Woo Hoo..............

My Blog counter reads 5000 today, woo hoo!


Thank you to my followers, old and new, you have made my day!


Thank you to anyone else who just pops in for a browse around!


Must think of a way to celebrate.....watch this space

Mrs T xxx

My First Triathlon......

The Tightwad Telegraph - Latest News.............


.......Don't be daft - of course I didn't mean that whole swimming/cycling/running thing! No mine involved a boot sale/ebay collection/charity shop trawl!


Am exhausted! Phew - the prizes, they will be posted when I recover. Needless to say that all the training paid off!


Mrs Tightwad xx

Are You Chicken.............?

........I am!


Whoever sent my mojo back, I thank you!

This is my booty from this morning:

4 Table Mats & Coasters £1 (spotted by Mr T)

Chicken Breakfast Set £2.50

Momma Chick with 4 butter knives and Marmalade pot chick with spoon

& Egg Cups

Pretty Glassware 70p total

 2 Royal Doulton plates for the gallery 50p each

Happy to be back!

Mrs T xx

P.S. I'll be linking to Magpie Monday - well - on Monday :0)

Magpie Monday

Today.....

................I spent this:

On a tiny tin of hair 'fudge' stuff. 


If you find my treasure hunting mojo please return it to: Mrs Tightwad, C/O  Tightwad Towers. I will be most grateful.


Thank You.


Mrs T xx

Friday afternoon pretties.......

Having spent the whole day cleaning I am enjoying a well deserved cup of tea. After a dismal week I wanted to spread a little joy and I thought you might like to share my plate collection. They live on the wall in the kitchen by the table and I love them all. 

I have at some stage visited (or worked on) a lot of the factories where these plates were made (with the exception of the Limoges plate), sadly all these factories are gone now but I hope there are still plenty of plates out there waiting for me to bring them home to add to my gallery. All these have been collected from car boots and charity shops.....the most expensive one was the large Spode plate at £2 and there's a couple of 50p bargains in there too.

Enjoy!

1. Unmarked China
2. Aynsley China
3. Wedgwood
4. Royal Doulton
5. Midwinters
6. Minton
7. Unknown creamware
8. Spode creamware
9. Limoges

Ah, my pretties!

Have a great weekend!

Mrs T. xx

A Dog Magnet.....

Installed, working, very warm and much appreciated by Daisy

The Firewood Rhyme - Anon

Logs to Burn, Logs to burn, 

Logs to save the coal a turn,

Here's a word to make you wise,

When you hear the woodman's cries.

Never heed his usual tale,

That he has good logs for sale,

But read these lines and really learn,

The proper kind of logs to burn.

Oak logs will warm you well,

If they're old and dry.

Larch logs of pine will smell,

But the sparks will fly.

Beech logs for Christmas time,

Yew logs heat well.

"Scotch" logs it is a crime,

For anyone to sell.

Birch logs will burn too fast,

Chestnut scarce at all.

Hawthorn logs are good to last,

If you cut them in the fall.

Holly logs will burn like wax,

You should burn them green,

Elm logs like smouldering flax,

No flame to be seen.

Pear logs and apple logs,

They will scent your room,

Cherry logs across the dogs,

Smell like flowers in bloom

But ash logs, all smooth and grey,

Burn them green or old;

Buy up all that come your way,

They're worth their weight in gold.

With love from toasty warm Tightwad Towers.

Mrs T. xx

Booty Beauty....

This weekends 'Booty' finds:

A difficult to photograph, original & signed Alan Firth canal picture. I think probably pen and ink. Unusual and very lovely and a bargain at £2

Brass and Marquetry tray, so very, very lovely and at £1 I couldn't pay fast enough :0)

More cushion love: (This is now becoming something of an obsession) These are beauties and cost me £1 each.

BIG spend of the day. A pair of solid Onyx lamp bases with shades, in total the lot came to £5 but they'll surely add a bit of glamour to our bedroom when it's finished.

Last up for today: Solid Brass and VERY heavy companion set for fireplace #2 and a very good £3 worth :0)

Yet another happy haul from boot land.

Linking over to Magpie Monday, (late as usual) HERE, why not pop over and see some of the other rather tasty finds there.

Finally, I picked up a couple of mugs on one stall, one with Chickens, one with Ducks and the stallholder quite brusquely informed me they were £5 as she had paid £8 each for them. 2 things spring to mind here, 1: good luck with that Mrs! £5 is a little steep for these at a boot sale and, 2: It's not my fault you spent £16 on things you don't want!

Mrs Tightwad xx

How to scare your readers......

