Hello readers sorry for not being about recently but A LOT has been happening here at Tilly Towers.
I will start with the good news. I recently came into a nice little lump sum of money. I won't go in to detail about how much or where from as its a private matter. What I will tell you is it was enough to pay off all my debts, set up a small emergency fund for myself, set up 3 small savings accounts for the boys, book a short holiday to Disneyland Paris for myself the boys as well as my best friend and her daughter, help out some family and friends, and I have enough left over to do up the house from top to bottom. For the first time in as long as I can remember I no longer have to worry about money and I have to say it feels strange..... lovely but strange lol. I have been able to achieve so much with this money and am now in the position that it would have taken me years to achieve had it not been for this little windfall.
So does this mean I will no longer be living the frugal life I hear you ask. Does it heck lol I have found great joy and meaning in living my life as a frugalista and I have no intention of giving that up. My house will be done up as cheaply as possible and all items sourced will be second hand where available. So buckle up, stick with us, and enjoy the next chapter of our lives here at Tilly Towers.
Now for the bad news. Just a few short days after receiving my windfall I received a phone call informing me my grandad had passed away. I have been absolutely devastated. I never got the chance to go visit him and share my luck with him by doing something nice for him. I would give every penny of this money back if it meant I could just spend one more hour with my beloved grandad curly. I have been back and forth to London helping to arrange the funeral with my dad and brother as well as all the other issues that arise when someone passes away. My grandads funeral will be next week and it is a day I am really not looking forward to but will do my best to stay strong for my dad and do my grandad proud.
Hope everyone is keeping well and will forgive my absence.
Much Love
Claire xx xx xx
Saturday, 20 June 2015
Saturday, 23 May 2015
It's the little things
Hello readers
I have had another rest day today as I'm still not feeling to good. In spite of feeling poorly I have had a lot to smile about. My lovely sister Leanne and her girlfriend Daisy are coming up to visit me for the day from London. They plan to take the boys to the park for a picnic to give me a little rest. I love seeing my sister as she is one of my best friends in the whole world and I love her dearly.
On top of this look what Brad came home from college with today. I am really impressed with his handiwork. I think his done amazingly well with this table and the ceramic collage centre piece. It is also a very sturdy piece that now has pride of place in the living room.
Looking at these pictures of our Elle Belle you would be forgiven for thinking this was a cat who had been hand reared by us from birth and not a wild cat who until a few months ago was living on the streets of Cyprus being very badly treated. Every night she climbs up on to my chest and snuggles down whilst I watch television snuggled up to my beautiful fur baby. I'm sure she thinks I'm her mummy as she will sit grooming my hair and licking and biting my cheek as I watch TV.
It's the little things in life that make me happy and whilst I may be poorly at the moment I still have a lot to smile about :)
Much Love
Claire xx xx xx
I have had another rest day today as I'm still not feeling to good. In spite of feeling poorly I have had a lot to smile about. My lovely sister Leanne and her girlfriend Daisy are coming up to visit me for the day from London. They plan to take the boys to the park for a picnic to give me a little rest. I love seeing my sister as she is one of my best friends in the whole world and I love her dearly.
On top of this look what Brad came home from college with today. I am really impressed with his handiwork. I think his done amazingly well with this table and the ceramic collage centre piece. It is also a very sturdy piece that now has pride of place in the living room.
He looks so proud of himself in this picture and rightly so.
Looking at these pictures of our Elle Belle you would be forgiven for thinking this was a cat who had been hand reared by us from birth and not a wild cat who until a few months ago was living on the streets of Cyprus being very badly treated. Every night she climbs up on to my chest and snuggles down whilst I watch television snuggled up to my beautiful fur baby. I'm sure she thinks I'm her mummy as she will sit grooming my hair and licking and biting my cheek as I watch TV.
It's the little things in life that make me happy and whilst I may be poorly at the moment I still have a lot to smile about :)
Much Love
Claire xx xx xx
Thursday, 21 May 2015
Art and yummy treats
Hello readers
Today I have had a rest day as the MD has flared up somewhat. Yesterday was a busy but good day. My lovely artist friend Kelly offered to do a day of arts and crafts with Brandon and his little friend O who is also home educated.
