Making Good Use

A Room With a View

Apologies for the lack of blog posts recently but my Mum had a bit of a collapse on Wednesday afternoon and was rushed into hospital.  All is reasonably well now and she's back at home taking it steady and resting up as much as I can make her.  I'll be staying down in Bristol with her for a little while yet.

I can't praise the Bristol Royal Infirmary Heart Institute highly enough.  Not only were the medical staff amazingly kind and caring and incredibly efficient but Mum had a room all to herself (with an en-suite too!!) - and we all know that that is not typical NHS hospital accommodation.  Oh yes, and even the hospital food was fantastic.  To top it all the room had the most spectacular view all over Bristol - right out to Kelston Round Tump near Bath.

Even though Mum was feeling rather fragile she really enjoyed being able to look out at such a wonderful vista.

I'm always appreciative of the NHS but when something like this happens and a relative receives such wonderful care and treatment I think how totally lost we would be if we didn't have the NHS.  It's easy to knock it but I for one am so grateful that we can receive such wonderful medical care free of charge.  Long may the NHS continue.

Spooky

I had a phone call late yesterday afternoon from a local estate agent.  He was phoning to say he'd just had a house come onto his books which he thought we might be interested in.  He read out all the details and indeed the house did tick pretty much all the boxes we'd specified.  After we'd had our evening meal P and I decided to get in the car and drive up to have a look at the road and see if we could spot exactly which house it was that was on the market.

We found the road no problem but couldn't find the house that is for sale.  It's not an incredibly long road but it peters out into an un-paved laneway that leads goodness knows where.  Just up this lane we spotted the for sale sign.  Not wishing to risk the suspension on P's 'vintage' (ie 20 years old and still going strong) Opel Kadett we parked in a side road that still had tarmac and went up the lane on foot. 

I had no idea that there were quite so many acres of open fields in the vicinity but the house that was for sale was surrounded on three sides by open farmland.  P was really taken with the location but I kept thinking that we were even past the boundary for street lighting and that it would be really dark, dank and muddy down this lane in the depths of winter.  The front of the house did nothing for me either, being very dark and overgrown and pretty down-at-heel for a property that they're asking such a huge price for.  P was still undaunted and kept saying what a lovely character property it was and what lovely views.  Somehow it just didn't do it for me and I felt very uneasy, as if I somebody was watching us.  You know, that feeling that if you just look over your shoulder there'll be somebody or something lurking.  The whole atmosphere was very creepy and unnerving.

Finally P set off up the laneway to see if he could find where it led, I stayed behind looking through the windows of the house and then I remembered an article I'd come across on the internet some months ago about a local legend that says people have seen shadows moving out of the corner of their eyes in fields not far from that spot.  I think the idea is that it is the devil stalking the land looking for the soul of a medieval knight who made a Faustian pact with him, saying that the devil could have his soul whether he was buried in the church or in the churchyard.  The knight then had his body buried within the walls of the church so that the devil couldn't get him.  Now I'm not a fool and I don't take this sort of thing seriously - but, hedging my bets, I wouldn't discount it out of hand either - however I just know that if we were living in that house I'd be expecting to see Beelzebub at any moment!!  Stupid I know but a thought I'd never get out of my head either.

Eventually I had to 'fess up to P that I didn't really think I could live there as it was so isolated and that I'd be terrified having to spend the night there on my own if he was away on business.  Luckily P could see my point and agreed that, nice though he thought it was, it was probably just a bit too far for him to walk to and fro to the station every day.

This morning I was talking to my Mum on the phone and telling her about going to look at the house when all of a sudden she said she'd had a horrible dream last night about a house with a really unpleasant atmosphere around it.  She said that in her dream the house was so eerie that she'd refused to go inside.  But what was really spooky about her dream was that she described the house as looking like Little Grey Rabbit's house - and that was the first thing I thought of when I looked at the house yesterday evening - Little Grey Rabbit's house, with the steep gables and little windows upstairs for the bedrooms.  Both of us were pretty freaked out by the coincidence as last time I spoke to Mum on the phone I'd not even spoken to the estate agent let alone thought about going to look at that property.  

