A Domino Effect

Happy Monday peeps!  How’s everyone?  Hope you all had nice relaxing weekends, and are enjoying the World Cup (come on Spain/South Africa!).  I woke up this morning thinking ‘Holy Crap it’s day 14 of June and I’ve only managed 3/10 goals of the month thus far!’, so the June list will be the theme of this week but first, a little pondering on the prospect of money-making…

Studentsville is fast approaching over here – I officially have eleven weeks (eleven! I can smell the freedom already!) of full-time work left before I finish my current job at the end of August.  It’s an exciting prospect, but a slightly nerve-racking one at the same time.  Because with the knowledge that my placement is coming to an end comes the realisation that so too is my full-time wage.  And while I’ve been quite stringent with my savings schedule over the last few months and have a comfortable amount behind me for heading back to school, I’m beginning to think about the various ways in which I might be able to make a few extra pennies here and there to help myself out along the way.  Oh, and I’ve got an amazing, amazing, fabulous, AWESOME trip in the planning at the moment, which I’m also trying to save for.  Will tell you all much more at a later date, but take the picture above as just a tiny little hint…watch this space!

So to money-making.  The frugal section of the blogosphere is absolutely teeming with people selling things on eBay.  I used to have an account, but never had much joy with selling things (not that I tried all that hard).  I’m beginning to wonder, however, if eBay might provide a nice little side-earner for me as I approach the realm of unemployment.  I (still) have lots of things in the flat that I would quite happily part with, and while I’ve given bagloads of things to the charity shops over the years, I would quite like to try my hand at making some money from it, if possible, especially as most of the things I would contemplate selling have either never been worn or are still in impeccable condition (not that that’s a reason not to give things to charity, mind you).

But here’s the snag: I did some minor eBay research this morning, concentrating mainly on the categories where I would intend to list (mainly womens’ clothing, accessories and jewellery), and the findings didn’t look all that promising.  Very few things I looked at had bids next to them, even those which were about to finish.  And most of the items that did have people interested and bidding were going for less than a couple of pounds.  That seems to me to make the hassle of taking the photos and writing the listings seem slightly pointless, especially as I’m not the world’s most competent (or patient) photographer.

My question, therefore, to all you avid eBay sellers out there is: just how do I go about this?!  Are there any tricks of the eBay trade I should learn before I start listing or is the best way ahead just to go for it, advertise my stuff and see what happens?  I think I’ve got around 20 decent things to sell altogether, and I could probably find a few more quite easily.  But is eBay a good way to make a profit on this stuff, or would a better option be to collect what I can together and try a car boot sale instead?  Aaargh too many questions!  Please help!

Image above from Flickr: Vlastula.

OK so this is the second repair job I carried out at the weekend.  I meant to post it yesterday but conveniently managed to forget my camera (doh).

I found this little ‘underwear as outerwear’-style top in the same charity shop as the dress from the other day.  Originally from French Connection, it cost me a measly £2.  I love the mix of the almost-too-tacky print and the pastel colours but I somewhat naively didn’t bother to try it on in the shop, and on getting it home found it to be more than just a little restrictive in allowing me to breathe properly!  The only course of action was alteration, so here’s what I did…

That’s right, no back!  I only had one zip in my sewing box and it was the wrong length for this top, so rather than traipse off to the haberdasher in the rain I decided simply to cut the back open, sew up the hems and improvise with some elastic I had lying around.  It does make what was already a pretty skimpy little number a whole lot skimpier, but this isn’t the kind of top I’d really wear on its own anyway – I always layer things like this with simpler t-shirts or blouses underneath, so why not!?  Here’s the finished result…

See?  Layered, tucked in and I can still breathe.  Result!

Well the infamous fruit and veg box finally arrived last Thursday.  I behaved like a petulant child all day at work, itching to rush home and see what had arrived.  When the clock finally struck five I was off like a shot.  The sprint home was well worth it, and I was delighted with what I found.  My box of goodies contained the following:

Veggies

1 bag of deliciously dirty potatoes (I can still smell the earth on them)
6 carrots
1 HUGE courgette (seriously, I thought it was a marrow)
8-10 small onions
1 box of mushrooms
1 large green lettuce
1 bag of assorted green leaves (yep, I can be that specific)
6 ruby red tomatoes
1 large bundle of what I think are broad beans
1 cucumber
1 aubergine

Fruits

8 crunchy apples
3 tangy oranges
3 kiwis (which I’ve yet to try)
1 grapefruit
7 bananas

I think that’s everything – it seems like an awful lot when I write it down that way!  I actually did a rough calculation of how much the equivalent amount of food would cost in Tesco and was surprised to find that I’d actually made a saving (and that wasn’t even thinking about the Tesco ‘organic’ range, which is always more expensive than their bog standard stuff).  The quality is also astounding – I half-expected some things to taste a bit bland, but the flavours really jump out.  The tomatoes are tangy and delicious, and the apples are some of the sweetest I’ve ever had.  It’s also nice (and comforting) to know that I’m putting fresh, local goodness into my mouth and not something that’s been packaged into oblivion and transported halfway across the globe.

As for actually using the stuff, so far I’ve made a vegetable crumble (dinner Friday night) and three large salads (Friday and Monday lunches, Saturday dinner), incorporating various other bits and pieces where necessary.  The fruit I’ve been munching inbetween meals.  On tonight’s menu is a spicy sausage and bean stew, followed by a mushroom and butternut squash risotto on Wednesday and parmigiana later in the week, which will see off the aubergine.  I’ll get round to the potatoes at the weekend, and will definitely be consulting this site for some ideas.  Happy, healthy days ahoy!

Image above from Flickr – RozSheffield.

One of my favourite ways to daydream the working day away is to think about what I might have for dinner (we all do it, right?).  Aside from making me feel exceptionally hungry, such musings usually centre round the idea of using up whatever ingredients I already have at home.

Today’s primary left-over is…the classic British spud.

I bought a rather chunky bag of white potatoes last week for soup, but ended up using only a couple (for some dreamy leek and potato…mmm).  I’ve been casually wondering what to do with the remaining spuds which have been sitting somewhat morosely in the bottom of the fridge ever since.  They’ve had me slightly perplexed – I’m on a spring and summer flavours-style binge at the moment and am using tonnes of spring onions, cherry tomatoes and lemon juice – the season just seems all wrong for stodgy bangers and mash, or stodgy haggis and mash (the stodgy leek and potato soup was a temporary ‘I want some comfort food’ blip).  What I needed was some reassurance that potatoes can be cool, light and summery, and that they don’t always have to come laden with butter or smothered in mayonnaise.

So in a bid to broaden my horizons I randomly typed ‘potato recipes’ into Google earlier on and this *amazing* website – Love Potatoes – was one of the first things to pop up.  There are some delicious-looking recipes (summer chicken, orange and potato salad anyone?) as well as a whole bunch of useful information including details of the various types of potato, which varieties work best in which recipes and lots of interesting facts about just how darned good for you the little beauties are.  The design of the site is really cool as well – quirky, fun and wholly dedicated to our best-loved national carb.  I couldn’t have asked for more!  Newly-inspired and bursting with culinary energy, tonight I’m going to try a fried potato salad with prawns, spring onions and soy sauce.  Results tomorrow!

Image above from Flickr – cuorhome.

One of the reasons I like Edinburgh so much is that it is quite simply beautiful.  And it’s a beauty that, to my mind at least, is never more apparent than at this time of year.  During the late Spring to the very early summer, cherry blossom is sprouting all over the Meadows, the flowers in the many beds around Princes Street are in full bloom and the ‘secret gardens’ (completely obscured from the street by iron rails and thorny bushes, accessible only to the local residents who have keys) of the New Town are, from what I can see by jamming my head through various railings to get a good look, vividly abuzz with bright and chirpy colours.

I spent Bank Holiday Monday jaunting around the place, doing my best to soak up all of this eye-pleasing bounty.  My initial intention had been to locate and explore Stockbridge – an area just north of Princes Street which might, for several reasons, be a good place to live come next year – but it was such a beautiful day that the said exploration was soon ditched in favour of a take-away coffee, a trip to the nearby Botanic Garden and a good spell of impromptu sunbathing.

I really wish I went to the Botanic Garden more often.  Not only is it free to get in (there’s a box for donations on the way out, which I always empty my pockets into) but it’s one of those tiny pockets of self-contained tranquility that many city dwellers frequently crave yet seldom come across.  On stepping inside the gates it suddenly feels like the traffic of the surrounding streets has melted away and you’re being hugged by Mother Nature herself, so completely engulfed do you become by the thick, luscious greenery of thousands of trees and plants.  I’ve never been one to gush over anything remotely horticultural (just ask the shrivelled mess of death on my desk for confirmation of that) but the Botanic Garden renders me awestruck each and every time I go.  It is beautiful, and so interesting.  Various interconnecting paths weave all over the place and the plants are so densely concentrated and so tall that it can be difficult to get any real sense of the direction you’re heading in.  You could easily walk round in a circle two or three times before you realised what you were doing and where you were going.  But it’s such a nice experience that you get the feeling that that would be just fine – there’s something new and pretty to see on every lap.

What I like most about the Garden is its sense of calm.  It absorbs whatever minor irks and qualms I’m fighting that day and I always leave feeling refreshed and inspired – something to do with the power of nature, I suspect.  I sat on the grass for around an hour on Monday, writing, thinking and spying on passers-by.  It’s the kind of experience I think I would benefit from having three or four times a week, so sprightly and ready to take things on do I feel afterwards.  The biggest bonus is that the Garden is completely free (optional donation aside).  Not bad when you consider the price of psychotherapy these days!

More information on the Botanical Garden here.

Image above from Flickr – g.naharro.  The Garden is also home to hordes of cheeky squirrels just like this one.  They are so used to human company that they will actually take nuts from your hand and eat them right before your eyes!