Button it. New art.

Here you go then, it is done. It measures 17.5 inches by 19.5 inches. There are two boards one bigger than the other, and screwed together from the back. I have stretched fabric over both boards, laced at the back.

The buttons have one, two, or three coloured threads, I just kept adding it until I thought there was enough. Tried to mix up the colours and sizes. I wanted to place them close together. It was a bit like putting a jigsaw puzzle together where none of the pieces fit. 

The dark blue denim was given to me. 

The back of the red board, the other one was done the same. I used board I already had, it was from a café that was being cleared out. 

I used a piece of cotton bed sheet to cover the back. Hand stitched on with tiny stitches. 

I am very pleased with it. I don't make pictures to sell, I make them because I enjoy creating. Keeps my brain working, keeps my hands busy. I may have another exhibition, who knows, no rush, when I'm ready. 

Toodle pip.  ilona

Fair swap

You might remember the post I did recently about my visit to Art in the Pens, an arts and crafts event in Thirsk. Here's a link to jog your memory. I had a smashing chat with Brett James of Feral Metal, he makes all kinds of sculptures out of any scrap he comes across. Metal, glass, wood, it all gets used. I took a liking to the saws he had on display, and cheeky me managed to do a deal with him. You make me a saw, and I'll send you something I made. 

It has arrived. Pretty cool eh! I hope he likes the spoons and forks wall decoration, and uses his cloth shopping bag. I think this would look good on the Summer House. 

Brett is at the Harrogate Flower Show this weekend. Call in and say hello if you are there. He posts his whereabouts on his Facebook Page. I see he has some new hand crafted kettle lamps, they look lovely.

The button picture is completely finished, I've shown it to my friend and she thinks it is absolutely amazing. I'm pretty chuffed with it as well. Pictures coming soon. Toodle pip.  ilona

How many buttons....the winner.

The heart is full of buttons, but there is still more to do on it to finish it. So how did I count the buttons. When I got to 34 I thought I had better write it down every time I added one. When I had filled it I wondered if my calculations were accurate because I couldn't remember sometimes if I had made a note or not. I decided to double check and count them all at the end. 

I pinned a piece of clear cellophane over the top, and used a felt tip pen to write the numbers on every one. 

The black pen was running out of ink so I changed to a red one. When it got to three fugures I couldn't fit it onto the small buttons, some are really tiny, so I went from 100 back to 1, and 200 back to 1. 

So how many are there? As I was working on it I thought there might be around the 300 mark, but I was wrong. There are 252 buttons. Checking it confirmed that my first calculation was right. There are several quite close guesses, none spot on, but the nearest is 254, so take a bow PJ Kincaid, you are the winner. I will send you a surprise lucky bag. 

I'm going to give three runner up prizes as well because you were very close. Kim guessed 255, Simone 256, and Vintage Crafter 247. I will send you a shopping bag each. 

Send me your postal addresses in a comment which I won't publish, or in an email, address on the sidebar. Well done everybody. I will post pictures of the heart when it's finished. 

Toodle pip.   ilona

Sock it to 'em

I should have an announcement later on, the winner of 'guess how many buttons I used to make this heart', competition. In the meantime I think we all need a bit of light hearted entertainment. I follow Grayson Perry on Twitter and he put this on, so blame him. So cute, guaranteed a smile.



Look how enterprising they are, fancy doing a bit of drumming? No drums, no problem, make them.

Back later.  ilona

My Trucking Life. Part 12.

I thought it was about time I got on with the Trucking Life videos, there's not much left to tell but now it needs to be finished, so I can move on to the next thing. This one is about a special time for me when I was invited to the Women of the Year Luncheon at the Savoy Hotel. The memory will stay with me forever.



Update. The heart is now full of buttons, not finished yet as I want to add more stitching.
ilona  

Bags it's mine.

Look at this smashing bag, it's a big one, from Tesco, I found it this morning. It was in a bin outside the Village Hall. I always have a peek in there when I go to Crafty Club. Seems there was a party on  over the weekend, all the catering debris was in the bin. It was mostly in plastic bags, but this bag had wrappings in it and looked like it had only been used just the once to carry food from the supermarket to the venue. 

Why did they throw this bag away, why didn't they empty the contents straight into the bin and take the bag home to use again. The mentality of some people is beyond my comprehension. I don't know how much these bags cost because I have never bought one, but to throw it away when it could be used for at least another year is plain thoughtless and daft.  

I found these two popcorn buckets as well. They are big enough to use as a bin in the bathroom, or anywhere else for that matter. I have put one in my bathroom and will find a use for the other one. Storage for small items maybe.

