Making Good Use

I Can Almost Taste the Jam

Slowly but surely - despite the lack of sun recently - the plums are beginning to ripen.  I'm imagining warm buttered toast with homemade plum jam on cold winter mornings - yum!

For the sake of my washing I shall be quite glad when the plums are ready to be picked, the branches are so heavy they've taken to leaning all over the rotary drier - making it like The Krypton Factor trying to hang things out.

Last night's evening meal saw the first of the garden produce being eaten - salad leaves.  They were lovely and there are tons more in the same pot and another pot well on its way too (much to P's consternation!  Like all men, he doesn't really 'do' 'green things'.)

Quart into a Pint Pot

De-cluttering and generally sorting things out seem to be quite a hot topic in the blogosphere at the moment.  Shoestring had a very interesting blog post on this subject the other day, and it got me wondering about my latest de-cluttering and sorting out session.  My latest passion for down-sizing my wardrobe came about (I think) for two reasons:

1.  The arrival of hot weather after several non-summers in the UK gave me a good chance to re-assess my summer clothes - and I was rather taken aback to find just what I'd accumulated and how many items I was unlikely to wear again.  Some of the items I didn't like any more and some of them were just a tad too tight on me now - ahem!!

2.  I was really lucky to come across a fantastic lot of clothes in my size at a recent car boot sale.  After spending the princely sum of £4.50 on nine items it now feels like I've almost got a whole new wardrobe.  (Check out Sharie's recent Wardrobe Challenge posts to see what lovely clothes she's managed to find at car boot sales.)

I sold what I could on ebay (there are some perks to being a 'plus' size - the larger clothes tend to sell really well on ebay) and this morning took a further bag of items to the local charity shop.  My wardrobe is looking a lot more organised, although there are still a frightening amount of clothes in there, and I'm still debating what to do with one or two items.

I haven't gone through any of the winter clothes as yet, I'll leave that until the autumn when I can decide better what I still want to keep and what can go.

I also had a 'eureka' moment about the teetering piles of books in the bedroom.  These piles were getting seriously out of hand and finding two more books at last week's car boot sale was the final straw - something had to be done.  I'd been bemoaning the fact that I had nowhere to store them in a bookcase when I suddenly realised that there was quite a lot of space in my 'Amazon' bookcase in the dining room.  This is where I keep all the books I've got listed for sale on Amazon and their numbers have dwindled a lot recently - partly because I've been selling quite a few and partly because I've been de-listing items which are no longer worth selling.  A quick rearrangement of the shelves and I found I could easily fit in all the books from the bedroom floor.  Why I hadn't thought of this sooner heaven knows, but at least the penny dropped eventually.  Now all I need to do is get the hoover out and clean up the frighteningly dusty patches where the piles of books once stood!

The house still seems to be groaning at the seams with 'stuff' but I begin to feel I might, at last, be making a positive dent in it all.

Every Cloud

The vintage Christmas lights were still around at the 'Coffee and Jumble' this morning so I decided to take a punt and buy them.  I knew they didn't work as one of the helpers had tried them out for me last week but thought I might as well have a go with them myself - after many reminders from the various helpers there that I should be very careful, and to make sure I'd unplugged them before fiddling around with them.  The helpers are all gentlemen of a 'certain age' who probably feel women shouldn't be messing with anything electrical - although I very much welcomed their help and concern for my well-being.

I tightened all the bulbs, even read the instructions and changed the 'fuse bulb' (there were some unopened spares with the lights), and have messed around with the very vintage bakelite plug but, sadly, all to no avail - the little blighters refuse to work.  Ah well, you win some, you lose some.

However, what I hadn't noticed last week was the rather spiffy 1960's tin the lights were stored in. 

Helpfully marked 'Pony' on the side, just in case you were in any doubt as to what exactly the creature on the lid was.

For My Boy

I've done really well finding second-hand clothes for my nephew lately.  The pile above is eight T-shirts, some long-sleeved, some short, and a pair of pyjama bottoms - all found at car boot sales over the past couple of weeks.  The most expensive item only cost 50p and some of the things only cost 10p.  At those prices I figure I really can't go wrong and I buy up anything that I think will be suitable.  Some of the T-shirts might be a tad on the big side for him right now (although going by the labels he is the height of a 9 - 10 year old even though he is only just six.)

Luckily, for the time being, he doesn't seem to mind where his clothes come from.  As long as his trousers have an elasticated waist for comfort (oh yes, he's a boy after my own heart), he's pretty happy.   I got him a few bits and bobs at a jumble sale when I was down staying with my Mum and it was very gratifying that he was so pleased with one particular hooded top that he insisted on putting it on as soon as it was handed over to his Mummy. 

I do wonder at what age he'll start demanding new shop-bought clothes or, heaven forbid, designer labels, but for now he always looks band-box smart, and extremely handsome, in his 'pre-loved' togs.  And I'm more than happy to keep finding as many clothes as possible for him at the good old Essex boot sales.

Another Patchwork Cushion....

.... only this time it's much bigger.

I sewed up the much larger patchwork cushion yesterday afternoon and I'm pretty darn pleased with it.

It really brightens up the 'lounging' end of the settee and the pad inside doesn't keep bunching up and slipping down like it did in its old original knitted cover.

As the cushion is 25 inches square I didn't have a shirt large enough to make a buttoned back so had to make do with an envelope back made from the same Amy Butler fabric as some of the smaller cushions on that settee.

Yup, I'm one very happy camper with my new cushion cover.

Four Whole New Pence

I've just been re-reading the book How I Lived on Just a Pound a Day for a Year by Kath Kelly.  It's such an inspirational book that I really enjoyed going through it again.  I know however frugal I might be I could never manage to live on just a pound a day - I really take my hat off to Kath Kelly for her amazing achievement.  If you want some truly inspirational ideas on how to drastically cut your spending, and have a darn good read at the same time, I can highly recommend this book.

When I first read the book at Christmas, I was so impressed with her find of £117.00 in 'roadkill' money in a year that I decided to keep tally of what money I found on the streets myself.  Well, more than six months in, I can report that my grand total of 4p has not increased at all since January!!  How Kath Kelly managed to find £20.00 notes on more than one occasion is just amazing.  I did spot an extremely battered 2p piece lodged in a crack in the road last week, but as the traffic is pretty fierce on that particular stretch I decided I wouldn't risk life and limb to pick it up. 

I checked out the Amazon.co.uk website so that I could link their page about the book and noticed that apart from one copy selling at £6.29 every other copy on there is priced at over £100.00 - with one or two being over £800.00!!   Truly astonishing prices for a paperback book, especially one that is all about hard-core frugality! 

The Vintage Christmas Haul

As promised, here are some photos of the wonderful vintage Christmas things I found yesterday.  There were quite a few different bags and boxes of 'stuff' and I haven't really plumbed the depths of quite all of it yet.  Plus, there were two boxes of vintage Christmas lights which I left behind (though I now wish I'd bought those as well, of course).  The lights were vintage enough to have bakelite plugs attached - and they weren't in working order (one of the helpers at the 'Coffee and Jumble' very bravely plugged them in for me) - but they were very pretty.  Perhaps they'll still be there next week - fingers crossed.

Anyhoo, one of my favourites is this clip-on glass bird with a sort of bottle-brush tail.

Teeny, tiny boxes of teeny, tiny glass baubles.

Not one but two 'concertina' paper Snowmen.

Four lot of paper chains - which I'm not sure have ever been used.

Two Chinese paper lanterns.

Lovely vintage boxes.

Some rather odd Sputnik-style large plastic bauble thingies.

A fairy who's in need of a bit of TLC.

A fleecy deer / (?) reindeer.

Two small fleecy birds.

And a whole bagful of vintage plastic cracker toys.

Over forty in all, and all stamped with that famous phrase from my childhood days - 'Made in Hong Kong.'

Tomato Envy

This past weekend there were a lot of Open Gardens near where I live, in aid of the local Anglican churches.  Even though most of the gardens were open both Saturday and Sunday, P and I only managed to get out and about on Sunday afternoon.  We saw some fabulously gorgeous gardens - large, small and medium sized.  Some of the larger gardens were just amazing - windy paths that seemed to lead on for miles with open countryside on several sides.  One of the larger gardens was beautifully manicured, the other much wilder - although the wild one had the biggest pond I have ever seen outside of a park.

It had some beautiful wildlife around the pond, including this dragonfly.

