So! The week starts with Giveaway Day! How exciting!
When I was on holiday at the beginning of Feb, we visited the
Borders Textile Towerhouse, which I have yet to post about. This is a fantastic
museum, particularly if you are a fabric geek, based in Hawick in the Scottish
Borders. The museum itself is based on the history of the Borders textile
industry, which produced knitwear and tweed for over a century. It is also
interactive, so brilliantly hands on and good for entertaining a 3 year old.
There are buttons to press! And signs saying “Please Touch”!
After our visit I had a quick scoot around the shop, while
the boys found a picnic spot outside, and I uncovered this.
I bought it thinking it would be perfect as a giveaway on my
blog at some point, and then I came home to discover that I would have the opportunity
sooner than I expected!
Side note regarding the picnic: Yes, this is Scotland in February. I am convinced my son will grow up with his
abiding memory of holidays and family outings being sandwiches, crisps and
fruit on a bench in the cold. But it is so much cheaper than buying lunch for 3
every day, and we've never done it in the rain or snow. Yet. I am aware there is a certain irony in making
my own flesh and blood eat sandwiches in the freezing cold to save money, so I
can then spend money on something I will give to a complete stranger. Let’s
just hope the authorities aren’t reading this. And I did make it up to Small
Boy later with hot chocolate and some cake!
So, this is a little pin, or badge made by a company called Buttonsy, featuring a picture of a vintage sewing machine, and the words: "I think, therefore I sew".
This in itself is not enough to give away, so it is being
partnered with these lovely woven labels, designed to be sewn into your
handmade garments! I think they are really cute and I hope you do too!
In the past year, I have done rather well out of giveaways,
for which I am extremely grateful! So, definitely time again for me to give
something back!
To win both of these, please leave me a comment below, and
for fun please let me know what is the most ridiculous, embarrassing or silly
thing you have done in a bid to save money. If you have forced your family to join
in, so much the better! :)
Closing date is midnight (GMT) Sunday 2nd March. Giveaway open
internationally, and to bloggers and non-bloggers alike. Winner will be pulled at random from a glass bowl.
Good luck! ***GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED***
Good luck! ***GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED***
Such lovely things! Please enter me in your giveaway :) I do remember, in a fit of naivety, thinking that sewing clothes might be cheaper than buying them.... Did it stop me? No.
ReplyDeletethese are lovely! umm, apart from the usual buying cheap fabric to find out it washes horribly badly and pills so that things are rendered unwearable after 3 or 4 washes, when i was newly graduated and working for a tiny salary in expensive london, we used to schedule our lunches (where people took us out) just before pay day so we could avoid buying lunch and could get by on a sandwich for dinner. we also all knew the shops which put their post-5pm debit card transactions through the following banking day so used to overuse cashback the night before payday!
ReplyDeleteSuch a cute button! Many of my abiding memories of family holidays when I was young involve eating sandwiches in the rain. I don't feel too scarred by it!
ReplyDeleteLove the button... and I just started sewing labels in to my makes so those would be welcome! Lets see- I have done all kinds of things to save money- from taking a shower at the gym to save MY water to trying to grow my own food... When me and my girls go to Disneyland we bring our food in... Kind of funny because we have just spent all that money on getting in! But hey...
ReplyDeleteThose labels are so pretty! Well, in order to save money, I (still) do a lot of things - from buying cheap fabric (but I'm trying to change that - slowly - as we only have one income), to going on a small trip I won, and carried food for three days, for the three of us! We even carried our coffee with us! Well, we were with another couple, and we love coffe, so having a cup of it three-four times a day could have become a great expense...
ReplyDeleteHow lovely!! I adore the little pin and I'd love to wear it. Um, I'm a fairly cheap person (or is the word frugal now?) and I always have been. One of the things that my mom used to laugh at me about (which I still find to be acceptable) is that to save on using soap and water, both of which cost money, I used to cut things with forks. You know, because I was going to eat it with the fork so I'd save money, time, and my own energy washing two things. It took longer, it was messier, and generally just a bad idea, but yeah. I think that's what's most embarrassing hahaha.
ReplyDeleteFab giveaway! We have hit an all time low/high in the saving money stakes at the moment, instead of buying new bricks for bricking up 2 doors in our utility room I am scrubbing the mould and slime off ones we found dumped down the back of the garden... Not sure it is worth the £15 we will save...
