Making Good Use

I Think Not

Our garden, although not large, is very densely planted with fruit trees, two very large conifers, Virginia creeper, various ivy plants, a vine, a wisteria, a fig tree, and winter flowering forsythia.  I'm sure when it was originally planted out it all looked absolutely wonderful, and the fruit trees are still very useful items, however, it has all got very badly out of hand and overgrown.  All the climbers have gone totally wild - mainly all over the shed - and the fruit trees do need a good pruning.  Last week I got a gardener in to give a quote for just generally thinning out and tidying up the back garden.  He quoted £500 for what he thought would be two or three mornings work - I think not.  I, probably foolishly, had envisaged someone quoting £200 tops, maybe £250 at a push.  We're not talking garden redesign here, just a fair bit of pruning and cutting back.

Saturday afternoon saw me and my trusty Asda Value secateurs making a start on what will be a fairly mammoth task in the next couple of months but I'm blowed if I'd pay out £500 to tidy things up.  I started on one of the long sides of the shed - probably about 12 foot long - and started hacking and chopping away.  I'd only intended to do a bit but before long I'd filled the wheelie bin completely (luckily today was garden waste collection day - it's once every fortnight), and had amassed a large pile of cuttings on the grass too.  I've just been out and chopped all those up into little bits and have filled the wheelie bin for a second time.  I've pretty much cleared that side of the shed and I was surprised how much I enjoyed being out in the fresh air and doing something physical.  Every time I got a bit fed up with bending, stretching, pulling or chopping up bits of greenery I kept reminding myself that I'm saving £500 by doing it myself.

On a totally different subject, I was very lucky recently to win a two-year notebook with a personalised slipcover from a giveaway over at Darling Petunia.  This rather pretty and very useful item arrived on Saturday morning - I'm well pleased with it - thank you DP. 

Weapon of Massive Consumption*

For the first time in weeks I went over to Billericay this morning and managed to spend a fair bit of money one way or another.  The weather was so bright and sunny that it would have seemed a shame to stay at home, besides there were one or two (make that at least a dozen) tasty titbits I was really craving from Waitrose (I get along very well with Aldi on a day-to-day basis but there comes a time when somewhere with a little more selection is absolutely essential.)

Of course, I popped into most of the charity shops there. I did have to omit a visit to Oxfam - wickedly expensive anyway - and Barnardos, as my 'quick' trip to Argos to get a plug-in charger for my iPod (a fabulous gadget that I'm fast getting addicted to) turned into a v.e.r.y. s.l.o.w. wait - firstly to pay and then also to collect the charger from the pick-up point.  As the bus back from Billericay is only hourly I couldn't take the chance of missing it.

Anyhoo, I found a rather splendid lacy bolero-type knitted top for £3.00.  It is, unfortunately, brown - a colour both my sister and I are not too fond of as we had to wear a brown school uniform - but I think it will be useful in the spring / summer and I have a couple of tops it will go with quite nicely.

In the same charity shop was this lovely cotton paisley-print top.  There are tiny sequins all over the front of it, some of which are coming off but that doesn't really matter too much to my eyes.  This was also £3.00.  It's a long time since I spent the grand total of £6.00 in one charity shop but I know the tops would have cost a lot more than that originally so I was quite happy to cough up.

Best find of all though was this Band-Dai 'Super Badge It' machine.  I've been on the look-out for one for absolutely ages.  It seems to have all the relevant parts to make it work.  It was only £1.29 which I thought was a great bargain.  Trouble is the box is absolutely huge and I found it in the first charity shop I came to so I had to lug it all round Waitrose, banging into people no doubt, and then all round the rest of the High Street.  When I had a look on ebay I realised they go for really good money so I may end up listing it there instead of keeping it to mess about with myself.

*Fabulous line from Lily Allen's 'The Fear'.

I'ze is a Bit Higerant

I think I've mentioned before that I do a bit of book re-selling via Amazon.co.uk.  At one time I used to make a reasonable amount of money from doing this (approx. £50.00 per week on average), these days it's much harder to a) find a book that's not being sold for 1p, or b) to actually sell something even if it is worth listing.  Weeks go by and I may sell one or two books and that's all.  To add to my problems Amazon re-jigged their sellers' site last summer and it meant I could no longer access the names and addresses of where sold books had to be posted.  Undaunted, I would e-mail Mum and she would very kindly supply me with the details.  Then, after my computer disappeared in a puff of smoke, I discovered that I couldn't access any part of my seller account at all using P's computer - no re-listing of old books, no listing of new ones, nothing!! 

