Making Good Use

Genius Idea

Some people do have the most genius ideas.  I came across the idea of making customised tape over at Domesticali who, in turn, had come across the inspiration here.  I have oodles of double-sided tape - having bought several rolls of it cheap at a boot sale some while ago - plus I keep hold of empty envelopes to write shopping lists on.  I'd never really taken much notice of the insides of the envelopes before but when I peered in I found there was rather a pleasing variety of patterns.

 
Half an hour with the scissors and double-sided tape and I've ended up with a goodly pile of fancy customised tape for free.

 
So far I've only used it to do a few more 'Making Good Use' labels - although I'm rather pleased with the 'Mad Men' style patterns the tape has.  I can see a lot of uses for this tape though, especially when it comes to wrapping presents for the males in the family.  Brown paper and lace wrapped pressies wouldn't do it for them but brown paper sealed with blue or grey customised tape just might.

ETA.  Just found even more fabulous customised tape ideas at Ginger and George here.

Hacked Off - Again

I was tres pleased with my previous attempts at hacking sleeves off and giving P's tatty shirt a new lease of life, this time I've been - literally - hacking the sleeves off one of my tops.

 

Originally, this black and white striped cotton top had uber-unflattering puffed sleeves on it.  They really accentuated my thunderous upper arms and consequently it had been relegated to my 'you-never-know-it-might-come-in-useful-one-day' drawer under the bed in the back bedroom.    This weekend I plundered that particular drawer to see what was lurking in there that I could wear this autumn.   Out came the stripey top and I just cut the puff sleeves off as close as I could to the seam.  I was going to bind the armholes with black bias binding but I don't actually think that'll be necessary - hurrah. 

It might never be my favourite top but with a plain black long-sleeved T-shirt underneath, it'll certainly do a turn when the weather is colder.  (Having said that, I had to wear a jumper when I went out this morning - and it's still only August!!!!)

Bank Holiday Booty

No boot sale for me yesterday - weather a tad too inclement to bother getting the car out to go - but today is at least dry (if somewhat chilly and overcast.)  There were not that many sellers at the boot sale this morning but that didn't stop me finding quite a nice little haul of things.

 
A great selection of toiletries - pretty much all shower gels / body washes (gotta stock up for the boot-sale-less winter months, you know.)  Two unnamed shower gels - 50p the two, Olay daily renewal body wash - 20p, Cowshed Moody Cow shower gel - 50p, Cerruti Image shower gel - 20p, Neals Yard Frankincense Cream - 50p.

 
Unopened Lush gift set which contains shower gel, solid shampoo bar, soap and a couple of shaving ungents - £1.50.  I bought it for the shower gel, shampoo and soap and will pass on the shaving creams.

 
Vintage dominos set - 20p, Cath Kidston-esque purse, £1.00, four wooden toggles - 20p, Lego keyring - 50p, unopened Lego kit - £1.00, five mini vintage Tupperware pots and lids - 50p.  All resting on a large piece of faux patchwork material - £1.00.

 

And, the item I'm most pleased with, a really snuggly Evans plaid shirt - £2.00.  I'm trying to find as many autumn / winter clothes for myself as I can now and I was delighted to find this shirt - it'll cheer up my winter wardrobe no end.

Linking up with Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday.

What a Good Year for the Roses

 
Many blooms still linger there

 
The only thing I have to say

 
It's been a good year for the roses.

Love that Elvis Costelloe song and, yes, this year has been especially good for the roses.  These gorgeous blooms are just outside our living room window.

More Spends

With both P and I having been away from home for a week or so, we were running direly short of fresh food.  Easiest option was another evening trip to Sainsbury's to see what we could pick up in the way of reduced-price bargains.  Sadly, in the food section there wasn't much to choose from, although I did get some nice bagged salads heavily reduced - and they're still good and fresh three days later.   The whole supermarket was as if a plague of locusts had been through it - which, of course, they probably had as it's a Bank Holiday here on Monday!!  Anyway, what we missed in the way of food bargains I more than made up for in reduced-price clothing.  All the summer clothes were really heavily reduced but what I didn't discover until we got to the checkout was that the sale prices also had a further 25% off them as well.

 
I got a beautiful pure linen black and cerise tunic top reduced from £30.00 to £6.75.  It looks fabulous on and goes a treat with a pair of skinny-leg black jeans I've got.

 
A pair of denim shorts reduced from £14.00 to £3.30 - which is probably cheaper than many charity shops would charge for the same sort of thing second-hand.  Mum did point out that I was being a tad optimistic buying shorts after the dire summer we've had but they won't eat or drink anything in my wardrobe if I don't wear them until next year.  And, who knows, we may have a glorious September - paws crossed!

 
A long-sleeved linen blend tunic top reduced from £22.00 to £4.95 (and I recently paid the same price for a second-hand tunic top in a local charity shop. ) I wasn't so keen on this one when I tried it on at home (the changing rooms in Sainsbury's were locked so I couldn't try the items on there.)  I'm not sure whether to return it (I've got 28 days to do so apparently) or whether to try listing it on ebay.  I'll have to give that a bit of thought. 

Right, that's me done with spending for a month or two - well, except at the boot sales.  Not entirely sure if they'll be running this weekend as the weather here has been, and still is, so wet that I suspect many of the boot sale fields will be a tad marshy.

