10 tips on approaching shops

Selling online is easy, right? Wrong!

Setting up shop online is easy, but the actual selling takes a lot of hard work. First you have to make something and make it well, then you have to photograph it beautifully, then you have to write a description which reads as though you hadn't bothered your backside to offer photos in the first place. Then you have to market your products and that in itself can be on uphill struggle.

On the other hand selling offline can actually be much easier, you just make and take to a shop. Beautifully made things will sell themselves because customers can pick them up off the shelves, try them on, hold them, feel them and smell them. You no longer need to bother with beautiful photos and wordy descriptions and because some shops also like to use their own branding and packaging, allowing you maybe a label or swing tag, that's another thing you don't have to worry about.

But the thought of approaching a shop can seem very daunting and can put people off the idea before they've even tried.

I've put together a little list of tips of what to do when considering approaching shops to hopefully make the whole thing seem less scary and hopefully more rewarding.

1. Firstly, spend some time in the shops you are considering. Pop in a couple of times over the course of a few weeks. You want to get a feel for how busy the shop is and how well it's doing. Many a designer has lost items when a shop they stocked closed without warning.
   
   
2. Try and get a feel for the products in the shop and more importantly what sells. This will give you an idea of the shop's reputation and what they are well known for. Do handbags languish on the shelves for months on end and yet every time you pop in they seem to have new jewellery. This means that the shop is known for jewellery and that is what customers will intentionally go to the shop to buy. If you don't sell jewellery then you only have the opportunity of selling to passers by who may not be looking for anything at all. Always try and find the right place for you.
   
   
3. Think about the location and what effect it will have on you. For instance, I don't drive so delivering to shops in my own town is a dawdle, delivering to the towns immediately surrounding my own takes a little more planning but isn't in itself a hassle. I can even manage Belfast with a huge bag and little fuss, but anything beyond that becomes much more of a headache and you'll need to take that into consideration. In stocking a shop you could be paying as much as 50% to the shop owner. Are you fine with only earning 50% and taking on any hassle involved in delivering too.
   
   
4. Once you've worked out which shops you would like to approach, make an appointment. I honestly can't stress this enough, I know a few people have had success by just dropping in the off chance, but keep in mind that the shop owner holds all the cards and at this early stage the only thing you have to offer is respect for them and what they do. I personally can't abide when someone assumes that just because I'm not making something or packing an order that I must be sat here with my two arms the one length and all the time in the world to do what I please and the same holds true for shop owners. Just because they don't have a queue at the counter doesn't mean that you can assume they're standing there with nothing to do and you'll be a welcome break in an otherwise boring day.
   
   If you do choose to just drop in unexpected, I would suggest starting the conversation by saying that you love the things they've chosen for the shop and you believe that your products would fit perfectly and could you possibly arrange a time to call and have a chat with them when it's convenient. You may get lucky and they'll have time there and then, but if they've actually just been waiting for a few spare minutes between sales to nip to the loo when you happened to walk in then you've at least offered them the opportunity to offer you a quick response, even if it is just to tell you to phone later in the day.
   
   
5. If a shop isn't interested in your products, don't take it to heart. Try and keep in mind that nobody knows the shop and customers better than the owner. They're running a business and have to make all their decisions with their head rather than their heart. It doesn't matter that you make the most beautiful brooches she's ever set eyes on in her life, if she's stocked brooches before and hasn't had any success with them or if her biggest sellers are soaps and candles, then chances are she just won't be able or willing to sacrifice the shelf space for your products. Don't take it personally, it's just business.
   
   
6. So you've taken the first step and now you have a date and time to go back again. I would suggest taking good photographs of your range of products, take photos of things in groups, a selection of jewellery, highlighting one or two pieces in photos of their own is a good way to go. You don't want the owner to feel as though they're plowing through your holiday snaps for the past ten years. 15 or 20 photos at the very most will be more than enough, then choose a few key pieces to take with you. I would also suggest wearing something of your own if you happen to make something that can be worn. If you have your own packaging take a sample of that too to show the quality.
   
   Don't worry if the shop owner asks if you can leave a couple of things for her to think it over. I was asked the same thing when I first approached a shop and later that day a customer saw the pieces I had left behind the counter and asked if they were for sale, had that not happened the owner may have decided against stocking me in a few days. I got lucky.
   
   
7. Going back to the respect thing again, I would say to make sure you are presentable when going to the shop. It isn't a formal interview so you don't need to break out the good suit, but just make sure that you are tidy and well presented. Leave enough time for a quick chat to turn into a coffee or even a lunch, you want to give the owner your full attention and not look as though you really need to be somewhere else. With that in mind, don't take the kiddies with you either.
   
   
8. If the shop offers to take a few pieces on sale or return don't let it worry you. Most shops will only consider consignment until a designer has a proven track record with them. It's a way of letting you get your things onto shelves where customers can see them, but the only risk to the shop owner at this stage is letting you have a shelf.
   
   
9. If you are offered consignment, try and stop yourself from calling in to the shop every day "just in case something has sold", but do keep an eye on your things or more importantly where they are. If a couple of things sell, you could bring up the subject of them maybe being better located within the shop, at eye level or closer to the front of the shop, if however nothing has sold in a few weeks, suggest replacing them with a few different items. This will help keep the shop looking fresh for the owner, it makes you look proactive and it has the added bonus that regular customers to the shop will view your items as popular, regularly replaced and updated and therefore desirable. Nobody has to know that you took the last batch home again and that they didn't leave the shop wrapped beautifully in customer's bag.
   
   
10. And lastly, negotiate. Just because you agreed to 50% on your first day selling through a shop doesn't mean you're stuck with that figure. If you find that you're selling well through a particular shop and getting the call to restock more frequently then it may be time to consider a renegotiation of your percentage.
    
