Making Good Use

Book Sale With A View

Essex Wildlife Trust were holding a second-hand book sale at Hanningfield Reservoir this weekend.  Hanningfield Reservoir is just up the road from us and is always a beautiful place to visit at the best of times, with the prospect of a rummage through second-hand books as well, it was just unmissable.

The selection of books was far better than I'd expected (I was fearing they'd all be bird-watching or nature tomes,) and the prices were excellent - I came away with quite a stack for only £3.50.

Best of all was the stunning views from the window of the visitor centre (where the book sale was held) - binoculars are provided so you can see the birds (and various cheeky squirrels raiding the bird feeders) up close.

101 Recipes Using Low-Fat Yogurt as a Substitute

I couldn't hand on heart seriously say that I now have 101 recipes using low-fat yogurt as a substitute for all things with a high fat content, but I think I'm getting close.  This evening's experiment in low-fat yogurt cuisine was Beef Stroganoff. 

Pre gall bladder problems, I always used full-fat creme fraiche as the fragrant Nigella states in her recipe (she also suggests using very expensive cuts of steak but I soon gave that idea up - Aldi's cheapo stewing steak works just fine, providing it is, indeed, stewed beforehand.)  Post gall bladder, I started to use Weighwatchers very low-fat creme fraiche, which was wickedly expensive compared to it's full-fat equivalent but did the job rather well.  Cue the local Co-op no longer stocking Weightwatchers creme fraiche and I had to start thinking again.  Turns out Aldi's low-fat natural yogurt (an absolute steal at only 59p for a humungous tub) works beautifully as a creme fraiche substitute.  And a substitute for korma sauce, Thai green curry sauce, any manner of single, double or clotted cream, and is totally delicious for dessert with some crytallised ginger chopped up in it.

Sadly, not all my experimental cooking has been successful of late.  Tuesday evening's meal was allegedly a quorn mince lasagne, it was utterly disgusting and frankly inedible - most of it went in the bin, something that rarely happens at our house.  Funnily enough, come 10.00 pm both P and I were snacking for England!!

Thank you so much for your kind comments about my torn calf muscle.  I'm now feeling much better and have practically stopped limping.  I do hope I don't repeat the experience any time soon - it was uber uber painful.

It Was a Lovely Weekend, and Then I Slipped

Yup, I had a very satisfactory and pleasant weekend.  The Cat Protection League auction was good fun if not the best of thrifting opportunities.  I only spent £2.50, £1.50 on a book and £1.00 on a bevelled vintage mirror.  The mirror needs another clip on it to keep the glass secure but apart from that I was very pleased with it.  P seriously lashed out and spent £9.00 - £7.00 on a Texas Hold'Em Poker set and £2.00 on a rather nice painting which we both liked.  I'll come back to that painting in a minute!!

I suspect yesterday was the last boot sale of the season, and whilst I didn't buy a lot of stuff I was pleased to find this large piece of circles fabric in a lovely colourway for £2.00.

And this folk-style painted wooden board for £1.00.  It has got hooks on the back to hang it on the wall but for now I've just propped it up on a shelf.  I also found a couple of Ruth Rendell books - one of which I know for a fact is in this house somewhere but I've been looking for ages and can't locate it so for 10p I thought I'd just buy another copy, and a really large bottle of St Ives shower gel for 50p - gotta stock up for the coming boot-sale-less months.  I even found three books that were good for re-sale on Amazon - something of a minor miracle these days.

Flushed with my thrifting success, I decided to venture out into the shed to locate the small hammer and see if we had any picture pins to put up our newly acquired 'oil painting' from the auction.  I found the tool box with no trouble but couldn't see clearly if there were any picture pins lurking in the bottom so I brought it out and put it on the garden table to have a good look through.  Nope, no picture pins to be found so I headed back to the shed, treading on a rotting apple as I went.  That rotting apple was, probably, the cause of my slip.  I put one foot on the wooden lip of the shed door and suddenly my left leg slipped backwards and I felt something tear in my calf.  Cue a great deal of yelping, screeching and bad language and a very very painful leg.  Yesterday I could only move sideways, today it's slightly better but still painful and now my lower leg is turning black!!!  Combine the torn calf muscle in my left leg with my dodgy right hip and I'm pretty much totally incapacitated at the moment as far as walking is concerned.  A cold gel pack, tons of arnica cream and the very kind ministrations of P and things are slowly getting better.  Wish I'd avoided that bl**dy rotten apple though.

