Making Good Use

Plus / Minus

On the minus side this dreary weather is not good.  I know it's officially autumn now but, really, does it have to be so dark and depressing so early in the season. 

This was the view from the landing window this morning - rain, rain, and yet more rain.  All driven in on a northerly wind which is so direct from the arctic I swear I can smell the polar bears.

This early cold snap has also meant that we're certainly not going to be able to get a zero gas bill this quarter.  After weeks and weeks of trying, and of having no hot water on tap (except for the shower), we've twice had to give in these last few evenings and have the central heating on.  The plus side of this - apart from being nice and toasty - is that it has been utter bliss to turn on the tap and actually get HOT WATER.  It's been so long I'd forgotten how nice it is.

Also on the plus side, whilst rummaging around in drawers, sorting out some warmer clothes, I came across a nice little stash of wool that I'd totally forgotten about.

I've already cast on with the burnt orange ball to make another beanie hat - it seems such an appropriate colour for autumn.

Swan Song

I fear last Sunday's car boot sale will have been the last one of the season for me.  The weather has taken a distinct turn for the worse and is decidedly autumnal now, if not down-right wintery, with a very cold northerly wind and frequent heavy, squally showers.

As a swan song last Sunday's offerings weren't bad.

There was this jade-green T-shirt with a lovely embossed pattern on the front and a nice bit of applique detail to the side of the neckline.  Sadly, this one is short-sleeved so will have to be put away until next spring.

The other T-shirt has three-quarter length sleeves

and a much more autumnal print on it.  This one may see some service in the near future, if we lose the arctic winds.  These were both 50p each.

For DN were a pair of long-sleeved pyjamas featuring a Sooby Doo logo on the front.

These should prove useful during the winter months, and were only 20p.

Farewell car boots for another year, they've been pretty fruitful this season and I shall continue to have withdrawal symptoms for the next few weeks.  Next thing to look forward to are the Christmas Fairs at various churches and chapels.  These seem to abound in this area during November and are great for picking up nice toiletries, vintage decorations, and all sorts of other tempting bits and bobs.  Once Christmas and New Year are over I'll start looking forward to the spring and the start of another car boot season.  Only five and a half months to go!!

I Just Can't Credit It

Nikki Shell has put up a link to this online article, which pretty much sums up my feelings on the 'have now, pay later, buy yourself happiness' culture which has sprung up in the first world in the last 10-15 years.

P and I, and my Mum, and my sister and brother-in-law, still live by the old-fashioned rules of 'if you haven't got the money for it, then you can't have it'.  And if you really want it, you save up for it.  I know many other people in blogland are also keen on this way of living, of turning their backs on the rampant consumerism that is threatening to engulf us all.  Sadly, I fear, we are something of a tiny minority.

The whole 'sub-prime' mortgage debacle in the USA pretty much sums up what is wrong with taking on too much debt, and the whole of the first world are now feeling the repurcussions from it, even those of us who haven't ever been in debt.  I may be totally naive, but I hadn't realised that we too in the UK have had a booming 'sub-prime' lending culture until very recently.  This has helped to fuel the never-ending house price boom, which in turn has led to people feeling they are wealthy and so can 'afford' to take on ever mounting debts.  I believe the 'personal debt' in the UK has now topped a trillion pounds - and that does not take into account mortgage debt.  And that the average household has 'personal debts' of more than £20,000.  Why do people feel the need to spend their way to self-contentment?  I can't say I'm adverse to a little 'retail therapy' myself, but I've never done it with money I don't have. How do they sleep at night?  I would be worried sick if I had that level of debt.  I'd probably have many more 'consumer durables' than I have at the moment, but I wouldn't be able to enjoy any of it if it meant I had to service that level of debt.

I'm really hoping that the tide may, at long last, be turning.  Apparently lenders are becoming much more cautious about who they loan money too, and Barclaycard are turning down 50% of new applicants for credit cards and slashing the credit limit for many of their existing cardholders.

