Argh bogey face!!

You know those days where your all at sixes and sevens and you don't really know what to do with yourself?, I had this great idea of being so Sunday selfish and pampering my old worn out body and dry, wrinkly face, I ran myself a hot bath and made some lavender and oat bath bags to infuse the water and prepared an organic avocado and honey face mask, Mmm you may say as I did whilst mixing and feeling gleeful, I plastered it on my face, put cucumbers on my tired eyes and instructed a child to shout me in 10 mins.

I lay on my bed thinking of all lovely things when I started to feel an itch, then a burning on my face, "oh it must be working" I thought, still led there thinking its normal that my face is getting hotter and the itch is getting intense, I asked the child how long had I got left "6 minutes mum" came the reply.

I was now thinking "shit I can't wait any longer", I rushed to the bathroom where another child was on the loo,"arghhh Bogey face" he shouted and as I moved forward to get the toilet roll he screamed so piercingly it made me a little deaf, he kept shouting "get out", not because he was on the loo but because he thought I actually had green snot on my face?!. I ignored his screams and started to wipe the face mask off, underneath the green gunk I had huge hives, big red patches and I felt like it was on fire, I rinsed, still burning, I smothered my face in coconut oil and lavender (lavender is great for getting rid of spots/bumps etc), it still burned, I plunged my head in the bath water and found relief, although this was short lived.

It eventually calmed down although I was bumpy for a few hours and then red patches appeared, that was yesterday and today I am left with a red blob in the middle of my forehead, I look like Gandhi :(

so much for pampering, damn that avocado!.

yummy fast food - NOT!!

We never go to KFC or Mcdonalds or any of the other dodgy, greedy consumerism filled take aways but I know that others do, maybe sharing this will make you think again before you reach for that "family (sick) bucket"!.
Be aware some scenes are very upsetting.



Watch more videos at KentuckyFriedCruelty.com.

Frugal 2011, making bread....

Reassessing things after Christmas as we all do and thinking, new year, new start etc as we all do too, I considered my spending, it is at a minimum anyway because I think we all have too much "stuff," but I love collecting old furniture, fabric, vintage/retro home wares, books, vinyl records and clothes, I'm quite terrible actually, but 90% of what I buy is second hand or given to me. The only things I buy new are shoes, knickers and bra's and the boys pants from Boden because they are great quality and last ages, well thinking of it I buy most of their clothes new because it is hard to get second hand older boys clothes that are decent. But this isn't that much over a year.

So I set myself a little challenge, to minimise our spending even further so I can save up for things we actually need/will benefit our lives/make lasting memories.

Over the next few weeks I will be posting about the kinds of things I'm doing to save money, be closer to a natural way of living and hopefully inspiring others to do the same.

I am very particular about what we eat and love to cook so I won't compromise on spending money on food at all, it has to be organic, free range, outdoor bred etc, I have made some menu's up though to try and get more out of my money, we bake our own bread which saves us a fortune and the lovely smell that lingers in the air is unbeatable, this is why supermarkets have a "bakery" (most just reheat frozen loaves!), so the smell makes customers hungry. If you haven't got a bread maker already I really do recommend you save up and get a decent one, taking to friends and my own experience it is worth spending that bit extra on one, ours is this one, which bakes bread, mixes dough, you can even do cake mix in it, although I haven't tried that as I like the process of mixing cakes myself.

It is simple to use, you just weigh out the ingredients from the cookbook that comes with it and pop them into the bread pan that goes inside the bread maker, choose your bread setting and voila in and 2 hours you have a lovely loaf, all hot and delicious! We have made fruit loaf, which is lovely, curry bread made with mango chutney and curry paste, believe me it IS good.

You can of course bake your own loaves in the oven, I have tried and failed many times, they always come out like bricks!!

working it out, a loaf of bread from our local shop costs £1.30 each, (not organic) we as a family of 5 eat on average about 6 loaves a week, sometimes more (if it's fruit loaf!!) so that's £7.80 a week compared to doves organic white flour at £1.87, this would make 3 large loaves, doves organic yeast, 1.29p, one packet lasts us about 3-4 weeks, then in our bread maker you add a tsp salt, 1oz marg, 2 tsp sugar and water, so pennies really, I will allocate 90p for these things, so all together for a weeks worth of organic bread =£4.50, over the course of a year you would save £171.60 on bread alone!

Happy New Year and happy bread making, I will be pleased to answer any bread making questions no matter how silly they seem, before I got a bread maker a lovely friend answered all mine even though I felt daft asking her!