They had a blast creating their master pieces and getting help with techniques and ideas. I have also managed to arrange regular art sessions for Brandon and several of his HE buddies at £3 a head which is not bad at all for an hour or two with a talented established artist plus I will get to have a regular catch up with my dear friend.
Once we had finished and dropped O home I had to get ready for Ben's introduction evening at his soon to be secondary school. I was extremely disappointed that the head made no effort to attend and so the meeting was lead by the deputy head. The meeting that was scheduled to last an hour lasted just 20 minutes and was literally the deputy head reading a leaflet that had been handed out to us. It was a complete waste of my time and the £10 I had to pay for a babysitter for Brad and Brandon.
I made some lovely banana bread and homemade reeces which was good as its been lovely to munch on a hunk of banana bread whilst resting in front of the television today.
As always my fur babies are never far away when I'm poorly and Elle Belle has been curled up next to me for the best part of the day.
Much Love
Claire xx xx xx
Today I have had a rest day as the MD has flared up somewhat. Yesterday was a busy but good day. My lovely artist friend Kelly offered to do a day of arts and crafts with Brandon and his little friend O who is also home educated.
They had a blast creating their master pieces and getting help with techniques and ideas. I have also managed to arrange regular art sessions for Brandon and several of his HE buddies at £3 a head which is not bad at all for an hour or two with a talented established artist plus I will get to have a regular catch up with my dear friend.
Once we had finished and dropped O home I had to get ready for Ben's introduction evening at his soon to be secondary school. I was extremely disappointed that the head made no effort to attend and so the meeting was lead by the deputy head. The meeting that was scheduled to last an hour lasted just 20 minutes and was literally the deputy head reading a leaflet that had been handed out to us. It was a complete waste of my time and the £10 I had to pay for a babysitter for Brad and Brandon.
I made some lovely banana bread and homemade reeces which was good as its been lovely to munch on a hunk of banana bread whilst resting in front of the television today.
As always my fur babies are never far away when I'm poorly and Elle Belle has been curled up next to me for the best part of the day.
Claire xx xx xx
Monday, 18 May 2015
New friends and a bake off
Hello readers how are you all diddling ?
It's been a busy few weeks here at Tilly Towers. Lots of school work, lots of baking, lots of appointments, lots of reading, and lots of socialising.
Through our HE group we have made some lovely new friends. I met J at a local meet up at the park and we have become firm friends over the last few weeks. J has 7 delightful children they are all extremely well behaved and polite and two of them are autistic so J really has an understanding of what I go through on a daily basis with Brad and Brandon. Brad, Ben, and Brandon have all made friends with J's children and it's so nice to watch them all playing together so nicely. Another thing that we have in common is that we are both home educators and have been let down by the state school system at some time or another.
On Saturday J came over to help me get my gardens in shape. I didn't take before pictures which I wish I had as it looked like a jungle but I have some after pictures for you all so you can see how fab it looks now.
It's been a busy few weeks here at Tilly Towers. Lots of school work, lots of baking, lots of appointments, lots of reading, and lots of socialising.
Through our HE group we have made some lovely new friends. I met J at a local meet up at the park and we have become firm friends over the last few weeks. J has 7 delightful children they are all extremely well behaved and polite and two of them are autistic so J really has an understanding of what I go through on a daily basis with Brad and Brandon. Brad, Ben, and Brandon have all made friends with J's children and it's so nice to watch them all playing together so nicely. Another thing that we have in common is that we are both home educators and have been let down by the state school system at some time or another.
On Saturday J came over to help me get my gardens in shape. I didn't take before pictures which I wish I had as it looked like a jungle but I have some after pictures for you all so you can see how fab it looks now.
J cut the back hedge back for me as it was completely out of control.
I weeded my stoned area and cut the ivy back leaving just the few pretty wild flowers that grow there.