    In the early days if the owner felt that 50% was reasonable for your products to take up her shelf space before selling a month or two later, whereas now she finds that your products are selling within a couple of weeks then you should be able to successfully renegotiate the owners percentage down a bit. Go easy though, maintaining the relationship is important and you can always come back to the subject and whittle down the percentage a little at a time.
    

Have I missed anything out? What are your tips for dealing with shops?

A tip for kids and getting ahead

Its time again for Works for Me Wednesday over at We are THAT Family.

I only have a couple of quick little tips which have worked for me in the last week or so.

Toots has had a bit of a stomach upset since having her booster shots last week. We haven't had any really big dramas but she has been off her food a bit more than usual so she needs to take a supplement. Its designed for kids, recommended by doctors if you kid has been off food for more than 24 hours and its supposed to taste of orange. If an orange fell down the back of the sofa and was forgot about for, ooh say, a month or so.

Now if I pour the stuff into a glass and hand it to her there isn't a snowball's chance in hell of her drinking it (she only fell for that once) and all bets are off as to what she'll actually do with it.

Although, if I freeze it in an ice cube tray apparently the taste isn't just as bad and she'll happily crunch away on it. I haven't tried yet, but I would imagine it'll work for an other medicine she needs to take.

Score one for mommy.

The second tip isn't really a tip at all, just something I've noticed.

I like to keep a bag of frozen cookie dough in the freezer. The recipes I have which I like make about a hundred or so cookies and if I baked that many in one go, well, I'd probably sit down with a glass of milk and never get up again.

Anyway, usually I make peanut butter cookies and little coconut cookies which we like. I just roll them into balls, flatten them a bit and stick them in the freezer on a cookie sheet until they're frozen and then throw them all in a ziplock, but a while ago I tried chocolate chip cookies.

For the first couple of weeks they were absolutely fine and baked perfectly either defrosting first or from frozen with a minute or two added on to the baking time, but for some reason they've changed a bit.

I don't know if its the addition of chocolate or something about the recipe but they just aren't right anymore, they get very dark very quickly while still being uncooked in the centre, which makes me think that the sugar in the dough or chocolate has somehow leached out onto the surface of the dough and it caramelizes almost as soon as it hits the heat of the oven making them quite bitter once they're fully cookies.

Anyway, frozen cookies = great idea, chocolate chip = not so much.

WFMW - The (not so) rainy day kit

Its time again for Works for Me Wednesday over at We are THAT Family.

Hi there.

I live in Ireland.

It rains here. A lot.

Our rainy day box is basically just the daughter's normal toy box, legos, crayons, that kind of thing.

However, I also like to keep a (not so) rainy day kit. You'll notice I'm not using the "S" word. It's such a fragile thing and I don't want to frighten it away.

I like to keep it packed and tucked into the boot of the car. There isn't much in it but the way I see it, 20 minutes spent gathering a few bits together is 20 minutes of not so rainy weather wasted.



Obviously an M & S bag.

I keep a couple of beach toys, a change of clothes, a jumper and rain coat (Ireland), a bites and stings kit (paranoid).

I also keep a pack of wet wipes in there. Do kids ever grow out of the need for these things?





And it doesn't hurt to have a few small books in there for long drives. And Toots likes to have her little bunny pillow so that she can tuck it in at the side of her neck if she happens to fall asleep on the way home.

I always keep a stash of snacks and bottled water in the car so this means that if we wake and the weather looks like its playing ball, we just grab the car keys and go.

And the child too. Obviously.

WFMW - Flat Pack Tools

Its time again for Works for Me Wednesday over at We are THAT Family.

If you're anything like me and you love Ikea and all things flat pack, chances are you've gathered up a fair few of these little tools over the years.

And chances are that you will need them again at some point, especially for kids furniture.

You know the pieces I'm talking about.

That fantastic crib you bought which can have the mattress up nice and high to make it easier for you in the early days and then nice and low once your child seems ready to scale Everest stand on their own two feet and then, as if that wasn't enough, the crib finally can be changed into a toddler bed complete with low guard rails to stop them from rolling out of the bed.

So you're going to need to be able to find those tiny little tools at least twice, long after you've put the bed up in the first place, three if you count taking the thing down to get it out of the room once your child outgrows it. And all of this over the course of about five years.

So what's the easiest way to guarantee that you'll be able to find exactly the tiny little tool you're looking for three years after you last saw it.

Simple.

Once you finish building your beautiful new piece of furniture and you've finished the bottle of wine necessary to build flat pack, just take a strip of packing tape or any kind of sticky tape and stick the tool underneath or to the back of the piece of furniture.

Only you will know its there, safe and sound, ready for the next time you need it.

Now won't you sleep better tonight.?

I know I will.

WFMW - Frozen Yogurt Pops

So you've bought two dozen yogurts for the kids.

Because the kids have been eating yogurts like they're going out of fashion for the last three weeks and you thought you'd take advantage of that huge pack of yogurts because they were only £1.99 and they'll last at least a week without you having to run out and buy more every night because the stash in the fridge has mysteriously disappeared.

Cut to a week later, you still have a fridge overflowing with yogurts, there's only three days left before they go out of date and your kids are eating grapes like they're going out of fashion.

What do you do?

You could eat every tiny pot yourself.

You could strap the kids down and force feed them yogurt through a funnel.

Kidding.

Besides a funnel probably wouldn't work. Its not like I tried or anything, I'm just guessing.

So what's the one thing that kids will eat without complaint?

Frozen treats

I don't know about your kids, but my daughter will eat iced lollies in the dead of winter.

So take your huge stash of yogurts, make a hole in the lid and stick in a handle. If you happen to have lolly pop sticks, then use those. The ones I have are for crafts and are coloured so I'm not really fussed on trying to use them for food.

I do have a stash of plastic spoons though...




Just stick a spoon through the lid and into the yogurt and stick them all in the freezer. These little yogurts are usually ready in about an hour or so.

So now you don't have to eat three squares of nothing but yogurt everyday and your kids will love* you for letting them have all the frozen goodies they can eat.

