New me, new look, new challenge

New me?
Today marks the day that the amount of tablets I take daily drop from 42 down to 20. Wow wee. Quite a drop huh? I'm on a strict two year programme for treating my illness (rheumatoid arthritis) and we are entering the second phase. My consultant and GP have been wonderful and along with Mr Thrifty have supported me through this hard part of the illness (getting used to the diagnosis, testing how far my body can be pushed and understanding the treatment).




So reaching the second phase of my initial treatment is wonderful, I feel so damn excited. I could dance on the roof if I could be arsed to get up there! The drugs I've stopped taking are the ones that have pumped me up and bloated me up to a stupidly large size, so hopefully with some hard work on my part the weight will slowly come off.
So there we have it, hopefully this really does signal the start of a new me.

New Look?
The other day I was messing around with my blog and managed to delete my template. Bum.
So I decided out with the old in with the new. Some new features and colours have hopefully cheered the old place up a bit. Don't forget to check out the tabs at the top of the page which will hopefully be filling up with interesting things to read sometime soon.

New Challenge?
Pop back tomorrow to hear about the challenge that my friend and I have set each other, you'll be invited to join in too.


TTFN,

The Thrifty Mrs

xxx

P.S. Check out that grey hair of mine. I'm really am only in my twenties!

Cheery, cheap cherries

Cherries are only 69p for a punnet in Aldi at the moment.

Run as fast as your legs will carry you. They taste so sweet.

They're lovely on their own and perfect with brownies.


And if you're dirty minx like me you can delight in spending hours sending your other half crazy by displaying your ability to tie a cherry stalk into a knot with your tongue.Too much information? Surely not. S'all good clean (ahem) fun here at Thrifty Towers.



TTFN,

The Thrifty Mrs

xx

¡Olé!

Remember my mention of the best friend jaunting of to Spain for a few life? Well thanks to budget airlines she was able to fly over and see us on the cheap. Hurrah.

We threw a BBQ for her and resolutely stayed outside for six hours in the rain. The kind of British rain that bounces back from the pavement and soaks you in both directions. Apparently my dear best friend misses the smell of rain. So we ate thick slabs of steak and salt marsh lamb (brought home from our Welsh holiday) in the rain and had our pimms diluted by the rain too.

In return for us hosting the barbecue my lovely friend bought me the tackiest item she could find in the whole of Spain. This pair - the chaps at the top of this post. So hilariously tacky that they're perfectly kitsch and shall never leave my dining room table. I'll think of her and that rainy day every time I over season my food.

Today they aided me in eating my favourite (totally non Spanish) snack of radishes covered in too much salt and anchovy sauce. Nom nom as Lolcats would say.

'¡Olé!'

TTFN,

The Thrifty Mrs

xx

Tee hee!

Is there a better feeling in the world than eating something you've grown? That sense of satisfaction is duly deserved.

Somehow, despite our house move in the cold -18 weather of January our strawberry plants survived and we have our first few delicious, homegrown, labour of love, Mancunian strawberries poking their heads through. Tee hee! The excitement!
I love my strawberries with lashings of good balsamic vinegar but when they're as fresh and tasty as this they need nothing at all. Nothing.


Hopefully we should have our full crop in time for Wimbledon in a few weeks.
*Old Thrifty sighs and dreams of long, flowing white skirts, tennis on the radio, pimms under a willow tree.*
We can but dream.

Do you have any berries coming through?

TTFN,

The Thrifty Mrs

xx

Community matters

A wee while ago before I went away (more on that soon) our little street turned 100 years old so we had a street party along with fun and games on the park that adjoins our street.


Balloons and bunting were broken out.

Kind people baked cakes.

Croquet was played.

Space hoppers were fallen off.

Free hanging baskets were made.

Much food and drink was consumed.

We all got to know each other a little better, all thanks to our lovely City Council who stumped up the money for this little slice of community spirit.

Community matters on Thrifty Grove, does it matter to you?


TTFN,

The Thrifty Mrs

xx

P.S. To all of you that I owe emails, post or texts I promise to get round to you all by the weekend. I apologise for the delay, life has been hard going over the last few weeks.

Makeover in progress

Ok, so, you remember this post right? Of course you do. Gooooooood blog reader, good blog reader.
Well we have had a bit of wet weather since I displayed my cheek and blagged the freebie furniture, so yesterday (when the sun was splitting the paving stones) was the first chance I've had to get going on with cleaning it up and making it suitable for our home.

I'm using left over paint which I used for a project a while ago (if you read my old blog you may remember my old vintage school desk which went from yellow to grey). I have the radio blaring out some old brit pop tunes, cruddy 'orrible old clothes on and my hair tied back (rare) and I'm really going at it. It needs to be done for next Sunday, only trouble is I can't do it next week and I have to work a lot of this weekend.

Thank heavens the weather is set to be good for the next few days.

Make hay while the sun shines and all that.

Anyone want to lend me a hand? Heavy on the cucumber Pimms will be your only reward.

TTFN,

The Thrifty Mrs

xx

P.S. Please excuse the weeds (or paving stone cabbages as we call them) we pull them up on a Sunday and they're back, as big as ever three days later so we've rather given up for the moment.

Oh and the botched white paint all over the inside is the work of the previous makeover artist.

Ten pence worth of beautiful gaiety

Ten pence. No, you don't need to blink or fetch your reading glasses. This beautiful little grey gem cost me 10p in a bargain bin in a Ledbury (Herefordshire) charity shop. It kind of makes up for the £20 pound I spent on a baking tin, no?

Sigh.

I'm awfully fond of it. Well who wouldn't be?

Have you found any bargains recently?

TTFN,

The Thrifty Mrs

x