I'd like to blame the whole consumerism / debt mess on Maggie Thatcher (I like to blame everything on her if I can - but that's another story) but, this time at least, I don't think she is to blame.  She may have sown the seeds of it during the 1980's 'greed is good' era, but New Labour (what was wrong with Old Labour I'd like to know) have certainly watered, fertilised, tended, and cultivated those seeds until they've grown into something that is taking over people's lives.

Sorry for the quasi-political rant.  Normal service will be resumed tomorrow.

They're Getting A Bit Addictive

Another day, another matryoshka applique.

I chose the colours to tone with a large tweedy scarf which Mum let me have recently, and with which I hope to make a winter bag.

Each time I finish one of these appliques I think of yet another colour combination that I want to try out, so I fear there may be many more to come.

Matryoshka Appliques

Having been hugely impressed by the beautiful Matryoshka doll bags that Rosehip (July 12th post) had made, I had a go at a couple of Matryoshka appliques myself this weekend.

The first one I made is this blue one - everything, including the thread, is thrifted materials (except the tiny bits of red felt for her rosy cheeks, and the brown felt for her hair - they were from my off-cuts bag).  I was quite pleased how she turned out but the blue wool material was a bit of a b*gger to sew around her face (it kept slipping out of place).

So I had a go at this pink version.  The main body of the doll is made from 100 per cent wool felt (sadly, not thrifted) although everything else was thrifted (again, apart from the felt for the hair and cheeks).  This applique was much easier to sew using the felt as it somehow had a lot more body and a lot less 'give' in it.  Also, second time around, I'd realised that I needed to make the opening for the face a lot smaller than the actual face so that there was plenty of material to play with when it came to sewing it all together.

The appliques each measure approx. 7 1/2 inches high, and I'm hoping to use them on a winter-weight bag or two in the near future.

Equinox

I think I'm right in saying that today - along with 21st March - is unique in being the day when the whole world has 12 hours daylight and 12 hours darkness.  I don't enjoy this time of year very much as it means the nights are getting dark much much earlier and, as my father always said from 21st June onwards, 'it's all downhill from now until Christmas'.  Dad very much shared my dislike of the dark days of autumn and winter (and of not being too keen on Christmas either!!)

Although the weather here is quite clement and mild, and the forecast for the weekend is good (yay! car booting weather!), the signs of autumn are unmistakeable in the garden.

The vine leaves are turning a rather pleasant shade of russet.

One of the apple trees is groaning with these unusually-coloured dark purple apples. I've no idea what variety they are but they have certainly fruited wonderfully this year - it must have been all the rain during the summer.

Further to yesterday's topic of great neighbours, our nearest neighbour on the other side of the house (you can't really describe her as a next-door neighbour as she actually lives in another road altogether) called yesterday with this bag of really tasty cherry tomatoes which she had grown herself.

In return I was able to give her a large bunch of organic celery which had come in our weekly box delivery.  Neither P nor I can stand celery, our neighbour said she loves it, and it was great to be able swap it for these much tastier tomatoes.  'Quid pro quo' as my Dad used to say.

Neighbours, Everybody Needs Good Neighbours

We have the nicest next-door neighbours at the moment.  We've lived in this house for the last two and a half years, and our next-door neighbours have been lovely from the first day we moved in.  They're an older couple and have lived in their house for 40 years, they know everything about the neighbourhood and are a mine of information about what things were like in this area years ago.  When my Mum was rushed into hospital last year, at the same time as P was away in the Far East on business, they were so kind and came in to our house every day to keep an eye on things for me - which meant I had at least one less thing to worry about at a very stressful time.

We often chat if we see each other in the garden and, a few weeks ago, I mentioned that I love vintage buttons.  This week this lovely package of old buttons was handed to me.

