Car Boot With Charlotte

Charlotte and I went along to the Redbourn Car Boot and got some bargains today. Charlotte found two rabbit water bottles - a giant one for £1.00 and a large one for 50p. She got a pair of pink wellies for £1.00 and some brand new wedge fashion boots for £2.00 - she was chuffed and put the boots on in the car!

I got some bargains too - three rolls of pretty ribbon for £1.00, a Joseph spaghetti measure still in packaging for 50p (£8.00 on Amazon). Also a Sanctuary mela body scrub £1.00 (£6.50 in Boots) and a beaded bag £2.00. The bag is very Indian looking with beautiful beading and metal decoration. It has a belt / strap thing inside too. The bag will go great with my evening coat so I am pleased with it. I also got a bargain pair of shoes - some Cotton Traders Mary Janes - with label still attached for £2.00 and a matching scarf for 50p. The shoes had been bought then the lady broke her ankle and couldn't wear them. They are very pretty and I love them. They are around £30.00 on the Cotton Traders website. All in all a good haul of bargains for us both!

Rolls of ribbon

  

The evening bag

Spaghetti measure and body scrub

Close up of strap and decoration

My lovely Mary Janes and scarf

Weekend Away

Sam is away in Dublin for the weekend. She went last evening flying out from Luton with some of her colleagues. She seems to be having a great time - including a trip to the Guinness factory.

 

  I spent the day at the Lewsey Festival promoting the Children's Centre. The weather was lovely - surprising after all the rain and wind yesterday. I popped round to see Mum and Dad later then took the dogs for a walk in the last of the sunshine. Dad gave me some strawberries and a bunch of sweet peas from his allotment. Pip has gone home for the weekend so spent the evening on my own chilling with the TV and the dogs. Sam will be home tomorrow evening.

CCNA

Sam took another professional exam today - and passed. She now has a CCNA. Well done Sam!

Update on Robin

Robin rang this evening to say he has booked his ticket back to the UK. He is going to stay with a friend in Devon to start with and try and get some work there. If not he will come and stay with us for a bit until he finds a permanent job. It was lovely to chat and catch up on all the news!

More Bargains

We had a quick trip to the carboot today - not many stalls as the weather was not good - windy and grey! We still managed to get some bargains - a sad lamp for £2.00, a chrome fire guard for £1.50 and a Marks bamboo duck board - brand new, in packaging for £3.00. This was originally £25.00. The fire guard is for the little house as it has an open fire. The duck board is for our en suite. We also got some fruit from the fruit man - grapes, flat peaches and nectarines each £1.00 a bowl!

Last of the Wedding Shopping

We have hopefully finished the wedding shopping now. This morning we got a suit for Ian - no mean feat as he needs a long sleeve jacket and 36" leg trousers. There was nothing long enough in any of the Luton stores so we went to Bletchley. Again nothing in TK Maxx but Next had a suit that was a great fit and a reasonable price. We ordered an extra pair of trousers to go with it as two pairs are always a good idea.
Then it was Sam's turn. Charlotte and Ian went home and we had a look in Next for Sam - but nothing suitable so we drove into MK. We started in BHS where we found a linen suit that looked good on the hanger. The jacket and top proved a good fit but the trousers were a terrible cut. That outfit was rejected. Monsoon had nothing at all suitable so John Lewis was next. It was sale time and the whole clothing section was like a jumble sale. We found lots of nice jackets but no trousers to go with them. Just as Sam was at breaking point a couple of assistants came to our aid. They found a beige linen suit by planet and a top to go with it. When Sam tried it on the jacket was ok but the trousers looked terrible - so again a no go!
We decided to give Next here a try and were more successful - we purchased a pink jacket and a top with a pretty butterfly print - but still no trousers. Sam was at melt down by this point so we stopped for a drink and a snack.
Marks was our last hope! We found in here a complete outfit - navy linen trousers, a turquoise jacket and a green and turquoise top! The trousers were a mission with the first pair having to be returned when we found a better pair on a different floor - but we got there in the end. The bits from Next can be returned in Luton as they are now rejected.
A quick trip to Schuh to try on some Tomms completed Sam's outfit. We didn't buy them there - Sam just sized them up and ordered on line at half the price. Other than a navy bag she is now sorted for the wedding!
We also popped to Hazel's Corner to look round the kennels and book the dogs in for the weekend of the wedding - so they are sorted too. Liam was going to come and stay to look after them but can't now he is working. The kennels are the nicest we have seen so hopefully the dogs will be ok.
* Bag now ordered from John Lewis sale!