I feel sometimes I am fighting a losing battle with re cycling, re using, and re purposing. I wonder why I bother making shopping bags, but I suppose if everyone was selfish about chucking everything away, the world would come to a halt a lot sooner. Keep on re cycling and re using everyone, we have to at least keep trying. Eighteen shopping bags made.

Toodle pip.  ilona

Making the most of a sunny day

It was a lovely day for a walk, sunny and warm. It was very calm, no wind to turn the blades on the turbines. Another five miles added to my total. just gone over the 700 mark, need to finish on 750 by the end of the month. I'm sure I will.  This field was full of wild flowers, mainly red poppies and purple thistles with splashes of yellow.

I'm still sewing the buttons on the heart, a few more to go. It's looking good. I'll take it to Crafty Club in the morning.
Toodle pip.  ilona

This will take less than a minute.

Sunday Snigger.



This cracks me up.
Toodle pip

Hooooray it's the weekend.

A change of breakfast this morning. It's the weekend and I fancy something different from the usual porridge, cereals, nuts, seeds and fruit. A thick wedge of seeded bread, beans, a Quorn sausage, an egg, and a vegetable burger from Tesco. these are quite tasty, you get six in a pack for £1. That set me up for the day. 

I still feel like the weekend is different from the weekdays, even though I haven't had to go to work for ten years. Silly really because every day is like a weekend, I am completely free to do what I like.

After breakfast I lounged in the bath for half an hour, sipping my second mug of coffee, it was hot. Very relaxing. I've got a load of washing on the line, and now I'm going to sew some more buttons onto the new art piece. Think I'll find some nice music on yooootoooob to keep me company.

Later I'll go for a walk.. Howz your Saturday going? Is it a day off from the normal routine, do you do something different, or do you enjoy every day, no matter what you are doing?

Toodle pip. ilona

Looking for bargains in the town.

I dragged my shopping trolley around town this afternoon because I knew my haul was going to be too heavy to carry. First stop was the bank, to take out some cash from the machine inside the bank. I never use cash machines outside in the street. 

I checked the usual shops for cat food prices, before I made my purchases. No cat food in Poundstretcher, but I did come across cartons of soup for 19p each. Worth a try I thought at that price, so I got five. 

I popped in the Age UK Charity Shop and found these socks, five pairs for £1. I like knee highs in the winter. Just Tried one on and they fit my size 5 foot, hooooray.

 I found cat food in Wilko, they had an offer on Sheba pouches. Saved £7 on four boxes. Small Sheba pouches I bought from Home Bargains, £1.65 for a six pack. At Asda I bought two bags of Whiskas dry, £4 each. And I bought some Whiskas and Felix pouches from the pet stall in the market. Oscar used to eat these but he went off them. I am hoping he will go back on them again because they are cheaper than Sheba. That will keep me going for a while.

There are a lot of empty shops in our town centre, one part of it is like a ghost town. They have been trying to cheer the place up a bit though by putting big posters in the empty shop windows, and big signs above saying, to rent at a reasonable rate. I noticed that some of the stalls in the market have become vacant, and it's only been open a few weeks. Looks like people gave it a try and it didn't work out. I think all towns have the same problem, rents and overheads too high and not enough sales.

Have a nice weekend. Toodle pip.  ilona

A pan of stew goes a long way.

I was planning on doing a yellow sticker shop last night, not much left in the fridge. Then I made a delicious curry-ish stew out of bits of this and bits of that, whatever I had left. 

I found a large courgette on my doorstep, don't know who left that for me but it came in very useful. Also I was given some apples, they went in this hotpot as well. I had one carrot left, five mushrooms, and a few spinach leaves. Some sliced potatoes, a bit of broccoli, and a handful of frozen broad beans, and some Quorn mince. It was bloomin lovely.

So I didn't bother to go to Tesco last night, this will keep me going another couple of days.

I wondered if I should maybe go tonight. I've eaten two portions of this today, and there's still some left for lunch tomorrow.

I took Heidi to the vet this afternoon for her medication review. She is fine and I came away with another 60 tablets, some flea treatment, (she hasn't got fleas), and £44 lighter.

As I was passing Aldi I thought she wouldn't mind if I popped in on the way home. She is very good in her cat carrier, doesn't mind at all. I spent £9.63 on a few essentials because I had run out of bananas, eggs, cheese, Mayze's chicken, and yogurt. They have an offer on at the moment, a bag of five bananas for 45p. I rooted through them and picked the bag with the biggest bananas in it. I normally buy them singly for 13p each as this is cheaper than the normal price of a bag.