And it works well with that monster bunch of bananas too. I usually peel the banana (they're a bugger to peel after they're frozen), cut it in half and stick wooden skewer in the cut end. Pop a handful of banana pops in a freezer bag and throw them in the freezer for an hour or so. They're great for birthday parties or barbecues in the back garden. You can even get fancy and melt some chocolate before dipping the frozen bananas. The cold bananas set the chocolate almost straight away so that the kids can crack through the chocolate layer.

For more Works for me Wednesday tips, head over to We are THAT Family.

*Not that the love of a child can be bought with frozen dairy treats, it's just a figure of speech.

Ghostly Art

Photo courtesy of dogtired on Flickr

I've been asked a few times now about "Market Haunting". I started to try and quickly explain the concept, but found (as usual) that I was going on for quite a while. Although I didn't take the photo shown above, it is my local market. You'll find me there almost every Saturday.

Mostly, if I have a specific idea of what I need to get at the market I'll go first thing in the morning. However, if the shopping list consists of fruit, veg and meat then that is a day for haunting.

Market haunting is a little risky, in that you could arrive home again empty handed but the rewards can be great, once you get the hang of it. Try to think of it as a bit of fun. You may have to be prepared to bulk buy some things in order to get a discount and process some of those things for freezing once your get home.

I'm lucky because my market is on a Saturday, which is the last food market of the week. If the stall owners don't sell their produce today, they have to throw it away, eat it themselves (equivalent to throwing it away in a vendor's eyes) or find some way of safely storing the produce and cross their fingers hoping that its still in a good enough condition to sell on Monday which is hard to do because they all go to the wholesalers on Monday and collect more fresh produce and people always pick the pretty fruit.

The idea is to go to the market, armed with a pocket full of change to make quick transactions, at the very end of the day. You'll have to get to know your market and find out roughly when the vendors start to pack up for the day and go about 20 minutes before that. You'll find that you are one of the only people around.

You need thick skin and a bit of an attitude to make this work. Being a bit brazen won't do you any harm either. Quickly scan the stalls to see what's left and what you would be interested in buying. I once took an entire box of mixed peppers off a vendor's hands for less than a quarter of the original price. If I'd only wanted one or two peppers then I'm sure he would have insisted on full price or close to it, as it was he was happy to have one less thing to store and peppers don't store well

Your plan is to get as much produce as possible, for as little as possible without pissing anyone off. I've been doing it for so long now the Vendors know me and they'll call out as I pass to let me know what they have left. They know I'm no idiot and they'll never be able to fob me off with rubbish so now I do pretty well. Meat, fresh fish and seafood are also easy to get for very little money, as well as baked goods.

Go on, give it a go. Worst case scenario, you get some fresh air and meet a few new people. Where's the harm.

WFMW - The Humble Cocktail Stick

Poor little cocktail stick, taken for granted.

This little wooden stick has really come into its own in the last few weeks. Toots has been off her food since coming out of full time daycare. She's a very social eater and was always a lot happier eating in company, especially if that company happened to be kids her own age so its been a little difficult to get her to eat regularly since the start of the year.

I was at the end of my tether, although I knew that she would eat when she was hungry I felt awful watching her eat a quarter slice of toast for breakfast or three mouthfuls of pasta at lunchtime and claim she was full up.

I'd tried everything, sandwiches cut with cookie cutters into cute little hearts and stars, painting smiley faces with an edible ink pen on the side of cherry tomatoes, I even resorted to that novelty convenience food, you know the ones turkey dinosaurs and such. 1% turkey, 99% water and sawdust.

Then a little over three weeks ago she went to a birthday party with my mum and she noticed that the mother of the birthday girl had made a load of mini cocktail sausages, red Leicester and cheddar cheese cubes and big bowls of fruit salad. The thing is she had set out a big glass full of swizzle sticks for the kids to skewer the food and Toots was absolutely hoovering it up. My mum said she completely stuffed herself and almost wasn't able to play on the bouncy castle.

For a few days I put it down to the fact that she had been surrounded by other kids and her social eating had kicked in again, even though my mum kept insisting it was the swizzle sticks. After a couple of days of being back to square one I figured it couldn't hurt to give it a go.

I took a few bog standard cocktail sticks.


Then I made little balls of playdough and stuck them on top of the cocktail sticks, leaving them over night for the dough to dry. The little balls work perfectly, they dried solid with a little hole to allow me to replace the cocktail sticks.

Best of all Toots is back to eating what I would consider to be a full meal for a preschooler and she's also asking for snacks in between.

It also seems that the old saying "the more you eat, the more you want" is very true for Toots because once she was eating larger portions with the cocktail stick, she started to actually enjoy her food again and hasn't really bothered with the cocktail sticks in the last few days, she just wants the food now.

And I'm a very happy mummy again.

All thanks to that little cocktail stick.

Cocktail sticks definitely work for me.

Its Kristen of We are THAT family's first week hosting Works for Me Wednesday, hopefully with many more to come. Head on over (or back) and say Hi.

The Do's and Don'ts of Beiing a Good Neighbour

Some new neighbours moved into the house across from us last month. After getting to know my new neighbours it came up in conversation that we are the only family in the area they have met. I know everyone is busy these days but this completely shocked me. Is being a good neighbour archaic? Did I miss a memo?

The way I see it, there are some basic do's and don'ts that I always follow as far as neighbours, new and old, are concerned.

New

1. Don't rush. Assume that in the first few days your new neighbours will have more important things to do than meet you. Leave it a few days or so to go over and properly introduce yourself, have a chat and get to know them better.

2. Do offer food in the first few days. This may seem like a contradiction to #1, but it really isn't. We all know how exhausting and stressful a move can be. Pay a quick visit with a prepared lunch or dinner. Let your new neighbours know who you are and where you live, offer the food and excuse yourself as having something to do or somewhere to be. Try not to linger too long or they may feel obligated to invite you in and the house is likely in chaos. They'll be grateful you excused yourself, trust me you won't seem off standish.

