Living the Sample Life: Should I be more picky?

This is really a post about 2 issues, they sort of link, well they do in my mind!

I've received a couple more samples since my last post, consisting of packets of E45 lotion and Boss Nuit perfume. My favourite so far arrived today and is a sample of Chanel's Voluminising  Mascara, all wrapped up in a really posh box.

Since applying for samples, I've been thinking if I should be more selective. It's so easy to get carried away, especially when it's free.

A couple of days ago I decided to do some research on ethical/unethical companies. It's been on my heart for a while and was brought forward to my mind after the story of the collapsed building in Bangladesh, highlighting the conditions some people work in just so we can get cheap clothes.

I stumbled across an article about Nestle, a company I have always been a bit dubious about, but after reading that the CEO said that water should be paid for and is not a human right, got me so angry, that I decided once and for all never to buy any Nestle products again.

Now is this going to be hard at first as I really like Rolos, and After Eight mints, and it cuts out a lot of cereal. I was so surprised to find out Nestle also own parts of L'Oreal, Garnier and Maybelline and also Body Shop!

Body Shop is one of my favourite shops and it really upset me that if I am to stick to my promise to never buy Nestle products, that would mean Body Shop has to go too.

This has therefore made me more selective about which samples I go for. Like today, Maybelline are giving away thousands of make up samples, but because Nestle owns part of the company, I won't apply for it. It may be a free sample and it won't cost me anything, but it promotes the company that costs the lives of so many other people.

When I go shopping, I now check the back of bottles to make sure who the product the is made by, the ingredients (I'm now trying to buy products without parabens in them) and where it was produced, (ideally in the UK). 

What are the reasons for me doing this?

I'm not doing this to make myself look good, I have decided to do this as it has been on my heart to do something to make a difference, even if it a small one. You can get an idea what a person is like by their shopping and what they choose to buy and for me I want to try to buy products that show I think carefully about where it has come from and the company that produced it.

I might not have explained it properly (sometimes I can't find the right words to get across what I mean) but hopefully you get it.

Living the Sample Life #1

Just like everyone else, I'm feeling the pinch. Unfortunately I really like shopping , and as I am currently still looking for work, a stroll round the shops helps to break the monotony of another day being unemployed.

I heard a while back about websites that offer samples of leading products. I did sign up for one, but got a load of spam emails instead, so decided to leave it.

About 3 weeks ago I thought I give it another go, this time a little bit wiser to check the small print. I found a site called Magic Freebies that have been given good reviews and had a look at it. 

Every day it offers a least 8 new freebies to give away and does competitions and vouchers as well. 

It's easy to get carried away and it helps to be more selective about what you sign up for, I mean do you really want a tote bag from Quick Quid?

I only request samples that don't ask for my mobile number and always make sure all the little boxes at the bottom are ticked or unticked so I don't receive any unwanted emails.

Already I have received a sample of Flora Garden by Gucci and 3 samples of Ganier face creams. It's quite exciting to come home and found the postman has been and posted some new samples through the door (unless it's just me!)

Will keep updating with any more samples I get.

Massive Cookie!

Saturday just gone, a friend of ours had a 18th birthday party. Not knowing what to get him, I decided to make a huge cookie as I've recently been practising making cookies again.

Recipe

you will need....

125g unsalted butter, softened

125g dark muscovado sugar

1 egg

190g self raising flour

2 tbsp cocoa powder

half tsp almond extract

120g of milk and white chocolate roughly chopped

* Preheat the oven to 190 C or Gas 5. 

*Put the butter and sugar into a large bowl and cream until fluffy. Gradually beat in the egg and add the almond extract.

*Sift the flour and cocoa powder into the bowl and gently fold it into the egg mixture. Stir in the chopped chocolate pieces.

* Spoon the mixture into a round silicon cake tin. Make sure it is spread evenly, but don't worry if it doesn't go right to the edge. As the butter melts the mixture will spread to edge. Place the silicon tin on a baking tray before you put it in the oven so it's easier to put it in and take it out again.

* bake for 15-20 minutes. The cookie should feel slightly hard to the touch.

* Remove from the oven and place the silicon tin on a cooling rack and allow to cool down. The cookie will still be soft, so when it ha cooled and slightly hardened, carefully turn it out onto a plate/board.

I melted white chocolate and piped it on with a makeshift piping bag make out of a plastic sandwich bag!

What to do with old cards...

Now, some of you who know me, know that I am quite a sentimental person and keep hold of useless items that hold special memories, like cinema tickets, train tickets etc and I often keep all my birthday and Christmas cards. 

Now this habit has started to a little bit annoy my husband, as I am a bit of a clutter maker, so to keep him happy and the house tidy, I've decided to use my cards creatively.

