm up and there is a considerable thermal mass which stays a fraction warmer and therefore warms the rest of the house. Heating with wood makes you realise the energy that goes into warming a house. It makes you aware that a tree grew, gave out oxygen, died and had to be cut down and then needed sawing a chopping. All that work makes you use the wood wisely and our wood boils our kettle, heats our house and dries our laundry. If you have the option of wood heating, it’s some how connects me to the real world which does not rely on the flick of a switch.

Living without central heating means we layer ourselves and the house. I buy sheets from charity shops to make curtain linings to hang behind my curtains. I usually double layer the curtain linings which makes a massive difference to thermal loss. We hang door curtains to keep another layer between us and the cold and insulate our home to make sure we don’t lose the heat we’ve chopped and stacked for.

Sorry to state the ‘bleedin’ obvious’ but blankets or quilts on sofas and arm chairs are a great way to keep warm. Wrap yourself up and keep the cold at bay. I didn’t knit this but bought it from a charity shop and it’s so snuggly and warm. It’s just another way of keeping the warm without central heating.

When it’s cold, make sure you have plenty of hot drinks. This is the season of soups and stews and hot filling and comforting food. It’s also the season of the last blast of sunshine so get out as much as possible and stay as healthy as you can to stave off winter illness. A good walk in daylight every day is the best way to top up Seratonin levels and that in turn helps us stay positive and healthy throughout the winter.

We make the most of the heating we have and burn our wood economically and certainly don’t have a roaring fire but keep our stove ‘ticking over’. We also make sure we dry our laundry in front of the fire and loaves to rise in the warmth of the living room.

We find it easy now to live without central heating. We are used to a cooler house. We are used to wrapping up and wearing (taking a look at myself here) socks, slippers, warm trousers, tee shirts and cardigan. In the winter, we keep extra thick jumpers and cardigans to hand and put them on when we come in to keep us warm until the wood stove is alight and heating our living room.

Here’s a thrifty round up.

1. Heat one room if you can’t afford central heating - a plug in oil filled radiator on a low setting will keep one room adequately warm.

2. Use quilts and blankets on your sofas and arm chairs and let them swaddle you and keep you warm. They are fun and cosy.

3. Line your curtains - you can buy or make these. Mine are made from double layered old sheets. But, even buying them will save you lots of money and keep your house warmer.


4. Hang door curtains - I made ours by cutting a wide curtain in half and upcycling it into a long curtain and re stitched the heading tape - I lined it with a duvet cover from a charity shop.


5. Close your curtains as soon as it is dark. When we walk the dogs in the evening, we can see into houses and those families are wasting heat. Shut up those curtains and it will help to keep the house and you warm and insulated.

6. Extra blankets on your bed and get to bed early. I’m the wife who always wants an early night. I like to get into bed where I’m warm and know I need less heating as our body heat keeps us warm. Now is the time to get the extra quilts and blankets out and air them in readiness for winter chills. A light weight fleece blanket will look stylish on the end of your bed and provide an extra layer on cooler nights.


photo courtesy of chezlarsson.com





7. Stay healthy and active. Through out the winter, I have time off work and it would be tempting to light the fire or turn the heating off. I make sure I use the day light hours to do all the outside jobs such as gardening, cleaning the car or windows. Also, try and get a walk in daylight every day as it will keep you healthy and improve circulation and help you stay warmer.




8. Wear layers. Start with good base layers. Wear 70 denier tights under your trousers, or wear a pair of leggings under your trousers. Gents, you could look for leggings for sport and these can be bought quite cheaply and wear them under your trousers. If you have lycra sports shorts then you could wear those under your trousers. Don’t put away your summer t-shirts and sleeveless tops just yet but wear them under shirts to provide another layer. You can also wear t-shirts over long sleeve tops and they can look like tank tops and can look really fun and stylish. I would also invest in a long and snuggly thick wrap around cardigan that ties at the waist……….. a kind of wooly dressing gown.

