Making Good Use

The Best Laid Plans ....

I was full of good intentions today, I was finally going to cut out the material to make a kaftan-style top.  I cut out the pattern pieces yesterday and thought I would finally get down to it this afternoon.  Didn't happen.  The sun was shining far too brightly to be cooped up indoors with my dressmaking scissors.  Instead I sat in the garden working on my tan whilst chopping up an old T-shirt and seam ripping two thrifted pillowcases. 

I'm hoping to turn these -

into something like this -

I've cut two bodice pieces from the blue stripy T-shirt and will use the pillowcase material for the gathered lower part.  I'm hoping it will all work out OK, if not, I'll re-use the pillowcase material for making bags and will probably use the T-shirt material for dusters. 

Perhaps this evening I'll finally get round to cutting out my kaftan top.  I believe rain is forecast for tomorrow so that will be the ideal opportunity to get the sewing maching out.

Le Weekend

P and I had a wonderful weekend.  The weather was just perfect, sunny and warm but with a nice cooling breeze and we spent quite a few hours just sitting at the table in the garden, reading, sewing (that was me, not P), chatting and just generally relaxing.

Saturday evening we decided to go out for a Chinese meal.  This was the perfect opportunity for me to try out my new charity shop top which I found a couple of weeks ago.

As I think I've said before, I'm not your bog-standard size, being rather tall and well-built so I'm always delighted when I can find something that suits second hand.  This top is a Marks and Spencer one and is a beautiful red on white print on a chiffon over-layer with a separate matching red camisole underneath.  Although it doesn't show up too well in the picture there is a beautiful 'waterfall' frill feature all down the front of the top.  I do like Marks and Spencer clothes as they are well cut and long lasting but I rarely buy any new for a couple of reasons.  One, their 'Plus' range is only available in a handful of stores so has to be purchased from their website and I like to be able to try things on before I buy.  And, two, their prices are rather too rich for me, I paid £3.00 for this top but would imagine it was £25.00 - £30.00 when new.

The Chinese meal was wonderful - we should do that sort of thing more often.  In fact, we were working out that it was over 10 years since we had last gone for a Chinese meal during an evening, although we do often go to the same restaurant on a Sunday lunchtime when there is a set-price buffet menu.

Sunday continued in the same pleasant and relaxing vein.  The car boot sale was very good this week.  I found yet more Spiderman goodies for DN - a pair of Spiderman pyjamas and a truly revolting Spiderman mask.

Isn't that just horrible - like some junior masked gunman, but I'm sure DN will be absolutely delighted with it.

On a much prettier note is this box of vintage Christmas baubles.

They are in really nice condition and were only 50p for the lot.  There is something so wonderfully gaudy about old glass ornaments and I am always amazed that something so fragile has survived all those Christmases.

Best of all there was a woman selling larger size clothes for 20p per item.  These were really nice pieces so I grabbed quite a pile of them.  Sadly, none of the skirts did anything for my shape apart from making me look like Humpty Dumpty so they will be destined for ebay, but I did get a gorgeous plain black angora cardigan and a black and white print wrap top which I am really pleased with.  At 20p a pop you just can't go wrong. 

I always keep my eyes open for larger ladies who are selling at a car boot and if I think they are about the same size as me I always give the clothes a close inspection.  I've had some really nice finds that way.

I tried out a bit of an experiment over the weekend too.  Whilst re-reading The Complete Tightwad Gazette book recently I came across a tip for getting the most out of stick deodorants.  P and I both use the same type of deodorant - Tom's of Maine nature's deodorant stick - as it is aluminium free.  This is a lovely deodorant to use but is rather expensive and it had been driving both of us mad that so much of it was wasted by being too far down to use.  P had tried scraping the remnants out of an old stick and sticking it to the top of a new one but that didn't work as the old deodorant just crumbled away.  The tip in The Tightwad Gazette suggested scraping out all the old deodorant from a few used sticks (we had three with only the dregs left), putting them in a glass bowl and zapping it in the microwave.  Once the deodorant is liquid again tip it back into one of the empty deodorant sticks, wait for it to cool and harden and it can be reused.  I was a bit sceptical of all this but thought it was worth giving it a go.  So I duly zapped the scrapings in the microwave - I think I overdid this part as the microwave was full of steam when I opened the door (I would check after every 10 seconds when I do this again), poured the liquid into one of the sticks and voila, next morning about 1/4 of a stick is now usable again.

I'm really pleased with this - I know I know, I should get out more!!  Hope you all had a great weekend too.

This is No Longer the House of Mistress Mouse

Ta Da!!  Look at what we found in the humane mousetrap this morning - 'tis Mistress Mouse herself.

