Making Good Use

I'm So Excited (and I Just Can't Hide it)

There's a new sewing / crafting magazine coming out next month called Sew Hip.  It's a long-overdue British publication for the British crafter (the US of A seem to be brimming over with lovely craft magazines but in my local W H Smith's the only craft magaines around seem to be for scrapbookers or card makers.) 

Anyhoo, Manda at Treefall Design (www.treefalldesign.typepad.com) is the editor of this new magazine, and a little while ago was asking for people to send in ideas for crafts that might be suitable for inclusion in the first issue.  I sent her an e-mail about my pillowcase bookbags / totes and to cut a long story short they're being featured in the October edition of Sew Hip.  The link is http://www.sewhip.co.uk/issue1.html and my bags are the bottom photo on the right-hand side.  Even more excitingly, they're featured on the cover too!!  I don't know who did the styling and photography but my goodness me they've managed to make those bags look good!!

There look to be some other nice items in Sew Hip too, and I particularly like the look of the little kitten to sew.  As I fear my local Smith's won't be stocking the magazine, I threw caution to the wind and pre-ordered a copy.  Now I can't wait for it to arrive!!  Hope nobody minds me blowing my own trumpet here, but I am HUGELY excited to have one of my craft items in a magazine.

What May Have Been the Last Car Boot of the Season

Turned out to be very busy and rather pleasant.  The sun was out, the grass was dry and there were more sellers than I've seen all season.  So many, in fact, that I didn't manage to get round all the stalls in the hour we were there.  I got a couple of reasonable books for re-sale and a nice short-sleeved T-shirt for DN for next summer.

There was also this very stylish knitting pattern for baby's slippers and bootees, which at 10p I had to buy - not that I've got any particular baby in mind to knit bootees for but they are sweetly pretty.

And this rather nice French knitting red and white wooden mushroom.  I remember having a wooden doll style French knitting thingy as a child, and never could get to grips with it.  I bought this one mainly because it was such a cheerful mushroom item but, you never know, it may come in useful for making knitted cords one day, and it did only cost me 50p.

Soup Season

Although it is another gloriously sunny day, and I've been out in the garden cutting the grass and generally trying to tidy up, there is that certain nip in the air when you're out of the sun that made me want to make some soup for lunch.

I sometimes follow soup recipes - especially from my thrifted copy of the 'Covent Garden Soup Book' (50p from the local charity shop a few years ago), and really like the roasted parsnip and parmesan soup and the pumpkin soup recipes from it.  Mostly though I make soup in order to use up various bits and bobs of veggies that are lurking in the fridge.  Today's soup consisted of half an onion which was left over from the other day, half a cauliflower from earlier in the week, a handful of salad potatoes which I knew wouldn't get used up otherwise and a few small carrots.  I cooked the whole lot up with a few teaspoons of Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillon, blitzed it with my hand held blender and it was mighty tasty for lunch with a cranberry jelly and jarlsberg cheese wrap.  The cranberry jelly had been lurking in the fridge for weeks and as there was a tiny bit of furry mouldy stuff on the edge of the jar I thought it best to use up what was left in the wrap - even though it was an extremely generous portion I ended up with.

The soup I made should provide 3 or 4 portions of tasty goodness for very little cost.  I genuinely do prefer homemade soup to any of the fancily-packaged sachets or tetrapaks of 'designer soup' that cost anything up to £2.00 per portion.  One soup you just can't make as well though is tomato soup.  I did try it once and it was a huge amount of effort for something that was thin and nasty and tasted nothing like Heinz.  Yup, you just can't beat Heinz Cream of Tomato for 'boughten' soup.

This and That

This morning dawned beautifully bright and sunny with hardly a cloud in the sky - what a contrast to yesterday's grey, dreary, damp weather.  I took myself off to the Thursday Car Boot which was not brilliant but I had a nice gentle stroll around in the warm sunshine, admiring the glowing colours of the trees as their leaves begin to fall. 

I took the opportunity of paying a visit to Sainsbury's whilst I was in the vicinity and changed up my 1p, 2p and 5p pieces in their Coinstar machine.  I like to save up the coppers and 5p pieces and then every few months cash them in and use the voucher for a bit of money off my shopping.  Today's voucher was for £6 which wasn't bad for about four months of collecting my small change.  It was just as well I went this week as this particular Sainsbury's store has had the builders in for months now and is going to be closed for 9 days from next Wednesday.  I'll bear that in mind if the weather is still good for the car boot sale next Thursday.  The weather forecast looks very promising for the weekend too so, fingers' crossed, there will be another car boot on Sunday.

I read a very interesting blog recently (dag nabbit, I can't for the life of me find it again) which was talking about signing up to do surveys on You Gov (www.yougov.co.uk).  Apparently each survey you complete pays a minimum of 50p and once your account has reached £50 they send you a cheque.  I had to complete a simple registration form and then fill in a more personal survey (it only took a couple of minutes and they've credited my account with £1).  I know it's not mega bucks, but as Tesco is so fond of telling us 'every little helps.'

I've also signed up for a Christmas Swap over at French Knots (www.frenchknots.typepad.co.uk).  I've been partnered up with Emma from Bagladee (www.emma-bagladee.blogspot.com) who makes the most fantastic looking bags and broochs.  Hi Emma, if you're reading.  Not sure what I'll be making for her for the swap but I've got until mid November to get something sorted.

Finally, here's a photo of the other scarf I made yesterday.  I wasn't quite so pleased with it as the tweed fabric was just not quite long enough - although the colours do all go well together.