Idea #1 - Gift tags

Last Christmas especially was quite tight money-wise for us, so instead of buying gift tags that will end up in the bin anyway, I decided to turn some of my old Christmas cards into tags, using a hole puncher to make a hole in the corner, some fancy pinking scissors to cut a funky edge around the tag, and those little ribbon tags you find in clothes that either itch you or end up sticking out from under your armpits.

Idea #2 - Cheap way to decorate

Sometimes it's expensive to buy pictures to decorate your room with. I have a lot of birthday cards that are just pictures on the front and since they were pretty enough to hang up on the wall that is exactly what I did.

I asked around for old photo or picture frames people didn't want anymore (you can also check out charity shops and just get rid of the naff picture but keep the frame) and put my cards inside the frames.

This one was a birthday card from 2 years from a friend who appreciate pretty pictures like me :) This is now hung up in the bathroom opposite the toilet, so when you're doing your business, you can look onto a lovely beach  scene :D

This is another birthday card from 2 years ago. I've hung this one up in the kitchen. I have loads of cards that have cupcakes on them, so I'm hoping to find more frames and have a cluster of them on the wall.

I love to bake so these definitely need to be in the kitchen!

This one is a Christmas card my husband and I got from a friend last year. She illustrated it herself and I found it too pretty to throw away, so it's now in a frame standing pride of place on the mantel piece in the front room.

Operation Front Room! Upholstering chairs

Recently we have had the front room repainted after we had insulation put in, and today I've hung up the curtains again and started to re-upholster the chairs.

The chairs came with the house and were probably as horrible to look at brand new as they do now that they're old!

I used material I was given for free by a lady I know from Church after I got locked out of my house one time (sometimes there are advantages to locking yourself out!)

I bought some upholstery nails from Wilko's for 99p a packet, with approx 25 in each, so with free chairs and material, it has cost me under £2.00 to make the chair look better.

 So here is a comparison between the two chairs. The yucky brown chair on the right is how they originally looked like and on the left is my effort to make them look better.

I used trial and error to attach the cloth onto the chair, it's really messy underneath, but who's going to look under there?!

Operation Front Room!

I've been living in a rented house for over a year now, and I haven't really done a lot to it to make it feel more homely as I wasn't sure how long I was going to stay here.

Recently we have had insulation work done. Because we don't have cavity walls, they had to attached 90mm foam boards to the inside of the house at the front, and onto the outside of the house at the back. This means the walls of the front room and front bedroom are now an extra 9 cm thick and are now a different colour to the rest of the house.

Our landlady has organised a decorator to come in and repaint the walls, and this has spurred me on to actually make the house more like a home.

The front room currently is the spare bedroom for guests and is used as my husband's computer room, so I've decided to claim the front room as my own, to store all my sewing and craft things that are currently taking over the living room.

 At the moment, the front room is being used as a storage space. It's a very small room dominated by a massive fire place and a huge cupboard/shelving unit, and it can get very cold, so hopefully the insulation will make a difference.

One of the other reasons I want to start using the front room, apart from storing my craft and knitting things, is to use it as my office. I have always wanted to write a novel, and I have had an idea for a story for the past 4 years but unfortunately I think finding things to distract myself. The living room is too comfortable with a sofa and tv, so I thought if I had a space dedicated to just writing and being creative, it might help me to be more disciplined.

I have made a small start on the room by changing the curtains. The previous curtains were thin and a beige colour, so not very inspiring , so I change them for cream ones with blue/green poppies on them. They were £9.99 from Home Bargains and they match the carpet really well.

I have also started re-upholstering some of the chairs that came with the house, as we can't afford new chairs. I had some material left over from a door curtain I made and cut out a square to re-cover the chair.

To attach the material, I must admit, was a bit of a botch job, using things I could find around the house. So I used a mixture of drawing pins and small nails, but it works so I'm not complaining :)

So this is now my project to keep me occupied while looking for a job at the same time. I will try to update this more regularly than I have done before and hopefully there are ideas here that you can use too!

Memory Blanket

At the moment I have the builders round to put in some insulation, which means I have to be in the house to let them in. Yesterday they switched off the gas for a while, which I annoyed me a bit as I wanted to make some mince pies, so I had to find something else to occupy myself.

I've had an idea for a couple of weeks to make a blanket, but each square would represent each year Spence and I have been married. This has now evolved into a Memory Blanket,as I would get too impatient waiting for our next anniversary to knit a square. I managed to create my own pattern and knit the square in one day and I was really pleased with the result.

I do hope that this blanket will grow and be filled with happy memories and that it will be used and cherished by future generations. It will be a picture story telling the life of our little family.

I will update the blog with new squares when I make them, and you can watch the blanket grow :) and hopefully it will encourage you to create your own, whether knitted like mine or maybe even a scrapbook.

The red square is the day Spence and I got married and the Snowflake square represents our first Christmas together as Mr and Mrs.