Monday 30 June 2014

Tie dye on the highway

I was messing around with dye at the weekend, couldn't waste that good drying weather, so set to with a bowl, some salt and Dylon.  

I had a couple of really cheap white t shirts put aside to transform into something a bit more hippyish for OH.  He picked out a couple of dye colours from my stash (yes, I have a stash of different coloured dyes!).  I also had a £1 Nomads top bought ages ago from a charity shop, which was beige.

Green dye soon changed that!





Gotta love a bit of tie dye and dip dye!

Saturday was the annual Cadbury fete, we didn't go but I was able to enjoy some of the fireworks from the bedroom!   Managed to take some photos too, which was more difficult than I imagined!
                                                                                   



Pretty!




Wednesday 25 June 2014

Ooh,which one shall I choose?

Nope, it's no good, I just couldn't decide which nail varnish to wear, so I wore them all!


 It all started with the arrival of the Make-up Revolution order.  I had to clear out some seriously old make-up (OK, I also have mum's Max Factor cover stick from the 1950's but that's vintage, right?).  I then turned my attention to the nail varnishes.  I have 13, unlucky for me as I only have ten digits I can reach at the mo.  Hence, fingernail painting!  I usually paint my toenails and leave my fingernails au natural.    I really only did this with the intention of finding out which colours I like and which are still OK to use. However, I think it looks great and have left it for a few days now.  The orange on my right index finger is a L'Oreal one I bought many years ago from my usual source, the Rag Market in the centre of Brum (a worthwhile place to visit for discounted brands!) and would have been no more than £1.50.
  
Here are the actual bottles, in the same order, I hope!

Left hand first, the first two are Boots brands, the middle one is Avon (and rubbish so will be going) and the two on the right are from the Rag Market, NYX and W7. 



Now the right hand.  I actually like all of these, although my least favourite is the middle one, a rather brassy gold Max Factor, from the market again.  From the left, and on my thumb, Avon, L'Oreal, Max Factor, then two Boots bought ones.


I didn't have room for these three!  The black Kate Spade one is a freebie from the front of a magazine last year.


Him indoors informs me that I should wear nail varnish more often as I, according to him, have the nails for it!  I can feel a trip to the market coming on as I really fancy something purple and maybe green now, no pinks though! Until I did this I had no idea how restricted my colour choices were. 

In case you were wondering about the fake flowers in the earlier nail varnish shots, they are stuck round the edge of a vaguely heart shaped mirror that was left in the house when I bought it.  I didn't want to throw it away so used some Poundland flowers to jazz it up a bit!


Whilst I was clearing out the old make-up, I also washed all my little home made cleaning cloths.  I stopped using cotton wool for make-up removal a few years ago, and instead cut up some face cloths which were surplus to requirements, and edged them. When they are used and they go in a net bag in the washing machine with the sheets or towels.  Looks a bit odd on the washing line!    


I'm back up to speed with my volunteering at the local charity shop and bought a few bits and pieces today, (and they fit!) so hopefully there will be a nice collection of goodies to show you all at the end of the month round up, and my summer wardrobe is coming along nicely!

Monday 23 June 2014

Curtains, castles, DKNY and a make up revolution!

Well, following a rather empty fortnight, thanks to me putting my back out, I'm able to get around OK and am back up to speed with walking.  That's especially good news as my local post office is around a mile away, and I've popped over there this morning.  It would've been rude not to venture into the local charity shops, so I did!

I found this necklace in a 50p bin by the till in the local Cancer Research shop.  Their usually fruitful £1 rail had nothing that caught my eye, although they did have some lovely little side plates outside for just 50p each.  I resisted!




























It's quite large at just over 2 inches long, and has a mood stone attached, which went quite a lovely shade of blue whilst I was holding it.  It is shown here on a huge H&M scarf I picked up on Saturday for just 50p too.  I thought it was quite summery, and it is a massive piece of polyester lawn type fabric.  I have actually considered making something out of it, but think I'll just stick with a scarf for now!

Next, bought these DKNY jean style summer trousers a few weeks back, again just a pound, and forgot to include them in a blog post!


As I'm a little short in the leg, I've had them in the alteration pile for a while, and finally got around to re-hemming them yesterday.




 Lastly, amongst the charity shop purchases for today, this groovy pair of curtains!  




The fabric is beautiful, heavy, satin finish furnishing fabric, each curtain measures 44" x 86".  Never heard of the maker but they look early 1970's?  I paid £4 for them, from the same shop that was trying to flog 1980s fabric for £75 a few weeks ago.  I think they've reviewed their pricing structure!


No signs of use, and I did think I was going to have to fight the lady behind the till for them at one point, she said she'd had her eye on them.  I'm planning cushion covers at the moment, but am happy to just have this lovely fabric in my stash for now!

Lastly, thought I would treat myself, and was intrigued by a vlog from Caroline over at Mrs M's Meanderings, on some really cheap make up from a company called Makeup Revolution.  I chose some eyeshadows, lipsticks and a kajal.  The whole lot came to £10, and at that price I had no qualms with the p+p of £2.95.  Ordered late on 17th and the parcel arrived today, just as I got back in from the post office!   I'm really pleased so far, although I have combined the lipsticks together to get a perfect colour for me.

Here's what I bought


  
I bought  two lipsticks, both were a pound, the colours are Treat and The One.  Treat is the darker of the two.  I also bought a kajal stick, it twists open and was £2.  The single eyeshadow was £1 and the colour is Envy, to me it looks like a beautiful dark teal and is matte.  The two eyeshadow palettes were both £2.50 and are baked eyeshadow.  The one on the left is Bang Bang, and the shades of green/brown on the right is Beyond Eden.  Beware of the website, there is so much to choose from you may spend more than you intended to!

Have you bought makeup online?  If so, was it what you thought when it arrived?



  

Friday 20 June 2014

Loved by me!

I have moved!

Welcome to Diaryofapennypincher on Blogger, feel free to have a mooch around, I'm still getting used to it so bear with me, things may be a bit changeable for the forseeable future!

If you've been following me on Typepad here you will know I'm a bit out of circulation with the charity shops at present, due to a bad back.  However, I've been hobbling down to the local food shops for necessities, and today scored big time in the bargain department at the local Co-op.  Got quite a haul of their Loved by us range.


Yes, dear readers, all this lot for just £1.04.  The bread was 44p, the sausage rolls were 20p and the pizzas were 8p each (I will add more topping to them when we have them, at that price it's not worth making bases!) As I'm one of those annoying people who adds their shopping up as they fill their basket, I was surprised to find it came to less than I was expecting at the till. Mystery solved, the pizzas, I had bought seven, were still on a 3 for 2, so two were free, at 8p each! 

The freezer is now full!