Homemade cushions 2

Ohh.. finally finished my homemade cushions! I had last two to sew together.

Working it

I am very lucky that company I work for has corporate membership in the local Gym. I try to go there several times in the week but it isn't easy with my second job. I usually go there in the morning before my "full time job" then work from 9:00 to 17:30 and then from 18:00 I have to be in my second job. I finish most of the time after 23:00 and then it takes me about 25 min to drive home. So quite a busy day. I have shift in my second job only about twice a week so I actually see my husband a little bit :-). For last 2 weeks I have been fighting a cold so I didn't go to Gym and had a little bit of time to write my blog.
With me being OK now I have to figure out my free time (and time for my blog) again. I like to go to the Gym in the morning. It gives me more energy for rest of the day. I like to write something for my blog everyday too (it is relaxing for my mind) and I got used to it very quickly.

Ups. Look at the time! I have actually managed to write something before my job starts and then forgot to publish it!

Being safe

When we bought our house we have known that we want to have certain safety in place. One of the first things we installed were smoke alarms, heat alarms and carbon monoxide sensor. In our little 2 bedroom cottage we have 4.

Sewing cushions

I have been completing my homemade cushions. I have painted & stencilled selection of designs and colours and I will see which will go together the best.
Yesterday I have made 3 off them.
I have tried to do so far 3 with button opening and 2 with zip and with zip it is easier and quicker to work.
I have got a Janone sewing machine from my husband for Christmas ( I have wished it :-) so sewing is easy. I have just used our existing cushions for template and just sew 2 pieces together with one side with zip (buttons are more complicated). It took me about 15 minutes!

Stencil your cushion

For last two weeks I have been "playing" with fabric paint. I couldn't find any nice cushions for our living room so I have decided to try to make my own.  I have bought some  fabric colour and because they are not really available in range of colours I have bought some fabric medium and also tester pots of some ordinary Dulax emulsion (they come in hundreds of shades).
First I have made some stencils. I have used transparent sheets for ordinary printers. Just marked my design and cut it.  Then got some cotton fabric (I have used old curtain) and painted it with fabric paint.

Suprise shopping

I like to cook and I have my favourite stoneware dish. It is perfect size for 4 portions and even great for baking some cakes. A week ago when washing it I have noticed a few lines on it. It started to crack. So this Saturday we made a little shopping trip to see if they have some nice ones in T.K. Maxx. I really like shopping there. Sometimes you can find really nice and cheap things and I have found perfect replacement.

Weekly baking - Berry tray bake

I like to bake and I try to make something every week so we do not need to buy any biscuits or cake from supermarket. This week I have made my mums classic Berry tray bake. My mums receipts are easy, cheap and quick. She raised three children while she worked full time! She never bought any take away or prepared food. Everything what we have been eating was home made.

Our monster cats

We were both working yesterday. I mean that we both had our second jobs shifts yesterday night. It doesn't happen very often. My full time job (as administrator/ accountant/ receptionist) is from 9:00 - 17:30 and then if I have a second job shift I start from 18:00  to often 23:00. I usually do Tuesdays and Wednesdays and my husband Fridays and Saturdays ( in different restaurant) but sometimes it happens like yesterday and we are both not at home for a evening.
My husband has usually time to pop home between jobs and feed our cats but not any time for their daily cuddle.
 When that happens they turn into little monsters. You know our cats are very well behaved and lovely but if they want something they will let us know.

Micka our girl

Fighting for my garden

I had a look at my garden (very small little L shape)

Picture from Summer - now it looks too sad for proper photo.

DIY up to date

We own our house just over a year and first 6 weeks were crazy. Any time between our 4 jobs were spent decorating & fixing & renovating.
We so far did:

What I like to read

I love to read. Really anything what has letters :-). From Sci-fi books to newspapers to blogs. My daily fix is first check this blog about 2 young people in Richmond USA doing up their 3rd home.
Young House Love : http://www.younghouselove.com

Non toxic air freshener.

Yesterday while watching TV I have saw about 6 advertisements for air fresheners! It looks so harmless, it always picture this nice bright home where most decorations are white and this young women walking around sniffing this "magic" new air freshener and I am feeling like slowly dying inside.
They will not say how many chemicals are in it. How much the air in the house is polluted with it. Why would anybody bring more chemicals into their home and pay for it? When you can just open window and let much cleaner air in?
I regularly open window for a few minutes in the bathroom after shower, when cooking or in the bedroom in the morning. It helps with too much moisture in the air and also rooms smell of fresh air.
If I really want to have rooms smell of "something" I will use essential oils.

Weekly baking - Chocolate button tray bake

I like to bake & cook. I am the main person to prepare our food. My husband can cook too but he always over do it. He doesn't for some reason have inner "measurement". Unfortunately his portions are very off (a lots of food for 2 portions but not enough for 4 so we can have it next day). Also he likes to add staff to the food so then very easy receipt is quite complicated and expensive. Easy pasta bake can cost twice much than if I will be cooking it.
But sometimes I make a mistake of buying wrong ingredients. Yesterday I have been baking marbled trey bake and I didn't have cocoa powder for marbled effect! I have bought chocolate buttons instead of cocoa. No idea how I have managed it. So sometimes baking & cooking is about improvising. I have just put chocolate buttons on top of cake mix a voila! Chocolate button tray bake. It was delicious!

