Allsorts

Well hello there!

As you know life has been a bit up and down here recently and in order to try and restore some kind of calm and order I have been keeping the laptop switched off, except for a quick daily check on emails and a lovely hour on Saturday evening where I managed to catch up with quite a few blog posts, I hope to be properly caught up with everyone by the end of the week.

This will be an odd little post to share a few things from the past couple of weeks and I'm hoping some kind of normality will return by the weekend.

So we start with a baking tray full of veggies all looking very healthy and colourful.

I cooked this casserole last week and it was generally well received, will cut down the cooking time slightly next time though as possibly the veg was a bit too mushy in texture, but it was (nearly) all eaten.

I am in love with one of the new items of clothing my sister gave me for Christmas. Black jumper with white hearts, I did actually hug it when I unwrapped it! Worn with a scarf a bought on our last trip to Norwich. Too many hearts? Don't care, just love it!

One thing I wanted to try and make an effort with this year was bulk buying when something we use is on offer and the space is available to store it.
For years now I have been using the Co-op's toiletries and home products as much as possible as they aren't tested on animals. With S's hair type we get through a lot of conditioner and we have found the coconut and honey variety is excellent. They currently have one third off the price and we now have 20 bottles of it stashed away and this has saved me £7.40. I have also bought 4 huge boxes of washing powder which has saved me another £8.00 and should see us through most of the year. Ok we won't be going on a holiday on the these savings, but surely every little helps.

I haven't been out and about much but when I did briefly escape whilst S had chicken pox I couldn't resist this cute lantern reduced to something silly in Sainsbury's as part of the post Christmas decoration sale and it can stay out all year round.

S out in the back garden playing with one of her Christmas presents, an elephant bubble blower, one thing she never tires of is blowing bubbles, long may that continue, small simple pleasures and all that.

This was last month's book club read. Opinion was mixed, one person couldn't read it, a couple more read it and weren't really that fussed and two more loved it. I was one of the loved it variety. I would definitely recommend it and have added her other books to my newly created wishlist on Amazon.

Speaking of books I received in the post last week this interesting book from Louise, I haven't started it yet but am really looking forward to it. Thank you again Louise for remembering and sending it to me, another example of blogging friendliness and generosity which is one of the things I love about this community.

Finally this odd little bundle is a photo of the items I bought for my sister for Christmas. You know the drill, £10 spent on items from charity shops/jumbles/car boots. In this little lot are one book, one china plate, one snowflake patterned glass dish, one flower pot, one polka dot patterned jam pot, one fabric boot Christmas decoration, one cupcake coat hook, three skirts, four tops, one cardi and not shown was one gingham covered noticeboard in the shape of a teapot.