ReplyDeleteWhat sweet things to give away!
ReplyDeleteI am not frugal in any way at all unfortunately!
The only thing I am careful about is wasting water. It's a long-held habit that really I no longer need to keep now that I live in water-filled Scotland and not drought-ridden Australia.
The labels are so sweet.
ReplyDeleteTo save money on a trip we took in California, we stayed at hotels that offered breakfasts. Then we would load up with extra muffins and bagels and eat those for lunch. That way we only had to buy one meal a day. But I got to drive the California coastline so I would do it again!
That button is fabulous! The labels are cute too!
ReplyDeleteI carry lunch around with me everywhere but that's more because I must eat gluten free. It does save a bit of money though.
Thank you for the give away, I think they are both lovely and generous of you to host. I would love to win these. While in university, I would only wash my clothes in the washing machine and then carry them upstair and hang them all over the apartment to dry. On months where money was really tight I would wash my clothes by hand. I still dry most of my clothes on a rack. It just became habit.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE that button. Ummm, I am the saving money queen, so I have done all kinds of things, but (hopefully) none of them were out of bounds, so to speak. Mostly, I just look thru flyers, get on lists, enter contests and try to always only buy things that are on sale. Not that embarrassing I guess, but good for the wallet! My giveaway is up, please enter if there is something u r interested in: http://gjeometry.com/2014/02/24/sew-grateful-giveaway-how-about-some-red-and-some-threads/
ReplyDeleteOh, those are adorable!! :-)
ReplyDeleteHmmm... craziest thing I've done to save money.... My father is terrible at this, so I keep thinking of things he does instead! Like put one of his cars in storage for 8 years instead of registering it, until it reaches official 'vintage' status and he gets a discount on the car registration. Coz, you know, it makes sense to not use it for that long just to get $100 off....?!?!
What a cute badge& I love those labels! Thanks for the giveaway. When we were wee every rainy weekend was spent somewhere free - kelvingrove art gallery, transport museum mostly - I'm sure i'll be continuing the tradition with our wee one!
ReplyDeleteThose labels are just gorgeous! Lovely giveaway :)
ReplyDeleteWhen we moved out to the country 3 years ago we decided not to buy takeaway food anymore (not that we bought that much anyhow!), but instead make our own "from scratch" versions. I'm not actually sure we saved any money in the end - in fact we probably spend more - but we're healthier and actually prefer our own versions now! (Mmmm....cajun pork pizza with capsicum and chilli relish....)
Those labels are so cute! Thanks so much for the giveaway :)
ReplyDeleteLoooovely!! Thanks for giving us the chance of winning them!
ReplyDeleteHm...let me think, I first thought it was a nice idea making my own bath and body products and also making my own clothes in order to spare some money(I always was cosmetics and clothes addict!!!).... Of course that didn't work exactly as I first thought but I still passionatley make stuff!!! :P
Lovely giveaway! I have a habit of falling for those, buy 1m fabric and get several more free. Often in fabric that I am not sure what I am going to make with it! But it was a bargain and I "saved" money!!!!!
ReplyDeleteDeborahleejones@yahoo.ca
I am very frugal. i will not throw away a tube of toothpaste until we have squeezed out the very last bit, then I cut the tube into 2 and dig in real good with my toothbrush to get out every trace of Colgate from both pieces!
ReplyDeletecutekipepeo(at)gmail(dot)com
Oh man, I have so many stories about my parents' "frugal" methodology, some of which my sisters and I have inherited. Those weren't instigated by me though. One thing I do is to save all possible reusable containers, much to my husband's chagrin: yogurt tubs, plastic takeout containers, bakery boxes, you name it. If it can be clean, I've most likely saved it. In my defense, I use them to store cheese from the farmer's market and to give away the many extra cookies I bake. =D
ReplyDeletedragoncrimson at yahoo dot com
Thank you so much for the wonderful give away! I have tried to grow a vegetable garden for the past five years and each year I am getting only a tiny, tiny bit of produce for a huge amount of work... To this day I am not sure what I am doing wrong, but my green thumb is seriously lacking :-)
ReplyDelete