Spring Has Sprung and Other News.....

 This last week has absolutely run away from me.  I can't believe that today is March 1st and the first day of meteorological Spring!  How did that suddenly happen??  Today (Saturday) is warm and sunny, after a very cold night and early morning, and Gray has gone to the allotment leaving me free to catch up with chores and a bit of cardmaking. 

During the week I dropped off another batch of 26 cards for the Hospice shop to sell and I've begun another batch as the last lot sold quickly.

As long as they sell at £1 each I'm happy to keep making them until I run out of materials.   As it is, I've spent £10 on some more card blanks so I really can't afford to keep buying bits and pieces in the way I used to when I sold at craft fairs 😌 and I'm using more die cut shapes which I've cut myself to keep the cost down.  It's more time consuming but does use up scraps of card etc

I can also report another sale on eBay in the sum of £31.11 after postage 👍The money dropped into my bank account this morning, so I'll add it to my total now.  

Sell & Save £45.52

This gives me enough cash to buy something for our Daughter's special birthday which she mentioned she would like.  She will be 50 on March 24th.  I don't know how that happened either!

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Next week we have the Gardeners' Guild meeting on Tuesday evening.  It will be the AGM but they are tempting us to attend with the offer of cheese and biscuits😎 and a coffee of course....

Expenses this month include my car insurance which I've managed to get for £170.96, and we've been notified of our rent increase from April 1st of £15.25 per month.  Luckily, this is less than I envisaged but the buildings cover, which they arrange and over which we have no control, is yet to be decided........

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Now that the weather is picking up a bit, our thoughts are turning to days out.  I doodled a list as follows:

Black Country Living Museum

Cosford Air Museum

Bantock Park

Tewkesbury & The Abbey

A Canal trip

Wightwick Manor (we have a free NT ticket)

The Circus

If I don't write these things down I know we won't do them. None of them will be too expensive, especially if we take our own food, although we might buy a coffee at the venue.

As I cross things off the list, I'll share the trip with you 😊 Our best friends are going to Tenerife for 3 weeks over Easter.  They have 3 holidays a year.  We can't compete with that but I can't wait for our day trips to begin......

Have you planned any trips or holidays yet?

Thanks for popping in.  Stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

Sell & Save Update and Other Issues....

 

Yay! The sun is shining! Doesn't a bit of sun make everything seem better.  It's still very wet outside but the temperature is forecast to be much milder this week, around 9 or 10C and much more comfortable.

Thank you to everyone who sent kind and encouraging messages for my Granddaughter's recovery from tonsillectomy.  It's been 10 days since her op and she is beginning to feel much better.  Her use of painkillers has dropped considerably and the throat scabs are starting to come off (sorry if you're squeamish) so I'm hoping she's turned a corner.  She has the rest of this week off work and now needs to regain her strength and energy.

Gray and I haven't done an awful lot of anything over the past week or so, just chores (me) and a bit of weeding and preparation at the allotment ( Gray) The propagator has been dusted off, seed compost purchased and the seed potatoes set on the window ledge for chitting.  I'm not convinced that chitting makes the slightest difference, but it's going ahead...

We have the club on Wednesday afternoon to look forward to this week.  The speaker is local historian and author Ned Williams and I'm really looking forward to that 👍

I finally have an eBay sale for my Sell & Save challenge! The princely sum of £14.41 after postage costs, and I have a bid on another item which ends tonight.  It takes ages to get your money after a sale now though.  Ebay will only pay out once delivery is confirmed and yet the cost of postage comes out of my account before I actually get payment for the item 😏 Change is rarely for the better on eBay.....

How is eBay for you since the changes? Are you still selling?

Anyway, that's all for today.  Thanks for popping in and stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

Sell & Save £14.41

Tonsillectomy and Distraction....

 I'm just popping in to say that I'm still here.  I just can't summon up enough energy to write a decent post.  Our lovely Granddaughter had a tonsillectomy last Friday afternoon and is in so much pain that I can't think of anything but her at the moment 😢  Everyone warned us that it's harder for an adult to recover from (she's 20) and I certainly don't remember being in the kind of pain she is describing when I had mine removed at the age of 5.  Her throat, neck and jaw are extremely painful and it's preventing her from sleeping soundly.  I expect that the morphine has worn off now and she is paying the price.  I do hope the pain eases soon.....

Meanwhile, stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,  I'll be back in a day or two...

