Tag Archives: thrift

Creepy Cat Cross Stitch Charity Shop Find

Posted by ohnicolajoy in Cats, Thriftings and tagged with , , , ,

 

 

My boyfriend is the scary cat lady, well, bloke. Totally obsessed with them and regularly attracting them to our home with food left out for whichever one of the neighbour’s cats he was feeding last.  I love animals too, so it’s a good thing but I can’t help be aware that if he was female he would be in serious danger of being labelled a freak based on this feline fancying alone.

So when I came across this bizarre cross stitch  cat portrait in Help The Aged I just had to buy it for him. What I like most about it is the way the cat is positioned and its head is tilted. Cute.

 

 

 

 

He came home with this delicious old typewriter the other day. He had proudly scooped it from under the nose of some old cadger who had spent too much time staring into the shop window, rubbing his beard and saying to his wife ” Oooh look at that typewriter Mavis, I might buy it…”.

 

 

Yummy Cheated Toffee Muffins

Posted by ohnicolajoy in Eat This! and tagged with , , , , , , ,

Ever feel the urge to get your bake on but just don’t have the time or energy or fresh eggs for that matter? Have friends coming round in half an hour and nothing nice for them to eat?

If any of the above are common problems for you then just one clever move next time you visit a supermarket will see you right. Behold, the totally cheated, yummy toffee muffin:

All you need to do is browse the baking section next time your out grocery shopping. There will be a selection of items intended for making larger cakes and loaves in nice flavours. There will also be the little muffin baking kits, which I have used in the past, but this way, you get more,  they will be nicer and are a total bargain.

I used Wright’s Baking toffee cake mix:

You simply need to mix it with water and oil. Instead of pouring into a lined loaf tin, use a muffin tray with paper cases. Eat the leftover mixture, if nobody’s looking.

You will need to alter the cooking time from that of a loaf, so instead of taking about an hour they will only need about fifteen to twenty minutes at around 200 Degrees Celsius.

Having saved so much time in the preparation I covered mine in chocolate and sweets.

What was my excuse? I did not have friends coming over, I had fresh eggs, flour and sugar etc and had not had a longer day at work than expected. I’m just lazy and wanted to fill the house with gorgeous toffee smells and eat warm cakes but without doing loads of cleaning up afterwards.

Jeanius!…crafting with denim

Posted by ohnicolajoy in Craftings and tagged with , , , , ,

As I may have mentioned, I am a chronic hoarder of anything that could be put to any creative use at some point. Like old pairs of jeans with holes in the crotch or bum that can no longer be worn. This look, I must stress,  is not grunge, but simply trampy.

I had several old pairs of jeans piling up in a cupboard. Eventually I found the motivation and a window of time, removed the  seams, zips and buttons then ironed them flat and packed according to colour…

I made this card and hanging decoration for a swap hosted on this cute website:  Cut Out + Keep | Make and share step-by-step craft tutorials.  I was required to simply send a card and place something small and simple inside, so I made the decoration and added a sachet of popping candy for good measure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My bathroom has been bare and soulless for too long now. It was derelict for a while last year after one unlucky shower exposed the horrendous job the previous owner had done on sealing and waterproofing by causing the kitchen to be flooded out. Being peasants, we simply had to step over the rotting floorboards for a couple of weeks to get to the sink for a wash, then make trips down the road to my sister’s for a proper shower every couple of days.  Slowly but surely we replaced it with a working, safe shower. New floor and lick of “Light Rain” coloured paint and its kind of ok for the time being. It just needed something to brighten it up so I made some cute Sea Life pictures from my denim mountain…

Obviously, I’m not going to fill the entire house with things made from my old jeans but already I have added a little homely touch and created a well received gift using some of my ever growing stash. Lets not forget the recipe book I made for my boyfriend either, featured in an earlier post- Yes MSG! | Oh, Nicola Joy!.  All of this was either cheap or free…

P.S. I also made these:

.Denim Beads | Creation | Cut Out + Keep.

THE COMPLETE KAMA SUTRA and other recent charity shop finds

Posted by ohnicolajoy in Thriftings and tagged with , , ,

So for perhaps a few pounds spent in Chazza shops I can learn the Hindu art of loving whilst improving my yoga, learn some basic and probably outdated sociology theory whilst brushing up on various forms of Japanese culture and read the true story of how some guy raised an eagle back to health. Maybe at some point I will finish the Andy Warhol biography…facts learnt so far: he was a wierd kid; he hung around with girls and arty types; he was shy and a bit wierd…

What I am saving for a VERY rainy day however is the book by the early 20th century psychoanalyst Alfred Adler, titled “What Life Should Mean To You”. I’m saving it because the front cover totally gives me the creeps and I hate looking at it, though I could not resist buying it…

Ten Reasons To Be Happy Its January

Posted by ohnicolajoy in Uncategorized and tagged with , , , , , , ,

 

1: You can enter shops, restaurants, workplaces and your own home safe in the knowledge that you will NOT hear any Christmas music. The old songs are the best are they Wizard? Not when you’ve heard them five thousand times and are only approximately a third of the way through your life they’re not.

 

2: Everything is half price. Yes, most of it is tat and you would be foolish to start buying it all up in a frenzy on the basis that it used to be twice as expensive…but if you need it or really want it (and can afford it ) then I say go for it.

 

3: You can relax and basically do nothing for a while after all the cramming in of friends/family/colleagues/shopping/baking hits an eerie yet welcome standstill.

 

4: You can be a penny pinching cheapskate without anybody pressuring you to spend money that you don’t have. Everybody else is cutting back now too after their OTT December ways.

 

 

5: It might snow soon. It usually does in January or February and as we all know, snow equals nationwide skiving off work and comedy snowmen/snowpenises everywhere.

 

6: January is a good month for socialising, pressure free. Your friends are all of a sudden available and quite possibly on a bit of a downer after all of the forced cheer of the previous month. A warning, however: they will probably be skint, as mentioned earlier. The more I read point 6, the more I’m not so sure about it…

 

 

7: We have passed the Winter Solstice, so its all longer days and shorter nights from now on.

 

8: Charity shops are full of shiny new books and other brand new unwanted gifts. I love shopping for books in charity shops as much for the random aspect of what you may find as the 50p-£2.00 price range.

 

9: If you are creative, you can incorporate your relaxation with some self indulgent crafting. No more gifts or cards or decorations to be finished. Choose a project to make just for you…I am considering making a crocheted ear warmer from this tutorial: Cute Ear Warmer | Creation | Cut Out + Keep.

 

 

10: You probably still have lots of chocolates and, if you are very lucky, booze left. If this is the case then you can sit back, relax, watch some crap January telly and scoff your face without even having to go out in the cold to get supplies from the shop. Heaven…