Our Pretty Home

Every now and again I tweet (@QueenThrift) a picture of something delicious and wonderful from around our home. I've since received a few requests for more! This is music to my ears, because I love nothing better than spending the day in second-hand shops or car boot sales rummaging for pretty thrifty finds.

Voilà! Ask and you shall receive. Here are some of my favourite pieces from my two favourite rooms in our home. The Family/Living Room and the Reading Room:

THE BASEMENT (our Family/Living Room):

Too nice to keep outside

Our 6 year old's artwork

Big fan of old boxes as storage

We <3 Studio Ghibli

Even the basement door is beautiful!

Monochrome kids dvd shelves (and some art from Cuba)

My fella is a genius! Homemade entertainment unit.

GROUND FLOOR (Reading Room):

I bought Jesus from Angel market. Haggled to £20 as he has no arms!

To think, my folks wanted to throw that telly away!

Upcycled lampshade from a colander.

Totoro's home

I made these cushion from bird seed sacks.

Thrifty Inspiration

We recently held my 29th [ahem] birthday party in our new home. Friends seemed [and rightly so!] to be gushing about our house renovation and quirky furniture, decorations and objects about the house. Moreover, I was looking through a close friends' photos of the party and they were mainly of items in the house! More house pictures to follow in later articles.

People constantly ask where I get my unique and thrifty inspiration from, and the answer is from many sources.

The 'make do and mend' mentality comes from my family. During the war, clothes were rationed just like everything else. I remember my Gran telling me about unwanted jumpers which were unravelled and knitted into something else, or just like Julie Andrews in 'The Sound of Music' old curtains were cut up to make skirts and dresses. This obviously past down to my mum because when my brother and I were little she made all our clothes, and has brought me up to make my own soft furnishings, not to buy them.

Maria made clothes out of curtains - very make do and mend!

My love of salvage was probably first inspired by dad who was a dustman in the 1970's. During a house clearance he managed to salvage a pair of beautiful Ercol chairs, that are still to this day, in their kitchen. Later, as elderly relatives died and I inherited old furniture and stunning pieces like cut glass perfume bottles, I really began to favour the old over the new. Something about my things having a bit of history about them, excites me.

My parents salvaged chairs.

Other than that, I've always read a lot of house and interior magazines, I check out other people homes quite a lot on Right Move (maybe I should become an estate agent?) and I spend many a weekend scouring charity shops, car boot sales, flea markets and antique shops looking for the perfect items for our home.

Tips For The Hosepipe Ban

With mains water being so precious during summer droughts, why not get creative and save water.

• Use ice cubes in hanging baskets and tubs, they will melt slowly and provide your plants with enough water.
• Utilise rain water and invest in a water butt to store water. They simply connect to the downpipes of your house/ garage/ shed and store water to be used at a later time in watering cans. They're also very handy for re-filling little one's water pistols!
• If you are used to using a sprinkler, switch instead to an automatic drip irrigation system. The pressure reducing valve minimises water waste, which, coupled with a timer for night use (to save water being evaporated) is an easy alternative to sprinklers. Plus, it is allowed in most areas.
• Left over fizzy drinks? Feed them to your plants. They'll love the sugar.
• Keep your borders looking fresh, mix water-gel in with your soil. It holds water close to the roots, reducing the need to water by up to 90%.

Our Thrifty House Purchases

Since moving 150 miles, myself and my better half have spent a large proportion of our time scouring flea markets, car boot sales and antique fairs looking for the perfect vintage (and cheap) accessories for our home. Here are some of our beautiful finds:

Left to right: a printing block tray £15, an old clarinet case £5, a 'Camp Coffee' box £15, an old trunk from WWII free, 2 bird seed bags £6, a painted fruit box £10 and a glimpse of our new kitchen table £90

Most of these items we already owned, but we bought the  pair of chairs (dating from the 1950's) from eBay for £52

We bought four apple crates for £20 each to use as kitchen shelves to display our favourite items of crockery. We lined them with vintage fabric, courtesy of my mother's fabric trunk!

The colander belonged to my late Gran. But with a broken handle, we up-cycled it to make this Ikea lamp a bit more 'us'

Possibly the best £17 we have spent so far. A beautiful set of vintage kitchen steps. With such high ceilings it is making reaching up for high up items a whole lot easier...

I'm Baaaack!

After a house move, an epic re-decoration project and a month and a half with no internet access, the Thrift-Queen is back! Full of purse friendly tips galore, my 'Hand-made 2012' updates and plenty of pictures of the beautiful thrifty items we've been filling our lovely new house with.

As ever, check out my twitter @Queenthrift for daily updates on the best daily #hotdeals to be had or feel free to drop me an email at thrift-queen@hotmail.co.uk

Moving House Doesn't Have To Cost The Earth

It's no secret that we're finally moving house this weekend, so I just wanted to share with you the money saving tips I have learnt along the way.

Cut the Middleman or Barter
Selling your property yourself can take a lot of hard work and energy, but if the price is right and you market it like mad, it will sell. However, if like me, you are not so brave, shop around before choosing an estate agent. Lowest isn't always best, get a couple of quotes to compare. But always barter on fees with a high street agent to save on selling costs.