I knew Amazon had a seller's support help desk but kept putting off actually phoning them as I just knew their advice would be way too technical for me.  Eventually, this morning I bit the bullet and contacted them and they phoned me straight back.  The extremely helpful, and patient, American chap on the other end casually asked if I had Mozilla Firefox on the computer.  Why yes we do was my reply, wondering why he wanted to know if we had firewall protection.  I suggest you access the internet via Firefox he said.  Well, who'd-a thunk it!!  The icon I thought was something to do with a firewall, was actually another way of accessing the internet, and, guess what, I could access everything in my Amazon seller's account again.  I was so pleased, and a little dismayed at my technical ignorance!

A quick thank you to Catherine who sent me this lovely little parcel this morning after she won the Fair Isle knitting book giveaway.  A rather splendid selection of red buttons (after she'd read about my lack of red buttons the other day) and one of her little bags made from a gent's tie.  Thank you so much Catherine, I really appreciate it. 

Finds

A quick trip to the Post Office and Aldi this morning gave me (yet another) opportunity to have  a swift look-see in the charity shops.

Four knitting magazines were found in one charity shop - all from summer 2006 and all with one or two nice patterns in them.  50p each.

The second charity shop had five balls of some Emu wool (50p each) which is extra thick - double double - and which I'm hoping might be enough to knit myself one of these or something like it.  Again, Knitting Pattern Central have some fabulous free patterns for shrugs.

In the same shop were these two rather nice folk-art style napkins / placemats.  They're pure cotton and seem to be unused.  Not sure what I might do with them craft-wise, but the print is lovely, so for 25p each I thought I'd have them.

For anyone who has read 'The Tightwad Gazette', you might be interested in this up-to-date interview with Amy Dacyczyn.  As always, she has a lot of wise things to say about the current economic crisis. 

Pink

I've finally finished knitting the humungous wrap.  I do like the button I used but if I ever knitted this monster again, I sure as hell wouldn't bother with doing a buttonhole and button fastening.  The buttonhole was a total swine to do, ended up too big (I had to sew a bit of it together again), and is really in the wrong place for me.  That said, I'm really very pleased with how it has turned out and can envisage making use of it quite a lot on cooler spring (and probably summer) days. 

Here is a totally useless photo of me modelling it wearing my finest 'about the house' clobber.  By trying to avoid getting my face in the shot, I've managed to cover up the lovely button with the camera.  Also, please excuse the grubby mirror shot - it's an Edwardian wardrobe and the glass has gone rather misty with age (well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!!)

I used this pattern to knit the wrap, which was free from  Knitting Pattern Central.  The button came from Get Knitted.

 

Blue

When DN was a lot smaller, and just learning to talk, whenever he was asked what colour something was he would reply that it was blue.  Even the question 'what colour is Mandma C's cat?', elicited the reply 'blue.'  He said this with such conviction that Mum and I were not entirely sure for ages that his other Grandma's cat (Mandma C) wasn't blue-ish in colour (possibly a light grey tabby or something else that a little one could confuse with blue.)  She isn't, of course.

I remembered this over the weekend when I decided to liven up a new plain navy-blue top I'd bought (shock, horror - yes I actually bought something that wasn't second-hand!!)  I had decided in my mind's eye that a nice grouping of bright red buttons would be just the thing, fondly imagining that I had some really stunning red buttons in my button box.  Sadly, my mind must have been playing tricks on me because when I emptied out the contents of the box all the red buttons I had were very boring.  I was just beginning to wonder what else I could do to liven up the top - a bit of embroidery or a felt flower applique - when I started to look at all the blue buttons I had.  I had so many to choose from that I didn't know where to start, which seems a bit odd as the red ones were so limited.  Never mind, the blue ones have livened up the top nicely.  Now all I need is a bit of warmer weather to wear it!

Ironing, Len and Me

Another bea-u-tiful spring-like sunny day means yet another load of washing is drying on the line.  Sadly, this has led to teetering piles of ironing in the ironing basket.  I'd much rather be blocking and sewing in the ends on my now-finished wrap, or choosing and sewing on some brightly-coloured buttons to jazz up a new, but rather plain, navy blue top.  Instead, I've set up the ironing board in the dining room, in a nice pool of sunlight, and am diligently ironing my way through what seems to be every item of clothing we possess - and then some.