3. Do try and establish whether they are completely new to the area. You may be able to offer valuable information, in my case a shortcut to the town centre which shaves about over a mile off the journey and cuts out a really big hill on the way home with heavy bags. Offer the information you may take for granted, when rubbish bins are emptied, recycling collections days, the location of the "good" butcher or bakery. Simple things which may otherwise take a long time to figure out.

4. Do offer to help, and mean it. If you genuinely believe that you are very busy and aren't in a position to help, don't offer. Offering assistance and then refusing every request is worse than not offering at all. If you happen to be going to the shops, ask if they need anything. They may not have time to do this themselves and not having to think about going to get bread and milk when they're trying to get all their ceilings painted before the carpet guy arrives can be a great relief. Maybe is they have little kids and so do you, you could offer to let them play in your garden with your kids. You can keep them well fed and watered and they're still in mum's line of sight without being under her feet. You know how much more can be accomplished during child free time.

5. Do keep in touch. You've made the first move, now keep up the good work. Say Hi when you see them in the street, stop for a chat if you both have the time. Encourage the kids to play together if you have them. Be polite and considerate, but also respect boundaries and privacy. Don't get a reputation at the nosey neighbour who calls by everyday.

Old

1. Do help your elderly neighbours. The most important thing in my opinion is to consider you're elderly neighbours. Help them at every opportunity. I always help an elderly couple who live directly facing me. They're a lovely couple and are always very nice to Toots. While they do have children of their own around my age, they don't visit. They are capable of getting about themselves as they do drive, but living on a pension can be difficult enough without spending half of it on petrol just to go and buy groceries. I always shop for them and if I'm ordering online before Christmas I place an order for them too. Try to think about the little things, if you're cutting your own lawn would it be so much hassle to cut theirs while you're at it. Making dinner, make a bit extra.

2. Don't be a noisy neighbour. A lot of people today are very firmly entrenched in their own little bubble and its true that some people are very unaware of their own noise. Try to be respectful of your next door neighbours while inside and everyone else while outside. I'm not saying that you should tip toe around on egg shells, everyone has to make some noise to some degree, just be nice about it. Planning some noisy work, let your neighbours know ahead of time. Nobody wants to plan a barbecue or get together with friends only for you to start jackhammering an old patio right in the middle of it. And if your neighbours have kids who regularly play in their own garden, don't be that person who sits talking on her mobile in her own garden, swearing like a sailor at the top of her voice. Nobody likes that person.

3. Do always know the whereabouts of your kids. They might think that its perfectly harmless if they kick a ball into your neighbours garden and have to go and ask for it back. You might agree. Your neighbours won't if its happened 18 times in one day. Your neighbours don't want to feel like they have to babysit your kids while your in the garden swearing like a sailor on your mobile.

4. Do look after your animals and clean after them, especially if your garden is attached to a neighbour's garden. Nobody wants to go out into the garden on a hot summers day to cool off and be hit by the smell of dog mess. That stuff stinks on a hot day and just because its in your garden doesn't mean it doesn't travel. Make sure that if you're gong to have animals that you train them properly. If the dog goes absolutely nuts when someone walks by your house when you're home and you have to tell the animal to be quiet, assume that they also do the same thing when you're not at home, except then its without restriction and can go on for hours.

5. Do accept any complaints from your neighbours with grace. Try not to go on the offensive, claim you don't know what they're talking about and close the door in their face. Bear in mind that the law is NOT on the side of disruptive neighbours. The problem will not go away just by closing a door. Believe it or not your neighbour was being extremely nice by trying to call the problem to your attention first. They had a multitude of other options open to them, most of which involve complaining to an authority. Did you know that excessive dog barking in a built up area in the UK can land you with a fine of £1000 for each animal and for each offence. That can add up to a hell of a lot of money. Try to sort out problems amongst yourselves and only contact authorities if you feel your complaints are being ignored.

When dealing with neighbours, respect is the key. Always be respectful of your neighbours and you can expect the same in return.

What do you think? Are you a nice neighbour? Do you have an awful neighbour (in case it wasn't immediately obvious, I do)? How do you greet your new neighbours?

Say what...?

I thought I'd clarify some common Irish/Ulsterish words and sayings, just for funsies.

Faffing - Used to describe time wasting, usually when the time waster is actually very busy doing something, but with no direct outcome or nothing to show for their work. Not to be confused with Dossing about.

Dosser, Dossing about - Sitting on you bum doing absolutely nothing except taking up valuable space and using up valuable oxygen.

Chuffed - Feeling happy or incredibly pleased with yourself.

Poke - An ice cream cone and Toots personal favourite treat.

Craic/Crack - Fun.

I tell a lie - used in conversation to to correct yourself when you realise you've remember something incorrectly. Usually preceded with "No, wait".

So it is - Can be used either on its own as in "Its cold out", "aye, so it is" or at the end of a sentence to help get the point across as in "Its cold out, so it is".

Is that you? Please don't try to be clever and answer "Nooo, its Madonna". The person wants to know if you're finished.

Yer Da - Your father.

Yer Ma - Your Mother.

Does my Da know yer Ma - Is my father "familiar" with your mother. An insult, use with extreme caution.

Eejit - Idiot.

Numpty - Idiot.

Bin lid - Idiot.

A drop of the black stuff - A pint of Guinness.

The Funny Fortnight - Northern Ireland's fifth season or the Marching Season (i.e. Spring, Summer, Marching, Autumn, Winter). Usually a time when trouble would break out, angry mobs, rioting that sort of thing, although I haven't seen much of it the last few years. Also a time of the year when, if you work in Belfast and your boss is very nice, he may allow you to go home early in case the roads were blocked by an overturned bus or more often than not a couple of tires, a sofa and a few teenage boys with bumfluff.