J helped me strim the front garden and then I mowed the grass.
I also pulled the ivy off of both sides of the house, gave the gas box a lick of paint, and put Brandons recently planted flower box out there.
All that's left to do in the garden now is the back lawn, a small section of ivy that I could not quite reach, and a skip run to remove a load of rubbish. J's lovely husband I has offered to do all this for me and refuses to let me give him any money for his work. How nice is that ?
This was the sleeping arrangements here on Saturday night.
Ben on the sofa with Elle Belle
Baby insisting on sleeping with mummy lol
Brandon and I have been making amazingly good progress with HE over the last few weeks. Here are a few pictures of what we have been up to.
Timetables 1-6 as well as tens
He has gone up a level in reading
He can say "hello what's your name ? My name is Brandon. Are you a boy or a girl? I am a boy" , he can name all the different members of a family, he can name the different parts of a house, and he can count 1-10 all in Spanish.
Science physical processes
Dinosaur dioramas at HE group
Monopoly always good for reading and counting skills
Planting his flower box and learning all about soil nutrients
On Sunday J invited us over for a roast lunch it was absolutely delicious. I wanted to take something with me to thank her for all the help she has given me recently and as they refuse to take any money from me I decided to make the family a big fresh cream and lemon cake. In total it cost me a little under £2 hardly anything in comparison to everything they have done for me of late but they were touched and very grateful for the gesture. J had actually made me a pineapple and pear crumble to bring home with me so I went with a dessert and returned home with a dessert lol.
Fresh cream and lemon cake I made for J
Pineapple and pear crumble J made for me
It is so nice to have met such a wonderfully giving and generous family that we have so much in common with. I am very grateful to God for the gift he has bestowed on my little family with these new friends.
Much Love
Claire xx xx xx
Sunday, 3 May 2015
Princess Towers
Hello readers today I write to you from princess towers. Well when I say from it what I actually mean is I'm in the vicinity of it as there's no way I would fit in there lol.
A lovely lady was giving away a cat house for free on one of the fb selling pages. It was in need of repair and quite shabby hence why she was giving it away for free. I saw it as a challenge and thought my fur babies would love it. Along with about 12 other people I asked if I could kindly have it and as I was the first to ask the lady said I was welcome to it.
It turned out that she lives just round the corner from me so off we went with my trolley to pick up the cat house. When I got it home I set to work on it.
I tightened all the screws, reattached the ladder, gave it a thoroughly good hoover, trimmed any loose threads, washed off any stains, flea sprayed and febrezzed it all. In total it took me half an hour to collect, fix, and clean and didn't cost me a penny and now my fur babies have their very own princess palace. Here are some pictures.....
It's amazing what you can pick up for free and with just a little bit of hard work save and reuse.
Much Love
Claire xx xx xx
A lovely lady was giving away a cat house for free on one of the fb selling pages. It was in need of repair and quite shabby hence why she was giving it away for free. I saw it as a challenge and thought my fur babies would love it. Along with about 12 other people I asked if I could kindly have it and as I was the first to ask the lady said I was welcome to it.
It turned out that she lives just round the corner from me so off we went with my trolley to pick up the cat house. When I got it home I set to work on it.
I tightened all the screws, reattached the ladder, gave it a thoroughly good hoover, trimmed any loose threads, washed off any stains, flea sprayed and febrezzed it all. In total it took me half an hour to collect, fix, and clean and didn't cost me a penny and now my fur babies have their very own princess palace. Here are some pictures.....
Baby seemed impressed with it
Even Elle got down from the wardrobe to have a little nose lol
It's amazing what you can pick up for free and with just a little bit of hard work save and reuse.
Much Love
Claire xx xx xx
Thursday, 23 April 2015
Sunny days = A happy Claire
The weather here in the UK at the moment is fab. It's bright, sunny, and warm. I am loving it right now and myself and Brandon are enjoying doing a lot of his HE book work either in the garden or at our local park basking in the sunshine. I have been listening to my music and bopping my way around the house getting housework done and it has been fab. I really do love spring when the sun is shining but it's not to hot and not to cold. We have also attended several HE meet ups at our local park and I have gained two lovely HE mumma friends through these meet ups. Both ladies live just round the corner from me so I anticipate lots of meet ups and activities in the future.
