Category Archives: upcycling

Skip diving

France, Recycle eco, upcycling

Hello Dear Reader.

Blimey, my dining room is starting to resemble Steptoe’s yard! In fact, my yard does look like Steptoe’s yard. I remember one reader called my house ‘a whole heap of nothing’ which didn’t bother me, I don’t know the person from Adam and nobody likes everything. I’m quite happy that my house functions, albeit on the cheap and if I have what I need then that’s fine. As those of you who read regularly know, I’d rather spend money on enjoying life, walking, reading, visiting places than I would on matching plates and cutlery.

We’ve taken all year to budget and put money aside for carpet and it’s going down on Tuesday and Wednesday which meant that we took the remains of the old carpet up and took that to the tip today. I’m such a Womble that I had to save the two kitchen stools that were just about to go into a skip. I’ve already wombled a breakfast bar and now I have two kitchen stools to go with it. They were tarnished so I cleaned them off with wire wool and then used some oil on a soft cloth to bring them to a shine. A bit of a sand of the seat and some furniture polish and they will do just fine.

We are hiring a U-haul type trailer to take in December when we become owners and I’m going to take as much as I can with me. I have enough of most things to take half of them out there and store them in the flat until the house is ready. It’s going to be furnished and renovated on a budget or dare I say on the cheap and will be very much make do and mend. If only I had a trailer today as someone was getting rid of doors and as we have to divide rooms us and create walls and add doors, they would have been just fine. I’m certainly not ashamed to ask and no one has ever said no yet. I’m far from a hoarder but I always find it a shame that people didn’t find a new home for it, whether a furniture bank, clothing bank, charity shop, freeads or Freecycle. I grabbed some firewood too just as that was about to go into the wood skip. I’m not allowed to get into the skips and take wood out but I would if I could!


Over to you Dear Reader, any other Wombles out there? Making the most of the things that we find?

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxx





Ready in time for Christmas!!!

France, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, upcycling
Hello Dear Reader,
It’s flippin’ well started. Buy a sofa, oak furniture, new cooker or what ever in time for Christmas. You know how it goes, the world will stop revolving if your furniture doesn’t match, if you’re lunch doesn’t come from Marks’n’spensive and you haven’t got a that little black dress for the party season. It’s all a total load of sell it now, leave people in scraping debt for years to come and it will fall apart before it’s paid for anyway!
Enough! I’m going to record everything I want to watch on TV and fast forward through all the adverts between now and the new year to avoid the blatant buy masses more than you need to keep up with the Jones.
I found the chair in a local second hand shop for £10, I had the fabric anyway that I bought for £1 in a jumble sale a few years ago and had in the cupboard. It’s basically a cloth envelope with the cushion pad inside and the chair put back together. It’s coming to France with us as we’ll try to furnish the house, just like this house, with as many second hand items as possible. We looked around second hand shops in France and they wanted far too much so we didn’t buy there.
I know I’m ‘preachin’ to the choir’ here so how about you share something that you up cycled instead of buying new.
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxx

Upcycling shirts

frugal home, upcycling

Hello Dear Reader,

I haven’t done a tutorial in a while. Here’s one for you. I am desperately tired of my cushions and really don’t want to buy any. Here’s how I made new covers instead.

First, I measured the cushions! 16″ by 16″

Then I measured them again, I swear cushions, curtains ect change shape! Measure twice and cut once.

I bought three items of clothing from the cheap charity shops. I also went into the £1 charity shop. Nothing there but the £1.99 Red Cross shop had lots of fabric to buy. I always look out for XL men’s shirts…………..I get more for my money that way.

Here’s my haul of fabric.

I dismantled the clothes.

I ironed all the fabric.

I measured again, then wrote the sizes down! I’ve been caught out so many times by shape shifting cushions!

I then cut the shirts into strips. 3″ strips, or there abouts, they didn’t need to be exact.

I then sewed them together.

Ta - dah! I kept sewing until I had 54″ of strips sewn together.

I trimmed off the excess on either side.

Just as if I were making a pillow case, I didn’t add any zips or buttons, just folds. I sewed down the seams of the folds so they were not visible from the outside.

I then simply sewed up the two side seams and turned it the right way round.

Here it is, one cushion and I have plenty of fabric left over for quilting projects in the future.


