Mi Casa

Felt the "urge" come over me today........

So I ran around grabbing "stuff", with a few pins and bits and bobs cobbled together a proto type bed for Pumpkin.....

I have plans to...add legs, experiment with fabrics...add a flowery knob to hang a "Mi Casa" sign from....but...Pumkin climbed into it the second |I put it down and hasn't moved from it in a quite  few hours , so home improvements are on hold for now....x x x x

Vintage Finds

Want to see more vintage finds?.....

I got two pretty floral pictures for my second picture wall....

 This peony one is my favourite...I adore it.

 I also found this little tea spoon with a tea pot on the top..don't you think its cute!

A stunning coffee pot with no lid which in my house turns it into a vase...but, some how I don't think it's going to be mine for long as Madison fell in love with it x

A lovely crinoline lady brush, she is so elegant.

This lovely perfume atomiser , etched with fushias.

These cute little cottage salt and pepper pots.

AND this gorgeous Sadler tea pot......

I just had to make a tray up, with mis matched china......

and wallow in the prettiness x

I also found a few items of clothes a brown shrug , a woollen cape and a stunning woollen Monsoon dress in perfect condition , with this lovely  crochet collar.

Which cost me the princely sum of 75p.......and thats why I am hooked on thrifting...hope you all found lots of vintage goodies and bargains too!

Spoil Sport!

Mother is staying and refuses to play nicely!

She refuses to have a pretty cup and saucer! Insisting on a mug.....which spoils my pretty tea trays!

She mutters about "all that washing up!" and complains "who the hell is going to see it" I shout MEEEEEE!!!!!She won't drink Earl Grey "tastes like perfume " and insists on Monkey tea (P.G tips)

She grumbles "all that faffing around!" I tried to explain that faffing is very exhausting and time consuming and so terribly difficult to get right. If you don't faff to the correct standard its just messing about and messing about will never do!

Pinching The Pennies.........

We were sat chatting away about the way that everyone is struggling with the pennies, and how expensive food shopping was getting, and I told Madison that we used to make a chicken last at least three meals when we were younger...So we decided to experiment and see how long we could make chicken last....

We bought a chicken from the local supermarket, I am afraid we didn't even use a free range one, just a basic medium sized one, it even cost less than £3.00! I was very skeptical that we could even get beyond two meals as there were three adults and two little girls...First  I roasted it off.... I then set about stripping every ounce of flesh ...putting all the trimmings into a pot....

Meal One.....Chicken Pies ...adding leeks and bacon....

we made a Tarragon sauce , We placed  the filling in individual pie dishes, and topped with puff pastry lids....the little ones had great fun cutting out the little hearts and helping mummy and nanny cook....The girls shared a pie and decided that mummy and nanny were very good "cookers", they ate every bit and so did we, it was delish........

The left over puff pastry was rolled out, cheese was added.......And we had yummy cheese straws for lunch the next day.....

Meal Two..Chicken Soup with Dumplings.....

The bones, trimmings, vegetables and herbs were cooked together, strained, blended  with a very small amount of cream added, some chicken , dumplings and a few bacon lardons saved from meal one garnished the soup, along with bread for dipping, it made  a  filling meal....Madison who was not looking forward to the soup as she is not keen on chicken soup declared it amazing!

 Meal Three....was a very simple chicken and sweetcorn pasta bake...with a cheesy topping served with peas , and there was plenty for seconds!

Meal four..... Chicken and Roasted Butternut Squash Risotto....
The butternut squash was roasted to bring out the sweetness and then combined with the chicken to make our fourth meal....

I love making risottos...something about the slow stirring in  of the stock relaxes me...there was so much that I still have two portions sitting in the freezer for a lunch sometime....

So there it is..our four meals from one chicken. I love my meat and feel any mouthful without a bit of meat in it is a waste...and I am being totally honest by saying that it did not in any way, in any of the meals cross my mind that there was not enough chicken in any of the meals.It made me realise that I usually put far  too much meat on the plates .
 It did take time, planning and lots of prep as everything was homemade , but its  the way to go to to save pennies...I now need to use this approach on other joints of meat, reducing portions and  planning meals ...so at any given time I will have the basis of many different meals in the freezer. See you all soon x

Who's A Clever Clogs?

OK then....who's a clever clogs?.....

What's this?

Vintage finds

Went out treasure hunting this weekend and this is what I came home with......

 

A beautiful French tapestry.....

A couple of 1940's tea cosies

A lovely garden trug

Another rose tapestry

Two hand embroidered panels...not sure what they were intended to be used for...anyone got any ideas?

Lovely flower embroidery...

Another tapestry....

A granny blanket....or two....

A couple of Victorian/Edwardian prints.

A very unusual shaped Mahogany mirror....

Some Welsh samplers......

Some 18th century lithographs of Guernsey....

 

And an  ab fab 1940's knitting book......

Knitted underwear!...Not sure exactly how comfy woolly knickers would be!

Stunning vintage patterns.....

I adore the knitted top hat on the right....

It has lots of smart knitted dresses and suits in.....

And a knitted nightie!

Oh how I wish I could knit! I fancy dressing more vintage and love 1940's jumpers, cardigans and twin sets....

With their puff sleeves and thin waists....think I will have to GET a waist first!

I have this heavy cut glass and brass cake stand/ canape holder

and here is a sneaky peek of some of my other finds...of which I am going to blog  about another day....Hope you all had a great weekend and found lots of treasure too x