Bumfluff - Barely pubescent facial hair commonly seen on young teenage boys. Also known as "The Barcode Moustache".

Brickie - Bricklayer or builder.

Spark - Electrician.

Chippie - Carpenter, not to be confused with Chippy.

Chippy - Purveyor of deeply delicious fried food such as fish, chips (fries), pasties (past-ees), sausages and the ever present Ulster Fry.

Ulster Fry - Soda bread, potato bread, pancake, white bread, sausage, bacon, egg and mushrooms all fried and served with baked beans (Heinz) and generous amounts of red or Brown Sauce.

Red sauce - Ketchup.

Brown sauce - always HP its made with vinegar, fruits and spices. Think chutney only completely smooth and very lovely.

Bap - a small bread roll.

Belfast Bap - a large bread roll, more of an entire loaf to be honest but usually consumed by a single person in one sitting, sometimes filled with cheese and onion crisps (Tayto).

Butty - Sandwich.

Ok, so that'll do for the minute. If anyone finds this to be a useful reference, let me know I'll do more.

There are thousands of these, so there are.

Basic Bread Dough Recipe - WFMW

As promised my basic bread dough recipe. I've been fiddling with this for a while and I'm pretty sure its as good as it going to get.

I use this dough for a lot of things, not just plain white bread, but we'll get to that.

About lb plain white flour
About 300ml luke warm water
2 tbls olive oil
2 tsp salt
2 tsp honey
2 tsp dried yeast

Put flour, oil and salt in a large bowl

Add yeast and honey to lukewarm water to reactivate and make a cup of coffee while you wait 10 minutes.

Tip water mixture into flour and combine with your hands. You may think at first that there is too much water but just keep mixing and squeezing together it will be a soft dough. The idea behind good bread is to get as much liquid in there as possible and still be able to handle the dough, even if you can just barely handle it.

Flour your counter top and tip the dough out. Knead the dough for as long as you can manage, you'll start to feel a difference with this dough very quickly after a couple of minutes and because it is a soft dough with plenty of liquid it is very easy to knead*. If need be take a break for a couple of minutes, nobody ever said you had to knead the dough for a solid 20 minutes.

Once you're happy that the dough is soft, smooth and elastic, add a little bit of oil to the original bowl (it will be relatively clean), cover with cling film and leave to prove**

Once proved, knock back slightly, shape, preheat oven and bake.

* I think the easiest way to knead dough is to hold onto the piece of dough closest to you and stretch the rest of the dough away from you, then roll the dough back on itself, turn and repeat. The first few stretches the dough will break, then it stretches more and more easily. This way seems to me to be much easier on the arms, much quicker and theres something very rhythmic and relaxing about it.
** In my house there are three ways to prove bread. Sometimes I'll make a double batch of dough and prove half of it in the fridge for 24 hours or so, that way I only have to make dough once. It can be proved at room temperature for about two hours, you can easily make a batch after lunch and have fresh baked bread with dinner. 3.00pm and not a crumb in the house, stick some washing in the dryer while you make the dough, put it in the bowl, switch off the dryer, flatten the clothes slightly, set the bowl on top and close the door while you preheat the oven, 20 minutes later, perfectly risen dough.

I always bake bread at 180C (350F) in a fan assisted oven.

Sandwich Rolls divide dough into eight pieces, shape into rolls, scrunching and twisting the ends of the dough into the base of the roll, brush with milk - bake for 15 minutes. Or make about 20 smaller rolls, flattening the dough into a disk before wrapping around a knob of frozen garlic butter or mozzarella before baking. Make a dozen medium rolls stuffed with chicken breast, marinated and cooked in soy, garlic, ginger and spring onion, wrap the dough around, brush with salted milk and sprinkle sesame seeds on top for Chinese style chicken buns.

Plait divide the dough into four pieces then each piece into three, roll into a long strip and plait starting in the middle and working out to each end, turn the ends under, brush with milk and bake for 15 minutes.

Tin Loaf - Tip entire batch of dough out onto a flour surface, flatten slightly, roll the dough into a short fat sausage shape drop into a 2lb loaf tin and bake for 30 - 35 minutes. You'll have to give the loaf a second prove for about 40 minutes with this option. Don't be afraid to add flavours here, when the dough it flattened, before rolling up, spread with basil or tomato pesto, Dijon or wholegrain mustard, cover with chopped steamed spinach, tomato or onion relish, all very good additions.

Bloomer - Again use the whole batch of bread and prepare as for tin loaf, except prove the bread on a greased baking sheet. You can knead in other flavours here and give the loaf a longer second prove, chopped sunblush tomatoes, fresh green grapes and brie, Parmesan and chopped spinach, grated raw beetroot (wear gloves) bake for 30-35 minutes.

Pizza - Yes it makes great pizza, tip dough onto a pizza sheet or just a regular baking sheet (pizza doesn't have to be round), push out to the edges of the pan with your hands, add toppings and bake for 25 - 30 minutes or part bake dough on as it is for 10 minutes, cool and freeze for later use. This recipe will make two 12inch deep dish pizza bases or four thin and crispy (although you're going to have to bake it on a pizza stone or a large untreated terracotta tile placed in the oven works just as well for a fraction of the cash).

Focaccia - The recipe makes two, drop half the dough into the base of a cake tin (about 10 - 12 inch) and push out to the edges of the tin, leave to prove while oven is heating. Before baking make indentations all over the top of the dough with your fingers, drizzle with olive oil, add sea salt, finely sliced red onion and fresh herbs such as rosemary, thyme or sage, bake for 20-25 minutes. The bread should be a lovely dark golden brown on top with a lovely crisp crust, serve warm (can be reheated wrapped in foil in the oven for 10 minutes or so).

That isn't even the half of it, you can use this bread recipe for dozens of other options, no more having to remember which recipe you use for rolls, or sandwiches, or pizza, all the one, it all works.

And please let me know if you try any other flavours with this recipe. I'd love to see what else everyone comes up with for this bread.

