Making Good Use

One Done

Finally this morning, after much huffing, puffing, and putting it off, I got out the sewing machine and stitched up one of the bags I cut out last week.  I don't know why I make such a palarver out of doing this as it only takes me a minute or two to get everything set up but somehow, in my head, it seems to be a mammoth task.  Oh for a space of my own where I could leave the sewing maching set up and ready to go whenever I wanted.  Yeah, right, dream on!  Meanwhile, back in the real world, the dining table has to be cleared, the machine lugged out of it's storage space, extension leads plugged in (which necessitates shifting a rather heavy desk to get to the socket), and everything threaded up and ready to sew.  It really isn't a big task, but I don't half use it as an excuse to put off doing anything!!

The bag went together really well and the John Lewis fabric was lovely to sew.  To brighten things up a bit I used a rather 'loud and proud' fabric for the lining.

This piece had originally been a sheet and I picked it up at the car boot last summer.  It gives a nice bit of pizzazz to the slightly more sober and wintry outer fabric.

I even toyed with the idea of carrying on and sewing up the second bag that's cut out in the same fabric, but then I thought - nah, why tempt fate, the second one could easily go 'a bit Pete Tong', and packed everything away again!

A Woman's Work ....

For some very strange reason I seem to have been gripped by a manic need to start Spring Cleaning, even though it is only January.  Perhaps it was because I was away from home for over two weeks and when I got back I saw the place through 'new' eyes, or perhaps it's because the dust bunnies were massing into serried ranks in P's study.  Whatever the reason I've been polishing, dusting, hoovering, scrubbing, sorting and tidying with an unheard of (for me) vigour.  I think I'm finally getting to the end of the odyssey, although there is still the ever-present mountain of ironing to get through, and I'm quite pleased with the results so far.  Even P has been galvanized into sorting out huge piles of unread legal newspapers, and to going through some of his clothes so that we can now see the top of the dressing table once again (before, the pile was so big that half the mirror was obscured as well!!)

Although the house is now looking much better, sadly all my plans for a bit of crafting have come to nought.  The bags are all cut out and ready to be sewn up.

Two from the John Lewis fabric I found last week, and one in a lovely Laura Ashley rose print fabric which Mum let me have.

A tiny bit of embroidery was achieved yesterday evening, again from the vintage iron-on transfers. 

I'm going for a more spring-like theme now with a pansy

and a gambolling lamb waiting to be stitched.  It could be some time!!

It's Getting Better Every Day

Although the noon-day shadows are still very long, and the sun is still low in the sky, I can at least feel safe in the knowledge that it's getting better every day - as in the sun is setting later each day.

This picture was taken at pretty much 12 noon today (please excuse the cr*p in the background, but the garden is like a wasteland at the moment with the lawn resembling a cross between the Battle of the Somme and a swamp).  The shadows are undoubtedly very long still but, according to the BBC weather website (which also gives the sunrise and sunset times), in the past three and a half weeks since the winter solstice we have already gained about half an hour extra of daylight each afternoon. 

I can tell that the sun is creeping slowly but surely back over the horizon as even the washing gets a teensy little bit of sun on it around noon.

This is my all-time favourite tablecloth, guaranteed to brighten up even the dullest, darkest day.

The mornings, however, are still a totally different matter.  It is very dark until at least 8.00 am, and even later if the day is grey and overcast.  For some reason this morning I was awoken at 3.30 am (probably Maurice le Souris on one of his nightly perambulations!!)  I opened the bedroom window to get a bit of fresh air and within 15 minutes I could hear the first train of the day trundling through the station.  Fifteen minutes after that the dawn chorus started although dawn was at least 3 1/2 - 4 hours away.  I was a bit surprised to hear the birds so early but it was a lovely sound to drift back off sleep with.

Santa's Final Delivery

My last Christmas present arrived this week, and it was well worth waiting for.  My sister had very kindly bought me a metre of incredibly expensive fabric from Persephone Books.

It's called Black Goose and is by E Q (Elsie) Nicholson, originally designed in 1938.  The fabric is just stunning and I know I'll never be able to take a pair of scissors to it.  What I would really like to do is to have some of the fabric stretched over a canvas frame so that I could hang it on the wall.  It really is a work of art - thank you very much S, I know getting hold of this was a bit of a pain for you.

It Makes You Think - Part Deux

P and I have been reduced to only one drinking glass each for the past few months after a small accident occured whilst washing up.  I have been combing the charity shops for suitable 'new to us' drinking glasses ever since but with no success.  I did find three orange and red stripy glasses in one local charity shop but they were rather heavy, I didn't much like their lurid stripes, and they wanted £1.50 for them.  Today I popped into Woolworths - having been lured in by their humungous 'SALE - Items from £1' posters in the window. 

These rather tasteful arctic-blue glasses were 49p each (and no, they weren't in the sale).  They were just what I've been looking for - the right size, the right weight, and a rather pleasing colour.  I bought the only four they had left.

I really don't want to make a habit of buying new when second-hand would do fine, but, really, these were not only what I had been searching for for months, they were also a darn good price.  I just couldn't resist.