9. Eat well. This is the time of year to dig out your soup and stew recipes. Cook them in your slow cooker and keep bowls ready to re-heat in the microwave, stored in your fridge. Keep yourself warm from the inside.

10. If you see blankets or quilts on offer, then buy them. You can often buy them in charity shops or car boot sales. Especially the cellular blankets that are light weight and trap the warmth.



I’m sure lots of you will not have succumbed to any heating at all this year and it will be a while yet before you do. Let me know about all the ways that you keep warm. I know some of you will have snow from All Hallows’ Eve until spring whilst some of you won’t have a winter at all. Let me know if you don’t use central heating. Who else makes do with heating in one room? Who knows they have the heating on and walks around barefoot in a t-shirt…………’fess up!

Here’s another chance to listen to me on Radio Cornwall - Click HERE! Move the cursor to the last hour.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Is it difficult to live frugally?

frugal food

Hello Dear Reader,

(Froogs on the Radio - move the cursor to the last hour.)

Is it difficult to live frugally? Does living frugally stifle you? Every time I go shopping, I feel a sense of frustration that prices just keep rising. Our wages haven’t risen so we have the same budget which means that we have to buy less food. I would love to buy all sorts of different foods that I can no longer afford. I would like to eat out occasionally or even have a take away but that’s just not in our budget. Of course, we could reduce our direct debit payments to the bank and reduce our mortgage payments and reduce or the direct debits to our savings account. The choice is ours to be prudent as we’ve decided to live carefully and that means we have to live on a tight budget even if we get fed up of it from time to time.

A short blog tonight as I’m shattered and really haven’t caught my breath recently. I will share my trip to the Stitch, sew and hobbycraft show and I have lots of lovely photos and websites to share with you.

Over to you Dear Reader. Who else feels stifled from time to time by financial constraints? Who else would love to go out once in a while but have financial commitments? Go on, have a good moan about food prices or the prices of anything at all. Is the forthcoming cost of Christmas a concern? Are you worried about switching on the central heating? Have a good moan.!

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxx


What I wore to the Blog Awards - Product Review

product review

Hello Dear Reader,

I’ve had a few email asking about what I wore to the blog awards and what I thought of them.

Firstly thanks to Boden who sent me their Chelsea bag. I love the spots and it’s a really fun bag and I think it’s really well made. I now use it as a work bag and it easily transports everything…………very stylishly may I add. Boden, although a British company, have their products made in developing countries and the bag is made in India. Nonetheless, it’s a great bag and it certainly added sophistication to my outfit. Would I recommend it? Yes.

My control underwear came from Marks and Spencers from their Magic Secret Slimming range. My advice would be to invest in a more expensive brand as the ends of the legs and the tops of the tummy rolled and didn’t lie flat and were not as controlling as Spanx that I have bought in the past. However, they are half the price of Spanx and for that, they do half the job. Would I recommend them. Sorry, but no.

My shoes were from Clarks and for high heels, the most comfortable pair of heels I’ve ever worn. They are from their ‘softwear’ range and were wide enough to be comfortable all night. I can’t wait for any excuse to wear them again. Most of Clarks shoes are now made in China and although they are stylish, I think it is still a shame that such an iconic British brand is now made in China. Nonetheless, they are fantastic and will get a lot of wear. Would I recommend them? Oh yes!


My star of the night was my David Neiper dress. Made in Derbyshire. I even know who made it. Its component parts were sewn together by Dawn, Pat and Eva, Brenda pressed the dress and it was inspected by Jo. My dress kept five British women in work! I’m now aiming to buy as much as I can, if I need it and can afford it, to buy British. I’ve already got my eye on another dress from the same company. Take a look HERE at their video showing you the workers behind the scenes. Would I recommend them? Oh Yes, Yes, Yes!!!



When I was dress hunting, I sought out many quality suppliers and saw many dresses as much as this dress. Every time, I would turn to the label inside and felt unsure of the ethics of where it was made and then wonder how a company could charge hundreds for a dress when the workers didn’t even have rights. Thanks to all the suppliers but I must say, my favourite is the dress. In case anyone wants one, they ship world wide.