Shirt to cushion. A few more of these in a variety of fabrics and colours will brighten up my lounge.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxx

Upcycling - Before and After

frugal home, upcycling

Hello Dear Reader,

I’m still around but as promised just a few ‘shorties’ this week as I’m distracted by life’s ‘stuff’ at the moment.

A quick share of some up-cycling! This time how I’m improving some ‘utility furniture’. I bought these two for £20 and they’d been stained and had green plastic handles. They were crying out and in need of some love. A quick splodge here and there of some chalk paint and a coat of wax, some ‘vintage’ handles and they are much improved. The are also very much needed storage. In the winter, the summer clothes can go in there and vice versa.


The handles were from ebay and very cheap. And yes, the whole idea is that none of the handles match. The two on the left are similar and I shall swap them as they look the same.

Sorry for the short posts but as I said, lots of things are distracting me but that’s what life is like sometimes.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxx

Homemade all the way!

frugal food, upcycling, Yoosta-Bee

Hello Dear Reader,

We’ve had stunning weather today. I actually got the chance to put a dress on! My dress is a Rohan ‘travelling dress’ that I bought from a charity shop for £5, the necklace is a cheapy from M&S and the bag is of course, Yoosta-Bee! The pile of vegetation is the hedge trimmings.

It’s a great bag for college, for work, for shopping or the gym. It’s roomy enough and equally strong enough to be really useful.

The exernal fabric used to be a curtain sample.

The lining used to be an 80’s chintz curtain……and it’s Sanderson. Again, courtesy of a local charity shop.


I had to share a really favourite, easy summer recipe. Cheesy burgers, beetroot chips and ruby coleslaw.
To make the burgers finely grate a hard cheese, I used 100g of Parmesan. I finely chopped half an onion and beat one egg. Form into patties and fry in a non-stick pan without any oil


We love Beetroot. I buy it already cooked and often just eat it with salad or roasted instead of potatoes which I rarely eat any more.

Cut the beetroot into ‘chips’ and shallow fry, you could use an oil spray and oven bake them.

I cook my burgers in a pan but I use lean mince and there’s not a lot of fat.

The coleslaw couldn’t be easier. Finely shredded onion and red cabbage with grated carrots, a sprinkle of salt and pepper, a tiny amount of mustard and mayonnaise.

Serve the lot together with a heap of each of the items. A great supper to eat in the garden on a balmy evening.


Thanks for all the advice on the anti-social boy racers. We’re taking down car plate numbers and forwarding them to the police as well as keeping a log. We will be acting on some of the really useful advice we’ve been given. Hopefully, they will get home early tonight to watch the football!

Over to you Dear Reader, who’s upcycling? Who loves Beetroot? Who else has had a day in the sunshine?

As ever, it’s great to hear from you.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxx

Making do and thrifting

Frugal Christmas, upcycling, Yoosta-Bee

Hello Dear Reader,

I have a sewing machine and bags of vintage fabric. I have several bag patterns and time on my hands. I intend to use this week off work productively. It’s also six months until Christmas!

I have a very low key festive period but I’m happy to make gifts for others to give to people.

I don’t charge much for my bags and they soon sell out.

I’ll be taking them to table top sales and fund raisers where you can rent a stall for a reasonable amount over the end of November and beginning of December.

I’ll spend the next few months making stock to sell.

All of it will be made by me and everything will be 100% homemade and recycled. It will be good to know that bags, cushions, bunting and lap quilts will be given to people as Christmas gifts and that I will have recycled and upcycled no end of fabric that Yoosta-Bee something else.

This bag is made from odds and ends of Laura Ashley fabric from my mum’s curtain making stage. She was adept at furniture covering and curtain making and also did it to supplement her income. I now sew to supplement mine. I make quilts from old clothes so I can sell them at a reasonable price.


There is no time to lose so I must get back to my sewing machine.

Even the label and ribbon are up-cycled. I make bags for the goodies to go away in from old magazines, I don’t buy them but fish them out of the recycling bin in the supermarket car park…………..I read them first and then use them for wrapping paper and to make carrier bags.


Over to you Dear Reader, who else is going to pull themselves out of the financial depths by doing some extra work? Who else is already making either for themselves and their family, charity or to make some money over the festive period. It’s not long so you’d better get going soon.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxx