Making Good Use

Slim Pickings

There hasn't been much opportunity for charity shop browsing during my stay in Bristol.  Mum is not up to going out at the moment and the weather has either been too hot or too wet for me to venture very far afield.  However, I have perused the charity shops on the couple of occasions I've been out to the local supermarket. 

The local shopping area here has quite a few charity shops but, dear oh dear, they are hideously expensive.  I think I've been very spoilt by the two charity shops in Wickford who tend to charge £2.00 or at most £2.50 for items of adult clothing and 50p or £1.00 for childrens clothes.  No way would I pay £3.00 or so for a well-worn child's T-shirt when it could probably be purchased new in Asda or Tesco for about the same price.  The adult clothing all seems to be priced from £4.00 upwards which, admittedly, is much cheaper than what you would pay for it new but still seems extortionate to me.

I've only bought one item of clothing from the charity shops here this time - a rather spiffy Ann Harvey black top with lovely beaded detail on the front. I took a bit of a chance on it looking good on and did balk a little at paying £4.30 for it but having washed it and tried it on I'm very pleased with it.  I'm thinking I may wear it on my upcoming birthday as it's quite smart without being too formal.  Possibly teamed with some white linen trousers that I bought last year and haven't had a chance to wear as yet.

If you look carefully at the photo you might see a white cat hair attached to my new top - that'll be Lily the Maine Coon who drops fur on a constant basis.  Whenever I go home from a visit to Bristol all my dark clothes have a subtle furry texture, especially the seats of my trousers as Lily likes to doze on the settee just in the place where I usually sit! 

Keeping Up Appearances

I was hanging out a pair of shorts on the washing line yesterday and I realised that I've had the same pair for the past 13 years (making this the 14th summer of continual use.)  If I remember correctly I bought them in the sale in Ann Harvey in Nottingham in the summer of 1996.  They're nothing fancy, just plain navy blue with an elasticated waist and are made from some type of man-made fabric - which is probably why they've lasted so darn well.  The amazing thing is that I can still fit into them after so many years as my waistband (and backside) have definitely grown a bit since the mid 90s.

Those shorts got me thinking about how differently I view the clothes I wear about the house and those I wear out and about.  Most of the items I wear around the house and garden are years old, often rather raggedy, and always uber comfy.  I don't really give a damn what I wear when I'm gardening, cleaning or cooking, and I'm always such a mucky pup anyway that it's best to be wearing old clothes when I'm doing housework.  It's the same with my night clothes - gawd help me if I ever end up in hospital as I only ever wear mismatched vest tops and old trackie-bottom type items in bed.  As you can imagine, those are tres alluring (not) and certainly not the sort of thing that would look good in a hospital bed.  If I ever get taken ill suddenly poor old P would have to be dispatched licekty spit to buy me some decent nightwear, failing that I'd have to wear a hospital gown for the whole time!!

But the clothes I wear when I'm out and about are always clean and tidy and most of them are pretty new - to me at least.  A lot of them are from charity shops or car boot sales but most of them have been acquired in the last couple of years.  I've never ever thought of myself as a Hyacinth Bucket type character but it does seem, with clothes anyway, that I'm keener on keeping up appearances than I thought I was.  Funny how just looking at a pair of shorts hanging on the line could make me realise that.

Thank you to everyone who left a comment regarding Mum's recent spell in hospital - we both really appreciated all your kind words and wishes.  I'm still with Mum in Bristol and she's doing fine although her confidence has been badly knocked by having had such a nasty atrial fibrilation attack out of the blue - and she's been feeling so well lately too.  She's taking things slowly and, fingers crossed, will soon be back to her usual good health. 

A Room With a View

Apologies for the lack of blog posts recently but my Mum had a bit of a collapse on Wednesday afternoon and was rushed into hospital.  All is reasonably well now and she's back at home taking it steady and resting up as much as I can make her.  I'll be staying down in Bristol with her for a little while yet.

I can't praise the Bristol Royal Infirmary Heart Institute highly enough.  Not only were the medical staff amazingly kind and caring and incredibly efficient but Mum had a room all to herself (with an en-suite too!!) - and we all know that that is not typical NHS hospital accommodation.  Oh yes, and even the hospital food was fantastic.  To top it all the room had the most spectacular view all over Bristol - right out to Kelston Round Tump near Bath.

Even though Mum was feeling rather fragile she really enjoyed being able to look out at such a wonderful vista.

I'm always appreciative of the NHS but when something like this happens and a relative receives such wonderful care and treatment I think how totally lost we would be if we didn't have the NHS.  It's easy to knock it but I for one am so grateful that we can receive such wonderful medical care free of charge.  Long may the NHS continue.

Spooky

I had a phone call late yesterday afternoon from a local estate agent.  He was phoning to say he'd just had a house come onto his books which he thought we might be interested in.  He read out all the details and indeed the house did tick pretty much all the boxes we'd specified.  After we'd had our evening meal P and I decided to get in the car and drive up to have a look at the road and see if we could spot exactly which house it was that was on the market.

We found the road no problem but couldn't find the house that is for sale.  It's not an incredibly long road but it peters out into an un-paved laneway that leads goodness knows where.  Just up this lane we spotted the for sale sign.  Not wishing to risk the suspension on P's 'vintage' (ie 20 years old and still going strong) Opel Kadett we parked in a side road that still had tarmac and went up the lane on foot. 

I had no idea that there were quite so many acres of open fields in the vicinity but the house that was for sale was surrounded on three sides by open farmland.  P was really taken with the location but I kept thinking that we were even past the boundary for street lighting and that it would be really dark, dank and muddy down this lane in the depths of winter.  The front of the house did nothing for me either, being very dark and overgrown and pretty down-at-heel for a property that they're asking such a huge price for.  P was still undaunted and kept saying what a lovely character property it was and what lovely views.  Somehow it just didn't do it for me and I felt very uneasy, as if I somebody was watching us.  You know, that feeling that if you just look over your shoulder there'll be somebody or something lurking.  The whole atmosphere was very creepy and unnerving.

Finally P set off up the laneway to see if he could find where it led, I stayed behind looking through the windows of the house and then I remembered an article I'd come across on the internet some months ago about a local legend that says people have seen shadows moving out of the corner of their eyes in fields not far from that spot.  I think the idea is that it is the devil stalking the land looking for the soul of a medieval knight who made a Faustian pact with him, saying that the devil could have his soul whether he was buried in the church or in the churchyard.  The knight then had his body buried within the walls of the church so that the devil couldn't get him.  Now I'm not a fool and I don't take this sort of thing seriously - but, hedging my bets, I wouldn't discount it out of hand either - however I just know that if we were living in that house I'd be expecting to see Beelzebub at any moment!!  Stupid I know but a thought I'd never get out of my head either.

Eventually I had to 'fess up to P that I didn't really think I could live there as it was so isolated and that I'd be terrified having to spend the night there on my own if he was away on business.  Luckily P could see my point and agreed that, nice though he thought it was, it was probably just a bit too far for him to walk to and fro to the station every day.

This morning I was talking to my Mum on the phone and telling her about going to look at the house when all of a sudden she said she'd had a horrible dream last night about a house with a really unpleasant atmosphere around it.  She said that in her dream the house was so eerie that she'd refused to go inside.  But what was really spooky about her dream was that she described the house as looking like Little Grey Rabbit's house - and that was the first thing I thought of when I looked at the house yesterday evening - Little Grey Rabbit's house, with the steep gables and little windows upstairs for the bedrooms.  Both of us were pretty freaked out by the coincidence as last time I spoke to Mum on the phone I'd not even spoken to the estate agent let alone thought about going to look at that property.  

I can quite understand if you think I'm being a total fruitcake about it all but it has really spooked both me and my Mum out and I wouldn't want to live in that house if they were giving it away. 

Blast from the Past

If I manage to find something useful clothes-wise whilst thrifting, not always a given being a - ahem - 'full-figured' girl, I'll buy it whether it's thick jumpers in the middle of summer or something summery in the middle of winter.  I'll wash it through and then put it away for further consideration when the appropriate season rolls around.  Often I've actually forgotten about the item until I find it lurking in the depths of my wardrobe, just waiting for the right weather or the right occasion to wear it.  That happened to me this morning - I was looking through my wardrobe trying to figure out exactly what to wear now that the temperatures are a much more 'normal' 18C, when I found this fine cotton long-sleeved tunic top.

I remember buying it in a charity shop in Basildon back in the icy depths of winter, washing and ironing it, trying it on briefly - and thinking it reminded me of a nightie!! - and hanging it up in the wardrobe.  I was delighted to find it today and don't know what made me ever think it was nightdress-like.  It's a lovely fabric, a great fit and the retro Indian print instantly reminds me of the long hot summer of 1976.  Ah, those were the days - cheesecloth shirts, waistcoats, love beads, humungously flared jeans and those Indian-print wraparound skirts.  The sun shone day after day and I was sweet sixteen.  Wonderful memories and all brought back to me by a £2.00 charity shop buy - excellent.

Sssssteam Heat

Phew, what a scorcher!!!!  Yesterday's car boot sale was so hot.  The field where it is held is really exposed and always has an extreme version of whatever the weather is - yesterday it was an extreme dose of blinding sunshine and rocketing temperatures.  I don't think I'd have gone if I'd realised quite how warm it was but as the next-door neighbours offered me a lift, and - as we all know - in the UK you really have got to make hay while the sun shines, I went.

There were masses and masses of both sellers and buyers (I didn't envy the sellers stuck out on that sweltering field for hours on end) and the boot sale was so big that wandering for an hour probably only took me round half of it.  I didn't buy all that much but was quite pleased with what I did find.

Some vintage glass Christmas decorations, including a tree-topper, for 20p.  Odd though it seems, I think I'll put them up on ebay later this week as a quick check of recently completed listings shows they're selling for quite good prices.  Quite why people want to buy Christmas decs in the middle of summer is beyond me but there we go.

A large bottle of Australian Formula shampoo - 50p, and a bottle of ghd Thermal Protector (to use with my hair straighteners,) also 50p.  These are both for me and when I got home I noticed a £9.95 price sticker on the ghd bottle so that was a nice find.

And this vintage sewing pattern - I do love the illustrations you get on old sewing patterns, so much more evocative than the photos that are on them nowadays.  That was 50p and will be destined for ebay.  There were also a few books bought (none of them terribly good for re-selling as it turns out,) and a crocheted knitting bag (sounds like that should be a contradiction in terms!!) which is at present hanging out on the line.

As the temperature is forecast to be even hotter today - 29C - I took an 'executive decision' not to bother going to the High Street this morning.  Luckily, I've got enough food in to cover this evening's meal and I really didn't fancy dragging a heavy shopping trolley home in the blazing sun.  Tomorrow the temperature should be a positively chilly 15C - a much better temperature for getting things done.

S-L-O-W

I don't know if it's the unaccustomed warm temperatures or if it's because it's the end of the week (yay, Friday - the best day!!) but I'm having a really S-L-O-W day today.  I have achieved a few things - the washing up, a load of washing drying in the sun, a little ironing and a little bit of sewing / mending for my next-door neighbour. 

I've got a tray of bread rolls rising nicely in the sun on the garden table so that we can have a simple evening meal of burgers in a bun and salad.  (Yay, for finally getting to Sainsburys and being able to buy organic burgers.)  It's definitely too hot for 'proper' cooking, or for eating 'proper' meals come to that, so something light and easy like a burger is just the thing for this evening.

And talking of S-L-O-W, I ironed over all the knitted strips I've done so far for another knitted pactchwork blanket.  This one's been on the go since the bitter cold weather in February (seems hard to believe that ever happened on a glorious day like today) and I was pleasantly surprised to find I think I've nearly knitted enough for a smallish blanket.  The decision now is do I sew it up as it stands, or do I hang on with the hope of finding more thrifted yarn that is chunky enough for another strip or two?  I might leave that decision for a day or so when, hopefully, my brain has got back into gear.