For more tips, crafts and recipes than you can shake a stick at, head on over to Rocks in my Dryer.

I also have another post up today if you need a relatively quick, very cheap gift idea for Valentine's Day.

Frozen peppers and feeling undeservedly superior

What with Saturday having some lovely weather and toots off to a birthday party with Nana, I decided to spend the afternoon market haunting.

My fruit and veg guy obviously had somewhere to be in the afternoon and when I arrived he was already packing up, at least an hour earlier than usual (or maybe he just knew I was coming and wanted to get the hell out of there).

He had a box of mixed bell peppers which he had marked down to £0.40 each which is actually a pretty good price here. They usually run about £0.50-£0.60 each for a medium sized one or £0.99 for three little tiddlers.

I maybe got lucky because he just wanted to get packed and away, but I offered him £0.15 each and I would take the entire box off his hands and he finally agreed. He doesn't do any markets on a Sunday and would have had to wait until Monday to try selling them again and they were already very ripe.

Alright, so I don't drive and it meant lugging a box of 24 peppers home with me but I was a very happy bunny when I got them home. I sliced the whole box into strips and froze them on baking sheets before dumping them into two large zip lock bags. I get through a lot of peppers in this house, but they'll still last a couple of months.

And does anyone else get that odd slightly elated feeling, that you rock as a mommy and wife when you have a glut of something (that if it was all you had left, you could make a meal of) in your freezer. And why do I get exactly the same feeling when I've stocked up on toilet paper?

Five cheap (or free) ways to occupy kids when it’s pouring outside.

Photo courtesy of Sapaho at Flickr

Hello. My name is Leanne and I live in Northern Ireland. It rains here. Often.

It was easy enough to keep toots occupied without resorting to TV all day when she was a lot smaller. Now she has to be doing something and because she’s only three a lot of her play is still led by me and Himself.

She’s quite independent when doing certain things, but the weather this year has been awful and she tires of the same thing quickly (Don’t they all?).

So, five things for kids to so when it’s raining. Most of these are relatively easy to do and prepare. I’m not a fan of huge craft projects which take an hour just to lay everything out. Besides, we’re usually just about to head out to the beach, bucket and spade in hand, when the heavens open and I need a quick distraction.

Paper Mache – OK I know, it can be a bit messy, but it’s great for kids of all ages. Even the tiniest of toddler can manage this one without having to be too dextrous. All you need are a handful of balloons, a newspaper or magazine, some flour and water.

Get a bowl of cold water and add enough flour until it’s the consistency of white glue, tear the paper into strips about an inch wide and plonk into the bowl, inflate balloons and give one to each child and let them work away. The beauty of using the flour and water mix instead of actual glue is that when you’re trying to work with a handful of kids it isn’t a disaster if one starts eating from the bowl (it’ll happen, trust me). Plus this means that you’ll then have another planned project for another day when the balloons are dry.

Baking - I don’t this is a predominantly girly thing. I’ve yet to meet a boy who didn’t like to bake as long as he gets to eat the finished product.

The easiest recipe in the world for use when baking with kids is as follows;

One carton of kid’s yogurt or fromage frais.
One carton of caster (superfine) sugar.
One carton of vegetable oil (you can substitute this for melted margarine/butter or sunflower oil)
Three cartons of self raising flour (or plain (all purpose) flour with a teaspoon of baking powder added)
One large egg.

Scrape the yogurt out into a bowl and give the carton a quick wash and dry. Measure out the remaining ingredients starting with the dry ones and add to the bowl with the yogurt in no particular order. Let the kids mix with the wooden spoon (it doesn’t matter if it’s a bit lumpy) and then use the mixture to half fill cupcake cases.

Bake at 180C (350F) for 15-20 minutes, they’ll spring back of you press on them gently when they’re ready. When you remove them from the oven either immediately place a choccy button or two on top while they’re still hot or let them cool slightly and then serve still warm, split in half with some jam.

Play in the rain – Hey it’s there you might as well make use of it. Who can make the biggest splash that kind of thing; also worms come out when it rains, if your kids are into that. Mine is. And if it’s warm outside even though it’s raining, there’s nothing wrong with sticking on some old clothes and letting them roll in the mud, sure it’s just good clean dirt.

Painting and Drawing – but lead them in this. Next time you pass a DIY store pick up a roll of wall lining paper. It’s dirt cheap, usually recycled and quite thick. Pull out your great big roll of paper and a box of colouring pencils or crayons and ask them to draw something specific, their ideal bedroom, a theme park, the best pet in the whole wide world or just a portrait of you. This will also give you some insight into what they think about.

Musical Statues – It isn’t just for birthday parties you know. Get the music on and turn the volume up. Keep hold of the remote and hit mute, everyone has to stay completely still while the music’s off. You can add to this game as well, drop some drying cloths on the floor and say that everyone has to dance on their cloth, if you fall off when the music stops, next time you can only dance on one foot or as a penalty you have to dance with mum for five minutes.

I know hardly and extensive list, but it’s always handy to have one or two extra ideas up you sleeve for times when it’s pouring outside or for anyone in warmer climates, when it’s just too hot to play outside.

Sunday Savers

I’ve decided to make Sunday the day I post about what I do around here to save money and cut costs. I need a bit more structure; otherwise this place will turn into a pigsty.

I need to get one thing straight right off the bat. For me frugality isn’t a personal choice. I make ends meet, sometimes barely. I have a nice house by my standards, but then with the house prices at the minute if I sold it I couldn’t afford a house half the size so in that way I’m just lucky.

I’m cheap, tight or frugal; call it whatever you want, because I have to be. If I threw money away on things the bills just wouldn’t get paid. It's that simple really.

I think I’ll start with the small everyday things I do, although please bear with me if I run off on a tangent a lot of these things I do without thinking. A lot of the things I do are green as well. I prefer to be as green as possible at home because my job is sickeningly un-green. Although I’ve never quite figured out whether I do the things because they’re green and saving money is the bonus or vice versa.

