Category Archives: Recycle eco

Don’t stop me now!

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Hello Dear Reader,

I’ve had great fun tonight, I’ve been ironing and cutting up shirts! I’ve also learnt how to make pin wheels. I’ve never been to classes and have learnt it the frugal 2012 way……….from blogs, websites and You Tube. Here’s the tutorial I found to make these.


I’ve got lots of smaller pieces of fabric that I just can’t waste and it will be fun to have a no specific colour but a quilt all in pin wheels. I started by cutting 5″ squares and the end result, with seams, is an 8″ by 8″ square. Who knows where this is all going? Free motion quilting………..I can but dream.

Sorry about the quilty blogs, but we still have long dark nights and I like to be purposeful in the evenings. I listen to a play on the radio or a concert on Radio 3 whilst I sew.

So, with this very short blog, I’ll hand this over to you. What have you learnt to do the 2012 frugal way? Dearly Beloved learnt how to replace the motor on the Dyson from a You Tube tutorial. Have you ever watched and learnt and then tried it?

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs

Recycling it my way

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Spot the dog?

Hello Dear Reader,

The postman came early today, I don’t usually see him before I leave the house. Shagrat has sent me a box of shirts to recycle. Thanks so very much, these will be put to very good use. I can see a colour scheme of pink and orange in my next quilt as I’m making good progress on collecting and cutting. I think I’ll cut all of these up into 10″ squares; I have a different design in mind for my next quilt.

I had some spare time in my day today so I had a root around three charity shops. I found some sheets for quilt backings, or sashing?

I then found a lovely little sewing box……………I have something in mind for this………watch this space.

It even has some thread and needles inside. It really is lovely.

I’m still relishing the time, being home by four every day, being able to get the supper ready in a leisurely manner and living a much simpler life xxx

I shall have fun tonight, cutting up shirts - thanks again Shagrat xxx

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xx

Turned out nice again.

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Hello Dear Reader.

Another few rows to go yet, but my latest quilt is coming along quite nicely. My first attempt at a pattern of any sort, even if it does look quite random. Most of it is recycled, the rest is from the stash. It will be 90″ by 108″ when it’s finished. Now to keep my eyes open for a king sized sheet for the backing. I’m back off to sew some more……….it’s keeps my frugally busy xxx

I added some applique hearts to the plain squares……..I think they turned out OK?

And in close up!

Love Froogs xxx

Friday night stripping!

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Hello Dear Reader,

That got you thinking, didn’t it! Nope I’m not removing the wall paper and I assure you, you’ll always find me decent and all present and correct on this blog! I’ve been cutting strips, sewing strips into blocks so I can get on with my 2012, red, white and blue quilt!

The finished results are really quite sweet. It’s a mixture of recycled, cheap and very cheap fabric……..so, I’m going to head back to the Friday night stripping.

Enjoy the colours.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs

Household maintenance

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Hello Dear Reader,

I really like the current shabby chic trend for painted furniture. There is nothing that can’t be transformed with a tin of Farrow and Ball eggshell paint. I have a small lamp table in the living room; I painted it last summer. Having already painted it; I can dig out the same can of paint and simply refresh it with a coat of paint. I keep up with general maintenance, although I have to admit that Dearly Beloved does most of it. I can swing a paint brush around so I do try and do my bit occasionally. I’ve checked curtains and made sure they are all hooked, and not unsightly and in the spring they will be taken down one set at a time and washed and hung out to dry.

My home is almost entirely furnished with second hand and the homemade; I even buy white goods that have been ‘reconditioned’. I can’t think of any thing more hideous that buying something mass produced from an out of town retail store. I love flea market and junk shop finds and then tidying them up, or painting, or re-covering them to personalise them in some way.

As ever, I’ll hand this over to you, what can you just not imagine or even stomach the thought of buying new?

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxx

Frugal ten minute work out!

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Hello everyone!

Did you look down at the tops of your arms on your 40th birthday just to discover they were wider and wobblier than they used to be? Fortunately I enjoy wood chopping as I can’t stand the gym!