I can quite understand if you think I'm being a total fruitcake about it all but it has really spooked both me and my Mum out and I wouldn't want to live in that house if they were giving it away. 

Blast from the Past

If I manage to find something useful clothes-wise whilst thrifting, not always a given being a - ahem - 'full-figured' girl, I'll buy it whether it's thick jumpers in the middle of summer or something summery in the middle of winter.  I'll wash it through and then put it away for further consideration when the appropriate season rolls around.  Often I've actually forgotten about the item until I find it lurking in the depths of my wardrobe, just waiting for the right weather or the right occasion to wear it.  That happened to me this morning - I was looking through my wardrobe trying to figure out exactly what to wear now that the temperatures are a much more 'normal' 18C, when I found this fine cotton long-sleeved tunic top.

I remember buying it in a charity shop in Basildon back in the icy depths of winter, washing and ironing it, trying it on briefly - and thinking it reminded me of a nightie!! - and hanging it up in the wardrobe.  I was delighted to find it today and don't know what made me ever think it was nightdress-like.  It's a lovely fabric, a great fit and the retro Indian print instantly reminds me of the long hot summer of 1976.  Ah, those were the days - cheesecloth shirts, waistcoats, love beads, humungously flared jeans and those Indian-print wraparound skirts.  The sun shone day after day and I was sweet sixteen.  Wonderful memories and all brought back to me by a £2.00 charity shop buy - excellent.

Sssssteam Heat

Phew, what a scorcher!!!!  Yesterday's car boot sale was so hot.  The field where it is held is really exposed and always has an extreme version of whatever the weather is - yesterday it was an extreme dose of blinding sunshine and rocketing temperatures.  I don't think I'd have gone if I'd realised quite how warm it was but as the next-door neighbours offered me a lift, and - as we all know - in the UK you really have got to make hay while the sun shines, I went.

There were masses and masses of both sellers and buyers (I didn't envy the sellers stuck out on that sweltering field for hours on end) and the boot sale was so big that wandering for an hour probably only took me round half of it.  I didn't buy all that much but was quite pleased with what I did find.

Some vintage glass Christmas decorations, including a tree-topper, for 20p.  Odd though it seems, I think I'll put them up on ebay later this week as a quick check of recently completed listings shows they're selling for quite good prices.  Quite why people want to buy Christmas decs in the middle of summer is beyond me but there we go.

A large bottle of Australian Formula shampoo - 50p, and a bottle of ghd Thermal Protector (to use with my hair straighteners,) also 50p.  These are both for me and when I got home I noticed a £9.95 price sticker on the ghd bottle so that was a nice find.

And this vintage sewing pattern - I do love the illustrations you get on old sewing patterns, so much more evocative than the photos that are on them nowadays.  That was 50p and will be destined for ebay.  There were also a few books bought (none of them terribly good for re-selling as it turns out,) and a crocheted knitting bag (sounds like that should be a contradiction in terms!!) which is at present hanging out on the line.

As the temperature is forecast to be even hotter today - 29C - I took an 'executive decision' not to bother going to the High Street this morning.  Luckily, I've got enough food in to cover this evening's meal and I really didn't fancy dragging a heavy shopping trolley home in the blazing sun.  Tomorrow the temperature should be a positively chilly 15C - a much better temperature for getting things done.

S-L-O-W

I don't know if it's the unaccustomed warm temperatures or if it's because it's the end of the week (yay, Friday - the best day!!) but I'm having a really S-L-O-W day today.  I have achieved a few things - the washing up, a load of washing drying in the sun, a little ironing and a little bit of sewing / mending for my next-door neighbour. 

I've got a tray of bread rolls rising nicely in the sun on the garden table so that we can have a simple evening meal of burgers in a bun and salad.  (Yay, for finally getting to Sainsburys and being able to buy organic burgers.)  It's definitely too hot for 'proper' cooking, or for eating 'proper' meals come to that, so something light and easy like a burger is just the thing for this evening.

And talking of S-L-O-W, I ironed over all the knitted strips I've done so far for another knitted pactchwork blanket.  This one's been on the go since the bitter cold weather in February (seems hard to believe that ever happened on a glorious day like today) and I was pleasantly surprised to find I think I've nearly knitted enough for a smallish blanket.  The decision now is do I sew it up as it stands, or do I hang on with the hope of finding more thrifted yarn that is chunky enough for another strip or two?  I might leave that decision for a day or so when, hopefully, my brain has got back into gear.

On a totally different topic, I'm soooo looking forward to the concluding episode of 'Ashes to Ashes' this evening.  I can't imagine how on earth they're going to tie up all the loose ends from both 'Ashes to Ashes' and 'Life on Mars' and make sense of it all.  I do hope it doesn't end up as some sort of cop-out like the Bobby's dead dream in 'Dallas,' or that Gene Hunt turns out to be the bad guy after all - that would just be too much to bear!!  Anyone got any ideas how it's all gonna end?

It's That Time of Year Again

 
It's the time of year when the wisteria at the end of the garden looks absolutely stunning, and when - at long last - I've finally gone to a Thursday car boot sale again.  If I'm totally honest, it was just a tad too hot for me this morning (I know, I really shouldn't complain after the terrible winter we've just had) but the warm weather certainly brought out all the buyers and sellers.  Today's boot sale was probably one of the biggest Thursday one's I've seen - although, as is always the case on Thursdays, many of the stalls were traders.  I managed to find a few things - a couple of books, one of which has been put on Amazon, a top for myself (not entirely sure about it but will stick it on ebay if I don't like it on,) a pair of pyjamas for my nephew and a 'glow in the dark' Darth Vadar T-shirt for him too.  I'm guessing he'll be quite pleased with the T-shirt and not so enamoured of the pyjamas.  (None of the items were particularly photogenic so I thought I'd just stick with the wisteria.)

After the boot sale I went into Sainsbury's (so conveniently situated just across the dual carriageway) where I changed up seven months or so's worth of 1p, 2p and 5p pieces in the Coinstar machine.  That gave me a voucher worth £11.04 off my shopping bill - it's amazing how these little bits of shrapnel add up over a few months - and I came home with lots of nice things to eat over the weekend.  Most of the food is 'warm weather' fare due to the forecast saying we'll have temps around the 21 - 25C mark during the next few days and a lot of it is salad stuff.  I also got a buy one get one free punnet of not only English strawberries but strawberries from here in Essex.  Goodness knows why the supermarkets in Wickford still only have Spanish strawberries in stock - which I can't eat as they give me an almost instant migraine (must be to do with something sprayed on them) - and I'm really looking forward to a bowl of Essex strawberries and cream for pudding tonight.  Yum!!

The Boy Done Good

P excelled himself with the selection of craft magazines he brought back from North America for me. 

 
There were ten or so different magazines in the bag - homes magazines, knitting, crochet, patchwork, sewing, general lifestyle - you name it, he'd found it.  I was really really pleased.

 
I always enjoy a copy of Martha Stewart Living as the craft bits are always inspriational and I've found some really nice recipes in her magazine too.  (Although the American 'cups' system of measuring always confuses me.  Not that, I assume, it's all that different to our way of measuring smaller quantities in tablespoons and teaspoons - that certainly confuses the hell out of P!)

 
But the best of the bunch I've looked at so far has to be this Stitch Magazine.

 
It's got all sorts of lovely sewing projects in there (quite a few of which are from bloggers) and it's the sort of magazine I'll be keeping hold of for years.

 
A bit like the pile of 1970s Golden Hands magazines which I bought at the time and have got packed away somewhere in the loft.  The patterns may be a bit dated but the inspiration in them never goes out of fashion.

