FFF! #2

Edition number two of Frugal Fashion Friday is here! Not sure where the rest of this week has gone though, I could have sworn it was only Wednesday. Anywho..

I thought I would start with Otto, because he is the hardest to photograph. He doesn't like to stand still and does his darnedest to be without shoes at all times. So, you'll have to just imagine the shoes in. The top is made by me and the shorts were bought for Aesop, from Farmers, many, many moons ago. I love outfits like these, where the most expensive thing Otto wears is his (second hand or hand-me-down) nappy!

Aesop, as you saw last week, is riiiight into the posing. (He also keeps his shoes on!). It's hard to get him to just stand still and not pull silly faces or insist on hamming it up!

This is the outfit he wore to mufti day at school:
Shirt - a hand me down from a friend, with a robot applique by me.
Shorts - $19.99 at Farmers, bought last Summer.
Shoes - $12.99 at The Warehouse.
Tattoo- a gift from his friend Isaac. Aesop tells me it is a 'DN Alien'.

And then there's me. I love love the colour of this dress, but I don't wear it as often as I should. It's one of those colours that takes a bit of confidence to wear, because everyone sees you coming from a mile off. Luckily, it's also a dress that gets me a lot of compliments, so the confidence (bravery?) pays off!

Dress: about $3 at St Vinnies
Silver flats : $6 at The Warehouse
Badge: $8 Cloud of birds. A lovely lass who used to do Craft2.0 and made the most incredible badges, toys, and other bits and pieces. I see her blog hasn't bee updated in years, I would love to know what she is doing now!

We're off to Auckland for the weekend, to celebrate Aesop's birthday. I'm really looking forward to it, but Auckland does always have the knack of making me feel very much like a frumpy, boring, small town girl. I'll be pulling out some of my favourite outfits, in an attempt to feel better about myself , so I'll be sure to take lots of photos for next weeks post!

Recently acquired.

One of my other resolutions for this year was to carry on my de-cluttering. Last year I got rid of over 500 things, but didn't feel that much lighter. This year I want to get rid of at least another 500. I'm up to 360 so far, and feel like I'm getting a bit better at being ruthless now.

The only real problem is that I am constantly picking things up at the op shop, essentially replacing the things I'm getting rid of! Don't get me wrong, I'm getting better at leaving things behind at the oppies too, but by golly it's hard work. I was made to hoard.
These are some of the things that have made it home over the past few weeks.

I don't limit myself on buying fabric. It will all be used eventually and will probably pay for itself in the long run. Plates, on the other hand, won't. I should probably get a handle on that one!
The dress was just too amazing to pass up. It is minuscule, a mere 23" in the waist, and I doubt it would even fit one of my thighs but the thought of someone else buying it and selling it was too much for me. I initially thought I could pass it on to a verrry skinny friend, but I'm just too in love with it. Sorry Rozi!

I should really get motivated and list some of my 'things to get rid of' on Trademe. It's times like these I wish I was fancy and had an assistant. For that, and to clean my shower. Hmm.

Baking day.

(Isn't it annoying how baking is usually all the same colour?)

As part of my attempt to keep our weekly spending at bay, I have been making an extra effort to make sure I bake each week. I try to crank out a few things in one go, put some in the cupboard and stash the rest in the freezer for later in the week (amazing how much longer things last when the boys think there are only a few left!).

For this week I made blueberry muffins, choc chip cookies, and apricot almond cookies. All from the Edmonds cookbook. I didn't have enough margarine to make the crackers yesterday, but I'll make those this afternoon from the usual recipe. Nom!

Part of my resolutions for this year (which I might tell you about one day..) was to start making our bread.
I really dislike the fact that bread costs so much, meaning we can only afford to buy the really budget brands. The cheap-o brands, for some reason, seem so much less nutritious than the other brands and don't really taste of anything much. We eat A LOT of bread in our house, so while it probably still works out cheaper to be buying the packaged stuff, I much prefer the idea of having something I KNOW has at least a little nutrition.

