This week's stuff....

Health:

Last week we both had an opticians appointment and I already knew I would need glasses, its been four years since my last check up but now we have the HC3 form we are making the most of it and getting all our health appointments up to date.

Shopping:

Afterwards we went to Sainsburys last week and spent our £50 gift voucher on food, the nearest shop from the opticians was in Huddersfield so we went there, we bought our usual food/cat litter etc, the prices as you would expect are slightly more expensive than other supermarkets especially the 'basics' range which are twice the price of Tesco value goods, the only thing we found to be cheaper was the cat litter at just £1.28 a bag (Tesco is £1.58) and we've earned 100 points on the Nectar card as well. It cost us £1 for parking so a cheap shop really.

Sewing:

I've made another shoulder bag from my favourite pattern, this bag is no7, I posted some photo's on my facebook page the other day and on my twitter page too but if you've not already seen them then here they are, I've took photo's both with and without the flash to get an idea of the true colours, I'm just using the camera on hubby's phone at the moment because the digital camera I have just eats batteries, certainly not the recommended 650 photo's that you are supposed to get and at £6 ish for a pack of four lithium batteries, its cheaper to use the mobile.

The above photo is the best one to get an idea of the colours, the design and fabric is called "Roseberry Sunset". It's only a small shoulder bag but lots of room inside and I've managed to find some lining fabric to match and stitched on some lovely wooden buttercup design buttons to finish it off.

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If you are looking for a one off handmade pressie then there are lots of ideas on my website and

reasonably priced as well. http://www.freewebstore.org/Sykesssillysite

Josie x

This week's stuff....

Not really much to blog about, hubby still off sick, he's having physio, yesterday was his second visit and it turns out it is the nerve in his arm, it's the first time anyone has said what it wrong.

He's been visiting the Doctor since the pain started six weeks ago, not at any point has the Doctor actually said what is wrong, or sent hubby for any tests or anything to the hospital, he has just handed out very large boxes of 400mg ibuprofen and 500mg paracetamol and to take them every four hours, and that the pain would take four-six weeks to stop, both myself and brother-in-law have been concerned about the amount of painkillers the Doctor has given hubby, why? well hubby has a history of depression. At least now he's managing to get some sleep at night.

Anyway he went the other day to get another sick note for another two weeks, the Dr just asked him what has he been doing about it? erm hubby couldn't believe it, surely that's the Dr's job? anyway hubby has been thinking about changing Dr's for a while and immediately went to register at another local practice, hubby has a medical check up with them next week so we will see how that goes.

Hubby went to hand the sick note in at work and got some sarky comments about him changing the date on the sick note ( the Dr put the 29th and then changed it to the 1st!) and that he can come back to work now the strike is over! If anyone thinks that hubby would falsify the date on the sick note or pretend to be ill then they don't know hubby very well and do we find that funny, sorry I don't think so!

and me?

well I've had toothache on and off since last friday but I've not been able to make an emergency appointment, why? Because with the strike and then hubby off sick we haven't even had the £17 for the cost of the basic check-up! Talking with son, he thinks it might be an abscess , so I've been rinsing with salt water and alcohol free mouth wash and bought some clove oil.

So I'm feeling very down and fed-up this week, I've had to register with a new dentist and I've now got an appointment for next tuesday!! Perhaps I should do a 'Donate to the dentist' fund and to see if I can raise enough money to have a check up!

Gas & Electric Bills

Electric bill for

4 Oct 11 - 3 Jan 12 was £93.86 and the gas bill was £89.94 between

8th Nov to 9th Feb 12, we were in credit a bit so the actual bill was £54.

The water rates are due this month, the rent arrears are £196 and council tax arrears are £49 for February and £95 for March, we take the final two payslips in for the housing benefit claim next week but hubby is still on sick pay for the next three-four weeks.

Sewing:

Made these ages ago, but I've been re-doing some photo's now it's a bit lighter as most of the photo's I've taken for the website are in artificial light.

I think they look better with the garden in the background, anyway they are listed on the website, I call it my WBS collection which is now stored in two large boxes, all 48 items!

perhaps I should have got the iron out before taking the photo's!

Sorry for the cheery post, that's just how I'm feeling at the moment!

Josie x

Thank You...

A bit like Pay It Forward....

Thank you, you bought a sewing book and sewing pattern from my clearance page on my website the other week, I know you don't have much to spare ( you know who you are) ....

.....which meant I had some money spare and I was able to buy "the Morgans" dvd from someone who was selling some of her things on ebay for the homeless charity Crisis. Anyway the dvd arrived this morning and there was another dvd in as well, The Duchess and some lovely fabric, a handmade needle case and a lovely thank you note as well. What a really nice surprise, thank you very much, I'm not naming names, you know who you are :-) I've sent you an e-mail.

Why am I buying things when we don't have much money as the moment because of the strike, because we are lucky enough to have a roof over our head, well less two tiles anyway! (see previous post)

Josie x