Car Boot Bargains

We have had a lot of great bargains recently - this week was no exception. We got a Next wool coat for Ian - £2.00, a Berghaus 3 in 1 jacket for me - £3.00 and a waterproof jacket for Charlotte - £1.00. We had already got one for Sam, a brand new Trespass one also for £1.00. What bargains! This week we also found a Monsoon skirt suit for me - £3.00, and a pair of Next trousers and some jeans for Pip at £1.00 each. We also got a pair of brand new regatta walking boots to replace my worn out ones. If you are prepared to have a dig about there are some good buys at a car boot!

Trip to St Albans

I decided that I would go to Toni and Guy in St Albans instead of going into MK, which was my original plan.
I caught the train and was there in under twenty minutes. I had a couple of hours to potter about before my appointment. There were plenty of charity shops to browse but no particular bargains. I did get a fold up shopping bag for £1.50 and a pretty accessorize scarf for £1.99. I also bought Sam some nice Marks trousers in the Marks sale - they were half price at £20.00 and another 20% of that - so £16.00. I think they will be nice for Sam to wear to the wedding, just hope they fit! I also bought a Cath Kidston ironing board cover (see previous post).
I am pleased with my haircut - although it rained on the way home and ended up a bit flat sadly. Quick blow dry sorted it out again.
I took some photos on my phone - none of them very good but give the idea!

I had a lovely day and it was so easy to get there on the train and only £5.00 return, so I will definitely go again.

New Ironing Board Cover

My old cover

I needed a new ironing board cover - where I use spray starch for Sam's shirts the board gets stained and the sticky starch gets rubbed onto the edge of the board to keep the iron plate clean. I was in St Albans today getting my hair cut and while I had some time to spare I popped into the Cath Kidston shop.   The ironing board covers were in the sale! How fortunate!

I wanted to protect my new cover so I made some end pieces from an old flannelette sheet. I put some velcro on the ends and stitched some to the ironing board cover too. Now I can pop the end pieces on when I am starching and keep the new cover nice and clean.

                                                                   Flannelette sheet with velcro stitched in place





Velcro stitched to cover

 

With the end piece velcroed in place

              

Without the end piece in place

      

The care label made me smile -warm iron only!

   

Sam's Birthday

Sam, Pip and I had dinner at the Carvery last night to celebrate Sam's Birthday. Earlier in the day we had had a nice chat with Vickie and Jerry to keep them up to speed with what has been going on for us.
Mum and Dad invited us over for dinner today to celebrate further. She cooked a delicious fish pie with vegetables and two deserts- a peach and apricot tarte tatin and a victoria sponge with fresh cream, strawberries and raspberries- yum! It was a lovely meal and we had a nice time together. am and I plan to go to a French restaurant next week when Pip is home for the weekend as they had nothing vegan on the menu - and hardly anything vegetarian even! However the menu looks delicious with lots of choice for us!

Bag For Pip

I used my new sewing machine to make a bag for Pip. I had some fabric that I though she would like and found a pattern on line. This was the result - 

 

The lining

Completely reversible!

         

I adapted the pattern slightly and added a lining so it would be reversible. The picture fabric needed some iron on interfacing to make it stiff enough to keep it's shape. I used french seams to join the strips so that they didn't fray. I am pleased with the end result. The bag may be big enough for Pip to carry her skates in, definitely big enough for some study books!

