Making Good Use

Material Girl

Fabulous weather for the boot sale this morning, and there were LOADS of sellers and buyers out and about too - which is just as well as the darned thing is not on next week because there is a balloon fiesta taking place on the site.  Mind you, I'm quite excited to see lots of balloons in the skies around here, I've never spotted one in the last seven years - and am even thinking of forking out the £35.00 it would cost P and I to go and see the night glow and mass take off.  I really miss not seeing balloons floating serenely by - they're a beautiful and very common sight in Bristol - and I never tire of seeing them from both near and far.

 
Anyway, this morning's boot sale resulted in a lot of material buying. 

 
Two large pieces of Ikea fabric - always beautiful designs and lovely cotton material - £3.00 for the two.

 
A piece of vintage Holly Hobbie-style fabric - 50p.

 
Which goes very nicely with the Holly Hobbie little cloth doll - 20p - who is sitting on a humungous piece of embroidered corduroy I found.  The cord was £2.00 and I reckon there is at least 4 yards of it.

 
Away from the fabric-buying frenzy, I found this embroidered tea cosy - 50p, and a boxed set of Roger & Gallet guest soaps - £1.50.  I really like these soaps and they're tres expensive to buy in the shops so I was very pleased to find them.

 
A couple of nice toiletries for me - Hackett Body Wash (I prefer a more masculine scented shower gel to the very floral ones) and a bottle of Frizz-Ease shampoo - I could definitely do with that for my fuzzy barnet.  They were 50p each.

 
Four vintage Tupperware beakers - with lids - 50p and a rather nice patchwork cloth bag - also 50p.  Both these are destined for ebay.

 
Another 1970s tea towel, this one featuring the Twelve Days of Christmas - 20p.  That'll be for ebay nearer the festering season.

 
And a Sonic the Hedgehog T-shirt for my nephew - 50p.  I did also buy three books for re-selling on Amazon but, as is usually the case these days, two of them were utter rubbish.  The third one was quite a good find though.  All in all, it was a pretty good morning.

Linking up with Me and My Shadow's Magpie Monday.

Plum Tuckered Out

 
I've spent a good part of the afternoon, picking, chopping and preserving yet more plums in one way or another.  There are now two more Kilner jars in the sideboard slowly turning into plum vodka (the two jars I put in there last week are turning a very pleasing shade of pale pink already.) 

P and I had to buy another four Kilner jars in the High Street this morning as we've now run out of them (both of us could have sworn we had more than six originally - two are still full of plum jam from two years ago.)  I want to preserve a lot more plums in port (el-cheapo stuff from Aldi) as I tried it two years ago and the plums in a port syrup were delicious in the depths of winter.  Back then I ate them slathered with cream but this winter they'll be eaten with either low-fat yogurt or low-fat custard - both of which I can highly recommend on stewed fruit.

I also stewed up a large saucpan full of plums for us to have as puddings over the next few days.  It has to be said that they are lovely simply served like that and I'll be stewing up plums for as long as they're still good.  Luckily, my next-door neighbours are very fond of stewed plums too so I'll have to see if they'd like some more.  The problem is, as yet I've only used the plums from the smaller plum tree and we've got a mega-laden Victoria plum tree just ripening up as I speak.  Goodness knows what I'm going to do with that lot.  I feel there may be a large box of plums and some carrier bags put out at the end of the drive soon for people to help themselves.  I certainly wouldn't want to see all this plummy goodness going to waste.

Bunting

 
My sister had asked if I could make her some bunting for Christmas this year.  As P was away last week I had some spare time and thought why not make the bunting for her now so that she can hang it up and enjoy it whilst the weather is still good (well, relatively good anyway.) 

 
I followed an excellent tutorial over at Homemade and Happy and the whole lot went together really easily and simply.

 
I had all the bits of fabric already - much of it thrifted in one way or another, I just had to decide what colours to choose and how to place the finished pennants for the best effect.   I was particularly pleased to unearth the cat fabric as my sister has two cats of her own who are often to be found in the garden.  I bought some white bias binding on ebay (£2.99 incl. free P&P) and away I went.  My sister's delighted with her very early Christmas present and I'm feeling inordinately proud of myself too.  If my own garden wasn't such a jungle I'd be tempted to make myself some as well.