Thanks again to the Mad Blog Awards for giving me the chance to dress up and have a wonderful night out. Thanks to the suppliers for making me look and feel wonderful, glamorous and ladylike. I will make sure I wear all of these items over and over.

I hope that satisfies the fashion conscious curiosity of some readers and sorry to Marks and Sparks but I have to be honest.

Tomorrow, I will be at the Stitch, Sew and Hobby Craft show with Frugal Mummy and look forward to meeting the Dear Readers who said they would look out for me! I’ll tell you all about it when I get home. On Sunday, I will be on the Tracy Wilson programme on Radio Cornwall where we will be discussing the worrying cost of food. Please email your frugal food recipes or your concerns of rising food prices to [email protected] it would be wonderful if any of you could phone it on 01872 22 22 22.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxxx

Sticky Chicken thighs and noodles (How to bone out chicken)

Budget recipes, frugal food


Hello Dear Reader,

We are told all the time that we can still eat meat if we eat the cheaper cuts but so often we have no idea what to do with them. My mum, unusually for a women in her time, worked as a butcher. And yes, she could carry sides of meat over her shoulders! You didn’t argue with her! So, with her being a butcher, I was perfectly used to butchering meat myself and I’m not squeamish when presented with an oxtail or tongue. Skinning and boning out chicken is fiddly but means, once you have acquired the skill that you can use cheaper cuts. If you have children, you may find that they don’t like bones so being able to bone out a chicken or leg of lamb means you will have less fuss when you feed them. The current trend for boneless chicken breasts means some where, a lot of chicken has gone to waste.

I’ll start by sharing how to skin and bone out a chicken thigh. (Chicken thighs can be bought for £1.50 a kilo and that’s a bargain).

Firstly, sharpen your meat knife and you’ll need a medium blade. Turn the chicken thigh over and grab and edge of the skin and lift.

Hold the knife against the skin to loosen any fatty bits. Oh and by the way, most of the fat is in the skin so removing them saves a big bum!


Hold the chicken with the knife and pull the skin.

Trim any fat and bits of skin that hang on.

Here we are so far with a skinned chicken thigh and now how to take the bone out.

Turn the thigh on its side and work the knife near the bone. Make small cuts making sure you don’t shave off fragments of bone.

When you have loosened some of the bone, hold on to it and work the meat off the bone with the tip of your knife.

Work the meat and sinew off the end of the bone. Run your fingers over the meat to make sure you haven’t left any tiny pieces of bone. If you wanted to ‘butterfly’ the thigh, you could cover it with a plastic bag and bash it with a rolling pin so it’s flat. This is a great way of griddling or grilling the chicken as it will cook evenly and quickly.

And there it is, skinned and boned chicken thigh with the bone removed.

As ever, I’m multi-tasking and fitting in feeding us with a minute to spare. I go to the gym after work and then come home and whilst dinner is cooking, I have a shower. Not so glamorous as the last time you saw me!

I certainly don’t waste the chicken bones and I’ve boiled them up, removed any fragments of meat and have made stock and we’ll have soup tomorrow.

Now, the recipe for sticky chicken thighs.

You will need chicken thighs,
Sweet chilli Sauce - I buy job lots of this from Approved Food.
2 crushed cloves of garlic
A good squirt of honey
A splash of soy sauce.

I covered the chicken thighs and put them in the oven for 30 minutes. I just used my mini-oven to cook them but they were not sticky enough when they came out.

I transferred them to a small frying pan and cooked them for another five minutes on a high heat. This gave the sauce a sticky jam like quality. Cook them until they start to brown but catch them before they burn as there is sugar in the sweet chilli sauce which will weld itself to a frying pan.


I cooked a small head of broccoli and some value brand noodles (12p Aldi) and served that with the sticky chicken.


Chicken thighs are really versatile so I thought I would share some of the other marinades I cook them in.