.........easy! Just ask them to take a few minutes to look at THIS and THIS

I looked at these after a 'cost of living' discussion with my lovely daughter and it seemed like an appropriate post given the downward spiral of the global stock markets today. They are damned scary! Unfortunately I couldn't find a comprehensive UK clock (the secrets are probably all locked up in Whitehall).

Seems to me like they all need a good kick up the bum letting it get to this. Don't you think it's time they found some sensible folks to sort this mess out? Or am I being naive again?

I'm not a 'political' person but I do mind that it has got like this and I wonder where it will all end, after all, we're trying to do our bit as are many of you out there in blogland, we do without, we re-use and we're generally thrifty. We're not a burden, we don't owe anyone (excluding of course the contribution we have to make to the national debt) and we have always worked hard. So where's all the money gone ( and still going)? Don't they sit down on a Sunday and work out their budgets like the rest of us mortals? Don't they ever say "we can't afford A if we have to pay for B this month" because they obviously should!

Makes you think doesn't it?

So, Sorry if I've scared you. Please don't abandon me because I've gone all serious. Normal service will be resumed soon with this weeks booty and a return to my usual optimism.

Mrs T xx

A Decision & A Deal......

.........So I decided that the crumbly old plaster finish, in the as yet un-named bedroom, has to go! With that in mind I have just removed about a square metre fairly easily, the rest seems stuck to the wall like, well, putting it mildly, poop to a blanket! I don't need a fortune teller to foresee many boring happy hours with a scraper in my hand in my future.

On a brighter note, I told you I was going to do a little knitty blog here yesterday. Instead of 'payment' I did a deal on a couple of nice pieces of furniture instead. (I do so love the barter system)

My knitty friend is soon to be moving  house and downsizing so a nice little old 1930's sideboard and a rather tasty glass fronted yarn display cabinet will soon be coming to live with us here at Tightwad Towers. As soon as I get them I'll show you.

And now, well I'm off to cast on another couple of pairs of socks.

BBFN

Mrs Tightwad xx

Busy, busy, busy.............

............Have you ever noticed when you write a word down several times it looks more and more 'wrong' each time you write it? Today's title has just done that to me, anyway, back to the point!

Today has been, you guessed it, busy, here at Tightwad Towers. Mr T had several jobs to finish this morning so I stripped the layers and layers of old wallpaper from the walls in #1 bedroom. This will become our bedroom but it's a cottage so it seems a little pretentious to call it the 'Master' bedroom, it isn't really the front or back bedroom either as they're both side by side.

At the moment I can't think of a nice name for the 'not spare' bedroom, (suggestions welcome). It's now wallpaper free but I'm back to pondering again - it has a sort of rough decorative plaster finish on one wall, a lot of which is flaking. Ideally, I would like to remove it but I just know if I start the job that it will take ages, make a huge mess and will probably be really hard where the chimney runs behind it. On the other hand I know I'll regret it if I don't tackle it now while there's no furniture or carpet in there. Will have to ponder on that one some more for now.

So, back to today, remember this post about the log burner and fireplace alterations? Well, over the last couple of weeks we've been building up the plasterwork, then rubbing it back, then building it up some more.....

This afternoon Mr T rubbed the edges back for the last time and I've just finished painting it.

It needs another couple of coats yet, hopefully tomorrow, then we're just waiting for the flue pipe to arrive. After that it's the installation and some steel work in the chimney to complete. Maybe this time next week it will be finished, who knows?

Am just off to do a quick little 'knitty' post over on my other (rather neglected) blog here, please pop over if you have a few minutes to spare, I'd love to see you there.

Y'all have a great (cheap) weekend.


Mrs Tightwad xx

Having a Day Out?

Hello New Followers, Welcome to Tightwad Towers, it's lovely to have you here.

I'm sure most of my regular readers will be familiar with this website but just in case you aren't I thought it was worth a quick mention. If you're planning a day out in the near future and can't resist a little Charity Shop therapy try THIS CHARITY SHOP FINDER WEBSITE

Simply type the name of the place you're thinking of visiting into the box and hit the search button, you'll get a list of Charity Shops at that location along with their addresses. Hope you find this useful.

Enjoy your day out!

Mrs Tightwad xx

The Madness continues......

.........mainly because I'm off to work in a few minutes and haven't time to blog my 'booty' tonight. So I thought I'd continue with the bizarre but amusing pictures this evening. They have no hidden meaning, they're nothing to do with being thrifty, they're just a bit of fun.

This one is dedicated to this weeks new followers, welcome, and be assured that 'normal' service will be resumed shortly.

Sole Food?

Mrs T xx