Bargain Fud

I usually do my main shopping at Aldi (which is practically my 'corner shop' - very useful) with a top-up shop in Co-op for items that you just can't buy in Aldi (things like frozen Quorn or organic milk, eggs and yogurt).  However, every six weeks or so P and I go to the massive Sainsbury's on the outskirts of Basildon to buy such exotic items as frozen sorbet and organic meat which are just not available in our small town.  We always go in the evening and at the beginning of the week in order to avoid as many of the crowds as possible and to find some bargainous fud which has been heavily reduced because it's on date and it's late in the day.

 
Yesterday evening we managed to snaffle A LOT of fruit and veg bargains, including two punnets of apricots reduced from £1.40 to 45p - they've already been stewed up and should be tres tasty with a spot of yogurt or custard on top.  Two bags of organic carrots reduced to 35p, a bag of mixed veg (already eaten with our dinner this evening) reduced to 30p, cooking gooseberries - 40p, a pot of salad leaves - 30p, shitake mushrooms - 60p.

 
In the chilled section I also found a pack of three snack pots of low-fat humous (check out the excellent saturated fat content) reduced from £1.29 to 20p, so that's my lunches sorted for the next three days at less than 7p each.  There was also a Gu chocolate and raspberry mousse reduced to 29p.  I could only have a taste of the mousse as it was too high in saturated fat for me but P enjoyed it immensely and the bit I had was divine (it's the first taste of chocolate for me since January!!)  Sadly, the rest of the shop was pretty pricey but I was very pleased with the bargains we did manage to find.

Trouble Is, I'm Not Really the Satin-Wearing Type

 
I found a couple of Ann Harvey silky / satiny-type tops at the boot sale yesterday.  They were only 50p each and Ann Harvey is a tres tres expensive brand so I bought them with ideas of re-selling on ebay.  I tried on the one above and it is a really beautiful top when worn (despite needing a wash and a damn good iron).  It's a much darker grey than it shows in the photo - sort of pewter-coloured - and the three-quarter length sleeves with frills at the end are lovely.  Though I think it's probably the little bow detail at the side of the neckline that really sells this top to me.  Trouble is, I'm really not a satin-wearing type and I have no idea where I'd ever go to be able to wear it either.  Hmm, I'll have to give all this a bit of thought.

 
The second Ann Harvey top was also tried on but it does absolutely nothing for me whatsoever (and that's an understatement!!), so that's an easy decision - it'll be listed on ebay in the near future.  I don't think it has ever been worn either as there are still two plastic tags hanging from the label. 

Apart from those two tops I found a couple of other tops / T-shirts for myself at 50p each and two little bottles of Body Shop shower gel - also 50p each.  Having recently had a shufty through my stash of boot sale toiletries, it transpired that I was actually rather short on shower gel although am good for the next year or so with shampoo and conditioner.  Practically everything in the stash that I had assumed was a bottle of shower gel turned out to be a bottle of shampoo!

Plum Vodka

 
I've just started off two large Kilner jars of what - finger's crossed - will turn out to be some jolly tasty plum vodka.  I found an incredibly simple recipe on the net - split the washed plums - leaving in the stones - add sugar and top up with vodka.  I bought a 70cl bottle of cheapo vodka in Aldi (£8.27, I think, if anyone is interested) but found that I didn't have quite enough to fill the jars. 

 
Luckily, P and I had, for some unfathomable reason, bought a small bottle of Icelandic vodka on our way through duty free at Keflavik airport.  We probably bought it because a) it was incredibly cheap - about £3.50 if my maths serves me correctly - b)  we had no idea the Icelandic made vodka, and c) we wanted to offload some krona.  We'd also bought a bottle of very cheap Icelandic Brennivin schnapps at the same time.  Wow, that stuff is potent and can really knock your socks off.   No wonder the literal translation into English is 'burning wine!'

Anyway, I've still got A LOT more plums on the tree plus another couple of empty Kilner jars so I think I'll ask P to pick up some cheap vodka in the duty free on his way back from Switzerland on Monday and make up a second batch.  I'm fondly imagining how this'll warm the cockles in the depths of winter and remind us of a very prolific plum season. 

Yikes, What a Price Hike!