Car Boot Fun

Sam and I went along to the Redborne car boot today to help mum and dad sell some unwanted stuff. We loaded our car with stuff as well as Dad's so we had a good lot to sell. We left about 10.30 - Dad shot off before us so when we arrived we got straight into a queue ready to get a pitch - but we couldn't see him anywhere. I found him waiting in the entrance - having somehow arrived after us. With a bit of queue jumping we managed to get the two cars together  on a pitch - and somehow ended up only paying one lot of entrance fee!
Dad made a sale before we had got the boots open - two remote control cars for £30.00 - he was very pleased. We got set up quickly and the selling began. Sam was a great sales person - promoting and haggling like a pro. By 3.00 we had sold most of the stuff - rugs, remote control boat, dressing table mirror, lots of household bits and pieces and some old electrical stuff. A quick count up and Mum and Dad had made over £160  profit - which they were delighted with!
Sam sold a few games and we bought a couple of bits - a dog guard for the car £5.00 (£65 in Pets at Home) a waterproof jacket for me £1.00 and a bowl of fruit £1.00. All in all a good day.

Greenwich Trip

The restored Cutty Sark

Sam had to work today so we went down on the train together. We grabbed something for breakfast at Pret then walked to the Data Centre. Sam signed me in then did what she needed to do. Then we walked along to Kennedy's and had lunch - I had sole goujons with new potatoes and salad and Sam had a tuna steak and chips - delicious!
After lunch we decided to go to Greenwich (because Sam had had a dream about going there). We took the boat from Tower Hill to Greenwich pier - which had a great commentary along the route. Once there, we had a walk up to Greenwich Park - which is back to normal after the Olympics.
Then we caught the boat back to Westminster Bridge with more great commentary. When we got to Tower Bridge it was open for a tall ship - a sight not seen very often. We caught the train home from Westminster at the end of a lovely day.

View of Canary Warf

Queens House behind

Royal Observatory and Colonel Wolf behind

Outside National Maritime Museum

Tower Bridge open

and almost closed again

Back to Dog Training

Pixel returned to dog training this evening. Casey has finished her Bronze test now so both dogs are working towards Silver. I am going to take them week and week about so they both get a turn. Pixel was very good despite the six week break.

Well done Sam!

Sam completed her third Microsoft exam in four weeks today - MCSA Server 2012 - now she is an official "early expert"! The revision guides for these exams haven't been published yet!

Poor Pixel

Pixel hurt his claw on Wednesday when we were walking the dogs up on Warden Hills. He ripped his dew claw back to the quick. It was very sore for him and he wouldn't let us touch it. As it didn't bleed much we decided to leave well alone but it was still painful today - so a trip to the vets was in order. The vet decided to remove the nail under sedation so we had to leave Pixel there for a few hours.
While he was having the nail removed we popped to Bletchley to see if we could get Sam a suit in the Next Discount store - nothing suitable! But we did get her some new walking boots and walking trousers from Go Outdoors - a Birthday gift from Vickie and Jerry. Sam treated herself to a new rucksack and hat too and I got a new fleece for dog walking in.
We just had time to go to Asda where Sam got a cheap black suit that will do till we can get something better - it does at least fit her properly, unlike her others which are hanging off her now she has lost over two stone.
Pixel was pleased to see us - if looking a little sorry for himself. The vet said we need to stop Pixel licking his nail and suggested putting a sock over the paw. Sam cut the ribbing off an old sock and twisted it round his paw - like a hairband. She taped this down for our walk but it seems ok without tape at home. Pixel had been good about leaving it alone so far. Although still feeling sad Pixel did however manage to run about on our walk up on the Downs. Both dogs had a great time playing their new favourite game - frisbee!

Having a cuddle to make his paw feel better!

Great view over Dunstable

Pixel checks out the view while Casey has a drink

Waiting for the frisbee to be thrown - Casey is getting much better at not jumping up

Tired now!

A nice roll in the long grass!