A Bit of a Washout

Yesterday's car boot sale proved to be a bit of a washout weatherwise.  There were plenty of sellers and plenty of buyers but, as per usual, the Met Office had got their forecast just a bit wrong.  So instead of it being sunny and warm in the morning it was cold, windy and with intermittent rain showers.  Needless to say, it didn't make for a good boot sale.

I only came back with a few items, including this vintage Galt wooden jigsaw (£1.00) which is destined for ebay.  A couple of craft booklets (20p each)- one for ebay, one for Amazon, another T-shirt for my nephew (50p.)

And this rather nice unopened build-your-own wooden Stegosauras kit (50p) also for my nephew.  And that was the total sum of my car boot bargains for this week.  However, the weather forecast says it will get much warmer in the next few days so I'm hoping I might finally get to the Thursday boot sale this week too.  So far this season the weather has been waaaay too inclement to even consider going to that one.

And the winner is ....  The winner of last week's giveaway is Maureen.  Many thanks to everyone who left a comment.  Maureen, let me know which bag you'd like.

Billericay Bargains

It was lovely and sunny, and warm, this morning (although I've just noticed that it's actually raining again now!!) so I went over to Billericay on the bus.  As it costs me £4.70 to get to Billericay and back by bus (and it's barely a 20 minute journey each way,) I rarely go there more than once very six weeks or so and when I do go I like to get the best 'bang for my buck' out of the bus fare.

Billericay has a huge branch of Waitrose so I always call in there and buy a few tasty treats for us.  Waitrose may be expensive but their quality is second to none and, just sometimes, it is nice to have something really tasty to eat, something 'upmarket' that you just can't buy here in Wickford.

Then there are the charity shops.  Billericay has seven charity shops, as opposed to only two now left in Wickford, and although the prices can be a bit steep, they do have some very nice things to choose from.

Today I struck gold for my nephew. 

Three designer T-shirts - two Red Herring, one Duffer of St George - for him.

Two short-sleeved and one long-sleeved, £4.45 for the three.  Having just checked out the Debenhams website I figure I've only spent about a third of what it would cost to buy just one of these new.

And, pour moi, another ball of very chunky wool for my second patchwork knitted blanket project.  It is progressing, albeit VERY SLOWLY, and part of that is because I'd run out of chunky wool.  This 100g ball was 60p.  A jar of 'Joints Warming Cream' with orange and ginger essential oils for 50p.  I'm hoping a good dollop of that on my lower back might help with the perpetual 'stiffness' I've got in that region.  Two teeny tiny feather cushions - 95p each.  Each cushion and pad is only 10 inches square.  I bought them mainly for the inserts (good feather inserts being very hard to find in charity shops) but when I got them home I noticed the covers are Laura Ashley so I might try flogging just the covers on ebay.

So I came home quite a happy bunny, having also stocked up on some stationery items in the lovely old-fashioned stationery shop in the High Street which is considerably cheaper than WH Smith, and I think I managed to get every last drop of value out of my £4.70 bus fare.

Sideboard

I was half watching Cracking Antiques yesterday evening when I heard that apparently mid-century modern sideboards are bang on trend at the moment.  Now my ears pricked up at that comment as I have just such a piece of furniture sitting in my dining room - and very useful it is too.

In the programme they first showed this Orla Kiely sideboard which is designed for Heals.  It's a very nice sideboard indeed and so it should be it costs - wait for it - £1,495!!!!

Let me show you my genuine mid-century modern sideboard which cost me precisely £0.00.

It used to belong to my aunt and uncle and then my parents had it in their living room.  When Mum wanted to get rid of it she tried advertising it in the local 'Trade It' paper as a 'free to collector' item.  Nobody wanted it despite the advert being repeated for weeks.  Eventually, P and I thought we'd have it.  I'm very pleased we did as not only do I really love the style of it but it's flippin' useful for storing all sorts of clutter in too.  So, not only is it now apparently an 'on trend' item but it also 'saved' me £1.495!