Here’s my frugal solution to keep fit! Chop your own wood! All that gym nonsense of bicep and tricep curls!!! Just swing your own axe, or in my case, a mawl, much easier than a conventional slim axe.

DB does the big thick bit and breaks a whole pile into two whilst I then finish them off chopping them down into burnable sizes.

I would recommend ten minutes a day……………three of four ‘rings’ a day?

What manual work do you enjoy? What do you do to keep fit and save money?

We’re both off to do some heavy duty building work on our house………….all will be revealed later.

Love Froogs xxxx

Recycling old clothes

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I had a delightful half an hour a week or so ago when I went to a jumble sale in the town hall. Everything was 20p. I bought a denim skirt, a couple of pairs of checked trousers and a skirt just for the material. I had no idea at that stage what I was going to do with them until today. I butchered an old pillow that had gone baggy in the middle and made a cushion. Thanks very much to big dog for modelling it. I’m in the mood now for more creating (I’m easily bored) so watch this space.

Ta - da! Added a while later……………..I found the flower template on line and used some more denim skirt, and the leg of each pair of trousers, one in blue check and the other in pink strip. The time, modelled by Bobby Dazzler himself.

Love Froogs xxx

Summer season for car boot sales!

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There are two very good car boot sales in the Liskeard area in the summer months. Both a run by the local Lions clubs. The Liskeard car boot sale is held from 4 - 7 pm on Friday, at the Cricket Club and we arrived at 4 and it was in full swing. There were all sorts of useful things for sale, from furniture to clothes but I was most impressed at the amount of children’s clothes, toys and equipment for sale.
There were a lot of mums there buying useful things for their children and lots of useful things for their homes. We found a stall where some one had lots of bedding. I bought a double blanket for a pound and it’s in perfect condition. We put them under the sheets on the beds as it keeps us warmer. This, although it smells freshly laundered, will go in with my next wash ready for us to put on one of our beds. The other carboot sale is held every Saturday at Westwayland Farm, on the way to Looe and Polperro. We’ve never been to that one as I cleaned caravans every Saturday last year. I hope to get to one or two of them this year. We just had fun ambling around and having a good look. I can certainly recommend the Liskeard car boot sale and if you have anything to sell and live locally then it’s buzzing with customers looking for bargains.

Recycled Furniture

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My dining room is never normally this tidy! This was taken when we had the house on the market and we ‘de-cluttered’ the house.

Nothing in this room is new or cost very much. The curtains are homemade. The floor was laid by my son, who is a carpenter. The dining room suite was £80 from a house sale and the shelves were made by my son and I recovered the chairs. I love this room and love polishing the table as it was the first piece of ‘grown up’ furniture I’ve ever owned as the table and chairs match the sideboard which also match the corner unit. I love the way the wooden floor shines when the sun hits it and remembering Sunday lunch with the family. It takes so little to make a house a home. Usually the room has racks of drying clothes and the table is covered in school work nonetheless; there’s no place like home.

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A perfect Friday

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I’ve work late every night this week and have earnt myself an extra £175 after the tax will be taken off and I’ve worked those extra hours private tutoring since the middle of November as I am determined to pay off my debts within two years and have equated that by the time the Olympics start I will be personally debt free. I have endured privations, I certainly haven’t suffered and I’m coming through this frugal journey with not only stoicism but a real sense of pride of taking control over my own destiny. Nonetheless I’m all for a pizze, bottle of wine and a few magazines!!! Don’t worry, I’ve not splashed out. Dearly beloved is the most astute FREEGAN when he wants to be and picked up the Times and the glossy mags on the train coming home. He gets on at one end and walks to the other, picking up papers and magazines off deserted tables and seats and knows I will be delighted when I get some pointless reading to lighten my evening. The wine, all fits into my weekly Lidl budget of £40 for all food, washing products, cat/dog food and toiletries. The pizza, two bases for £1.19 and they are ciabatta bases and we pour on some tomato sauce from the other nights pasta and add the extras. so I’m off to pig out on pizza, with a glass of wine (don’t worry - I make the bottle last the weekend between the two of us) - put my feet up and enjoy the fashion and the gossip!