Italian Marinade

Mix 2 crushed garlic cloves with 4 tbsp of olive oil, the juice of 1 lemon a 1 tsp of dried oregano - mix and marinade the chicken thighs.

Oriental Marinade.

Mix together 2 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tsp of sugar, 2 tbsp of rice wine or apple juice, 1 tbsp of finely chopped ginger and 1 crushed garlic clove - mix and marinade the chicken thighs.

Honey and Mustard Marinade

Mix together wholegrain mustard, runny honey and the zest and juice of one lemon - mix and marinade the chicken thighs.

Sorry about the big post tonight but I would love it if more people would use cheaper cuts of meat. I’m also a great fan of offal (hence my pate and faggot recipes) and think it’s possible to eat well as long as we eat all of an animal and not just the choice cuts.

We ate two chicken thighs each and we both have chicken for lunch tomorrow as well as plenty of chicken stock for our soup tomorrow night. It’s certainly an economical cut of meat that I hope more of you try.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxxx

Rainbow Risotto

frugal food, frugal home


Hello Dear Reader,

I have come to the easy conclusion that anything can go into a risotto. My favourite food is butternut squash or any kind of pumpkin and I especially love it in risotto.

Here’s my recipe for Rainbow Risotto.

150g of Arborio Rice (I buy 500g bags in Aldi for 89p) -27p
2 veggie stock cubes and 750ml of boiling water - 2p - Tesco Everyday Value
1/2 cubed Butternut squash - 50p
1/10th bag of frozen mixed veg - 10p
3 chopped slices of bacon - Local Wholesale butcher - 30p
6 chopped mushrooms - 13p
1 chopped red pepper - 26p
1 chopped onion - 8p

Total Cost - £1.66 - 86p per person.



1. Fry the bacon and butternut squash.
2. Add the onions, veggies and mushrooms - fry until softened but not totally cooked.
3. Add the rice and stir.
4. When it just starts to catch, add the veggie stock a ladle full at a time and keep stirring
5. OR! just add all the stock and simmer whilst stirring until it has all been absorbed.
6. Finely chop two sun dried tomatoes and sprinkle them on top and stir through. Alternatively, grate 10g of Parmesan and sprinkle that on top.

I’m of the opinion that risotto is the new Bolognese. Let me explain, everyone can make a Bolognese sauce and everyone has a twist. I spent years wondering why Dearly Beloved’s Bolognese was so delicious until I caught him adding ketchup. He came clean and told me he always had. Now, I add a squirt too! So, everyone has a risotto recipe and it’s one of the easiest foods to cook. I love it with peas and mint, with chicken and veggies, with just veg, with chorizo in fact, I think anything can go into it.

I think Risotto is a perfect food for children as they can eat it from a bowl with a spoon as well as it being an easy one saucepan meal, which reduces the washing up. If anyone is interested, here’s a link to BBC Good Food’s list of Risotto recipes. But, I would like to know yours. So, over to you Dear Reader……….what do you put in your Risotto? Are there any of you who’ve never made Risotto? I would encourage you to try.


I hope you enjoy the recipe. Thanks so much for all the good wishes. The past 48 hours have all been about hard bargaining to get the best price we could for our own home and to buy at the best price. We all reached an affordable compromise. I’ve also secured a really good mortgage deal and chose a lifetime tracker with low fees and no get out fee, no early repayment fee and no cap on how much I can over pay and at 2.49% which is half the rate of interest that I currently pay. I now have the luxury of getting a really good deal because we are debt free and have good loan to value ratio on the new property. In the UK, it can take several weeks for houses to be purchased and anything up to twelve weeks and it’s a slow process. It’s also not a done deal until the monies are in the respective banks. We will hopefully be in for Christmas.

So, Dear Reader, tell me what goes in your Risotto?

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxxxx

Look what I have at the bottom of my garden!

