Still here!

I still haven't reported back about my new kitchen floor and I'm not going to do a proper report for a little while.  Suffice it to say that the floor looks good and I have had a MAJOR sort-out of cupboards and drawers!  I had two cupboards removed so had to make space in the other nooks and crannies for quite a bit of stuff.  I have booked a decorator to come and make the place look respectable but he can't come until the end of May.  After that there may be photos.

It has to be said though that the kitchen feels as though it has lost weight.  I have given away or slung quite a bit of stuff and most of it I can't even remember.  My cupboards and drawers are clean and well organised and cooking is much more pleasant.

All this has led me to look at other places in the house and once again I have tackled The Room Of Doom a.k.a. my playroom.  I have been getting rid of more and more stuff and soon I shall be able to photograph in there too.

Sugru again

String is One Of Those Things.  It should be a nice well-behaved product which lives in a drawer and waits until it can be useful.  However, any string which comes into this house seems to have a mind of its own.  It doesn't stay in the drawer, preferring to go exploring all areas of the house and garden.  What's more, like the fairy tale children leaving a trail of crumbs, string leaves a trail behind it as it unravels from its ball and goes out to play.

I have been tempted by "things" to put string in but so far I have resisted little pots like this one.  Spending £5.80 or even more would give my string even more ideas of its own importance.  String is to be kept in its place in every sense of the phrase.

So I made my own string tin and I have to say that I'm rather proud of it.  I used a pretty tin and some of the Sugru which I received as a freebie some time ago from Amazon.  I've pierced a hole in the lid and moulded the Sugru into a holder for a small pair of scissors.  Actually I think its better than the fancy jobbie shown above, as mine has a place for scissors

Note for UK readers.  Amazon has Sugru as a "Deal of the Day" for today only.  

Minor, but hot, disaster!!!

When I sorted out my kitchen ready ready for the floor to be renewed I "edited" my herbs and spices as some were well put of date.  Among those I replaced was cayenne pepper.

Yesterday when I served up my lunch it was so spicy I couldn't eat it!  I had forgotten that a new jar of cayenne pepper would be considerably hotter than an old one.  

Today I have made another casserole but this time with no spice at  all.  I then combined both.  Much better.

Good job that I like it as instead of freezing five portions I've had to put nine into the freezer!

Being challenged - frugally - in April

March has passed by in a whirl!  I've got a new floor in my kitchen which is very nice but I'm still trying to "edit" the contents of the kitchen which isn't so nice.  My kitchen has been spring cleaned but I can't get it decorated for several weeks so the chaos isn't over yet.

I've got a short holiday booked in May so I've decided to try extra hard to look hard at what I spend and how I spend it.  Even more I want to look at how I use what I've got.  And of course I want to look at how I can make a little.  In other words I want to step up to the frugal challenge.

First on the list is making best use of what I've got so today I dug deep in the freezer, found a bag of chicken thighs and made serendipity casserole.  That's lunch sorted for tomorrow