I don’t buy any cleaning products, none whatsoever. I do buy a bottle of all purpose soap called Stardrops which costs around 50p for a half litre. You can use this to clean everything from dishes to windows, upholstery to floors and everything else in between. I’ve also been known to buy magic sponges which are £1 for four, but I keep these for specific things, when the Stardrops and elbow grease just hasn’t worked.

I mend clothes from simple things like fixing hems and re-attaching buttons to altering some of toots and my own clothes to get an extra season out of them. I do this every year with jeans for toots. The one thing I will spend a bit of money on is a couple of pairs of jeans from Next. They have an adjustable waist and adjustable leg length so for around £10 a pair she gets an entire year or more out of them. I’ve taken a few pairs up into shorts when there has still been plenty of room left at the waist.

I use old clothes for cleaning clothes.

We always use the library, but I was brought up to use the library. They’re threatened with closing on a regular basis and we need to support local libraries. People keep your kids away from the internet as long as possible and GO TO THE LIBRARY or there may not be one to go to.

I prefer to shop in charity shops. Some people really don’t like the idea of second hand clothes but so many have such a “throw away” attitude to clothing that most of the things I buy have barely done a hands turn. Especially the clothes I buy for toots in fact a fair amount of them still have the shop labels attached.

I spend between £50-60 a month on food shopping.

We grow our own vegetables and have a pear and apple tree as well as a lot of berry bushes.

I keep an emergency food sale fund of around £20 a month. Sales don’t rally follow any pattern here and sometimes a really good bargain just crops up and I’ll use the fund to stock up when I see them.

I am not brand loyal. I rarely buy the same brand of anything, if it’s on sale and I can think of a way to use it, then I’ll have it.

We used washable nappies on toots. I’m not great at sewing and I’m not that dextrous at the best of times, so we went with the shaped Motherease nappies. I bought second hand from Ebay and got a huge batch of 24 nappies, hundreds of paper liners, 12 covers, two small bins with mesh bags and four booster pads. I paid £85 plus £10 postage for the full set and sold them again 18 months later for £70 plus postage. £25 for 18 months worth of nappies was a real bargain. We don’t pay for water here and I did three loads of nappies a week (four in the first few weeks) at around 50p a load.

I don’t make my own laundry soap. It’s virtually impossible to get borax here any more and the homemade soap just doesn’t work without it. I just buy whichever soap is on offer and use a hell of a lot less than what it states on the pack. Most of the time a tablespoon or two works just fine rather than a half cup per load. I also always run a full load, never half loads.

We don’t take holidays. We’ve only had two in the last 10 years.

I don’t drive, never have. I don’t possess a license and I’ve never applied for a provisional. There is nowhere I want to be that I can’t get there under my own steam. We do own a car though. Himself drives for work and at the minute the car gets out once a month for the big shop. We spend around £10 every six weeks on petrol and the car is low emission so the tax is cheaper as well.

There are hundreds more things I do every day and big one off things which I do to save money but I’ll elaborate on these each week.

If I’m missing out on anything I could be doing to save money, and I’m sure I am, I’d love to hear your ideas and tips.

Fight the Frump - Excrutiating Agony

I have a tiny little confession to make. Almost not worth mentioning really.

If left to my own, slightly lazy, unruly devices I can get a bit of a Frida Kahlo vibe going.

Nobody ever accused Oscar of starting any hot new trends. Now maybe Selma Hayek can rock this look, but there's no way in hell I can.

I've tried plucking with a dozen different state of the art tweezers, but I'm a bit of a klutz with those.

I've had a go with a home wax kit, but the least said about that the better.

I now fight the frump with a professional eyebrow wax. It takes seconds, it's only painful for a few minutes and it's pretty cheap (around £4.00 at my local salon). Ok, I'll admit I have sensitive skin so can end up looking like a Klingon for n hour or so afterwards, but it's totally worth it.

For more ways to fight the frump, go spend a little time with Mrs Fussypants.

Homemade Vanilla Sugar

Photo courtesy of Simon Goldenberg at Flickr

This is an easy way to get most out of vanilla pods. Depending on where they are bought they can be quite expensive. I've found that the cheapest place to buy these is at the Asian Supermarket, they're normally around £1.50 for three compared to over £1 for one in any normal supermarket.

I love vanilla, can't get enough of the stuff and when given the option always prefer to use pods instead of essence or extract, although I will use these for day to day things.

I use vanilla to flavour pavlova, whipped cream, custards and ice cream.

The first time I use a vanilla pod I will split it open lengthwise and remove the seeds, using these to flavour a liquid, particularly ice cream, I like the little flecks of black studded through the creamy white of the cream. Some people prefer they're vanilla ice cream to be pristine white, I am not one of those people.

I will then store the pod in an airtight container until the next time I need it which will again be to flavour a liquid. I most often use the pod this time to flavour a cooked custard, adding the pod to the milk or cream in the pan and allowing it to infuse while the custard cooks and thickens. Once the pod has done it's work I quickly rinse it under the tap and leave it somewhere warm to dry out a little.

Once the pod has dried out, measure out enough caster (superfine) sugar for around four recipes, normally about 500g in my house. Whatever your favourite recipes are, the things you make most often and preferably a recipe which contains vanilla.

Add vanilla pod to a blender and pulse until finely chopped, once it doesn't seem to be getting any smaller, add the sugar and pulse again for another 30 seconds or so to distribute the vanilla. Store in an airtight container and use in your favourite cake and cookie recipes in place of regular sugar and vanilla. Feel free to use half and half, vanilla sugar and regular sugar for a just a warm hint of flavour. This can also be used to sweeten coffee, fruit and homemade hot chocolate.

Six or more uses from one vanilla pod at the price I pay brings it down to roughly 8p per recipe. I can live with that, especially when I get a beautifully flavoured dessert.