Going, Going ....

.... going to a Cat Protection League auction this evening.  They hold them twice a year in the local church hall but we've never gone before because 6.15 pm on a Saturday evening is not the most convenient time as I'm usually getting our evening meal ready then.  But having heard a bit more about the last auction from the lady who cuts our hair (who is also quite  a leading light in the local CPL branch,) we thought it was definitely a case of nothing ventured, nothing gained.  I'm interested to see what sort of goods they are auctioning and if there is anything there to take our fancy - I'm hoping for a nice coffee table (preferably mid-century modern!!) but that might be a bit ambitious.  Failing that, a large pair of stepladders would be a most welcome find too.

With the weather looking set fair for tomorrow morning's boot sale too (which will be the latest in the year we've ever managed to get to one,) it could be quite an interesting thrifting weekend.

 

Coaster-ing Along

I should really be making Christmas presents at the moment but as I'd ended up with lots of bits left over from said Christmas pressie, I thought I'd have a go at making some quilted coasters.

This one almost matches the dala horse I found recently.

We're a bit short on 'nice' coasters at the moment - although we've quite a lot of the very faded raffia and rather worn melamine types.  I did have a lovely pair of ceramic coasters that I bought years ago at a Charles Rennie Mackintosh exhibition in Glasgow, sadly one of those was broken during an uncharacteristic cleaning blitz and the other is now kept out of harms way on a bedside table.

Slightly Cath K-ish rose print - but using genuinely vintage fabric.

Cue an internet search for a quilted coaster tutorial (I used the basics from this one - omitting the patchwork element, obviously.)

His and hers style front and back.

Several scraps of vintage fabric - both found at a summer jumble sale in Basildon - and some padding cut from a length of thick curtain interfacing, found as a job lot with some fabric bought at a boot sale some months ago.

Blue side for the chess player of the house.

A few minutes on the sewing machine and I ended up with three new coasters for practically nowt.

Rose-print for the vintage fan.

A Tasty Pair of Pears

Having pretty much cleared the large apple tree (still have some teeny tiny apples to do something with on the other tree,) I've now turned my attention to the abundance of pears we've got this year.  I picked a dozen or so in about a fortnight ago but despite being left on a sunny windowsill, they've refused to ripen up sufficiently for me to eat them as they are.  Cue a quick search of the internet and a recipe for pears poached in spiced red wine.

I sort of used this recipe, although I didn't have a vanilla pod, I left out the fresh thyme, added a couple of cloves and only used half a bottle of red wine for four pears.  They were darn delicious though, even if I says it myself. 

A large dollop of clotted cream would possibly have been the best accompaniment but, due to the gall bladder problem, I contented myself with a spoonful of fat-free natural yogurt.  I'll definitely be making them again - we've still got an awful lot of pears to use up - and next time I might add some vanilla essence plus a dash of some lethal pear schnapps that P once brought back from Switzerland.  It's 40% proof and could probably strip paint but a drop or two might work with this recipe.

Making Hay

While the sun is still shining and the weather is still dry, I'm going to carry on making boot sale hay for as long as possible.  This morning was another stunning sunny morning and the boot sale was really busy with both buyers and sellers.  I came away with:

A lovely pair of vintage plastic Tudor Rose salad tongs for 10p.  I love the speedwell blue colour and the elephants on the handles, and the fact that they're Made in England.  I did think of selling them but I've decided I like them waaaay too much and they're definite keepers.

A humungous Crabtree & Evelyn Jojoba Oil Soap - 50p.  I've sold a couple of 'normal' size soaps the same as this on eBay recently and they fetched good money so I've high hopes for this whopper.  Another little Welsh Tapestry coin purse - 10p.  A mini Dymo label maker - 20p, and five Wade Whimsies - £1.50.

Six Japanese iron-on appliques, 20p each.  I'm thinking these might work well ironed on to card blanks.

