You can't stop an addict*

(*Between June 1st and June 5th Blogger, in its wisdom, decided I was a spamming robot and so locked my blog. I sent up a temporary blog while I waited for their verdict as to my state of humaness and am now transferring the posts from there back to their rightful homes. I'll also try to transfer the comments over the next day or so) Welcome to my temporary abode while Blogger decides I'm a real person and not a robot spammer. Once I'm allowed back "home" I'll probably move these posts back over to The Not Shopping Sherpa (as I am this month!)

Today's theme was eggs. And garage sales.

Eggs because I'm out of them. Which (of course) meant I woke up to a little voice inside my head saying "Hey! Remember that recipe you have for Apple Hotcakes (officially called "Apple Drop Biscuits" - must be an American recipe book) which you'd completely forgotten about? That's what I want for breakfast as I know we have apples..."

Now I could have gone and bought eggs. Yes, just because I'm on a Fiscal Fast doesn't mean I can't buy anything at all. That would be just silly for a whole month. My view is I can buy essential groceries, locally sourced if possible.

So far that means I'll have no problems at all buying the following that I'm out of:

• Eggs
• Onions
• Potatoes
• Garlic
• Toilet paper (thank God!)

These can be bought with changes:

• Tomatoes (if I can get them locally, and I'm guessing not the grape tomatoes I usually buy)
• Yoghurt (no Ski Delite 12 pack fruity flavours. Plain (and locally sourced) is OK)

The jury is still out on the chickpea/ kidney bean dilemma. I usually buy cans but suspect I should be buying dried this month and cooking them from scratch. Your input would be much appreciated.

These are definitely on the no-go list:

• Feta cheese
• Couscous

(Feel free to produce a fine argument against this decision!)

So what did I eat today?

Brunch: A cup of tea and toasted crumpets with grilled cheese and smoked salmon

Lunch: I decided the priority today was the package of grape tomatoes with a best before date of 26 May. So I made couscous with spinach, feta, tomatoes and olives, thus using up not only the tomatoes but also the last of my couscous and feta (see above). I drank Bunderim Lime Refresher (which I had a full bottle of) but with tap water as I'm out of sparkling.

Afternoon tea: Chocolate. I still have some and it's the weekend. So shut up :-)

Dinner: I still have some (ever more bendy) celery which I'd like to use up. A journey into my microwave cupboard (and recipe collection) brings up Digby Law who tells me I could make a Waldorf Salad (pity I only have the apple and celery component. Oh - and I think I have some coleslaw dressing and maybe I could use hazelnuts instead of walnuts?) or some carroty/ celery thingy with cheese sauce. Or I could use a tin on lentils I have and the celery and some other veg (with some tomatoey stuff) and make a lentil stew thingy.

As you can tell, the jury is still out. Maybe I should just smear some peanut butter onto the celery, eat it and be done with it....

"OK OK" I hear you saying "Enough about food, what's with the garage sales?!"

To test my resolve, Vinnies Mitchell is having their first ever garage sale this weekend, the very same weekend the YMCA is holding their regular garage sale.

I'm ignoring both.

Instead I finished my Cosmic Mix Swap-Bot CDs. (Don't panic - I already have stamps to post them)

I finished knitting cupcake number 12. Now I just have to sew them up, finish them off, and find new homes for them...

I also finished volume one of the Phaidon Design Classics Series. Only 666 entries to go (and they're due back on the 8th!)

I finished the first set of shoe bags for Nick and Dermuid who put me up in Melbourne for Eurovision weekend. I'm getting very grumpy at how long these are hanging round and hope to get them in the mail tomorrow...

And I also made a set of wristwarmers (see top of this post), just because and out of my stash. I used this pattern. I think I need to do some fiddling with it. Oddly, one of my complaints is that it doesn't come far enough down my arm but now I look more closely at the photo, there are more rows in the photo than listed in the pattern.

Duh! Luckily they took me about an hour to knit (while reading English Vogue) so I suspect I'll be trying again with a slightly modified version..

Oh - and the rest of tonight? Just take a guess...

(Listening to: Cafe del Mar: Vol Dos)