For anyone else suffering from a 'moose loose somewhere in the hoose' I highly recommend Steve Smith's humane mousetrap idea (www.smithsax.btinternet.co.uk). 

For the first three nights we had been using a piece of bent wire as the 'spring'  although he recommends using a bent bamboo skewer.  Yesterday I bought a bag of bamboo skewers in Sainsbury's so during the evening P re-designed the 'spring' mechanism with a bamboo skewer and, my goodness, it certainly worked.  Best of all it didn't cost a penny (well, that's not quite true if you count the 99p for 100 bamboo skewers - I do have another packet somewhere about but I just couldn't find them), and considering the huge amount of money we spent on the sonic and electromagnetic rodent repeller (as much use as a sick headache) and the two humane mousetraps from the pet shop (total waste of time) this is just as well.

Mistress Mouse is actually quite cute but I just don't want to share a house with her.  First thing this morning we gave her a lift to her new country residence about three miles away, I hope she will be very happy there, and that she will 'live long and prosper'. 

We will be re-setting the trap again this evening as I strongly suspect Mistress Mouse was not operating as a sole agent.  No doubt somewhere in the depths of the house is the Clyde to her Bonnie. 

Basildon Bound

I've been for a little jaunt to Basildon this morning.  I don't go there very often (about once every couple of months) but I must say I have quite a soft spot for the place. 

It is one of a series of 'New Towns' which were built in the home counties in the 1950s in order to move people out of the East End of London to more 'rural' areas with greater space.  I don't think I've ever been to any of the other 'New Towns' but I assume they are all a bit like Basildon - classic examples of the town planners of the time trying to build the 'town of the future'.  Most of Basildon is sprawling suburbia with wonderful road names like 'Great Spenders, leading to Little Spenders' and 'Matching Green'.  The town centre is completely traffic free - which makes it nice for a wander round - and oddly enough there is a huge tower block of residential flats smack bang in the middle of the shopping precinct!! 

Having been born and brought up on the edge of a city which has a past stretching back to Roman times (and with the Roman baths at Bath being only a few miles away) I find it very odd to visit somewhere which has absolutely no obvious history at all, and where all the buildings date from the same era. But like I said at the beginning I do have a soft spot for Basildon - mainly because it has some wonderful charity shops.

I had quite a good haul today with this large stack of books.

I bought all of them except two with the idea of re-selling them.  Unfortunately, only four of them made it on to Amazon, two were listed on Greenmetropolis, one will be listed on ebay, and the rest will have to go to a charity shop.  I've been selling second hand book via Amazon for a few years now and used to do really well from it.  Sadly, these last few months have seen sales fall right away - I don't know why - maybe it's the time of year or something.

I also picked up these really cute Le Creuset salt and pepper pots in the shape of miniature Le Creuset casserole dishes. 

I was hoping they would be OK for ebay and, having just checked out completed listings, it seems they sell really well - so they were a good find.

I also picked up a couple of T-shirts for DN, nothing spectacular but useful additions to his wardrobe.

Also for DN is this wonderful cuddly Spiderman doll.

DN had specifically asked if I could make him a cuddly Spiderman and I knew I would have huge problems trying to do that, so I was mighty pleased (and hugely relieved) to find this doll in one of the charity shops.  After a quick trip through the washing machine, I'll package him up and post him to DN as a surprise.

Me Old China

Writing about the old bread crock yesterday got me thinking about some of the other vintage items I have around the house and which are used (or admired) on a regular basis. 

There are the two Sylvac bowls / vases which adorn one side of the mantelpiece, the smaller yellow one was a gift from my mother, the larger cream one was picked up by me in a charity shop in Exeter quite a few years ago.  These are wonderfully tactile pieces as the crocus pattern is in quite deep relief.

On the other side of the mantelpiece are these black and white 1960s pieces of china - I'm not sure what make they are as there is no back stamp.  They are both from charity shops - the white one first and the black one a few years later.

Also in the living room is this wonderful fifties large Italian jug / vase.  I know this came from a jumble sale when we lived in Nottingham so I must have had it at least 10 years.  I've recently put it to work as a store for some of my knitting needles.

When it comes to crockery for food everything we own is second-hand, and most of it mis-matched.  We have a set of six Chef Ware blue and white side plates which I bought in a charity shop in Swanage, with the rest of the plates being very plain 1930s cream ones with a green border which were my aunt's.  We also have these two Johnson Bros. rose-patterened plates which my sister found for me in a charity shop - these tend to get used on a daily basis as they are so pretty and summery.

For occasional use there is the wonderful Majolica-style bean pod-shaped plate which I got in a jumble sale over 20 years ago.  This tends to come out in the summer when we're having tomato and mozzarella salad. 