Planting it.

I love gardening. It is relaxing and I like just be outside and see things growing. I can't of course do any gardening at the moment. Winter in UK is not pleasant. We had rain and rain for weeks and also flooding. Our house is in flooding area and 80metres from a small river, so we are keeping our eyes on it.
But that can't stop me from keeping a few plants inside.

Paying it.

I mean our mortgage. We have bought our house in November 2012. So over year done, 24 more years to go! :-(  I will be 56 years old when mortgage free and I am not counting future moving and getting new mortgage. It isn't nice to think about living big part of our lives with debt. It is as big iron weight on my leg. When I get my salary + wages first it goes towards mortgage and because I have on line account I can see how much bank is taking for "interest" and how much goes for repayment. It just doesn't seems be enough.

Saving it - our thrifty ways

We try not to spend on staff which we do not need. I like Money Saving Export mantra.
Do I need it? Can I afford it? If answer is no I will not buy it. Sometimes small change, for example not buying coffee in the morning can add up to a big saving. Saving which can go towards mortgage, holiday or just into the saving account for the future.
We do number of our own saving:

Non toxic way - or at least I am trying

My cleaning routine is simple.
Every week I am cleaning our bathroom with Method bathroom cleaner . It is non toxic cleaner which smell divine and will not eat my lungs.

Too many clothes - no buy for 1 year challenge 14/01/14

My husband do the ironing. I know how lucky I am :-). It is so nice just plop my nice clean clothes back in the wardrobe.

We have forever problem with hangers. We never have enough of them. It just occurred to me that maybe we have a lots of hungers maybe we just have too many clothes.

Sunday dinner: Pork parcels

We are thrifty shoppers. I always ask if I need something before buying it. We are very careful about food shopping. It is so easy just put something in the trolley. My husbands weak point is condiments. So I always try to have them used before buying more. Another big expense is meat. Prices of beef are around £15 per kg! Cheapest meat what I have found is pork. I buy pork chops for £6 per kg and with occasional promotion I can find them even for £4 per kg. I then buy a lots of it and just freeze it.

Our Sunday diner was: Pork parcels

Our rescue cats

It is 1 year of us adopting our two black & white and white & black. Micka (girl) and Meowgi (boy) are siblings and they were 9 months old when we took them in from Battersea dogs & cats home.

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Our temperature

I mean what is your house temperature? When we bought our 1880 Victorian cottage we didn't  really thought about temperature. We have known that old house will be drafty and probably colder but it brought whole set of new challenges.

How toxic is your make-up?

Today morning when putting on make-up after a GYM there came a girl to the mirrors to put hers on. I couldn't resist to not to look at her make-up bag. It reminded me how far I have came with my non-toxic, natural and even organic views on all cosmetics & cleaning products.

Her bag was full of these fancy and expensive cosmetics. If she only knew that they contain quite a cheap, harsh and sometimes dangerous chemicals. I have been like her about 5 years ago.
It changed when I have bought moisturizing face cream from Waitrose. 5 minutes after applying it my face was on fire. I got really bad allergic reaction and my skin from my face was literary pealing off in strips. It took almost 2 weeks for my skin to heal. I looked like I sunburn my face. Meanwhile I researched what was I allergic to. This cream was very ordinary having ingredients very similar to other face creams. It wasn't even very full of different ingredients. List was surprisingly short and I was allergic to its preservatives.

Adding up some colour to our second bedroom

When we moved last year we just painted our second bedroom white. It was room where we put all our decorations which we didn't know where else to put. It had missed matched cushions (one from my husband's mum), king size futon from E-bay for guest stay over and place where to have PC. Curtain was only one ( set of 2 curtains for 4 windows) bought in Sale at Next. They are this stone & natural light colour. So our second bedroom was a little bit beige and bland. 

Welcome Reader,

Home in Surrey is a blog about our DIY, garden, cooking and simple living in drafty Victorian cottage in Surrey.

We have bought our first house in November 2012 so why I didn't start this blog then? As first time buyers we had our hands full of mortgage and legal documents and them moving, redecorating, cleaning, fixing and buying most of the furniture. After all of that adopting our lively cats from rescue centre and then 5 moths later getting married abroad.

So much happened in last 13 months that I wanted it somehow record it. I have really memory of gold fish so after reading a lots of lovely blogs I got this bright idea that maybe writing my own blog will solve it. 

I like to live simple and frugal. If I don't need something than I don't buy it. If I can make something cheaper than buy it I will made it and if I can grew it in our small garden than I will. I am a little bit of workaholic so my type of relaxing is ironing in from of TV or sewing some cushion or just cleaning.

My last "project" was building two shelves in the master bedroom cupboard. Mainly just for my shoes :-).
When we moved a year ago. I have bought a lots of these transparent plastic shoes boxes.
They were OK for some time but then they started to get squashed and my cupboard looked like big pile of plastic and shoes. So armed with my new screwdriver ( got it from my husband's parents :-)  and some left over loft boards I actually build my first shelves.