Down shifting


Hello Dear Reader,

Those who have been reading Frugal Queen from the start know my journey and how difficult it has been. In 2009, we sold our current house and found a little cottage to downsize into. At the 11th hour, our mortgage provider, or should I say the underwriter, pulled our mortgage with the stony words that we had too much on personal borrowing. I should say so, £45,000 of unsecured debt to be exact. We had to stay put with a massive mortgage and pay off the debts we owed at the same time. We paid that back in less than two years and then went on to over pay our mortgage.

Since then, we have drastically reduced our mortgage to the point that we had secured a good amount of capital to move. Even though our house has lost value, we will be moving to a cottage that on the day we turn the key, we will own almost 50% of it! This time, our mortgage has been agreed and the underwriters have no reason at all to withdraw the offer.

Now, my journey to mortgage freedom is real!

Now you can all share my new journey to a simpler downsized life. A smaller house and little garden. Other than that, nothing will change. In fact, it will renew my desire to live a simple and frugal life as I will be able to increase the percentage I over pay by as I will have more disposable income. I will also be able to save more and have more financial security.

Thank you to everyone who believed in me and your steadfast support through the dark times as it was your light and hope that got me here today.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxxxx

Proper Italian Tomato Sauce……………..

Budget recipes, frugal food

……………………………………….when you don’t have all of the right ingredients!!!!

Hello Dear Reader,

I thought I would share one of my ‘haven’t got all the right ingredients recipes’. Here’s my version of creamy tomato and ‘marscarpone’ sauce for pasta.

You will need
pasta for 2
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons of oil - use what you have!
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of dried basil
a good squirt of tomato puree
1 tablespoon of garlic granules or 4 crushed cloves of garlic.

Here goes! Get in from work…………….hungry! Put the water to boil to cook the pasta. Whilst you’re doing this, empty the dishwasher and put the dishes away. Rinse out the dog water bowls and re-fill them whilst you let them out in the garden to run around barking at pigeons.

Whilst the dogs are barking, open the window and shout shut up and ferret around in the pantry for some onions and garlic. Peel and finely chop and heat some oil in a pan. With the heat on low and the dogs mithering you to be fed, fry the onions and garlic and then add a squirt of tomato puree. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes along with a spoon of sugar and some salt and pepper.

Whilst this is cooking, gather up the laundry and put a load into wash. Remind husband that he needs to check out the woodstove that he promised to look at. Heat some meat balls in the microwave and grate some parmesan…………..cheap in Aldi and you’ll only need 10g between the two of you.

Remind yourself that you never have Marscapone and get some cream cheese out of the fridge (65p a tub in Aldi) and stir the last scrape of it through the tomato sauce to use instead. Serve with pasta, meatballs and Downton Abbey on the digi-box cross legged on the floor on a Monday night.

I thought I would share one on my imperfect recipes on an imperfect night where anything hot and tasty will do. We all cook with children, or grandchildren, or dogs and cats around our feet and we all have to remember that our best is good enough.


We’ve all cooked and dabbed TCP on a grazed knee with a small child balanced on the draining board; we’ve all cooked with baby sick on our shoulders and we’ve all cooked whilst texting teenagers to actually come home and eat on the same day as the rest of their family! None of us are Nigella with a fridge and pantry full of the right ingredients and we all make do with what we have.

Now it’s your turn Dear Reader. I’ve come clean and told you how I make do and juggle pets and the kitchen and I’m sure you have tales to tell. What do you substitute? What do you juggle whilst cooking? I’ve listened to piano practice with a bowl of spuds that I’m peeling on my lap and listened to reading practice with a young child reading Biff and Kipper stories to me whilst I’ve cooked Sunday lunch. How about you?

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxxxx

Swedish meatballs with a Creamy Beefy Sauce

frugal food

Hello Dear Reader,

 I usually make my own meat balls but if I can’t buy them any cheaper then I will buy them ready made. Our local Lidl had two one kilo bags of frozen Swedish Meatballs for £3.99 or £1.08 a kilo. I will use them up eventually. If you’ve ever been to Ikea and eaten the meatballs with that creamy sauce then here is the recipe as best as I could duplicate it

You will need
1 beef stock cube
1 heaped tablespoon of butter or butterish type (I used Lidl’s version of Clover)
4 tablespoons of cream (I buy it on offer, freeze it in ice cube bags and open lump when I need it - I used four lumps)
1 pint of water
3 tablespoons of cornflour
4 tablespoons of Lingonberry jam???! What? Who has that? I had half a jar of cranberry jam in the fridge and plonked that in.