This was such a kind thought as the lady next door has a degenerative condition which means she is rather unsteady on her feet these days, and looking out these buttons for me must have been quite a task for her.  Apparently the yellow buttons came from a dress she had when she was five (they remind me of the pretty fabric yo-yos I've seen on a lot of blogs lately), and the larger two dark buttons are from the 1950s.  The unusual hexagonal-shaped buttons are wooden - I never seen ones quite like those before.  I'm going to save the buttons for something really special, so that every time I look at them I'm reminded of the our lovely neighbours.

I Couldn't Resist ....

.... when I saw that this knitting pattern was still in the charity shop in Billericay.

I find it amazing (and mildly shocking) that models have been posed for a knitting pattern in the act of lighting a cigarette!!  Presumably in the 1950s this was considered the height of sophistication.

I also picked up a few other vintage patterns in the same shop.

These incredibly conservative-looking (with both a big and small 'C') boys in their cable-knit jumpers.

This vibrantly-coloured pattern for dolls clothes.

And a slightly more modern 'bazaar (or should that be bizarre) goods' pattern.  I rather like the idea of a crow hot-water-bottle cover.

Jumble Sale Rumbles

A couple of weeks ago Gill was talking about good old-fashioned jumble sales in one of her posts.  This started me reminiscing about the wonderful jumble sales that Mum and I used to go to every autumn and winter. 

The season always kicked of with a local Methodist church jumble sale on a Friday evening in early September.  These jumbles were always massive and a huge queue would snake around the church car park, causing no end of problems for the Weight Watchers group who were using another part of the church on Fridays too.  Mum and I always ensured we were there with plenty of time to spare, lots of small change, and loads and loads of empty bags.  There was an almost festive atmosphere in the queue as we all knew that this was the start of another year's jumble sale season.  These jumble sales never disappointed and we used to come out festooned with bags full of clothes, books and bric a brac.  The best part was getting home and emptying all our 'treasures' out on to the floor to sort through and see just what we had managed to 'bag'.

All through September, October and November, and then again in January, February and March, there would be at least one jumble in the area every weekend, sometimes we would go from one straight on to another.  Pretty much everything I wore came from a jumble sale, and most of the books I read did too.  When I bought my first house everything was second-hand (mostly picked up at jumbles) except the cooker (I panicked, and went out and bought a new one!!)

I don't have much left in the house that was originally from a jumble sale now.  There is the wonky Lloyd Loom linen basket which came from a jumble in Bath about 24 years ago.  This has been used every day since, and has been moved from place to place to place.  It's never got any more wonky and, to be honest, I never even notice it's 'twist' any more.  There is also a large 1950s Italian vase which came from a jumble sale in Nottingham 12 years ago, that still has pride of place on my bookshelves and these days holds my knitting needles.  Also, from a Nottingham jumble is our faux Christmas Tree - that gets an airing every December.

Our vintage plastic salad servers are, relatively speaking, from quite a recent jumble sale - perhaps 7 or 8 years ago.  These are used every time we have a salad and I find their marbled green colour really pleasing nestling in a salad bowl.

These came from a jumble sale which used to take place in our local scout hut - a particularly damp and dark shed-like building which really didn't inspire you to want to stay in there very long.  A jumble sale in there always involved a VERY quick perusal to see if there was anything worth having before dashing back outside to the light and the fresh air.

The oddest place I ever attended a jumble sale was in a railway engine shed with a rusting old steam engine in the back.  It was in aid of our local railway restoration society and, luckily, took place one August many years ago.  Mum and I set off on push bikes on a very hot afternoon (this was long before I had passed my driving test), and cycled about five miles there.  The jumble turned out to be wonderful and we had to cycle the five miles back again with our handle bars swathed in bulging carrier bags - I thought I was going to have a heart attack by the time I eventually got home!!  The haul was brilliant, but everything had to be washed very thoroughly as it all absolutely reeked of coal and steam!

I remember going to a jumble sale in a particularly pretty country church hall in April 1982.  The weather was unseasonably warm and I stood in the queue in a short-sleeved top admiring the blossom on the trees in the churchyard, and worrying myself sick about the Falklands war which had just started. 

