getting crafty

Home cooking going a treat, spicy lentil soup, slow roasted pork with beans, good warming food and works out as cheap as chips but twice as healthy. Hurrah for toddler boy having easy to please taste buds. I love autumn food, mash potato here we come.

Must remember not to go mash mad, hubby already grumbling when it crops up on the menu - again. But who doesn't like mash? Creamy, smooth, carbtastic and perfect with all those lovely autumn/winter stews, casseroles and stodge fests. Could be I'm connecting with my Irish roots here, but potatoes are just the best staple ever. Thank heavens for supermarket wars as prices are looking good too.

The pork dish was such a winner, £4 for a pork shoulder and the rest of the ingredients couldn't have cost more than £2-3 and it made 6 portions! Six whole meals of rich and tasty protein for around a pound a head. Why would mums need Iceland when they can have this?

All this domestic budget busting going so well desreved a treat. So off for craft and cocktails at Made in Brighton. What fun! A bunch of keen crafters, mostly women I must admit, getting together in a cosy basement bar to indulge in a spot of hobby crafting and a few cheeky cocktails. With happy hour offering 2 glasses of wine for the price of 1 it was even a budget busting drink-up.

Sitting around, knitting, sewing,, embroidering and discussing robot making (yes someone there makes real blinking bleeping robots for the fun of it) was an excellent way to spend an evening. It felt like getting back to the old ways of women, bonding over a needle and thread or the clackety clack of knitting. Not sure where the robots fit it into that throw-back though.

So, baby girl can expect her own custom made stocking with gifts from Santa this year - and if it manages to stay intact, every year after. Lovingly crafted from an old dress it cost nothing to make (if you exclude the couple of glasses of wine) compared to forking out £10 min for a generic shop bought one. Oh I do love this penny-wise life right now.