Times are a bit lean at the minute and the first thing sacrificed is usually desserts. Sometimes a little of what you fancy is good for the heart and can make you feel so much less "hard done by" in times of a tightening budget. A great way to use this sugar and one of my favourite recipes, is rice pudding. I'll be posting a recipe for this very soon.

L.

Vacuum Seal - The Easy Way - WFMW

I don't own a vacuum sealer. I figured I'd never use it enough to justify spending that kind of money on one (the run about £100 here for a basic model with no attachments and the bare minimum of bags).

To begin with I managed to get by, sucking the air out of the bags myself. Lovely, I know, but in a pinch everyone's done it.

Anyway, I decided to have a go at OAMC about five or six months ago to see if it would work for me and my family. It didn't, I am no where near organised enough to remember to take the things out of the freezer to defrost.

Have you ever tried blowing up balloons for a child's birthday party all by your lonesome and after the first few you start to feel a little, well, lets just say, a little drunk, tipsy, rightly, three sheets to the wind. Same goes for sucking the air out of something.

Then the unthinkable happens, there I am bagging up dump chicken and sucking the air out, when I get a mouthful of the stuff, raw chicken juice an all. I know this has happened to other people and even when it is something that has been cooked, if your not expecting it, it is not a pleasant thing to happen.

So, the easy way to vacuum seal (I know, I waffle on sometimes, I'm getting there I promise). When your planning on bagging things for the freezer, fill your sink right up with water. Once the goodies are in the bag, dunk it in the water until the water is just below the zip lock. The pressure of the water forces all of the air up and out of the bags and all you have to do is close the zip. Easy as that, give it a go.

I don't OAMC anymore, but I do once a month prep and this still works for me.

For more great tips, check out WFMW over at Rocks in my Dryer.

The cost of living.

It's been a difficult year or so here in Northern Ireland. The housing market has all but died after the biggest growth period we've seen in a long time, on the up side this means that houses at the lower end of the market are dropping in price and finally, first time buyers can afford these houses again. Every housing market needs first time buyers like nothing else, the house prices here were increasing so fast and to such an extent it had to be inevitable that these buyers, the ones we need most would eventually be priced right out of the market.

Unfortunately, lenders are no longer offering 100% mortgages and most have stopped offering low rate introductory offers, this means that although the houses are now coming back down to a level which is more affordable first time buyers, who in theory can afford the houses and are eligible for the mortgages don't have the deposit they now require to add to the mortgage. Some lenders are now only offering 80% mortgage which means that a buyer will have to stump up £20,000 out of every £100,000 they want to spend on property. Now I don't know about you but that is a LOT of money to try to come up with, especially when six months ago most of these people were eligible for the 100% mortgages that banks and building societies were readily offering, they didn't know they would need a deposit and they simply don't have it.

I am in the unfortunate position of trying to sell my house at the minute and have resigned myself to a long sit in.

I'm having to be a lot more creative in trying to save money.

I'm in the process of altering all of tootsies winter clothes to double as summer clothes. I'll try to post some pictures eventually and everyone can let me know if the outfits are something they would let their own children out of the house wearing. She's had a bit of a growth spurt tallwise this year so although all her clothes fit her around the middle, they're now much too short. I had the forethought to remove all the girl trimmings from her baby clothes as she outgrew them so I now have a huge bag of lacy frilly edgings along with more buttons and bows than I can count. I've taken the scissors to a few pairs of her denim jeans and added a frilly hem around the bottom, they end just below the knee and have a small split at the outside edge which comes up to just above the knee. i fastened off the top of the split securely and added a bow to cover up my less than immaculate sewing skills. I have to say (even for my general ineptitude when it comes to sewing), those short are pretty cute. She loves them, she loves everything mummy makes for her, especially some of the things I have knitted for her over the years. But that's for another post.

My next task are two pink skirts, which still fit in the waist but are a little too short for my liking, although the had been wearing them on slightly cooler days with a pair of leggings underneath, she looks very on trend on them. These particular skirts are the kind of three tier boho(ish) skirts. This should hopefully make it easier to add a fourth tier to each skirt to lengthen them slightly. I have a white shirt of my own which was destined for the bin, I work in an office and it plays havoc with cuffs. Instead I'll use this white shirt as fabric to add the fourth tier to one skirt and in my bag of frillys I have a small gauzy butterfly which is also white with a barely there pink trim which I will sew to one side just above the join between the two fabrics and this should tie it together. I have some lilac fabric which I could use on the second skirt, but I'm not entirely sure I could pull this off as the colours may contrast too much. I might have to get a bit crafty and perhaps dip dye the skirt first, or die the whole skirt lilac. I have a lot of dylon cold water dies I picked up for 50p each a while ago and they could do with being used.

I have to sift through the rest of her clothes and try to come up with ideas for them. If anyone has any ideas or things you've done to stretch your children's clothing a bit further, I love to hear about it.

L.

WFMW - Shake it

Well its another humpday.

Its a very quick tip this week on what works for me. If you ever have cans or tins of food (beans, soups etc) that have maybe been on the shelf for a while and you just know everything has settled to the bottom of the can. Rather than opening the can and then trying to scrape all the contents out, because you know in your haste your going to grab a teaspoon for this job. Best case scenario you wind up with a hand covered in sauce and worst case scenario a hand that has been cut to ribbons on the sharp edge of the can.

Instead, and you can have a bit of fun with this, shake the living daylights out of the can before opening it, get out all your aggression on that poor tin, it doesn't have any feelings you go for it.

Post arrive looking like the postman's been practising for tryouts, did it pour 5 minutes after you'd hung out the washing, late for every appointment....all.....day....long.

You go to town on that wee tin, show it who's boss and I can guarantee all but the most die hard, the most determined wee bean will slide right out of that tin when you open it.

If nothing else, it'll save you from taking a bad day out on someone or something that really matters to you.

For more great ideas head over to Rocks in my Dryer for WFMW.

L.