I can't remember where I found the recipe that I've been using (such an out-of-practice blogger!), but it is for a lovely part-wholemeal bread. It's a little bit sweet, and very scrummy. I am using the 'dough' function on the (borrowed) breadmaker, then rising, and baking in the oven. It is more time consuming but the loaf is a nicer shape and it just seems to work.

I should really try a few more recipes, but it's tempting to just stick with what you know is good! Anyone got any tried and true recipes?

FFF!

(I know, it is Saturday. Just play along!)

I'm really, really loving Kristins new wee section on her blog at the moment ' Boy Style Friday'. It's all about stylish clothes for boys, that don't break the bank. It's perfect for me, with two boys and a very small-to-non-existent clothing budget. And Kristin is the perfect woman for the job, being such a stylish lass herself!

So, without stealing  any of her limelight, I'm going to to use this as the perfect way to get back on the blogging horse. If there's one thing that always seems to get me inspired to sign into blogger, it's photos of outfits.
I've decided that I'll include myself in the post too though, just for a bit of difference. I've found myself missing our little 'Wardrobe Wednesday' posts, and neglecting to take so much notice of what I'm wearing. So, hoping noone minds, I'm going to attempt to tie-in with Kristin and do a Frugal Fashion Friday.

This is my outfit today. A fairly standard outfit for me at the moment, it's too hot to wear much else!

Sunglasses - $10 on sale at Just Jeans
Singlet- $8 full price at Kmart
Skirt- $2 at the Sallies
Belt - $1 at the Sallies when I was in high school
Shoes - $6 at the Warehouse

And these are outfits the boys wore this week.
Aesop chose his own clothes, he's getting to be quite the individual when it comes to clothes, his outfits are certainly not always to my taste, but they're very 'Aesop'. His modelling moves are all his own too, I told him I wanted to take a photo and this is what I got! NZNTM as.

Hat- a gift from a friend, originally op-shopped.
Scarf - an op shopped piece of gingham.
Singlet - about $6 at Farmers
Shorts - $17 at Farmers, bought by Nana.

Beads - mine, $2 at St Vinnies
Hoodie - bought for Aesop for a dollar or two at St Vinnies in Nelson
Shorts - bought by Nana, for Aesop.
Shoes - hand me downs from a friend (that stayed on only long enough for one photo!)
He also had a plain grey singlet underneath that was Aesop's.

Sweet! Oh, and thanks to those of you who are still reading! Thanks for hanging around!

Projects.

I can't go into any detail, due to my husband and his blog-reading ways, but here are some sneaky peeks at a few of the things I have on the go in my sewing room right now.
I'm yet to actually finish most things, other than the three necklaces which were a custom order for someone else to gift. The gold spandexy thing is done too, but it's all hush hush until Christmas when I can take photos of it in use and have the full effect.
The list above my sewing machine is now, mostly, just finishing touches. Oh, and a few things for my nephew and niece-or-nephew-to-be, but they shouldn't take too long. Phew! And, luckily, most of the buying is complete too.

How are you getting on?

In more peaceful times..

A few snippets of my house, taken before the madness of the school holidays. We're half way through our first day at home, and the place already looks more like an explosion in a toy factory crossed with the kitchen in a flat full of teenage boys. And that's after me doing the dishes. Oh dear.
Let's hope the adjustment back into having all three of us at home doesn't take too long this time round and we can just skip right on through to the fun times!

(Oh, and a picture of some hydrangeas, just 'cause.)

Looks like gold to me.

As a mother of a child that doesn't particularly enjoy drawing, painting or even writing, I can quite happily say that this week has been a very happy one. The classroom walls have been emptied and Aesop has bought home little piles of absolute treasure.
There is very little that is more wonderful than children's art. So basic and so innocent at this age.
We also had his writing books and some more of his stories come home. These are just a couple of my favourites:

 ' I went to Ohiwa and bounced on the pillow and went to the harbour. It was awesome.'

 ' This is a person with rotten teeth. He is also riding a car. His teeth are black and his breath is very stinky.'

'Aesop said ' I love my mum because she is nice to me. Sometimes she tells me what to buy so I don't buy something for nothing.'

That last one cracks me up. So glad Aesop appreciated the fact that his Mum is an expert op shopper!