I remember queueing for an hour on a sub-zero January afternoon in Nottingham and having to keep stamping my feet and blowing on my hands to stop them from freezing up - but it was so worth it as that was probably the best jumble sale I ever attended.  I came away with so much 'stuff' that I had to buy the biggest canvas bag I have ever come across (it's the size of a coal sack) to get my haul home.  The bag is still used on occasions when we go shopping by car - you would not believe how many tins and bottles, and packs of corn flakes you can fit in the thing.

I so miss jumble sales - whatever happened to them?  I suppose the plethora of car boot sales and charity shops took the place of the humble jumble.  But at this time of year, as the nights draw in and the mornings are misty, and car boot sales are shutting down for the season, I really miss the thrill of a winters 'jumbling' ahead.

Frugal Friday

I thought I'd start an occasional series of posts with some frugal, money-saving tips.  I'm planning on posting them mainly on Fridays - hence, of course, the title.  I probably won't be able to claim that any of the tips were created by me - I'm an inveterate reader of any money-saving books / columns / tips / websites - but I do try and implement most of them in the way I live.

I thought I'd start off with the weekly food shop. 

Now, I'm very lucky in that my local supermarket is an Aldi.  For anyone who hasn't come across the Aldi chain they are a German-based supermarket (and are, I believe, some relation to the other German chain - Lidl), they sell a limited range of food stuffs, none of them brand names, which are excellent quality at exceptionally cheap prices.  When I first came across Aldi (about seven years ago) I was very sceptical about the quality of unkown makes, but I have been very pleasantly surprised that I don't have to use Heinz tomato ketchup or salad cream - their own label brands are just as good.  Some things I don't get on with - their corn flakes aren't a patch on Kellogg's and their tomato soup is nowhere near as nice as Heinz - but, generally, own-label brands are just as good as the well-known makes.  After 'taking the plunge' away from well-known brand names, I now tend to buy all supermarket own brands as standard.  This tends to work out much, much cheaper.  Mind you, the supermarkets are very savvy about this and tend to place all the more expensive, well-known brands on the eye-level shelves, you often have to scrabble around nearly at floor level to find the supermarket own-brand product.  So, after a huge amount of waffle, that would be my tip number one, try own-brand labels instead of well-known makers - some you'll win, some you'll lose - but you will save money.

Tip two - a fairly obvious one this - never, ever go food shopping on an empty stomach - that way huge checkout bills lie!!  I've done it myself in the past, been a bit peckish when shopping and, whoosh - before you know it, all sorts or tempting tit-bits and treats are in the trolley. 

Following on from that is always make a list.  This saves much head-scratching in the shop, much frustration when you get home (having forgotten some vital ingredient), and makes shopping quicker and cheaper.  If you stick closely to the list it will save you from being tempted by all sorts of expensive but non-essential items as you go round the supermarket.

In the same vein - know what you've got at home.  There's no good doubling up on items which are perishable (the carton of cream I had to throw out this week still irks me!!).  Have a quick check through the fridge / pantry before you head off so that you don't inadvertantly double up.

Tip five - try and buy in bulk if something you know you'll use (and can be stored easily) is on special offer, or is much cheaper in an 'industrial' size.  I'm a bit limited with this one as I don't have much storage space in the kitchen, a tiny fridge, and no freezer, but I do keep my eyes open for anything tinned, in packets, or cleaning / toiletry products on specials which can be stored somewhere else in the house.  Also, I tend to buy mega packets of herbs and spices and then decant them into small storage jars as and when needed.  These HUGE packets often only cost pennies more than the fancy schmancy little glass jars of herbs / spices in the supermarkets - and they last for aeons!!

Anyway, I hope some of these tips might be useful to someone out there.  Please do get it touch, I'd love to hear if you have any money-saving food-shopping tips.

I leave you with a picture of some rather funky, and very large, placemats I got yesterday in a charity shop - £1 for the four - brand new and in their original packaging.  The pictures are of all sorts of electrical household items with their names in English, French and German - 'so, jetzt, ich kann essen und lernen'