It Makes You Think

Just after Christmas Mum and I made use of the free Asda bus which picks up from the top of Mum's road and takes you directly to the local Asda superstore about 3 miles away.  It was ages since I'd last been to Asda and we had a jolly good time there, being especially pleasantly surprised by how cheap Asda is compared to Sainsburys.  What was particularly impressive was the range and prices of their children's clothes.  Anyone who reads this blog regularly will know that I pick up lots of clothes for DN on my travels round the local charity shops and car boot sales but I'm beginning to have second thoughts as some of the charity shop prices are as expensive as buying the items new in Asda.  On the day we went Mum bought DN two pairs of trousers and three long-sleeved tops for the princely sum of £9.  That was £2 each for the trousers, £2 each for two of the tops and £1 for the third top.  All the clothes are 100 per cent cotton, fit him beautifully and are really stylish.  When local charity shops are charging £1.50 - £2.00 for long-sleeve tops (most of them originally from Asda) you really have to think twice about buying second-hand.

I like to do my bit for being green and prefer to buy second-hand where at all possible, but with prices like those it seems stupid, to say the least, to not buy new.  My only reservation is where, and under what circumstances, the clothes were manufactured.  I didn't check where the new clothes had been made but I suspect it will have been somewhere 'iffy' like Bangladesh or Mauritius.  I don't like to think I'm encouraging this type of sweat-shop labour but, on the other hand, with prices like those it seems a no-brainer to buy something that is brand new as opposed to pre-worn.  I will continue to check out the childrens' clothes in any charity shop I'm in as I've had some lovely items for DN over the years.  He looks particularly nice in his 'new' winter coat which I got for him for £2 at the car boot last summer.  The lady I bought the coat from assured me it had never been worn, and I can well believe that as it was in beautiful condition with no name written on the name tag.  Also, some of the charity shops do have childrens' tops for 30p or 50p and I'm very happy to buy anything suitable at that sort of price, but £2 for a pre-worn bog-standard boy's top - no, I don't think so.  Not now I know I can buy new for the same price.

Armed with this new knoweldge my trip to the charity shops in Billericay resulted in pretty slim pickings this morning.  There were a couple of very nice how-to photography books which I've listed for re-sale on Amazon and this lovely piece of fabric from John Lewis.

It's 100 per cent cotton upholstery weight fabric and was only £1 for a 96" x 60" piece.  I nearly fell over when I realised I'd actually found a bona-fide bargain, and this was in one of the more 'upmarket' charity shops.  I feel a few new bags coming on.

Normal Scheduling is Now Resumed

After a much longer than anticipated stay in Bristol with my Mum - thanks Mum for putting up with me - I finally arrived back in Essex on Friday afternoon.  Amongst other reasons, I stayed on because I've done something to my back which is now extremely 'dodgy' to say the least and because, with the continued closure of Liverpool Street Station, I just couldn't face having to travel home via Basildon, a shuttle bus to Billericay, and finally the train back to Wickford.  Cheers Network Rail, another job NOT well done!!  Cue lots of muttering about 'they' should never have privatised the railways and it's all the fault of Maggie Thatcher!!

Anyway, the delicious chocolate covered turkish delight from Waitrose has now all been consumed.

(Although the very pretty wooden box will be put away for future use).  The Christmas tree and all the decorations were taken down on Twelfth Night (yesterday) and the living room is now looking decidedly bare and the carpet has a fine miasma of bits of tinsel all over it.  Next task - hoover up.

I got home to discover that a new neighbour whose garden backs on to part of ours has taken down two or three trees leaving us, them, and other neighbours, wide open to each other's view.  In the words of DN - WHY?  We've also discovered that Maurice the Mouse is now chewing around in the bedrooms late at night - the little beetle!!  We really are going to have to do something about him but quite what we're not sure.  We don't want to put down poison but he doesn't seem to be tempted by food at all so we don't know how we'd ever catch him.  P suggested another version of our do-it-yourself mouse trap (which worked wonderfully with Mistress Mouse) but instead of loading it with food we put in a tasty looking piece of wood for Maurice to gnaw on.  Not the worst of ideas, perhaps.

On a much more positive note, I sold one of my knitted beanie hats on ebay over the weekend, and I'm just about to start the sixth dishcloth which someone has specially ordered from me.  The customer particularly requested plain dishcloths but in a larger size than I normally make them.

They look really pleasing folded up in a neat pile.  At the moment they're the only items in the whole house that are in neat piles!!

How to Frighten the Neighbours

Mum has got a very ancient knitting book that she bought in a charity shop in Poole years ago when we were on holiday in near-by Studland.  I remembered the book well as Mum and I made a complete show of ourselves laughing at some of the patterns in the book in the middle of the shopping centre in Poole.  I'd forgotten all about it until Mum got the book out over Christmas whilst on the hunt for a bedsock pattern for DN.

There is the extremely condescending description of a 'slenderizing' cardigan for the outsize figure.

Being on the big side myself I find this description very rude to larger ladies!!

The 'I'm having a fag' jumper.

And, last but not least, the how to frighten the neighbours 'fascinator'.