A 1970s embroidery book - 20p, vintage knitting pattern - 20p, wish I could knit that tunic dress in an adult size as I really like it, and a pair of longer-length knitting needles - 50p, for me.

Vintage bamboo-handle bag made with a lovely fresh rose-print fabric - 50p.  I'm keeping everything crossed that this dry, sunny weather lasts  so I can still get my weekly car boot fix a little while longer.

Billericay Bargains

We had to go over to Billericay yesterday on a bit of business which meant a good excuse to have a spot of lunch Wildwoods Restaurant.  I've just spotted on their website that you can download a voucher for pizza, pasta or salad for £1 with the purchase of any main course - must bear that in mind in future.  Though we did get a free coffee (for me) and dessert (for P) yesterday anyway as I had specifically asked for no anchovies in my Nicoise salad and, lo and behold, four of the horrible little devils were lurking at the bottom anyway.  I was not happy.  Having said all that, the food there is delicious and the prices are pretty reasonable too.

Anyhoo, I digress somewhat.  A trip to Billericay is always a good excuse for a trawl of their charity shops.  Despite there being six in the High Street (with Oxfam set to reopen in the next couple of weeks, apparently,) I only bought things in one of the shops - the local hospice one.  There was a Cath Kidston shower cap - brand new with tags - 50p.  That's destined for eBay.  A rather nice winter-weight Ann Harvey top for me - a somewhat extortionate £4.00 but it will be very useful  this winter.

They also had a large stack of vintage sewing patterns priced at 50p each.  The drawings of the finished items are so much more beguiling than the more mundane photos that you get on sewing patterns these days. 

The drawn models and clothes all look impossibly sleek and attractive on the envelopes - like illustrated Barbies or Stepford Wives.  When I was a teenager making clothes from patterns like these I always ended  up feeling most disgruntled that the finished item, however nice,  never transformed me into the attractive female the drawing showed!!

Unusually, I even found a vintage men's sewing pattern  for hip-hugger shorts or bell-bottom trousers.  Even the men in the drawing remind me of Barbie's boyfriend Ken or maybe a slightly effeminate Action Man!

Crochet Cards

Back last year, I bought a little bag of teeny crocheted Granny squares at one of the Vintage and Handmade Textile Fairs - they cost £1.50 for a pack of 13, which I thought was pretty good value.  Naturally, they've just been gathering dust in my craft trolley ever since as I had no idea what to do with them.  Yesterday, flushed with the success of my new crochet cushion, I thought they might look good on some recycled card blanks.

I got into a bit of a pickle initially as I thought it would be easiest to put the double-sided tape directly onto the crochet - nope, that was not the best idea I've ever had (cue a fair bit of bad language!) as I just couldn't get enough purchase to pull the backing strip off.  Once I'd thought it through a bit more carefully, it was obvious to stick the double-sided tape to the card blank first, then take off the backing strip, and then stick the crochet to the card.  Simples!

I've only done a couple of cards so far as my stock of recycled card blanks is rather limited (must check and see if they're available on eBay,) but I'm quite pleased with them.  Especially as at last I've found a use for the teeny tiny Granny squares.

Very Generously Cut Indeed

Apologies for the rubbish photo - barely daylight all day here in Essex.

Back in March I picked up this faux fur coat at the weekly Coffee & Jumble in the local church hall.  It's made by Wallis, has got three side toggles for fastening, a snuggly warm collar and the label says it's a size 10.  It's been taking up an awful lot of space in my wardrobe ever since whilst I waited for the right season to list it on eBay.  This afternoon I thought I'd do the listing.  I remembered when I bought it that I was told it was quite a large size 10 - they weren't kidding.  I thought I'd just try it on and see how large it was - so flippin' large that it actually fits me!!!!  And, believe me, I am not in a million miles anywhere near a size 10.  Seriously, I know the style could probably be described as 'swing-cut' but that coat fits me a treat.  And I've been wondering what I was going to do if Arctic weather descends on the UK again this winter as my previous winter coat is now ludicrously too big for me (that'll be going on eBay just as soon as I've had it dry cleaned.)  I can't imagine me wearing the faux fur on a daily basis but it'll certainly keep me toasty warm if / when we get really cold weather in the coming months.