So I didn't go to Tesco tonight either, because my few essentials will keep me going over the weekend. I'm running low on cat food though so I'll have to go to town tomorrow and trawl the discount stores.
Toodle pip.  ilona

If I can help somebody as I pass along......

This comment has cheered me up no end, and I thank Athena for sending it. I copy it here, because it shows that there are some lovely people who appreciate the hours I spend tapping away on this keyboard, sharing my life with anyone who wants to read it.

I get similar comments from lovely blog readers, and I appreciate them all, some have been reading for a long time. I don't expect compliments, I don't expect praise, in fact I feel a bit embarrassed about it. But hey ho, it's nice when it happens. I don't recall seeing Athena's name before, I think she has been secretly viewing from the sidelines. This was a nice surprise this morning when I checked in.

Athena5 September 2019 at 02:52

I need to thank you Ilona. 8 years ago i started my frugal journey. Initially saw you on tv. No i was not in debt but living from pay to pay. Decided mortgage had to go!. Paid of £85000 in 6 years took in lodger lived on yellow sticker food!. Every penny budgeted!. All clothes charity shop. Now have saved for 2 years half my income. Now can retire in 4.5 months from nhs at 55. Without mortgage paid and savings no. For that i thank you!. Athenax

I write the blog for me, if someone finds something useful in it that's the bonus. Athena I am so pleased that you are on track for a wonderful retirement. The burden of a mortgage has gone, due to all your money saving and planning. You should be proud of yourself, I am proud of you.
Best wishes,  ilona

Nothing wasted.

 I knew I was going to have difficulty extracting all the sauce from this plastic bottle, but I bought it anyway because it was cheap from the Cash and Carry, and I like garlic sauce. The idea is to stand the bottle on it's head in the fridge so the contents run to the top, which is now the bottom.

When it is time to use it, hover the bottle over the food, and squeeze until the desired amount has landed. All well and good with the first few squirts, but as the contents shrink and a mere squiggle the size of a little finger drops onto the food, followed by a puff of fresh air, a hefty bash on the worktop is needed to get things moving in the right direction.

The next stage is to give up after six bashes on the worktop only produce a lot of air and no sauce. But there's still some left in there. I got a big pair of scissors which are generally used to open awkward packaging, and cut the bottle in half.

See, lots left, plenty to scoop out with a knife or spoon if you want to. I prefer to get a piece of food on my fork and wipe that around the inside then pop it straight in my mouth. 

Isn't it all too much hassle. Why can't they put all sauces in a glass jar with a wide neck so you can  use a spoon to get the last bit out. Now I've had to wash this out and put it in the plastic re cycling bin.

There are so many products like this where the container is a funny shape making it difficult to scoop out the last dregs. Loads of food must get thrown away because people can't be bothered to faff around. I only get this type of product maybe two or three times a year, as a treat, because I prefer not to smother my food with sauce.

What other daft containers have you found where it's difficult to get the contents out?
Toodle pip.  ilona

Richard Clayderman. Love the music

This song has come back into my life again, I was head over heels in love with it many years ago, and played it over and over again. I filled one side of a cassette tape and off it went for 45 minutes, pure bliss. Yes, I still have it.

Brendan the piano player who entertains commuters and shoppers at various venues around London played this recently and it has re ignited my love of this music.



I don't know what it is about this music that arouses such passion in me. It is gentle and calming and relaxing, then it builds up into a rousing crescendo.

I'm chuffed. I've been asked to do a 30 minute talk at the Sewing Studio at Jaylaurs, in Brigg on their Sewing Saturday event on the 5th of October. Talking about what I make and how I make it, sharing ideas to create inspiration. That will be a lot of fun.

Thanks to the walkers for checking in, keep on keeping on. Got to get on now. I've just made a video which I am not too happy about so I'll have to re do it. I want to learn a bit of editing and that is going to take time.

 Toodle pip. ilona

Check in day for the Walking Group

It soon comes round, doesn't it. The first of the month is check in day for the International Walking Group. The figures coming in last month were very inspiring, so many people still doing the challenge. Don't forget, it's your own personal challenge that counts. I set myself 1000 miles again, but some people are committed to their own personal numbers. It doesn't matter what you do as long as you are doing some walking.

So this is where I'm at. 686 miles for me. The 28 miles I did when I had a few days away really bumped it up. Now I am back to walking three miles a day around my local area.

Howzit for you? Are you keeping up the momentum, or dropping back a bit. There will be times when you think I just can't be bothered, I get like that sometimes. But if it's not raining and I have an hour to spare I have no excuses not to get up off my arse and go out there.

Your turn now, let us know how you are getting on. Toodle pip.  ilona