And this tiny lettuce-leaf jug which usually has mint sauce served in it.  This is a more recent acquisition, having been bought a mere five or six years ago in a charity shop.

Finally, the piece de resistance of my treasured vintage china - this wonderful Crown Devon gravy jug / sauce boat in the Stockholm pattern.  It is the last remaining part of the dinner set my parents received for their wedding in the very late 1950s.  Such an evocative stylised pattern, absolutely typical of the period, and with wonderful childhood memories for me.

I'd been looking all over the place for this jug as I hadn't seen it since we moved here a couple of years ago.  I assumed it was packed away in a box in the loft so I was most surprised when it surfaced in a box in the shed yesterday.  I was out there looking for bits and bobs to build a 'home made' humane mouse trap re: the instructions given on this site (www.smithsax.btinternet.co.uk - do check out the photos of successfully caught mice - wonderful).  We did build the trap yesterday but have had no success so far, but nihil desperandum!!

Anyway, whilst poking about in the boxes in the shed I also found these two huge serving plates / platters in this fabulous 'gingham' pattern.  These are just a bit too big for me to use so they're destined for ebay.

The Tale of an Old Crock

No, not my life story - although I do feel like an old crock these days - but the story of a very useful old bread crock.

This bread crock belonged to my paternal grandmother (possibly even my great grandmother) which makes it about 100 years old.  It was always in use when I was a child and stood in the far corner of my mother's kitchen.  I never thought too much about it, it was just where the bread was kept. 

Somehow over the years it got used less and less and last summer my mother decided she could use the room so asked me if I would like it.  Now this is an enormous (about 2 1/2 feet high), heavy old piece of terracotta-ware (sadly, the lid is a replacement, having been broken about 30 years ago) and much as I wanted it I couldn't imagine how I would ever get it back to Essex on the train.  In the autumn Mum was unwell and had to have an operation so I went to stay with her for a few weeks.  P came to visit in the car and so the bread crock was duly dispatched with him - safely seat belted in on the back seat.  I told him to put it in the shed, having vague plans to use it as a large garden planter.  It stayed in the shed all over the winter, until we got invaded by the mices!!

Now it has pride of place in my kitchen and is back doing sterling work in the way it was always intended - as a mouse-proof bread crock.  Not only does it keep the darned varmint away from the fresh bread, it also keeps the bread fresher for longer and I love being able to use this little piece of my family history on a daily basis. 

Up until now I've been wrapping the fresh bread in a tea towel to put it in the crock.  But yesterday I found these little beauties at the car boot sale

They are large white cotton drawstring bags with this wonderful embroidery on the front.  They will really keep my bread fresh in style from now on.

Whilst at the car boot I also scored this fantastic piece of whimsical material.  Its not old, having an Ikea label on it, but I just love the wonderful depictions of this mummy squirrel and her little ones.

I particularly like the top picture with mummy squirrel bandaging the litlle one's tail.  Not sure what I'll do with this material but a bag is the most likely outcome!!

Is This The House of Mistress Mouse?

The answer is - yes, it flippin' well is at the moment. 

We have been plagued by a pesky rodent loose in the house for the past three months.  All attempts to humanely remove the little blighter have failed miserably.  Firstly, at huge expense, we bought a Sonic and Electromagnetic Rodent Repeller - no discernible effect whatsoever.  Then we moved on to humane traps - temptingly baited with firstly raisins, then peanut butter, then chocolate (all recommended in the instructions.)  Then we thought we would bait the traps with a really stinky cheddar - nope, not a sniff.  Finally, after discovering the mouse had been eating Carr's Original Cheese Melts with gusto, we baited the traps with those, even setting one trap up in a nearly empty box.  The bl**dy thing just gets bolder and bolder, on Monday it did a circuit of the living room whilst I was on the phone to my Mum!!  Does anyone have any (preferably humane) tips on getting rid of mice?   I'd be really grateful for any suggestions.  I know getting a cat would do the trick and I would be all for that but P is not so keen.

On a whistle-stop tour of the charity shops this morning I bought another table cloth - although this one is for me and, being round, will fit my dining table perfectly.

It is a lovely heavy cotton material with this great yellow and blue print.  These are such Mediteranean colours to my mind so this cloth will be perfect for the summer.

The weather forecast looks fairly settled for the weekend so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it'll be full steam ahead for the car boot sale on Sunday.  I'm still on the hunt for the elusive pure cotton short-sleeved work shirts for P.  I managed to get two in charity shops in Billericay yesterday, but that still leaves another three or four to be found.  But mainly the joy of car boot sales - like any other type of thrifting - is the joy of the unknown, what will be for sale this week?, the thrill of the chase, and the satisfaction of finding something really lovely amongst all the dross.  I hope the sun shines where ever you are this weekend.