Making Good Use

Brought to Book

I'm a great lover of books - all sorts of book, and always have a novel on the go to read before going to sleep.  I'm pretty predictable when it comes to 'bedtime reading', anything under the genre of crime / thriller is my preference.  I particulary like anything by Ruth Rendell (or her pseudonym Barbara Vine), Nicci French, Margaret Yorke, Patrick Redmond, Stephen Booth, Minette Walters - the usual suspects in British crime writing.  Sometimes I become very exotic and even read the American writers Patricia Cornwall and Karin Slaughter (what a fitting name for a crime novelist!!). 

Now I can get through two or so of these books a week which would add up to a lot of dosh if I had to buy the books new.  However, I can honestly say I can't remember when I last bought a new book for myself.  I do buy new books for presents for other people and most Christmas or birthdays I am given at least one new book as a present.  Lately these have been some rather wonderful craft books given by my mother, who knows just what I like in the way of books.  But to feed my crime / thriller habit I buy all my books second hand, usually in charity shops (50p is top dollar for even a hardback book in my local charity shop).   

The other great place for pre-read books is Greenmetropolis (www.greenmetropolis.com).  You can list your used books on their site and if one sells you get £3.00 credited to your account.  You can either have this money transferred to your bank account or use it to buy another book from their site.  If you buy a book it usually costs £3.75 (though some books can be a bit more expensive if they are hardbacks or a particularly heavy paperback), and Greenmetropolis give 5p from every sale to the Woodland Trust to help them plant and conserve trees.  I really like the philosophy of Greenmetropolis because they actively encourage the recycling of books and the planting of trees, if you haven't come across their site before do have a look. 

Old Bags

I've got a bit of a thing about plastic supermarket carrier bags, I really don't like them.  Apparently we use some obscene number like 10 billion a year in the UK alone, they take hundreds of years to break down in landfill, and release disgusting toxins whilst they're decomposing. 

Now I'm very lucky where I live in that I can walk to my local supermarket so am able to make great use of my trusty steed - the old shopping trolley.  I've had this particular trolley for about seven years and it has served me very well.  It's not your usual tartan jobbie, oh no, it is a very fetching shade of blue with blue wheels and lots of shiny chrome.  We bought it from Lakeland (www.lakeland.co.uk) and although it wasn't cheap at the time it has repaid the money time and time again.  I can't imagine how many hundreds of supermarket carrier bags it has saved me using, not to mention developing a bad back and / or arm injuries from the weight of the shopping.  My local supermarket is one of the 'pile 'em high and sell 'em cheap' German supermarkets where you think twice about having a plastic carrier because you have to pay for them.  I think this is an excellent idea and wish all supermarkets would follow their example as this would definitely cut down on the use of plastic bags and their subsequent pollution of the environment.

With the warmer weather now arrived I get out and about more and don't always want to be dragging my shopping trolley with me (not the easiest things to manoeuvre onto public transport!!), so, having been hugely inspired by some of the wonderful craft blogs about, I've started making myself some cloth shopping bags.  I come across some wonderful vintage fabrics in my travels which have really funky patterns and designs and I've used some of them to make a selection of cloth bags (see my photo album on the left for pictures).  Most of these fold up easily so they can be slipped into another bag when not being used and I really like the idea that I'm reducing the need for a plastic bag, reusing my cloth bag time and again, and recycling a piece of vintage fabric.  It's not often I can manage the three R's (reduce, reuse, recycle) in one fell swoop.  Some of these bags are also for sale in my etsy shop (link on the side bar).

Well, finally, Hello

Hello. Finally, after six months of procrastination and excuses, I have started my own blog.  I'm a forty-something woman living in Essex (although originally from the West Country), and I've been reading and enjoying some of the wonderful crafty / thrifty blogs for the past 18 months or so.  I've wanted to start my own blog for a long time and have finally plucked up the courage to get going, so (takes a deep breath) here goes!!

I'm a huge fan of charity shops, car boot sales, and jumble sales (although they are rarer than hen's teeth in these parts), and like nothing more than rooting through piles of old tat hoping to find a great piece of fabric or knitting wool which I can then turn into something else.  I've always been keen to find a bargain and have also always been aware that the old adage - "where ther'e's muck, there's brass" is still true today.  I run a couple of small businesses from home via the internet selling second-hand books, and I've usually got a few items listed on ebay at any given time.

I really love the lure of anything second hand, not only are you getting yourself a bargain, but you are saving the resources which would be used if you bought that item new, and are possibly saving that item from becoming yet another land fill statistic.  Most of my clothes are second hand (not always an easy task as I'm not you're standard size, being rather tall and, ahem, shall we politely say, well built).  Most of my partner's work shirts and ties were also picked up second hand, and my darling nephew, who is coming up four, has a very extensive wardrobe, mostly gleaned from the plethora of car boot sales which abound in this part of South Essex every Sunday.

The title of my blog - Making Good Use - is taken from the Wombles theme song (for those of you old enough to remember the Wombles on telly), "making good use of the things that they find, things that the everyday folks leave behind".  That's what I try to do, make good use of other people's cast offs, either by using the item as is, or by remaking it in some way.  I hope on this blog I can show you some of the great things I thrift, and some of the items they subsequently turn in to.

Enough of my blathering for one post, I should away and carry on with the ironing (oh joy unbounded).