On a totally different topic, I'm soooo looking forward to the concluding episode of 'Ashes to Ashes' this evening.  I can't imagine how on earth they're going to tie up all the loose ends from both 'Ashes to Ashes' and 'Life on Mars' and make sense of it all.  I do hope it doesn't end up as some sort of cop-out like the Bobby's dead dream in 'Dallas,' or that Gene Hunt turns out to be the bad guy after all - that would just be too much to bear!!  Anyone got any ideas how it's all gonna end?

It's That Time of Year Again

 
It's the time of year when the wisteria at the end of the garden looks absolutely stunning, and when - at long last - I've finally gone to a Thursday car boot sale again.  If I'm totally honest, it was just a tad too hot for me this morning (I know, I really shouldn't complain after the terrible winter we've just had) but the warm weather certainly brought out all the buyers and sellers.  Today's boot sale was probably one of the biggest Thursday one's I've seen - although, as is always the case on Thursdays, many of the stalls were traders.  I managed to find a few things - a couple of books, one of which has been put on Amazon, a top for myself (not entirely sure about it but will stick it on ebay if I don't like it on,) a pair of pyjamas for my nephew and a 'glow in the dark' Darth Vadar T-shirt for him too.  I'm guessing he'll be quite pleased with the T-shirt and not so enamoured of the pyjamas.  (None of the items were particularly photogenic so I thought I'd just stick with the wisteria.)

After the boot sale I went into Sainsbury's (so conveniently situated just across the dual carriageway) where I changed up seven months or so's worth of 1p, 2p and 5p pieces in the Coinstar machine.  That gave me a voucher worth £11.04 off my shopping bill - it's amazing how these little bits of shrapnel add up over a few months - and I came home with lots of nice things to eat over the weekend.  Most of the food is 'warm weather' fare due to the forecast saying we'll have temps around the 21 - 25C mark during the next few days and a lot of it is salad stuff.  I also got a buy one get one free punnet of not only English strawberries but strawberries from here in Essex.  Goodness knows why the supermarkets in Wickford still only have Spanish strawberries in stock - which I can't eat as they give me an almost instant migraine (must be to do with something sprayed on them) - and I'm really looking forward to a bowl of Essex strawberries and cream for pudding tonight.  Yum!!

The Boy Done Good

P excelled himself with the selection of craft magazines he brought back from North America for me. 

 
There were ten or so different magazines in the bag - homes magazines, knitting, crochet, patchwork, sewing, general lifestyle - you name it, he'd found it.  I was really really pleased.

 
I always enjoy a copy of Martha Stewart Living as the craft bits are always inspriational and I've found some really nice recipes in her magazine too.  (Although the American 'cups' system of measuring always confuses me.  Not that, I assume, it's all that different to our way of measuring smaller quantities in tablespoons and teaspoons - that certainly confuses the hell out of P!)

 
But the best of the bunch I've looked at so far has to be this Stitch Magazine.

 
It's got all sorts of lovely sewing projects in there (quite a few of which are from bloggers) and it's the sort of magazine I'll be keeping hold of for years.

 
A bit like the pile of 1970s Golden Hands magazines which I bought at the time and have got packed away somewhere in the loft.  The patterns may be a bit dated but the inspiration in them never goes out of fashion.

A Bit of a Washout

Yesterday's car boot sale proved to be a bit of a washout weatherwise.  There were plenty of sellers and plenty of buyers but, as per usual, the Met Office had got their forecast just a bit wrong.  So instead of it being sunny and warm in the morning it was cold, windy and with intermittent rain showers.  Needless to say, it didn't make for a good boot sale.

I only came back with a few items, including this vintage Galt wooden jigsaw (£1.00) which is destined for ebay.  A couple of craft booklets (20p each)- one for ebay, one for Amazon, another T-shirt for my nephew (50p.)

And this rather nice unopened build-your-own wooden Stegosauras kit (50p) also for my nephew.  And that was the total sum of my car boot bargains for this week.  However, the weather forecast says it will get much warmer in the next few days so I'm hoping I might finally get to the Thursday boot sale this week too.  So far this season the weather has been waaaay too inclement to even consider going to that one.

And the winner is ....  The winner of last week's giveaway is Maureen.  Many thanks to everyone who left a comment.  Maureen, let me know which bag you'd like.