Here’s the order that I prepared and cooked everything.

Half a savoy cabbage - savoy is always around 59p in either Lidl and Aldi and it’s always British. I find the secret to getting anyone to eat cabbage is to remove the outer leaves first and then cut out the stalk from the centre of the leaves. Roll the leaves into a tube as if you were making a Cuban cigar and really finely slice it. Drop it in boiling salted water and boil for five minutes and simmer for twenty. It takes the longest so cook it first. Interesting Savoy cabbage fact - it’s one of the super foods, full of vitamins, high in fibre and an all round healthy addition. Plus it fills me up and has no weight watchers points!

Peel and cook the potatoes for the mash. I had some left over parsley sitting, like flowers, in a jug on my kitchen window so finely chopped it and added it to the mash at the end.

Place your defrosted meat balls into a frying pan with a tiny amount of oil and turn every ten minutes - don’t have the heat too high so they don’t burn

Creamy Beefy Sauce.
1. Melt the butter
2. Blend in the flour
3. Add the beef cube and water
4. Whisk whilst heating through
5. Add the cream (or in my case frozen lumps of cream) and cranberry sauce or raspberry jam if you have nothing else!
6. Keep whisking until thickened - like the gravy in Ikea!

I added the cooked meatballs and the juices from the pan to the creamy beefy sauce and that added yet more depth to the flavour.


Over to you Dear Reader. I can think of lots of tomato sauce recipes and ways to use up these bargain price meatballs, but what ideas do you have for me to use them? What would you do with these meatballs?

Until tomorrow, when I’ll upload my latest menu plan.

Love Froogs xxxxxx

The MAD blog awards 2013

MAD blog awards

Hello Dear Reader,

The last twenty four hours have been a wonderful blur. I headed off on the train at lunch time courtesy of First Great Western and enjoyed a few hours to sit and read and watch the countryside go by. I wizzed into the hotel to get changed to have my make done by Oriflame and who doesn’t enjoy a bit of pampering?

Then the publicity photograph and my dress courtesy of David Neiper - made in Derbyshire, how rare is it to get English made clothes anymore? I love this dress and the service from the company.

Now all I need is another posh event to wear this stunning dress!

Met up with some wonderful bloggers including the incredibly talented Mammasaurus. The wonderful Becky from Baby Budgeting who won best thrifty blog.

We all schmoozed with the sponsors (these clothes and train tickets are not going to pay for themselves!)

Of course, the brilliant Sally Whittle organiser of the blog awards, and Tots100 and Marylin whose wonderful blog Soft Thistle was a finalist in the Best Family Life Blog.

Oh and here’s me receiving my award for Best Food Blog from Aime from Brabantia and Dr Ranj from BBC’s CBeebies. All of the parents of young children knew exactly who he was. He hosted the awards and made the entire evening really entertaining.

These ladies were all brought to the stage because of their outstanding contributions to blogging.

I want you to try and visit all their wonderful blogs.