To keep me company, and to take my mind of the tedium of the task, I'm playing my way - yet again - through my new 'favourite album of all time' (they do change quite frequently.)  This time it's 'The Essential Leonard Cohen'.   I treated myself to this double CD just before Christmas as I was totally obsessed with the song 'Hallelujah' and didn't want to hear Alexandra Burke's yodelling-type version all the time.  I thought I knew good old Len quite well - having been a keen listener of his songs in the early eighties - but it turns out I'd been missing a huge chunk of his more recent songs - things like 'Democracy', 'Who By Fire', A Thousand Kisses Deep' and the rather catchy Shania-Twain sound-a-like 'Closing Time'.  I'm amusing myself by warbling along very tunelessly to as many of the complicated lyrics as I can.  I'm sure I sound dreadful, but whatever gets me through the ironing pile is fine by me - I just hope the neighbours can't hear me.

Do you have any suggestions for 'songs to iron by?'

A Breath of Fresh Air

Today, for the first time in a.g.e.s., I've had windows open to let in some fresh air.  It's not especially sunny but it is wonderfully mild - at least double digit temperatures anyway (so mild that I can dispense with at least one pair of socks!!).  I know the windows haven't been open for months as some of them were still locked from when we were away at Christmas.  I don't think I'd realised how fusty and dusty the air in the house had become until I let in the sweet-smelling fresh air - fantastic!

The good strong breeze has also been a great opportunity to get a double load of washing dry, with another couple of loads ready to go into the washing machine this evening, so that I can get it hung out first thing in the morning - taking advantage of every minute of warm(ish), dry, breezy weather while it lasts.

Country Cottage Curtain

I was really pleased with this old piece of curtain fabric I found in a charity shop this morning.  It even has the old round metal rings for hanging it still attached along the top.  The fabric is real country cottage style with it's cheerful cottage-garden posy print in a patchwork-style pattern.  It was, amazingly, only 95p from a charity shop where I never find anything to buy - a statement I made as Mum and I went through the door - obviously, today was an exception.

It's very unusual for me to come across anything quite as vintage as this fabric these days, perhaps charity shops think no one will buy anything quite so old.  I remember in the days when jumble sales were much more common that this sort of vintage curtain was nearly always lurking on the linen table, and would have cost pennies to buy.  Still, I'm not complaining at the price I paid today - all I have to decide now is what I'm going to use the fabric for.  Summery cushion covers sound good to me at the moment.

Rhubarb, Rhubarb, Rhubarb

It has been a beautiful weekend for the time of year - clear blue skies and fairly warm sunshine.  Spring is certainly showing it's hand in Mum's garden as the wonderful rhubarb crown is starting to sprout - intensely-red mini stalks are pushing their way up through the soil, topped by the freshest lime green leaves. 

I love rhubarb, and it's particularly sweet and juicy when stewed up only minutes after being picked from the garden.  I'm not sure this was the original rhubarb plant, but I know there was a large crown of rhubarb in the garden when I was a small child as I used to spend a lot of time in the summer picking the humungous leaves and using them as a sun-shade and / or umbrella for myself and my toys.

When P and I lived in Nottingham, Mum and Dad often came to visit for the day (a pretty big undertaking by train from Bristol) and in the spring would usually have a bundle of rhubarb, freshly picked from the garden that morning, wrapped in newspaper, for us.  That rhubarb stewed up the next day was always especially sweet as it reminded me of home and my childhood.  Delicious.

Mum and I have taken full advantage of the dry and bright weather by getting out and about and visiting as many local charity shops as we can.  My haul to date has not been wonderful - an Ikea duvet cover for £3.00, Sliding Doors video for 20p (for some reason I've been really wanting to watch this film again lately), and a reasonably good book for re-sale.  Mum has done slightly better as she has found a new spring-weight fleece jacket, a cardigan, and a vest.  There have also been another stack of Disney videos found for DN - including the elusive 'Aladdin' - which, I think, pretty much completes the full set - they were 20p each too.

As the forecast appears to be dry again tomorrow, we're hoping to try yet another batch of charity shops - after all, you never know what you might find!!