Spends

There were a couple of shops in Bath that Mum and I really wanted to check out.  Sadly, despite several attempts, we never did manage to find Wool - which was a great shame as it looks to be a fabulous wool shop.  Plus my sister, who spotted it on her way back to the railway station, said they had a sale on - so double hell and damnation for not being able to track it down. 

Luckily, we had no such problems locating The Makery Shop.  What a fabulous little gem of a shop this is, and very centrally located in Northumberland Place too.  Mum and I had a good perusal and I came away with just a few little crafty bits and bobs.

 
Some more recycled paper card blanks (I bought some of these at the Vintage and Handmade Fair in Chipping Sodbury in June so I knew they were really excellent - they make lovely cards,) two itty bitty offcuts of beautiful material (I'm hoping to incorporate these into cards too,) four stunning mother-of-pearl buttons in the most zingy shade of citrus-green, four more painted wooden buttons (I've had some of these before too.)  And, finally, a metre of 'made with love' tape which I thought might gussy-up some of my handmade offerings.   I could have spent SERIOUS amounts of money in The Makery as they had such gorgeous gorgeous crafty things but I thought it best to show some restraint, especially as I managed to have quite a spend on non-food items in Sainsbury's yesterday too - although they were all wonderful bargains.  More on that tomorrow.

Off On A Jolly's

 
Today, for the first time in over six years, I had a day out in Bath  (Jolly's is a rather swish department store on Milsom Street - and what a wonderfully cheerful name it is.)  We did all the usual things we have done for years when we go to Bath -

 
a picnic lunch in the wonderful Victoria Gardens overlooking Pultney Bridge with their beautiful floral displays (I still clearly remember the year in the mid-Seventies when they had The Wombles as their floral centrepiece) , a cup of tea and a Bath Bun in the Pump Rooms (and, by gum, that Bath Bun was tasty with an enormous lump of sugar in the middle of it!)

In the mid-1980s my sister and I shared a flat right in the centre of Bath (above The Canary Cafe in Queen Street, if anyone remembers Bath in those days) and I always felt I'd done pretty much everything Bath had to offer.  But the one thing none of us had ever done before was take an open-top bus tour of the city.    It was fanstastic - if a little on the pricey side.

 
The Royal Crescent

 
The Circus

 
Check out the number of chimney pots on these houses!

We saw so many beautiful Georgian buildings in the distinctive and mellow Bath stone from the vantage point of the upper deck.

 
And little vignettes of Bath I'd never noticed before. 

The weather was sunny and warm without being too hot and a jolly's time was had.  I'm hoping it won't be six more years before I have a day out in Bath again.

Oh, Dear!

I'm staying with my Mum in Bristol for a few days so this morning we went off to the nearest high street to have a good old mooch around the charity shops.  Oh, dear, the pickings were extremely slim - in my case virtually non-existent.  It wasn't just that all the clothes on the rails seemed to have come from Asda or Sainsbury's (and were probably cheaper to buy new than the prices they're asking for them in the charity shops,) it's that there really wasn't very much on the rails or shelves at all.  All the charity shops seemed eerily empty of stock.  I'm guessing it's a sign of the economic times - although I've not noticed such a dearth of goods in the charity shops in SE Essex as yet - or a sign that more people are selling off their unwanted bits and bobs themselves rather than giving them to charity. 

 
Whatever the reason, I only managed to find these two vintage sewing patterns - 10p each in the local Salvation Army shop.  Mum fared somewhat better and came home with a gorgeous shell-pink linen top from M&S and a lovely pure cotton summer skirt.  Finding so many supermarket clothes at crazy-high prices reminded me of this very funny and, oh, so true blog post  over at A Thrifty Mrs

Made Up

I'm not a great one for wearing make-up these days.  Sometimes I will put on some eyeshadow and mascara for a special trip out, but not often.  Consequently, I tend to use very little mascara and haven't bought one in years.  I think I've got two Body Shop sample mascaras on the go at the moment but they are both getting a bit dried out (apparently, a drop or two of olive oil will revive a dried out mascara for a while.)  Quickly perusing the merchandise in the local Sue Ryder shop today, my eye was drawn to what I thought was a rather nice purse (it's the oil cloth fabric that I always notice) and priced at only £1.25 - something of a mega bargain for Sue Ryder prices!!

 
Looking inside I realised it was not a purse at all but a make up bag complete with brand new mascara, lipstick and eye shadow.  I bought it for the mascara alone and having checked out the prices on the Boots website I think I got myself quite a nice little bargain.   Not sure the lipstick and eye shadow are quite 'me' but they can always be listed on ebay.  Plus, the make up bag / purse will always come in handy.

Thank You, Claire

Yesterday afternoon, Claire and her Mum came over to pick in some of the many, many plums the trees in the garden have produced this year.  Not only was I extremely pleased that the plums could be made use of but Claire brought me some rather nice thrifted bits and bobs as well.

 
A selection of ever useful and always welcome toiletries

 
A knitting needle case

 
A wonderful 'Good Homes Get Creative' book - there are some fabulous ideas in here

 
And a pot of their homemade jam.  Yum, I'm looking forward to having some Plum and Pear Jam on my toast in the morning.  So thank you, Claire (and your Mum) it was lovely to meet you and I'll give you a shout when the apples are ripe to see if you want any.