Anyway off for some more basking. Sorry not much to report as we are just having lots of chilled out no spend days in the sun :)
Much Love
Claire xx xx xx
Anyway off for some more basking. Sorry not much to report as we are just having lots of chilled out no spend days in the sun :)
Much Love
Claire xx xx xx
Monday, 20 April 2015
And Hello From Tilly Towers
Hello Readers hope everyone in blog-land is keeping well. We have been having a pretty rough time here of late but I am not going to go into all the doom and gloom of it all. Things are finally getting back to normal for us all here at Tilly Towers so you should be seeing more of me. The good thing about not blogging for a few weeks is I now have soooooo much to share with you all lol.
So what have we been up to whilst I have been away ?
Well Brandon finally has an appointment for his ADHD testing on the 3rd of June. The questionnaire I had to fill in was more like a novel than a form but I am hoping that now they have so much information at their finger tips it will make the diagnosis process much easier and we can get some medication for him to calm his compulsions down a little. Brad has been through the selection process for project search starting in September where he will be working at a hospital full time in the hope he will be able to secure full time paid employment at some point. He got through the selection process and has an interview on 30th May so fingers crossed it all goes well for him. My appointment with the liver specialist has been brought forward by a month and I will be seen at the end of this month when I will finally get some much needed answers. Today I went to see my MD specialist and he is very happy with my progress and I am finally receiving physio for my balance problems and hearing therapy for my hearing problems. I was also fitted for a new hearing aid to replace the one I lost as I have been struggling to manage with just the one for a few months now. We have made some lovely new local HE friends who we are trying to meet up with once a week so we are getting lots of days out of the house at the moment. I have some pictures for you all for the rest of this catch up so here they are.....
So what have we been up to whilst I have been away ?
Well Brandon finally has an appointment for his ADHD testing on the 3rd of June. The questionnaire I had to fill in was more like a novel than a form but I am hoping that now they have so much information at their finger tips it will make the diagnosis process much easier and we can get some medication for him to calm his compulsions down a little. Brad has been through the selection process for project search starting in September where he will be working at a hospital full time in the hope he will be able to secure full time paid employment at some point. He got through the selection process and has an interview on 30th May so fingers crossed it all goes well for him. My appointment with the liver specialist has been brought forward by a month and I will be seen at the end of this month when I will finally get some much needed answers. Today I went to see my MD specialist and he is very happy with my progress and I am finally receiving physio for my balance problems and hearing therapy for my hearing problems. I was also fitted for a new hearing aid to replace the one I lost as I have been struggling to manage with just the one for a few months now. We have made some lovely new local HE friends who we are trying to meet up with once a week so we are getting lots of days out of the house at the moment. I have some pictures for you all for the rest of this catch up so here they are.....
A nice Victoria sponge requested by Ben complete with fresh whipped cream.
A yummy chocolate cream sponge cake I made for treats for the week.
Pair of Clark's Knee high brown suede boots from the charity shop 50p bargain.
ELC Garage with lots of ELC vehicles bought from the charity shop for Brandon £4.
Me and Ben messing about with the uber fashionable ducky pout lol.
More silliness.
Brandon getting in on the action.
Myself and Brandon at the park on one of our HE meet ups.
Baby and Elle are getting on ok they are not best friends by any means but they are not fighting which is awesome.
I got to spend a wonderful day with my good friend Kelly listening to 50's and 60's music on her vintage record player and embarrassing the boys with my sad mum dancing lol.
And the most exciting news by far Elle arrived safely in the UK on the 1st March and is settling in well with family life here at Tilly Towers.
So that pretty much brings us up to date and now that things are settled down for us you should be hearing much more from us here at Tilly Towers.
Much Love
Claire xx xx xx
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