And had proper waterlilies which were in flower.  I don't think I've ever actually seen a flowering waterlily in 'the flesh.'

At least with the larger gardens I could console myself with the fact that our garden is so much smaller in comparison that I could never emulate the loveliness of those.  Sadly, for me, a lot of the gardens were much more modest in size but still put mine to shame.  People were growing blueberries in pots on their patios, or had milk-chocolate-scented Chocolate plants in their borders. 

Or had really exotic blooms like this one - which I don't even know what it is.

And everyone seemed to have a lovely water feature somewhere in their garden.  The nicest one had been built using old railway sleepers and was like a little waterfall - very inspirational and extremely soothing to look at.

But what really made me incredibly envious was this whole garage wall of tomato plants with little green fruits hanging all over them - how do people manage to get their tomato plants so big??  Seriously, these plants were about 8 feet tall!!  I came home and gave my miniature-by-comparison tomato plants a good feed - and I had been feeling smugly pleased with their progress before I saw this mighty lot.  I've obviously a lot more to learn about tomato growing.

Also, just to say that this morning at the 'Coffee and Jumble' I came across what might well be the motherload of vintage Christmas decorations - photos to follow tomorrow when I've got a bit more time - there are some real gems in there I can tell you.

Pieces

Whilst still not exactly cool, the weather is just a tad better today.  I know it must be a bit cooler as I've actually been inspired to do a tiny bit of crafting.

I've cut out some fabric strips to make another patchwork cushion, this time on a grander scale.  My sister gave me a really large soft cushion for Christmas quite a few years ago.  It's really comfortable and squishy and is just the thing to lean against whilst lounging on the settee.  It's still in the original faux-cable knit cover but that darned cover has stretched and stretched over the years and the cushion pad inside keeps getting all lumpy and squashed.  So this afternoon I took the pad out of the cover, cue an explosion of feathers (luckily I'd had the sense to do this in the garden), measured it and cut out what I hope are enough fabric strips for the front.  I didn't have that many pieces which were actually long enough by themselves so some I've added different fabrics to to make it long enough and some, the really lovely prints, I've cut two pieces of the same fabric to make the strip.  Sadly, there are no shirts available to make the back with buttons so I'll have to resort to an envelope back, and I'm hoping I've got some Amy Butler fabric which will be big enough.  If it continues to cool down over the weekend - which the Met Office say it will - I may even get it sewn up in the next day or two.

Also in pieces today is my small Pyrex jug.  It fell off the draining board and hit the tiled kitchen floor with the force of a small bomb.  Hundreds of tiny bits of Pyrex glass went everywhere and I just know I'll be finding them in the most unexpected places for weeks to come.  B*gger, that's the second small Pyrex jug I've bust since we've lived here. 

Hot and Bothered

I know I really shouldn't complain as I've been so looking forward to some sunshine, but, really, 30 degree C plus heat is just TOO TOO much.  I'm feeling unbelievably hot and bothered at the moment.  I've spent the last couple of hours listing loads of stuff on ebay and the sun is pouring into the study where the computer is - ph-ew!! 

At least I've finally finished all the listings - thank goodness.  They seemed to take forever this afternoon and my fingers were all over the place on the keyboard.  Most of the listings are clothes as since I found so many lovely new tops at Sunday's car boot sale, I felt I really must go through my wardrobe and weed out things I no longer wear.  There were quite a lot.  Including some that still had the tags hanging off them!!  One top in particular brought the words 'mutton' and 'lamb' to mind and heaven alone knows what I was thinking of when I bought it - even if it was heavily reduced in a sale!!!!  Scary. 

I'm very lucky in that I have two wardrobes to store my clothes in although that does lead to the temptation to hold onto things that should really be got rid of.  Both wardrobes have piles of 'stuff' lurking at the bottom of them and gawd knows what's hidden in those depths!  I'm far too hot to even contemplate sorting that lot out - perhaps next week if the weather cools down. 

This is the second lot of clothes I've listed in a batch on ebay recently and I've still got an unbelievable amount of clothes hanging up.  Trouble is I never seem to have just the right stuff for the weather and / or the occasion and most of it hardly gets worn - with some uber-favourites being worn practically to death.  Is everyone like that or is it just me?