I've got a Miele vacuum cleaner, it was quite pricey to buy at the time but as it has given me sterling use for the past 14 years I think it has proved to be quite cheap if I worked out the price per clean.  I'm not overly keen on housework (there's always something much more interesting I find I could be doing,) but needs must and every so often I do vacuum the floors.  Consequently, being a bit of a slattern, I don't actually fill up the vacuum bags terribly frequently.  However, the last time I changed it I found I was using the last one.  Cue my next trip to Billericay (which was this morning) and the need to buy another pack of five Miele vacuum bags.  Last time I bought them - which could be a couple of years or so ago - they cost me £8.25 or thereabouts, today they cost me £10.99!!!!  Good grief, I know the cost of everything is rocketing but, really, a nearly £3.00 increase on a box of five vacuum bags - it's scandalous. 

I am now seriously considering a tip I read years ago in 'The Tightwad Gazette' book.  Apparently, if you're very careful, you can slit the bottom of a full vacuum bag and then staple it closed again and reuse it.  I'm wondering if anyone out there has tried this tip, does it work? or am I in danger of ruining my vacuum cleaner (which I REALLY don't want to do) by being a total cheapskate?   Ideas, tips or suggestions would be very welcome.

Oranges and Lemons

 
The bundle of wooden coat hangers I found at last week's boot sale prompted me to make a couple more knitted covers.  I found oddments of some uber-posh Rowan organic cotton in a rather refined shade of orange in the wool stash (aka a black bin bag jammed under the sideboard, but 'stash' sounds so much nicer.)  This yarn is lovely to look at and soft to the touch but an absolute pain in the proverbials to knit with as it's very very splitty.  Never mind, that doesn't really matter when knitting something as small as this, though I'd hate to embark on a full-size garment using it.  The lemony-yellow buttons were a charity shop find ages ago - I think I had a full set of six or eight of them at the time.

Knitting coat hanger covers probably sounds a bit of a 'desperate housewife' or a Martha-Stewart-gone-mad type of activity but, honestly, it makes the hangers so much nicer to use as things don't tend to slip off them, and it's 'adios' to wing-like protruberances on the shoulders of jersey-knit tops too.  Plus it's totally mindless, do-it-in-front-of-the-telly knitting - which is always a bonus in my book.

Little Bits of Thrift

 
Just two little bits of thrift were found this morning at the weekly 'Coffee and Jumble'.  Some unused Launderette labels - issued by the National Association of Launderette Owners.  Presumably one portion of the ticket was attached to the washing bag and one was kept by the customer in order to collect the washing when it was done.  I've never seen anything quite like them before and goodness knows what I'm going to do with them but for only 20p I bought them. 

The other item had to be pointed out to me and I was asked if I knew what it was.  Short answer, nope, no idea.  Turns out it's a ceramic ink well from an old school desk.  I don't think I'd ever seen one made of ceramic before - in my day the desks either had empty holes where the ink wells used to be or had plastic ink wells - nobody ever used them anyway.  I wonder how many children used this one over the years?

Linking up with Me and My Shadow's Magpie Monday.

Unexpected

It was unexpected to: a) find a jumble sale listed for this morning in the local free paper - in my experience, jumble sales are usually held in the winter months; b) find a jumble sale in my neck of the woods anyway; and c) for it to turn out to be actually rather good.  It was certainly worth lashing out £3.50 on the bus fare to get there and to paddle home in the middle of a monsoon-like downpour.

 
There were a lot of plus-size items on the clothing table.

 
I had my eye on this one for myself but it was too big when I tried it on later.

 
It was seeing an 'Ann harvey' labelled-item go whizzing past my nose in the general melee that made me look extra carefully through everything. 

 
This skirt even has it's Evans labels still attached - original price £28.00.

 
I quite like this floaty sheer beach cover-up but am unlikely to be on a beach to wear it any time soon.  This lot will be being ironed and / or washed and then listed on ebay.

 
A pile of vintage linens - all with some damage or marks - but I have a plan for these which involves chopping them up and using the good bits only, so that's no problem. 

 
I also found this Moulinex Mouli grater (they tend to be good sellers on ebay) and a few books that were good for re-sale on Greenmetropolis.  Total cost of this little lot - £2.40.  I was a very happy bunny.