Money Matters
Let your finances, not property lust, dictate the process of buying a new home. Ensure to remember all the hidden costs including estate agent fees, surveys, mortgage arrangement fees, valuation fees and stamp duty. Make sure you keep some cash aside from your deposit to cover them.

Haggle
Get thrifty and start haggling over everything from your estate agent fees and removal costs to the property price and any extra fixtures and fittings. Don't forget, if the survey finds any major problems you should ask the vendor to either fix it before completion or knock the repair cost off the price.

Shed The Weight
Moving house is the ideal time to sort through your belongings and decide what you want/need and what you don't. I try to stick by William Morris' words of wisdom:

"Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful"

Getting rid of excess belongings, whether you donate them to charity or raise some extra pennies by selling them, is the best way to save money. The more things you have, the bigger the removal van you'll need -  professional movers charge by weight and distance. My fella and I found a local indoor car boot sale to flog our unwanted belongings. I can highly recommend!

D.I.Y
Do the removals yourself. Get a group of friends around for a weekend, hire a big van (a very very big van) and pack and move your possessions yourself.

Time Your Move
If opting to use a removals company, timing is everything. It would seem we've accidentally timed our move well. During the winter months removal companies are quieter (everyone wants to move in the summer because of the weather apparently) so you're in a better position to negotiate. Consider a mid-week move because they have much less demand than on the weekends. I found that pushing my move to the beginning of a month saved hundreds, as solicitor's prefer to finish associated paperwork as a month draws to a close. Remember to get a few quotes from different removal companies.

Keep Expensive Items with you
If you are using a removal firm, let them move the big and bulky stuff while you keep all your important documents and expensive items such as laptops, cameras and MP3 players with you.  These items can travel in the car with you where it is more secure.

2012 - Year Of The Homemade

I am not usually one for making new years' resolutions, probably because it ordinarily involves giving up something I love. This year however, I've decided to take up something I love: making things (and being thrifty). 2012 is my year of the homemade.

Every present I give, albeit to a six year old or a sixty year old; a get well soon present or a valentine, I am going to make it (and blog about it, obviously). Watch this space...

Have Yourself A Very Thrifty Christmas: Decorations

Looking to save money this Christmas? Look no further thanks to the Thrift-Queen's thrifty Christmas tips, starting with decorating.

When decorating your house, it's important to remember less is more. It is easy to get caught up in the spirit of Christmas and end up having to live in a glitter-tastic, sparkling frenzied house. But equally, decorating doesn't have to be elaborate or expensive to look fabulous. Some people like to decorate the whole house - inside and out - whilst others decorate one room or only the tree. Whatever your preference, avoid the wrath of the recession and get thrifty. Below are my top three thrifty tips to achieve a beautiful, yet inexpensive, festive home.

• Be Natural: Add some free natural cheer to your home. Use ivy to wind round your banisters or drape over the mantelpiece. Pine cones make excellent Christmas tree decorations. For a more elegant look, they can be sprayed silver or gold. Or why not fill a bowl with them as a simple table centre piece. Tree branches arranged in a tall vase can look stunning as a decoration or as a Christmas tree alternative. Add colour and hang some pretty baubles on them.
• Get Kid Creative: If you have young children in your family, encourage them to help with decorating the house. Make paper-chains, use empty toilet rolls to make fairies and cut snowflakes out of paper. You could even let them loose with a can of fake snow to spray window. Disney's Family Craft website is an excellent source for cheap and easy Christmas decoration ideas. My favourite is Santa's list, with a twist; using a painted thread spool (see below.)

•  Make Existing Decor Seasonal: At Christmas I like to make other things in my house look festive. I decorate candles and mirrors with tartan ribbon, and add candy canes to fruit bowls or scatter them on my dressing table. Instead of a table runner, I alternate candles and either pine cones or nuts in a line. It makes the table look festive yet elegant. When I bake, I make Christmas shaped cookies and display them on a cake stand in the kitchen. The key aspect of this thrifty method of decorating is to use what you have and dress it up with either garland, ribbon, pretty beads or some other Christmassy items.

Budget Cath Kidston Wallpaper

 I LOVE all things Cath Kidston, but I find a lot of her products to be quite expensive. But panic not! A British wallpaper company, Eden, make a range of purse friendly wallpapers called Millie which have a charming likeness to some of Cath Kidston's most sought after designs, but for over half the price!

There are several websites that stock these style-savvy designs. One of my favourites, wallpapersandborders.co.uk sell the above featured Red/Cream Rose Millie Flower for an amazingly thrifty £10.99 per roll. It would make a beautiful vintage feature in any room. For fans of the floral look, I've found that Focus DIY sell a variety Millie wallpapers, including Millie Blue, which features small red roses on a sky blue background.

The Thrift-Queen also recommends the website wallpaperdirect, which sell a few varieties of Millie wallpaper. Specifically, they do an exact copy of Cath Kidston's now discontinued blue polka dot wallpaper, Blue Spot for £15.99 per roll. So now there is no excuse not to have beautiful rooms on a budget.

Hello Again

Hello again Thrift-Queen readers, apologies for my blogging absence. In the past ten days I have had an offer accepted on a beautiful new house and I've also organised and hosted my son's 6th Harry Potter themed birthday party (I feel old). Which was a roaring success.

New thrifty related posts coming soon 'Moving House Doesn't Have To Cost The Earth' and 'DIY Children's Birthday Party For Less Than £60'.