Angie 💗

A Warm Welcome & Speaking of Antiques

 Our local council ( the parish council, I think)  has opened a Warm Welcome space in a room at the Civic Centre.  It's open from Monday to Friday 9am to 1pm and not only is it lovely and warm in temperature, but the volunteers are friendly and offer free tea, coffee, hot chocolate or cup-a-soup to any visitors.  Yesterday, we decided to try it.  The weather was damp and miserable and so dark we needed the lights on.  We both felt sluggish so took a short drive to the venue.  It was amazing and just the place for lonely people to have a bit of human contact.  There were books to read, boxed games, a puzzle board and even a pool table.  As well as beverages they do pot noodles, fish paste sandwiches, toast, and biscuits.  All are FREE.  Graham and I gratefully accepted toast and coffee and had a lovely chat with some of the people there.  Apparently, Sainsbury's donate some of the items like bread and biscuits, they do have a collection box for a kitty for milk but no payment is actually expected from anyone.  We dropped a few coins in, of course, but the 2 lady volunteers were indispensable.  Where would the UK be without volunteers?  The room is open until the end of March so we will definitely go again.

This afternoon we have the Wednesday Club and the speaker will be talking about antiques and collectables.  That will be right up my street.  Tea / coffee and a biscuit will be included  and for just £3 each too 😀 We know how to live it up! 😂

Thanks for popping in.  Stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

Confounded by Technology

I have to say that I am becoming exceedingly confounded by technology.  My eBay App stopped working on my smartphone literally overnight. Yes, my phone is 5 years old and...yes...it wasn't the latest technology when I bought it but there was no warning.  It just stopped 'being supported' and there is no updated App to download, at least not one that my phone will accept.  In addition, my android tablet also has issues now.  I feel cheated, frustrated and annoyed.  No more 'ker..ching' sound when I sell an item and also eBay has introduced changes to their selling policies which impact on hobby sellers like me with regards to payments from customers.  Honestly, I could throw all tech out of the window right now.....

 😭  Am I alone in feeling this way? Why are tech companies always after my money?

On the plus side, my British Gas App works well and I can see that I have saved money by taking part in half price Sundays:

It's only pence each time but it does add up......

Regarding my Sell & Save ...... well, I haven't sold a thing in over a week....😔

Thanks for popping in.  Do stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie💗

Sell and Save for an Expensive Year

 2025 will be an expensive year for us.  We have several BIG birthdays coming up;  DD will be 50 in March, Grandson 18 in July and Granddaughter 21 in September.  Where have all the flippin' years gone?  My lovely little Grandchildren all grown up? 

I now need to knuckle down and raise some cash for decent gifts for them.  We could use some savings but I'd rather not spend our hard earned savings just yet.  To this end I'm going to do a Sell & Save with the aim of raising £150 for 3 gifts. That would top up our gift budget sufficiently, I think.  I know £50 each isn't a lot but they never expect us to spend massively on them anyway.  Our usual birthday budget is £30 each so I'm hoping that a max of £80 each should buy a decent gift........

I've had a good rummage around in boxes and under the bed and I've listed a few things on eBay to begin with.  I might have to take a look in the garage next and wrest  persuade Graham to part with a couple of things 😁

Here goes....

Sell & Save £0.00

I hope you all had a lovely weekend and that you are all safe and well, Take care,

Angie 💗

All the D's....and a Disappointment

 Boy, oh boy am I glad it's 1st February today.  January has felt like such a long month.  All the D's, in fact: Damp, Dreary, Dismal, Dark and Discouraging.  I can't wait for the lighter nights and warmer weather so that I can get into the garden again.  Today, Graham has spent a few hours at the allotment tackling weeding and the preparation of the beds ready for the new planting.  I was happy to stay at home.....

After the necessary chores had been done, I decided on a bit of cardmaking to take advantage of being undisturbed.  A couple of weeks ago I donated 20 of my cards to my favourite Hospice charity shop in the hope that they would raise some money.  A week later I popped in to ask whether or not there was any interest in them and the volunteer lady said they had been snapped up.  She fished the 5 remaining cards out of the bottom of a box on the very bottom shelf and I could see that they were priced at just 50p each.  I know that they would achieve at least £1 each if they were in a visible spot because that's what the other charity shop sold them for.  I was a little disappointed to say the least.  The lady then suggested what type of cards I could supply!  She obviously fancied stocking up herself 👀 I did explain that it wouldn't be worth my while donating the materials if they sold the cards for so little because it's hard enough to make them for 50p each.  She said she understood, so I'll give them one more batch and check (unobtrusively) what they do with them.  If they are not valued then I'll try a different CS.  There are 6 to choose from!

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Right...I'm off to watch a bit of TV.  It's the 1% Club tonight and I did rather well last week, although I got the very last question wrong 😟 We play at the same time as our Daughter over WhatsApp and it's good fun. 

 Does anyone else watch it?

Thanks for popping in, and stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