Alexander Residencehttp://aresidence.co.uk/ because her videos are hysterical and THAT’S the way to raise money for charity. Penny works very hard on her blog and putting PRs in touch with other bloggers. She has a wealth of knowledge and is never too busy to share it.
Childcare is Fun because Fiona’s blog offers a free parenting advice service through which Fiona tirelessly answers dozens of queries a day. When she’s not blogging, Fiona organizes charity fun days for Save the Children, runs marathons for charity and is helping to organise a fundraising programme for baby Noah, who was born with Spina Bifida and hydrocephalus.
Dorky Mum because no cause is too small for Ruth to promote on her blog, and she always does it so eloquently. Ruth’s constant, unrelenting belief that change can and will happen is joyous, and her support of campaigns from Save the Children is deeply inspiring.
Downs Side Uphttp://www.downssideup.com/ has worked miracles for awareness of Down’s Syndrome in a very short time. Hayley has a gentle way of saying important things that help change perceptions, making us feel a part of her fight.
Edspirehttp://www.edspire.co.uk/ because in the face of terrible loss, Jennie has found the strength to support other families by raising awareness of SIDS and beginning to fundraise for charities that help families suffering the loss of a baby. Beyond this, Jennie continues to be a fantastic mum to toddler twins, with inspiring crafts and fun activities.
Kate on Thin Ice because Kate is an understated force for change, quietly boosting the mojo of Mums via her blog and regular Twitter chats and parties, and regularly helping to raise awareness for charities online.
Mummy from the Heart because she goes out of her way to support and offer advice to new bloggers, on her blog, and through conversations on Facebook and Twitter. A busy Mum, Michelle isn’t afraid to step back from blogging to keep a healthy balance with her real life and family.
Not Even A because Kylie is an absolute rock for Mums in the premature baby community, generous with her time and advice. Kylie campaigns tirelessly for Bliss and baby charities to raise awareness of neo-natal care, and has inspired bloggers in the past year by overcoming huge adversity and still sharing support with other members of the community.
Patch of Puddles because Merry is helpful and supportive to so many in the blogging community, especially those who have lost babies. When she isn’t home-educating her children and running a business, Merry works tirelessly with charity, bringing together bloggers to sponsor children with World Vision.
Thinly Spread because Christine is the parent we’d all like to be – intelligent, unflappable, and barely a hair out of place. But also because Christine balances blogging and blog activism perfectly, producing amazing words and gorgeous images into the bargain. She’s like the wise brown owl of the blogging world!

Jennie’s blog at Edspire is all about her wonderful children, the struggles of tiny premature twins, the beautiful Matilda Mae and coping with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and the heart breaking loss of the beautiful Matilda-Mae. The winner ‘Mammy Woo’ dedicated her award to Jennie saying

“I dedicated my award to Jenny and Matlida Mae, I hope this wasn’t overstepping the mark and I hope it didn’t come across as rude or thoughtless……She is Precious. She is an inspiration.”


Thanks for the support and the votes and I’ll be back planning menus and stoveside tomorrow.

Until then

Go read and enjoy a few blogs xxxxxxxxxxxx

Love Froogs xxxxx

Booked, packed and ready to go!

Blogging

Hello Dear Reader,

I’m really excited and have no idea how I will sleep tonight. This time tomorrow night I will be in London at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington for the MADS Blog awards. The only reason that I will be there is because of your nominations and votes. I’m a finalist in the Best Food Blog, Best Thrifty Blog and Blog of the year. The first two are based on votes and the finals is decided by a panel of judges.

I’m looking forward to meeting some incredible bloggers and having a wonderful night! A big thanks to the companies who are dressing me and making me look good tomorrow night. So thanks to davidneiper.co.uk , clarks.co.uk, boden.co.uk and MarksandSpencers.co.uk. I’m going up by train and coming back on the Night Riviera sleeper to be collected by Dearly Beloved at our local station at six in the morning! Many thanks to the old friend and dear reader who will be collecting me in their taxi from Paddington and getting me safely to and from the hotel. I’m a very very lucky blogger to have such a fancy night out.


It’s funny to think of writing about getting by on two pence and making quilts from old shirts is going to get me a night out with a posh dinner just round the corner from Kensington Palace!


I won’t forget my camera this time and I’ll tell you all about it on Saturday. You can follow the evening’s proceedings on Twitter @queen_frugal and the updates on Frugal Queen on Facebook but you’ll need to be a follower and friend to see those so click on them as soon as you can. You can also see how the evening progresses on @MadBlogAwards, again on Twitter.


Good Luck to all the Bloggers and I’m really excited about meeting you all tomorrow night!

Until Saturday night!

Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx