Fruit and strawberry crunch madness

Hi All,

I have got my backside into action, recently. Been exercising, eating fruit similar to quantities I can only imagine a Fruit Bat eats or a Fruitarian. Why? Who knows why, but best to go with the flow and ride this one out. No doubt the chocolate is lurking around the corner ready to squish my banana into oblivion at any moment.

So today, I got up before work, and hung a washing out (see below, please ignore the moss and weeds on paving stones, we are waiting for ONE weekend without rain to then clean and jet wash the paving stones). High five for housework. I will be a good wife. I will.

I packed up some travel toiletries (see the ones I was gifted by a friend) and ran into work, where I took a lovely long HOT and FREE shower courtesy of my work.

I ate an out-of-date fruit salad – why would you let an M&S fruit salad go out of date? ESPECIALLY when it cost an eye watering £2.25? Because I thought it was best before 16^th NOT 14^th, but some bad fruit is hardly going to harm me…is it? IS IT?!?! No, I didn’t think so either.

Due to aforementioned health kick, I purchased a large quantity of fruit and veg for work. Lunch was some leftover frittata (veg sausage, broccoli & potato) on a salad with Thousand Island dressing.

Tesco spend today: £9.78. On fruit and veg. No wonder we have an obesity epidemic going on. A six pack of crisps costs £1. Anyway…what is REALLY annoying is I paid 75p on a strawberry crunch bar as my treat and I LEFT IT AT THE CHECKOUT. I might as well have thrown 75p away…or bought a 6 pack of crisps….

The cheap-ass in me could not let this go. My money is precious these days, if it is not going on a conscious purchase it should be going to charity. So I nipped back in and explained to someone at customer services. They then got a manager who then had to ask the staff if anyone had cleared anything away from the self-service desk (thank goodness it was a small Tesco). But hooray for the happy ending, a girl confirmed to the manager that she had cleared my strawberry crunch bar away and put it back on the shelf. So, I showed my receipt (confirming I had actually paid for it) and was allowed to take said strawberry crunch bar away. We then all skipped off into the sunset and lived happily ever after. The End.

Tah Dah:

And lastly, dinner. Half a pizza with Mr Mars and some left over spag bol and pasta from yesterday whilst watching Gangster Squad on DVD, YUM:

xoxo

Free food and a brooch repair

Hello Bloggers!

Happy Father's Day! I'm down visiting my Mum and Dad. We got him an electric blanket, I know he is going to absolutely love it and for some reason my mum has never bought him one...well, now I have! Mr Mars' Dad is going to get taken out for a fancy meal in conjunction with Mr Mars' Mum's birthday!

My mum is cooking us dinner so nice to not have to cook and have dinner made for you! And it's free! 

Talking about free meals (see what I did there), there ain't nothing better than a free meal! I was second in a competition recently (I didn't even mean to be, I'm just naturally awesome, obvs) and the prize was a free meal. 

I was late showing up to the meal (unorganised) so I forgot to take any pictures - bad blogging. But I snaffled a picture of desert! Chocolate brownies and custard - it tasted as good as it looked! YUM! We even got a Starbucks for free as part of the free meal. It was sooooo much fun! 

Saturday Mr Mars and I went to IKEA, as I had found a tool to assist in my organisational/tidying plan and had to purchase it. I'll hopefully put that plan into action tonight and take a picture for you all! You know you want to see it.

I also repaired a brooch I had bough during my travels in New Zealand. The back had broke off it (que tears) but it was easily repaired. I love putting this on a little black blazer to spruce it up.

Broken:

Mid repair:

After being left on the window sill to dry overnight (I put a lot if glue on the back); Tah Dah!

xoxo

Crazy dieters = free yogurt for me!

Just when the rain is pouring down and you think it is going to another dull day, my friend in work gives me a nice big tub of yogurt that she purchased and her new diet does not allow! Let the record state that she does not need to be in a diet.

YES PLEASE! Poured it over my nutty muesli - YUM!

xoxo

Friday work freebies

I hope everyone had a good Saturday! I had a fab day with friends and then later my friend gave me a bunch if gifts - for no reason!!! How amazing is that?!?! It might seem like I get gifts all the time but I do do not! There was SO much that I will do a post later dedicated to them.

What has the weather been like? This morning I put all my washing out to try and get it dry (heating has been turned off as we had a HUGE heating bill last month), then it, all of a sudden, it starts POURING with rain. Here is a picture of the glorious morning and then rotten afternoon:

So on Friday, I managed to wangle some office style freebies from my work. GOING FOR FREE - ERM I'LL TAKE IT!! 

Got me a full packet of coloured paper (ordered accidentally instead of card, apparently) along with a small stash of white printable card. Think I'm going to use here to try card making. Although the printable card, as it is printable, it's pretty thin, so no very sturdy. But I'll give it a try! 

Also got some more brown paper (roll), in a box that was to get chucked (someone who had left ). So I took it before it got the bin!! 

This is thin wrapping brown paper, I love using brown paper to wrap gifts then cover with a nice coloured ribbon! Or even black. I do that for my wedding gifts as I think it makes it look so expensive, and classic, yet it is usually cheaper than normal wrapping paper!!

Right, Mrs Mars and I are off out for the day! Then I will google some card ideas to try! Free card/paper = free birthday cards! Sounds good to me!

xoxo

Wedding Gifts!

My husband and I got married a couple of months ago.

And we are still getting gifts!

People are super generous and we got some really cool gifts - so I wanted to dedicate some posts to the gifts we got.

As I understand that we are VERY lucky to have such generous friends with good taste ;)

They came in a lovely bag...

Check out my new bowls!!! Picture does not capture the amazing colours and detail in them!

As we are looking to move/or emigrate abroad I am going to wrap up these pretties and keep them "good" until we are settled.

Bowls are from the store Oliver Bonas (I know this as she told me and they were wrapped in Oliver Bonas paper).

How cute are they? They are actually perfect as when Mr Mars and I have guests round we currently put any snacks out in cereal or noodle bowls...

xoxo

Happy 21st Birthday!

My nephew turned 21.

Since I already had a stash of cards I was reluctant to buy another one.

So I decided to make one of my standard birthday card stash and make it fancy!

Take a plain card and write 21 with PVC glue and a brush:

Take some glitter - this was some seriously cheap glitter:

Cover the card in said cheap glitter:

Tah Dah! I think this looks not bad!

A £21 cheque wrote for him and I had me a 21st birthday present and card! Done!

Mrs Mars

xoxo

DIY Wedding present glass painting

This is DIY attempts from a couple of months ago - I was so darn proud of these there was no way they were going to waste.

These were gifts for my wedding.

I had purchased some personalised glasses as a gift before and they cost an eye watering £55. This was in what will be known as the "crazy debt days", therefore with my new minimal budget, I was trying to do it for A LOT cheaper this time.

I had googled a lot of videos on this and unfortunately I did not use any one video - my attempt below is a combination of stolen ideas from other talented people and from glasses I have previously purchased. I am a fraud.

Take a champange glass and some glass paint or glass liner paint. I purchased my glass paint from Artifolk.

Anyway, take your plain, unpainted glass...

Sorry about the poor pictures, I clearly need a better camera and some lessons in photography.

I then painted some white "blossom" flowers - I THINK that is what they are called?

I tried to put it against a black background (my couch) to make it better, but, erm, not so much...

Then I added the other colours - grey and burgundy (made by mixing red and black glass paint). We are full of brightness and colour in this household.

Then I added the "tags" i.e the labels/names at the bottom:

Finally, I added the grey to the blossom flowers.

I purchased some lovely personalised Funky Pigeon cards to go with them, I got £1 If I paid with paypal. More expensive than the cards I would normally purchase - but it was a special occasion!

I did some other sets for friends 30th, 40th and a friends engagement and I did them in white, baby pink and baby green. I'll show them in a separate post!

I actually decided this year (2014) that I was not doing birthday presents! As I was spending a fortune on gifts (that I could not afford) and the time and pressure was too much. Call me a drama queen but I literally spent every single month buying something for someone. It was getting far too much! And I do not handle pressure well. In my family, pressure comes with the gifts.

But these LUCKY friends got gifts, I did not mind doing them and they were cheaper than the £55 glasses and I do not expect anything in return!

Mrs Mars
xoxo

First Post Fear

I have first post fear.

 

I want it to be a good one, but unfortunately I am not good at the dramatic posts. I'm more a general, mind dump, here is what I did/did not do today kind of gal.

 

So here is what I did today :)

 

Today - In order to get more organised (see here) - I have vowed to use up ALL of my toiletries (there is A LOT of them). GOSH it has been a slow process...

 

And yet, crazily, I was still purchasing toiletries until last year - WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?

 

Thankfully, after a near death experience where I nearly killed myself with a tub of toiletries, I have came to my senses and have been slowly, but surely, working my way through them. Saving a fortune in the process.

This morning - I got through another 3. Travel sized shower gel, conditioner and a shampoo. RESULT.

 

That is another 3 things making my house tidier (de-cluttering) and another 3 things that I did not waste and effectively have saved some money on. Win Win.