Scarf

I couldn't decide this morning whether to pop over to Billericay and trawl the charity shops or whether to stay home and get the sewing machine out.  The thought of spending £4.40 on bus fare (for a 15 minute journey each way - shockingly expensive) made me think twice and I knew I'd made the right decision when the rain started at 10.00 am - just when I would have been walking along the High Street.  So out came the sewing machine and I got to work on one of the fabric scarves.

It all went together pretty well and I'm pleased with how it turned out.  In fact, the most difficult part was trying to get a decent photo.  At first I thought it might have been too short but having checked the sizes of the Cath Kidston scarves online, I found mine was considerably longer - approx. 60 inches long.

I was so pleased with my achievement that I sewed up another one this afternoon.  That one didn't go quite as well as the greeny tweed fabric was not quite long enough so this one has ended up a tad shorter.  The photos of that one will have to wait until tomorrow when we've got a bit of sunshine - fingers crossed!

New Projects

I've been mulling over what to do with some lovely tweedy fabric I thrifted over the summer.  Initially I thought of making winter-weight bags but, hmm, somehow that idea didn't quite 'do it' for me.  Then I thought of cushion covers - maybe livened up with some felt appliques.  The jury's still out on that one.  Then my thoughts turned to the approaching colder weather, and what sort of items would be useful then.  One idea was tweedy hot-water bottle covers - again, still chewing that one over.  Finally, I've decided to use some of the tweed to make fabric scarves.

I know I've seen some beautiful fabric scarves on various blogs (of course, I can't find them now!!) but I'm hoping to loosely base mine on the old 'mod' scarves from the sixties where one side is wool and the other side a silky print  (should you ever come across these vintage scarves they sell extremely well on ebay).  I had a look for some fat quarters I bought last year, and was delighted to find that the colours go really well with the tweeds.  I'm planning on making a patchwork effect backing from the cotton fabrics with the plain tweed fabric on the other side.

The three pink / grey fabrics are, I think, Kaffe Fassett and go beautifully with the mauvy hounds-tooth tweed.

The mustard floral and blue polka-dots are Amy Butler fabrics whilst the blue circles one is another Kaffe Fassett.

I so rarely buy new fabric that I'm amazed I managed to find colours that would marry up so well with the thrifted tweed.  The only problem will be actually cutting into the new stuff!!  Still, omlette and eggs you know, omlette and eggs.

Finished - Thank Goodness

The everlasting project of the patchwork knitted blanket finally came to a close just before I went off to Bristol. 

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out - especially as there are some widely varying weights and plys amongst the wools used.  Even the colours seem to go together quite well considering every single piece of yarn used was thrifted, including the black yarn to sew it all together. I'm not sure how much it cost me to make, probably somewhere in the region of £10 - £15.  Time-wise it took a little over two months and was a nice simple project to do whilst watching telly.  As it's pretty nippy in the house this evening (and I've no intention of putting the central heating on until absolutely necessary) it will be getting it's first outing whilst I'm watching Coronation Street.

Apologies for the rubbish photo - the light here this afternoon was dreadful.

Hiatus

Many apologies for the unexpected blogging break.  Things have come to a bit of a 'head' at the moment, and much soul-searching and decision-making is going on as a consequence.  I do hope to be back in a few days with some proper blogging.  Hope you are all enjoying the wonderful sunny weather this weekend.  A bit of sun makes everything seem better.

Surprisingly Good

This morning Mum and I went to a small High Street just a short bus ride away that we haven't been to for quite a long time (a few years at least).  There are only three charity shops there and one of those is for the local hospice and is notoriously expensive.  However, we did manage to find a few nice bits and pieces - a cardigan and jeans for Mum and these three items for me. 

There's a vintage T G Green 'Kitchen Things' storage jar which was £1, a very floral 1970s vintage double sheet - £1, and a nicer-than-it-looks-in-the-photo damask table cloth - also £1.

The best charity shop there was one that is oddly situated at the back of a shoe-mender's shop.  We weren't sure if it was still going as the back of the shop was dark, but when we asked the chap in the shoe menders about it he put the lights on for us and so we had the pleasure of poking about in an empty charity shop all by ourselves - wonderful.  That is where the floral sheet and the table cloth came from, and also where Mum got herself the pair of jeans.  I definitely think it's somewhere we'll be going back to on a more regular basis.

Plastic Fantastic

This motley collection of 1960s plastic toys were salvaged from the bottom of the old tin bath in Mum's outhouse.  They're all still a bit grubby, despite a good soaking in the sink, but I'm going to keep hold of them for pure nostalgia.  I'm not quite sure where they'll be put for the time being, one day, when we're finally settled, they might be quite good in one of my two printers trays (sadly packed away in the loft for the last five years or so).

I do remember playing with some of these bits and pieces, and it's amazing to think they've been mouldering away for something like 35 years.  My sister and I, and our friends, used to spend many many hours playing in the outhouse as children - well, when you grow up in the south west of England you certainly have to have 'wet weather' contingency plans - and the outhouse was just the ticket.  Detached from the house but close enough for us to play in there safely, large enough to get probably four or five little girls in there at any one time, and easily accessible from the back door of the house.  And, most importantly of all, weather-proof.

It's odd that the two main colours of the rescued plastic bits and bobs are pale blue and bright red - perhaps that's the main colours plastic toys were made in then - and most of the pieces bear the ultimate legend of toys of my childhood - 'Made in Hong Kong'.  They do tone very nicely with Mum's Cath Kidston oilcloth though.