Hello. Finally, after six months of procrastination and excuses, I have started my own blog. I'm a forty-something woman living in Essex (although originally from the West Country), and I've been reading and enjoying some of the wonderful crafty / thrifty blogs for the past 18 months or so. I've wanted to start my own blog for a long time and have finally plucked up the courage to get going, so (takes a deep breath) here goes!!
I'm a huge fan of charity shops, car boot sales, and jumble sales (although they are rarer than hen's teeth in these parts), and like nothing more than rooting through piles of old tat hoping to find a great piece of fabric or knitting wool which I can then turn into something else. I've always been keen to find a bargain and have also always been aware that the old adage - "where ther'e's muck, there's brass" is still true today. I run a couple of small businesses from home via the internet selling second-hand books, and I've usually got a few items listed on ebay at any given time.
I really love the lure of anything second hand, not only are you getting yourself a bargain, but you are saving the resources which would be used if you bought that item new, and are possibly saving that item from becoming yet another land fill statistic. Most of my clothes are second hand (not always an easy task as I'm not you're standard size, being rather tall and, ahem, shall we politely say, well built). Most of my partner's work shirts and ties were also picked up second hand, and my darling nephew, who is coming up four, has a very extensive wardrobe, mostly gleaned from the plethora of car boot sales which abound in this part of South Essex every Sunday.
The title of my blog - Making Good Use - is taken from the Wombles theme song (for those of you old enough to remember the Wombles on telly), "making good use of the things that they find, things that the everyday folks leave behind". That's what I try to do, make good use of other people's cast offs, either by using the item as is, or by remaking it in some way. I hope on this blog I can show you some of the great things I thrift, and some of the items they subsequently turn in to.
Enough of my blathering for one post, I should away and carry on with the ironing (oh joy unbounded).